This photo isn't that great, but it shows several things about living in Kosovo.   Large piles of wood recently have been brought into the city and dumped into streets.  This is across from our apartment on Adem Jashari - one of the busiest streets in Prizren.   The photo was taken from our living room balcony.  The piles of wood are removed usually within a couple of hours by intensive labor of residents using wheelbarrows to transport the wood to their flats.  Obviously, the wood is the main source of heat for many residents throughout the winter (we have electrical heat in our flat).  In Pristina, a much bigger city, there is supposedly a bad smog problem due to wood smoke in the winter.  Frank and I are hoping that this won't be the case in Prizren since we're  right near the mountains and there tends to be a cooling breeze every evening.  This photo also shows the tangles of electricity.  Electricity is a real problem.  We were told that since our flat is in the city center and an affluent area, our electricity will be good; however over the past couple of weeks, the electricity has gone off almost every other day and sometimes twice on the same day.  It is usually off for 2-4 hours, but the annoying thing is that we don't have any water either when it goes off, so I could be in the shower and if the electricity goes off, I might be soaped up and not get to rinse off.  There are no water tanks here; the water comes from springs and wells, so electricity is needed to get the water to apartments.

Another poor photo.  This was taken on the same day as the one above but from our back bedroom balcony.  One of our neighbors behind our flat is chopping wood that has been delivered and transporting it into his home.  The rope you see in the foreground is our clothes hanging line.  Almost no one has dryers here.  The washing machines are in the bathroom.  Yesterday, Frank brought a sexy pair of black ladies' underwear in from the line.....they weren't mine but had fallen from one of the apartments above us.

Outside Prizren's basetball arena from left: Elizabeth, Alyssa, Anesa, Art, Annette, and Ilirjan.  Elizabeth is a Fullbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) from Florida who recently graduated from Georgetown University.  She is living in a nearby Serb village in the mountains.  Alyssa is an ETA from the Bay Area who also recently graduated from Georgetown.  She is in Metrovica which is right on the border with Serbia.  Anesa is a 4th year English Studies student at the University of Prizren.  Art is a high school student.  Ilirjan is an ETA in Prizren and you can see him in previous posts.

Inside the basketball arena.  Prizren has a pro team that plays in the Kosovo league.  They are currently 3-0.  There are two Americans on the team.   We haven't met them yet, but I hope to convince them to come to the American Corner for one of my conversation tables.  Top row: Me, Frank, Anesa, and Elona (another high school student).  Bottom row: Alyssa, Elizabeth, and Art.

Viva Cafeteria.  They have great dishes for about 2 Euros.  The salad bar is 1 Euro.

Grocery section of Viva

Viva is a very modern grocery store/cafeteria near the university

Te Syla - the locals favorite restaurant in Prizren.  I ate here with the U.S. ambassador.

Schweppes Bitter Lemon - our favorite now when we're not having beer or a macchiato.

Traditional Kosovar house in the city center of Prizren.

This is a photo of me with Ilirijan - the Fullbright English Teaching Assistant assigned to help in two local high schools.  We both also hold conversation tables (as does Frank on Wednesdays) at the American Corner.  You can check out the American Corner Prizren, Kosovo's Facebook page if you want so see more photos. Ilirijan was born in the Bronx, but to Frank's dismay, he is not a baseball fan. He is a recent graduate of Hunter College in NYC and hopes to go to medical school to become a pediatrician after his grant is completed.  His parents immigrated to NY from Montenegro, and he speaks fluent Albanian which has been a blessing for us as we settle into life in Prizren.

This is the building where my classroom is located.  I am teaching 3 classes and they are all in room 32 on the second floor.

This is the view from the road in front of the university.  As you can see, Prizren has many beautiful mountain views around town.  The area on the left is a city park with  an astroturf walking track and a playground for children. 

This is my classroom in room 32.  The desks are nice, and there are new windows which will hopefully keep things warm and toasty in the winter.  As you can see, the rest is bare bones..... no bulletin boards or posters.  There is a sink, but it is disconnected.  We also have old blackboards and they use chalk that emits a cloud of dust when you write on the board.  There is an electrical outlet, and I brought an I-home and Ipod today for some American rap music with vocabulary and discussion activities.  I am also told that the university will provide a projector when I want to use PowerPoint.

This was taken a few blocks from the university near a very modern grocery store called Viva.  As you can see, old and new mix freely.  Especially around the university which is a little away from the city center, it isn't unusual to see horsedrawn carts like this one.

October 9th - Part 2
Took my camera with me to meet Annette after she finished teaching her classes today, so I want to show a few pictures of the University of Prizren.

Hard-working Annette leaving her building for the day.  These photos show most of the University of Prizren.  It looks like they are constructing a new building across the street to handle the large enrollment at the school.

This is about as close as I've seen to an American fast-food joint in Prizren.  Haven't tried McDona's yet, but who knows, might have good burgers.

This is on the side of a downtown Kosovo government building.  It is their thank you to the countries that initially recognized their independence from Serbia.

I finally hiked up to the ruins of the medieval fortress this morning and was rewarded with some awesome views of Prizren and the surrounding countryside.  It is a short hike but it starts out going up narrow cobblestone streets at grades that have to be at least 15% to 20%.  But the steep road gave me lots of time to stop and photograph the ruins of the houses and an old Serbian Orthodox church destroyed in 2004.

The final part of the path is a more gentle grade with increasingly spectacular views of Prizren.  I then passed through an archway in the wall to the center of the fortress, where a few men were doing some digging and restoration work.  I'll just add some of the photos I took rather than trying to describe the views.

The destroyed Serbian Orthodox church is in the lower left.

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Our apartment is in the center of this photo; the taller building behind the long cinder-block building. Our back patio is the lowest one seen on the left side of the building. 

Much to my surprise I ran into Ilyrjan, the Fulbright ETA, up at the fortress this morning, so we had coffee and a nice breakfast together after the easy trip back down into town.

I like this photo since it shows a big Muslim mosque with the tall minaret in the lower right, an active Serbian Orthodox church (with the dome) in the middle, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral (with the tall clock and bell tower) a little farther along the same line. Also notice all the other minarets scattered around the city - lots of mosques here!

All in all a great way to start the day here in Kosovo.

This is the Ambient Restaurant which is situated on the side of the river near the city center.  We had dinner here about a week ago, and as we were getting ready to leave, the waiter said that the large table of about 12 people sitting near us wanted to buy us a drink.  We ordered after dinner brandy and went to sit at their table.  A couple of them spoke a little English.  They were all Kosovars, but most of them live in Switzerland where they have jobs.  They were celebrating the marriage of a young couple with them and were on holiday.  A couple of them were speaking German to me.  My German is very rusty.  I finally figured out that the young woman was telling me jokes that an older gentleman was telling herinAlbanian.  I thought she was talking about her family, but finally figured out that they were jokes.  Everyone we meet in Prizren is very welcoming, and they love Americans here, which is refreshing.

The front of Ambient Restaurant.  You can sit outside with a view of the river or inside in the evening when it is cool.

Symphony Restaurant is located about a 3/4 mile from our flat.  It is in a pretty park area next to the river. 

Our dinner....french fries are wonderful in any restaurant because they're always made fresh.  We also order a lot of pizza.  This pizza was 5 Euros and the fries were 1.50.  Notice the Peja beer.  Peja is a city near the border with Montenegro.  A bottle of beer is usually 1 Euro - cheaper than water at restaurants!

Many parts of town have these cobblestone streets which are very charming.  The kids rollerblade on these!

This tree is the oldest tree in Kosovo.  It is supposedly from the 15th century.  It is adjacent to the Symphony Restaurant.

Yet another pizza and a macchiato.  I took this photo to show the ketchup that pizza is always served with.

This is the view of our street - Adem Joshari - from the city center.  You can see the ruins of the old Turkish baths in the background and one of the many minarets in the neighborhood.  Our flat is about 3 blocks down the street. 

The view of the bra seller's table right outside the front door of our apartment building.  The guy greets Frank with a "Hi, Charron", and Frank actually saw him make a sale today!

I got up early today to take a bus to the tiny hillside town of Stublle e Eperme to participate in a bicycle tour, the annual Tour de Culture.  Several of Annette's colleagues, all new arrivals to Kosova, also planned to participate using bikes rented at the start of the tour. After about 90 minutes of confusion and walking up and down steep, narrow streets we finally got our rent-a-bikes and the crowd finally started down the steep grade that eventually would reach the large town of Gjilan, 25 kilometers to the north.  After about a kilometer in the  densely-packed peloton I had to stop due to an accident ahead and discovered that my front tire was flat.  Seeking assistance from the mechanics I was told they could not fix the tire so I should walk up to the trucks in the village and exchange my bike for another one.  After another good uphill hike, this time pushing a bike, I find that there are no spare rental bikes, so I put my bike in the sag truck and hop on a bus, my day of biking at an end.  As it turned out, it was a very hot day and the route had lots of long uphill pulls, so my bus ride wasn't that bad after all.