A Wonderful Week

Hey Sweetie,
Now that you’ve raked all the leaves, what will you be doing this weekend? Have you called my mother to see how she is doing and explain how communication will improve once I get to my permanent site? Wednesday was the first time since I’ve been here I wished I was in the USA. It would have been great to take part in the celebrating our new president. I had to rely on getting to the internet to see what the reactions around the world were. It wasn’t the same.

I have my blog up and running so I won’t have to go into much detail in our personal e-mails since I’ll be able to into detail on the blog. Anyone that’s interested can follow my wanderings by connecting to my blog. You won’t have to forward my e-mails anymore. I also installed Picasa and began installing a library of photos to the site. It takes a long time uploading pictures at the internet place. The URL for my site is merharticpcv.blogspot.com. From there everyone can get to my pictures and can make comments or ask questions. What a wonderful world this is.

You asked about the Macedonian reaction to the election of Obama. Most Macedonians favored John Mc Cain (?) because they believed that Obama was favoring Greece in the name dispute. However once he was elected, they seemed happy that he was elected. Most Macedonians were very interested in the election and those with whom I came in contact with, congratulated me and shook my hand because they knew I was voting for Obama. I reassured them that Obama would not turn his back on an ally and they seemed satisfied.

As I wrote before, we are all waiting anxiously to find out our permanent site. So keep your fingers crossed that I am sent somewhere where there is convenient transportation. When was the last time you traveled on a bicycle with a suitcase over dirt roads and hilly terrain?

I had a practice language proficiency test on Thursday and I did pretty well. I was told that I am at the level that would be expected of me at the end of the training, so I think I’ll do well on the real test in December. I can get around pretty well with what they have taught us so far and can actually make full sentences in the past and future tenses. I’m still working on building up my vocabulary and trying to figure out indefinite and definite pronouns. My younger colleagues are learning a little faster than I am but are very supportive when I am not comprehending a concept.

I finished my English teaching practicum on Wednesday. My counterpart at the school uses the required student manual and I was scheduled to teach the Wednesday lesson. It was a lesson on reading out of order paragraphs and putting them in the correct order and the subject matter was entitled Reading Across Cultures – Heroes. On the day that my country elected an African American to be our President and on a day when I was in a country so far from home, the American hero that was the subject of my English lesson was Dr. Martin Luther King. It was emotional for me at times during the lesson to explain how in my lifetime I witnessed the “climbing of the mountain”. The five of us celebrated after class at one of the local cafes and had a drink toasting our new President.

You should forward this e-mail so that you won’t have to send everyone my blog site. Let me know ASAP if you have trouble getting to my blog site so I can figure out the problem. Tell the boys that if they need any help with a computer issue to drop me a line so I can instruct them as to how to fix it, install it, or use it. I just wish they would become more computer literate so I wouldn’t have to help them ALL the time. Give everyone a hug from me. You get two.
Majkl