immatured observations

the first few weeks in a new place can be an overwhelming combination
of both very much and very little going on. the scenery provides much
to talk about but in the dark cold of winter, my day-to-day life is
less varied. so for now, a few early and superficial thoughts of the
two settings of my life here:

from what I've seen of Skopje thus far (which, of course, is very
little), it certainly wont win any award for most charming. the tour
books say it is a fine example of the old Yugoslav lifestyle. Signs vary in their language of origin, ranging from Macedonian to Albanian to English to an odd mixture of English and Macedonian to the occassional German. the
buildings are terribly communist in their appearance; hues of grey and
brown dominate the landscape. that being said, it's not a particularly
beautiful time of year anywhere so this dull landscape, too, will
pass. orthodox churches and mosques pop up around every corner, though
not usually the same corner as Skopje is particularly divided on
religious and ethnic lines. the people here are the first to admit
this fact and it seems as though it will remain this way for the
foreseeable future. the town is split into two by the vardar river,
with the Albanian Muslim population tending to reside north of the
river while the Orthodox Macedonians stay south. the center of the
city is dotted with unique cafes and tiny stores selling anything your
heart could dream of (with the noticeable exceptions of hommus and
cous cous- two self-proclaimed essentials).

suto orizari, the Roma village, is a completely different world. the
concrete apartment buildings are replace with one- or two-story homes
in various degrees of upkeep. generally speaking, shutka is
extraordinarily run down. the streets are covered in an inch of mud
and the occassional horse droppings make the already windy walking
path even more so. you can see the extreme poverty all around you in
shutka- the children play beside garbage heaps for lack if a park or
patch of grass the unemployed adults loiter in the streets. but
loadspeakers blaring Romani and Bulgarian music flood the streets
while a combination of drying clothes and tackily-painted houses
provide a vibrance not felt in Skopje.

my life in Macedonia will be some combination of these two worlds.
neither are my ideal by any standard, but both are not without their
substantial perks.

The pictures are from downtown Skopje (the most noticeable ad is for the Macedonian beer, Skopso) and a tiny sideroad in the Albanian part of town. Pictures of Shutka to follow, after I feel a bit more integrated there.