More Albanian Tidbits

Being the horrifically clumsy person that I am, I have had the chance to experience a few more unique Albanians "tidbits" that I never knew of before I moved here.

Two weeks ago, I was putting clothes away in my dresser drawer when I knocked into it and boom! it fell straight on my foot. OUCH. Immediately, Bledi instructed me to sit down and prop up my foot. Then, he proceeded to cut up an entire onion, wrap it in newspaper and wrap that around my foot followed by a plastic bag (to keep the onion in place). He told me that this is to prevent the bruise from getting black and blue. Wouldn't you know, I did have a painful bruise on my foot but it was only slightly discolored, so I guess you could say that this tactic worked.

Of course, today I was making Turkish coffee because we had some visitors. For all of you Americans, Turkish coffee is made in a tiny little pot placed on the stove burner. When I went to clean up, I touched my hand to the side of the stove and oops burned my hand. Again, ouch! So Bledi's mom, in addition to putting ice on it, put a slice of tomato skin. It actually really worked to keep the burn down.

Just a few things I bet you never knew!

Life Lessons

Marriage Lesson #1

If you let your husband do the laundry, your very expensive white Juicy Couture sweatpants may be magically turned into a nice shade of blue.

;)

I'm so excited...

Only 3 days until I am back in the States! Wow, I am so excited, I can't wait.

smile

"you make me smile like the sun
dance like a fool, forget how to breathe
shine like gold
oh, you make me smile...

don't know how i lived without you cause every time that i get around you
i see the best of me inside your eyes
you make me smile" <3
-uncle kracker

we've been married for... 4 months today!

sad.

Wow, I am really having a rough start to my week this week. :(

Both of my sets of students are really giving me a hard time, each for different reasons. It's depressing because I work so hard to do a good job teaching but unfortunately, things have been difficult lately.

I have been alone in the apartment for a few days, too. It's okay but I'm a little scared of being here alone seeing as I don't speak the language and such. Fortunately, we live in a nice, quiet, safe neighborhood of the city and I have a lot of close neighbors in case of an emergency. Being alone means I have to take care of any nasty stuff by myself that I would normally make Bledi do, haha, but oh well I'm a grown-up now, anyways.

Also fortunately for me I have some school friends to keep in touch with so at least I have someone to hang out with if I want to. And, on a bright note, Lindsey sent me some awesome magazines. It was a total surprise and now I have something to do besides watch movies!! :)

I did it!

Yay!
Today, I cooked dinner... all by myself!!! Now, as everyone knows, I am deathly afraid of raw chicken. I think I paid too much attention in middle school cooking class when we learned about e-coli and salmonella. But, today Bledi was at work and I was hungry so I tackled my fear. Bledi had bought a whole baby chicken downstairs at the market and some potatoes. I put on my rubber gloves and needless to say I touched the raw chicken, rubbed a nice oil/salt/pepper mixture on it and sliced some potatoes and into the oven it went for an hour and a half. And let me tell you... it came out so tasty! Woo hoo - I think I finally made Bledi proud. ;)
(The fact that I then proceeded to throw out my gloves and disinfect the entire kitchen afterwards is irrelevant, haha).
While we are talking about fears, we all know that I have had a lot of those over the years! Elevators, aquariums (yes, you can have a nightmare about aquariums)... but I have since gotten over those. However, for some reason there are a few things I am still deathly afraid of.
1. Mold! 2. Spiders 3. Heights
And for some reason, I seem to encounter numbers one and two incredibly often despite all of my efforts to the contrary. For example, Bledi's mother had never seen a spider in this apartment in 3 years... until I came here! Since then, we have killed about 5. Hmmm.
Also, just today only, I have found moldy bread and also that my backpack (of all things!) decided to sprout nasty green and white mold. Of course, I noticed it only after I had put it on my bed. Yuck.
I swear, if I wasn't so afraid of mold or spiders I would never encounter them!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!!!!!!

Thank you so much to Aunt Alice for sending us such a sweet and thoughtful package! We received a cute little Christmas tree complete with battery operated lights and ornaments in the mail today. It is a perfect size and it looks so festive in our house! I'm so happy to have some Christmas here in Albania. :)

Well...

that's just life...

Today I spent a good 5 hours teaching second graders how to do fractions. One kid that I tutor really doesn't like me. I don't think it is because I am me, but rather the fact that when he sees me, it means that he will be staying after school for two hours doing homework instead of going home and playing! However, that little 7 year old really can hurt my feelings! Amazing, isn't it. I know he's only 7 but I almost wanted to cry today because I work so hard for those kids, I prepare and prepare things for them to do after school that will enrich their learning and yet every time this kid sees me he starts to cry! I don't understand because I am nice, encouraging... I try to find fun educational activities for them...I compliment them, I tell them what a good job they are doing... and I help them! Without me, they would be much more far behind in school than they already are. But this kid, he has told two teachers -in front of my face! - that he hates me and I'm mean. Of course those teachers are my friends and they know I'm not mean, but it's hard to teach a kid who sticks his tongue out at you when you say "good job!". I guess the rewarding part of this job comes later?

Bledi started his new job on Wednesday. Woo hoo!!!!!!! The sad part is that it involves a lot of traveling to other parts of Albania. Next week he is leaving for 3 days to go to the South, so I guess I'm going to be lonely for a few days. But, luckily, I have a few friends so I am hoping I can invite them over or go out a few nights. I already have plans with one teacher to go out for coffee... so I guess it's a good opportunity to get to know some more friends while Bledi is gone.

And... only 14 days until I come home! I can't wait. I am so ready. It's been a fun but tough few months and I need the comforts of home for a while.

Albanian Independence Day

Something interesting that Bledi and I stumbled upon yesterday... this weekend is the celebration of Albanian independence. When we were walking past the center yesterday, we saw part of a small festival where traditional Albanian music was being performed. This festival is going on for 3 days, and so tonight we returned to take a few pictures and also some video. Unfortunately, the performers yesterday were more fun but still here are a few pictures of the singers and you can see the interesting traditional costumes they are wearing. The performances are taking place on the steps of the Albania National Museum.

Happy

Thank you to everyone who has sent Thanksgiving cards! It is so sweet and we love getting them. Thank you for thinking of us and we will be thinking of you on Turkey Day!
PS they also provide some nice seasonal decoration in our house! :)

The week in news.

Anybody have a "case of the Mondays"? Bledi and I certainly don't, seeing as we are lounging around as if it is still Sunday. Bledi finally starts his new job next week (fingers crossed!) as a computer technician / English/Albanian translator at a language center. And I have found myself two new tutoring students, but this time - they're adults! One young woman about my age who needs to learn English and another lady who wants to practice speaking conversational English. That is a total of 5 students if you have been keeping track.... I think that's enough for now! I am so lucky to have some connections here already, people at the school and at home who have been on the lookout for prospective students for me.
There were some protests in the city this past weekend. I think that they were protesting the previous election results, but I am not sure of the details. It was interesting to see, because the protesters had blocked off a huge part of the main street downtown with tents. Luckily, it went on with no real danger and nothing bad happened.
And by the way, this morning I made pancakes from scratch.... and they were really good!! ;)

Attempt #1

It all started because I was determined to cook dinner tonight.

I searched long and hard for a recipe online that looked tasty, simple to make and with few expensive ingredients. Our stove top works but unfortunately our oven does not (we left it on for half an hour to test it and it didn't heat up). So, as you can imagine, this severely limits what I am able to cook and besides the one time Bledi made soup, usually it is salad and some meat for dinner.

But today I was determined! I was going to cook dinner for my husband and it was going to taste good! (As we all know, if I cook, there is no guarantee about the "tasting good" part). So, once I found the perfect recipe, Bledi and I walked alllll the way to EuroMax, the closest supermarket in town, which is pretty far! We bought all the ingredients and then I was off.

I set out to cook Giada from Food Network's Mushroom Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter. Sounds good, right? Everything was fine until I tried to add the cold balsamic to the hot butter (OUCH!) and until I guessed about the amount of salt to add to the sauce (in my defense, we do not have measuring spoons). In the end, it came out alright, but wayyyy too salty and only slightly edible.

Let's call this cooking attempt #1 and maybe in a few days I will try again!

Interesting Fact

Interesting Albania Tidbit time!
There are people selling chestnuts on the side of the road. They roast them on little mini hibachis (and I mean mini!) with coal and then you can buy a roll of paper full of peeled ones for 100 lek (one dollar, haha). I will try to take a picture so you can see how cute it is.
Another one: Yesterday I was walking to the school and I saw, in the middle of downtown Tirana in Skenderbeg Square.... two ponies! They were just standing on the sidewalk. Hmmm.

In other news, my subbing at the school has ended for now. However, they did hire me as a tutor for two students! Now I will be going to the school every Tuesday and Thursday to help two second graders after school. Also, they have said they will definitely be in touch and call me if they ever need a sub. Good news!

I met some nice American women who are teachers at the school and they have invited me on a day-trip with them tomorrow to Durres, a beach about half an hour away from Tirana. There is a nice town with shops, etc so it should be a fun day trip. I will post pictures!

Update!

You may remember a while ago, when we first arrived, I posted some pictures of our house on a slideshow here on the blog. Well, like I have mentioned before, a lot of changes have taken place since then! So, I took a few "updated shots" to show you how much it has changed. :) My next steps here are to possibly do some painting followed by some new curtains (to match the orange couches!).

Also, today we got two fun packages in the mail! (Can you tell? Getting packages is always the highlight of my week!) Jackie sent me a huge stack of magazines including my favorite People and even the Food Network! I love the Food Network and now I can pretend I am watching it (haha). Magazines are such a treat for me since I can not find any in English over here. Mom also sent a fun package with lots of Thanksgiving decorations which I love. Thank you Mom and Jackie!!! You brightened my day!

Homesick

Although I am beginning to settle in here, I still feel homesick. It comes in waves and can appear at the strangest times. It isn't every day or even every week and sometimes it is stronger than others. Sometimes I feel like I can just go to my parent's house and pick up something that I forgot there when we moved... as if it is only a drive away. It can be as simple as craving a coffee at Starbucks. Other times, I miss everything and everyone at home. You don't realize how much you take it for granted that you can just go for a visit or go to a certain place until those people or that place are a 14 hour plane ride away.
Tonight the ladies of the building and their daughters invited me out for a nice dinner for one of their birthdays at a place not too far from our house. It was nice and I appreciate the gesture because it means a lot to find people who care about me here. I didn't expect to become very homesick during dinner, but the combination of the language barrier and the fact that the restaurant played American music was enough to almost put me in tears. Listening to the Beatles and eating with people who are all family except for me was too much for me and at that point I just wanted my family and my friends there.
I do like it here because this is where I belong now (at least for the time being) and I do have enough people and things here to keep me busy, but it's hard not to feel sad sometimes when I still feel that Connecticut is my home.

Rain, Rain Go Away....

.... Don't come back another day.

Original, I know.

I always said that I couldn't wait to move out of New England to get away from the snow. Well, here I am in Europe and apparently I have traded in the snow for rain. It seems to have rained every single day for a week plus now. At least I bought some sneakers last week so I won't have any more pairs of shoes just disentegrate on me. (Hour long walk home in the rain in cloth shoes = no more shoes).

The past week has been busy, busy, busy. I have been tutoring as well as working every day at the school as a substitute in first grade. I really enjoy it, and it has been a lesson for me in teaching, for sure. If I want to be a teacher I have a lot to learn! The kids are great, but it is hard to stand in front of a class and teach as well as try to control their behavior at the same time.

Here are a few shots that I took off of our balcony tonight just as the rain started to clear up. You can see my laundry that I have been trying to dry for three days now..... no, there are no dryers in Albania. I guess you could say we have "gone green". The rain is making this process a little bit more difficult, it's a good thing we have more towels.

Disgusting.

Well.
I will save you the disgusting details, but today we discovered a nasty worm infestation living in one of our kitchen cabinets. For weeks we have been wondering where the tiny worms on the ceiling have been coming from and now we know.

I am officially moving myself into a bug-free plastic bubble.

At least the neighbors got treated to some nice ear-piercing, top-of-my-lungs screaming today. :)

A Walk in the Park

Today was another lovely day!

It all started with a walk (again). We were out and about and decided to walk to the Tirana National Park. Quite a walk, but we were having a great conversation about a book I am reading about Albania back in the 60's when it was still communist. One of our friends in the building, an American missionary, gave it to me to read and I find it very interesting. So, the walk actually seemed quite short. :)

The park is pretty, very simple, just trees and pathways. It is built around a large man-made lake at the base of Dajti mountain. The mountains surrounding the city really are beautiful. Sometimes, on the bus, or walking I catch a glimpse of them and I am reminded that where we live is so unique and pretty in that way.

Here are some pictures from our walk and I hope you can enjoy the views as much as we do in person.

A night out

Happy Halloween everyone!
Even though it is indeed Halloween today, you wouldn't know it here in Tirana. Dressing up is not a big thing here, although some people go out to clubs and wear masks and such. So far the only decorations we've seen have been a few coffee places putting up spider webs and such.
The past few days have been less than exciting, Bledi and I have been taking turns having colds and being sick. I'm pretty sure that I am the one aquiring them by my various jobs involving small children and then I pass them on to Bledi. Oh well, he gets well quicker than I do, anyway.
Today was a beautiful fall day here so we took a nice long walk around the city. I have to say, this is one of the things that I really do like here- just being able to go outside our house and walk around and find amusing things to do. At the end of our walk we sat down for a coffee at a nice place with an outdoor fountain and we took some pictures.

How not to boil an egg.

Don't tell this to my husband.

Apparently, the correct way to boil an egg is not to boil a pot of water and then gently place an entire carton of eggs into the boiling water.

ew.

I may or may not have learned this from experience today....

and now I am on my way downstairs to buy some more eggs.

New Sink.... woo!

So we have some plumbing issues in our house (I guess this is the fun part of being a "grown-up"? haha). So luckily today we had a very nice plumber friend come over to fix our kitchen sink ... since I have been washing the dishes with cold water for a few weeks now and it also leaks all over the kitchen.
Anyway I never thought it would be very exciting but that's when they decided to cut off our sink with an electric saw (or something, i don't know too much about tools, anyway) and there were sparks flying all over our kitchen! I'm talking like major fireworks, it was pretty funny. By the time I grabbed the camera they were smaller but still I figured that they are pretty amusing and so I will share them with everybody.
Oh, the adventures of owning a home!

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Cold.

Lately I have been feeling sick with a cold and today, I had to walk all the way from school to home which took me about an hour - in the pouring rain! I don't think that this helped my cold much, but I am so lucky that Bledi has been taking very good care of me. He made me some soup, makes me tea, and brings me dinner.... :)

Today we got some more mail - letters from both grandmas. It is so nice to get mail here, it really makes us happy to see something from home and that people are thinking of us.

Fall is Here!

Things here have been very busy lately (which is good for us!). I began my tutoring job, which is going really well so far. I also got another job as a long-term sub at MIST for a 1st grade class room (which I am hoping can turn into a permanent job for me - fingers crossed!!).

Thanks to Nick and Eva, we moved a lot of old furniture out of the house and now we are using theirs. It has been quite the mess moving everything around but the house is starting to come together and we couldn't be happier about having some nice new furniture!

Mom and Dad sent me a nice package :) and I was so happy to see some Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations in there!! I have put some of them up and now it really feels like Fall to me. Plus, Dad threw some leaves from our lawn in there... it wouldn't be fall without them. Too bad Bledi is in Albania and can't help rake (oh yeah and me too... I'm a good 'supervisor').

Doing the simpleist things....

The simpleist things here are a lot more challenging than at home. For instance, we need a new fixture for the bathroom - just something like you would pick up at bed bath and beyond - to hold our shampoo, etc. (everything is everywhere right now.) I also need some more winter clothes since I didn't have so many to pack and it has gotten FREEZING here overnight leaving Bledi and me both with colds.

So instead of going to the nearest store, we had to walk, walk, walk to Skenderbeg Square (i'm not sure maybe a 15-20 minute walk), wait for the free bus, get on the bus, drive for 10 minutes to the mall.... and then we decided we were too cheap to buy anything anyway! Although I did manage to buy one nice black sweater.

Today the Director of MIST called and I am happy to report that he wants to meet with me next week to discuss some long-term subbing at the school. :)
Also Bledi has a new job prospect as well, if everything goes well I will be sure to let everyone know about it.

A day in Kruja

Kruja is a beautiful town located in the mountains of Albania, about a half an hour's drive away from Tirana. It is an ancient town, more than 500 years old (to my knowledge) that we had the pleasure of visiting today. Kruja is the town of Skenderbeg, an Albanian hero, and here you can find the ruins of his castle, located up on a mountain side.
We walked around this small town, saw the old pazar (a shopping area), saw the ruins, and the gorgeous view of surrounding Albania, including a wonderful view of the Adriatic Sea far in the distance.
There is a very interesting and lovely museum built here in the place where Skenderbeg's castle once stood. We took our time to look around and I learned a lot about Albanian history.
We really enjoyed our day here, especially the view. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of Tirana. We also got a lot of walking in - we are really beginnning to love walking from place to place.

I am a wifey!

Here is the salad that I made all by myself today for us for dinner! I was pretty proud of myself. Now I just need to tackle something a tad more difficult!

forced to excersise

A broken elevator means climbing 6 flights of stairs all day. I am lucky for the forced excersise :). Maybe Albania is going to be good for me!!

PS also today I got a dye job and a hair cut at a very nice salon... and it cost $10! Pretty exciting, especially since my new job is only just starting.

A look into our world

So I thought it would be fun (at the suggestion of dad) to give everyone a glimpse of our apartment and what it looks like inside. Its probably the closest you are going to get unless you want to come visit us (which we would LOVE!!).

Please keep in mind when you see the photos that this home is a work-in-progress and I plan on doing a lot of redecorating. This is just the beginning but still our home is very cozy. (Rachel this means you, you interior designer you). :)

Hi from Albania

Hi everybody!
Bledi and I are having fun here in our new home, Albania!
Just an quick update on everything we have been doing so far....

We are living at our home in the capitol city of Tirana. So far we have been wandering the city (by walking!) and learning our new surroundings. The streets here are always crowded with people and the city is never quiet. We are having a lot of fun visiting Bledi's old friends and having a lot, a lot of coffee!! For those who are not familiar with Albania, almost every other store on the street is a small coffee shop and everyone likes to sit down and have an espresso ( I drink macchiato - espresso with a dollop of froth) at all times during the day! You almost never see an empty coffee place here.

I have been going on a lot of interviews for jobs and I finally found one as a private tutor for a young student at a private school here in the city. I will be tutoring him every single night during the week and it sounds like a great opportunity for me to get some teaching experience. I am hoping to find some more students, as well, so I can tutor them out of our house.

Well that is all for now but soon I will post some video so that everyone can see what Albania looks like!