Jen's addition

Hello to all who visit our site!

I have heard that some of you think I've falled off the face of the earth, or perhaps just didn't know we had this blog site. Truth is, I forgot how to sign on (and sometimes forgot we had it) so I haven't been remotely faithful to 1) adding to it and 2) reading what Mindy's added. Sorry!!

September has brought on cooler weather, or rather less hot weather. There's little fall here, much like Atlanta. There's a lot of construction in the city - roads all over are being redone. This is great because potholes and puddle holes are less frequent causing better traffic flow, and of course meanwhile hindering traffic flow because of all the actual construction sites. C'est la vie! Or, keshtu eshte jeta!

We spent our Saturday morning meeting a friend for breakfast at the Stephen Center (an American style hangout run by missionaries and mainly used by foreigners) so she and Mindy could talk "shop" about teaching English as a 2nd language, and I could send out a birthday e-card for my grandparents. Another friend arrived, so we chilled with him for a bit, and now we're just enjoying the wireless internet connection and hearing English everywhere. It's a good place to work and relax on Saturday, if you're itching for that 'foreign' feel (or, that 'home' feel, as some would see it).

I finally downloaded AIM on my computer - so look me up as "osdosre" (an old high school memory). Life's been going well, and quite honestly I'm starting to think about winding down, since we have less than 3 months left. Already!! Sometimes I'm quite disturbed by this thought because I LOVE it here - my friends, our church, the feel of Europe, etc. I'll miss it tremendously. At the same time, to move back to the States will be a new adventure in itself (and as my parents know, my reverse culture shock can be brutal) and I look forward to seeing what God has planned for me. Mindy and I are both looking into schooling options. She for Social Work, or something related, me for either Seminary (just for study, not necessarily for any degree), or perhaps something more practical - paralegal, etc. Any advice or opinions?

Everyone likes to hear interesting stories, but Mindy's the griot (storyteller). Let's see... here's one that's not so interesting, but was fun and happened yesterday.
3 Albanian friends (Sonila, Aferdita & Aferdita's sister whose name I now forget...) and Min & I went to see a movie last night at 9pm. It was shown at the courtyard in Rogner Hotel in Tirana (a pretty ritzy hotel) by their lovely outside pool and "Bubble's Pool Bar". The deal was to sit by the pool and order something and watch "Evita" outside on a big screen. It was quite nice - surrounded by palm trees and flowers, the yellow balconies and inner walls of the hotel gazing down at us. We sipped at our drinks and contentedly watched the 2 hour movie... until it started to rain. Well, it only began sprinkling off and on really, and the only way to tell which was by watching the drops on the pool water. But as the dramatic ending ensued, so did the rain and by 11:00 we were wondering if the film would end in time for us to get home un-soaked. We now sipped at our drinks and suspiciously watched the movie, and the rain around us. Fortunately, when we decided to get up to leave, the film was also ending and the rain was offering to lighten up. We were relieved to reach home unscathed and with a free shower. :]

Okay, that's it. Just wanted to add something to make it "our" site instead of just Mindy's! :oD

Jen


This is a picture of a bottled water bottle here. It's the most popular English-language joke among foreigners. This is Tepelena water (bottled in the city of Tepelena) and this picture is the English version of what it says in Albanian. We've asked Albanians what "suffled" means. They look at us like we're crazy and tell us it's English.. if we don't know we should look it up in the dictionary! When we convince them that we're not trying to be rude & cocky because English is our first language, but that seemingly this word actually does NOT exist in the English language, they look a little bewildered. We've asked them to define it according to the Albanian version, but most can't. Generally, answers are "bottled" or "gathered from the clear water", or something along these lines... hmmmm. We rarely move on to the "how it gush" and "source of the woods" complexities! ;)




This other is a lovely picture of southern Albania.. near to Greece.