Clinton isn't the only one with a street named after himself in Kosova now. George W. Bush Blvd. is a new street in Prishtina. Click here for the article.



It's just strange to me that a country would change the name of a street to be that of another country's president. Do we have streets named after people in America?

ice storm

So Western Massachusetts got hit by a really bad ice storm on Thursday night. Its Saturday night and we are still feeling the effects of it...mainly meaning - NO POWER! Thankfully we have a small generator here, and wood to keep the furnace going...but no electricity to heat up water for a shower or to push the hot air around the house. I am about to go sit in the basement next to the furnace. Its warn down there.

Ok, I will see if I can upload a few pictures. Click on this link to see some pictures. Sorry they are still in raw format and aren't even straightened out yet. That will wait until I have decent internet speed and some power for my computer.

This was a conversation I overheard in my classroom yesterday, between two first graders.

A: You know that day it snowed?
B: Ya.
A: That was God.
B: No, it was magic.
A: Well, God has magic powers.

exhaustion

I definitely don't have the stamina I used to have during college. I remember going for days without sleeping much, now it wears me out. I suppose dealing with children who do not know the meaning of quiet or one person talking at a time helps wear me down also. I had three papers due this week, two of them got turned in. The great thing about grad school is that the professors are all reasonable and know we are all teachers and are flexible in the due date. The problem is that I do not actually have any extra time, as I have a big test next week on a textbook I have hardly opened. Well I am taking tonight off, just relaxing and watching a little TV. I will start back on my paper tomorrow.

I had another story to tell, but I forget it now...too distracted by TV.

My final comment - I love that my grandfather always compliments my cooking.

Sure sign that I am too tired - I have cried twice tonight because of TV. Thats just not right. I need sleep! Goodnight.

I have a blog? Sorry, I had forgotten. Amidst the busyness of my life these days, I have neglected many things - including my homework, the research paper due in 10 days which hasn't been started, cleaning, and of course as you all have come to realize, this blog.

Since my last post I was hired as an ESL teacher for an Elementary school near where I live. Its inner city and a very poor area. The kids I have mostly speak Spanish. Some have just come to the States in the last year. Most have been here for awhile, but have only learned English since starting school. Its a very overwhelming job, especially since its my first time working in an elementary school. The kids are all so needy, and I have a few that are pretty much behavior problems all the time. A second grader getting suspended from school isn't a good start to your school career.

I am also taking two grad school classes for my Master's in ESL. I am enjoying these classes, but now that the papers are due, I am stressing out a bit. (Just a bit for now as I still have a week to procrastinate some more.)

Thats a quick summary of why I have fallen off the face of the earth. Now I am off to see my wonderful nephew and maybe try to work on my paper when he sleeps tonight.

the cutest little boy in the world

I love Nashville. I am so thankful that God gave me this opportunity to come down here for an extended weekend. I think I really needed it. I have really enjoyed being amongst the people I know here, especially my crazy guitar playing friend, who has gotten me to start playing again (and my fingers hurt right now). We had a great relaxing day today...banana pancakes, pig festival, old friends, balcony, fire, and guitars...a most wonderful combination!

More about this weekend later. I should go to sleep now as I have to wake up early for church.

Leaving on a jet plane....

Right now I am sitting on a plane flying over Virginia maybe, soon to land in Nahsville. As I look out the window at the land below, I am reminded that I am no longer in Europe, and this sadens me. I reflect back on my travels in Europe, the excitement of landing back in Prishtina after being away, and the joy of seeing my students and friends each day. I still have not fully come to terms with living in the US again. I know its where I should be. I know I will be happy here. I know this all will take time. I know I will soon have the same joy when I go to teach my new students I have yet to meet. (Well maybe not quite the same, as these with be elementary students, but I am sure I will also find joy in this new job.)

I am excited to be going to Nashville to see my friends there, but it saddens me to be on a plane, and not be heading overseas. ... and to not know when I will be back on a plane going east over the atlantic.

I still have moments where I forget that I am in America, especially when in places like airports. Today both times I got on the plane I had to think in order to make English come out when asking the person in the aisle seat if the window seat was free (lovely southwest choose your own seat thing) and then was surprised when the answer was returned to me in English. I saw some people in army uniforms in the airport and did a double take when i saw the American flag, and was about to talk to them, but remembered all the soldiers here are American. I have no need to talk to them in order to try to get on the American base (which I never did manage in Kosovo.)

I guess it will take me a long time to get used to the life here. I lived in Kosovo for five years, and adapted into the culture and lifestyle there as if it were my own. Now I am trying to figure out what the culture is here again.

On a random sidenote about transitioning, I find it very amusing that people I meet here for the first time think I am from the south. Even during my interview on Monday they mentioned my southern accent. I am sure no one in the south would ever say I have a southern accent, instead they make fun of how I pronounce the word “house” and “aunt” with a northern accent. Its fun to know that I pick up a little accent everywhere I go, and keep it with me. Sometimes a British accent will pop out due to living and working with some people from England, and I have added many British words into my vocabulary because they are more common in Europe. My strange accents and foreign words (for example I tend to say “flat” instead of “apartment”) are a little sign to others, showing how each place I have lived has impacted me and remains in me. Its exciting to think about what the future holds and how my crazy language output will change even more. (Its also fun that some of the words I know from Kosova are actually Turkish and maybe even Arabic. I am listening to a book that takes place in Afganistan, and they talk about eating on a “sofra” which I know is a table that is low to the ground and have eaten at many times myself.)

Happy Birthday to me! 

I got a great birthday present today - a job! I am very exciting. It is all pending a background check and my references, but I am not worried about that. I will be an ESL teacher in an elementary school in the next city over from where I am living. It will be challenging, but I think it will be fun also. I am sure I will have many stories to post about that in the future.

My brother was great and threw a little party for me this past weekend. It was fun. Then this weekend I will be in Nashville. Then off to reality and the working world.

So I took my test on Saturday for the Mass Teacher's License...and we'll just have to wait until the end of October to know how I did. I am really not sure. I didn't feel well about the ESL section, but maybe I will be lucky. The whole test took me about 7 hours on Saturday, from 7:45 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon (thankfully we were given a lunch break). I was happy to be finished - and even an hour early!

Now I am busy again applying for different teaching jobs and hoping someone will finally be desperate enough for a teacher and hire me without my initial license. 

I am still enjoying my classes and even enjoy the multitude of reading we have to do for each class. Its a topic I enjoy, so its keeping me entertained. The most interesting (and unexpected) is that I am learning Chinese in my Second Language Acquisition class. We just spend about 30 minutes at the beginning of class each week, so I won't really know much. But I feel I will have a good base knowledge of the language, if I ever decide to try to study it on my own. So far I can say hello and goodbye. I have to learn a few more sentences that are part of an initial greeting for tonight's class, but once you get past two words I am lost! 

done

I have hit a breaking point in studying I think. I am done! Not that I should be, and not that I feel confident in my knowledge that I don't need to any more. I just don't want to. So I am taking a break on my computer, getting some other stuff done, and then I will study a bit more before going to bed. Tomorrow night I am free. I will even watch a movie! I am so excited.

Tonight I made an apple raspberry crisp because I needed a break from studying. It actually turned out pretty well.  My grandfather was hesitant of the "strange combination" at first, but I believe he was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. All we were missing was some good ole vanilla ice-cream. 

puppy

Instead of studying this past weekend I had the privilege of taking care of my wonderful nephew

and his new puppy!

Owen isn't quite sure what he thinks of the puppy yet.

And is much more interested when the puppy is sleeping and not trying to play.

my grandpa

I am not doing a good job studying right now, so I thought I should actually do something useful and update this.  I wish the stories I think to write on here could just magically appear, but so far that is not possible, and unfortunately you, the reader, will just have to wait until I find a better system to my life here before I update this more often.  

Now on a funny note and to show the state of my mind right now I will tell you what I was just doing in my attempt to "study." I have made up about 100 index cards with the most necessary information (hopefully) I need to know for my test on Saturday. I just finished the cards and instead of reading through them I just kept quickly flipping them like you would a flip book where the pictures move if you flip fast enough. Well I could get any pictures to come out, but I wonder if my mind still retained some of the words on the cards. I doubt it and will try to avoid this study method for the future.

On another note, I think my grandfather is a pretty amazing guy. For those of you who don't know, I moved into his house with him a couple of weeks ago. He is about 84 or something close to that, and he is amazingly active. I never see him during the day while I sit here at the table studying hour after hour. He goes to meet his friends for coffee at 8 every morning (I just realized this yesterday, as I hadn't woken up that early here, before this week.)  Then he spends his day busy fixing this or that, helping a friend cut down a tree, golfing with his buddies, mowing the lawn, and who knows what else. Usually around 4 or 5 he will come inside and say, "Well, I think I will call it a day." He then will read, watch the news, and maybe check his stocks and play some solitaire on the computer for the evening. I hope I will be that energetic and active when I am his age. 

The other night, as we were watching the news about Ike, he recalled a bad storm that hit this area in 1930. At that time he was going to trade school to be a carpenter. The storm was so bad that they couldn't drive all the way home, stopped about half way, and ended up walking home the next day, as there were too many trees down to drive.  This story led to him telling me about his Navy days, and spending 29 months on a ship in the south pacific, without a trip back to the states during that time.  His longest stint being on board the ship for 6 months without ever walking on land. Bombs and artillery were heard most hours of the day. As soon as he came back to the states, he took a month leave, came home and married my grandmother, whom he was engaged to. They had each been writing letters every day to each other while separated. 

I had never heard those stories before, or if I had, I had forgotten them. I look forward to hearing more stories and finding out about the many adventures of my grandfather.

I love getting to know my nephew

He is even cute when he is crying

my new place of residence (view from the back)

my new mode of transportation

Some friends I really miss

I think I am officially overwhelmed with life right now. I started grad school last week and the first class was a blast. I got my book for the class in the mail today, and its big, but I think it will be fun to read. The problem is that I should probably read it, along with three other books I just bought, in the next two weeks. That is a daunting task. I don't know where I ever got the idea that taking the Mass teachers license test was a good idea. Who thought I could do this? The more I read, the more I am getting worried. But I have paid for the test, so there is no turning back. (Otherwise I might have cancelled and called to see if the job I turned down last week was still available.) I am confident that this is the path I should be taking for today, who knows what tomorrow will hold.

Now I just need to figure out how to be more focused and not fall asleep when I open a book.

On a side and happier note, I found a small lake about a half a mile away from my new abode and enjoyed running the trail around it this morning.

I have my second class tomorrow night - language syntax - don't think it will be as much fun as my first class.

grad school starts today

So I am having trouble focusing on anything. If I am home, and I get on my computer I am distracted by the internet and bothered by the solitude. So today I decided to head out to my grad school class a bit early and stop by a Panera to work on my computer. (They have free internet and its only $1.70 for a never ending cup of coffee.) But here I am distracted by all the conversations going on around me...and now I have to go to the bathroom and I am not sure to leave my computer here or not.

A bit earlier there was a family sitting next to me and they were speaking another language. I kept listening trying to figure out what they were speaking....always hopeful to find a fellow albanian speaker. Then my phone rang and my friend from Kosova was calling me. I preceded to speak Albanian on the phone....not even thinking about it. After I hung up, the people next to me asked what language I was speaking. Gosh, why didn't I just ask them first. I found out they were speaking Hebrew, which would have been my guess due to the throat sounds. They told me they were trying to figure out what language I was speaking, as they know many different languages. I explained that Albanian is like none other, and began sharing a bit about my previous five years.

Speaking of the Albanian language, I went out on my mom's boat on Monday, and while cruising through a pretty area I saw a boat named "Kismet." I thought, hmmm, thats albanian for "fate." The first time past the boat I didn't say anything, but the second time past it I asked what the name of their boat meant. I found out its not only Albanian, but also Turkish, with the same meaning.

Well I have my first class as a grad student in an hour. I am not sure if I am ready to be a student again. But I am surely ready to be doing something and meet some people. Wish me luck!

wow

I am in shock...i bought a car today. Actually I bought it a couple days ago, but it was delivered today. I love it. Its a Toyota Scion xD. Its dark gray. I will post pictures later, too busy today to remember to take a picture before it got dark. I never thought I would own a new car.

Tomorrow I have an interview. I am kind of excited and a little nervous. I am not too nervous as its not my number one job choice. But would be nice to get a job. This interview is to work with an organization that does refugee and immigration services. I applied to be an ESL teacher there. I think it would be adult classes, but I am not sure. More info tomorrow! Maybe I will find some Albanians.

america

wow, its fun to sign into blogger and not have everything be in Serbian, a language I don't even understand.

I am still confused when I walk into a store and the people all speak English.

The other day I went to a mall food court by myself, and I chose to sit next to a middle eastern family. Then another non-english speaking family sat on the other side of me. I was happy. No albanian speakers, but just hearing other languages was good.

I did find an Albanian at the airport when I arrived. That was a nice surprise and gave me something to do while waiting for my bags. The guy worked at the airport and I think I really surprised him when I started speaking Albanian to him. Once I am more settled I will start searching for some Albanians near where I will be living.

So I am finally back in the states and trying to figure out life here. Its a bit complicated. I am looking for a job and its not as easy as I had hoped. At the same time I am looking for a car, but again thats hard without a job. I did buy a phone and a computer on the first day and I have been very happy with them. (Ok, i did exchange my phone, i was used to a really simple phone in Europe, but decided since I have the possibility to do so much more on my phone now, why not get a phone that can do stuff. I think I am happy with my choice now.)

While I wait for a job and a car I have been enjoying time with the most wonderful nephew in the world. I can't believe how big Owen is and I have loved every minute I have spent with him so far. He is so cute, makes so many funny faces, and has such a great personality. Click here below to see more pictures of him from my first couple days here.

one week

Its hard to believe that I only have one week before I get on a plane and say bye to this country. I had lunch with some friends today and as we were talking about my departure, I realized that its probably not going to hit me that I am staying in America, until I am there for a couple weeks at least. At first it will be just like vacation...except I will be moving into my grandfather's house, preparing for work, and getting ready for school.

Its hard to pack up 5 years of your life in 4 suitcases. I am not even sure where to start. I have been making piles and going through different sections of my apartment slowly for the past couple weeks, but now I really have to get to it. The funny thing is that the airline told me on Friday that I can actually only take two bags. I just laughed. No thats not really funny, I hope its not true. I am bringing 4 bags to the airport and testing my luck. But I have come to realize its just stuff. I will try to pack my favorite clothes in one bag and gifts and stuff I want from here in another. The other two bags will be stuff that would be nice to have right away, but not necessarily priority. Having bags left here would be a nice excuse for me to come back and visit soon.

I had a goodbye party last week, but a lot of students are on vacation or in their villages and couldn't come. All that came to the party I hope to see again this week. But today I have started saying goodbye. I would like to tell people I will see them again this week, but I know I am going to get busy and I need to just say bye, or better to say "see you later." I know I will be back here, I just don't know when or under what circumstances.

Yesterday I finished up some cover letters and printed up a few copies of my resume and sent them all off. I am trusting that they will all get to where they need to go. I have applied to teach English as a Second Language in three different public schools near my grandfather's house. One is in the same town my mom went to school. I am hoping that I will get one of these jobs, and that way I will have the whole summer off (i.e. a chance to come back here.)

Leadership Program

Here are some pictures from last week in the mountains for our leadership program.

And you can watch a fun video from it too. (Thanks Kaylee!)

emotions

So I have less than two weeks here in this lovely country and I am not sure what to think. Of course I am excited to go home and see my family, but this has been my life for 5 years. Thats a long time! And the uncertainty of the future makes things so much harder.

In the past couple days I have found that I get stressed out easily and cry even easier. The littlest thing sets me off either yelling and screaming at someone (often just inside my head and thankfully not out-loud) or crying. Its a really bad combination. I am trying to be strong and make the most of these last couple days I have here. I am working on trusting God completely, but its hard. I know He will provide all I need - financially, emotionally, physically - but its still hard.

And to top it all off my internet is not working. Thankfully I know about the old fashion dial-up through the phone line. But its awfully slow. I hope to post some pictures from last week at camp once my fast internet is back.

What a summer. A few months ago when I was planning when I would go back to the states I thought, I will take it easy this summer and just enjoy being here during my last couple months. Well, its been anything but that. I now have three weeks left and it seems maybe my last 10 days will be relaxing…and also packing up 5 years worth of stuff and deciding what to put into my 4 bags.

Tomorrow I am off to the mountains for 5 days... not to relax, but for a leadership program for University students. There are 10 of us as staff from the states, and about 25 Albanian students. It should be a great time. I am teaching on Tuesday and have the topic of Communicating in Love. I am excited to see how the students react to the activities and learn through them. Hopefully I will post about this when I return from the mountain. For now I ask you all to lift up this camp, that Truth would stand out and be heard, and that He would be glorified in everything that we do.

I always find it hard readjusting back from vacation. We drove back through the night, then slept all morning. I woke up around 12:30, relaxed a bit with the family I went with, then headed home to my flat. Since I have been here I have been overwhelmed with the work I need to get done, and can't seem to put much order to it to figure out where to start....so I decided to ignore work and look at my pictures. But we took about 1400 pictures during the one week on the beach, so I got tired of the pictures quickly and thought to post a couple here.

Finally on the last night we went and watched the sun set. It was beautiful!

vacation!

I am really excited, I am going on vacation tonight. I have been really stressed trying to get everything together so things will function without me here....which of course they will! But I am hoping I don't stress over the little things I might have forgotten about. So time to go finish cleaning up a bit and I am off.

Hope you all have a great week!

no power

Now that its summer and getting warm, the power is going out fairly often. I think its very funny when I am working away on my computer and get mad that the internet doesn’t work or the printer doesn’t start. Then I look around and see the power has gone off. Sometimes it has been off for 30 minutes before I realize it. I am thankful that I have a laptop with a good battery and I don’t loose my work every time the power goes off.

Well I am off to get a pedicure…for only 8€…we will see how good it is.

(a few hours later)

The pedicure went well, but took two hours. My feet are all nice and smooth now.

too cute

I should be sleeping...but I really love this picture of Owen, and I thought I needed to share it with you all. My mom babysat the other day and took lots of pictures. I love this little boy!

online wedding

Congratulations Rachael and Wesley Morris!

So the connection has been pretty bad and I have only been able to watch bits and pieces, but I still think its pretty cool that I am watching two of my friends get married in Oklahoma right now. I believe there is a camera hooked up to the bottom of one of the chairs at the wedding and that is transmitting a signal through skype to someone's computer in another city. I then am viewing the wedding via msn video call, though a computer that is aimed at the projected screen of the skype broadcasted wedding. Yes, its complicated, but it has worked. I wasn't able to see the whole wedding, but saw the bride and the groom and felt like I joined in their celebration from afar. It was hard not to be able to be there with them for their wedding, but this has helped ease the sadness of missing this day in their lives.

I remember when Rachael and I were here together, working as two single women in a male dominated society. We prayed for a guy to come and help us in our work here. This guy named Wes answered our prayers and was preparing to come to this side of the pond. He quickly got the nickname of FarmBoy, and accepted it with such pride and humbleness at the same time, always going above and beyond what our expectations were of his job duties. I can't say I ever would have expected the two of them to get married when Wes first came...and can be sure that they both didn't expect it then and even denied the possibility for a really long time. But I am so glad that God grew them together and shaped them into who they are today. I am blessed to have been a part of their lives. I can't wait to see what God has in store for them in the future, now as a couple.

cutest baby contest

Sometimes I think I am biased and just because he is my nephew I think he is the cutest baby...but many people have told me he really is very cute! So Lisa (his mom) has entered him into a contest. Please click on either of the pictures and vote for him to win and be on the cover of Parents magazine. Thanks!

village fun

So the other day my friend invited my summer student Bethany and I to her village. I always love spending time in this village and enjoyed it thoroughly. Here are some pictures:

Baby chickens!

Cherry Trees!

A trip down the road to a war memorial that allows you to overlook the beautiful countryside.

It's starting to get dark....but we still stuck around a little longer to enjoy the view.
Then it started raining...and we started running back to the car.
A good meal is always enjoyed after a run in the rain. I love the food here!

a drive in the countryside

Saturday I had to go pick up some friends in a village, so we decided to make it a road trip. We loaded up in the car and set off for a fun adventure. We stopped to shop, then to eat dinner, then for a photo shot, then we finally made it to the village. The countryside is so beautiful right now. Surprisingly there was an outdoor party going on once we got there, so we stayed to hear some of the band (and loose some of our hearing.) The music was really loud and not very good, so we didn't stay long and went on our way back home. The ride home was very uneventful compared to the ride there...except that two people had to ride in the very back. Maybe that was fun for them - or maybe not.

Yesterday

Happy Father's day to all dads! (a day late) I was busy all day yesterday, then came home with plenty of time to make some phone calls, but of course, the power went off. So I was not able to send emails, make phone calls or do anything for father's day. At least I told the dads that are here Happy Father's Day. Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

cast away

You were shipwrecked and landed on a deserted tropical island with lots of fruit trees and fish. Thankfully a few things washed up on the shore from the boat - a CD, a coat hanger, a comb, some string, a can opener, a paint brush, and a bread knife. You have only these items to survive, what will you do with them?

storms

I love watching and listening to thunder and lightening storms. This week we have had one almost every night here, and its been great. I don't know why I enjoy them so much, but I do. Almost makes me giddy when I hear lightening strike. I think its the power that goes with it that makes me bask in the awesomeness of God....if that makes any sense. One of my friends here is afraid of the storms, and prefers the windows to be closed. I on the other hand prefer the windows open so I can hear the rain and the thunder. Currently I am typing on my computer and at the same time looking out the window. One bolt of lightening just hit a few minutes ago and made such a loud noise that I jumped. But thats all I got for a show this afternoon. Maybe more will come tonight. Its more fun when its dark out and the lightening lights up the sky.

The rain is good and the weather has stayed nice and cool so far. The only problem is that the other day I got really wet because I didn't have an umbrella with me. I am learning to take it with me, even if the day starts out sunny.

summer

I believe that summer is officially here. How do I know this? Here is my list:

1. I get sweaty walking or doing anything, and its only going to get hotter!
2. My summer team has arrived and will start their activities this week.
3. We had a cookout in our yard with the different families living here.
4. I am no longer the only one wearing sandals.
5. Fruit is in abundance and tastes so good!!
6. I just want to be outside all the time and am having trouble actually getting work done.
7. I have eaten ice-cream every day this past week.
8. I cleaned my balcony and can sit outside with my computer and enjoy the evening breeze.
9. Everything is green and the fields of wildflowers are beautiful.
10. High school students finished school for the summer.

So thats a quick summary of whats going on here. I am home tonight, don't have any guests, and its actually cool, so I should get some work done now while I can.

free at last

Here is a video made by an American who has lived here since 1999. A short documentary type movie on the recent events here. Okay, its not too short, as its 12 minutes, but a good explanation of the recent events here. Enjoy!

the golden years

A little over a month ago I started conversational English classes at the local University here. In the past I have focused on grammar classes, but as my time is nearing the end, I decided it was best to just have a conversation class and avoid all the planning that grammar classes require. I have created the lessons for these classes from a combination of stuff I find online and a book I have. Many weeks so far I have finished my lesson prep without being satisfied with the topic or content, but without time or energy to do more. Each week I have drudgingly headed out to class, trying to come up with something more interesting, each time coming up with nothing.

Often in the middle of class I have even said to the students, “I didn’t see the conversation going this way, but its great.” Amazingly I have left each class surprised at how well the lesson went, shocked by how much the students talked and what I learned through their conversations.

One week my lesson topic was “The Golden Years.” I planned to talk about retirement and the pros and cons of forcing one to retire. The title, The Golden Years, wasn’t actually planned into my typed up lesson in any way. It was just the title of the lesson. Then as I started class I had a creative idea, I wrote “The Golden Years” on the board and started asking the students what they thought this meant.

In each class (I teach four classes of the same lesson) the students pretty much agreed that their “golden years” have already past and were when they were 17/18 years old. They think you are old when you reach about 50. One student is saving money for the future. No one thinks of what they will do or how they will survive when they are older. One group said the average age to die here is 57. Most said there is no point in working after you are 65. Some argued that experience isn’t that important in most jobs and that new technology has replaced the need for experience.

All of these comments surprised me, and even after I challenged what they said and played devil’s advocate in each situation, they usually didn’t change their ideas. I understand that these students have not lived in a stable society and do not know what the future holds. They don’t know what it will be like when they are older or if they will even find a job to start with. Why think about tomorrow when today has so many problems of its own? That’s the general consensus for the younger generation here. Yes, they plan for the near future, finishing school, getting a higher degree, finding a good job, starting a family, but that’s pretty much where it ends. Of course there are many exceptions to this generalization I have made, but this is the average from what I have gathered from my students.

I have thoroughly enjoyed these conversations I have been having with my students lately. After being here for nearly 5 years, I am still learning more about them each day.

I could go on about this topic and what I have learned from these students, but this is all I have time for today. I will leave you all that option to think about this further and what implications this has on our work here. I hope to write more about some of the other lessons soon.

Vendi Im - English subtitles

Here is a video I posted a couple months ago, but since it was in English, no one knew what they were talking about. Here is another video of the same song, with English subtitles. (Gotta love YouTube!)

Hope you all enjoy!

owen

My nephew is growing so fast! He has changed so much in the last two months since I saw him. A few more months and I will see him again...and I can't imagine how big he will be then.

vinegar

Thanks to my new colleague, I found a wonderfully easy solution to clean calcium build-up on my hot water heater. The water here is very high in calcium, and so many things get a calcium build up on them very quickly. The coils in my hot water heater are not very easy to scrub clean (due to their shape) and I have never been able to keep it very clean. Now I have a solution - white vinegar. Just pour it on and let it sit. Then a quick swipe of the sponge and whala - shiny and clean. I was very impressed. Due to the amazing ease of this solution I thought I would share this with anyone else who might have this problem.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost


I came across this old, familiar poem today, and I liked it.
I think it sums up my life, and how I am feeling, very well right now.

A day in the fields

Often I spend the weekend at my friend's house in the village. This weekend they had to go out to their fields to repair a fence and get rid of some weeds. In typical Kosovar fashion, as a guest I was not allowed to help work, so I brought a book along and enjoyed the great weather and wonderful views.

I love sheep. When we went over to try to pet them, they all ran away.

.