every little thing

Further proof that Jesus loves me: There are Honey Nut Cheerios in Skopje (scope-ee-uh). Also, I found a bath sponge like I have been wishing for from the states. And...I got to see some city dogs laughing and playing together as Rachel and I walked to the store this evening. See? Jesus loves me. He always knows exactly what I need, and even throws in some comforts and surprises from time to time. He knows everything about me and showers me with love anyway! But you already knew that about Him. :) Wow.

So after walking with Rachel to pick up her altered pants at the sewing shop, finding the health food store closed, exploring three or four school supply stores and shopping at the big supermarket called Vero (which is right beside McDonald's, which is also against my religion), I have a second wind.

It was a lovely evening. Thunderstorms the past two nights seem to have cooled things off a bit, and there was even a chilly breeze as we walked. The sun was setting over the mountains and everything was lovely. There was a stray puppy napping outside of the sewing store, and some children ran by calling out after one another, and the puppy got up and wagged it's tail while gazing after the children. Canine puppies recognize human puppies. I love that. I know the puppy wanted to play with the kids, but I don't think the strays ever get to play with humans, and that makes me sad. I want to play with them! But I know they're dirty. Bah. It's hard to remember that a dog is dirty when it's smiling at you. Some of them have yellow tags in their ears and I wonder why. Maybe it means someone has captured them to spay and neuter them at some point. That's what I choose to believe. One of the dogs I saw tonight looked exactly like a stuffed animal puppy I used to have. Hmmm. I do not approve of dogs being homeless.

My students have driven me to drink. Coca-Cola. Ruthann will tell you that Coke is what I buy when I am stressed. So I have been buying Coke. No...it's not really the kids that stress me out. It's my pride, and this tiny streak of perfectionism I have when it comes to teaching. I want everything to be immediately perfect and beautiful in my classroom, all because "I'm a good teacher." Well, I am a good teacher, darnit. But I have to realize that my students are five years old (on average), and we've only been in school two days, and I haven't assessed them to see their levels yet, so it's fine. They're happy, I'm happy, the turtles are happy, the birds are happy, everyone's happy.

I didn't stay long to work after school dismissed today. I brought stuff home to work on. I have lots of lesson planning to do. Maybe I will do some of it tonight. Today we sorted beads and learned the button factory song. Kindergarten is the best ever. Everyone in my class can already write their names! And they know the alphabet song! They are so smart! Maybe I will have to teach first grade curriculum instead...

They are so cute! I have 2 Swedish girls (who are friends and speak to each other in Swedish), 1 Swiss boy (who always reminds me of Rolph from the Sound of Music), 2 Macedonians, 2 Americans (one is a little girl who looks like Gretel from the Sound of Music, which I just realized when I watched the movie today - I knew she looked familiar!), 1 Albanian boy and 1 Serbian girl. So right now, I have nine students. I had ten this morning, but one of them moved up a level, and I think by Tuesday I will have only eight, because there's another child who I think needs to be moved up a level. So I am a lucky girl. And I have twelve planning periods each week! Yes, I know. I am spoiled rotten.

So yesterday was the first day of school and it was kind of rough. I made some mistakes, for sure, and I wasn't completely prepared, but I'll make up for it. And like I said, most of my stress is from pride and the fear that other teachers will judge me if my kids aren't well-behaved or if they don't learn everything I teach or if they're not having fun...because I've always been taught that if there's a problem in my classroom, it's my fault. And I agree.

Today was much better than yesterday because I provided more structure in the classroom and I have THREE specials, but mostly because people were praying for me. Thank you! And another thing, when I picked the kids up from library today, they were watching the video based on the book Corduroy! I LOVE that story and I remember watching the video at the Troy Public Library when I was around kindergarten age. Wonders never cease. Now if only they had that book in the library...

After school, I came home to change, took the trash to one of the big metal bins down the street and walked to the corner store to buy milk, Frutina cereal and tomatoes. I only took my canvas bag, a 1000 denar bill and my keys with me, so I didn't have to carry my big purse-o-stuff. :) When I got home, I poured some coke, warmed up my pizza (from my dinner with Rachel and Mary at a nice restaurant last night), and watched the Sound of Music until after the part in which the Captain sings Edelweiss (which is the scene that makes me fall in love with Christopher Plummer every time). That movie is VERY important to me (I am plotting to teach my class some of the songs). And oh, I just don't know what I would do if it weren't for the Narnia books. So there are lots of comforts. I am loved. I am so thankful.

Goodness, there are a million little cultural things I've tried to remember to blog about, and I could tell you so many details about my class, but I will try to make notes for myself in the future. OK! Goodnight!

Why should my heart not sing?

Here are some photos of my classroom. There is a real blog post below.

These are my class turtles!
These are my class zebra finches! They are in love with each other. :)

The rest are shots of my classroom, ready for the first day of school!


School starts tomorrow. I have been working, working, working on my classroom, and I've gotten a lot done, but I am not as ready as I'd like to be because they haven't hired my assistant yet. There is so much to do! I have to write a parent letter, prepare communication folders, script out the next two days, etc. I haven't even decided upon a discipline plan yet! Some of the aesthetic things will have to wait. I will just have to be OK with leaving some things undone for now.

I am feeling especially lonely this morning. I have a heavy heart, and I am depending on my students to swoop in here tomorrow morning and make my heart light and happy again. I hope that's not expecting too much.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Joe (from study abroad in Grenoble) was in Skopje for an appointment and came to visit me. He is working with the Peace Corps in another town nearby. It's so funny that we're both in Macedonia. We hadn't seen each other in four years! I'm glad that friends can stay friends even after being apart for a long time, with little to no communication. Anyway, Joe and I went to the same Lebanese restaurant (Aladdin) that Leonie, Rachel and I went to Sunday night. While we were there, one of Joe's Peace Corps friends came in, as well as Leonie with a bunch of her Dutch friends, including one lady I work with! It was like running into people I know in Winston-Salem or my hometown! This is a city of around a million people!

The food there is great and I love the atmosphere! You can sit on couches or cushioned chairs (everyone was outside under a tent, since it's nice and warm) and you can either sit or lie to eat. We sat, of course. There are fans and misty water floating over the tables to cool everyone off.

We had falafel, pita bread (which was poofy and full of hot air when it arrived at our table), hummus, and a rice dish with green olives, chicken, beef and lamb mixed together. When I ate there with Rachel and Leonie, we shared five or six different dishes, including a salad, chicken and rice, pita bread, hummus, falafel, and some other things I can't remember. But it was all good and very filling!

Also yesterday, Lydia came for the first time to clean my apartment. I like her name. It's the name of the first European convert to Christianity recorded in Acts, I believe. She is really nice, but doesn't speak a word of English, so I'm glad Rachel knows some Macedonian. She only charges $13 each time she comes, which will be once a week! It's good for us because we're busy, and good for her because it's hard for Macedonians to find work. When she arrived, I was fixing my lunch of brown bread, sliced tomatoes and soft white cheese, and I had left my flip flops in the kitchen (which is a faux-pas...people are meant to leave shoes at the door). She thought they were house shoes and put them on! So I had to get Rachel to talk to her and tell her those were my shoes and we would get some house shoes for her to wear while she was at our apartment next time. I didn't know Macedonians are accustomed to having house shoes available for guests! It makes sense though, since everyone walks a lot and our feet get dirty and we remove our shoes in the house. I guess not everyone likes being barefoot like I do!

One of my students just came in with her mother and baby brother. They are Macedonian, but they have just returned here from Zambia. They will probably move to Zimbabwe in January. The little girl is full of energy and her mom says she can already read and write, so that makes me happy! I'm sure I will have some students come to me already reading and some who have never learned the alphabet. It will be interesting!

One of the dads just came in, too. He works with the U.S. embassy and talked about how much his son would love our class turtles. I'm glad we have the birds and turtles!

Now I have to stop blogging and put out some play centers for tomorrow morning. The kids need to be occupied when they first come in and I'm trying to get everything sorted out. Please pray for me!

fabric softener and melting ice cream

This is a view of the Skopje from the mountainside Some nice hillside scenery.

See that round building? That's the post office I walk to from my apartment! It's so cool inside!

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I have just completed a rescue mission. One of my class turtles was stuck between a rock and the glass wall of his home...a wedged (turtle) in a great tightness. Winnie the Pooh would certainly have understood this predicament. Now both turtles are continuing their constant search for a way out. Poor dears. My zebra finches have a lot to say today, and I enjoy their company. They seem more content than the turtles, but that may just be an act to keep me from discovering their plots to escape. I will have to ask last year's kindergarteners for the names of these animals. I don't want to rename them and risk giving them a complex. I will post photos of my class pets soon. I know you're just chompin' at the bits for those!

I joined a group of new staff members in visiting a 12th century monastery this afternoon. Don’t make fun of me when I tell you that for the first few minutes, I was much more interested in a friendly puppy than the historic building. The puppy was really cute! And friendly! And it followed me around yapping and asking for attention, and it jumped up on me! How could I look at some old, priceless frescoes with such a nice friend at my feet? But then one of the older teachers told me to come inside and listen to the information the guide was telling the group…so I was reluctant, but I went inside.


Wow! The walls were covered in beautifully painted in 12th century frescoes and everything is original! I’m sad that we weren’t allowed to take photographs, but also glad because that helps preserve everything. Someone said there are good photos online, so maybe when I find out how to spell the name of the place, I can find some of those to share with you. There was some damage to the monastery during the big earthquake of the 1960s, but it’s in great condition to be so old and to have survived the various wars over the centuries. You can see how one wall was cracked during the earthquake. So much damage was done to the city when that happened! The monastery may have been protected because it's on the mountainside.

After we visited the monastery, the group went to a 12th century fortress on a hill in the center of Skopje. They are in the process of excavating the fortress for human remains!

So I found out that my clothes are not turning out so well in the wash because the water BOILS in the washing machine here before it actually washes the clothes. Oh dear. I will have to be careful to set it at the non-boiling temperature so my clothes aren't ruined. The Macedonians tell me it's pointless to wash clothes in non-boiling water, but I disagree. So there. And I am using fabric softener for the first time in my life because of the hardness of the water here. All of my clothes felt like they had been starched before I started using the fabric softener!

The power went out twice this afternoon, which meant my internet cut out, since we're using a wireless router in the apartment. So internet might not be as reliable here as it is in the states, but that's OK. It's not weird, it's different.

The other day, I walked almost an hour to get to the post office to mail my first letter from Skopje...because I went the wrong way at first. It's really only about a twenty minute walk from my apartment. You can see the post office in one of the photos above. It's the round building! First, I went in the wrong entrance and the man looked at me like I was about to break into some top-secret place, but when I asked him for the post office, he relaxed and gestured for me to go around the other side of the building. Anyway, the room was HUGE (and round) and there were about twenty teller windows, but only three of them were open. I went to the wrong window first. When I got to the right window, the lady was older and didn't speak any English, but the teenaged girl beside me translated for me. They didn't have any pre-paid international mail envelopes like I used in France, but they put a special, pretty sticker on the letter for me! I think that's what they were saying anyway. So the letter has been mailed. Who knows when it will reach the states. The girl who translated the transaction was very nice and asked where I was from and what I was doing here. She was amused, as she well should have been. :) I was pretty pleased with myself for having successfully (I think) mailed a letter from Macedonia.

On my way home, I saw a big T-Mobile (very popular here) store and decided to take advantage of my courageous mood and buy myself a cell phone plan for calling taxis and meeting up with friends. So I did. I bought the cheapest phone they had. But then when I got home, I found that the phone didn't work. I took it to work the next day and told Alex, the nice Macedonian man who is in charge of lots of things at school, that I was having trouble with my phone. He discovered that the battery was not good. It was even all swollen looking! I should have checked before I left the store. But he was mad! He took the phone back to the store for me and I don't know what he said to the lady who sold me the phone, but when he dropped me off later to pick up the replacement phone, she was really nice to me, and apologetic! She had admitted to him that she knew there was a problem with the phone when she sold it to me. I'm so grateful to the people I work with for taking care of me like that. So...I was happy on the walk home and bought myself an ice cream bar, but I had to scoop the ice cream out with the stick instead of holding the stick to bite the ice cream because it was so hot outside and the ice cream was melting fast! And when I got home, Rachel had finally arrived! Thank goodness she's here!

So now it's time for bed. Here's a great C.S. Lewis quote from a page of quotes my dear friend Lorien found for me.

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" - C.S. Lewis

P.S. I just noticed that if you click on the photos in the blog, you can get an enlarged version!

Dragonish

Good news! I just changed my setting so you can post comments without having to sign up.

I was delighted to find lots of email in my inbox this morning! It's easy to get lonely here, so I love to hear from people back home. Thanks for the blog comments too. Some of you have asked to get emails every time I update, but I don't want to crowd everyone's inboxes, so let me know if you want that and I will make a special email group for blog updates.

Please send me photos of your family, etc so I can fill a wall with photos. And could someone please send me a picture of Aslan? Not necessarily the one from the movies, but just a lion who looks like he might be Aslan? I need to remember Aslan.

I was out walking early Sunday evening and started thinking about Aslan and wishing I had the Narnia books. I remembered that the school has them, so I walked by the school and saw that some maintenance men were still around, and they always recognize me and greet me warmly, so I asked them if I could be let into the library. There was some confusion, since I don't speak Macedonian, but finally someone understood me and let me in. The AC hasn't been on in the library all summer, so it was very hot, and the bookshelves were all covered with big, colored paper like school bookshelves should be in the summer. I almost frantically uncovered one bookshelf after another until I found the right section and the Narnia books and I was so glad. I got The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (which is the one I was longing to read because I need to be reminded of how Aslan sometimes has to help us shed our scales and become less dragonish, even though it's a painful process for us), The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle. I find such comfort in those books. Too bad they're too advanced for kindergarteners, or I'd try to make Narnians out of my whole class. Maybe I can still find a way. :)

On Sunday, I met the pastor of the church here, Mark, and his wife Pattie. Pattie gave me her phone number, so I called her yesterday to see if she wanted to hang out and she invited me to dinner. She tried to tell me how to walk there, but I don't think I could have done it, as unfamiliar as I am with the city, so she ended up calling a cab to pick me up at the school, since it's near my apartment and I don't know my own address yet. Of course, I mispronounced the name of her street when the taxi driver needed to know where I wanted to go, so I had to call Pattie and have her tell him the address. Thankfully, one of the daughters was waiting for me outside their apartment, so I knew exactly where to get out of the taxi. Mark and Pattie have four children. Тhe girls are teenagers and made dinner for us. It was tasty chicken and rice with peanut sauce, and nice vegetables, but I didn't eat the eggplant, just in case I have the same reaction as last time. It was a lovely dinner. The younger children are boys, one of whom will be going to my school this year.

After dinner and dessert and lots of playing with the kitten (described below), Pattie and I walked to another supermarket frequented by foreigners. She told me about some of the foods available, so I bought two types of tea, dried cranberries, cereal, boxed facial tissues, multi-vitamins and I even found AAA batteries! While we walked, Pattie explained the city street system and pointed out some good bakeries and other stores, and pointed me down streets that would get me to this and that important place, but I ended up taking a taxi home from the store anyway because I felt too sleepy to try finding my way around just then. I really do feel safer walking around this city than I ever did in America or Western Europe, though.

The family has a new, black kitten named Dandelion (because the boys were away from home when the girls named him, but it's OK because they can call him Dandy, or Lion). The kitten was rescued from the street on a hot day, when he was thrown out with only a piece of bread and was very weak and could hardly walk. What a lucky kitten! There are so many strays around here, and Pattie says sometimes organizations come in and have them all spayed and neutered, so that helps, but it's still a big problem. So if anyone would like to start a Humane Society here in Skopje, I would be all for that. Luckily, some of the animals have owners and even collars and litter boxes. I saw a very happy looking dog last night, so it's not completely a lost cause. Thank goodness.

Oh! I had some workers help me in my classroom today and they asked me if I'd like to have the birds (zebra finches) and small turtle that the previous kindergarten teacher had. Of course I want them! I love animals, I said! And they said they would take care of cleaning out the cage and the tank, so I don't have to worry about that. They just wanted the animals to have a home, and they know the kids like having animals in the room, they said. :) I am so happy to take them!

The men also hung my bulletin boards and moved some furniture for me (the language barrier continues to make things like this funny for me), so now I can really start thinking about how I want to arrange my classroom this year. I found the calendar stuff. They even have pocket charts! The teacher from last year left me so many wonderful resources, even her lesson plan book to give me an idea of how the school year goes around here. I think the curriculum will be a little different from what I'm used to in the states, but that's OK because I feel like I have everything I need to have a great school year! There are tons of boxes of new materials piled up in the gym, and they've just brought some of them to me.

I have an upstairs classroom, with big windows all along one wall. It's sort of like an attic, the way the roof slopes down on one side. Two of the walls are painted light blue, one is light lime green, and the other is nothing but sloping roof, shelves and cabinets. There are coat racks, two bulletin boards, and an expandable chalk/dry-erase board. The floors are a light-colored hardwood, which looks nice with the light-colored wood of all the furniture. I am very happy with this room and all the resources available to me.

Another project for me is to start learning Macedonian. There's really no excuse for me not to know a few basic things. The Macedonians try to speak English with me, so I should try to speak their language. I will take lessons as soon as possible.

It's a breezy day, but still very hot. I brought a chunk of bread, some grapes and a plum to work with me today, but maybe I will go out and try to buy a sandwich...another reason I need to learn Macedonian!

I want to get a bike so I can go to the river more often.

I have been chatting with people on facebook chat and AOL IM this morning. I am six hours ahead of Eastern time and seven hours ahead of Central time. When I get internet in my apartment, I will be able to use Skype and iChat. Hope to chat with more of you soon!

Skopje photos

Here are some photos from my new stomping grounds. There are some of the school, some of my apartment and some of my neighborhood. I would label them individually, but I can't figure out how to do that right now! One of the photos shows my photo collage I just put up in my bedroom. Send me more photos and I will cover that whole wall!

new friend

As I was leaving the office yesterday, I ran into the math and science teacher, who showed me the school pets. There are chinchillas, gerbils, various types of lizards (including geckos), a snake and a ten-year-old turtle. That makes me happy. Maybe these animals can give me my fur fix and I won't have to miss Pepper, Maple, Annie Belle and my other furry friends so much. I did meet a nice dog yesterday, but I will write more about that later.

Anyway, that teacher asked me if I go to church and told me that the international church, which I have been hoping to attend, actually meets at the school on Sunday mornings! So I was able to go today and it was great. They sang some familiar songs and the sermon was on Esther. There were lots of children, who played on the playground during the sermon. It always does my heart good to be around children. Afterwards, people meet in the cafe and talk, so I met some more nice people and I am very glad.

Yesterday, I ventured to a small shop near my apartment to see about getting laundry detergent and kind of find out what's available close by. I wandered around awkwardly while the Macedonian shopkeeper watched me and didn't understand my non-responsiveness to her greetings. When she persisted in questioning me, I decided to ask if she spoke English, which she didn't, but she went to get her colleague who does. That lady helped me find the laundry stuff, but those things turned out to cost more than I had, so I told them I'd buy laundry stuff later. Instead, I bought three plums, two oranges, a jar of nutella (so exciting!), a loaf of nice, unsliced bread, pasta and pasta sauce. We'll see when I get brave enough to try making the pasta. So I walked home and had a chunk of bread with nutella and then unpacked while I waited for my new friend Leonie (Rachel's friend) to pick me up. I was so glad she called!

Leonie came, with her four children in tow, and took me to her house. Her house is on the mountainside with a beautiful view of the city! She has a nice, fuzzy dog who doesn't understand English because his family is from Holland and speaks Dutch. They also have a cat, who was very tolerant of the children playing with his tail, etc. So now maybe I can have dog and cat friends in Skopje.

I sat with the children watching a funny Dutch sport on TV while Leonie got ready to take me out on the town. The sport is like this: there are two platforms set up in a canal, with a very narrow piece running between them. Teams of cyclists with all kinds of crazy themes ride one bike together, trying to cross between the two platforms without falling into the water. Of course, most of them fall into the water and everyone laughs. Leoni said they've had this sport every summer for 30 years or so. The kids think it's so funny!

Leonie took me downtown, where we walked to the river, near the bridge that connects this side of Skopje to the old Turkish part, and went to a pizza restaurant on the riverside. We sat outside on couches and shared a traditional Macedonian salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, paprika and cheese) and a Margarita pizza. The pizza sauce was in a bowl in the middle of the pizza instead of on the pizza itself. We both had still, not bubbly, water, and I had some of the cheap, good Macedonian red wine. I forgot what it's called.

I really enjoyed talking to Leonie. She made me feel like I was with an old friend. She and her husband have lived away from Holland for twelve years, but they're moving back there in December. That's disappointing, but I'm glad to have her around for now!

After dinner, she took me to the supermarket to buy all the soaps I needed. I also got a blanket for when it gets cooler (right now all I need is a sheet) and a towel, because there are only two towels in the apartment. They didn't have loofah sponges for the shower, so I bought a different kind.

While we were downtown, I saw lots of gypsies. I can write more about that later.

For now, I think I'll go home and take a nap.

First Impressions

I would like you to know that the airport in Ohrid, Macedonia, where my flight stopped briefly before coming to Skopje, is called Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport. In Skopje, I landed at Skopje Alexander the Great Airport. Had to laugh on both counts.

I was picked up at the airport by Alex and Amir, two locals of Skopje, who work for the school and have been very kind to me. They had been to my apartment in advance to turn on the AC and leave some food for me to eat until I can get my bearings. The food was a ham, cheese, tomato and cucumber sandwich on a baguette and juice, milk, a beer (hah!), a coke, a big bottle of water, a big bowl of white grapes with seeds, a melon, some cookies and some sliced bread. There's also a Brita filter for tap water, which is potable, but not very tasty.

They even gave me some Macedonian money, denars, to start out with and a school cell phone to use for now. They showed me how to use everything and put my sheets (which are a nice blue like my favorite sheets at home) in the wash for me so they would be ready for me to sleep on last night. It's hot here right now, so the sheets dried really quickly on the balcony...or they would have if I had managed to get them out there earlier in the day. I had some trouble understanding when the washer was finished, so I took them out too early and they were soaked. I stubbornly decided to drag them out to the balcony anyway and clean up the water trail later, but was halted by what I thought to be a strange problem with the door. When I tried to pull it open, it opened from the top instead of the side, so I thought the door was falling over on me! But it didn't, and I'm still alive. So....I dragged the sheets back to the washer and put them back in and hoped they would be dryer the next time I tried.

So I took a nap until it was time for Amir to drive me back to the airport to get my bag that had been left in Vienna. When we got back that evening, he helped me figure out the washer and showed me that the balcony door is designed to open in two different ways, one to let you out onto the balcony and one to let air into the apartment if the AC is off. Silly me. So the sheets dried mostly on the balcony, partly in the living room and partly while I slept on them.

My apartment is so nice! I am very lucky! It is really only a five minute walk from the school, and I pass the U.S. Embassy on my way to work. I am on the second floor and there is an elevator, but I haven't used it except when I've had fifty pound suitcases with me. There are lots of nice features like you would find in America, such as a camera to see people who come to visit before I let them in the front door of the building.

There's a microwave, fridge, flat stove top with grill, oven, and even a dishwasher! But I'm not sure how to use that. The landlord said you have to put in special dish salt because the water is hard, as well as both powder and liquid soap. I need to go buy these things. I hope someone will come with me and show me what to get. The tile all around the apartment is beautiful, but there are especially lovely tiles on the kitchen floor. The walls are all a light yellow color and there is plenty of lighting. There's a big TV and a DVD player.

There are three bedrooms, one with office space. I have the biggest bedroom because Rachel said so. I am glad to have a big bed so I can sleep on one side and leave my books on the other side. I like it that way. One of the two air conditioning units is in my room. The other is in the living room, which is open and includes the kitchen, office space and a dining nook. The air conditioning units have remote controls as well as wall switches. They tell temperature in celsius, which is fine, but I don't quite remember how that works and I'll have to relearn. The lowest setting makes the room temperature go to 30 degrees celsius, which a Google search just told me is 86 degrees fahrenheit. Anyway, there are one and a half bathrooms, complete with hot water. There's nice furniture in all the rooms too and some familiar art prints on some of the walls. There are even two bulletin boards! And there are lots of books on the shelves in the spare bedroom. Yes, I live in a palace.

I am typing this in the school office. I saw my classroom yesterday, and I love it! But I won't work in there until they turn on the AC on Monday. The room is on the second floor and is one of the biggest classrooms of all, since I have to teach little people and that requires a lot of space. There are big windows and extra storage space. My only wish so far is for a small carpet so I can tell the kids to go to the carpet for class meetings and read-alouds. Surely I can find something like that somewhere around here. I might have more students than I had expected, but that's OK. I might even have French twins! That would be fun. They would come to me without any English, so I might be able to practice my French with them a little bit.

Amir told me that the tuition is, in fact, $8,000 US for Balkan students and $50,000 US for anyone else. This is because the "anyone else" is unusually employed by their home country, which will pay the tuition. So the school can charge the government whatever they want! I hope I can provide an education worth that much money. I will work my tail off to make it the best kindergarten class of all time. I promise. There is only one class per grade here. The older kids have special teachers for math and science. There are art and music teachers too. There's a library, a computer lab, a playground, a gym and a cafeteria. There's even space for small group remediation. There are two huge greenhouses on campus, but I'm not sure what they're here for. I've met the director, Bob, and lots of other people who work here. Everyone is very kind and I am grateful. I even met a friend of Rachel's, who goes to her church. I am hoping to get together with her soon, but I was too tired and disoriented to hang out yesterday.

This is a beautiful country. From the airplane, I saw big Lake Ohrid, red-tiled rooftops and lots of mountains. I saw a lot of countryside on the way to and from the airport. There is a lot of farm land. There is a river running through this city. It must be low now, because I saw a man standing in the middle of it fishing yesterday. I saw a 13th century fortress too.

Today my landlord, Vladimir, came over to fix a few things around the apartment. He's native to Skopje, but is living in France with his wife, so he's not here often. He took me to the police station to register as a foreigner. I have to tell them when I travel out of the country and come back, until I get a visa, which should be soon. We have to go to Belgrade for that, but don't worry because I will go with a group. The Macedonian language is interesting and I hope I will start to pick it up soon. I hope to take a class.

So...here I am. This is where I live now, so I have to start making it my home. I will continue to unpack when I get home. I've already put my magnets and things on the fridge. Maybe I can find some other things to hang up around the house.

I am so thankful to be here. I have assurance that this is where I am supposed to be for now, and everything in America already seems so long ago and far away...but I am thinking of you always.

I will post photos as soon as I get internet working at my apartment, on my personal laptop.

p.s. In case you were wondering about the title of this blog, it was inspired by Acts 16. :)

Farewell photos

I love the Brownes! This is the tree house that Ger, Wendy, Sarah and Sean are building in their backyard!




April and Shawn at the party



Shawn, Jason, me, Sallie, Elliot and Ruthann



Ruthann, Rebecca, Andrea, Jenny, Scott and Charles at the party.

All I have

Yesterday was my last day at Redeemer Church (until next summer). I cried and cried. That Body of believers has been such an important part of my life the seven years I've been in Winston-Salem. I grew up there in so many ways. For me, Redeemer is a supportive community where I am loved and held accountable. There is such good, true, challenging teaching and rich worship. I will miss it dearly. I am so lucky (and by lucky, I mean blessed) to have such a strong community of believers around me.
The sermon was so powerful, I think I would have cried even on a normal Sunday. The last song hit me hardest. The chorus says:

"Hallelujah, all I have is Christ."
"Hallelujah, Jesus is my life."

And I knew it was true. I have so many blessings, but I can't count on anything but Christ. He is leading me into a wilderness, where I can't even pretend to have solid ground apart from Jesus. I won't be able to run to my friends or other comforts when I am sad or anxious. I will have to run to Jesus. He is the reason I am going and He is the only thing I have to hold onto. Thank God.