Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Ok, let me pick up where I left off last time. If I would’ve just caught you all back up to the last 3-4 weeks in one post, it would’ve been too much for you all to read. So here’s my life story for the past 2 weeks:

Saturday, September 24^th, we took a trip to Pejë (pronounced Pay-ah). It’s one of the bigger cities in Kosova, towards the west, right on the edge of the mountains. We went through this city once already, but didn’t stop. It’s famous for making the national beer, also with the same name, Pejë.

This trip was for free, which was cool, AND it was on a train, which was even cooler! Ben found it online somewhere, so we all signed up for it. I think it was some sort of way of expanding tourism in Kosova. Either way, we couldn’t turn down a free train ride. The train was only 2 cars long, but it was still fun. It took us about 2 hours to get there. Ben and Allison decided we should drink mimosas on the ride over, so that was fun. I only had 2, so I didn’t get drunk at all. We also had a kick-ass acordian player on the ride over. Apparently he was hired by the company to play and entertain people for the train rides. I didn’t know any of the songs, but it was still fun to watch him play.

We got there to Pejë, and we mainly just walked around for awhile. We went into another mosque, which was cool again to see, but it wasn’t nearly as nice as the one in Prizren. We then visited a bathhouse, or hamman and it’s called locally. Once again, just like the one in Prizren, it was neat, but not THAT exciting. Once you’ve seen one hamman, I think you’ve seen them all. Sure, they’re all old and neat to be in, but I’m just not that into them.

So then we went for lunch at a restaurant right on the river. Lunches here take over an hour, and it’s definitely not like the US. We met a few other people that were on our tour—a couple from England, and a judge from Minnesota. They had various jobs over here—mainly working for the government or some big business. Anyway, after lunch we visited an old Serbian Eastern Orthodox church. Uh oh…. Wait a minute—is that right? Did I really say “Serbian?” I thought you said the Serbs HATE Kosovars and vice-versa. Well, yes, that’s mainly true. I’ll tell you why that church is here, but first, a quick history lesson:

Hundreds of years ago, Kosova and Albania were settled by Illyrians. Essentially, that’s what Albanians are—descendants of these people. Anyway, first the Turks took control of this region, and so it was part of the Ottoman Empire. Then Serbia took control of it. Then it was Yugoslavia (basically still Serbia). Now it’s independent. Anyway, while the Turks had control of this region, they made it Islamic. When the Serbs had it, they tried to make it Eastern Orthodox. However, once Yugoslavia fell, the wars in the 90s took place, and most of the Serbian churches were destroyed by the Kosovars. So any that are left are either left in ruins, or are heavily guarded. This one was heavily guarded. Check facebook for my pictures, but you can see there are KFOR guards surrounding it, with big, bad, assault rifles.

This particular church was in very good shape still. It’s considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is something only certain places can get. I’m not really sure what that means, but I know it has something to do with that it is a site rich in culture and history. Anyway, this church normally doesn’t allow Kosovars or Albanians in. At least, that’s what a few of the local teachers told me. I read that you have to bring your passport to get in, so we all did. Fellanza was the only local in our small group that went—it was me, Julie, Ben, Allison, Natalie, and Fellanza. Ben made the point that if one of our friends isn’t allowed in, then he’s not going in. And I agreed. As much as I wanted to see this church, if they’re going to still discriminate by race, that’s just not cool. So I was prepared not to go in. But when our tour bus went in, they didn’t check anything. Normally, like I said, they check everyone that goes in, probably to make sure they don’t have bombs or guns or anything of that sort, but apparently because we had a legitimate, organized tour, with guides, and translators, we didn’t have to get checked. So that was cool.

We got in, and saw the inside of the church. It’s similar to a Catholic Church, except the art at these churches seem so… different. I don’t know, I can’t describe the word. Almost scary. They looked very old, and there wasn’t a lot of color. Anyway, if you’re really interested, look up Eastern Orthodox Art on google images and see what I’m talking about.

Our tour guide there was an old lady of Serbian descent. She could speak English, Serbian, and Albanian. Now, we had translators with us that could translate Albanian into English, so it made a lot of sense just for the lady to speak Albanian, while the 8 or 9 of us English speakers would listen to the translator, and the other 20 or so people could just listen in their native language. Well, once again, because of this feud between Serbia and Kosova, the lady refused to give the tour in Albanian. She said she would only talk English or Serbian. So the lady spoke in like the worst English I’ve ever heard, while our translator translated into Albanian for almost the entire group.

At first I got yelled at for taking pictures, but then everyone else started doing it, so I snapped a few of my own. It was very dark, musty, and damp inside. I can’t remember how old the church was. I wanna say it was like 800 or 1000 years old. A lot of times these buildings are old, but only because they used to keep rebuilding the foundations. If a building was destroyed, they’d use whatever was left on the ground and rebuild, so technically, the building is still the same, hence it’s very old.

The tour was going ok, but then one of our tour members started questioning our tour guide about God’s message according to the Eastern Orthodox Church. You could tell already tensions were high. Our translator even warned the guy that asked the question, and told him just to shut up. The lady got very defensive and started arguing with this man. It was pretty stupid actually. Yes, I love talking religion and asking questions, but as an Albanian, that was welcomed into a church that you’re normally not welcomed into, you should probably shut up and just behave. Don’t start a religious debate, cuz we all know how those debates end up—going nowhere.

Anyway, that pissed a few people off, including Ben and Allison, so they just left and went outside. Fellanza had left from the start, since she’s totally anti-Serbian, and doesn’t want anything to do with them at all, ever. Then a very honest question was asked by an Albanian woman that spoke English. She asked why some of the paintings on the wall were not completed. It appeared as if they had been damaged. The tour guide lady became VERY defensive, and all she would say is “I’m not here to talk about the violence and bad things, I only want to talk about peace and happiness.” Yes, I get it, we don’t want to cause another Serbia vs. Kosova debate. But I felt this was an honest question. I was curious myself. The reaction by our tour guide pretty much told me the answer—at some point this church was bombed or attacked, most likely by Albanians, and that is what caused the damage. At this point, I decided I had enough of this. I could hardly understand this woman as it was, so I just went outside and took more pictures.

Eventually, the tour of the church ended, so we all go on the bus and left. We then went to a neat overlook spot along the road in the nearby mountains. Then we headed back to the train, and left to go back home to Prishtina. The ride back was fun. Ben and I were enjoying a few beers, while the accordion guy was partying it up in the front train car. Eventually, when we got near the city, our tour guide asked us if we wanted to come join the fun. The music around here is interesting. Sure, there’s the Rihanna, 50 Cent, Eminem, and Beyonce (PS—those are probably the 4 most popular singers/rappers here). But then there’s the local, folk-like music. Some of these songs have been around for 100’s of years, and everyone knows them and all the words. Most of them are pretty catchy, and easy to clap your hands to. So that’s what everyone does—just claps their hands. The entire time. Just claps. Frankly, I don’t get it. It’s fun to clap your hands for a song or two. But EVERY song? It got kind of strange after awhile. I haven’t experienced much of the local dances yet, but I’ve heard they’re kind of “Greek-like.” I’ll let you know what those look like when I see them/learn them…

That Sunday the Packers were playing the Bears at 10:15 pm. Since Sunday afternoon’s no longer consist of non-stop football, I usually go into school and get some work done. This Sunday was no different. I went to school for like 5 hours, got tons of planning and grading done. Then my buddy Drew, from WI, was having a Packer party at his place. So Ben, Allison, and I all went. There were like 15-20 people there, mainly KFOR, UN, or US military, but it felt like being home at a real football party. We had to wait around until 10:15 for the Packer game, and when it came on, most people had left. It was a great game, obviously, since GB won. So I ended up getting home and going to bed around 2 am. Kinda late for a school night, but totally worth it to see the Packers kick the Bear’s ass.

Then that weekend there was this thing called “Beerfest.” We had seen signs around town for it, and were wondering what it was. It said there would be like 17 different beers there, along with live music, and “beer games,” which we all assumed meant beer pong, since there was a picture of beer pong on the poster. Anyway, we went to this thing on Friday night, and it was pretty neat actually. All the local beers were there, along with pretty much every beer from Eastern Europe. Kosova, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Slovakia, Montenegro, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, and Czech Republic all had beer there—along with WI (they had Miller Genuine Draft there, but that was one of the more expensive beers since it’s an “import.” Speaking of MGD, that’s like the only US beer you can find around here. It’s one of the ones I like, so I’m not going to complain.)

The beer they had there was very cheap—most of it like 50 cents or 1 € (that’s the symbol for the euro—if you want to know how to make it, just hold down the ALT key, type 0128, then let go of the ALT key. Pretty neat, eh?). Then for “happy hour,” from 7 pm to 8 pm, they had free beer. But don’t get too excited—it was only a few of the local beers (including Peja). Ah well. It was still a good ole drunken time with friends.

The next day I went and played ultimate Frisbee—if you want to call it that. First of all, I found someone on facebook, a guy from New Jersey, that wanted to get something going, so I responded, told all my teacher friends, and about 9 of us showed up to Germia Park on Saturday afternoon. The biggest problem was finding a place to play. We finally agreed upon a somewhat flat area that was about 75 yards long. The only problem here is that there is no grass right now, the ground is as hard as a rock, and the ground is very uneven and “lumpy.” I almost turned my ankle about 2 or 3 times because of the ground. Nevertheless, we had a great time. And I just have to add, my team, consisting of Joe, the NJ guy, and Allison, beat the other team of Andy, Zach (2 new USA guys that came along), Ben, Courtney, and Fëllanza. 5 vs 4 and WE won! J We all were pretty “green,” but everyone learned very quickly and it was a pretty competitive game. Well, except Joe kept dropping my 75 yard bombs (is that what you call them in ultimate Frisbee?). No worries-team USA pulled through, once again, like always. The worst part was that, since most of the people there were pretty new at the game, there were a lot of turnovers, meaning a lot of running. It was a great workout though, and we’re planning on playing again soon, before it gets too cold.

Saturday night was the Brewer’s first playoff game, so I went to the Irish pub to watch it with Drew. Of course, we won, so that was pretty awesome. Sunday was another work at school day, then Sunday night the Packer’s played the Broncos, and the Brewers were on again. I was watching both games online, so I didn’t really miss much at all.

And I guess that does it. I’m caught up now with my blogging. Well, not exactly. Just last weekend I went on a trip with a bunch of teachers to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia, about a 4.5 hour drive. I will fill you all in on those details another time. Until then, good night everyone!