Olivia had her uterus pulled out of her. Now she is an outpatient.

Oh man. I love my family, and I love my Strugan friends. Oh- and I love making wine and ajvar as a family.

http://eepurl.com/n5Ppv

Tonight my host family and I were finishing up the left over vodka from a brunch I held in the house. In front of us were a knife, the remaining plates of food, and a wood carving my host father was working on ( a 3 foot depiction of a face moaning.) After my other friends said their good byes, he picks up the knife and throws it with all his might into the sculpture. It planted itself into the face’s cheek. My thought: Oh, yeah- I forget that you can just do whatever you feel like here. 

My counterpart just called me into a meeting and after we talked about some emails she said “how did you sleep last night, what did you dream about” I said “Oh- I slept pretty well I think, I don’t really remember what I dreamed” to which she responded “by the way your face looks like I would guess it was a nightmare…” “……………..”

Spent all of yesterday on an inflatable raft off the shore of lake Ohrid catching up with my friend from a neighboring village. I will spend all of tomorrow in an office designing an interview protocol and writing an outline of my Masters thesis. The middle of my weeks feel different in Macedonia.

Young Men’s Leadership Camp. I was a counselor. 

Dear Olivia, 
Thank you for the kisses on my face while I was reading in the living room. The smell of my own butt on your tongue made me go and check the bathroom toilet tissue bin. Thanks to you I finally found an opportunity to bleach the bathroom (where you had strewn all that tissue) and scrub the skin off my face. 

Your freshly scrubbed human companion,
Stephen Robinson

P.S. Shout out to Peace Corps for having the foresight to amply supply the volunteers with nylon gloves!

The other day my landlord set up a battleground of wood to chop and said “these are your enemies, be like ninja.” Today as I was chopping the wood my baba (the grandmother I live with) was clapping and saying “Bravo Stevo, look at how strong you are, thank you thank you thank you!”

After 4 months of brewing, my Limoncello is finally done. The final result is more like a deliciously sweet lemondrop, than an apertif- and I’ll take it!

I also made a carmel liqueur, which is also drinkable!