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.