First days here

Sunday, August 28th, 2011:

Well, since I told most of you about the way here, I’ll just recap it quick:

Left MSP at 1:45 pm. Arrived to Philly, had a 4 hour layover there, left sometime around 8 pm. Arrived in Frankfurt, Germany after an 8 hour flight at 10:00 am. Layover in Frankfurt for 8 hours (slept a few hours here). Leave for Zagreb, Croatia at 6:30 pm, only a 1:15 flight. Arrive in Croatia, had a 4 hour layover there (delays). Left Croatia, arrived in Prishtina, Kosova around 2:30 am (only about 1:30 flight). Got to my crap-ass apartment (more to come on that) around 3:00, got to bed around 4:00, slept for about 2-3 hours, couldn’t fall back asleep. So yeah, that’s how my first 2 days went.

My apartment is similar to the one I had in Guatemala. 1 bedroom, living room, small kitchen, small bathroom. However, there were some problems I found my first day. First, I couldn’t figure out why the water was only cold (figured that out later). TV didn’t work right away, but then I got it going. Either way, it’s a pretty bad TV. Very old. Probably mid-1990s. I’m definitely going to have to buy a nicer TV if I want to watch it. It’s probably only 19”. The furniture at my apartment is cool. However, there was another problem. I don’t have a bed. My “bedroom” consists of 2 long couches, end to end, along with some movable storage cabinets for my clothes. Well, the couch folds down kind of like a futon, but there’s a huge crease in the middle of it, so that sucks a lot. Both couches are the exact same, so it doesn’t matter which one I use. I am NOT happy about having a bed for my couch. I think I can be treated a little better than that. However, I’ve been staying positive, and just trying to put up with it.

After seeing the other peoples’ apartments though, I realize I got the shaft. I’m near downtown, but still it’s a 20-25 minute walk to school. Everyone else is less than 10 minutes away, most only are about 5 minutes. Not too thrilled about walking that far everyday to school. Granted, it’s probably better for me, but I want to be close to other people so I don’t become Mr. Hermit-Living-Secluded-on-the-South-Side-of-Prishtina.

Also, I don’t have a microwave, while most other teachers do, and my washer door just broke today while I was trying to do laundry. Ugh… like I said, I’ll just try to stay positive and see what I can do. I’ve talked to a few other teachers, and apparently they said if there are any problems, to let them know and they can maybe move us. Before this afternoon, I was going to try to stay here, but now that the washer door broke, I’ve had about enough. I want to live closer. I don’t think anything at another apartment can be a downgrade from what I have right now. Wait, I have a really nice view of the city, so I guess that’s one thing I’ll lose, but I’ll gladly give up a good view for a full night’s sleep.

Speaking of sleep, only 2 hours my first morning here, and last night I got really tired, fell asleep at 11, then woke up around 6:30 and just couldn’t sleep anymore. My sleep schedule is all messed up, obviously, since I’m now 7 hours ahead of WI time. Hopefully in a few days I can get things back on track. It might take a little bit though.

So yesterday (Saturday), my first day here, we all met up, had coffee, then walked around a little bit. We all got cell phones, and that was about all we did. We met up with a few other of the returning teachers for dinner around 7, then I came home around 9. They all seem like pretty energetic, fun people. Most of them were younger, but there were a handful of teachers in their 50s too.

Now I know I’ve been sounding pretty negative right now, but honestly, my spirits have been high. I just realized today that when I’m hanging out with the other new teachers, I’m in a great mood. But when I come back here… ugh. One good thing—I have internet access if I go out on my mini-balcony. But it’s not very reliable at all. Tomorrow (Monday) we’re going to go get internet set up, and that should be set up pretty fast—within a day or 2. Tuesday is the last day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, so everyone has off and everyone parties I guess.

Speaking of the city itself… it’s so much different than I thought. So much different than cities in the US and Latin America. The safety here is a non-issue. Women and young girls are seen walking around all the time on the streets, alone, late at night. It’s great not having to look around all the time, like I had to do in Guatemala. Most people live in apartments. There are many new apartment buildings here. When Kosovo became a new country 3 years ago, the EU gave them like 2 billion dollars to build up their infrastructure. Apparently the roads used to be terrible, and now they look great. No potholes, very smooth and very clean, actually. I haven’t seen much garbage around. Even though 90% of the population is of Albanian descent (meaning they are Muslim), most of them aren’t the Muslims we think of. There are not many mosques (Muslim churches) around. Well, not as many as I thought there would be. There are a few Eastern Orthodox churches around. Those were the one’s created by the Serbs. Btw, Kosovars (the name for people from Kosovo) HATE Serbs, and vice-versa. Here’s why:

Quick history lesson for those of you that don’t know this: back in the early 1990s, communism fell. The USSR broke up into 15 republics, Germany was united, and Yugoslavia’s communist government crashed as well. First, I think Slovenia, Croatia, and eventually Bosnia and Herzegovina broke off and became independent. They separated because of the ethnic groups that lived in each country. If a region was mainly full of Croats living there, it became part of Croatia. Serbia (aka Yugoslavia at the time in the early 1990s) didn’t want all these countries breaking off, since they were getting money and resources from these regions. So they put up a fight. In the mid-1990s, there was a war between the Serbs and Bosnia and Herzegovina. B&H won, with the help of the UN, even though I’ve been told the US didn’t help in that fight. I think the Serbs were trying to kill all the Bosnians and take over the region. The Serbian leader was Slobodan Milosevic, whom most of you have probably heard of. Terrible man. Killed thousands of people.

Ok, so anyway, moving into the late 1990s. Milosevic had just lost like ½ of Yugoslavia’s land, and there were other regions (Kosovo, Montenegro) that had different ethnicities than the Serbs, so they were threatening to break off just like the other ones that did. So Slobodan decided to come down to Kosovo in 1997 and kill all the Muslims (aka Albanians) living here. Not sure how many he killed, but it was A LOT! He wanted to take over Kosovo and make it a Serbian-dominated region. By the way, the Serbs are Christian (E. Orthodox), so that’s another reason they hate each other (Christians vs. Muslims). So between 1997 and 1999, there was a genocide taking place here in Kosovo.

Anyway, this time the US decided to get involved, along with NATO. So they came in and bombed the crap out of Belgrade (the capital of Serbia) and the rest of Serbia, essentially saving Kosovo from more deaths. Since then, the Kosovars have slowly started moving back here, but still, the population is nowhere near where it used to be. Right now it’s around 2 million I think. Prishtina has about 300,000-400,000 people living here. And that’s why you will see the US flag flying all over this city. It’s actually pretty cool, being not just liked, but loved, for being American. Pretty much everyone here knows some English, or wants to learn it. They copy the US in a lot of things too, like pop-culture, fashion, music, movies, etc. They even have a major boulevard called “Bill Clinton Blvd” and they have a statue and a huge mural of him on that road. They think he’s like a god or something, because he was the leader of the US that ordered the bombing on Serbia.

I kind of strayed from the subject of the Muslim culture here, but in all honesty, you would never know it’s a Muslim-dominated country. Apparently the Muslims here are very liberal. They don’t go to the Mosques very often (only on major holy days). Most don’t pray 5 times a day, like a good Muslim is supposed to do. They actually have loudspeakers around the city that make the “call to prayer” for those Muslims that do practice that, but apparently most people don’t. Heck, just by walking down the street, you would think you’re in any American city, by the way people are dressed. I’ve only seen a few women with their faces covered. Most young girls wear revealing clothes. There are bars all over the place (alcohol is forbidden for Muslims to drink). At night, the younger crowd is out and about on the town, wearing their dresses and very formal outfits. Another side note: Kosovo is a VERY young country! Most of the older people that left during the genocide never returned. So the average age is like 24 years old, making it one of the youngest countries in world. You notice it too, while walking around, that most people are very young, right around my age, so that’s pretty cool.

Alright, that’s all I can think about talking about right now. This week’s schedule looks like this:

Sunday night (tonight): dinner with new teachers

Monday: getting internet set up and workday at school

Tuesday: workday

Wednesday: workday

Thursday-Saturday: trip to some resort In the mountains for new teachers J

Sunday: nothing

Monday (Labor Day, Sept 5^th): School starts

PS—it’s been really hot lately. They say this is really hot for Kosovo. I think it’s been in the low 90’s everyday, which is pretty hot. Most places don’t have air conditioning though. I have a fan here, which has been great. The air is very dry though. You only sweat a little bit, when you’re in the sun. If you stay in the shade, you stay dry and don’t sweat. It’s strange for me, coming from the Midwest…