Last Day of Orientation and Tirana

Well, my last day of orientation has concluded. It's also my last night in Tirana for a long time. What a remarkable place this is! The hours of my days shift between feeling like school and feeling like vacation. Nothing feels like a job yet.

In the morning we have Genti, doing his totally baller Genti thing. Consensus is that Genti is the Albanian Batman by night. Here he judges Sarah for being on her cell phone. It doesn't matter that class hasn't started yet. Sarah will get what's coming to her.

(Which is nothing but praise and admiration. Sarah is super smart and will make an excellent TEFL instructor.)

The word for grandmother is "gjyshe." It's pronounced "JOO-shuh." Say it with a lot of spit and really move the air fast. Be aggressive. JOO-shuh!!

Inexplicably, for lunch today only, we received a list of items being served. It's all really good. I had a mighty appetite.

The aforementioned Turli with cow meat. Delicious. 

Briefed on our imminent ejections into host families tomorrow. Yikes! Shqip is about to get real.

Last evening in Tirana... 

 

Tirana has an abundance of stray cats and dogs roaming the streets. We're told not to pet or feed them, for obvious reasons. Sometimes during training sessions, a feral cat's tortured whimper will sound through the windowed walls from the street outside. This has happened about half a dozen times. I love it. Tonight while walking around, one of the friendlier looking dogs joined our throng briefly. I dubbed him "Skanderdog." It broke my heart not to pet him. Anna's too, I think.

 

These kids, they keep me young...

We walked by this thing. You could climb it. So we did.

We came upon this utterly creepy visage: the Pyramid of Tirana, also known as the (former) Enver Hoxha Museum. It's no longer in use. Enver Hoxha was Albania's communist dictator for over 4 decades. This used to house propaganda for his regime. 

I tried to take a selfie in front of it, but I blinded myself with the flash.

What I'll remember most from this evening is this: the Komiteti Kafe-Muzeum. Holy Shqip. Inside was an eclectic mix of Albanian ceremonial garb and trinkets, cookware and utensils, knickknacks, communist propaganda books, old tv sets and strange technological artefacts, paintings, drawings, and things I just can't describe. I'll let the photos speak.