Air Quality in Macedonia

During  Air Quality Awareness week, the US Embassy in Macedonia posted this video


https://www.facebook.com/119869762156/videos/10154575148727157/

The US Embassy facebook page explained the purpose --
 "To mark Air Quality Awareness Week we are sharing with you a time-lapse video of Skopje. The view from the U.S. Embassy shows this beautiful city and how unfortunately air pollution makes the city invisible at times. Thanks to our Cultural and Educational Attaché and dedicated environmentalist, Kris McElwee, for taking a photo a day for the last year and a half. Let’s all do our part to reduce air pollution."

The post reminded me that we never posted about the air quality here (and how bad it was when we first arrived in the winter).

You can learn more about air quality, and get updates from all over the world, on this website:

http://aqicn.org/city/macedonia/centar/

(During the winter, when we first arrived in Skopje) sometimes when we looked, the air quality was worse in Skopje than it was in Beijing. I found this shocking, as I had no idea that there were issues with air quality in Skopje when we were packing for the trip (let alone that things could be worse in Skopje than in Beijing).  (When you click on that link above, to get up-to-the-minute data on air quality, you will see how air quality varies by time of day. Some of the negative comparisons to Beijing may have been attributed to the time difference (that it was daytime in Skopje when it was evening in Beijing) - comparing the  worst part of the day in one place with the best time of day in the other. Nevertheless, there were serious issues with the air quality in the winter, regardless how things may be in other parts of the world.

Here is more information about air pollution in Macedonia from the World Bank:

http://web.worldbank.org/ 

Initially, we looked into purchasing air purifiers for our apartment.  (There were air purifiers for the classrooms at my daughter's school - and they were limiting time for students outside during times when the air quality was not healthy.)  I thought we should purchase an air purifier for the apartment, but my search did not yield a unit (with replacement filters) that would work for us. 

We did purchase these masks (pictured below), from a pharmacy near the Vero, but, neither my daughter nor I felt comfortable wearing them. We did see a few elderly people wearing masks on occasion - and sometimes younger women with masks under their scarfs. But, for the most part, regardless of the air quality, we did not see many people wearing masks. And we did not want to stand out, or seem like we were not happy in our new environment. (Seems silly typing that, if there were a genuine threat to our health, appearances should take a backseat.)  My daughter did not have any negative side effects.  I, on the other hand, was taking cough syrup and sinus meds and allergy meds during our early weeks in Skopje.

I taught in Skopje and in Tetovo. There were times when my commute to Tetovo was (or could have been) disrupted by protesters blocking the road, seeking to encourage the owners of a factory in Tetovo to put (better) filters on the smokestacks to cut back on the air pollution. While I worried about the inconvenience to my schedule, and getting where I needed to go on time, I applauded the civic engagement and the activism of those citizens who wanted to do something to improve the environment - action that seemed entirely necessary, at least from the point of view of my lungs.

I was so relieved, and could breathe easier, when the spring came.

On clear days, we could see beautiful mountains from our kitchen window. And from our balcony, we could see mountains if we looked to the left and if we looked to the right.  (Skopje is in a valley.)  We lived there for many weeks before we realized what nice views that we had from our apartment.

we purchased these masks from a pharmacy - but - never used them

 I was so happy when we could finally sit outside and enjoy fresher air.

blue skies from our balcony

QSI Skopje: May Community Time (tumbling!)

My daughter had such a wonderful time at QSI Skopje. We are so grateful that our daughter had such a rewarding time in Macedonia. Even though our move was for my Fulbright/work, it was such a joy and a privilege to bring my daughter with me.

We manged to arrive in Skopje just in time to attend the January Community Time, held the last Friday of the month. I posted about each subsequent Community Time for the rest of the Spring semester. Here are some of the links:

blog post January Community Time
blog post February Community Time
blog post March Community Time

(There are many other posts about events and activities at QSI Skopje -- like the Chili Cook Off, Yard Sale, International Food Festival, Science Fair Night, Book Fair, Art Auction, and, of course, the 20th Anniversary celebration, to name a few.)


At each of the Community Time events -- after hearing updates from the school's principal and the president of the PSG (Parent Support Group) -- we would have the opportunity to see children from various classes and/or after school activity perform/showcase what they were learning.

At the May event, my daughter's tumbling/gymnastics program was featured.  She even got a medal for being the "most improved" student.

Her after other school activities included quilling, kangoo jumps, Girl Scouts, science experiments, private voice and piano lessons, drama, and rock climbing.  We were impressed by the array of after school activities that she had to choose from. And, logistically it was so much easier than it is in Florida for her to take part in music/dance/sports/arts after school -- she could stay on campus and then take the bus home.

I really wanted to try the kangoo jumping - and do a video post - but - alas - by the time I had this idea, the semester was over.  (I just googled "kangoo jumping" - and apparently we can buy our own for $239 (!) on amazon - but - these would NOT be appropriate in the beach bungalow!)

Back when I was going to post about kangoo jumping, I did locate these links about the Kangoo Club Skopje -- 

Video from Kangoo Club page - explanation of kangoo jumping

video from Kangoo Club Skopje page - class


Video (from Kangoo Club Macedonia page)

KangooJump Macedonia facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/kangooclubmacedonia/

Travel to Macedonia

This post has been sitting in the draft folder since January.  I am not sure why it has been stuck there for so long.  I think after we arrived we were so keen to jump in and to get started -- learning our way around, starting new school and meeting new friends, and for me, getting to know my colleagues in 3 Departments at 2 universities, and getting my courses underway -- that -- once we arrived -- we were just ready to get started.  And, ready to put the "issues" that we had encountered on our way to Skopje behind us.

Now that I am back in America, I am trying to "catch up" on the blog, so that there is a more  complete picture of our journey during our incredible Fulbright opportunity.

I think I did manage to get a few posts written while we were in Florida -- getting materials about Macedonia, deciding what to pack, etc. But in this post I will describe the actual journey from Madeira Beach, FL to Skopje, MK.

As much as I tried to be conservative while packing for this trip -- the reality is that we needed clothes for my daughter and for me for winter, spring, and summer (and this included bulky items like sweaters and turtlenecks and snow boots and snow pants).  (At one point we had a medium-sized suitcase that had only my daughter's coats, snow pants and snow boots -- and that pretty much filled the suitcase!)  We also wanted to pack supplies, like over-the-counter medicines that we might need.  And, even though I was allowed to ship a certain number of boxes to the US Embassy for my teaching materials (which I did!) I wanted to be sure that I had the lecture notes and texts that I needed for my classes -  the minute we arrived. I did not want to take the risk that the boxes took too long to arrive (or, worse, didn't arrive at all). More so than the sweaters and the advil, I wanted to have those lecture notes with me!  That meant packing them in the suitcases - trying to spread out the weight of the papers and the books across the several suitcases that we had packed.

(And, a special shout out to Nannie and Grampie who let us borrow 3 (!) suitcases to bring with us.  We do have several pieces of luggage, but not enough big bags for this 5-month trip.)

All of this luggage also meant that we would not be able to make it to the Tampa International Airport in just my husband's car. A friend of ours helped out (THANKS, Heba!!) and brought her SUV - so we could get all of us and our luggage to the airport on time.

(When it was time to pick us up in June, my husband rented an SUV from a car rental place here at the beach -- which was large enough for the 3 of us and our luggage. Just in case something happened to us and we were delayed -- which did happen. First, the flights had changed and so we came back on Saturday instead of Friday. And then on the Saturday we missed our connecting flight in Newark due to delays, so we ended up coming home several hours later than planned. Instead of lining up a volunteer to help us on the way back, my husband decided it would be best just to rent the car.  Which turned out to be the best idea, since we were, in fact, delayed by several hours.)

In any case, we had our bags packed, our friend came to help us get to the airport. We unloaded all the bags at curbside.  Managed to get in to the ticket counter.

But the agent would not print our boarding cards. And she was not going to let us on the plane.

Why, you ask?  Well, we (Americans) are allowed to visit Macedonia for up to 90 days. If our stay would be longer, then we need special documents.  What kind of documents did we have to show the agent that we would be allowed to stay in Skopje until the June date of our return ticket home??

Well, that was an excellent question. I had nothing. Well, I had my Fulbright grant paperwork. And I tried explaining that I was on a US State Department Program, that I had been working with the US Embassy in Skopje on all of the arrangements for my fellowship. That I was absolutely supposed to be in Skopje until June.  This was all very interesting to the agent, but there was absolutely no way she was going to issue my boarding pass.  She said that she and United Airlines were going to be issued steep fines if they were going to let me get on that plane when I had no documentation about this trip planned in excess of the 90 days.

Fortunately, we had gotten to the Tampa airport in plenty of time.  And fortunately, I have the skype application on my iPhone.  I have a pre-paid plan that lets me place calls to hard lines in Skopje. I had my contact at the US Embassy's direct line handy. And I was able to call him from phone while standing at the ticket counter.  And, he is the MOST RESPONSIVE staffer I have ever met.  So I had complete confidence that I would be able to reach him (if not immediately, then soon after). GAZMEND is simply the best.

I was able to reach Gazmend. I explained what was happening to me. And he sent me an email of a document from the Ministry that gave permission to scholars like me to enter Macedonia as a part of the Fulbright Program.  I was able to open this attachment from the email on my smartphone.

And the tickets were issued.

WHEW

For a time there it seemed like our journey was over before it began!

We still had time to enjoy breakfast with my husband before heading over to the airside terminal for our domestic flight to Washington Dulles.

Our nearest airport is Tampa. Which we love. It is actually my favorite airport. BUT, when flying overseas, we must first fly from Tampa to a "US Gateway" airport -- like DC, New York, Chicago, even Charlotte -- and then continue to Europe. And when we are flying to places like Skopje and Chisinau, we need to fly to a hub in Europe, and then on to Skopje.  This means we need to take at least 3 flights to get to our final destination.

Because we are flying as a part of a US Government program, our flights need to be compliant with the Fly America Act - and we need to fly on a US Flag Carrier. This means that we can't necessarily chose the shortest itinerary or the cheapest itinerary.  In this case, that meant that we were flying United, through Dulles and then Vienna, to go on to Skopje.

We had a delay in Dulles due to bad storms.  And this meant that we were going to be cutting it close in Vienna to make our connecting flight to Skopje. At one point they were looking at alternate itineraries for us that would have pushed back our arrival in Skopje by at least a day.

(This would have thrown off our meetings with our landlord, the rental agency, our first meetings with the US Embassy and events/meetings at my daughter's new school -- and all the other things we had planned for our first 12 hours after our arrival in Skopje)

We were trying not to panic that our arrival into Skopje (and all of the arrangements for our housing and for my daughter's school) was going to fall completely apart.

As it turned out, thanks to our running (with our rolling carry-on bags and our laptop cases) through the airport in Vienna, we managed to make it to our plane to Skopje before it took off.

We landed safely at the Skopje airport (about mid-day Friday), where our contact was waiting for us in a minivan - big enough to carry all of the luggage that I (sheepishly) said that we would have with us.

As it turned out - WE made the connecting flight in Vienna. But our luggage did not.  Our luggage was going to be enjoying a little holiday in Austria. 

I was trying not to freak out that some of my lecture notes/books might go missing if one of our bags got lost.

After I filled out paperwork in an office at the airport to describe our missing bags, we left, and just carried on with our busy agenda.  Meeting  with the landlord, visiting the apartment, going to the rental agency to sign the lease, stopping in the corner store in our building to buy supplies (like toothpaste and toothbrushes -- which were in our checked bags) for breakfast the next morning, etc.

Speaking of the next morning.  We had plans to leave around 7:15 am - so that we could arrive at my daughter's school by 7:45 am - for the monthly Community Time event.  At this event, my daughter would be introduced to the entire student body, would meet her new teachers. I would meet with the principal and her new teachers, take care of the tuition payments and all of the remaining paperwork items.

My daughter started panicking that she was going to be meeting everyone for the first time in her outfit that she had been wearing throughout the 3 plane rides and the 24-hour plus journey.  All she wanted to do was to take a shower and get changed.  (Me, too)  She was horrified thinking about going to her new school to make a first impression in that outfit.

I tried to calm her down.  It really was not dirty. No one but she and I knew how long she had been wearing it. It really wasn't so bad?! (But at the same time I understood completely how she felt, because all I wanted to do was to shower and get changed - and I didn't want to go to that meeting in jeans and a sweatshirt, either)

Still, this was all part of the learning process.  Part of the reason I wanted to take her with me to live overseas (again). Things don't always go as planned.  Things aren't always as you would hope they would be. But you have to IMPROVISE. ADAPT. OVERCOME.

We needed to be at those meetings the next morning (before we could do laundry, before stores would be open for us to purchase new clothes) and we were just going to have to make the best of this situation.

Meanwhile, we had made friends with Aneta and Toni - through my friend Julie - who were so helpful to us (we got to know each other via facebook and skype) as we were preparing to head to Macedonia (giving advice about schools for my daughter and answering all manner of questions) - had offered to take us to dinner when we arrived in Skopje.  We were so very tired from our journey. But we had to resist the urge to collapse in our beds.  Instead, we wanted to push ourselves to stay up until a normal bedtime. And, of course, we needed to eat dinner.  (We had arrived at lunchtime - but we were running around all afternoon without stopping to eat.) We were tired and hungry. And worried about our luggage and our meetings the next day.  I am not sure what kind of dinner companions we were -- but we had such a lovely time with Aneta and Toni. Sampling Macedonian cuisine for the first time. Sitting by a crackling fire. Enjoying the conversation. And so excited to be in Skopje and ready for our adventure to begin.

There are many things to love and to admire about Aneta and about Toni.  One of the things that we most appreciated that night - in addition to Toni's sense of humor and contagious laugh - was their talent for problem-solving.

Not content to see us miserable that we were going to have to go to those meetings tomorrow in the same clothes (!) and wondering if/when/how we were going to see our luggage again (that we had so carefully packed over many weeks to be sure we had just what we needed!), Toni, a former Minister of Transportation - knew just what to do.

He called the airport, found out when the next plane would arrive from Vienna (after midnight) and when/how we could insure that my luggage arrived in Skopje.

Aneta and Toni invited us back to their home - to rest and visit until the plane arrived after midnight. And, after confirming that the luggage arrived, they would take us to the airport to retrieve it!?! Can you even imagine this offer?!?! Part of us felt that we should decline. How could we possibly ask someone to take us back to the airport in the middle of the night to retrieve our luggage?!? (or even to host us for hours in their home until it arrived??!) What an imposition!!  And it was a work day the next day.   But we were so desperate. And Aneta and Toni's offer was so sincere, genuine, and generous - that we took them up on this extraordinary kindness.

We went back with them to their beautiful home on the side of the mountain, with lovely views of Skopje.  We visited for a bit - but  then they let us rest in the guest room until it was time to head back to the airport.  They have an SUV big enough for all the luggage.  We drove back to the airport. Whizzed back to the carousel. Retrieved our bags from the appropriate staffer. And off we went. The whole process took less than 5 minutes.  Then they dropped us off at our new apartment.

Since the driver was coming to get us at 7:15 am -- it would have been prudent to go right to bed. (It was probably about 1-2 am at this point)

But I could not help myself. I stayed up another few hours, unpacking as much as I could. In fact, I finished unpacking.  I went to bed around 4-5 am, knowing I needed to get up by 6:15 am. But I was determined to get things unpacked (and store all of the suitcases), so we could jump right in and begin our adventure. We were ready to roll up our proverbial sleeves and get to work. (And thanks to Aneta and Toni, we were able to get up the next morning, shower, get dressed (in clean clothes!), and get to all those meetings, ready to take on all of our new challenges and opportunities.)


I don't know how we can ever thank Aneta and Toni for what they did for us that night. In our evening together they transformed what would have been a difficult/blunt arrival into a smooth transition into our new life in Skopje.

about to board our first (of three) planes, wearing our down jackets to save room in our suitcases (and so that we would have them handy once we arrived in Skopje)

on the first leg of our journey - so excited!

Thanks, Heba, for the thoughtful gift! we ended up taking these colored pencils on every excursion during our fellowship

running, running, running to catch our plane in Vienna.  we made it, but our luggage did not

2 of our 3 flight were Austrian Air....my daughter is a big fan of the airplane gummies..."air jetties"

look at the mountains peeking out above the clouds... nothing like this in Florida!

snow!!

we were impressed by this mountainous terrain

about to land in Skopje

you can hardly tell we were traveling more than 24 hours at this point

watching American television in German (we later learned how to use the language button on the remote, so that we could watch American shows in English (rather than in German, Spanish, or French) in our new apartment

meeting our friends Aneta and Toni in person  for the first time....they introduced us to Macedonian cuisine...and I must say that a fire never felt so warm and cozy as it did that night

we had been traveling for more than 24 hours at this point - not sure how we were still awake at this point? or what kind of dinner companions we made? but this could not have been a more delicious dinner - or a more generous and warm welcome to Macedonia

my daughter played with this game on my phone during dinner...and made this image of her and Aneta

the view of Skopje from Aneta and Toni's verandah

and the view from the guest room

we felt right at home...THANK YOU SO MUCH Aneta and Toni for your Macedonian Hospitality!!

Skopje: Bushi Spa

At the first event I attended after moving to Skopje, I met a dentist who mentioned that she and her daughter (who was about the same age as my daughter) enjoy going on spa weekends to Bulgaria.

A spa weekend in Bulgaria?!

This sounded like a splendid idea. 

Ever since that conversation, the idea was in the back of my mind.

At another event, I mentioned to an acquaintance that we were thinking about planning a girls spa weekend in Bulgaria, and the response was "Why Bulgaria when there are so many nice spas in Skopje?  Why not the Marriott? Or Bushi??"

Well, at the time, we wanted to go on one excursion per month to explore the Balkan Peninsula.  Our goal was to visit all of the countries that bordered Macedonia. (Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece) 

We wanted to plan a weekend trip to Bulgaria  - and a spa weekend (in advance of the parliamentary elections there) sounded perfect. (See this blog post about Sandanski spa weekend)

When one of our friends -- THANKS, Gjyla! - later invited us to Bushi Spa & Resort in Skopje we jumped at the suggestion, as we had heard so many wonderful things about the spa. 

As it turned out, on the day that we visited the spa, we had been walking all over Skopje in the cold rain (that was the day we visited the Zoo - blog post about our visit to the zoo) -- and so the salt room, the Finnish sauna,the jacuzzi, and the heated sun chairs -- were all the more relaxing.

Now I can understand why someone would wonder why we would go to Bulgaria to do what one could do right in Skopje.  We are feeling very blessed that we had the opportunities to do both!

Here is the website for Bushi:  http://www.bushiresort.com/

Here is the Bushi facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/bushiresort/

the jacuzzi felt especially relaxing after our day walking around Skopje in the cold rain - thanks Gjyla!

these heated sun chairs are our favorite

Skopje: Our Neighborhood

I recently posted about our apartment in Skopje.  (See this blog post about our apartment )

Here I thought I would share more about our neighborhood.

Initially, I thought the apartment was a little too far from the heart of the City Center.  But after the nightly protests began - which lasted for 69 days (starting February 24 until May 15, 2017)  - I was glad we were close to the center - but not too close to the protests.  (More on that elsewhere on this blog)

We came to love our apartment and our neighborhood.

We had a convenience store in our building - which had a wide array of supplies.  Of course, this was where I was planning to buy our 5L bottles of water, but, after I hurt my foot, when I found the walk down to the Vero grocery store to be too long, we could actually buy everything we needed in that store - from laundry detergent and toilet paper to bread and milk.

The ladies who worked there took a liking to my daughter, who, even back in January, was asking them to unlock the freezers outside so that she could select an ice cream treat.  (Several  restaurants that had ice cream on the menu did not necessarily stock ice cream before June - and my daughter found this perplexing (and frustrating). For us, from sunny Florida, ice cream is a year-round treat.)  So there we would be, in January/February, out on the street where the ice cream freezers were, standing on the snow and ice in our down coats and boots, while my daughter would select a frozen treat. Anyway, it was nice to have this convenience store (with friendly staff) right in our building, so we were never far from basic necessities.

one of my daughter's favorite spots in our neighborhood - the ice cream freezer at the corner store (March 25)

Also in our building was a hair salon -- where I could get a blow out for 200 MKD (less than $4) and my daughter could get her hair washed and braided for 200 MKD.  We are really going to miss those stylists and their salon - and having such a salon in our building! (Here is a separate post just about that salon: blog post about the hair salon in our building)

I have already posted about the Red Hot Red salon, where we could get manicures for 300 MKD and massages for 600 MKD.  (see blog post about Red Hot Red salon)

We had a wonderful life in Skopje. Case in point: going out for dinner and a manicure (at Red hot Red) before finishing our homework

and being able to get a manicure at Red Hot Red for special occasions

About 2 blocks from our apartment was a taxi stand (across from Universal Hall), so, for the most part, we did not need to learn how to call for a taxi in Macedonian, as we could just walk down the street and hop in a taxi.  (We could get a taxi to most anywhere we needed to go for 100-150 MKD -- under $3)

(There seemed to be ample public transportation - including shiny new red double-decker buses that my daughter and I had intended to try - but we never did figure out the routes. It was so easy to walk everywhere, or to take a taxi when we had to go farther distances - that we never needed to learn how to use the public transport. We will have to keep that on our list of things to do on our next visit to Skopje.)

We were a close walk to a variety of grocery stores - but  most often we would go to the Vero at the other end of our street or the Ramstore when we were at CityMall.  I would bring one of my re-usable shopping bags with me whenever we were out and about - so that we could pick up what we needed (and potentially saving another trip to the store).  (See here for a separate blog post about our adventures at the grocery store: blog post about the grocery store)

We did not have a problem finding anything that we needed.  (There were even bookstores at the malls and in the city centers that sold books in English.)

We were a short walk to a shopping center called Ramstore Mall, a shopping center called Beverly Hills, the Vero (actually - there was one about a 5-7 minute walk, and a larger Vero about a 15 minute walk), the green market. And then we could take a taxi to Vero Jumbo mall, Capitol Mall, CityMall...

We had a nice new kitchen in our apartment, and we had a variety of grocery stores and green markets all around us, but, if I were to be completely honest with you, I did not spend a great deal of time cooking.

There was a nice cafe/restaurant next to our apartment building:

from our first visit back in February

we tried to order it every time, but we never did learn what was in a "sexy salad"

shopka salad is my favorite

a little disappointed when she was told they would not have ice cream until the summer...but the nutella crepe was yummy

towards the end of March, we were able to enjoy their outside seating

And down the street (about 2 blocks) - there were 2 nice bakeries (where we could pick up pastramalija or burek or any number of variations of bread/pastry stuffed with cheese and/or meat and/or vegetables -- and, of course, delicious desserts). For 40 MKD  you could get a satisfying and delicious meal.

some of the treats at the Silba bakery just down the street from our apartment

(March 11)

in the foreground you can see our pastramalija -- like a "Macedonian pizza"

And there was also a cafe that we called "the chicken place" - where we could get a "chicken steak dinner" platter that included rice and a cabbage salad. I am trying to remember now how much that platter cost.  120 MKD?  For about $2 you could have a delicious meal.  If we walked to the park, then we would pass this chicken place on the way home.  (There was a wall-sized mural of Paris Hilton eating a hamburger, which struck us as odd at first, but, we later accepted that she was eating dinner with us.)

(April 4)

the chicken steak dinner - our go-to quick service meal

If we had more time to walk to the city center -- then there were many nice restaurants from which to chose.  I think I have posted about a few of them before? You can go out to a nice restaurant in the city center - have appetizers, entrees, desserts, water, wine -- for a small fraction of what a similar meal would cost here in St Pete.

(January 30)

at the La Terraza restaurant in the city center -- celebrating my daughter's first day of school (January)

the pumpkin soup at Pelister restaurant -- I was sad when this was no longer in season

always macchaitos!

we had to resist the urge to keep going back to our favorite places -- here we are later in May discovering our new favorite Chinese restaurant

There were also several coffee shops near us.  I have already posted about Cafe Broz, for example, that is across from Universal Hall.

my penultimate macchiato at Cafe Broz

my very last macchiato in Skopje .... i heart you, too!

In sum -- we were close to everything that we needed. And all of the basic necessities (and luxuries) were affordable.  We had a wonderful life in Skopje, and we relished every minute in our new home with our new friends.

Skopje: Our neighborhood: the hair salon in our building

It was pretty amazing to have a hair salon in our building.

We could get my daughter's hair washed and cut for 200 MKD (less than $4) and a blow out for me for 200 MKD.  We could also get my daughter's hair braided or colored (using a shampoo in/out color package that we found at the DM pharmacy (like a CVS or Walgreens in the US).

Neither of the stylists spoke English, but it is remarkable how much can be communicated with gestures.  (and, invariably there were other clients in the shop who could help translate for us, especially when we were trying to arrange an appointment)

They were wonderful, and we sure will miss them!!

(It is time to get my daughter's hair cut again. Now that we are back in the US, it will cost us 6 times as much to get her hair done (and we will have to drive 15 minutes there and back) - and that won't include hair braiding -- just a wash and cut.  We were so spoiled!!)

the night we went out to Fashion Week Skopje

our first visit to the salon, back in early February

we saw packages of shampoo in/out hair color at the DM pharmacy (like a CVS or Walgreens) that my daughter wanted to try on her ends, for an ombre look