More soccer, coffee, a night out, a new washing machine (!), and a secondary project

It’s been a couple of busy weeks since my last post.

With some of my fellow soccer buds - I still haven't perfected the double-headed Albanian eagle (as the kids keep pointing out!).

Last Sunday was another soccer game in town – the last until the season starts again in the fall. This time it was a “friendly match” with the visiting French national team v. the Albanian squad. France is picked as one of the favorites for the European Cup next year. Albania pulled off a mega upset, beating a stunned French team, 1-0, on an amazing penalty kick. OK. I get it. Americans have a hard time appreciating a game where one British footballer could say “Zero – zero is a big score!” I know, funny. Here’s the highlight of the winning goal (on a free kick, I get it, a free kick is an unobstructed kick awarded after a foul, just like a free throw, excepts from the spot) – you can do this…it’s just a few seconds over a minute long. The broadcast is in French (Abby, translate and get back to me) and you can tell how pained they sound.

(I know - all of us are amazed that I could stick a video on here! Ahhh...the possibilities...)

***

This last week I have been dealing with a very difficult washing machine. It wasn’t quite on its last leg, and with a bit of care it surely would have outlasted my stay. But as my experience has proven, it was only a matter of time before it sucked up my clothes without forgiveness. It took some time before the promised attention showed up – “Please let the landlord know that at 12 noon today I will start taking the machine apart myself and see if I can fix it.” This was alarming enough that by 9am – a knock on my door: the bathroom was measured, options were discussed (in Albanian), the machine trucked out, and by 3pm a new one was delivered (along with my bag of stinky, wet, clothes).

My new, all-time, favorite piece of household furniture and my two new, very best friends, Arben and Kristaq

I washed two loads to celebrate! I had tried to make it clear that the breakdown was my fault: I offered to pay for a new washer, pay for the labor, the whole thing. But the landlord said simply, “I want you to be happy.” I was sooooo happy.

***

On the boulevard block where my apartment is located, I counted about 15-20 coffee shops. Most of them sit right on top of each other – side by side. I’ve been to about half of them. Coffee is the number one past-time in Elbasan if not Albania. And it’s great coffee! Here are some pics – and some others of a night out:

My favorite - "The Coffee House" (!) - they play rock and roll, blues, and Motown!!! And the cappuccino is great.

Nobody is bleeding here - it's just my camera!!

"Seriously?? Can I have some attention here? These are my best moves!!"

With Gimet, a visiting professor from France in-residence at Aleksander Xhuvani - I told her to look like she was having a good time - she's very funny...

***

Tomorrow starts our last two weeks of PST (Pre-Service Training). Now, we’ve been in our sites for five weeks (PSTII) and we need to give an accounting regarding our experiences. I’ve spent most of my time at the university doing some teaching, final exams, and working with students on their final papers. 

A substantial portion of my time has been selecting a secondary project (my primary project is my teaching and ELTA assignments). As a result of talking to countless students, professors, and administrators, I’m very much interested in starting up a student center for academic and career counseling and international study abroad opportunities. But after talking to Ymer, Mike, and John, I settled on a student newspaper (in addition to the obvious benefits, this will give the students a platform from which to address these possibilities). You’ll hear more about this in the months to come – it’s going to be a long process. 

But to give you the starting point, I connected with a student who proposed a student newspaper to the Faculty Senate last year; he got approval, but alas, no funds available. He was pretty excited about revitalizing his plan (well, I am with the Peace Corps). What’s really cool is that while he is finishing up his graduate degree at Aleksander Xhuvani he also works as a television newscaster for a local station. Julian prompted another shift in my thinking: admittedly, I am attached to print on paper; he said the students would be more in-tune with digital. Got it. Julian is going to write-up a cost analysis (this is where a Peace Corps Small Grant comes in – keep your fingers crossed) and then another presentation to the Faculty Senate in the fall (cross your toes). We’ve put together a time-line on the whole thing and we're shooting for the beginning of spring term for the first edition.

I promise, Julian smiles quite a bit - he's just got on his on-camera face.

Now, I thought about my incredible deficiency in technology (the old family joke is that I just recently discovered text messaging). Check out this email exchange:

Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 3:25 PM

To: Jacob Sorensen

Subject:  Albania university student newspaper

Dear Jake:

I am writing you in your capacity as General Manager for the University of Utah Daily Chronicle….

What would be helpful is if you could connect me with someone on your staff (or perhaps in the journalism department) who might be interested in advising. There are certainly pitfalls (or at least bumps) ahead and we would very much appreciate as much help as you or anyone else could offer in structuring and organizing. (My only school-paper experience was in the sixth grade.) A journalism student might consider this as a capstone project for a BA, or a graduate student may look at this as great opportunity for primary research, or even a "hands-across-the-water" experience for the Chronicle itself…

Note that this email is posted Albania time – eight hours later in the day than in Utah. An hour and a half later I got this amazing response:

Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 4:57 PM

From: Jacob Sorensen

Subject: Re: Albania university student newspaper

Bill,

Wow! What a great email to start off my day. I think this is a very cool idea with many opportunities and possibilities…

We’d love the chance to work with your students in a “hands-across-the-water” experience. I think there is much we can share with the resources we have and much that we can learn from your students in regards to conducting journalism in a foreign country. I will bring it up with our student leaders…

Initially, I think it would be very easy for us to assist in setting up a website, establishing a URL, etc. There are many tools we use that I think would be easy to implement for you....

Anyway, let’s continue the conversation. It’s very exciting and something I would love our students to be involved with…

BAM!! Jake also listed a number of faculty contacts (including Paul Rose who is teaching web communication at the University of Utah Asia Campus in Korea – Utah is a founding institution of Incheon Global Campus along with SUNY, George Mason, and Ghent). A few of Jake's referrals, including Paul, got back to me within a day or so expressing high interest and ways we could connect, including video conferencing from class to class (another BAM, remember? I'll be co-teaching Intercultural Communication with Ymer in the fall term). So, all in all, it’s been a pretty exciting few weeks. I think the excitement is going to increase.

***

As you can tell, I’m having a wonderful time. It’s getting horribly late but I wanted to get this off before I got busy with my next phase (PSTIII). My best to all of you. XOXO

A great night watching the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final

OK. This is local-color post – thank goodness for spell-check, because I have had too many beers (I know, not politically correct). Tonight was the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final at Olympiastadion in Berlin. This is a big deal – Europe basically puts everything on hold during this game and I'm guessing crime drops to zip. 

Right after I got back from Guatemala, my son Brigham explained that since I was going to be spending the next two years in Albania, I needed to be up-to-speed on soccer. So we pulled up every FIFA World Cup Soccer that was available and he explained the finer points of the game. I really got to appreciate the expertise and like it more than American football. (It was a great father-son experience.) My host family and I spent a few evenings watching games and despite my broken Albanian, I just about have the rules down. Rezarta’s team is Barcelona, and Sali’s is Juventus, an Italian team. As would have it, Barcelona played Juventus in the finals.

Just outside my apartment is a kafe where I usually have my morning coffee. Bledi and Tani are like family now, taking care of my every need and introducing me to the locals. My second week here I went into the kafe looking for a big bottle of water. Bledi (we had not met yet) had none in stock but walked me next door to the local storefront to get a better deal! Amazing! Bledi is always asking me when I am going to have a beer instead of cappuccino; I laugh and tell him I don’t drink during the week and I keep putting him off. Well, tonight the game – and though there are more up-scale place to watch the game, I would not miss spending the time with my new friends and making good on my promise to have a drink.

Not a great pic, but you get the idea.

There were probably about eighty of us sitting in the open air; I must have had five or six beers tonight – way, way, way, beyond what I would normally do. Nobody is paying for anything, and I finally gathered that the whole evening was on the honor system! Honor is a big deal in this country – you don’t screw around with it. 

During the game every time I came to the end of my drink, another one would be placed in front of me ("I swear Mom; it's not my fault!"). Well, tomorrow’s Sunday, so I thought what the hell. It was a great game – Barcelona 3, Juventus 1. What a great time. After the game I went into the bar to pay up. Bledi and Tani were behind the counter cleaning up a bit. I told them I wasn’t sure but I thought what I was paying what would cover the upper possibilites. Bledi says, “No, no, no; you pay for one.” WTF! He tells me that all my other beers have been paid for by guys sitting near and far! There had not been a lot of talking – we were all watching the game, though we had slapped hands after Barcelona scored and moaned when Juventus got their goal.

With Vullnet after the game

Basically, that’s it. I tried to leave a tip but they evidently liked the fact that I had joined them for the night! Again, amazing. What a country! Only a couple of pics – I was having too much fun for any more. An ibuprofen and I'm hitting the sack. Later. XOXO 

Finally official, conferences, Durres, and back to Elbasan and my new apartment

Another busy two weeks: we took the oath and headed for our counterpart conference in the coastal city of Durres. Then when the rest of the volunteers took off to their sites, I hung around for three days until the university conference on Friday. After that, back to Elbasan into my new digs.

***

 The swearing-in ceremony, Monday, May 11, 2015 was quite impressive. Host family members gave a couple of talks about their relationships with volunteers. The attachments these host families have made with these strange and new Americans is wonderful – and of course the same in return. Sali and Rezarta were there to see me take the oath. It was pretty exciting after a fifty-five year anticipation!

Two volunteers, Miles and Michelle, gave an address, all in Albanian – everyone was blown away. They were interrupted with applause every fourth sentence. At the close, Catherine, from upstate New York, was joined in a clarinet duet. She and local clarinetist played with complete mastery a couple of Albanian pieces – and then the audience truly went nuts!

***

We left immediately in a chartered bus for the coast – a wonderful beach resort and the kids hit the pool almost immediately – looked like spring break for a couple of hours. We met up with our counterparts that evening in a banquet, folk dancing, and relaxation. 

Pier and Barb (both on the left) with their counterparts

In the middle with Diane and Big Mike

Our final Thane group - Me, Nate, Juli, Cristin, Adrian, and Mike - Jo already headed out with her counterpart, the first to do some good right out of the gate!!

The next day we had final send-off meeting and then the group broke up and spread to all parts of the country. Text messages, phone calls – “so, what’s it like where you are? how’s your apartment? have you heard from…..?” I’ve considered the amount of work that the PC staff had to do to get everyone settled into affordable, clean, working, and safe places. My place is beyond what I had hoped for – more on that in a bit.

Agim, our Education Director, giving us some final words before sending us off.

***

I left with Steve for his place in another part of town. He got Juli (from our Thane group) safely into her apartment and I spent the next three days exploring the city, a bit of beach time, but my language books were never too far away. In the mornings I would hit the local lokal for morning coffee and some personal tutoring from the owner, Miri.

Durres is a beautiful city – wonderful people and the streets range from the rustic to the magical. I spent my time exploring – probably walked about ten to fifteen miles a day. Cruised down to the boardwalk, had some great gelato, and got a bit of sun. 

The Grand Mosque, or Xamia e Madhe

One of the coolest streets to the boardwalk

Some innocent bystanders in Durres and in Elbasan - All the guys are named "Elder" and the girls "Sister" - go figure, anyway, "Greetings from Salt Lake City - how's the language going?"

The day before the conference at the Aleksander Moisiu University, Steve and I had the best dinner at his favorite place – the Belvedere. I never thought I would ever have mussels as good as this little place off the Forum in Rome, but these were even better! Agron was our host and his attention to our service was nothing that I had experienced before. The meal and conversation with Steve couldn’t have been better. I had to go back the next day for lunch - I could always talk to Steve, but I had to get my fair share of mussels!

All volunteers will get most weekends and time off to travel the country; and volunteers (veterans or brand new) are more than welcome to put someone up for a few days and show them around their location. It will make getting around the country pretty affordable – and buses or furgons go everywhere.

The next morning I got to the university early. There are a few things that I’m still getting used to. I picked up a bus right outside Steve’s place. Some of the city buses are something like the airport shuttles that run us from one terminal to another or to and from the parking lots – someone told me that a massive fleet of these things were donated from France to the various cities in the country. Anyway, I didn’t look around for a seat; I simply leaned next to the window and grabbed a bar. This guy, around thirty, built a bit like he just walked off the Jersey shore, got out of his seat and motioned me to sit down. I smiled, thanked him – faleminderit! – and made more signs (in shqip) that I was OK. He took another step toward me and said, “Please sit!” And he said it in such a firm way that I was more than happy to do exactly as he instructed. Coming back from the university at the end of the day I got back on another bus – mostly empty. I sat down in one of a pair of seats, put my briefcase on the empty and started to read. Well, the bus started to fill up and two young students were looking for a pair of seats to sit together. There was a single in front of me. I motioned to them, started to pick up my briefcase and you would have thought I had started a riot or gave cause for bodily harm. Three older women, certainly professors, sitting in different sections of the bus but near enough to see what was happening, all started saying with force and conviction – “jo, jo, jo – you sit!!! The one sitting across the aisle from me, looking like she could have been the mother of the Jersey guy, gave me a look that a week later I can still see clearly (mostly in moments of night tremor). BAM! Needless to say someone slipped in the single seat while all this was going on and both girls stood all the way back into town.

So, I have mentioned the trifecta privilege in Albania: old, male, and American – throw in university professor and then Peace Corps and holy hell! I am learning to take these considerations with grace and aplomb, and putting aside the typical American old-guy courtesy. Albania is modifying my behavior.

Now, I'm the innocent bystander here - this young lady wanted a picture with the American!!

I opened the conference as a key-note speaker, along with academics from Germany, the UK, and Australia. It was a bit bizarre in the set up. We were each given fifteen minutes to speak! I got the speaker agenda the day before and responded with a housekeeping question about the PowerPoint set up, and mentioned in my email that I had cut my address to accommodate the time. The response was something like, “You may take more time if you need.” I did, but wondered where all the other time was going to come from – we all spoke longer than fifteen minutes and the session was rushed and dragged at the same time. 

Across that afternoon and the next day all the speakers were allotted their fifteen minutes – not very long to present anything worthwhile. There are reasons for this; most of which have to do with grad school requirements to present and attend conferences, and this format is typical in all the universities. There was no conference at Elbasan this last year; I had some discussion with my counterparts the last few days on this, so maybe one of my supplemental projects will be to take part in structuring a conference that will be more substantive. I would be nice if Aleksander Xhuvani could have a top-notch reputation in this regard.

That evening the conference organizers had a reception for a few of the foreign speakers. I had some nice conversations with some of the professors, had another great meal, and danced! I opted out of the traditional Albanian circle dancing, but did get invited to dance to an old American standard. Alas, another photo opportunity missed – left the camera at Steve’s. But I did salvage this one from my cell phone – not very clear but this was my dancing partner.

Megi is very funny and quick-witted and her English is impeccable - she has her own private language school. I have found that my sense of humor, though a bit politically incorrect (surprise!), is not so far removed from most of the professional friends I have made. Things are really no more formal here than they are in the states; the professional decorum between students and teachers is quite structured – and I’ll become more familiar with that as I go along.

The next morning I headed back to Elabsan – I passed on the second day of the conference since I had a list of the titles and the abstracts, and there would hardly be any time for the speakers to expand!

***

Back home! During the week before the conferences I was able to move my stuff but had not yet stayed overnight. Man, it was great! Up four flights of stairs: living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom with washer and a shower (with killer pressure). When I moved my stuff in the week before I did a load of wash – washer got stuck and Imelda, my go-to PC staffer along with her husband, got the washer fixed and hung some curtains. When Imelda first showed me the apartment I saw that the shower had a bar across the top, I commented that now I had to find a curtain – Albanians have open showers as a rule and the water that doesn’t stay in the shower area (about a 50/50 chance for a given drop) and goes down the drain placed in the middle of the bathroom. (I learned my lesson the first time I left my towel on the floor!) Anyway, so upon my return I see the curtains, I go into the bathroom to check on the washer and, BAM, a shower curtain!! What a great welcome gift!! Here are the pics:

This is a street that leads directly to my apartment - the one on the right with the red trim

The rear view of my place - nicely appointed laundry with my Peace Corps t-shirt!

Up four flights on the left - and a butler for my coats and hats and a great place for emptying my pockets!

Yay!! A double bed and (wait for it!) a shower curtain!!!

And a room with a view!

***

I got back to Elbasan on Saturday (05.16) and the next day, Ymer took Mike and me out to lunch – ahh, Albania, lunch lasted until late in the day! We talked about our jobs up at the university, what we could expect, and basically brainstormed our getting started and the different opportunities over the next two years. More on this later.

This week has been spent at the university, a trip to Tirane for some lectures that Ymer was asked to give for the University of Tirane, working on my language, and going about town marking off my “things-to-do” (post office, police station, etc.). I met with Helian, my History Dept. counterpart. Rather than teach my own class, I’ll be co-teaching with Helian – he’ll take care of the two lecture hours and I’ll handle the hour seminar covering review and primary source documents. We’ll have about seventy students and the weekly seminars will be broken into three groups meeting an hour each on a given day. This looks pretty good and of course I can hardly wait for the fall term. Helian and I will meet again with Ymer next week to firm up some other jobs for me.

Holy hell, Helian!! Can't you at least pretend to be happy that I'm here to work with you!!

Oh yeah!!! BREAKING NEWS!!! Holy hell!! I finally paid for my first coffee when out with a local!!! When I connected with Helian I invited him to discuss over coffee. It is the invitation that determines – and I had calculated this half-way in my walk to the school. When the bill came, I picked it up and paid for him and the tech guy that joined us. He tried to put up a fuss – but I told him I was now a semi-local (in the country for over two months, right?), and I knew what the rules were. He laughed but I could tell he was going to be on his guard.

***

I also connected with my language tutor. Megi (yes, another one) was the most patient teacher during our entire training (well, Erion was pretty patient, too – but not you Lindita or Ornela, at least not until the end when you realized how white my gray matter really was!).

"OK. So this is how I pronounce it!"

***

Again, it’s been a busy two weeks (it’s hard laying in the sun and studying my language!). Still have some things to get for the apartment – ice-trays (can’t find any) and maybe a couple of lamps. Until next time, my love to all of you guys. XOXO