Dancing in the Moonlight

After finishing the mural, winter vacation began, and I spent a week in Germany. What I remember most is the frenzy of eating and wanting to eat everything that I can't find here. Almost every dinner, we had some kind of Asian food and added novelties like avocados, smoked salmon, horseradish mustard, natto (fermented soybeans), etc., etc.. My other fondest memory was visiting the Munich Botanical Garden, where we saw butterflies and all sorts of plants from different seasons and from all over the world. I especially enjoyed sitting on the benches and listening to The Plateaux Of Mirror by Harold Budd and Brian Eno. All museums should play such music. Though it's probably another two months until I can begin growing my flowers again, the visit definitely got me excited about this year's planting.

Now, all there is to do is celebrate New Years, study for the GRE, and wait for school to start again. The weather here has been warm compared to last year. Though autumn felt colder this year, the first snow fell on Christmas last year. However, looking at the weather report, it seems as if it'll start snowing around January 2nd. So, we'll see how things go.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest is an old favourite that has had a persistent presence throughout my Peace Corps service. For some reason, it seems to come on every party I go to or dinner I host. 

Where I did my mural.

Mural: Day 1

Mural: Day 1

Mural: Day 2

Villager friend who is the owner and primary renovator of the water mill

The botanical garden in Munich

St. Sebastian at a Renaissance museum in Munich

Moonlight Mile

Sorry for the long delay in posts! My iPod (with which I take most of my photos) was stolen, and, without it, I didn't have the pictures that typically motivate me to share and write these updates. However, thanks to my wonderful parents, I have a new one and will be taking more pictures and hopefully making more regular posts.

Since the last update, my toilet project has almost finished, just finishing up my closing report and checking in with the school. School is going well enough. It's taken a year and a half, but my role in the class has become more clear and consistent. Though it's not brutally cold yet, I've started sleeping in my sleeping bag (also under three blankets) and lighting my wood stove on the rare occasions that I spend a long time at home. So, as I've said before, I'm ready for warm and sunny California. 

Thus, all in all, things are going well. Recently, some teachers took me to a restaurant that serves veal tongue that is floured, battered with egg, and fried. Very tasty. I don't know why I didn't do this before, but I've also started playing soccer with my students during their gym classes, which has been tremendously fun and has helped me to better get to know my students. This week, I'll be painting an environment-themed mural at a school next to mine. So, hopefully that goes well!

While studying for the GRE yesterday, I heard this ballad by the Rolling Stones called "Moonlight Mile" for the first time. Having listened to the Stones for years, finding new gems like this makes the the familiar sound strange and new again. Also, the song seems appropriate as my service winds down and things are wrapping up.

At the cheese factory below Mt. Korabi during the summer

Another shot of my first hike to Korabi. Thirty minutes from the summit, it started raining incredibly hard. As we headed down the mountain, this is where we met a group of villagers who had a roaring fire going below a pine tree. After warming up here for ten minutes, we then hiked for (at least) an hour and half in the pouring rain down to the village where we started.

What Peshkopi looks like now. No snow in the city yet, but it'll probably arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Traditional Albanian dresses for sale in Peshkopi.

Some appetizer dishes at my favourite restaurant in Peshkopi. The left dish is a type of cheese that's similar to ricotta but also has chunks of red peppers. The top is pickled vegetables, mainly cabbage, green tomatoes, and red peppers. The right dish is boiled beets with olive oil, garlic, and raw onions.

Our latest site mate night dinner: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a cucumber salad with roasted red peppers.

The Big Sleep

I haven't been able to post updates for a month since my computer broke. However, all seems fixed (knock on wood), so I'll hopefully be able to post again more regularly as long this thing holds up.

School has gone on for about a month now. I've been rushing around to take care of and finish various other projects, so I haven't had the time to focus on school too much. So, it'll probably be another month before I figure out what I'd like to accomplish this year. However, so far, things are much like last year. Only, it's funny to see the students who were sweet and innocent fourth graders when I first arrived become much more rambunctious preadolescents on the brink of teenhood.

Today's title is another slight departure from the usual pattern. I've been traveling a lot during the last month and have been constantly listening to audiobooks and podcasts (especially 'Stuff You Should Know'). So far, I've listened to Raymond Carver's The Big Sleep twice and a half.

Tirana Downtown Apartment--what happens when the prime minister is an artist.

Hostel Puppies

Linda's Fasule Bean Soup

Bunkers above Peshkopi

A house in Bahuti--a village near Peshkopi

A house in Zimur--another village near Peshkopi

Walnuts given to us on the hike to Zimur

A view from Timur

Some of the people helping me to renovate bathrooms in Peshkopi

The changing colours of Autumn

A portrait that a friend took

Bajram Curri

The statue of Bajram Curri in the town

A Lady of a Certain Age

Tomorrow school starts. I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, baking an apple pie, and keeping my mind occupied. Yesterday, two friends and I hiked Korabi mountain. Perhaps, the productivity of that nine and a half hour hike is making me feel restless today, like I want to want to immediately climb another trail. One of my friends GPS'ed the hike, so check out our trail if you're interested.

Today's title comes from a song that's been chosen simply based on how unreasonably often I've been listening to it lately: "A Lady of a Certain Age" by The Divine Comedy.

Playing with shepherd dog puppies. Perhaps, they're called Sarplaniacs. In this area, the shepherds have herds of around 300 sheep, and these dogs help fend off wolves that wander the Macedonian-Albanian border.

On the hike.

At the top.

Compadres before the hike (8:30 AM).

After the hike (9 and a half hours later)

Korabi villagers making a dish called Kukurec (I believe it was called). Almost like a giant kabab, meat from a sheep was skewered on this stick with a lot of the internal organs (liver, heart, lungs, etc.) and wrapped together with the cleaned intestines. Then, the meat was seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley and slowly cooked over an open fire.

Hike sign

Cheese from the village near Korabi, called Radomire.

A view of Peshkopi from a nearby village called Arras.

It Might As Well Rain Until September

One more week until school starts. Trying to make the most of these final days of summer, I've been spending a lot of time outdoors. As part of an initiative with an NGO called Outdoor Albania, a group of friends and I marked several trails around Peshkopi. All of the villages were exceptionally beautiful, and, exemplary of kind Albanian hospitality, at least one family from each village invited us into their home for coffee. As the sun set on our final hike (Grezhdan, Popinare, Herebel), we found a 3-4 day old sheep carcass in a forest and heard the howl of wolves soon after. Spooky. Thankfully, we got back to the car safely, but the experience definitely gave credence to the fear of wolves that I often heard about in Peshkopi.

Today's title comes from a song by Kay Barry that comes to mind as September has arrived and school will begin soon. 

Marking a hiking trail near Peshkopi that connects two villages, Bellove and Cerjan

A sign in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Marking a trail that connects three villages: Grezhdan, Popinare, and Herebel.

A farm fence in Popinare village.

Drinking Turkish coffee and raki made from a fruit called thane (see link)

These two men from Popinare made the raki in the picture above.

A village boy from Popinare on a mule.

The Orthodox Church in Herebel. Unfortunately, it was locked.

Without Me

Having not written anything for a while, it's hard to catch up on all the travel and adventures that have happened over this last busy month. However, it suffices to say that I've had a memorable summer thus far and am sad that it's coming to an end. I traveled to one of the most northern cities of Albania, Bajram Curri, and went to one of the most south, Ksamil. In between, I've taken this summer to fish a lot and visited Vuno (again) and Shengjin, both to go sea fishing. 

During July, I worked with a group of foreigners to renovate an old water mill outside of Peshkopi. We planted pine trees, built a bridge over the river, paved paths, and worked to rebuild the interior as well as the mill itself. With the same group, we explored Grezhdan castle by Peshkopi, climbed Korabi (the tallest mountain in Albania, second in the Balkans), and hiked all over Peshkopi. 

Today's title comes from my favorite song on Mac DeMarco's new album, Another One. When I listen to full albums, I like stuff that I can casually enjoy without concentrating too hard, and, for this, Mac DeMarco has been something of a soundtrack in the background of my Peace Corps experience. 

Jal beach 15 minutes before a storm blew in

An isolated beach near Jal where I went fishing

View from Lezhe castle

View from Korabi Mountain