Happy Halloween

I might be a little "bah hambug" about Christmas. (A tragic combination of too many retail jobs playing terrible Christmas music and my birthday being a week before the big day) But I do love Halloween. This year, I wasn't planning on dressing up, but at the last minute I decided to redux my pirate costume from a few years ago to give out candy to my parent's neighbors.

Gotta admit, I was a bit disappointed. First, there just weren't enough kids. I wanted to inundated. I wanted to have to make rules, stretch our candy to the last drop, and go rummaging through the pantry for something to give the lines of kids. Instead, we got about 30 kids who came in a few big groups. Secondly, there wasn't a single homemade costume. Isn't that half the fun? We got a Transformer, a couple of princesses, and even two Anakin Skywalkers. My favorite costume was a boy dressed as a taco. I gave him extra credit for not being a movie character, but it was still a store bought costume.

I'm not disappointed with these three little guys though. They are all too cute for words.

Flicker Photos

Reading back through my Albania blog, I realize that I definitely missed a few things. So I made a little flicker slide show. Take a look. Enjoy. It's not all of Albania, but it shows you the things that stand out most in my mind. Or at least the things I photographed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43253482@N06/sets/72157622447281827/

What's on my bookshelf

The upside of part-time employment is that you have time to do the things that you've always wanted to do. The downside is that most of these things cost money. But one thing that is nearly free is reading. And I have been using this time to my advantage.

So what am I reading? Here goes...

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. A famous author wanders around the US in a big, old truck with a poodle. It makes me want to go on a road trip and reminds me of all of the "characters" that I've met over the years.

Religious Literacy by Stephen Prothero - His main point is that Americans are very religious, but don't know much about religion. He spells out all of the things that we should know in order to be religiously literate. I'm only a few chapters in so I haven't gotten to "what you should know" part yet, but its an interesting idea.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - It's like the Da Vinci Code but set here in the States. A slightly literate guilty pleasure. It's actually my Book Club book so that is added incentive to read it.

Twist of Faith by Anne Beiler - This is the story of Auntie Anne. It's interesting especially since I'm related to her in a sort of six degrees of separation way.

The Story of Christianity by Justo L. Gonzalez - I lifted this one from my Dad's library. It's a summary of the history of the church, but its still pretty easy to read. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good overview.

The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - The story of a Haggadah which starts in Sarajevo and ends in Spain. Matt's mom recommended it and I think its awesome. Books, religion, history, eastern Europe... sign me up.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - Straight up guilty pleasure. It's the fourth book in the Twilight series. I read the first one in one day. Fortunately I was flying across the country so I didn't feel too guilty. Now I'm totally hooked and I'm on Team Edward.

Walk down memory lane

In my current state of suspended animation, I've been going through a lot of old boxes. It's been a fun walk down memory lane. I found a huge stack of papers that I wrote in elementary and high school. My teachers would always tell me that I would appreciate them some day (and then fail me for having a run-on sentence) and looking back... It's true. And having been a teacher (briefly) I now realize just how hard they were working to get our 5 paragraph essays in tip-top shape.

I also found a few parodies of nursery rhymes that I wrote when I was in high school. They are so ridiculous that I have to post them here. I must have been watching the news when I wrote these because I don't remember being all that aware of current events. Here goes..

OJ Simpson sat on a wall.
OJ Simpson had a great fall.
All the not-guilty verdicts of the jurymen
Couldn't put his reputation back together again.

Little Miss Croat sat on a tuffet
Fighting the Serbs all day.
Along came the UN which gave them a pen
and said sign this treaty today.

Where are they now?

People keep asking what I've been up to... So here is the long awaited answer. Not a whole lot. On second thought.. there are a few things to share. I finished up being a Peace Corps Volunteer in May 2009. Then I headed on a month long trip in Eastern Europe. I'll try to post a few more pictures on that one. I managed to get through Bosnia, which was truly the highlight of the trip. Don't let your memories of the war scare you. They are at peace and it is an interesting country to visit. Sarajevo will certainly pique your Ottoman curiosity.

After that I headed home to Downingtown, PA. It's been a great time to reconnect with my family and make some special memories with my nephew. Back in November 2009, I took a test to be a Foreign Service Officer, the people who work in the embassy. I passed the written and the oral test and now I'm waiting on my security/medical clearance. Any one who has gone through a similar clearance can probably sympathize. It's a long drawn out process that involves a lot of waiting time. But I'm hoping to start working with them somewhere around January/February.

Other than that, I visited Arizona, started working for my dad, contemplated the meaning of life, and have been catching up on past issues of reality TV. I also discovered that American Big Brother isn't any better than Albanian Big Brother. Who knew?!?

Bosnia Baby!

The Plotjice waterfalls near Jajce. We actually swam right up to the waterfalls. It was incredibly cold, but amazing

While we were visiting a town, we stopped by this woman's house who makes homemade syrups. You mix about a tablespoon of the syrup with water or sparkling water. Super refreshing. My favorite was the mint.

Kosovo

After the Peace Corps, I decided to take the long way home and went on a month long trip through Eastern Europe. First stop, Kosovo. It was an interesting place because there were a lot of similarities between Albanian and Kosovars. Exhibit 1. The very large statue to Skanderbeg who is a national hero in Kosovo and Albania. About 95% of Kosovars are ethnic Albanians so it was fun to use my Albanian language skills and make some comparisons between the two cultures.


The Fatih mosque in Prishtina which is painted in a floral motif. There was a little old man who was the key keeper of this mosque who thanked me profusely for being an American. He was one of several Kosovars who were really excited to meet me.



I also had the fortune of running into another PCV, Bill. Here we are in Gjakova, a smaller town whose name means place of blood. Hmmm.



We also visited Prizren which is really the jewel of Kosovo. It's an amazing example of a stone town built in the Ottomon style. The entire center of the city is built out of stone and filled with hamams, mosques, and cobbled streets.


Not to end on a sad note, but this picture shows the difficulties that this country still faces. This Orthodox church is surrounded by barbed wire to protect it from looters. There is a long history of struggle between the Serbian and Albanian Kosovars. Kosovo declared independence while I was living in Albania, but it doesn't look like it will be admitted into the UN anytime soon.