In the summer of 2007, I stepped on Canadian soil for the first time. I’ve been to Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria before, but this was different. Unusual flats, new faces on the balconies, new graffiti on the walls. Not a single sign that resembles Macedonia. I didn’t like it at first glance – people seemed so cold, like no one was interested in anything else but their own business. That first week I kept asking myself if this was the promise land people talked about.

Macedonia? Hmm, that might be too much. That was the first idea, which came to my mind when I found my hosting organisation. It is true that I wanted to go to the Balkans from the beginning, but I had never thought about Macedonia. And here I am! One of the first challenges was the Cyrillic alphabet, but being the language freak that I am I prepared well. Luckily, because of the Internet it was not a problem to start learning it before coming here and as soon as I started I was really excited about it.

A common sight every morning and after working hours are young people rushing to the subway or the near-by cafes for a beer or a cup of coffee. Dressed business casual, they hail from every corner of Europe and are replaced by another batch of young people every five months or so; the internship programmes of the European Parliament and other European institutions usually last that long.

I came to Germany a year and a half ago, believing that Germans were cold, but friendly, punctual, well organized, pathologically honest and straight.
My first encounter was a lady in the International Students’ Office. I was one month late for my studies because of some visa problems, felt guilty (in a typically Russian way of feeling guilty for any kind of authorities), was very nervous, and again, already guilty, because of my poor German language skills, especially when it comes to listening comprehension. Fortunately, or unfortunately for that matter, she was not going to talk to me neither in German nor in English; apparently, consultation hours were over.

As I am English and he is Macedonian I felt that this achievement was perhaps even greater than usual, having had cultural barriers to cross and linguistic misunderstandings to clear up, not to mention having only one grandparent, my father, in England where we live, to help with that elusive pot of gold, free childcare. I have often thought about the advantages and disadvantages of marrying a man from the Balkans as opposed to a man from the UK, and though perhaps my husband is not a typical Balkan man, if there is such a thing, there have certainly been aspects of our marriage that have been shaped by his Macedonian-ness. Here is a guide to the most positive of those influences.

That was in July 2009, on a hot summer day, early in the morning on a bus heading for the university, but the sun had risen out of the Baltic sea hours before – we still had the White Nights, and the dazzling days…
Six months ago, I would have mostly agreed with her. And at that time, I had not passed only one week in Russia like her but even three months already, without my emotions having been subject to significant positive change.

Kate is a real “child of the world”. Born and raised in Poland, she experiences multiculturalism from an early age. Her grandmother married a Chinese immigrant, who stuck in Poland for good, disregarding his initial intention of making his way to “the brighter world” in Western Germany. “In my home you can find some Chinese dictionaries, forgotten letters from China, little evidence of an Asian life. Multiculturalism, awareness for the other parts of the world, and a sense of freedom were always encouraged”, Kate says.

Would you like to travel around Europe? Well, you needn’t ask twice. The desire to do something like this, especially when you’re young and constantly looking for new challenges and adventures is even greater. Thanks to the Citizen’s association MOST, donors, sponsors and other supporters, this year, eighteen students from Macedonia went on this trip making sure that whatever happens, this chance should not be missed. And thus it all began.

In the year 2007, I had the chance to visit Germany for the first time, winning a DAAD scholarship. Staying in Duesseldorf, it was a logical step to go and visit Bonn, the most international city in Germany, and the city of Deutsche Welle as well. “No sooner said than done”! One early Saturday morning with a group of friends from the DAAD programme we went to Bonn.

Prishtina is not one of the top 10 touristic summer destinations, but given the fact that I come from the multicultural Macedonian society, visiting Kosovo was a cultural challenge for me. Until my Kosovo experience I didn’t know any Albanians nor Kosovars – except for Fidan, a Kosovar I met by chance in Skopje – and the curiosity about how things really function there made me apply for the 9th Prishtina Summer Univeristy, which was organized for the first time under the Prishtina University auspices (until this year, the organizing of PSU was in the hands of the SPARK organization). Things were easier, of course, thanks to mladiinfo.com where I found all the necessary information.