Sick and Tired

Good gods, I'm sick. Got home yesterday from a UNDP meeting, and stomach just started acting up. Ended up freaking out, then skype acted up, so I ended up calling out instead, which only lasted for 14 minutes. Skype got back up, then started getting the "Oh gods why won't it make up it's mind either stay down or come up! My ribs can't take much more internal bruising" feeling. Stayed up most of the night, getting what little comfort that I could from talking with those I cared about, then passed out around 3AM. woke up a few hours later, dragged myself to the office while warding off the "Vision distorting everything to non-Euclidean geometry" Helped Davor set up skype on the lap top, nearly feel down the stairs each time I walked to his area, until he gave me some medicine that helps to "sweat out" the illness, and I went home. Scary lady on the third floor still tried to have a conversation with me, even though she *knows* I have no idea what she's saying. Walking up 5 flights of stairs with this vision altering sickness, took more of the Serbian sweat medicine, and passed out on and off. Need to be better before going to Gjilan tomorrow at 8:30....

GDMF Birds

So some of you may have been wondering what the GDMF Birds look like. I caught two of them hanging out on my balcony, will try to get a shot of them peering in from the clothing line.

Attack of the Processed Meat (Or why I make soup)

So people have been wondering why I make soup for dinner just about every night. Well, that's easy - Just like Econ, it's all about the markets. See, the markets here are like your general store meets a Wawa/7-11/QuickChek (Bonus points for those who actually know *what* a QuickChek is...) So you have your basic milk and juice (which you always have to check for expiry dates), packaged soups, lots of pasta, some crackers and pretzels, sodas, candy, and sometimes a meat counter.

This is where you get into trouble. See, I have no idea how to *cook* market meat. So when I went to Davor's store (which his wife runs), he convinced me to buy some of this Market Meat, which look like hotdogs, but wrapped in a non-edible wrap (I tried, read more on that later) So I bought some, and finally got around to cooking them. "Just put them in the water and boil the water" said Davor.

Apparently Davor hasn't seen the pot I use to boil. It's not very big-In fact, I had to wedge the meat (which came in 2 sections of 2) against the walls of the pot to cook. I put the water on to boil and sat down to read. Suddenly I hear a noise, like something has jumped down from someplace high. Assuming it was one of the GDMF Birds(tm) that like to attack me when I put up laundry, sit on the line and stare into my apartment with a look that say "Yeah, you *think* you're getting these clothes back...", I ignore it. Then I hear it again, only with a tad bit less "Kathunk" this time. I decide to investigate.

Now, I'm a smart person, or at least Mommy says I am. And I was able to deduce afterwards what happened quickly enough. See, I forgot that heat makes things expand. Including wedged meat products. That gives enough pressure inside the tubes the Market Meat sits in to expand, and, since they were wedged V-shape one set of two on top of the other, I inadvertently invented the first meat-a-pult, at least the first in my flat at any rate. Meanwhile I now have one dangerously undercooked Market Meat pair and one slighty more cooked Market Meat set. So, screwing my courage to the sticking place (Better known as the side of the refrigerator, but that's another story) and keeping my bottle of Anti-Biotic handy, I try to cut the Market Meat Sleeve.

It doesn't cut.

I slash at it, saw at it, hack at it, pry at it. It's acting like pleather. Deciding that nothing this tough could be organic, much less healthy, I decide to dump out the now pink water in the pot, scrub it out with my questionable sponges, and make soup. At least that doesn't try to escape.




Oh, and for those wonder the fate of the Market Meat, I decided against tossing it on the far side of my roof, for the GDMF birds would probably not eat it out of spite and instead hide it in my pants on the line...

Further on the Conference, More Letters, and Photos

So after a very long and trying weekend (We lost power again, which means everything in my flat acts stupid for a day after) and having an allergic reaction to something (don't know what, hope to god it's not something in the soups i've been making or in my kitchen in general), I dragged myself to work.  Get yet another bit of mail (this makes 3, for those playing along at home) and got teased for it, since all three have been from the same, wonderful, incredible person (she knows who she is. :-P) My day improved dramatically as I opened the letter (by hand, not by bunny ;) and read what was inside, so that's always a plus.
Went to look at a third option for where we might be moving the office (I take the photos) and found it to be a really really nice place.  Still waiting on what the final price will be, then Davor and I will be emailing Robert, the Project Director, to see if it's acceptable.

In other news, last friday we went to a conference on Corruption that I mentioned in the title of the last post, but didn't go too indepth on it. I still can't go too indepth into it, because I only understood whatever I could overhear the translator at the other table say. The speakers were quite good, however, with Custom Agents, Professors, and NGO heads. The professor told the story about how one of his collegues accepted money for a passing grade for his student, only to find years later when needing emergancy treatment after an accident. the head doctor in charge was the very student that bought his way through the class.

Afterwards we checked out the hot springs that attract visitors from all over the region. The water is 96 degrees C, or "Ready for Coffee" according to Hyzri, as he, Davor and I stuck our hands in the near-boiling water.

Also saw the hotel that they stopped building halfway through, a huge building that now has trees growing in it... reminded me of my misspent youth investigating "Weird New Jersey" 

Photos Below:


Hyzri, Davor's Father, Davor and I


Hot Spring


Crazy Hotel




Landscape

Kosovo, Football and Conferences, oh my!

It's been a busy week these last 3 days. Went to the Gjilan, Kosovo office on Tuesday, where I did my first of probably many embarrassing pratfalls due to slick sidewalks in the rain, then helped with the "Football Without Borders" event in Macedonia the day after. The event took city employees from the GPKT region and pit them in competition with each other, each side playing two matches. I have never been to the FIFA World Cup, but I can imagine what it must be like now. The last game went on for two over-time periods and ended in penalty shots. Gjilan, champions two years running, let the other team win. Which was good, due to current events, having the Kosovar team come in first and the Serbian team in last would be an interesting situation.

Project is going well, all things considered. Looking up more information on CEFTA (like NAFTA, but Central Europe). Have a meeting next week with the local UNDP Rep. So that will be interesting.

In other news, I got my first two bits of mail! Real mail is very exciting to get (if you need the address, just send it to my work site, since I'm not sure how well mail goes to my flat.) Also, my site wants to make sure I get a chance to explore the continent while I am here, so towards the end of my time here I will be heading to Milan, Italia :) Very exciting, needless to say. Also, found that there's a popular brand of water in Kosovo that has an interesting name. What do all these events have in common?

And in the morning, my bathroom smells like ham

This disturbed me the first couple days, as I am unused to a pork-scented WC. For the first few days I tried to find where the smell was coming from, and started to bleach the usual areas. Then I thought it was because I left the window open at night for ventilation, so I closed the window. No change. So now I just pretend that I have a communal bath with Link Hogthrob, Ms. Piggy, and Porky Pig.

Other news of interest:

I learned that the rows of exposed switches above my door are my circuit breakers, especially the one that controls my fridge, which likes to trip. Thank goodness I do shopping on a bi-daily basis.

I had my water meter check. Here's a fun joke: How many Vranjeans does it take to check my water meter? 6 people. One read the meter, one held the flashlight, and the other 4 just wanted to get a look at the foreigner. At least, thats what I assumed they were. I think one was my landlady, but since I've only seen her twice, I had to go on assumption.

Been learning far too much about CEFTA, EPZ, FTZ, BW, SEZ and whole lotta acronyms that make even less sense. Thank goodness I took an Econ course, otherwise I'd have to rely on my experience from that time I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. (end bad joke)

Today I get to meet with some of the municipality leaders, tomorrow Kosovo, and the next day Macedonia for a football game with all the muni leaders of the areas we work.

Also on our discussion: What happens to our projects if Serbia continues to turn away from Europe and starts turning towards Russia for influence.

Thank God for Skype

I really don't know what I would do without it. Skype keeps me sane, allows me to see people with webcams (Mom and Da, Dea) and show my face to those without (Like Darryl and Baby Rachel...) It makes the whole far away feel less far. So yeah.

In other news, had my first staff meeting, I'm apparently in charge of installing Skype on Davor's compy (thus the reflection above) among other responsiblities. Coolest responsibility? Being the English Language Editor for the phrasebook the Youth Council created. I get to make sure the phrases make sense in English as well as make sure they are somewhat acceptable. Ilina has already said she's taken out the worst offenders, particularly in the section dedicated to love and relationships...

Otherwise I'm just there as native speaker and situational analysis for the Serbian region, writing up a few paragraphs on what the general mood of various articles on Serbia are. In addition, I'm meeting with various officials to discuss Free Trade Zones and what they hope a FTZ will do for their municipality. I'll let you all know how that goes.