The reason for being here - work begins...sort of
Tuesday, January 24
Well, here I am, at 3:40, at the American Corner after my first (kind of) day at the Institute for Economics. I was to meet my supervising professor yesterday, but she never showed – some meeting that she hadn’t planned on – but then again, no one in Macedonia plans anything. It’s simply a concept that doesn’t exist here. Macedonians will tell you that since the country has been attacked, invaded and traded by countries, empires and tribes so many times in the past 2000 years (which it has) that they don’t feel they should plan anything, as they never know when things might change. They have been stable and completely conflict-free since 2001, have just been named a formal candidate for EU membership and have been successfully independent from the rest of Yugoslavia since the early 1990’s, but I guess compared to about 2000 years of unrest, that isn’t long enough to convince anyone that things won’t change tomorrow.
Well, on to my 1st day at work.
Vesna, the professor of economics with whom I am working, offered to pick me up in the Institute car with the Institute driver. I had the image of a Lincoln Town car – well, in Macedonia, probably a BMW or Mercedes - pulling up to the end of my street, parking right next to the trash bins with cats perched, vulture-like, on top, a black-suited chauffeur emerging to take my briefcase. Wrong. The car was the size of a miniature matchbox, dirty white and badly dented on both the front and back. I almost started laughing when I saw it. I barely fit in the front seat, which Vesna insisted I take, thank goodness.
Vesna is a little spitfire of a thing, 50-something years old, with good command of English and a fierce smoking habit. Actually, everyone smokes, although only in designated offices as of January 6th thanks to a new law mandating specified smoking and noon-smoking areas in all public places and workplaces. But the first thing Vesna and the Director of the Institute of Economics, Antonija, did when we arrived after picking me up by car (both live very close to me) was get their secretary to get us black coffee and light up in Vesna's office - one of the designated smoking areas. After tolerating three cigarettes from each of them, together with 2 cigarettes by Natasha, the junior professor who shares Vesna’s very large office, I felt as if I had been smoking all morning - I could literally taste the cigarettes in my mouth. It was nauseating and had me coughing most of the afternoon and evening.
I did have to hold back a laugh, though, because once Vesna and Antonija get smoking, their voices get gravelly and hoarse. With their eastern European accents and husky overtones, Antonija’s heavy eye makeup and her Russian-styled fur hat and coat, I felt like I was in the middle of a 1965 James Bond movie. I expected Sean Connery to appear and quietly order a martini, shaken, not stirred. Unfortunately, he never appeared. Vladmir did appear though, and then Dejan and Grigor ( in the spirit of the James Frey controversy, these names may not be quite correct, but they’re close)… Economics professors with constant smiles, crazy hair and wild mustaches as well as decent English, warm demeanors and a love of all Americans, thanks to George Bush (ok, so finally W has done something that has actually benefited me) … but Sean Connery they were not.
Vesna and I talked for a while and I asked her to describe to me what they would like me to teach and how they would like me to work with them. “Not to now worry” laughed Vesna “we do not want to overwhelm you!” I assured her that as I arrived almost 5 weeks before classes started (at her insistence) I was more than ready to actually DO something. She chatted with me for a bit about what the institute was doing, assured that a meeting would be held with all of the professors so I could learn about their individual research projects and choose with which project I would like to become involved. That conversation lasted about 2 hours, as Vesna continually interjected her personal thoughts… about the Macedonian government… “so much corruption to get money to the people who make them feel powerful and so little brains”… and the Macedonian economy…”I am embarrassed, as an economist, of the state of my country’s economy, as it is collapsing and no one seems to care”…. That conversation was the end of my intense interaction with her for the day, which was fine, as by that point I could barely breathe.
Well, here I am, at 3:40, at the American Corner after my first (kind of) day at the Institute for Economics. I was to meet my supervising professor yesterday, but she never showed – some meeting that she hadn’t planned on – but then again, no one in Macedonia plans anything. It’s simply a concept that doesn’t exist here. Macedonians will tell you that since the country has been attacked, invaded and traded by countries, empires and tribes so many times in the past 2000 years (which it has) that they don’t feel they should plan anything, as they never know when things might change. They have been stable and completely conflict-free since 2001, have just been named a formal candidate for EU membership and have been successfully independent from the rest of Yugoslavia since the early 1990’s, but I guess compared to about 2000 years of unrest, that isn’t long enough to convince anyone that things won’t change tomorrow.
Well, on to my 1st day at work.
Vesna, the professor of economics with whom I am working, offered to pick me up in the Institute car with the Institute driver. I had the image of a Lincoln Town car – well, in Macedonia, probably a BMW or Mercedes - pulling up to the end of my street, parking right next to the trash bins with cats perched, vulture-like, on top, a black-suited chauffeur emerging to take my briefcase. Wrong. The car was the size of a miniature matchbox, dirty white and badly dented on both the front and back. I almost started laughing when I saw it. I barely fit in the front seat, which Vesna insisted I take, thank goodness.
Vesna is a little spitfire of a thing, 50-something years old, with good command of English and a fierce smoking habit. Actually, everyone smokes, although only in designated offices as of January 6th thanks to a new law mandating specified smoking and noon-smoking areas in all public places and workplaces. But the first thing Vesna and the Director of the Institute of Economics, Antonija, did when we arrived after picking me up by car (both live very close to me) was get their secretary to get us black coffee and light up in Vesna's office - one of the designated smoking areas. After tolerating three cigarettes from each of them, together with 2 cigarettes by Natasha, the junior professor who shares Vesna’s very large office, I felt as if I had been smoking all morning - I could literally taste the cigarettes in my mouth. It was nauseating and had me coughing most of the afternoon and evening.
I did have to hold back a laugh, though, because once Vesna and Antonija get smoking, their voices get gravelly and hoarse. With their eastern European accents and husky overtones, Antonija’s heavy eye makeup and her Russian-styled fur hat and coat, I felt like I was in the middle of a 1965 James Bond movie. I expected Sean Connery to appear and quietly order a martini, shaken, not stirred. Unfortunately, he never appeared. Vladmir did appear though, and then Dejan and Grigor ( in the spirit of the James Frey controversy, these names may not be quite correct, but they’re close)… Economics professors with constant smiles, crazy hair and wild mustaches as well as decent English, warm demeanors and a love of all Americans, thanks to George Bush (ok, so finally W has done something that has actually benefited me) … but Sean Connery they were not.
Vesna and I talked for a while and I asked her to describe to me what they would like me to teach and how they would like me to work with them. “Not to now worry” laughed Vesna “we do not want to overwhelm you!” I assured her that as I arrived almost 5 weeks before classes started (at her insistence) I was more than ready to actually DO something. She chatted with me for a bit about what the institute was doing, assured that a meeting would be held with all of the professors so I could learn about their individual research projects and choose with which project I would like to become involved. That conversation lasted about 2 hours, as Vesna continually interjected her personal thoughts… about the Macedonian government… “so much corruption to get money to the people who make them feel powerful and so little brains”… and the Macedonian economy…”I am embarrassed, as an economist, of the state of my country’s economy, as it is collapsing and no one seems to care”…. That conversation was the end of my intense interaction with her for the day, which was fine, as by that point I could barely breathe.
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7:22 AM
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