My site is a very small village (about 500 people) about 15 minutes away from my training town. There are two and a half stores, a church, a post office, an agriculture firm, and the school that I work at. The school is really nice and huge by village standards. There are about two hundred students. My classes range anywhere from 5-17 students. I teach 2nd grade and 5th-9th grade. Some things about middle schoolers are international. My students are a lot of fun, but some of them are definitely in the developmental stage of challenging authority (which is totally normal but sometimes makes my job difficult). Right now, I am starting to learn more about my students and trying to learn as many names as I can! While I've worked in the classroom before, it is really challenging to teach in a language that I am just now learning. I rely on my counterpart a lot for translation.
My counterpart is amazing!! She had a volunteer for two years before this, so she knows what I'm supposed to be doing, and what it's like to be a volunteer which is really helpful. She is a lot of fun and really wants student engagement in her classroom, which is not always the norm. She is a dedicated teacher and is willing to try new things
. I was also told to not expect planning to be thing, but we have planning periods where we work together. All in all, I am very excited to work with her and really lucked out on the counterpart lottery!
My new host family has also been amazing! My host mom works at the school also, so it's always good to see her throughout the day. She is an amazing cook and makes her own bread from scratch. She loves to try new recipes from Facebook, and for new years we will be baking cookies together. She's already taught me how to make some traditional N. Macedonian foods such as Sarma (stuffed cabbage) and Baklava. She has also taken me to meet so many people which I am grateful for. Both her and my host dad have told me I am like their daughter. My host dad is also really nice! He is an agricultural worker and has pigs, goats, chickens, and rabbits. He really loves animals. He also likes to joke around a lot and is very friendly. I am very grateful to my host family. They have been so generous and warm and welcoming! N. Macedonian hospitality has really blown me away.
Adjusting to rural life has been really hard for me. In Lexington and Washington DC whenever I was bored I could go do something. In DC I loved to walk around or go to the Smithsonians. In Lexington I would just walk to Starbucks when I got bored. I definitely can't do anything like that here. I've been running, cooking with my host mom, and working on materials for school to try and stay busy. I also still have Macedonian tutoring and have been trying to practice the language. I keep telling everyone I'm going to work on my physical flexibility, but I still haven't gotten around to that yet. I'm trying to develop other hobbies, but the thing that's getting to me the most is how much I don't like being idle or alone. It's really hard to be the only american around, and the only fluent English speaker. I really miss being with my friends from training, but luckily I got to visit a few of them over the weekend. I know adjusting takes time, and I'm trying to be as patient as possible, even when the roosters wake me up for the 9,000th time.
One of the other really hard things is being away from my family and Danny for the holidays. I'm doing my best to celebrate Hanukkah by myself. One of my friends made me a paper menorah and I've been "lighting" it every night. I also made Latkes today and that helped me feel a little less homesick. This is the first year in my life that I haven't gone to New York for the holidays and I really miss my family and my extended family. Today is Christmas eve which is a family event I look forward to every year and it feels very strange and sad to not be there this year (the only other time I've ever missed it was when I had strep throat when I was 9). I also miss Danny and his family a ton. Usually I'm with them for part of the holidays, and I really cherish spending time with them. I'm very happy because Danny's family and mine will be together over the break, but I'm feeling a lot of FOMO because I can't be there. I am so grateful to the internet because I've still been able to talk to everyone, and I can't imagine what it would be like without it. Overall this is a hard time of year to be away from family and friends and it is not making adjusting any easier.
While I am adjusting, I am still really grateful to have this opportunity. I can feel myself growing a lot. This is maybe the hardest situation I've ever been in, but we grow the most from challenges. I'm excited to explore my village and get to know everyone better. I am also grateful for the support systems that I have!!
