I look back to the idyllic couple of days spent with my daughter in the first week of February. Introducing her to the best of Macedonian cooking – shopska salad, selecting fresh meat from a platter and by far her favorite, mountain tea, which is surprisingly available only as the fresh plant and not yet packaged by some intrepid entrepreneur. Watching her look of surprise when drinking rakia, the high alcoholic content drink,
followed by pivo (beer) and then some wine during the fancy meal! Traveling to the aforementioned town of Ohrid, first in a Yugo (remember the Yugo?) through a heavy snowstorm and then by public transport – an intercity bus. The driver driving dangerously fast on the slippery mountain roads! We stayed at an elegant waterfront rooming house with a private bedroom and ensuite bathroom facing the lake in the old town area. We were able to walk to and from the landmarks and stroll through the empty post-season streets of the market. The joy of watching a DVD movies together at night and even the pleasure of introducing her to my new ‘opstina’ family at work or just deciding simultaneously to forgo wandering around the city of Bitola in pouring rain.

Back home in the States, all was not all well and I had to fly home suddenly on the 10th when my husband landed in the hospital with meningitis and needed surgery to clear the problem disks in the neck region of the spine! He is well on his way to recovery – but it took me away from site for the remainder of the month!