Sing! at the Cineplexx, Skopje City Mall

We wanted to see the movie "Sing!" for weeks before we left Florida....when we finally were able to make it to the theater in St. Petersburg, it was sold out.

On Friday night we headed to the Skopje City Mall Cineplexx -- and we were finally able to see the movie!! (in 3-D) We laughed, we cried, we danced.  The movie was in English, with Macedonian subtitles. If you click on the link below, you can see the movie trailer (also in English with Macedonian subtitles) to get the idea.

After, we went to our new favorite dessert place for a milkshake.

You can see the movie trailer here:
http://www.cineplexx.mk/movie/sing/

Macedonian Opera and Ballet

On Saturday afternoon we went to see an opera for kids. It was an opera (featuring woodland creatures) that taught kids about opera and included examples from well-known compositions (Carmen, La Traviata, Aida).  Even though all this instruction was in Macedonian, we could follow along.

The description of the opera on their website:

Сценариото на оваа музичко – сценска претстава има за цел да ја запознае, едуцира најмладата публика примарно со поимите во однос на оперската уметност, а воедно и со композитори, оперски пеачи, солисти, режисер, хор и сценарист.
Сценариото изобилува со многу комични моменти кои се случуваат додека шумските животни се обидуваат да создадат оперска претстава.
Музичкиот дел е исполнет со популарни арии од оперите: „Кармен“, „Палјачи“, „Аида“, „Травијата“, „Рита“ и многу други арии и инструментални композиции кои се со адаптиран текст во својство на сценариото.

More info can be found on their website

http://mob.mk/en/

And their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/makoib/

National Gallery of Macedonia * Национална галерија на Македонија

Right next to the SEEU Skopje campus is the National Gallery of Macedonia. 

The museum is housed in the Daut Pasha Hamam -- a 15th century Turkish hamam -- when Skopje was part of the Ottoman Empire.  According to my Bradt Travel Guide, "it was then one of the most magnificent of its kind, boasting 13 different-sized copper cupolas and varying degrees of hot steam rooms and cold baths separated for men and women."

We enjoyed the Vangel Naumovski exhibit, but, to be honest, the building itself is impressive.  Even if there were no paintings on display, it would be worth a visit.

You can see much better pics of the museum on their website:

http://nationalgallery.mk/

And here is the facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Nacionalna.galerija.na.Makedonija

As we make our way around Skopje, we can still see traces of the Colorful Revolution

passed this building on my way to the American Corner in Skopje

Here is an article from last summer that explains more:

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-01/macedonias-colorful-revolution

Macedonia's colorful revolution

This story is a part of

Women & Girls Hub

August 01, 2016 · 1:45 PM EDT

By Phil Moore

A colorful form of protest has spread in Macedonia. In this photo, Irena Stezijovska, middle, and Anna Krkulj, bottom, celebrate with other Colorful Revolution activists, after finishing a protest outside parliament in Skopje, Macedonia, on June 10,

Credit: Phil Moore/NewsDeeply

“These protests are our first victories as a society,” said Anna Krukulj.

Standing outside the Macedonian parliament building, the costume designer, 28, looked as though she couldn’t believe the scale of what she and other activists had achieved. Behind her, Skopje’s triumphal arch was pockmarked with countless blotches of paint, and in front of her, behind a row of police dressed in riot gear, the parliament building had been similarly decorated.
The road that stretched between the two, on which Krukulj stood, was covered by a Technicolor carpet of paint. Irena Stzeijovska, a 28-year-old theater producer, jumped on her cohort, a grin underlining the glittered band of paint masking her face.
For over two months, Krukulj and Stzeijovska have taken to the streets of the Macedonian capital almost every day, covering government buildings and monuments with paint. Dubbed the Colorful Revolution, their movement has rallied thousands of people — ethnic Macedonians side-by-side with ethnic Albanians — to demonstrate against government corruption and impunity.
A wiretapping scandal rocked the small Balkan nation last year when opposition leader Zoran Zaev began publishing excerpts of secret recordings that were made by the national security service which targeted up to 20,000 people, including government officials, journalists and religious leaders. The leaked conversations appeared to expose widespread corruption among ministers, including alleged vote-rigging and a murder cover-up. A report by the European Commission laid the blame at the feet of then-prime minister Nikola Gruevski and his government. A large anti-government protest was countered by a pro-government rally in May 2015, followed by talks between Zaev and Gruevski.
In an attempt to defuse the country’s biggest crisis since independence in 1991, the EU brokered an agreement that saw the appointment of a Special Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the wiretaps, and led to Gruevski stepping down in January, though he claims the wiretaps were fabricated by foreign intelligence services.
In April, President Gjorge Ivanov halted the investigations of 56 officials and businessmen charged with involvement in the scandal, effectively granting them preemptive pardons.
The following day, Krukulj got a call from Stzeijovska, who was at a huge protest in the capital; Stzeijovska yelled at her friend for not being there with her. The next day, Krukulj joined Stzeijovska in the streets for what would turn into more than two months of consecutive demonstrations, with the pair playing a major role in shaping the message with their unique method of protest.
“These are modern times, and we use color, not weapons,” Krukulj said as she sat in her home overlooking the capital. “If we take down the regime with color, that is art.”
While Krukulj provides the artistic direction, Stzeijovska has become the face of the movement. On the evening the pair — along with several other activists, young and old — repainted the road outside parliament, Stzeijovska had been riding in the back of a pickup truck headed toward that evening’s concrete canvas.
Recognizing her mask of glitter paint, people came up to her, hugged her and told her how much they appreciated what she was doing. “When people come up to me, I feel a responsibility,” she said. “Some of these people, they see you at every protest, and yes, you are a hero to them. They put their hope in you.”
But that fame comes at a price. Since starting their pigmented protest, both women claim they have been unable to work. Stzeijovska said each of the plays she was working on has been cancelled, and Krukulj said she lost four plays for which she had contracts. “The director pulled all the strings so I couldn’t be employed elsewhere,” she said. “Now, I have nothing to lose.”
And she has faith in the power of the people. “We are a small country with 2 million people,” she said. “People like me and Irena, we have the strength to overcome all obstacles.”
Bowing to pressure from the protests, President Ivanov rescinded pardons for 22 politicians on May 27, and, as the demonstrations continued, revoked the remaining pardons on June 6. The protesters are still waiting for him to address their other demands, notably the prosecution and imprisonment of those involved in the wiretap scandal. “We want politicians who will respect the law, and not work for personal gain,” said Mihaela Ivanova, 23, a law student who has been taking part in the protests from the start. “There is a lot of criminality and corruption in public institutions.”
Stzeijovska sees the Colorful Revolution less as a protest against the government, and more as a call to Macedonians to remember the power they have to make the change they want to see in their leadership.
“Our target is the citizens, not the government — however this ends, people have to vote and choose a government,” she said one evening in her apartment as she checked social media for the reaction to that night’s protest. “People have been taught to obey. [The government] has been cracking down on any free thought and free ideas. There is no free society; we are all that is left of it.”
This story first appeared in Women & Girls Hub, an initiative of NewsDeeply. 

Welcome to South East European University - SEEU - Tetovo Campus

Earlier in the week, I toured the South East European University's Skopje campus (where I will be teaching).

Today I visited the SEEU campus in Tetovo (the "main" campus), and I was able to meet with the Dean and Prodean of the Law Faculty to sort out all of the details of my course.

We also stopped by the IT department so I could get everything set with mySEEU account. I will need to learn how to use google classroom, but I look forward to using this platform. (We have this google classroom and google hangout capabilities with my myUSF account as well, but I have not used them yet. Typically I have everything in our LMS, which is Canvas. However, it will be good to learn how to use the google classroom and hangout - to add to my repetoire of communication and instruction with my students here in Macedonia and back in Florida.)

Elsewhere on this blog I have posted about the history and mission of SEEU. For here, let me reiterate that this university grew out of a desire to provide higher education opportunities to ethnic Albanians in their native language.

on the drive from Skopje to Tetovo

The campus seems large with a number of buildings. This is the Law Faculty.

with the Dean and Prodean of the Faculty of Law

Add caption

Donald J. Trump caught my eye in the stacks of the library

a quick bite at their cafe - which has a wonderful selection. you know I never turn down an opportunity to enjoy a shopska salad!