My Orlando Bloom lighter - love it
A view of Albania from the top of AlbanopolyMore pics to come..... I have a few days off of school so should have time to upload some.
December 07, 2007
Coffee American style part 2
Add Starbucks coffee to your french press - generously donated by your sister.
How to make American coffee in Albania
Take one camp stove. The electricity goes out a lot so we all have these. 
Add water in your Turkish coffee maker
Light it up with your Orlando Bloom lighter (which ended up on a entirely other post) See next post for more details.
Add water in your Turkish coffee maker
Light it up with your Orlando Bloom lighter (which ended up on a entirely other post) See next post for more details.
December 03, 2007
Thanksgiving
So I had my first Thanksgiving in Albania and it was a great experience. To be clear, Albanians do not celebrate Thanksgiving. It seems though that Little Bajram (which might be the Feast of Ede) is somehow related to being thankful. The first Thanksgiving adventure was in one of my classes. It was the private course that I teach in the afternoon. I had the idea to teach them how to draw a turkey using their hand. Something got lost in the translation/demonstration because I ended up with every single picture being a tracing of their hand with a picture of a turkey drawn next to it. Which makes no thanksgiving sense, but they did have a lot of fun. The other challenge was that I was trying to explain to them the complexities of Thanksgiving. I tried to explain how we celebrate the fact that the Native Americans became friends with the Pilgrims, but that isn’t really the whole story. The complexities of this were completely lost on them and I ended up having to tell the story in all of its stereotypical glory, but I really did try.
After school was finished, I headed up to Durres where the plan was to get together with an older couple here who were cooking a turkey. They ended up getting sick so my not so old friend and I were given the turkey and given instructions. An Albanian friend of the Durres crew got the turkey especially for us from the village. There were definitely some interesting Albanian challenges. First, we had to scrub the turkey with hot water. The only place that hot water comes out of the spout is the shower and the hot water wasn’t turned on. So we turned the hot water on, waited 45 minutes for it to heat up and then gave the turkey a nice shower. Then we covered it in butter and spices and popped it in the oven. Keeping in mind that we had a limited time because the lights were scheduled to go out right around the time the turkey was supposed to be done. The stove doesn’t have any number markings on it so we put it about where we thought it should be. Ten minutes in we checked it and the turkey was already brown and the oven was filled with smoke. Clearly, it was a little too hot. Thinking it was ruined, we turned the oven down. The lights went out before it was completely done, but we left it in the still hot oven for a few more minutes and it seemed to work.
About an hour in, I was left alone to finish all of the cooking while Matt went and got our other friend who was coming from the far north. The couple had made us stuffing and I made mashed potatoes. Against all odds, the turkey was actually pretty good. We had turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and everything was delicious. We even had enough left over for Black Friday leftovers!! It was great to spend some time with some American friends even though I was so far away from my family and friends.
Side note… It was about 70 the whole weekend so it was gorgeous and we walked along the sea on Black Friday in perfect weather. My friend from the far north was particularly enjoying it because he hasn’t taken off his coat even to sleep because it is so cold up there. The weather didn’t stay too long and it is back to being slightly chilly. So to everyone out there. Gezuar Dite Falemenderimeve. Happy Thanksgiving.
After school was finished, I headed up to Durres where the plan was to get together with an older couple here who were cooking a turkey. They ended up getting sick so my not so old friend and I were given the turkey and given instructions. An Albanian friend of the Durres crew got the turkey especially for us from the village. There were definitely some interesting Albanian challenges. First, we had to scrub the turkey with hot water. The only place that hot water comes out of the spout is the shower and the hot water wasn’t turned on. So we turned the hot water on, waited 45 minutes for it to heat up and then gave the turkey a nice shower. Then we covered it in butter and spices and popped it in the oven. Keeping in mind that we had a limited time because the lights were scheduled to go out right around the time the turkey was supposed to be done. The stove doesn’t have any number markings on it so we put it about where we thought it should be. Ten minutes in we checked it and the turkey was already brown and the oven was filled with smoke. Clearly, it was a little too hot. Thinking it was ruined, we turned the oven down. The lights went out before it was completely done, but we left it in the still hot oven for a few more minutes and it seemed to work.
About an hour in, I was left alone to finish all of the cooking while Matt went and got our other friend who was coming from the far north. The couple had made us stuffing and I made mashed potatoes. Against all odds, the turkey was actually pretty good. We had turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and everything was delicious. We even had enough left over for Black Friday leftovers!! It was great to spend some time with some American friends even though I was so far away from my family and friends.
Side note… It was about 70 the whole weekend so it was gorgeous and we walked along the sea on Black Friday in perfect weather. My friend from the far north was particularly enjoying it because he hasn’t taken off his coat even to sleep because it is so cold up there. The weather didn’t stay too long and it is back to being slightly chilly. So to everyone out there. Gezuar Dite Falemenderimeve. Happy Thanksgiving.
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