Holiday Weekend

Well, our 5 day weekend has turned out to be more work than relaxation. lol :) Thursday we were pretty much busy all day. First we had to run a few errands to make sure we had everything we neede for cooking the Thanksgiving meal. Once that was taken care of, we got right down to business.

Well, sort of. See, we were going to shower in the morning to start our day like normal, but since our water works a little differently here, we had a complication. First of all, when we're not in the shower, we have to turn the hot water heater on so that the water gets hot for when we do need to take a shower. Then, when we need to take a shower, we have to turn that switch off and turn on the switch for the water pump so we have enough water pressure. When both switches are on at the same time, it uses too much electricity, which causes problems later on. Anyway, when Emily went to shower in the morning, she realized she's forgotten to turn the pump back on after her shower the day before. So we had to turn it back on and wait a few hours until we had some hot water. To pass the time, we started cooking instead.

Emily made pie crust while I peeled potatoes. Then she finished the whole pumpkin pie and I was still peeling and cutting potatoes. lol But by the time the pie was completely cooked, all the potatoes had been cut and peeled, ingredients for the next items had been set out, our dinner clothes had been laid out, we washed some dishes to be ready for round 2 of cooking, and had a snack to satisfy our tummies until the feast. :) After that was all done, the shower was ready. So we showered, and got mostly ready, then went back to the cooking.

I made the mashed potatoes, from scratch, made my right arm stronger than my left in the process. Haha! :) I also made stuffing (of the Stove Top variety, straight from the Sates thanks to Pastor) and then I made gravy from scratch. Emily made biscuits froms scratch and then heated up the green beans and got the cranberry sauce all set. In between all this cooking we took things down stairs to Pastor's apartment where we'd be eating. His apartment is right below ours but it has a different layout. It's more open so it has more room for socializing. We took down wine, water, juice, wine glasses, dessert plates, whipped cream for the pie, napkins, and a few other little items. Then we came back up, finished the cooking, finished changing clothes, and took all the food down to the other apartment.

It looked so good and smelled so good, too! We didn't have turkey because of the hassle it would have been, so Emily made a run to Mr. Chicken to pick up 3 small rotisserie chickens. They were quite tasty! Aida was with us and helped us set up everything so then all we had to do was wait for Agron and Vitori to arrive. When they did, we poured wine and water or juice, sat down, gave thanks, and toasted to Thanksgiving. We had an excellent meal and excellent company to share it with. Emily and I are truly blessed to have an Albanian family to celebrate our American holiday with us. What a gift to be thankful for!

After wards, our kitchen was a mess and so was Pastor's. Emily headed up to our place after the guests left and we took everything back upstairs. She started in on our kitchen while Pastor tackled his dishes that we'd used and I started in on the floors, counters, sticky spots, and linens. Amazingly, the clean up process went quite quickly! But after it was all said and done, Emily and I were ready to just relax for what was left of the rest of the night. (We ate around 6:30 since our non-American guests still had to work that day as Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here.)

I promised to document the process and document I did. Here are the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=125600102&k=RVE35WV5T54M5FCGYK23RW


The best part of me though was that I got to talk to my family on Skype. :) Mom, Dad, and David were all home so I got to talk to them and see them all at once. What a hoot! We are so funny sometimes! I'll admit it. I think my family is funny. :) We had a good chat and had lots and lots of laughs. It was like we were all in the same place. I'm so thankful that I can still communicate with them from so far away!

So far our 5 day weekend has flown by! No joke. It's like we blinked and now we only have one day left. Friday we did some work around here during the day and then met Aida because she wanted to take us to this place she likes that makes crepes. So we went there and they make every kind of crepe imaginable. There were dinner ones with "real" food fillings. Think of an omlette but substitute a crepe for the egg. Then there was another gigantic assortment of dessert ones. We all opted for the dessert ones. Aida got chocolate with crushed cookies, Emily got chocolate, crushed cookies, and Bailey's Irish Creme, and I got white chocolate, hazelnuts, and Kahlua. They were all quite tasty! We also played a game of Settlers of Catan while we were there because we'd brought it with us. I won again. :) That board really is lucky for me! lol

Saturday was church, followed by Christmas practice with the kids, followed by our first MMM. The MMM (Mary and Martha Meeting) went well. We only had two girls who came, which was a little disappointing, but it was a good start. The weather was rainy and that always makes attendance low. Most people have to walk, bike, or bus here so when the weather is yucky no one really goes out unless they have to. Emily did a little devotion about Mary and Martha help explain whey we gave our group that name. Then I got them started on the project. We made invitations to the Christmas Program. We made enough for each student's family to have one, plus a few others to share with people. It was fun! We talked while we did the craft and listened to Christmas music and ordered salep from the bar kafe next door. So we even had a warm drink to enjoy while we worked. :) Salep is something that we do not have in the States but definitley should! It's a white drink that's creamy, well thick really, that is best "drank" with a spoon. It tastes a lot like rice pudding and has a very warm and cozy effect. We finished the project, cleaned up, and let the girls pick their favorite invitation to take home to their families.

After that, we went back home and crashed. We curled up on the couch and watched movies from 4pm until around 8pm. Then we did a little facebooking to check people's Thanksgiving pictures, and decided it was time to decorate our apartment for Christmas.

It's not what you're thinking. Albanians don't observe Christmas the way we're used to. It was a communist country for many years and during that time, people couldn't celebrate Christmas. Celebrating the New Year is the most popular and important holiday here. That is the time when everyone gets together with family and that everyone goes out to celebrate. They even have two full days off--New Year's Day and January 2. From what I understand, there really aren't any Christmas traditions here. That seems so sad to me! Emily said that last year it seemed like any other regular day with people working and going about their business like a normal working day. Kids don't have school and I guess some families celebrate with a meal at their house. But I'm told people don't have Christmas trees. I have no idea about Christmas presents. I'll keep you posted on whatever traditions (or lack thereof) I come across as the day draws near.

Therefore, our Christmas decorations are rather limited. We have a teeny tiny fake tree that we put up and added our 4 ornaments to. The only reason we had any ornaments is because Mrs. Ahlers left them for us. I also added a the keychain that Dorien gave me upon my arrival in Tirana. Then I got the bright idea to use earrings as ornaments! lol :) They were the perfect scale for our tiny tree and I won't wear them over the break. Then we put out some Christmas cards Emily had saved from last year. We also put out a Christmas tin that she had and an advent calendar that my mom sent us. Emily had an advent calendar that Laura's parents had given them last year. Since it's magnetic, we put that one on the fridge. Then we found a little snowman snowglobe and put that by the tree. Emily also got a mini Charlie Brown Christmas tree and the pocket sized versioin of the "A Charlie Brown Christmas" book in her care package from Laura so we put those out too. We have a set of lights but have yet to figure out where or how to put them up. Cement walls really make decorating a challenge! Nailing is such a pain because the wall chips away.

Anyway, that brings us to today. We are now having English services on Sundays at church during the weeks that Pastor is here. So we did that this morning, even though it was just me, Emily and Vitori. I playing the piano. Mostly, that just means that I plunked out the right hand part of the liturgy songs and the hymns. But Pastor let me pick the hymns for this service. :) He just said to pick advent hymns so I picked, "Lift Up Your Heads, You Mighty Gates," "On Jordan's Banks The Baptists Cry" and "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" because I like those ones alot. :) That was fun to pick the hymns!

After that, we again had Christmas practice with the kids. It was a little hectic, but they are starting to get pretty good at the songs. They rush them a bit, which makes playing along a little difficult sometimes, but they'll get it and so will I. I even practiced piano for an hour when I got home. If I have to learn 5 new hymns, I need to practice!!!

Tonight we had game night again downstairs at Pastor's house. This week we played Ticket To Ride. No one else was in the mood to play Settlers after my 3-peat last week. Hee hee! ;) But this week Pastor won all three games. Poor Emily! lol I guess next week will be her lucky week.

Tomorrow we're planning to do some Christmas shopping in the morning. We want to get our friends here something little. It won't be anything expensive and we're going to split the costs so it will be fun to browse. However, Albanians shop differently than Americans. Whereas Americans go into a store and browse until they find what they want, or simply go in a store just to look without buying anything at all, Albanians are quite the opposite. When you go into an Albanian store, people ask you what you want. And they follow you around. You can't really just browse and look. Albanians only shop when they know what they want. It's annoying to me and Emily because for one, we don't always know where to get things so we need to look just to find out if they even have what we want. Secondly, we don't know how to tell people we're just looking. Thirdly, sometimes we don't even know the Albanian words for what we're looking for. And fourthly, sometimes we really just want to look around and browse and enjoy seeing everything. But just as the culture here seems to be generally blunt and to the point, so shopping is here as well.

After that, we plan to grab a bite for lunch and once again hit up the Monday 12:30 matinee at the movie theater because it's the cheapest movie of the week and it's a good quiet 2 hours of downtime during the middle of the day. The new James Bond movie "Quantam Solace" is playing. See? We're not too awfully far behind the States. However, the movies here are pirated, but I didn't do it, so it makes no difference to me. lol :)

Then we'll just finish up the day getting ready for the rest of the week. Mostly we'll be planning lessons, but I think we might manage to end the 5 day weekend by playing a game or curling up with some tea and watching a movie. Maybe we'll even go to bed early since it's been such a busy "vacation" from work! lol I'll let you know how that turns out. ;)

Thankfulness

Tonight is the beginning of a 5 day weekend for Emily and me! As I mentioned last time, we cancelled classes for tomorrow so we can celebrate Thanksgiving. (There will be more about that, along with pictures later this weekend. ;) Keep your eyes peeled!) Friday is Albania's Independence Day, Saturday is Liberation Day and when a holiday here falls on a Saturday, they observe it on the following Monday. Woo hoo!!! Lot's of time for fun and relaxation! There will be plenty of work done, too, but I'm excited for 5 whole days to plan according to my every whim. :)

Being that it's 1:30am here, it's technically already Thanksgiving. One of the things I am most thankful for is my family. Without their support and unconditional continuous love, moving here would have been a lot harder and I would be super lonely right now. But I know that they think about me, just as I think about them. I know they love me and that I love them. And every time I talk with them or get an e-mail or note, I am reminded of their continuing support through the encouraging words they send my way.

My Thanksgiving started with a "visit" from family too. I got to Skype with David!!!! I was sooooo excited! I still am, which is why I'm wide awake and writing this instead of in bed sleeping. It was the first time I have seen his face since the day I bid him adieu, August 9. I've "visited" with my parents via Skype, but since David's computer has some audio issues, he can't Skype. Now that he's at home for Thanksgiving, he called me on Skype. It was fun! He said they'll call tomorrow too when their all at home. :) Oh, how I wish I could be there with them! But no matter where I am--Wisconsin, Albanian, Timbuktu, Antarctica, or wherever--I love them the same and they love me the same. :) God is good!

I have many things to be thankful for this year. The obvious include God, family, and friends. But I also have new Albanian friends and surrogate family to be thankful for. I have had no serious health issues this past year (things could be a lot worse than giardia). I've had safe travels here and been blessed with the opportunity to see and experience new places. I'm thankful that I am able to observe a new culture. I'm thankful that I have gained understanding and respect for people culturally different from me and that I've gained a new found pride in and respect for my own country and culture. I am thankful that God is using me and Emily here in Albania to be an introduction to his word for people. And I am even more thankful that it's up to the Holy Spirit, not us, to cultivate faith in people's hearts. I am thankful for everyone who has sent an encouraging word and/or kept me in their thoughts and prayers. Our Heavenly Father truly is a loving God!

Tomorrow (or later today, if you want to get technical), I will get to celebrate all of this with a feast! God has given me everything I need, even when I'm far from home. Emily and I are thankful for having people to celebrate with. We're thankful for having so much food to cook, but are a little nervous about how it will turn out. ;) We've never tried something of this proportion or importance before. lol Wish us luck! There is no doubt that we will document the day with pictures. Whether the food will appear appetizing or burnt is the million dollar question. ;) Just kidding! There will be so much that if one thing isn't so appealing, we'll eat more of another thing instead! Haha!

But until those pictures come around, here are a few others to keep you occupied. Remember way back in October when we took a sunrise drive through the mountains with the Ahlers? Well, I've got pictures from the road to Elbasan. Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=125600102&k=X21434TX34YM5FCGYK23RW

There are only a few pictures, but the scenery really was quite beautiful, especially at that time of day. The problem was that because the road was so narrow and was right, and I mean right, on the edge of the mountains that there weren't many spots to pull over for photo opportunities. Anyway, enjoy them! The sights reminded me of Bible stories. :)

The Wheels On The Bus

The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round according to the song. But here in Tirana, they stop at the strangest places. Like the other day for example. I was riding home from church after my late class. It was around 7:30 and we were about half way between church and the stop where I get off. We had been creeping at a snail's pace, no joke, the whole ride. All of a sudden I realized: the bus is stopping and it's not a regular stop. We weren't even at a stop light or at a stand still because of traffic or anything. We stopped so the bus driver could get out and run into the bar kafe. He came back out with some sort of drink for himself and a macchiatto for the ticket guy. He then proceeded to drive even slower so he wouldn't spill his drink! lol Then, all of a sudden, right when we got to the corner where we turn onto the street where my stop is, the driver floored it and started honking at everyone and everything in sight! I had no idea what was going on. I was just relieved that my stop was next. That was one crazy ride! lol Only in Tirana. :)

See? I told you every day here is a new adventure! Haha!

Our activity night on Friday was a good one. It was rainy that day, and rain here always means lower attendance for events. However, this one was fun because we had another parent come! Yay! One of the moms who has started coming with her son to one of Emily's beginner classes showed up with her son and her young daughter. It was good to see them there. We had a little Thanksgiving Celebration. I gave a very brief story of the origin of Thanksgiving. Then we all wrote a list of things we were thankful for. The catch was that they had to start with the letters in Thanksgiving, as I had written that word down the page. We shared a few of the things on our lists.

After that, Emily told about the Thanksgiving meal and we handed out cranberry sauce (the typical goodness in a can :) that Americans love) for people to try. Most of those in attendance liked it. Except Danja. She was funny. She made a nasty face and told Emily "Ewww!" Hee hee!

Finally, I taught them how to draw turkeys by tracing their hand. So we made Thanksgiving pictures to give to the people we're thankful for. Emily and I got many pictures. lol So sweet! Sometimes I feel like the kids forget about everyone else when they're at Activity Night. They just swarm us for attention, but it's cute. They are always so excited to be there and in class they're so excited to learn English. It's just fun to be around them!

I let my small class choose American names during class. I now teach Ruby, Natalie and Jasmine instead of Xheni, Enxhi, and Sasha. lol They are so silly! It took them so long to pick the names because they were so happy they got to pick their own that they wanted it to be just perfect. I remember being like that in Spanish class in high school. lol Some things never change. :)

Pastor came back this weekend and brought some goodies with him for Emily and I. (Thanks, mom!!!!) I now have a replenished supply of Ramen noodles. Is is sad that I could still live off of those even though I'm out of college? Haha! Anyway, she also replenished my chocolate chip supply, sent some peanut butter, brown sugar, sent advent candles and a nativity for church, sent my flute back so I can play in church, piano music, an advent devotion book, an advent calendar, Christmas cards (not to be opened until Christmas, of course!) a Thanksgiving card, candles for our smelly bathroom (the pipes don't quite drain as quickly as in the US so some days it smells like sewer), and a few other great odds n ends. Then, Sunday night when we went downstairs to Pastor's apartment (he's living underneath us when he's here) for game night, he had an early Christmas present for each of us from he and Mrs. Ahlers. Emily got the game Ticket To Ride and I got the game Settlers of Catan. We were so excited!!!! It was perfect because it gave us a much better game supply to chose from for game nights now. lol I'm telling you, it was like Christmas came early! We were so excited! What made it even better was that we played three games of Settlers and I won all three! That board likes me! It's lucky for me! Hee hee! ;)

This week we're having a meeting to catch Pastor and Agron up on our future plans for English class and to talk more about outreach and home visits. We're also having our first Mary and Martha Meeting. That's the group we're starting for girls ages 13-17. We'll do devotions and an activity. This week we'll do a craft. We're making the invitations to our Christmas Program. Should be fun! We're also continuing our Christmas Program Practices. I need to start practicing the piano a lot because I'm accompanying the songs. I volunteered so I better be ready. :)

We cancelled our classes on Thursday so that Emily and I can celebrate Thanksgiving. We invited Agron, Vitori, Dorien, Pastor, and Aida to come here for a Thanksgiving meal. Turkey is hard to get this time of year since that's what they traditionally eat for New Years. Plus, even if we did find one, we'd have to buy it live, kill it ourselves, and pluck it ourselves. Um, no thank you. I've never even made a frozen turkey before so I somehow think it would be even more difficult if I had to start with a live one. So we're settling for rotisserie chickens instead. They can be found easily around here and are quite tasty. So Thursday will be a busy but fun day off.

There is no Activity Night this week because Friday is Albanian Independence Day. Then Saturday they celebrate Liberation Day, or Nata e Bardhe (pr. NAH-tah EE BAR-the) which means White Night. It's when the Albanian flag was first raised to show their independence. It was raised in Vlora, a city in the south of Albania, so the biggest celebration is there. But everyone everywhere stays out all night to celebrate. Ay ay ay. I'm counting on some interesting observations. ;) And when a holiday falls on a Saturday here, they observe it on the following Monday. Therefore our students don't have school on Monday so we don't have English classes on Monday either. Emily and I have a five day weekend! Woo hoo!!!

Christmas isn't a huge holiday here like it is in the States. Being a communist country for so long, people couldn't celebrate Christmas. That's why Albanians go all out for New Years like we do for Christmas. So there are no Christmas decorations up here, no Christmas lights, no candy canes in shops, and no bell ringers. I can't lie....I don't miss those bell ringers. It always gives me a headache. lol In absence of this Christmas spirit, my iPod has become my new best friend when I'm out walking around town or riding the bus to church. I listen to Christmas music because when it is combined with the crisp chilly air, it makes me feel a little closer to home at this time of year. :) Emily and I are planning to decorate our place for Christmas though before Thanksgiving. We want our apartment to look festive when our dinner guests arrive. :)

Despite a long weekend ahead, I have plenty of work to do! I have worksheets to make for my classes, "bulletin board" stuff to prepare (mostly things to cut out so they can be taped to the wall), words to translate, piano to practice, meeting notes to prepare for tomorrow, supplies to gather for making the invitations, and I need to come up with an idea for a Christmas gift to my students. So if any of you have ideas for that, please share! I'm most definitely open to suggestions! As you can see, I have plenty keeping me busy. ;) Hope you're not getting overwhelmed back at home. This time of year always seems to start piling on the stress. Be sure to enjoy it a little extra for me, ok? ;) Thanks!

Older And Wiser

Isn't that how the saying goes? Another year older, another year wiser. Right? Well in the few days since I turned 25 I haven't had any major catastrophes so maybe it's true. :)

My birthday was a blast! In the afternoon I baked cookies to take with me to Activity Night. Once we got to church I was totally stunned when kids started giving me gifts. I couldn't believe it. We'd never told them we'd be celebrating my birthday, but it was on the calendar so they knew when it was. They gave me gifts and I was so touched! People here have much less than Americans, but they are so genuinely generous with what they have. I was a little overwhelmed because I hadn't expected anything. It wasn't necessary either.

We had a game night that night so the kids played games and colored pictures and ate my cookies. They even sang Happy Birthday twice! lol Then they watched me open my gifts and started to clean up. As they were leaving, something kind of strange happened. They all asked me to write my name and my sign (aka signature) on their hands. Then they asked me to write my birthday too. So I did. Then they started asking Emily to do the same thing. I honestly have no clue what this was about. We still can't figure it out. Maybe they were trying to ask for our autographs? Maybe it's a tradition? Either way, we found it quite amusing.

After that, we headed out to meet some friends at Sky Tower. We went up to the top and had a drink while we waited. We chatted and enjoyed the views of the city. And then we saw some fireworks! You can probably find fireworks somewhere in this city on any given night of the week, but I've never had fireworks on my birthday! :) I love fireworks so I was very excited. When the rest of the gang got there, I was serenaded with the song again before we headed out to our final destination.

We went to this place called Flares Bar for karaoke. It was so much fun! They played songs in Albanian, English, and Italian. We sang along regardless of the language and even took our turn singing a song. We went with a classic artist, Neil Diamond, and sand "Sweet Caroline." Except we forgot how low some parts of the verses get but who cares. It was loud in there and other people were singing along anyway. lol :) After a little while Emily and I went up to pick another song (which we never ended up singing) and right as we got back to the table, Emily started saying, "We have to go back up to the front! We have to go back up to the front!" Just as we got back up there, I simultaneously heard it and saw it: Everyone in our little group was up at the front singing Happy Birthday to me. lol The whole place joined in and when they finished singing in English, they sang in Albanian. That made a total of 5 times. lol

The next day we had church and it was the first time the children's choir was going to sing. Well, Agron forgot about it so at the very end, Vitori interrupted him to remind him. lol So they got to sing at the end of the service instead of the beginning as they had been promised. But they did really well! I was proud of them. They got up there and sang even though the naughty boys came to church just to see what was going on with this group of kids. I'm pretty sure they were surprised that they ended up sitting through a church service instead of being rowdy during an activity. Haha! Joke's on them!

Later that day Emily and I met Olsa and Neda at an ice cream place called Behari. It's supposedly the best place to get ice cream in Tirana. Considering Emily and I have been there a few times already, I'd have to agree. :) We met them there to celebrate my birthday since I hadn't gotten a chance to see them the day before on my actual birthday. We decided that while we enjoyed our ice cream we needed to take at least 25 pictures since I turned 25 years old. lol We took all sorts of ridiculous shots. lol All of my birthday photos can be seen at the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=125600102&k=X3BU2XP64X5M5FCGYK23RW


Emily has a bunch too so maybe I can get those from her to post on here as well. We'll see.

After the ice cream festivities, we met Aida. Then the three of us went to meet Xhuli for coffee since we hadn't seen her for a long time and so she could practice her English with us. We had a good time with her. We always do. She's so sweet. And this time, I got to meet one of her boys, too. He was there because he had English class at a place next door.

After the coffee, Emily, Aida, and I realized we were hungry. Aida mentioned a qofte (pr. CHOF-tay) place that she knew of through a friend from work. Since qofte is cheap and filling we decided to go there. Qofte are little sausages that are kind of spicy but really really good. Probably not so healthy, but it's a good thing that they're so filling. That way you only need to eat a few. So anyway, we got qofte and bread from this place. It's so cheap! And yummy! While we were there, Emily decided that I needed to try Raki. It's some sort of alcohol that is apparently quite potent. It has a kind of strong effect on the mouth, sort of like whiskey, but it goes down smooth. And it's clear like vodka and has a faint smell for how potent it's supposed to be. It came in a little glass and the portion was about the same as two shots. You sip it though. I'm not the biggest fan, but if it was a special event and someone said, "Let's go for a glass of Raki," I would. lol

On Sunday we did a home visit for church. We went to visit the home of two of my best students, Kesi and Klea. Agron is friends with their uncle and he knows their father well, too, because when their father was a student at the university, Agron was his professor. :) We had a nice visit. Agron, Emily, and I went, and Olsa went too as an Albanian representative of the church. We were there for a little over two hours! We had tons of snacks from pretzels, to candy, to desserts (I tried a new one that was amazing!), to cookies, to fruit. I couldn't believe it! Every day I find myself amazed by the generosity of the people here. While we were there we talked with them a bit about family and class and then we saw a bunch of their family photos. It was fun to get to know the parents of my students. They are an awesome family! They really are. The parents care about the kids and watch out for the kids and the mom and dad were friendly and they all were so sincerely happy to have us there. They gave us a parting gift--homemade prune jam--and invited us back whenever we want.

Other than that, the week started out like normal with classes and they went really smoothly. At least so far. ;) The week's not over yet! Just kidding! Monday afternoon Emily and I hit up the cheap matinee movie. It was Get Smart. We liked it. It was funny. On the way to the movie, I passed a car on the road in the far right lane that started to make a U-turn. Since the road was two lanes in each direction, I thought to myself, "That's going to cause problems." Sure enough, just then we heard the crash. I looked behind me and sure enough, he'd caused an accident. Good thing I was past him when it happened!

After the movie we had extra time so we went to visit Aida at her new job since it's close to the theater. After that, we went for a treat at a little pastry shop for a snack. On our way to the pastry shop, I saw a girl probably a little younger than me who was about to cross the street. She wasn't paying attention and didn't look in any direction. She was doing to run into me, so I stopped and put my hand out so she wouldn't hurt herself on my bike. She looked startled but kind of laughed and then walked away as I said, "Me falni." (Which translates as both "excuse me" and "I'm sorry/My fault.") It was funny though because I'm pretty sure she'd totally been daydreaming and was embarrased after it happened.

That's been the excitement for the week so far. Well, except that we didn't have electricity all day today. lol Anyway, once there's more to report, you'll hear from me. :)

Full Moon

Growing up in a teacher's household, I would often hear my parents or other faculty comment on the relationship to a full moon and the behavior of their students. I never really put any thought into that. Until today, that is. After today, I fully understand the connection.

To spare you a long story that just gets me frustrated, I'll put it this way: some days are just better than others. My classes had tests today and I learned that test environments are not the same in Albanian classrooms as they are in American classrooms. At least, I'm assuming that, since it's the more positive approach. Otherwise I would have to say my students were unusually talkative and disruptive today.

And my later class had some very unruly visitors. There is a group of boys that live in the apartments around church who are quite rowdy. It's the same group that sort of bothers our Activity Nights. Well they were back tonight and caused a good five to ten minutes of immature rebellious punk behavior. Four of them just busted right into the middle of my class. It took three of my students to get them to leave. One of them kicked over the garbage can so it spilled all over the place. Then when we locked them out, they knocked on the glass door. When I still ignored them, they pulled down the gate which caused a loud and terrible noise. Think nails down a chalkboard plus screeching metal. They didn't stop there. They went next door to the hallway area and yelled through the fans/vents in the wall.

When that class was over, I was happy to get home! lol You win some, you lose some, right? ;) The good news is that these kind of days are few and far between. There are the usual disruptions to class--parents coming in, general talking among students, and knocks at the door--but today was out of the ordinary. It's nice to think that I probably won't have this kind of day again for awhile. :)

I'm excited for Friday though. It's my birthday! :) I'll be 25, which sounds so old to me because I can't believe it. But it's said that age is just a number. And guess what? I don't mind 25. It will be a year of new and exciting things. I've gotten a few cards in the mail but I haven't opened them yet. As a kid, it was always the tradition in our house that we had to wait until our actual birthday to open cards. I stuck to this tradition in college and I'll carry it on overseas as well. :) It just adds to the excitement! Plus, I love surprises and each note inside a card is a surprise!

I'm going to make my "famous" cookies to take to Activity Night that night as a birthday treat. I think people will like them. I haven't received any complaints yet! (Mom, Dad, and David, I know you're jealous! lol) So we'll have cookies for treats and we'll play games. It's a game night. We have Skip-Bo, Uno, Guess Who, Cards, Spelldown (similar to Scrabble), Boggle, and I think we'll use the whiteboard for Hangman. Plus, I'll print some mazes and things like that from the Internet. I think it will be enough to occupy the time. They might have some ideas for games as well.

Other than that, I have one last thing: I promised pictures from Danja's birthday party, so here they are. Remember to click on the link, then on the name of the album. You shouldn't have problems, but if you do, let me know. If you are asked to create a facebook account or to sign in before viewing the pictures, something went wrong or you clicked on the wrong words, so try again. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=125600102&k=X212Z5SSP4ZM5FCGYK23RW

Drawing A Blank

I'll be honest. I have no title for this entry. I feel very disappointed to report that as the weeks continue to progress smoothly, I have less to report. lol I guess that's good news, isn't it? For starters, that means there are no big fiascoes to speak of. It also means that there are no last minute changes to cause stress. On the other side, it might make for some dull reading on your part. ;) Just kidding...maybe....you be the judge.

The week off with a noteworthy event. On my way to church late Monday morning I got in an accident on my bike. It wasn't with a bus, car, truck, motorcycle or any kind of vehicle for that matter. It wasn't even with another bicycle, a pothole, a curb, or a person. It was with a children's toy. No, I'm not kidding. Stop laughing! Actually, don't. It's kind of a funny story.

You know those little bikes for toddlers that have three wheels, a seat, and handle bars? The ones that are all plastic? Well there were some boys, probably around age 12, playing with a broken one. The front wheel was busted off. They were taking turns having one person stand on the seat and having another one reach down to the handlebars and pull the one standing. Well when the person riding would fall, they'd throw the along the ground to the next person. They saw me coming and moved, but their timing with throwing the bike was bad. I couldn't swerve far enough and I couldn't stop in time so I hit it. I didn't fly off the handlebars (though that would make this story more exciting) or anything like that. I kind of put my feet down to try and stay standing. The bike fell on my right leg as I ended up standing on one foot, hands still on the handlebars trying to keep the bike upright. So the bike fell on my right leg, as I said, and then the rest of me fell on the bike.

The boys just froze and looked scared. They hadn't tried to do it but they were afraid I was going to yell. I was too shocked to think of anything intelligent to say, plus, I couldn't yell because I don't know enough Albanian. So I just looked at them like they were crazy, because I was thinking that they were, dusted myself off, and road away. A security guard at the nearby European Union building saw the whole thing and came over to me as I was riding away. He said something--asked if I was ok, I think--and I just said, "S'ka problem." (No problem.) I glanced behind me after I was a little ways down the road and saw him yelling at the boys. Haha! He said what I couldn't. My only lasting little injury is a bump and bruised spot on my ankle. Besides that, I was able to ride away unscathed.

Emily and I used our free afternoon time that day to go see a movie. The latest Batman movie, Dark Knight, was playing and Emily hadn't seen it yet. I'd seen it in the States but it was good and I wanted to see it again. All in all we both enjoyed the movie and liked spending our Monday afternoon that way. It was good to have two hours of quiet relaxing time like that during the middle of the day. Kind of like taking a nap but better because there was entertainment. :) Oh yeah, one funny thing though--on the way to the movie theater, we rode past the scene of my earlier accident and though they boys were gone, the culprit was sitting along the side of the road. Dumb little broken toy. lol

But our big Monday adventure was a birthday party. Danja turned 8 and invited us to her birthday party that evening. It was quite different from an American birthday party. In short, her family's apartment was turned topsy-turvy by kids ranging in age from 2-18 plus a few adults. There was lots dancing--on the floor, on the furniture, and on the kitchen table by the birthday girl. It seemed like some sort of tradition, but I'm not exactly sure. There were snacks and soda, and even the parents that were there joined in the dancing. It was ridiculously loud and crazy. Similar to chaos in fact, but a lot of fun. We took many pictures but facebook is not letting me post them at the moment, so I'll try to put them up soon for your viewing pleasure. You'll smile at the cake-smeared faces, dancing children, and at the birthday girl's dress. :) Safe to say a good time was had by all. Even for those of us who got Coca-Cola spilled on our feet. (Yes, that happened to me.) lol

On Tuesday, I went back to the doctor. I got another round of pills to fight off giardia because I've had 2 more bouts in the month since I finished the last round of pills. I found out from the doctor that instead of just rinsing vegetables we should be soaking them in bleach water for 20 minutes and then rinsing them with good water. It's also a good idea to peel any skin off. But the most important info she gave me was that the bottled water we've been buying isn't good drinking water. No wonder! We were buying the big jugs that are about 6L each because they're cheaper than a 6 pack of 1.5L bottles. However, they aren't filtered and bottled the same way so drinking that water isn't always safe. On the plus side, we can still use that water for cooking because it's fine as long as it boils. So it's good for cooking and making coffee or tea. Now that I know all that I'm more optimistic about feeling better. It may be a little more of a hassle, but to feel better it will totally be worth it!

Wednesday and Thursday passed without much excitement. Both of us got a good number of questions or comments about the election results. We didn't want to say too much so we just said that yes, it will be good to have a president who's very motivated to do the job because it's a huge job. An overwhelming majority of people here were very excited that Obama won. Come January 20th we'll see what the new president will really be like. It's nice knowing God is really the one in control of all of us anyway. :)

Our Friday activity this week was learning about American Inventors and their inventions that are now used around the world. We learned 5 names and inventions: Henry Ford and the assembly line, Thomas Edison and the light bulb, Issac Merritt Singer and the modern sewing machine, Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone, and finally Orville and Wilbur Wright and the airplane. The kids enjoyed the pictures I put on a PowerPoint and the two games we played to go along with the information. We played the telephone game, where one person starts a message and you pass it from person to person and the last person has to say it out loud. It never ends the same as it started. It was funny. Then we played a game where we held hands and squeezed them to pass on an "electrical" current. The person in the middle had to turn off the "light" by saying the name of the person passing the current. It didn't work perfectly, but it was fun to try. They got the point.

Emily spent the night playing Sheriff. I felt bad. :( There were some naughty boys that came and had to get removed. They stayed around the door being rowdy, yelling, and knocking on the door. Then they tried to come back in so she ended up pretty much guarding the door. This is the second week we've had a problem like this even though we told them the rules when we began the evening this week. We decided to try solving the problem by having a sign-up sheet from now on. We'll limit it to 20 or 25 people and our students will have first change at the available spots. This will work best because our students know the rules, and since we know them best, we want to reach their families. Our students and their families are our core group of outreach targets.

After that, we went to the Huna's house (Olsa, Neda, and Ledio's family) and made them tacos for dinner. They'd never had them before. They seemed to like them, but they weren't big on the hard shells. We only had hard shells because we couldn't find tortillas here. But Mrs. Huna made petulla (a kind of dough similar to a donut but not so sweet) and they ate the taco toppings on the petulla. She makes excellent petulla! I need to learn how to make it like her! While we were there I got Coca-Cola spilled on me for the second time this week. lol

Today we had church and then children's choir practice. I played some pre-service music today. My piano skills aren't fancy, but I can plunk out a few hymns (I don't have any other piano music here) so I did. I didn't do horribly so I think it went well. ;) There were kids who stayed for choir practice and some who came just for choir practice. They did a great job of remembering the song from last week and we even had a few more kids come. There were also a few that weren't there this week, but it was another good turnout. The kids learned the second song very quickly and so we practiced both songs. We'll sing them in church next week in place of the opening hymn. I'll try to record it on video and post it on here. :)

I'll try to write again tomorrow or Monday, if not with news, just to post pictures of the birthday party. I have my midterm tests for my class this week so I will be busy writing those tomorrow. Other than that, I plan on enjoying my last few days of being 24. By next Saturday, I'll be old! A quarter of a century. You know what's sad about that? Most people don't even live for a century, so in all reality, I've already lived a quarter of my life. Yikes! But that's a depressing thought. There's just to much I want to do in life and I'll need a lot of time to do it! lol ;) But really, it's a blessing to celebrate any birthday and that's why I always like to try and make people's birthdays special. They only come once and year and you don't know how many you'll get!

Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet!

Give me something good to eat! :) We didn't actually teach the kids that, but there were some tricks, some treats, and some good eats at our Halloween Costume Party!

All day Friday was spent in preparation for the festivities. In the morning Emily and I finished getting the food stuff together, planning the games, making sure all the supplies were ready to go, and taking care of the odds and ends. I went to church and got there around 2:30 to make some decorations and set up. Emily came later with Aida and they set up the food, brought the stuff for games, and the prizes.

Around 3:45 I went upstairs in the building to help Olsa do her make-up for her costume. She had asked me earlier in the week if I could help with her make-up and had asked if I would lend her some jewelry for the night. I said sure. I knew she'd give it back. So I took the things up there and it caused a little bit of friction between Olsa and Neda. See, Neda was jealous that Olsa was having her make-up done and that she was wearing my jewelry so she got pouty. I explained that Olsa asked for help earlier in the week, so we'd planned it and that's why she got to do it. Neda didn't feel better, but that was her choice. She said she wasn't coming to the party, but of course, in the end, she couldn't resist. :) After all, she had a cat costume, complete with headband ears that Emily had made for her.

When I got back downstairs, Aida helped me with my costume. Boy was that funny! I put on white long underwear and got out the toilet paper I'd bought for the costume. She proceeded to wrap me up with the TP. It took a half hour to get it on and secured. She'd wrap a few times around and then put huge long strips of packing tape down my sides to hold it in place. It was so funny because people kept coming in just to watch. lol Plus, once she was done, I really was like a mummy! I could hardly move! I had to take little baby steps and she'd wrapped my arms straight so I could hardly bend my arms to do anything. But as little places ripped, it became even funnier because then it looked like I was ragged and coming to life just a little. It was perfect. Everyone was laughing at me--even the adults and parents when they dropped off and picked up their kids.

Emily was a marathon runner and totally looked the part! She had the runner's spandex and a number and everything. She made a great costume for Aida too. She took a green sheet, two big green paper circles, green mittens, and a green winter hat and made her into a pea pod. It was great! She helped us run the show and when she told the kids what she was, they all laughed. About half of the kids came in costumes. They ranged from Batman, to a princess, to Dracula, to Santa Claus, a ghost (dressed in black with white make-up), a phantom, a ninja, a cat, a superstar (the lead singer for a group called the Pussycat Dolls), etc.

Aida was an amazing help to us because we had waaaaaayyyyyy more people show up than we ever expected! That was good, but it got too crowded and too crazy. The craziness happened because there were people standing outside the church looking in and causing a ruckus, trying to come in and take over, and kids inside being rowdy because they don't know how to behave. Despite this, it turned out well and everyone had a good time.

We did a costume fashion show and had everyone vote for the best costumes. Third place went to Batman. His costume was a towel cape and a homemade mask, but all his little friends voted for him and he's a very polite well behaved kid, so I was glad he won a prize. Second place went to Santa Claus. She got my vote because she was the most petite, smiley, and skinny Santa Claus I've ever seen. What a hoot! And first place went to Dracula. She had all black and a high collar on her shirt and her make-up was done really really well! It was pretty awesome.

Then we played a game called "Trick or Treat" where everyone picks a card. If the card sais treat, they got a treat right away. If it said trick, they had to do the trick on the card before they could get their treat. Before we started the game, Aida helped me explain the idea of trick or treating and the saying, "Show me a trick and I'll give you a treat." Then she explained the game and we had fun playing it. The tricks included, singing a song, doing a cartwheel, whistling a song, walking like a duck, clucking like a chicken, dancing like a fairy, barking like a dog, hopping like a frog, walking like a spider, snorting like a pig, laughing like a witch, doing jumping jacks, etc. It was pretty entertaining. :)

Then we had some yummy snacks. Emily brought back candy corn--the yellow kind and the brown kind--along with some of those pumkin candies that taste kind of like candy corn from the States. She mixed some of those with peanuts, pretzels, and pumpkin seeds to make a Halloween trail mix. We also made popcorn and bought some mandarins. (They're orange, cheap, and very tasty!) There were also black and orange drinks to go around since we bought Coke and Exotic Fanta sodas. The snacks went over very well and were gone quite quickly. Well, not the candy corn and pumpkin candy. That was too sweet for most of the guests. They're not used to such sugary candy. lol

Despite the loads of people, the noise level, the temperature in the crowded room, and the rowdy crowd outside, we had fun. It was a huge mess to clean up, but we took our time because we weren't in a hurry. By the time we got home, we were exhausted and it wasn't even 8pm yet! Haha! We were completely spent. Just plain worn out. Aida came back with us and we had some supper and just hung out for awhile so it was a nice relaxing end to a very busy day.

Here's the link to the pictures. The album also includes a few pictures from other activities too. The captions explain the pictures so you'll know which ones were from Halloween. The costumes might be a give away too. ;)

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=125600102&k=X3ET3VSXV5XM5FCGYK23RW

Today was church and it was a full house. We had a lot of children there because it was our first week of practice for the children's choir. The practice went really really well! I taught them "Praise Him, Praise Him, All Ye Little Children!" I wrote the words on the board in English and Vitori had translated it for me, so I wrote the translation so they could learn what the song meant. They were impressed that I can read Albanian, even if it's not perfect and I don't know what it means. Hee hee! But it helped them understand it a bit. They love to sing and caught on really quickly! We learned the whole song in a half hour, complete with actions and without looking at the words. There were 12 kids there and I gave each of them the chance to be the leader either individually or with a group. They were awesome!

I'm so excited for next week because I anticipate more kids. When they have fun doing something, they tell their friends and the group expands. Go figure. lol Next week we'll review this song and I'll teach them a new one. The week after that we'll practice reviewing both songs and the week after that we'll sing for church.

In unrelated news, today was a typical day in Albania. I rode my bike through crazy traffic, did some cleaning, and went for an evening walk with Emily. The weather was very warm today--upper 70s--and I wore summer clothes. On November 1! That is crazy to me! Compared to WI weather, I think I'm going to like "winter" here. The kids always ask me if I'm cold because I don't wear a coat. lol It's jeans and a t-shirt weather. Why would I be cold? Haha! It's all about perception, right?

Oh, I saw something new today. On my way home from church, I saw a man carrying two dead chickens in one hand and a dead lamb in the other. The dead chickens are a usual thing to see. People buy them at the market, take them home, de-feather them, and get them ready to cook. The lamb was a new one. I hadn't seen that before. Although I will admit that I thought to myself, "That guy's going to be eating real good later!" (Poor English, but thoughts don't have to follow grammatical rules, do they?)

Emily and I went out for sufllaqe (pr. soo-FLAH-chay) for dinner (the Albanian version of a gyro) before our walk and when we got back we had some tea, too much candy, and played Boggle. Emily kicked my butt, but I told her I'll get my revenge when we play Scrabble. lol Aside from that, we're relaxing for a big day of prep work tomorrow. Lots of work to be done planning classes, activities, choir stuff, and other little ideas. Stay tuned to see what we cook up! ;)