The story about me studying here is closely connected with Mladiinfo. I applied for Sweden, but I didn’t get the full scholarship so I was kind of disappointed because my best friend and my best colleague got the scholarship and they were about to leave and study abroad. My best friend was encouraging me to apply to other open calls but I was not interested because I already started to develop different projects in Macedonia.

It’s impossible to explore Mostar without marveling the damage caused by war. Everyday I observe the façades of the buildings I pass—many rendered into Swiss cheese after taking a beating of bullets. One building in particular is but a shell of what was once a chic restaurant.

We are three students from Macedonia, Gordana Angelichin, Sandra Kostadinova and Aleksandra Simoska, who had the opportunity to volunteer in a V-Day college campaign last year in the USA. We got involved in it because we recognized the enthusiasm the organizers had and how much it fulfilled them to know they would help victims and make them feel better about themselves. Being compelled by the experience, we decided to do some of V-Day’s activities in Macedonia this year.

This piece of writing is supposed to be one of the “How to…” guides that people, especially dummies or lazy bones, could use as the first steps to write their article and, possibly, have them published somewhere.Based on my experience as an editor, after several emotional eruptions, I decided to write something really easy, yet comprehensive, so that next time after you sit in front of your word- editing applications, you won’t make editors (that is, me) blow up.

It is a story about a good and human idea of some young smart people, all scholars from the Theodor-Heuss-Kolleg of the Robert Bosch Foundation. They wanted to do something nice and good for other young people from the sleeping Balkan countries and to just give them the seed for planting their own better future based on welfare, progress and democracy. “Balkans, let’s get up!” is about finding ways of practicing active citizenship, civic engagement, youth activism as well as learning about project management!

Freedom of movement is one of the most common human right concepts. Poverty is another concept, mostly common amongst students. Combining these two is a basic skill of surviving in the academic society, and nowadays it‘s not so hard to do it. Cheap flights, bus, train and ferry tickets, carpooling, hostels and hospitality services on the internet are all part of it, but the most philosophical way of free movement is for sure hitchhiking.

I spent my first year in Moscow learning Russian, because I hadn’t spoken it for the last four years at home, and getting familiar with Russian culture and Russian people (who came out to be far more difficult and unpleasant).
In Russia, 2 of 10 people know English, 1 of 10 people would stop if you ask them for some directions and only half of them will listen to you and try to help you.

As it turns out, this last “method” of presenting your country is probably the most popular one. It is nice to see how people easily remember the names of the drinks they tried during some previous training course. You can always hear someone asking the Polish guys, “Hey, have you brought Żubrówka?”, or somebody else secretly telling the Macedonians to save a bottle or two of Skopsko for them.

While I was at high school, those who were already at university always shared stories from their university life. You can always hear stories about professors who wouldn’t give you a signature or grade just because that day they weren’t in the mood. It doesn’t matter that it is not your fault they couldn’t find a perfect parking space in the shade or that you have nothing to do with their neighbor’s dog’s decision to pee on their door mat. Today they can’t stand you and that doesn’t require a reason.

I have recently returned from an incredible month in India, where I learnt a few lessons in Indian culture. Just in case you ever find yourself in India or thinking of going to India, I feel it is my duty to pass on these lessons to you, so you can avoid making the same faux pas I did.