My Dishwasher

When I was home a couple of weeks ago Mom asked me if I had any conveniences here. Having a dishwasher is about the only thing I really don't have but it's hardly a problem. We don't have that many dishes to wash every day and when I do, the water is so blazing hot, I don't worry that I left any germs behind. I might have left some of my flesh behind in the sink, but no germs!

Gypsy Camp

You can tell me the truth; you thought I lived in something like this, didn't you?
This is one of the places near Obilic where some gypsies live. Don't feel too badly for them, though. Some Norwegian agency is building new housing for them and it is almost finished. Tom and I drove out by there the other day and we were somewhat astonished to see that it looks quite similar to the Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki. Okay, maybe it's not that similar but it's the same shade of pink. I'm going to take "before and after" photos. I have been assured by a couple of local people here that the "after" photo will bear no resemblance to the "before" picture in a very short period of time.

Our house is a very, very fine house!

With two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard, now everything is easy 'cause of you.....

Well, we don't have two cats in the yard but I've heard a few getting romantic in the middle of the night! Here's the outside of the building where our flat is on the very top floor. See those two windows side by side? That's it, folks! The one on the right is where I have taken photos of the street below and the mosque across the street. In fact, these photos were taken from the parking lot of the mosque.
The second photo is just the street right around the corner from the mosque.
Just thought you might like to see that I'm not living in a hovel. And we have the very best landlord in all of Prishtina! Yay....Arton Rexha! You're the best!

Kosovo Hollywood

Bet you never thought there would be the equivalent of Hollywood in Kosovo, did you? Well, right here in Prishtina is our own "Film City". This is the sign that points the way.....brings to mind "swimmin' pools" and "movie stars" right off, doesn't it?
I caught one of these local "films" a couple of months ago and I don't think anyone in the Foreign Films category at the Oscars has to start worrying about the competition yet. The dialogue was in Albanian and even I could figure out the plot. Seems that a trio of hotties from the city decided to go out to the villages to lure the men into their web of .... um, what I was not exactly sure. Apparently they succeeded in enraging the village women who caught our "girls" unprotected on a little road and descended upon them to give them a whupping they wouldn't forget. Just as the little tramps were about to get theirs what should appear but a knight in shining armor. In this case, it was a very American-looking man in a UN vehicle who came tearing up the road and they all piled into his SUV and in a cloud of dust disappeared into the sunset. The village women then scolded their errant husbands into submission (yeah, like that would happen here in Kosovo!) and the last scene showed some old man herding his goats ..... I guess this was to illustrate that everthing in the village had returned to normal. So let that be a lesson to you "city girls" who go to the villages to stir up trouble!

Come again Kosovo?

I arrived back in Prishtina Saturday and barely had time to shower and change clothes before meeting Marcia and Kelly for Marcia's birthday dinner at the Mexican Albanian restaurant. Marcia was in rare form and we had a lot of laughs. We went home and I fell asleep immediately. I hadn't taken any "No Jet Lag" on this trip and I can really tell the difference. Five days after arriving I think I am just now starting to get over my jet lag. But the weather is great and we've already had an adventure or two.
Monday we drove to the Serbian border to meet Ivan and Daniela who were bringing their children back from Nic. Their respective mothers take care of their children during the school year and they were coming home to Gracanica for the Eastern Orthodox Easter holiday. Tom wanted to escort them back just in case they had vehicle problems. To be honest, it isn't really safe for Serbs to be traveling in some areas.
The border is pretty interesting. People get out of their vehicles on both sides of the border and swaps their license plates. It is illegal to have Kosovo plates in Serbia and it's not a good idea to have Serbia plates in Kosovo so people who regularly go across the border buy both sets of plates.
Here is a picture of the Italian Caribinieri on the way to the border. Wish I could have gotten a picture close up....they are about as mean looking as you can imagine. One really cute one did wave at me as we drove by, though, so that was a plus!
The other picture is a photo I took as we were waiting for Ivan and Daniela at the border. You are looking back into Kosovo here. Looks really nice, doesn't it? I'll show you some "close up" pictures later.