Eindrücke und Meinungen einer jungen Europäerin
A few weeks ago I arrived to the Republic of Macedonia, “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” in international documents, and in just a few days I will be leaving from the Republic of North Macedonia. Have I changed countries? No, of course not. But the country has changed its name. It all started last year …
Before I packed my bags in the beginning of the year to live a few weeks in Skopje, I was suddenly in the grip of a grand fear. A thoroughly irrational, panicky part of me was to 100% certain that I would not be able to live and work in Skopje without this leading to …
Oops, I did it again – I am back. For five short weeks I live – again – in Skopje, capital of Macedonia (the Republic of North Macedonia as of most recent). This time the country is not neck deep in state capture and national crises (read more on my blog about the deadlock in …
Unlike the other political updates I gave from Macedonia this one is not well-researched, it does not aim to give background. It simply is a description of the situation in Macedonia at this moment.
The other day I was going back home in a taxi. I was feeling sentimental right there, being stuck in the chaotic after work rush hour in the crowded streets of Cair and I sighed heavily enough to catch the taxi driver’s attention.
Over the last weeks the amount of flags in the city centres of Skopje and other Macedonian cities has increased excessively. Red-yellow scraps of cloth flutter at street lights, stickers are glued to front doors, from kitchen windows falls the Macedonian sun, the flag waves proudly in the wind at every public building, the city …
I am a young German woman who has freely decided to live in Macedonia. “But why?!” I get this question every time when I meet a new person. The young people who I meet want to leave. The life in Macedonia is tiring, it exhausts all their energy and it takes away their joy in …
The German radio show “Deutschlandfunk” reports from Macedonia this morning. “Die Zeichen stehen auf Eskalation.” [The signs are pointing to escalation]. The country has been in continous political crises for the last months and years, but the crisis peaked again when the president G. Ivanov – after weeks of delaying the process – refused to …
While Macedonia struggles to form a government two months after the parliamentary elections and while every day articles with headlines like “Macedonia in Crisis” fill my Facebook feed with drama, I am sitting lethargically in the sun during my lunch breaks and wrinkle my forehead.
It’s been a week since I have arrived in Skopje and I have the first successes to celebrate: