Wi-Fi at Home Restored

Eddie is a total bro. After a 2-day hiatus, Wi-Fi at home has been restored!

Some things go away but then come back again. Like... Sunshine, aka Sunny! I've never been this close to a dog that I will never pet or feed.

And... :(

PROFILES IN A21: INA

Ina is... was... one half of our excellent language instructor team. Yesterday (Wednesday), however, was her last day with us. She accepted a new job as an interpreter with the Albanian delegation lobbying for Albania's entrance into the European Union. I wish I had learned the expression for "Don't go!" ("Mos ik!") in time to beg her not to leave. She said she'll be back in 8 weeks for our PC swearing-in ceremony. Ina was totally competent as an Albanian language teacher, and she was very cool about tolerating our group's... um, enthusiasm?

Me: "My host family serves me milk in the morning that tastes different from the milk in the evening, and it's also different from the drinkable yogurt that they also serve sometimes. Are there different kinds of milk here or what?"

Ina: "If your family serves you two kinds of milk, then they have two kinds of milk."

Brilliant!

We had lots of going-away stuff to bid Ina farewell. 4 of us made cookies at Tess's house. We didn't have shortening, so the cookies were a big crumbly mass. They still tasted pretty good though.

Also, Ina surprised us and brought a cake for her last day. It looked like this:

The first word is "Shqip" (the Albanian word for the Albanian language itself--pronounced "s-CHEEP"), and then one of my handful of mantras, "Më pëlqen" (Albanian for "I like it" and pronounced sort of like "meh pull-CHEN"). This is one of about 4 Albanian expressions that I repeat ad nauseum in our daily class sessions. Learning to conjugate verbs in the future tense? "Më pëlqen!" How about conjugating irregular verbs in the imperative? "Më pëlqen!" Sometimes I'm being sarcastic. Most of the time I'm not. The important part of all this: my annoying habits made the cake message! I was honored.

The cake was served with dishes of... figs, maybe? I love the little mysteries of living here.

Paç fat, Ina!

(Good luck, Ina!)