I just asked Nathan to write a poem for his journal. Five minutes later, he's already got a good one for me about our trip to a cave the other day.
Up in the mountain
Down in the rain
No light or day in the cave!
Just shelter for some hungry cavemen
But they don't know the surprise
There's a cave bear inside!
I'm glad I asked him for a poem. I think I need to ask more often.
We didn't do much yesterday - just hung out locally. But last night we went to a restaurant for dinner with Genci's Uncle Sari, his family (wife Lindita, kids Deborah (15) and Jamie (13)), and their friends (a couple & their 2 kids). The meal was fun because they put out about 10 different little plates with different appetizer or side dish type foods, so we got to sample everything. Then they brought some meats out (qofte & biftek), and then even later they brought out some kind of juicy veal thing. Oh yes, plus we had good red wine & some people had raki. The wine was so good, I decided to skip the raki this time.
The kids played cards with each other, and chatted excitedly the whole time. Sari's kids have been studying English for a few years, and they all got along marvelously. At some point, the music changed to Albanian dance music and some people headed to the dancefloor. I was one of them of course. At our table, the guys were so involved in their discussion, they kept talking. But Lindita & I and the 2 teenage girls joined the dancing line. They form a chain, where everyone is holding hands except the first (who holds a handkerchief) and last person. Then the chain follows the leader in a circular direction, while everyone does the same series of steps. In Zumba class back home, we've done something similar, since the instructor is Armenian. She has shown us some Greek and Armenian line dances, so it didn't take me long to fall into step.
We didn't leave the restaurant until 11:30pm. A couple of kids (including Luke) had already fallen asleep.
At the hostel, the last couple of nights, we've had other people staying in the same room as us. For some reason there are a lot of people coming through right now. Up until now, we've had a room to ourselves. But there are 6 bunks in our room (3 sets of bunk beds). Two nights ago, a young Belgian couple arrived at 12:30am, so we had to clear off some stuff we had left on the open beds. They left the next morning. Last night there were 2 Hungarian men staying in 2 of the top bunks. It's kind of a strange feeling to have a stranger in the bunk above you. But it's a part of the hostel experience. The kids really like the hostel. They like talking to all the people. There is a nice little garden here with a 3 frogs, a snail and a bunch of goldfish. There are tables spread throughout the garden, and there's a little semi-enclosed area with tables, sofas & a little bar. At night it's filled with young people enjoying music, raki/beer/wine, and good conversation. Nathan & Luke play chess with each other. Sometimes someone else will humor Luke & play with him. He's actually pretty good. A couple of nights ago, a Danish guy drew a characature (spelling?) of Genci (super-dad, I think) and drew some sort of creature at Nathan's request. People seem to enjoy having the kids around.
Sometimes I contemplate changing locations to be closer to Genci's mother's house and since we pay for 3 people here (we use 3 beds; last year we only paid for us adults), a cheap hotel would not be too much more expensive. But this hostel has a very comfortable feeling to it, and I think the kids have become attached to it.
My Albanian studies have paid off. My comfortableness with the language is the best it has ever been. I still have quite a way to go, but I do feel a difference this time.
The kids don't speak much Albanian, although I do think that they're listening more than they used to as a result of the studying we did before coming. They are still shy with strangers, and people have a million ways of wording questions, so sometimes I end up translating questions that they sort of know, but that's OK. We'll get their eventually. I've been trying to add up how many Albanian words the kids know. Nathan had a brainstorm and remembered that I had promised to pay them 5 cents for every Albanian word that they learned by the time we came here. So now we're trying to make a list so we can count them. We're up to 174 so far (for numbers, I only counted 1-10), but I'm sure they know at least 200. It's hard to remember what you know until you hear it or are reminded of it. But you kind of need to know at least 2000 words to be able to hold real conversations. But they are now willing to learn, so their language skills will keep growing.
OK. I think the showers have cleared out now. Time to shower.
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