Weekend in Greece, as you do

So the UN here is Kosova occasionally (or maybe frequently, I don't know, I'm still kind of new here) organizes bus trips to places. And this month they had two weekend trips to Paralia, Greece. Having been in school for a lengthy two weeks (and not even full weeks), I clearly needed a break. So last Friday after school we boarded a bus filled with various international types and were on our way.

You may or may not have heard in the news, there have been some issues between Kosova and Macedonia about border crossing. So our journey to Greece involved first driving into Serbia, then into Montenegro, and finally into Greece, with all sorts of border stops. (Usually I love getting stamps in my passport, but sadly these stamps were all so faint that the only part you can actually read is the date) So we didn't roll into Paralia until about midnight. Basically we checked in and passed out, all pretty happy to be horizontal instead of wedged uncomfortably in a bus seat.

When the sun came up we suited up and headed down to breakfast. First of all, our hotel and its restaurant were right on the beach, and on top of that the breakfast was a huge smorgasbord of eggs, cereals, baked things, beans, feta, tomatoes and cukes, fruit, and of course fabulous Greek yogurt and honey.


We spent all day at the beach. Both days were actually beautiful - not a cloud in the sky, in the 80s - it was heaven. The water was a little bit cool, but not bad once you got in and the beach was walled off from the open sea, so it was pretty calm. The hotel had lounge chairs, little tables, and umbrellas all set up. The only catch was that you had to order stuff from the hotel bar/restaurant. So we had drinks served to us all day and also occasionally they would bring us little bowls of potato chips or nuts.


We didn't really realize that this snack service was kind of a thing until after dinner.

There were about 10 of us on the trip who knew each other, so we all went out looking for somewhere nice to eat and to try a little local food. I ordered some sort of spicy meatball thing which was delicious. We had some amazing little salads beforehand - beet salad, carrot salad, coleslaw - and some tzatziki with bread. The owner (?) of the restaurant had sort of lured us in with the promise of a free glass of wine. There was also a free shot of ouzo.

After dinner, some of us went to get another drink or two and we found this cute little bar with comfortable outdoor seating and twinkle lights. When our drinks came, so did a little tray of cucumber and tomato slices. Then there were some chips. And some little ham and cheese toasty sandwiches. and a small pizza. and a little shot of liqueur in an edible chocolate glass. We probably could have done without dinner, that's how much food they were bringing us at this bar.


Like I said, day two was just as beautiful and it started out exactly the same way. We spent the morning on the beach, then wandered around the shops a little bit. I bought lentils from the grocery store and some kalamata olives (you know, as a souvenir). On the way to get our bus back to Kosova we stopped to pick up a little chicken gyro which was delicious.

Luckily, border issues were solved over the weekend (?? Seems impossible, work getting done on the weekend) and we had a much shorter trip back to Pristina. Though I knew going into the trip that we might get back late on Sunday night and that I would have to be up early for school the next morning, I decided it would be worth it. And it was. AND we got back into Pristina by 8pm, so I even had time to pull myself together and have a relaxing evening before jumping back into school.

I can't wait to see what other weekend trips are being planned. This weekend home and doing nothing has been great so far, it's really giving me a chance to feel like I'm catching up on some grading and even planning ahead for my classes.

lightbulbs. again.

I feel like a lot of my life here is consumed by thinking about lightbulbs. I know I wrote about my bathroom light saga already, but in the past week I lost one of two lightbulbs in the living room (on a three bulb fixture- one of them was already out) and then the single bulb in my kitchen started flickering....

I was a away for the weekend, so I sort of forgot. And then last night I cooked dinner while wearing my headlamp. So on the way home from school today I stopped to buy some lightbulbs. I bought four, feeling fairly confident that I had the correct size (a mistake I had made last time).

Well, I was right on the size. But. One of the fixtures doesn't appear to work at all in the living room. The other one blew the bulb when I turned the light switch on. Eventually I got another of the bulbs to work. Then the kitchen. First a bulb that didn't seem to work (and I was starting to fear that I would have to call the landlady again because the fixtures don't work) and then finally one that did.

I can't explain. And my suspicion is that the bulbs may have been faulty to begin with, in addition to my apartment possibly having been wired by a teenage amateur electrician. But I have lights in all my rooms. For now.

The other exciting thing is that last weekend in Greece (and I will do a post about Greece, probably tomorrow) I found lentils. Lentils!!! I'm pretty excited about them. People keep telling me that they do exist here in Pristina, but I have yet to find them. Apparently that's how it goes; sometimes you can find stuff and sometimes you can't. So this afternoon, beneath the glow of a new lightbulb, I made an amazing lentil salad with tomatoes, peppers, olives, and feta in a delicious mustard-balsamic vinaigrette. So. Amazing.

I still feel like, foodwise, I'm struggling to figure out what I can and want to cook. The ingredients are not so unfamiliar, it's just that there's not the same variety of options. So I find myself making a lot of spinach mac and cheese, pasta with olive-tomato-feta sauce, grilled cheese and ajvar (it's kind of a roasted pepper spread), I made a frozen pizza once, some frozen chicken cutlet things (in fact, I think the fact that nearly all of the chicken is frozen and my freezer is TINY is the reason I haven't bought more meat), eggs over fried potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and now this lentil salad. I haven't been able to get myself back into green salads like I'd been eating at home and I only made some smoothies the first week I had my blender. Also I've been super obsessed with chips, particularly ketchup flavored Ruffles. I'd like to get back to a little more healthy diet, when I get time to figure out what that might look like here. Though I don't think I'll have that much time any time soon.

And I promise to write about school sometime. It's just right now, I kind of hate all my kids and I'm feeling frustrated about stuff. But soon.

Blinded by the light

So for about a week now I have been without a light in my bathroom. The bulb went out and I bought two light bulbs that did not fit in the socket. (don't laugh, it's more complicated than you think!) So finally I called the landlady and she sent her son up to fix it. Well, he came up with another light bulb. Which also did not fit (see - it wasn't just me!). So he thought it was a problem with the fixture itself, but the guy who does that wouldn't be around until Monday.

Well, Monday came and went; I was busy and wearing my headlight in the bathroom at night was starting to seem like the usual. But this morning was the first time I had to get up early - my normal school wake-up time - and it was a little bleak in there. I actually set my headlight on the window sill so that it would shine into my shower. And I planned to call the Landlady again when I got home from school.

But when I got home I found - a rug in my kitchen. Sort of exciting, it does tie the room together, if you know what I mean. However, the bathroom light was still out. So I called the landlady again and she promised to send her son up, he forgot to come the yesterday. As I waited I put away some dishes and found that in my silverware drawer there was a silverware holder - also pretty exciting.

FINALLY the son showed up and managed to fix the light. Well, more or less. It works. But he's going to have the normal electrician guy come check sometime.

So yeah. LIGHT in my bathroom. This place is great. :)

First Day of School, except not really

So today was billed as the "first day of school" but it's hard for me to feel like that is the correct way to describe what happened today...

Last Friday when we got our schedules (yes, that is when I actually found out what I'm supposed to teach) someone asked, casually, if Tuesday would be a half day like it had been in the past. The response was something along the lines of "hmm, I guess so. We have done that before" (as if this hadn't crossed anyone's mind yet this year). So apparently that was the plan. The students would come in, go in to the auditorium (actually, it's the "amphitheater" - that just seems like a grand description for what this place is) and listen to a little talk by our Superintendent (our new principal is en route from Egypt at the moment). After that the homeroom teachers (not me) would read off their list of students and take them to homeroom where they would get their schedules. The last part of the half day was supposed to be the kids coming around to each of their classes for about 10-15 minutes.

Except, and I guess I should have expected this at this point, that's not what happened.

Last night we got an email with the actual schedule for the day - Welcome presentation in the amphitheater, homeroom teachers - except no student schedules handed out and no shortened classes. No actual teaching required.

So that was day one. *sigh* oh well. I got a lot of organization taken care of in my classroom - which was great since most of yesterday I couldn't even get in there because they were putting in a new carpet. I got my syllabus copies. The carpet glue smell had another day to air out.

This afternoon we got our class lists and I suspect that a large part of my classes will involve me trying to pronounce the students' names and them laughing. Should be great.

The Highlight of my Week

So it's been a long week of, well, not actually accomplishing very much, but doing a lot of things.

At this point I have a pretty good idea of where I live and I can find the stuff that really matters: the grocery store (in fact, two grocery stores), school, the euro store, and ATMs. I'm also able to find places where other teachers live and wander around a smallish area without getting irrevocably lost. I feel like these are all pretty good things, but to call them "accomplishments" seems a bit... of an exaggeration.

I've also met lots of people, about half of whom I have forgotten their names almost immediately. I have a classroom and IDs to log on to the school computers, and I have some supplies to start the year and as of Friday I actually have a schedule of the classes I'll be teaching. Well, probably.

Something that I've been desperate to discover ever since I was hired way back in February is what classes I am teaching. So on Friday we were actually given our schedules. Except that apparently it's not uncommon for people to not even register for school until the first week is already underway. So the schedule I have now could potentially change, but hopefully not too much.

As of right now I am teaching 2 sections of World History (though because "high school" really starts in 10th grade here - and World History is a 10th grade class - it is possible and even likely that they will add another class of World History), 3 sections of US Government (which is actually not even going to be that anymore, at least not exactly, my wonderful department head and I looked at the syllabus from last year and thought that it resembled the US History class far too closely - so we proposed a new curriculum which we are calling "Comparative Government" that will look at different types of government, do some case studies of different countries, talk about civics and citizenship, and changing government through civil and violent means), and 1 section of Geography (which would be fun and a very small class, but if they do have to add another World History this little group will likely be absorbed into another section).

(boy, that was a lot of parenthetical commentary)

BUT - that's not even the highlight of my week. The highlight of my week was that today we went to the mall - which is really like a mall - and I bought a blender. I'm so excited to make myself a smoothie in the morning. :)