Where's my flying car?

Last night, my friend visiting from Lezhe again convinced me to host a "Kinema Rebecca" party at my house including cooking (lasagna) and a movie projected on my living room wall. As it has been getting cooler all week, it was a perfect time to start up my wood stove and welcome everyone into my nice warm home. We decided to watch Back to the Future Part II, which I love, but haven't watched in a long time. We realized when we were watching that the future that Marty goes forward into is now only 6 years away!

And I want to know: where is my flying car? Or my hoverboard? Or my hanging fruit thingy in the kitchen? Where are the people that are supposed to be inventing these things? Right now we can barely get an electric car on the market, much less a Mr. Fusion. Maybe my hopes are too high and I should worry about the real important things (like heath care and war and things like that) but some part of me just wants the flying car that was promised to me 20 years ago . . .

Taco movie party

Some volunteers live in towns that are frequented by lots of visitors . . . other volunteers, foreign guests, couch surfers etc. Peshkopi is not one of those towns. I rarely get visitors and almost never have people (besides Kenji) over to my house. So it was kind of nice this week to be able to play hostess. We had two young Korean girls visiting the World Vision office (South Korea is our Support Office- they raise the money for all the programs in two of the ten offices in Albania). Orgerti, from the Tirana office, jokingly suggested that we could all go to my house and watch movies and that I could cook for everyone. He was only joking, but I thought it was a great idea. I decided to make what is kind of becoming my specialty: chicken tacos. The night before I made about 30 tortillas (my tortillas get more round every time I make them) and then right after work I went home and cooked up chicken and made salsa. I also decided to make an apple pie since one of the Korean girls said that she loved American apple pie but could never find it in Seoul! (she had spent a year going to school in the States).

Everyone (the Koreans, Orgert, all my coworkers, and Kenji) came over and hung out while I finished making the pie. Orgert brought chestnuts that he roasted on top of my wood stove for an appetizer. When the pie was in the oven and everything for the tacos was ready, the Albanians were introduced to real American hospitality: serve yourself! In Albania it is very uncommon for the host not to get everything for the guests and even buffet style meals are uncommon. But I grew up in "serve yourself" household and I don't presume to know how you like your tacos! Even though they were a bit messy, everyone loved the tacos and the pie. After we finished eating we turned my living room into a movie theatre- borrowed the projector from the office and turned one of my couches around so that we could project the movie onto the wall. It was great!

Part of me is glad that I am not on the "beaten path" with people staying with me every week (I really do feel bad for the PCVs in Elbasan sometimes), but it was also nice to have people over. So if you feel like going off the beaten path, you are welcome to come up my way. I'll make some tacos and we can see if we can borrow the projector . . . and there will always be pie!

Comprehension test

This week felt like a long Albanian language comprhension test. I use my Shqip everyday for basic everyday type things, but this week I came to Tirana to participate in a workshop on HIV/AIDS being held by World Vision. Since the workshop was for Albanian churches and there were only 3 Americans participating (me, one other PCV and a missionary who has lived here for 11 years), most of the content was in Albanian. I think I did pretty well for comprehension, especially on the technical parts (many of the words are actually the same) and I was able to participate in some of the discussions. Where I got lost the most was when we started to talk about things having to do with the religious aspects. As I'm not particularly Christian, I tend to zone out when people are talking about the Bible anyway (even in English). So when everyone was talking about the Bible in Albanian, I kind of got lost. This training brought up some other issues about being a non-Christian working with a Christian organization, but I think I will leave that for another post.

My second challenge for comprehension was a film. One of the biggest test for how well you understand a language is being able to understand movies. Verdict when I tried to watch a Spanish movie with Albanian subtitles? Kuptova! (I understood). I was able to follow much more of the story from the subtitles than from the speaking, which says to me that my Albanian is officially better than my Spanish. Between the two languages I was able to get not only the main idea of the movie, but also actually understand most of the story (I missed a few character points that I was able to look up later online). So overall, I think that this week I passed the test!

Exactly what I needed

Since I was in Tirana this week (more on that later) I decided to go and see a movie last night. I tried my hardest to convince everyone that I was with to come with me, but I was not going to be discouraged by the prospect of going alone. I wanted to see a movie and no one was going to stop me! It's not the first time that I've gone to a movie alone. It's not even the first time I've seen a movie alone in a foreign country. I don't really mind seeing movies alone, although I would of course rather see them with people. Mostly, I just want to be able to talk about the movie with people afterwards (and since no one else I know here has seen it yet, I won't be able to do that for several days). There are two theaters in Tirana. The one that I went to is the nicer, smaller theater inside the Sheraton hotel. The auditorium that I was in was tiny, only about 25 seats, but the seats were not just regular movie theater seats, but in fact easy chairs! It was definitely one of the most comfortable theaters I've ever been in.


The movie itself (Indiana Jones) was exactly what the film doctor ordered. Just enough silly and fun, almost believable (but not quite), Harrison Ford, good action, double crossing, bad accents and even aliens! I've been a bit disappointed with some recent similar style movies (particularly National Treasure- Nicholas Cage is no Harrison Ford, no way!), but the return of Indy was great and lived up to my action/adventure expectations (which are, truth be told, rather low- does it keep me entertained for two hours, did I laugh, smile and cringe a few times, did I leave the theater without a lot of lingering questions about the nonsensical plot?).

Anyway, I'm glad I finally saw a movie here and I enjoyed it, even if I was "All by Myself "(which actually came on the theater tunes while I was waiting . . . maybe they knew . . . )

I also got to eat Chinese food today in Tirana, which is another thing that was exactly what I needed. Sweet and sour . . .mmmmmmmmm.

Dua Shikoj një film- Jo, nuk mund të shikoj një film

I love going to see movies in the theatre. I love watching movies in general, but there is something about watching a movie in a theatre that is extra special for me. This is probably mostly due to the fact that I spent the some of my most formative years (from age 17 to 22) working in a theatre. I love seeing a movie on the big screen, but I also love the social interaction aspect of actually going out and going to a movie. At home, if I was ever feeling down or just needed some girl time, I knew I could count on one of my girls to go with me to see something completely bad and sappy (probably staring Reese Witherspoon and any one of several cute guys). Whenever a dance movie came out, I could count on Sam to gather 20 of us to fill two rows of seats at the late show on a Friday night. Whenever a comic book movie came out, I could always count on going with the boys and then listening for several hours after about how it didn’t follow the original story at all and the thing with these movies is . . .

Theoretically, it would be possible to see movies in a theatre here. There is a movie theatre in Elbasan (and I am in Elbasan usually about twice a week or more). They have one screen and show relatively recent releases (meaning within the last 6 months). Outside the theatre, there is a sign that has show times and prices. You can see a movie there for 200 Lek (about $2) if . . .

If the theatre is open
If the projectionist is there
If you have enough people with you
If the electricity is on
If the staff feels like it
If you don’t try to come during nap time
If you don’t have to catch a bus home before 7PM
If the moon and stars align

So far, I have not been successful in fulfilling all of these ifs. Today when I went with my friend Leslie to see if we might be able to see a 1:00 show of I am Legend (which I didn’t actually see at home), we were told to come back at 5:00 and they might have a show then. Of course the last bus home leaves at 6:30.

Going it alone

I am not a loner. Like anyone, I sometimes need time to be alone, but given the choice to be alone or be with someone, I will almost always opt for the company. I would rather watch a movie, watch TV, go to a party, go to a concert or go eat with other people. Going alone into social situations honestly scares me to death. I need a safety net of people I know. . . what if I walk in to the party and I don't know anyone? I don't mind being alone in some situations- sleeping, lounging, working out. I just don't want to be alone all the time.

A few weeks ago, I got free pass for two to see a screening of a movie. I got the pass late on the day before the screening and on the day of the screening I started to look for someone to come with me. I couldn't find a single person to come to the FREE movie with me. My friends were busy, working, out of town. I decided to go to the movie on my own. It was a movie that I really wanted to see (Martian Child with John Cusack) and I didn't want to pass up the chance to see a free movie (I really hate paying for movies- five years working in a theater can spoil a person). I loved the movie, but I hated watching it alone.

Tonight I could have gone to a concert in Boulder. A friend of mine was supposed to go with me, but cancelled at the last minute. I thought of a lot of reasons to not go to the concert- I didn't want to drive to Boulder, I have to get up early for work tomorrow, I don't really have the money. The truth is, I don't want to go alone.

In a few months, I will be leaving for the Peace Corps and living- alone- in a strange new country. If I can't even drive to Boulder alone, how am I going to survive being alone for two years?