May 18, 2008

Skanderbeg's a Hero

This is the main square in Tirana. And the oh so famous Skanderbeg, a war hero in Albania. Google him.

A BEAR on the BEACH

Do not let my nephew see this

May 11, 2008

The Americans Will Fix It

Things I’ve learned in Albania

1. Bidets are the perfect foot washing station
2. Sleeves are not good pot holders
3. Albanian
4. Central heating/shower curtains/wireless internet/Netflix are the greatest inventions ever…I miss them
5. I’m better at reading emails than replying
6. How to write a haiku 5/7/5
7. How to play (extremely basic) guitar
8. How to make Turkish coffee
9. Don’t leave eggs boiling on the stove. (This rule also applies to perogies which is a lesson I learned in Harrisburg)
10. That I don’t miss CNN’s up-to-the-minute scroll on the presidential race.
11. Okra is a delicious vegetable that the North has somehow missed out on.
12. How to make a burrito. Mediterranean style.
13. What meta grammar is
14. Arrested Development is a really funny show
15. Skanderbeg is a hero
16. My nephew is cuter than any kid in the whole world
17. Phrasal verbs are evil.
18. Kosovars are ethnic Albanians
19. Albanians are truly the most hospitable people I have ever met.
20. Three espressos in one day is too much espresso
21. Chickens really do run when their heads are cut off and what a lamb led to the slaughter looks like
22. The verb tenses of English. At the end of this year, I will have been living in Albania for two years…future perfect continuous.
23. That the History of the Peloponnesian Wars is a good book in theory, but not in reality
24. “Are you done that book?” is some sort of Philadelphia expression that people from the Midwest/south just don’t understand
25. I can direct a play
26. I love Albania