Urime Vitin e Ri

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas has come and gone...and I have to admit that I enjoy the holiday for the true reason for the holiday more in the Balkans than in America. Don't get me wrong...I love being home and being in America and with my family...but its too commercialized and materialistic here. It seems that Jesus is left out completely....or at least put on the back burner to Santa.

I hope that this Christmas each one of you was able to reflect on the gift of the birth of Christ. I am thankful most of all for the new life that God has given me, through Christ's birth and his sacrifice so that I may have new life filled with joy and love.

Overall I have been having a great time here in the states. Here are a few pictures from my time so far.

I am staying at my brother's new house and loving it. He is a great host. My first night here we had fondue.



Then I went back to my college and met up with my freshman year roommates.



As I was flying back to the states this time, I was thinking about what type of food I wanted to eat. Strangely enough I decided I wanted sushi. So my brother took me to his favorite place.



We also helped my mom's work fill 250 food baskets for the holidays.



And met up with more college friends.



And Christmastime!

I am in America...and very tired.

Good night!

5:30am and my alarm goes off…

Where am I? Do I have to wake up right now? How much longer can I stay in bed? These thoughts quickly roll through my head, and then I realize where I am and that I need to wake up and get ready. A taxi is coming is 30 minutes to pick me up and take me to the airport.

5:50am….I am ready, I go to the kitchen to grab something for breakfast. I glance out the window. Wow, the taxi is already here. I quickly grab a biscuit, wrap it in a napkin and thrown it in my bag, then rush out the door, in case the taxi is impatient and doesn’t wait for me – I am still in the Balkans.

6:00am…in the taxi, hoping the driver will actually take me to the airport. Why did he ask me which way to go? Like I know! Ok, Ok, I recognize the road now, my fears calm down. The driver passes the time by asking me a million questions…I can hardly hear him because the car is so loud….muffler, what’s that?

6:45am…I arrive at the airport, check in, drink coffee. No lines, hardly any people. Wow, this is easy. Many people stare at me as I sit alone in the café drinking coffee, eating my biscuit, and reading my Bible. I enjoy the relaxation and the start to my day.

7:30am…free wireless internet here? Wow, I am amazed. What development in one of the poorest countries in Europe. Meanwhile my computer is plugged into an extension cord which the airport check-in computer is plugged into. Interesting dichotomy of development and lack there of. Enjoy chatting with a friend in the states while I write this blog.

8:15am…take off (we’ll see if this happens on time. I only have a 2 hour layover in Prague, so I hope all goes on schedule.)

Tomorrow

I can't believe that this week is already over. This afternoon I will drive down to the city I will fly out of tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night I will land in Boston. I am excited - but I still have lots to do in the next couple hours. Thankfully, I am not flying out of the airport in my city. This decision was purely because I got a cheaper flight from a different city. But for the past two days, no planes have left the airport in my city. The area around the airport is completely white - no, not with snow - the fog is back. So today, while thinking of my flight tomorrow morning (and thinking about my flight last year that did not take off as planed, delaying and messing up all my travel plans) I am happy to fly out of a city a little more south of here, and hopefully without fog.

I believe I had more to write on here...but the minutes are passing away and I am still not packed. I should get to that now.

Fire

P.S. I really love my stove!

Christmas is coming

Well thankfully for the moment, the stress has passed. I successfully wrote my exams, and prepared and taught the review classes. Today I felt confident enough in my work that when a friend unexpectantly showed up at my door, I didn't flip out. Instead we put up some Christmas decorations, but actually I think she just laughed at me - and I put up the decorations. I wasn't going to decorate my apartment this year, as I kept not having time. But today as I pulled out my tree to bring it downstairs to our office, I found a few other decorations. I am very happy now that they are up. I am constantly playing Christmas music and now I have some red garland hanging from the wall...and a tree to look at in our office...its Christmas time. Also, this is the first year that the city has decorated some for Christmas - its just beautiful. Actually, its not the city that is decorating (as its a Muslim country) but one Austrian Bank has decorated the main streets with lights. Its nice because there is not the extreme commercialism of Christmas, but a few cute lights here and there.

Last night I went to two concerts. The first was a classical concert performed by a student graduating from the Music faculty (department). He had to put on this concert to graduate. It was good. During the concert we (me and two of my students) were sitting with a music professor. He told us about another concert that night, and gave us his invitation. So we proceeded to the local Philharmonic Orchestra concert. I didn't know this country had anything like that. I was impressed, and excited to go. It made me miss playing the French horn - which I haven't touched in about 10 years. I miss being part of a band. So I am happy that I have two new musical friends that will inform me of future musical events.

With all this said...I am going to bed. Its my goal to go to bed before midnight....maybe even be asleep by midnight as its now 11:20 and I am almost ready for bed. Now that would just be amazing! I have been averaging a bedtime of 3am lately. And I have been very tired.

Naten e mire

Stress

This week is reminding me of what I was like back in college. When I get stressed out I get sick and moody. Thats how I feel now. I have too many things that have to get done before I leave in exactly one week . And because I will be gone for a couple weeks I want to spend more time with my friends, but that is getting cut out of my schedule this week, which I hate.

This week I have to give two exams (which I stayed up late last night writing, but they are done) review for the exams in both classes (which I am not prepared for yet), proofread a movie script that has been translated into English, create a powerpoint presentation on this country (as I am speaking at a school my first day back in Amera - which I am not regretting saying yes to), visit my old city and some friends there, get my legs waxed and a pedicure (this might have to be cut out, but I need it), buy some christmas presents here...

I am sure the list goes on, but thats all I could think of for today. I really should create a real list or I am sure to forget some things. For example I was planning to go back to my old city tonight to visit my friends there. But as I was writing an exam last night I looked through my class notes. There I saw the note I made myself saying I will meet a friend and go to a concert tonight. So back to square one on when I will have time to go back to my old city. Can I have just a few more hours in each day?

Well I should get back to work. I was hoping this would be a little stress relief, but not sure if it helped.

life

What esle does a girl want? I now have fast internet, a wood stove, and great cable channels. Yesterday I changed internet services and I am amazed at how fast a 256 connection is. Now I can listen to online radio, watch live webstreaming from my church, and download things so much faster. I am a happy girl right now.

And what makes everything even better - in one week I am flying to America for Christmas. I am very happy to go and see my family and friends. It will be a nice break for me. I have been very busy these past few months, with many changes, so I am ready to sit back and relax - well maybe not relax, but at least a break from work.

Its foggy again and I am staying home today. Now I should go clean as some girls are coming over tonight to watch a movie.

my lovely stove

My stove

The sun has been shining for two days now and I am happy. Sunday night there was a lot of fog again, and I started to get slightly depressed. Its amazing how much the weather changes my mood. Today I have been very happy, and eager to get out of my flat and go for a walk (which actually won't ever happen - except for the short walk to class.)

The big news for today is that I have a wood stove. Electricity here is very expensive, and last winter, although I was only here for part of it, I was cold. Using electric heaters, it takes more money than I am willing to spend to get a room warm. Last winter I kept thinking back to the joy of the wonderful heat the wood stove in my last house provided. Its a different type of warmth...okay a little smokey....but really toasty warm. I love it. So I looked around and decided to buy myself a woodstove. I think I will end up saving money in the long run - and for sure I will be warmer. I actually bought the stove on Saturday night, but then when we got it upstairs we realized we didn't have all the right pieces. Then sunday was my landlord's daughter's birthday, so we left it another day. Yesterday I was busy getting ready for class....and finally today we put the stove together. Although its fairly warm today and there is not a need for a fire, I started one up right away . I was too excited. Thankfully the fire started quickly (we'll see if they are always that easy. Sometimes it takes forever to get the fire started) and warmed up the room nicely. I am very happy to have a stove again. The best part of this stove is that it is small, unlike the typical cooking stoves here that are really big, but it still has a part to cook in (I love cooking in a wood stove - gives me a nice sense of accomplishment) and the fire part has a pretty glass window so you can see the fire. Its just wonderful. I will try to borrow someone else's camera and take a picture soon.

Ok, I am off to teach now.

Weather

There was this big yellow thing in the sky today....I am not sure what it was.

Finally the clouds started to break today and the sun peaked through a little.

Yesterday (wow, yes, just yesterday, although it seems like a week ago) I met a friend for coffee in the morning. I walked 15 minutes to meet up with her. We greeted each other and started walking. "Its such a nice day today," my friend commented. I stopped walking and looked around. At that moment I realized there was not fog anymore. (Although still very cloudy - funny that after 5 straight days of thick fog a clear, but cloudy day is great weather.)

Every other day this week, as soon as I woke up, I looked out the window - questioning if the white blanket outside was fog or finally snow. Each day I was disappointed as I saw it was more fog. Yesterday I woke up fairly early (for me) as I had much work to do, and skipped the look out the window. It was still very cloudy, so I just assumed the fog was still there. Thankfully, I was wrong.

(Comment on the picture in the previous post: A friend from here could not even recognize where the picture was taken. Once I explained where I was standing while taking the picture she understood the great amount of fog there really was.)