A Long Time Coming

"I'm baaaaacccckkk" 

Jack Torrence, The Shining

Wow!  I just realized my last blog post was at the beginning of February.  That wasn't intentional. (Well, the February blog post was. But the absence wasn't.)

A lot has happened in the past five months.  For those of you who, like me, have some struggles reading long, drawn out blogs, I'll start with an abbreviated version. If you make it through that, and are still halfway interested, I'll go into more detail in the second half of the blog.

I've titled the first half:  "Top 10 Bullet Points of Interest from the Past Five Months"  (catchy, isn't it?!?)  I'll count down, much like the popular late-night television host from years ago.

10 - The number of day my parents visited with us in Macedonia

9 - The number of times I've told people "I'm dead," instead of "I'm tired" in the Macedonian language (nine is the number from the past two weeks, not all of the months combined.)  

8 - Full time employees Zo now has at the Karpa branch office in Bitola, Macedonia.

7 - Can you believe this is how many weeks we have until school starts??!?!  (Several big changes happening this year in the Naskov schooling plan)

6 - Number of business trips Zo took from mid-February to mid-June.  

5 - Weeks Nattie spent in America 

4 - Kids had birthdays March-June.  (Zo also had a birthday, but that would've made it 5 birthdays, and we are on the #4)

3 - The number of songs the tour guide sang to us during our 30 minute boat tour of the springs at Lake Ohrid.  

2 - Times I survived crossing a border without Zo.

1 - less gallbladder in our family

There you go! You're caught up!

If you are easily bored, now is the time to go back to scrolling through memes or watching metal rust, because here comes the extended version, complete with pictures and not-so-witty commentary. If you're still interested, grab a can of Coca Cola, sit back and enjoy the ride!

10 - My parents visited Macedonia, for the very first time, at the end of June.  We had an awesome visit - even with all the excitement (see #1).  We went to the Bitola zoo, had dinner in Greece, visited Lake Ohrid, walked through downtown Skopje and the old market (and even got to see riot police encircling a group of very buff skinheads - still not sure what that was about).  We also ate dinner at all of our favorite restaurants, had burek so meso at the best shop in an ally off of Shirok Sokak, and shopped in all of the little places we have lovingly given our own names to - like the Green Hill Store, Lowe's, and Food Lion.  We were so sad to see them go, and are already dreaming of the next trip (which will be longer, I can assure you!)

9 - Ok, for what it's worth, it's a honest mistake.  "tired" is "umoren" (ooh-more-en)  "dead" is "umren" (oom-ren).  You can't blame me, right?  Well, the neighbors get a kick out of it.  So there's that. And I realize one is the right way - I just can't remember which one when it's time to say it.

8 - We're excited about how well the Karpa Europe team has come together.  They even had a "team picnic" last month that they were kind enough to invite us to! :D  lol   Great group of people.

7 - So, homeschool has not worked the way we had planned since moving overseas.  It's just not a good fit for everyone in the family, at this point. We've prayed, looked at options, and fretted a bit (just being honest). But we are excited about how we believe this year will be set up. Here's the lowdown (at this point - who knows what it will look like in 7 weeks - haha):

Nattie - will finish last year's schoolwork through Classical Conversations (she got the most behind because she was the one who was needed the most to help with the move and transition. We knew this would happen and had planned for it ahead of time).  Beginning in January, she will start at a private, online school.

Aleks - will start high school (9th grade) at a private, online school. He's looking forward to it, and so am I!

Joe - will continue to homeschool with me.  We will be changing some of the curriculum we are using, to better fit it to his personality and learning style and challenges.

Malachi - September 1st, he will begin 1st grade at the Macedonian public, one-room schoolhouse in our village. Funny fact.  The "school" has 4 students.  Two of them are from Australia and don't speak Macedonian.  One of them (Malachi) is from America and doesn't speak Macedonian. And one of them is from Macedonia and doesn't speak any English.  LOL!!!  To be a fly on the wall.  Thankfully, the teacher is a 30something man, who appears to have a great personality for teaching children and speaks perfect English (and Macedonian, I assume. Haha)  Malachi is really excited!  He's going from a homeschool of four students (his brothers and sister) to a public school of four students.  And it's walking distance from our house.

6 - I actually have no idea how many business trips Zo took, but I am sure it was at least six.  He's been to Mexico, America, Switzerland, and Germany (some of them several times).  Thankfully, he's home until September.  We are soaking in the Tato-time!

5 - Nattie went to the States at the end of May and stayed until the end of June. She had a great time.  She spent time with family in Florida, rode horses with her best friend in North Carolina, and had her birthday in America.  She even had her first-ever fall off a horse while she was there - complete with a trip to Urgent Care (thankfully, nothing was broken).  She said it was interesting to come back to Macedonia and see things in a different light.

4 - Birthdays galore!  Nattie turned 16, Aleks 14, Joe 10, and Malachi "was 6 but now he is 7" (that's how he tells anyone who asks him how old he is.)  Zo also had a birthday.  I'm the only one left and I can't wait, because I have two people I love like crazy cakes, coming to visit me for my 41st!

3 - One of the things we did, while my parents were here, was take a day trip to Ohrid.  It was beautiful. The weather was perfect, the drive was full of giggles, and we took a boat trip around the springs with a delightful man named Nikola (which is the most common name for a man in Macedonia).  He sang to us, told us all kinds of "facts" about the springs and Ohrid, and showed us the books he has written about his experience of 10+ years rowing the tour boat on the springs. (Of course, we bought them).  He was also an excellent photographer of rural Macedonia.  Check him out if you're ever in the area.  www.nikoturs.com

2 - While my parents were visiting, I decided to be all kinds of adventurous and take them for dinner in Greece. So, I piled the four kids, my parents, and myself into a 9 passenger rental van and headed for the border.  All was going splendidly, until we actually got to the border.  On the Macedonia side, I was informed that we were supposed to register my parents at the local police station within 24 hours of their arrival (this was on day 8 of their 10 day trip) and that there would be "penalties" for not having done that.  And there was a brief moment of no one being sure if they could actually leave Macedonia for dinner in Greece, since they hadn't registered.  Thankfully, after 10 minutes of me doing my best to not say anything wrong and apologizing and smiling as much as possible, he let us leave, while assuring us there would be "no problem" with us returning after we ate. Phew!

Now to the Greek border.  I had concentrated for an entire 10 minutes (on the Macedonian side) and that's about my limit, so I made a rookie mistake.  The conversation went something like this.

Him:  "Where are you going?"

Me: "Florina, for dinner."  (I was patting myself on the back for remembering the correct name to call the city, since the Macedonians and Greeks don't agree what it should be called, when the next question came and I wasn't ready for it)

Him:  "After dinner, where are you going?"

Me:  "Back home. To Macedonia."  (DANG IT ALL!!! I knew the minute I said it, I had messed up.)

Him:  laughing, but not the hahaha laugh.  The "stupid, stupid woman - how oh how could you be so foolish" laugh) And then the slow head shake.  "Do not say that name. It is FYROM. Enjoy your dinner."  And he handed me the passports.  Phew, again.  

Oh the joys of living in a part of the world where you're never quite sure how to not anger the people in power (whether it be a little power or a lot of power).  But we made it out (and back in again) and dinner was worth it all!  If you're ever in Florina, Greece, check out Terpsi Restaurant. It is amazing!

1 - less gallbladder in our family.  You'll have to wait a few days for that one.  That's a blog post all it's own.  But here's a sneak peek:

Congrats! You made it to the end of the "I'm baaaaaack!" blog post. I hope you had as much fun reading it as we did, living it!  I've missed you all so much!  And this little blog of ours.

Blessings from our family to yours. Until I write again....