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travel
peace corps time warp
By Austin Fast, MAK15 Turns out the joke’s on
I’ll be honest: I struggle to recall most infor- me. After spending six
mation from the blisteringly paced blur that weeks in the United States
was our Pre-Service Training. Most of it was this holiday season, I’ve
buried amidst the three-foot tall stack of pa-
pers on my host family’s desk that I was some- discovered Peace Corps
how expected to miraculously teleport to my Macedonia dropped my
permanent community along with my already pop culture knowledge
stuffed 50-pound bags. However, one conver- into cryogenic storage
sation I had during PST over coffee in Veles
with MAK13 technical trainer Matt Tschabold circa September 2010.
will never escape my memory.
I laughed, convinced he was joking. In Octo-
“So, who’s this Lady Gaga?” Matt asked a fel- ber 2010, Lady Gaga was at the height of her
low MAK15 trainee and me. “She wears boxes game just a month after donning an outfit en-
on her head or something?” tirely composed of raw meat for the 2010 MTV
Video Music Awards.
Turns out the joke’s on me. After spending six
weeks in the United States this holiday sea-
son, I’ve discovered Peace Corps Macedonia
dropped my pop culture knowledge into cryo-
genic storage circa September 2010.
Television shows like Breaking Bad, NBC’s
Parks and Recreation and Mad Men
are lost on me. I’ve never seen them,
nor do I have the remotest idea into
which topics they delve. Plus, who
the hell is Honey Boo Boo and why
hasn’t she been locked up yet?
In news and current events, I’m em-
barrassed to admit as a journalist that
my knowledge is equally dreadful.
Some big election apparently took
place in November? OK, thank-
fully I’m not that bad, but one
of my former college pro-
fessors chuckled when
I had never heard of
Nate Silver. For those
uninitiated few, Silver
is a blogger and statisti-
cian who correctly pre-
dicted the winners of
16 – Pauza Magazine
16 – Pauza Magazine
