Men in Power

My day included meeting three powerful men in the realm of education and policies.  At 11:00 our first appointment was with Bzanko, a man (who happened to be a former student of Tanjas!) who is in charge of the auditing sector of the government.  Niecy and I spent a over an hour talking about the economy of Skopje, and all of the innovative ideas that are in the process to further improve their economy and educational progress.  His building was located in the  downtown center and we toured the facility at the end of our informative visit.  Our next visit was to the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.  We met with Professor Kochov, PhD., Dean of the school, along with Lazar Gechevski, Director of the Energy Agency of the Republic of Macedonia (pictured).  Both men had a plethora of information about the educational and economical status of Macedonia, and shared freely materials, along with their thoughts and intelligence on the subject.  Niecy and I were privileged to a tour of the school after our meeting ended.

     Once done, around 3:30, we were taxied to town center again, where we met up with Sarah, a gal from Tempe on a Business Exchange program (through the Tempe Sister Cities.).  We went to a highly recommended restaurant named Pelister, which definitely ended up with high marks in our book, as well.  We were quite hungry at this point in our day, and ordered two different pizzas to try (my favorite had cheese, spinach, black olives, and feta cheese), along with a Skopsko beer for me and Sarah, and a mint mojito for Niecy.  Yum, yum!
       Yas soom srekna! (I am happy!)

We all went walking over the old stone bridge to the other side of the city, into an old world bazaar.  I purchased my first souvenir there, a beautiful copper? metal sun magnet.  Continued to walk and take in the sites, picture taking along the way.  Here is a photo of a statue of Alexander the Great's dad.  Overall, a nice restful way to end our day.  Niecy was picked up by here host family, and Tanja picked up me and Sarah, and took her home.  Tanja was dead tired, as after we left her at the University, she was asked to join a task team of sorts, and ended up staying there until 7 pm!  So long day for her!  Home to just work on blog, and then I am off to bed.  School (scholo) early tomorrow! Ciao!