This is a picture of Street Dawg. Isn't she cute!? Now you understand why I want to keep her for my very own. I haven't seen her in a week or so, but last time I saw her, she kept running in front of me and rolling over, forcing me to rub her dirty belly. It seriously breaks my heart.
Nothing motivates me more than listening to 30 Seconds to Mars...why don't I remember this? Anyhow, I went on a run last night, this time for only 25 minutes. I know I know, slacker. What I love about my runs (all two of them) is I get to see more of Kisela Voda. There are a lot of children playing outside, men and women chatting on the street and construction jobs. My iPod died in the middle of my 3rd song - boo - but it is working today so that is all that matters. There is this place that I run by that says Internet in Cyrillic where a lot of local boys gather. The actual place is closed, from what I can tell. The boys are all ages - age about 7 through teenagers. I wonder what they talk about. Besides the fact that I am jogging past with earphones in, I still wouldn't be able to pick up even part of the conversation. There is also this cement apartment building that could possibly be the ugliest building in Skopje, which is quite a feat. It looks run down, but that does not mean anything. When I was looking at apartments, I went into 3 separate places and I know if my Mother saw the entrance way, she would be worried about me. There were naked light bulbs over cement stairways and bare, old linoleum in the main area. I will not even tell you how terrifying Macedonian elevators can be. However, once you were inside the apartment, it was cozy and charming. But I wonder about this building that rises above the others, so cement and dirty on the outside. It isn't very near the Center and I know the average income for a Macedonian is 256 Euros, which is about $361 USD. Are the apartments nice and charming, like the ones I saw or do they match the exterior? I will try to take a picture so you can see exactly what I am talking about.
Remember how I told you about how they changed the liquor sale laws? The motivation behind this is to cut down on youth drinking. I haven't walked through City Park since the law came into effect, but I did walk through earlier this summer. There were loads of teenagers there, drinking Skopsko. The legal drinking age here is 18. But here is what my friends, co-workers and I have discussed: the youth are in the park drinking because there really isn't anything else for them to do. I know of one movie theater in Skopje and it has been playing Indiana Jones all summer. There might be more movie theaters so this is mere anecdote. But still, even my local friends agree there are few club sport leagues, coffee shops that aren't also bars...I'm trying to remember what I did when I was 17...anyhow, couple this issue with high youth unemployment and we have a lot of bored young people. The beer and wine vendors are actively lobbying the appeal of this law and I hope the little bodega next to me can generate enough revenue to stay open. One of the other bodegas on my way to work closed down. They say the law is in line with EU alcohol laws, but one of the arguments I read was that EU laws apply to hard liquor, not beer and wine, which are considered food. Interesting. I guess wine is made from grapes...anyhow, I'll keep you posted if things change or stay the same.
I had an interesting realization last night. I am boring. This is ok, just hard to deal with. I met Jessica (remember my first American friend?) after 2 months. Besides my trip through the Western Balkans, my life is pretty much humdrum. That does not mean I am unhappy. Rather, it is just how it is. I don't want to spend the evening talking about people in the States she's never met, the US Presidential Election (do NOT get me started), etc. We had a great time catching up, despite our fairly quiet lives. We ended up talking about the domestic violence project her Roma organization is undertaking. It was fun to talk about developing a survey, research methods and the overall discussion that Roma women are doubly discriminated against. I am nerdy, but proud to be nerdy. Recently, I even found journal articles that discuss whether personality differences between men and women are cultural or inherent or both.
My weekend plans are the same as always: try to take over the world through knitting and watching Ally McBeal. In all seriousness, I really need to clean my room, put my clothes away, vacuum...jealous yet? I want to go salsa dancing on Saturday evening. I do have to finish Boban's scarf since his birthday is on the 21st. Besides that, I anticipate it will be quiet, although that is what I said the past 2 weekends and they were anything but that...our next football match is against Iceland but I am not sure when the Norse invasion will begin.
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