My New Friend in the Old City

I get stared at a lot here, especially by old women. I am not sure if I should take it personally. They may stare at all foreigners, or at all young women, or at all people in general, I am not really sure. In any case, the staring makes me a little uncomfortable so I have developed a strategy to shake the babas out of there trance. As I approach the person staring, I look them in the eye an say, friendly but firm, which ever greeting in appropriate for the time of day. A nice “Dobro ytro!” (good morning) with the ‘r’s rolled and just the right intonation usually surprises them enough to get them to stop gaping.

Well, since I have stared working at the East West Institute, which has its office in the old city, I find my self greeting these staring old women much more often, as the old city seems to be primarily occupied by old women. One women in particular, whom I do not know the name of quite yet, is almost always sitting in her door way when I pass by. Our first couple of encounters were nothing more then hello, but then last week as I passed she asked me something about “Peggy”. In Macedonian ‘peggy’ means ‘freckles’ and as I have quite a few freckles from the summer, I responded, “Da! Od sunseto.” (Yes! From the sun.)

The next day we ran into each other on the street and through a kind of circular conversation we came to the following conclusions: 1- I look just like a German women named Peggy. 2- Peggy used to live around the corner down by the lake with a man named Artzo. 3- I am not Peggy. 4- I do not know Peggy, where she lives, or Artzo.

After we got all that worked out, I was free to go and be slightly embarrassed that I thought she was talking about my freckles. But since then she seems perfectly happy to chat with me despite me not being Peggy. She seems like an interesting person. We have a tentative coffee date tomorrow, and I will keep you up to date on my budding friendship.

Till then enjoy the pictures of the lake I took during my lunch yesterday, including a photo of a responsible boat owner dumping his left over paint in the lake…