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...