One Summer Night

The snow melted completely last week but a fresh blanket has covered Peshkopi again. However, it seems like the coldest part of this year's winter lasted from December 25th to January 10th. Though it remains brisk outside, I'm no longer shivering in my apartment and have begun to kick off my blankets at night. Last night, I had the new experience of watching the rain gradually slow its fall and float down as snow. Although I'll probably have had enough of cold weather by the end of these two years, I hope to accumulate a few more winter memories like last night before then.

Last week, I visited four different schools to teach creative writing in preparation for a writing exam on February 20th. It's a pace that I couldn't keep up forever, but I certainly find myself much more energetic teaching lessons from Chekhov instead of verb tenses. During the first lesson, we did an exercise of my own creation that mixes haikus and a surrealist game that I played with my mother and brother as a child--the exquisite corpse. In order to introduce a little more conflict in my students' stories this week, I taught them a lesson on good and ill fortune from Kurt Vonnegut.

Today's title comes from Ariel Pink's 2014 album, Pom Pom. While winter has its charms, it can't beat summer.

The back patio of the Tirana Backpacker's Hostel

Tirana at night