Diamond Day

Today is Bayram in Albania. If I understand it correctly, today is the first day after Ramadan. Therefore, it's the first day in a month that the people who fasted can eat, drink, and smoke between the hours of sunrise and sunset--not an easy task during these longer summer days. 

Presently, I'm cooking fasule. Since I wrote my last post while making the same dish, it does feel a bit redundant. However, soup-making lends itself well to writing. For three, four hours, I'm bound to the stove, stirring the pot every ten minutes and checking that my pressure cooker doesn't explode. At the very least, I'll try to make a different soup during my next post.

The weather is marvelous today. It just stopped raining and a cool breeze is drying my freshly mopped floors. The gas on my stove is on the lowest setting and the wind keeps threatening to blow out the flame. If it doesn't start raining again, I hope to make it out to the hot springs just outside of Peshkopi, an hour'ish walk from my apartment.

Yesterday, I went for a stroll, wanting to buy a flannel jacket, and stumbled into a productive day. All by coincidence, I met a carpenter (the father of one my students) who offered to help me make garden beds and two separate gardeners who each claimed to be the most knowledgeable botanist in town. Then, about four nights ago, the owner of the hostel officially gave me the green light to garden at the hostel. All in all, it seems as if my garden is theoretically coming together.

----Five'ish Hours Late----

I did visit the hot spring, and it was a spectacular experience. The water could have been a little hotter. However, we met a wonderful family there and I was glad to take my first bath in four months. The people of Peshkopi believe in the healing power of the waters there and go there once a year for 10 to 20 straight days to heal their various ailments. I hope to start such a pilgrimage sometime soon.

Since it's been such a pleasant day, today's title comes from one of my favorite songs: "Diamond Day" by Vashti Bunyan.

The fasule from last week

A view of Peshkopi from a nearby village

Me at the hostel

Strange Powers

I've been back in Peshkopi for a few days now. While the weather is hot and sweaty in the south of Albania, Peshkopi continues to look as if it's going to rain.

It's 3 o'clock, and I'm cooking some food that will hopefully last me until tomorrow evening. I just took the pilaf out of the oven and a pot of fasule soup has simmered for its second hour of four on the stove.

As someone passionate about cooking, I find fasule to be a useful exercise for an often overlooked culinary quality: self-restraint. Without delving too deeply into the cooking process, today's pot contains 1/4 kilogram of white (perhaps navy) beans, one small onion, one very small carrot, one tbsp of tomato paste, water, and a little salt, pepper, and butter. It's tempting to get fancy with this dish and feels awkward cooking with such small quantities of vegetables. I've cooked the dish twice before and consider my previous attempts "works in progress" at best. This time, I held back on green peppers, chicken stock, and most all my creative impulses. However, so far, it looks as if I'll be proving the old adage: "third time's a charm."

Continuing the trend of my last post, today's title comes from a song that I've been listening to a lot lately: "Strange Powers" by The Magnetic Fields.

My new carpet!

New body soap that I bought, an impulse purchase that I'm quite proud of. 

Here Comes Summer

Tuesday was my last day of class. The teachers are organizing their registers and calculating grades while I've been packing my bags for a trip to the south of Albania. Today was the first day that I haven't cooked since arriving here. I cleaned my apartment for five hours yesterday and didn't dare to make a mess again till I've come back. 

I don't have anything particularly exciting to talk about but took a few pictures today that show a little of what I'm doing in Peshkopi. 

One of my biggest accomplishments of today was that I bought a new rug. If you look at my last post, you can see the beige rug that I have in my living room. In Albania, it's customary to take immaculate care of your home, and I've found that the rug is a primary symbol of this virtue. 

Since clearing the furniture and cleaning a giant beige rug is something that I'm unwilling to do every week, I bought a used rug today. The rug charmingly reminds me of Mexico and, vis-a-vis, Los Angeles. Also, since it was purchased from a used goods store, its smell reminds me of Los Angeles thrift stores (as I imagine all thrift stores everywhere have the same odor of age and dust). I'll take a picture of it once I wash it. 

Besides the photo of the volleyball court, the pictures below are of a soon-to-open backpacker's hostel in Peshkopi. A new friend of mine will be one of the managers there, and I'm terribly excited to help out there over the summer. Who knows what I'll do. Clean, weed, man the desk, wait the cafe. All of it sounds wonderful. I'm hoping to play music at the cafe and plant some flowers.

None of my photos come anywhere close to conveying how cool this building is and how wide the landscape. It's a mansion perched above Peshkopi with a beautiful view of the rolling green hills of Northern Albania. During the communist era, the building was reserved for politicians and other influential guests. So, within the bullet proof doors of this building, there's a lot of history and enormously high ceilings in each room.

Today's title comes from a song that I came across last week ("Here Comes Summer" Jerry Keller). I'm not sure if this titling system will be a persistent feature of this blog but I felt like pointing out a song that's been stuck in my head lately. 

The court where I play volleyball

The entrance to the hostel

If you move inside the gate towards the right (from the last picture), this is the veranda. This is where they plan to build a cafe.

The rear end of the hostel. The door on the bottom right leads into the kitchen.

This is a view a little to the left of the picture above. Again, that's the veranda where the cafe will be.

 A view of the second floor hallway. The veranda ahead faces the front gate. It's where famous politicians (e.g. Enver Hoxha) would deliver speeches to Peshkopi.

The living room and future common room. In the bottom left, those are vinyl on the shelf. The first solid collection that I've found in Albania. Maybe 40 or 50 records, mostly traditional Albanian music and Italian instrumentals. Sadly, no Italo-Disco.