Wednesday October 3rd through Sunday October 7th 2018
Mark left for Chicago at 2am this morning, so I was up getting ready for work alone which was a little weird. After school I had an appointment to meet with our old landlord, Elton, to revoke our apartment contract. Anri, the real estate agent who found us the apartment was supposed to be there as well, but he bailed last minute and left me to fend for myself. I had to sign a ton of documents in Albanian, none of which the notery or Elton could translate for me. I was really frustrated leaving there because in addition to signing those documents, I had to pay a fee that I wasn't aware of. Luckily for me, after my 'Elton Encounter', Liz took me to Billionaire Club for a drink (I don't know why they call it that because it's not any fancier than a regular bar and the drinks aren't any more expensive and the people aren't any better looking) but the beer was good and the patio was comfy so I'm not complaining. Then we went to this awesome japanese restaurant where we split ramen and sushi (the ramen was better than anything I've had in the states, go figure) T top it all off, our bosses, Erlindi and Eda were there, so they treated us to a bottle of hot saki. A perfect end to a not so perfect afternoon.
Thursday
Liz came over after school and we indulged in a bottle of wine and made spaghetti and salad for dinner. I attempted to make fresh out of the oven bread but had a blonde moment and set the oven temperature according to Fahrenheit as opposed to Celsius. Needless to say within minutes the bread was burnt to a crisp. Whoops!
Friday
Today is international teacher's day so our school celebrated by throwing a barbecue. There were grilled meats, salad and veggies and it was all delectable. There was even beer. You heard correctly, beer, at a school function. Our boss didn't understand why we were so impressed by the beer (it was just korca) so we tried to explain to him how in the states there's no way, no how, nu-uh that there'd ever be beer served on school grounds at a school function. Shortly thereafter we heard him tell the photographer not to photograph anyone with beer in their hands. oops.
Saturday
I took the bus all over kingdom come trying to get to an open credins bank. In case you were wondering, out of all of the locations in blokku, none were open. After being out for two hours and having no luck (besides getting to talk to Mark on the phone and discovering a gelato place with 30 cent cones) I somehow managed to get on the wrong bus home. You heard correctly, me, Jaclyn Agnes McCutcheon, direction aficionado went the wrong way on the bus. I hopped off, raced across the street and tried to catch the next one going in the opposite direction. By the time I hopped on I was so frustrated that these two boys took one look at me and offered to get off the bus and walk me home. What? Oh no you don't have to do that. Yes they do said the woman behind me on the bus. Ok then I guess I'm being escorted home by two boys who are no more than 13 years old. Sweet. Also, as we were getting off the bus the woman explained to me that the boys spoke no English, only Albanian and Italian but that they knew where we were going and they'd get me there safely. Oh jeez! What am I getting myself into? Google Translate was heavily employed for the next 25 minutes of my life. I bid the boys farewell and headed into the bakery to pick up sweets for one of my coworker's flat warming parties and then into conad for a bottle of wine. As soon as Liz and I started up the hill it began raining. Lovely. Cary's flat is at the very top of my hill. There are 32 steps up to his building and then 96 steps up to his unit. Woof is it a workout. I was ready to open that bottle of wine halfway up the hill. (I didn't though!) Cary has an amazing view of the city and can see all of the fireworks that are shot off each night (did I mention there are fireworks in Tirana every night?!) After spending some time relaxing with our coworkers Liz and I made our trek down the 96 steps, then the 32 steps and then finally down the wet slippery hill. As a reward for our hard work, we grabbed a drink at one of the bars along the main road.
Sunday
Sunday was the day for the half marathon and 10k run in Tirana. Liz had been training for the 10k so I told her I'd come out to cheer her on. I was in the finish area, but didn't realize the half mar and 10k finished in different places so I missed Liz actually crossing the finish line :( She was super proud of her finish though and after we took some pictures and enjoyed some of the free treats we walked to Duff for a brunch fit for Americans. We had delicious tea in these amazing cups that included a strainer in addition to my sandwich which was cheese, pear, bacon and jam. Duff for the win!
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