James Bond, Johnny Walker, and Turkish Toilets

Dad’s visit

So after much discussion on the least complicated way to get here from Athens with a month’s worth of luggage, my dad arrived by bus at 5 am on the 9th of October. Ben and I were waiting and waiting, but the bus never came. Finally, Ben said he better go see if he was at the other bus station in town. Sure enough, Ben found my dad sitting and having coffee with the bus driver, and some other guys. Although we told my dad to go to the back of the bus, to stretch out and to sleep, he sat in the front and cheered on the bus driver as he cautiously took the unending mountain curves. He yelled out, “James Bond” and the bus driver ate it up. He even was able to request some of Michael Jackson’s music. Yes, the Albanians love Michael. So after Vinny caught up on his sleep, we had to do laundry…again. A trend must be starting, or my guests really enjoy seeing how we wash our clothes by hand. No garlic this time, but now Vinny’s cruise clothes were covered in blue ink from his bleeding blue bag! Luckily, it all came out, and we did not have to go to the Gabi (the second-hand store). He was dying to go and get more clothes that he did not need!

Afterwards, we showed him the town and sampled Albanian food at a few restaurants. With Vinny’s charisma we ended up meeting another 29 people in town…at the very least. He enjoyed speaking Spanish to them even if they spoke fluent English. And he told the Italian nun that we work with that the Italians were so much better at art and food, etc than the French. To emphasize his point, he used the gesture where one places the backside of his/her hand under their chin and flicks it dismissively. It was really fun trying to translate that for her! He also enjoyed coming up with the most complicated story he could conjure, so that we would have to translate it into Albanian. Most of the time, we said, My dad likes it here very much. It is beautiful here. On one of our evening walks, we walked away from the busy part of town to see if an Italian restaurant was open. We had seen it advertised on the local channel and wanted to try it out. Although it was closed for the season, the owner was inside watching television and she let us in to see it. It was beautifully decorated, and she even turned the fountain on for us. She told us that her husband did all of the stonework, and the paintings in the restaurant. On our way back, there were two cars drag racing, and trying to spin out. Although the street is less busy than other main ones, there are still people and cars that use it consistently. I don’t remember clearly because my heart was in my stomach, but the one car spun out pretty close to where we were walking and just missed a parked car by a few feet. As it was happening, I tried to get as close as I could to the building on the sidewalk, but I only managed to bang into some corrugated zinc that was being used as a fence which made a loud and dramatic noise. After I stopped shaking, we were able to enjoy a nice dinner. It just scares me to think about the young and stupid boys that do this for a kick while not thinking about the small children walking along the street, or how they could lose control and kill themselves or another oncoming car. After we got home, we could hear the same guys doing the racing again since the street is just below our apartment.

Before Vinny left, we did a trip to Butrint, and basically had the ruins to ourselves which was pretty neat.

On Friday, we saw my dad off on the 7am Athens bus. He later wrote and said he talked with a young Albanian who had been living in Boston, and a South African for the whole 9 hour trip. That next day, he took off for his month long cruise. That next week we caught up on our sleep, as Vinny's sweet snoring left us a little tired. One night during his stay, we awoke to a thud. The thud was my dad. Yes, he fell off of the couch and was lying on the floor. Right now he is at sea in route back to Ft. Lauderdale. I hope he managed to stay in his bed on the ship ;)


First Day of School

After finally getting word on the 11th that school would start the 12th, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard that there were 35 English students registered for the first year, but I had no idea what my teaching assignment was supposed to be. My colleague told me to be there at 8:30, and when I arrived, I saw that the mayor, the news, and all of the staff, and students were standing outside dressed to the nines. There was music playing softly in the background, and there were many speeches offering the teachers and students a successful academic year. After the formalities, the students were told to go to their respective classrooms, and the staff was instructed to go to the library. After following the other teachers in, I saw that everyone was taking a shot of Johnny Walker, or Baileys. Before I knew it, I too, had a shot in my hand. I downed it, and thought what was I worried about? After the shot, we went to the classroom, and my colleague talked to the students for 10 minutes in Albanian, most of which I did not catch at all. I, then, introduced myself and he then called it a day. He then told me I would meet with them the next day for 2 hours. He gave me the book, and told me I would be teaching Spoken English.

Somehow, I got through the first week, and am now sailing through week 4. I was also assigned two hours everyday with the second level. They are studying text analysis which sounds more fancy than it is. It is basically practice in the four essential skills for preparation for the Cambridge First Certificate Test, our equivalent of an English proficiency exam. I also teach beginning and advanced English courses from 3-5 everyday. I think it is finally payback time for all that free time on the beach this summer. The classes are going well, and I am enjoying meeting more people, and feeling a little more integrated here. However, the planning is still a big fat pain, and I don’t really like it anymore than I remember last time I taught. I also need to study English grammar since the Albanians know the 0, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and mixed conditionals better than me.

Language Conference

Wednesday the 27th, we had to travel to Pogradec, a beautiful town located on Lake Ohrid. The lake partly belongs to Albania, and partly to Macedonia. Apparently, the Macedonian side has a lot more to offer in terms of infrastructure. All of the group 12 volunteers had to meet for a language refresher. We basically had 3 ½ days of Albanian lessons with our language teachers from training. The hotel was nice, and the food was pretty good, but I can’t say I came away speaking that much more Albanian. Both Ben and I have tutors now, and we do about 2 hours of lessons every week. So slowly, we are making more progress in that department. We also took a group trip to see Enver Hoxha’s (the former communist dictator) villa. It was pretty nice, and today most young Albanians go there to get some wedding pictures taken. On the way back home, we stayed over in Elbasan (our training city) and went to a Halloween Party hosted by the 2 volunteers that live there. There were some very creative oufits, and I felt a little out of place not being in costume. At the last moment, I taped some smarties to my pants and said I was smarty pants, but that didn’t really go over too well.

On Sunday, we made the long haul back home. By Tuesday, I was sick with a sore throat. I knew I was bound to get something since so many of the volunteers were sick at the conference. By Friday, I was feeling better, but I had passed it onto Ben. On a brighter note, as I was sitting here typing, I got a text that we have been invited to dine with the American ambassador for Thanksgiving! I must go plan, as I have a class in an hour. Please keep writing, and sending pictures. Miss you all! PS- can’t wait to meet my new little niece or nephew!!!!

My likes and dislikes thus far:
I like…
-Persimmons! I may have had this fruit before in Nicaragua, but it was a completely different color. Here they look like orange tomatoes; there they looked like brown kiwis.

-When my student yells, “take it easy” when my class gets too noisy.

-That spinach is in season.

-Seeing the excitement in my students’ eyes when they have answered something correctly.

-That one of my male university students admitted he enjoys cooking.

-The smell of expresso that comes from almost any café.
-Dixie, the dog that lives outside of our apartment building.
-That some of the Peace Corps volunteers were Turkish toilets for Halloween!

I don’t like…
-The superior attitude that some of the teenagers here have.
-That three different men have told me it looks like I am married to a “young boy.” Apparently Ben looks like he is 19, and I look like I am old enough to be his mother.
-That it is getting colder, and the laundry takes days to dry.
-That one of my students suggested “Twin Towers” as his team name while playing a game.
-That the students have previously learned that it’s ok to shout “shut up” or even worse.

-That women rarely practice sports or exercise. A foreigner that runs attracts a lot of attention.

-The smoke-filled cafes.

-That Albanians have told me they don’t understand English after speaking my best Albanian. Um….that wasn’t English!
-That my pants are getting tighter!