Winter Preparations
Macedonians make ajvar.
Volunteers buy four Milka bars a week so that
Macedonians chop wood.
Volunteers roll their Peace Corps heaters out
from December through February they don’t have
to leave their apartments for sustenance.
from behind the sofa. Then they plug them in.
In early fall, Macedonians begin to make rakia, leav- Volunteers na gosti only when odds of scamming
ing it forty days to distill. They bottle enough to last a bottle of rakia are high.
their family through the long, hard months of winter.
Macedonians watch Bandini.
Volunteers watch The Wire, then cry when they
Macedonians make preserves.
Volunteers buy three kilos of apples at the pazar
Macedonians use Facebook to keep in touch with
Volunteers use Facebook to find out who has sea-
Macedonians pull out a pair of thick winter socks.
Volunteers unpack every item of clothing they
realize they only have the first four seasons on
their external hard drive...and that it’s only been a
week since they watched the first episode.
each week, let them rot, then throw them out. Occasionally they buy oranges for variety.
their six-year-old nephews, highlight the importance son five of The Wire, so they can get through the
of their own opinions via their status updates, and
next week.
post videos of Michael Jackson when he was still
black.
possess and put it all on to wear while sleeping.
You know you need a break from Macedonia when…
you see a 19-year-old boy with gelled hair, wearing a track suit, and you think he’s attractive. / it’s normal to walk in the middle
of the street. / you get dressed in the morning and realize everything you put on is black. / you start to consider men as long
as they have half their teeth. / you can’t complete a sentence in English without interjecting some Macedonian. / you think
kashkaval is close enough to cheddar. / you make verbal plans knowing there’s a 10% chance it will actually happen. / you show
up an hour late to your own meeting. / you start to crave pizza burek. / bread is your eating utensil of choice. / your social
life revolves around visiting the village’s five babas on a loop. / “Lele” becomes part of your internal monologue. / Promaja is
actually making you sick and possibly freezing your ovaries. / a man’s undying devotion to his mother is a relational perk. /
Gazoza tastes good. / your self-esteem breaks more often than your heater. / your Friday night entertainment is reading Peace
Corps emails. / you start dreaming in Macedonian or Albanian. / you start wondering why all volunteers aren’t wearing bodies. / you kill your bandwidth on the first day of the month. / you go to the prodav and the prodav lady knows your grocery
list before you even ask. / when someone keeps claiming that you’re really Vietnamese and that King Filip from ?Z[?\? ?X[ B????HXX?Y?XK? ? [?H [???]? \\? ?X[ ^??H ?]X?K? ? [?\???[?\?\? [??? [?H?YY ? Z?HH?[???X[???X?? [Y\?X?x?)?[? [?H???Y\? Z?[??\?Y ?X?K? ?]\?X\?Y\? ? [?\??[? H?\?[X??Y[?\? [? H[??\?8?' ?[??][???'B??H?[??&] ?^K?H?]?\??YYH??XZ????HXX?Y?XK???? ?X?][???N??X?[H?Y?[K????[????]H?[??] Y\?Y]??[? ?] \??[?H?\???\?Z???\???[??????\??\?H??K[?X??[ ??? [???\?Y[H????]\?H?X??K[[?? Y K?\?H?Y[K??[?HZB??