Some quotes from "Blowing my cover" by Lindsay Moran

Other than being a really entertaining book about a woman who spent a few (surprisingly dull) years working as a CIA operative, this book was also great for the various all-too-familiar scenarios discussed that you can only really appreciate if you've put in time in eastern Europe.

p. 194

"As much as they despised the Albanians, Macedonians exhibited almost equal antipathy toward the Greeks. Their communal ire toward their southern neighbor seemed to me a modicum more rational, though. Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, when Macedonia became an independent nation, Greece had refused to recognize the name 'Macedonia' because a small portion of northern Greece bears the same name. The new country thus had been forced to adopt the altogether uninspiring title 'The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia', or FYROM, to which most Macedonians understandably objected.
'Can you imagine?!' an enraged Macedonian cabdriver once demanded of me. 'If you are from the Former British Colony Known as America? How would you feel then?!' "

p. 226 [at her Macedonian boyfriend's apt]

"The scene outside was about as miserable as one could imagine, the brilliantly shining sun almost mocking the ugliness below. There was nothing but barren ground, scavenging dogs, a battalion of battered-looking bloks, and women in housedresses beating the bejeezus out of rugs -- as if their sorry lots in life were the fault of the floor coverings. Some of them just stared from the balconies like guards perched in towers, overseeing a dusty prison yard below. Across the way, an old man in a white wife-beater tank top looked at me and spat seeds onto the ground. I imagined myself from his perspective. Doesn't she have some rug to beat, he must have wondered. Or some rice and meat to roll up in a cabbage leaf?"

p. 245 [re border crossing on a bus in eastern Europe]

"We sat for close to an hour on the Bulgarian side of the border, waiting for our passports to be checked. When the border gendarme finally returned, he handed over the whole stack of documents to some random person seated in the front row. During the ensuing disorderly redistribution of the passports, there was a stir of disbelief among the smugglers when Emily and I were exposed as Americans. A mob formed around the person who'd made the discovery, and every other passenger then pawed and scrutinized our passports, admiring their superior quality and appearance."