Nina Boe in the Balkans

I can't believe it's almost time! It's September and feeling way more real. I'm done with my work commitments now, and able to pack a bit more, so luggage is finally taking shape... soon, Washington, D.C. -> Vienna -> Skopje, Macedonia! I can't seem to stop grinning like an idiot these days.... I'm super excited! So with these last ten days comes your last pre-departure update of miscellaneous Macedonian factoids! It's a shorter list today, but I hope it's nonetheless interesting! Update T-minus  10 days!   Countdown! Miscellaneous Macedonian Things Language : The last minority language in Macedonia is called Aromanian, also known as Vlach. This time, the name is not a misnomer - Aromanian is a language closely related to Romanian -- considered a dialect by many -- and is spoken mostly in Greece, with varying amounts of speakers in Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Macedonia. While Aromanian holds much in common with Romanian, distinguish...

Update T-minus 20 days!   So, as I mentioned before, my cohort's staging will be in Washington, D.C. on 9/21 -- and the days are flying by! I've snagged some temp work for a bit in addition to my coffee gig, so 4/5 of my weekdays are pulling doubles, though a colleague is interested in snagging some of my shifts. I realize as the days pass and my departure date sneaks closer, I'll probably appreciate a bit of a breather beyond the weekends. In the meantime, here are some more miscellaneous things about Macedonia!  Countdown! Miscellaneous Macedonian Things Language : In whittling down the list of minority languages in Macedonia, we've hit some more that I've studied over the years: Bosnian and Serbian. When what many knew as Yugoslavia existed, it was actually a federation of multiple republics: Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro; it went by the official name of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The officia...

Update T-minus  30 days!   I kind of had to move the posting schedule a smidge, becauuuuse.... I got information about staging! I will be in Washington, D.C. for staging on September 21st. Given that I'm on the west coast and can't fly in in time for stuff on the day of, I'll be arriving in DC on the 20th, leaving Seattle around 8am.  Staging activities will take place on the 21st, and then on the 22nd... we fly to Macedonia! - via Vienna, it looks like. I started drafting this portion of my blog last Monday when I got the information, and I honestly have not stopped grinning like an idiot since I got the email.  Countdown! More Miscellaneous Macedonia OK, I realized perhaps some categories are harder than others - I don't know much about nature and fauna of the Balkans in general, so I'll try to add things when I can, but I don't want the lack of those to hinder my posts from coming out when I intend them to. If I can't necessarily hit 10 facts ...

Update T-minus 40 days!  Soon I should be hearing about staging and related logistics. So far, I've done a few online courses via our virtual training space - some stuff around safety & security regulations, as well as some general ideals and expectations of the Peace Corps. Of course, me being super excited, it didn't take me long to get them done (okay....if I'm honest, same day!)  In the meantime, here are another 10 interesting things about Macedonia. Countdown! Today's Ten Macedonian Things Language : As mentioned in a previous  post ,  Macedonia has six minority languages. One of them is Turkish. As the name suggests, this is the national language of the Republic of Turkey, a matter of hours away from Macedonia. Overall, there are an estimated 71 million native Turkish speakers. It has official status in Turkey, as well as in multiple provinces in both Kosovo and Macedonia. According to Macedonia's 2002 census, Turkish is spoken by ar...

Update T-minus 50 days! Apparently 60 was the magical number. I had prepared my last post and shared it already, and lo and behold I received a couple of emails later that Monday and then the next day. The first one had a number of on-boarding tasks: life insurance, direct deposit, some permissions (media, etc), generating some forms I might need for finances and other things, amongst others.  Tuesday's email was from our training manager in Macedonia. It contained a link to a survey (to gauge our comfort with some of the skills that will be useful in our time of service), information about upcoming conference calls (to gain some more information and ask any questions, if so desired), as well as letting us know about upcoming emails that will advise us of our online training platform for pre-departure and pre-service training.  Countdown! Today's Ten Things Keeping with my idea, here are ten more things I've thought about. I realized last week it was a bit harder th...

Update We've now hit the 60 days mark -- I'll be at staging on September 21st! Location TBD.  What is staging? Staging is a couple to a few days that occurs right before departure to one's placement in the Peace Corps. From what I've seen for various cohorts before me, it seems to happen usually on the east coast. It's like the orientation before you go to your country and start your 10 weeks of Pre-Service Training (PST).  Also, today I received an email with some more onboarding tasks to do! I have to admit, I was excited enough that while we were given up to 2 weeks to do them, I did them all today... some boxes to check, things to update, deciding if I wanted certain forms or not, press-release related stuff, financial-related stuff, etc... all the fun! But now it's done and we wait again, haha. Countdown! Today's Ten Things So as mentioned previously , I thought to make a point to post every ten days...with 10 things I'm excited...