Thought for the Day--March 5, 2011: Getting Ready to Go Home

We leave tomorrow (3:00 a.m.) for home.

Overall, it's been a good trip, but I look forward to getting back to my internet (I will be posting these daily entries when I get back).

It's been weird being cut off from the world. When I lived here, I had internet and cable, so life was pretty normal, at least at home in the flat. Getting accustomed to cultural differences took some adjustment, especially university life.

I can sum it up as thus:

In America, it's "Hurry up, and wait."

In Macedonia, it's "Wait, and hurry up."

Everything in the Balkans seems to move along at a snail's pace, and, then, all of a sudden, it's time to get cracking at whatever task needs to be done--which, of course, needed to be done yesterday.

LOL
Back in July (after coming home after 10 months), I experienced reverse cultural shock; I still have retained a little bit of the "wait, and hurry up" attitude, as evidenced by my failure to get my book done before leaving on this trip.

I wonder why?

I'm dreading the 3:00 a.m. departure (Whose bright idea was that?) and two European connections (Vienna and Frankfort). We'll have to get up at 2:00 a.m.

Our last social events: tonight we visited Igor (Lile's son) and Aneta (Igor's wife), baby Mateo, Lile, Danco, and Oliver (our landlord) and Ana (his daughter).

I'm tired!