People & Places: Part One

Mirembrema! (Good Evening!)

I sincerely hope this post finds you well and happy. I have settled into life fairly well here in Tirana and have had a good week. My life has intersected with many people in a past few days. 

So much so that I have decided to divide my telling of these intersections into three separate posts. My plan is to post all three parts by the end of the week, but that may be too ambitious -- we will see! Lots of stories to tell, but most of them only meaningful to me, so here's the guide to this week’s posts.

Check out the headers to the next three posts to decide what to read: 

This first one, “A Wedding, a Castle, and the Grocer,” is about, well, attending a wedding, going to a castle for coffee, and interacting with my local grocer.

The next one,  “Auto Issues: Lavazh and Mekanik,” is about the automobile culture here.

And the last one, “Teaching/Learning Democracy by Teaching English: Field Trips to Kruja and Shushicë,”  should be self-explanatory. 

Or, of course, you can just look at the pictures J. Assuming I can figure out how to make them display!

A Wedding, a Castle, and the Grocer

A Wedding. My first weekend here, I was invited to attend a Friday night wedding party for one of the faculty at the university where I am working. My office mate explained to me that the wedding rituals in Albania can be a bit more elaborate than in the US. A traditional “wedding” takes a whole weekend, beginning with a party for colleagues, friends, and family on Friday, followed on Saturday by a party with the bride’s family and close friends, and ending on Sunday with a party with the groom’s family and close friends. Three days of parties!

My colleagues picked me up in front of my apartment building and we walked to a cab stand and took a cab to the Hotel Mondial (http://www.hotelmondial.com.al/index.asp). The party was in a lovely room to the left of the lobby as you walk into the hotel.  Lots of food, drinks, music (DJ), and at the center of it all a beautiful bride and groom!

Apparently in Albania, the bride and groom may wear their wedding clothes throughout the weekend events. In other words, there is no taboo against the groom seeing the bride in her wedding dress before the day of the wedding (well, that assumes the day of the wedding is the final day of the parties, doesn’t it?).  Perhaps the more stunning observation is that bride (and yes groom) have to look absolutely picture perfect for three days! I can’t imagine what kind of work this takes. The bride at this party looked like a princess -- I wish I had some pictures to share and I may at a later date.

Two more things about the wedding I’d like to relate: the food and the talk (of course, the talk!)

The food was excellent and plentiful.  A buffet table was set up at one of the room with plates and plates or puff pastries (both savory and sweet), vegetables, fruits, etc.  Servers also circulated the room with platter of meat (I think mainly chicken) both grilled and fried. The fried chicken slices were particularly delicious – it reminded me of really good fried catfish: crispy, hot, and just the right amount of salt. But my favorite tasty treat was a crispy breadstick wrapped in prosciutto –totally YUMMY!!

One other semi-food item of note was a silk rose. These were distributed I am assuming to honor the bride and the groom.  Inside the center of each rose was a net basket of candy-coated almonds. Here a picture of the one I received (minus the delicious almonds that I already ate!):

The almonds were in the middle of the bigger bud. They were delicious!

Now the talk. The talk was great, for while a definite language barrier existed, it was clear that my colleagues had read some of the same scholars I have read, particularly Jürgen Habermas and Garrett Hardin (well I haven’t actually read Hardin and only know his work on the Tragedy of the Commons through reading a little Elinor Ostrom during the Civic Studies Institute at Tufts University this summer, but I am aware of his work). 

There was much talk of civil society, the state of public discourse, and the need for more attention to environmental studies. And these are the themes of talk that keep resurfacing –in my talk with my colleagues, my language tutor, and the few other people I have interacted with. I am not sure if these themes emerge once they learn I am an American or these are just the themes of everyday talk here. I have a feeling they are the themes of everyday talk. Time will tell if that assumption is correct.

A Castle.  Well, it isn’t a REAL castle (although there are a few real castles around here – I just have not been to one yet). It is actually just a restaurant: Juvenilja Castelo . The “In Your Pocket” guide to Tirana, http://www.inyourpocket.com/albania/tirana/Restaurants-and-Cafes/parkrestaurants/Juvenilja-Castelo_2587v,  describes it this way:

These fine purveyors of Italian and Albanian specialities, a multi-talented salad bar and gigantic pizza inhabit a customised castle on the edge of the park. Excellent dining in large rooms, all-encompassing balconies or tiered-terraces overlooking the greenery.

Now, I don’t know about the “multi-talented salad bar” or the “gigantic pizza” (I am sure I will meet them soon enough); however, I do know about the lovely setting, the delicious coffee, and the compelling stories I heard about reconnecting families and finding celebrities with Albanian roots.

First the setting.  Juvenilja Castelo is tucked behind the Sheraton Hotel, which is directly off Mother Teresa Square at the south at the end of Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit (Martyrs of the Nation Boulevard): https://maps.google.com/maps?q=google+maps&ie=UTF-8&ei=YzdYULnEHIvGtAbU-4HQBQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAA. 

It is in or at least abuts a large park, Tirana Big Park and Artificial Lake. The setting is actually much prettier than the name. (“Artificial” just means “man-made” – most of the lakes I’ve encountered in my home state of Arkansas are man-made.)  Here are some pictures, although they don’t do justice to the majesty of the trees that surround the building.

  

These pictures also do not do justice to the lovely terraces and outdoor areas to the right and in back of the building.  My new friends and I sat outside facing a forest of trees—old growth trees. The air was clean and the breeze was refreshing.

My colleagues and I ordered coffee. The coffee here is really, really good. I have been ordering espresso, which is what most people drink here, although macchiato or cappuccino are common orders, too. The espresso is generally served with a packet of sugar on the side, but I prefer mine without the sugar. I’ve also had to learn to not just gulp down the whole cup!

One of the women I was having coffee with is a journalist who works to bring together family members who have been separated because of emigration. From what I could tell, given my total lack of Albanian language skills, during communist times here some people emigrated from the country but then lost touch with their families still in Albania due to the lack of an easy way to communicate with them. 

She is working to bring these family members back into contact. It sounds like a wonderful and rewarding job. She is also working to find celebrities who are of Albanian descent to interview them and tell their stories to others—kind of a way to promote Albanian culture beyond Albania, to make more known about this lovely country and the people who are from here. Fitting talk on the edge of a forest, on the grounds of a castle.

The Grocer. This is the last story of Part One of People & Places, and it is another example of those “perfect strangers” the ladies I met in the Little Rock airport told me about.

There is a small grocery store on the first level of the building where I live. The store is no bigger than a medium sized office or bedroom –maybe 8’ x 15’ with a shelf of goods on the right side when you walk in, a meat/cheese counter at the rear, and a long case on the left behind which the store owner or his wife takes your order.

When I was shown the apartment I now live in, my landlady briefly introduced me to the grocer, so my first day after I had moved in and gone to work I decided to stop in to buy some essential – milk, yogurt, cereal, water, toilet paper, etc.

The grocer recognized me, we smiled, and I started to try to explain what I needed (a wise friend commented to me recently that not knowing the language of the place in which you find yourself reduces you to a child and it is SO TRUE!), but I was getting nowhere. The grocer started asking me if I spoke other languages—Russe (many older people here speak Russian)? Italiano? 

No, no, only Anglinsht L.

No matter. We managed through my random pointing and hoping for the best and his patience and good nature to gather up most everything I needed. (I did wind up with buttermilk instead of fresh milk, but now I know “dhallë” means buttermilk, fresh milk is “qumësht”).

Then it was time to pay. He showed me the tally in what I think was lekes (Albanian currency)—750 (about $7.50USD); but then showed me another amount, “63.” I didn’t know what to do. I thought he meant I owed him $63.00USD, which didn’t seem right, but I had only been here a day and a half—what did I know?

He immediately recognized my confusion and told me “later” (which the person waiting kindly translated for me). I could pay him later. Can you imagine? I could pay him later. I don’t remember in my lifetime being afforded credit by a merchant, let alone one who didn’t even know me. Another perfect stranger looking out for me!

And of course, I did pay him later J!

I also go into that store at least three times a week to buy essentials and practice my rudimentary Albanian.

Next up "Lavazh and Mekanik."As a teaser, did you know automobile ownership among all citizens of Albanian was not prevalent until about twenty years ago? With the fall of communism came lots (and lots!) of cars and the birth of two (I assume) thriving industries: Car Washes & Mechanics.