A Visit to the Arctic

I had a week off from school in mid-February so Randy and I decided to go to Finland to experience life in Lapland and to try to see the Northern Lights. After researching lots of different options we decided to fly to Ivalo, Finland which is 120 km north of the Arctic Circle to stay at Kakslauttanen. They offer several types of accommodations including glass igloos which sounded intriguing.

There was lots of de-icing of the airplane as we prepared to fly from Helsinki to Ivalo.

I thought it was interesting to see five different languages on the Helsinki Airport signage. I think the languages are English, Korean, Chinese, Russian and I don’t know about the fifth one.

This picture was taken as we took off from Helsinki and headed towards Ivalo.

This picture gives you an idea of how far north Ivalo is.

Arriving in Ivalo, the weather was cold but since we are from Rochester, NY we have experienced cold temperatures like this in the past.

Randy called the entrance to the igloo a hobbit door, very appropriate!

Inside the igloo was the Aurora Alarm which sounded if there was an Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) sighting. Unfortunately, the alarm never sounded while we were there and we never did get to see the Lights. 😦 Randy had an app that helped to predict our chance of seeing the Lights.

On our first morning in the Arctic, we went for a dog sled ride. We had brought a lot of our own cold weather gear from home but they suggested we add another layer of warmth. As you can see, they had every size and piece of clothing you could imagine: coveralls, boots, mittens up to your elbows, hats, balaclavas, etc. The only part of me that got cold on the sled ride were my toes.

Here were the directions we were given for driving our sleds.

We had always heard that dogs preparing to pull a sled will howl with excitement and wanting to move. This video proves that to be true.

Being out in the calm, quiet, beautiful forest combined with the novelty of being pulled on a sled by dogs was exciting and was worth the anticipation.

I loved interacting with the dogs at the end.

The following day we took a nighttime Aurora Hunting Reindeer Sleigh Ride. Once again, we did not see the Aurora but enjoyed the experience. Halfway through our sleigh ride we stopped at a structure called a “kota” which is a traditional reindeer herder’s (Sami’s) home to enjoy some hot berry juice.

The sleigh ride above was led by two Sami people. The Sami are the equivalent to our Native Americans. There are an estimated 80,000 indigenous Sami people who live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. All the reindeer in Finland are owned by the Sami people. Each reindeer, whether it is domestic or living in the wild is earmarked. In order to own a reindeer not only must you be Sami but your parents or grandparents must have had reindeer herding as their primary occupation. There is a maximum set number of reindeer that can sustainably survive in the wild so each year the herd size is culled to allow for newborn reindeer to survive. The culled reindeer are then sold and eaten.

We have now arrived for a two night stay in Helsinki. This is the view out our hotel window.

Walking around Helsinki…

The Oodi Library was built six years ago and is the most interesting library I think I have been in. There was such diversity of what you could do other than check out books. There were sewing machines, 3D printers, a cinema, live trees, robots delivering books, musical instruments to check out in addition to the usual individual and group meeting rooms. It was impressive!

We have used Fiskars products for years but never knew they originated in Finland.

We took a walking tour of Helsinki and our guide showed this picture as a good description of how Finnish people feel about being too close to others. He also shared a common saying that says you can tell an introverted Finn from an extroverted Finn because an introvert looks at his feet while an extrovert looks at the other person’s feet. 🙂

Saunas are a huge part of Finnish culture. It is seen as both relaxing and therapeutic and is a place to socialize. From what we understand, most hotels and private homes have saunas. In the winter it is common to go back and forth between the sauna and a sea pool or the snow. Randy and I wanted to try all of this so we went to the public Allas Sauna. We could not take our phones so I got the picture on the right from their website so you could see what it looks like. Obviously, when we looked out the vista window, we saw lots of snow and ice, not the beach that you see here. Everyone was moving between the three outdoor pools and five saunas. They were walking barefoot on ice covered sidewalks to get back and forth. We walked barefoot out to the sea pool and could only stand getting in the water up to our knees. It was painful! I have great admiration for the Finns who dipped into the icy pools and back to the saunas without seeming to flinch. Amazing!

Salmon soup is another Finnish tradition that I LOVED!!! When we move back to the States, I am going to figure out how to make it.

When we were walking through the Helsinki Airport we saw our first Moomin Shop. We then saw several more of these shops as we toured Helsinki. The shops were always full of people so I became very curious about what Moomin meant. After asking our guide and then doing some reading I found out that Moomin are a family of characters created by the Finnish author Tove Jansson starting in 1945. The characters look a bit like white hippopotamuses and are a sweet, peace and nature loving family who go on various adventures together. The series was made into a cartoon which has become very popular in Japan. I got really caught up with the charm of the Moomin books and ended up buying our granddaughter two books and a few of the stuffed characters for her upcoming seven year old birthday. I wonder why they have not become popular in the States.

We asked our hotel for a dinner restaurant recommendation and this is where they suggested. When we arrived at the restaurant the server said there was no menu, this would be a surprise meal. He asked if we had any food allergies. Soon after, the food started arriving at our table. It was delicious and so beautifully presented.

The baptismal font is in the foreground.

One more interesting story I want to share before leaving Finland is a conversation Randy and I had with our guide. I asked the guide how the Finnish people felt about joining NATO. I am definitely not a political person but since Finland joining NATO has been in the news lately, I was curious. The guide said that about 20-30% of the Finns (including himself) felt that Finland should not have joined NATO. He said his country has shared a border with Russia for a very long time without issues. He did not want to risk antagonizing Russia by having his country join NATO. Also, there is a such a dense forest and many lakes along the border which would make it very difficult for Russia to invade Finland. Finally, he said that Finland does not have anything Russia would want i.e. natural resources, so what advantage would it be for them to invade? He said it would be like Russia getting more of Siberia with no resources.

Before flying back to Albania, we decided to spend two nights in Oslo, Norway. We signed up to take a small group tour but it ended up being just Randy and I which was nice. Our guide, Olav was a 25 year old university student studying history and economics. Here, Randy and Olav are standing in front of the main entrance to the University of Oslo.

This is the Norwegian Parliament Building which is the center of political debate and decision making in Norway. The small gray tents in front of the building is where protesters camp for many days at a time. It is similar to what happens in front of our White House in Washington D.C. When we were there most of the protests centered on the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine.

Look at the beautiful containers of heather poking up through the snow. The containers were everywhere in the city center. It was refreshing to see a bit of floral color in early February.

Isn’t she adorable!?! The statue was standing outside of a hotel.

When Olav suggested that we visit City Hall on our tour, I must admit I was not very enthused. Wow, were we surprised. It is full of beautiful artwork plus it is the location where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year.

You may or may not remember seeing these brass sidewalk blocks in some of my other posts. We have seen them in many European cities. They are a stark reminder of the atrocities the Jews suffered during WWII. The blocks are outside of locations were Jews were taken and deported to concentration camps. It is always startling to randomly come across them. The blocks give the name, birthdate, deportation date, where they were deported to and the date they were killed. A simple reminder of the horrors of war…

We visited the Nobel Peace Prize Museum where we learned about this yearly award. The inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel, donated 150 million dollars so that the peace award (along with four other awards) could be granted each year. The recipients are awarded one million dollars that they are to use to further peace in the world. I bought several postcards of the individual winners to take to share with my students. We spent one lesson talking about the Nobel Peace Prize. The children had excellent questions and comments about it all.

Yum!!! This blueberry pie was our favorite thing to eat in Norway.

These four babies are symbolizing the emotions of childhood: anger, happiness, sadness and fright.

I am sure I have added way too many sculpture pictures but I found them fascinating and had a hard time leaving some of them out. Vigeland made all the figures naked because he wanted them to be timeless. Our guide also told us that Vigeland wanted to show many of his figures having fun and playing with their children because he felt he had neglected his own children by not spending enough time with them. He wanted his sculptures to show all phases of a person’s life from childhood to old age.

One reason Randy and I like going on tours is to see the important sights. Another reason is because it is interesting to learn about the culture of the places we visit. During our Oslo tour we got onto the topic of prisons. Our guide, Olav shared with us that the recidivism rate in Norway is 16%. Wow! The States have a recidivism rate of 75%. When we asked how the Norwegians kept the rate so low, Olav explained that his country wants every citizen contributing to the welfare of the country. If someone is sitting in jail doing nothing then they are not making contributions. Norway works very hard to teach job skills, provide counseling, etc. to help the prisoners be successful when they return to society. They are more interested in rehabilitating their prisoners than punishing them. Another interesting fact is that if someone from another country commits a crime in Norway, they are taken back to their own country and Norway pays for them to be incarcerated in their own country. This is done to discourage criminals from coming to Norway.

One more interesting cultural bit of information is that in the late 1960’s oil was discovered in Norway. This caused Norway to go from being a relatively poor country to one of the wealthiest countries in the world. When we asked what happens with the oil income, Olav said it is invested to be used to fund the pensions for the Norwegian citizens. Because of this, Olav does not need to save for his retirement. The government is very generously doing it for him.

From the little bit we were able to learn about Norway, it seems that Norway would be a wonderful place to live.

As you know, I often like to end my blog with a bit of news or info about Albania. One of the many things I will mis about Albania are the pharmacies. We have approximately five pharmacies within a 10 minute walk of our apartment. Each pharmacy is quite small and is staffed by one or two pharmacists who speak excellent English. This week I was experiencing some allergy symptoms so I looked up what the active ingredient was in Claritin, went to the pharmacy and explained what I needed. With no waiting, they provided the medication shown above for the cost of 100 lek (one dollar). The States are way ahead of Albania when it comes to providing care for serious health issues but it seems Albania is ahead when it comes to treating day-to-day medical needs.

The name of our last IB unit was called How We Express Ourselves. My assistant and I took the children on a walking tour of Tirana to visit nine murals. The kids made a quick sketch of each mural, wrote a few words about it and then rated it with one to three stars based on whether or not they liked the mural. It was fun to hear the children’s varied opinions about the artwork they were viewing.

Thank you, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I really do enjoy reflecting back on our lives abroad but I simply don’t have as much time as I would like to work on putting it all together. It only took my two months to get this blog written. Oh, well. I have a few more posts to get caught up with, we’ll see how long that takes. 🙂

I am down to a bit more than two months left in my teaching career. The feelings of excitement, fear and a bit of sadness are all mixed in as I anticipate the next step. We are looking forward to settling back into our life in America starting in July.

A Weekend Trip to Puglia, Italy and Home, Sweet, Home

In early December, we had a three day weekend and a friend asked me if I would like to go to Italy. Of course I answered, yes, I never want to miss a trip to Italy! Randy was not in Albania at the time because he was hunting back in New York. There was a 41 euro round trip flight to Bari so we booked our tickets and made some plans. Bari is a 50 minute flight from Tirana.

As we all know, Italy is in the shape of a boot. If you look at the spiked heel, that is where Puglia is located. Puglia is one of the 20 regions of Italy and is known for producing 60% of Italy’s olive oil and having the longest coastline of any of the mainland regions in Italy. From my perspective, Puglia is known for having one charming small town after another.

We spent two nights in Polignano e Mare a small, seaside town of 18,000 people. Here you can see the city by day and by night. Gorgeous!

The central piazza of Polignano e Mare looking very festive for the holidays.

It seems that every Italian city (no matter the size) has at least one gorgeous church. I never get tired of the peacefulness and tranquility that comes with visiting them.

The name of this restaurant is Nobilnonna which means “noble grandmother” in Italian. Since my friend and I are both grandmothers we decided it was the perfect place to enjoy dinner.

Different regions of Italy are known for different types of pasta. Puglia is known for orecchiette “little ear” pasta.

After checking out of our hotel in Polignano e Mare we drove our rental car 40 minutes away to Locorotondo, another small, charming city in Puglia.

You may or may not know that I enjoy collecting nativity sets from the various countries we visit. When we were winding our way around the narrow streets of Locorotondo, we stumbled across an artist with a very small shop that was attached to where she and her husband lived. She spoke no English but encouraged us to enter her shop, enjoy a bit of wine and a cookie. Suzyn speaks some Italian so they could communicate a bit. The artist shop was full of beautiful, beautiful art. The nativity sets I purchase are usually quite small but I absolutely fell in love with the one pictured here. You can also see the artist signing the back of the artwork for me. The whole experience is a treasured memory.

After leaving Locorotondo, we drove another 20 minutes down the road to Alberobello. This small city is known for it’s trulli, the cone topped, cylindrical houses that were originally used in farming and as homes. I visited here in the spring of 2019 and loved our overnight stay here. Unfortunately, it has become overpopulated with tourists to the point that we were walking shoulder to shoulder with people for most of our short visit. It simply was not enjoyable. I felt like the town had been overrun with tourists and had lost it’s charm.

On the 16th of December, I flew home for three weeks. I am continuing to enjoy living and teaching in Albania but at the same time, I could not wait to get home for awhile. I started my trip home by flying into Dulles in Virginia and spending two nights with Elizabeth and her family. They borrowed my car for the fall since I was not needing it. After staying with them for a short time, I drove home to Fairport.

Juliet is wearing a dress that her Mama wore as a flower girl at my sister’s wedding many years ago.

Randy and Jacob lit the candles at the Christmas Eve church service and then snuffed them at the end of the service. I am so glad that Jacob could be part of this tradition that his grandaddy, mother and uncles have done many times.

This is my favorite picture from my trip home. Juliet holding a candle as we sang Silent Night.

Christmas morning wearing new Christmas pajamas and Christmas sweaters.

I do NOT enjoy listening to me laugh on this video but I did love the dancing grandchildren!

A Few years ago we bought some land about an hour and a half south of Fairport, close to the small town of Scio. Randy loves hunting and the outdoors so this gives him plenty of space to enjoy. The property had no improvements on it so we had a small pole barn built. Randy has portioned off part of the barn to make a living space. All the wood you can see here has come from trees Randy and Josh have cut down on the property and then made into lumber to enclose the space. Randy has spent hours on this project which brings him great satisfaction. As you can see, the ceiling is still a work in progress.

A walk through the woods at Scio on a rainy afternoon.

Juliet (age 6) and I went to her all time favorite restaurant for some Juliet and Nana time. Jacob (age 13) and I headed to Starbucks to share a bit of time together. Love, love these two sweethearts!!!

We went for Hot Pot and BBQ one evening which was a really different and enjoyable experience.

It was fun to see David get rid of their Christmas tree. Of course, after he threw it off the deck he went around and dragged it over to the trash can.

I like to end my blogposts with something that is happening in Albania. One of the Early Years teachers is also a yoga instructor. She teaches a class once a week for those that are interested. So glad to have the opportunity to continue my yoga practice in Albania! Our teacher sent this video to us a few weeks ago so I decided to share it here. I am in the back, on the left. :)

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I have a week off from school coming up in February. Randy and I are headed to Finland and will be spending three nights 120 km north of the Arctic Circle in the small city of Ivalo. We are hoping to see the Northern Lights but if we can’t see them we are still looking forward to spending time in an Arctic setting.

January, 2024

A Visit from Our Son and a Trip to Egypt

In early October our son, Josh, and our Irish son, Daniel, visited us for not quite a week. Daniel lives in Belfast and spent a few summers with us as part of the Irish Children’s Program many years ago. When Daniel found out Josh was coming to Albania, Daniel decided to come visit at the same time. We loved hosting both of them and as I have said before, there is nothing better than spending time with our adult children.

Josh has visited many places in Albania so he wanted to explore something close by and different. They decided to travel to Kotor, Montenegro which is a three hour drive from our apartment. Randy, Daniel and Josh spent two nights getting to know this beautiful city.

Following the usual routine, Josh and Daniel visited my classroom and met my second graders. It was fun to watch them all interact,

Our weather was wonderful during our stay in Egypt.

We spent two nights in Cairo at a lovely hotel that was very reasonably priced.

As we travel, I always find it interesting to see the different car license plates. Of course, everything is written in Arabic in Egypt.

The view when looking up the Great Pyramid.

Here you can see the sarcophagus in the background. Can you tell that we are not great at taking selfies?

Here is a diagram of the inside of the Great Pyramid. You can see where we entered the Pyramid and then how we climbed to the King’s Chamber. Loved this experience!

I think one of my favorite experiences in Egypt was riding on a camel. I know it is a very touristy experience to have but I still loved it. The camels seemed to have such personalities and going out in the desert while riding one of them was amazing!

Before riding on the camels we asked our guide if she thought the camels were mistreated. She said she did not think so because so many Egyptians depend on the camels to make a living. If they mistreated their camels it would negatively impact their income.

The human looking part of the Great Sphinx of Giza is said to represent Khafre who is entombed in the second largest Pyramid of Giza.

After visiting the Pyramids, our guide took us to the Egyptian Museum back in Cairo. This museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in the world. We were glad to have our guide with us to show us the highlights.

I took these two pictures of some Egyptian money shown with the matching Egyptian artifact. On one side of Egyptian bills everything is written in Arabic with images relating to Islamic heritage. On the reverse side of each bill (shown here) the writing is in English and it shows some figure or monument of ancient Egypt. Also, the currency in Egypt is called pounds. All of this is rooted in Britain’s colonization of Egypt from 1882 to 1956.

This ivory statue measures not quite 3 inches tall. It is the only portrait of the Pharaoh Khufu (builder of the Great Pyramid) that exists.

These statues are life-size and are of Prince Rahotep and his wife Nofret. It is believed that Rahotep was the brother of Khufu. When the first excavator found them underground with only a candle for light, he was frightened because they look so realistic. Rahotep’s skin is painted reddish-brown while his wife’s skin is painted a much paler color. The pale color suggests her sheltered life.

Our next and final stop with our guide was the Old Cairo Bazaar which has existed since the 14th century. We were advised that tourists need to have a guide with them when they visit a bazaar like this because the shopkeepers can be so aggressive. That was good advice. It was difficult to really look at much of the merchandise because we were being approached to “buy this, buy that” so much that it simply made you want to move away from the shop. Another interesting part of buying anything in Egypt was that the shopkeepers all wanted us to pay in American dollars. Of course, we did not bring any with us because when we travel we usually use the local currency. The shopkeepers would take Egyptian pounds but they much preferred to have American dollars. I am not sure but I think this is because the rate of inflation in Egypt is over 40% and they see the dollar as a more stable currency.

Just a few of the beautiful mosques surrounding the bazaar.

After our very full day in Cairo, we took a cab to the airport the next day. I loved all the decor this cab driver had added to his taxi. The driver spoke nearly prefect English. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with him as he shared the ups and downs of living in Egypt

I added this map of Egypt with the green circles to show where we traveled. To give some perspective, Egypt is a bit larger than the state of Texas. It took us an hour and a half to fly from Cairo to the southern city of Aswan.

Flying over Egypt includes a lot of brown desert plus Cairo is such a big, busy city that it was a pleasant change of pace to land in the very green city of Aswan.

Our three night, four day cruise on the Nile River was very reasonably priced. As always, you get what you pay for. The ship was clean but quite dated. The food was okay but not great. The best part of the cruise was seeing all the sites along the way.

After the cruise company picked us up at the airport and before our ship left Aswan we visited the Aswan Dam which was built in the 1960’s. The dam controls the flow of water on the Nile River and protects the people from both floods and drought. The dam was initially funded by the UK and the US but then both countries withdrew their financial support when Egypt made several moves that appeared to be friendly to the communist block. The Soviet Union ended up providing the funds to build the dam.

The first temple we visited was Philae. It was built in the middle of the Nile River 2,000 years ago and can only be reached by boat. The temple is dedicated to Isis, the goddess of birth, healing and magic. The temple is also known for being one of the last places that the ancient Egyptian religion survived before Christianity swept through in 550AD.

I have circled two of the symbols we saw whenever we visited any of the ancient Egyptian temples. The symbol on the left is the “eye of protection”. The belief was that this symbol would protect you from evil spirits, disease and harmful animals. The symbol on the right is called an “ankh” and symbolizes eternal life. This was the first of many times seeing these symbols on the walls of the temples we visited.

After we returned from visiting the Philae Temple we boarded a small boat to travel up the Nile River to visit a Nubian Village. The two pilots of the boat looked to be about 13 or 14 years old. They knew exactly what they were doing and they seemed happy doing it. I kept wondering if this was child labor and if so, was it okay? I also wondered about their schooling or perhaps lack of it. The small boats had nice artwork drawn on the inside of the boat.

Here we are arriving in and then walking around the Nubian Village. As you can tell, the Nubian Village is full of color. The village started roughly 8.000 years ago when the Nubians moved from Sudan. Their skin color is darker than the average Egyptians plus they have their own traditions and language.

One of my favorite activities while visiting Egypt was getting to see this school in the Nubian Village.

When we went through the gate into the school’s courtyard we saw many painted murals including the ones shown here.

This is the inside of one of the classrooms. The man pictured is one of the actual teachers at the school. He answered many of our questions including telling us that this classroom was for 6 to 8 year olds and about 30 children went to school in this room.

Here we are seeing a typical Nubian home. Love all the color!

When we reached the roof of the house, this was our view. The colorful tower in the distance is a minaret from a local mosque. We were served some traditional Nubian food and tea. I took a picture of the paper cup that the tea was served in because I liked the saying printed on it, “Take Your Time, take your dreams seriously”.

We are now getting ready to head back via boat down the Nile River. It was well worth our time to visit this unusual, colorful part of Egypt.

Our home base for three nights was the cruise ship as mentioned earlier. We chose to take the cruise because it provided so many opportunities to visit several iconic sights in a fairly short period of time. As we came and went from the ship each day we boarded various buses that looked like this. As the bus drove us to visit places we were continually stopped at checkpoints like the one pictured on the right. The bus driver would get off the bus, talk to the people seated at the desk, show some paperwork and then we would be off again. Often times, these stops would take 5 minutes but at other times we would be waiting up to 20-25 minutes. I never understood why we were stopped and what the people at the checkpoints were always writing in their books.

On our first full day of being on the cruise ship we woke up at 3:30AM so we could drive three hours south to visit the Abu Simbel Temples. We drove within 30 km of the Sudanese border. This picture was taken out the bus window when we had been on the road for about an hour. Driving through the desert at sunrise was a different, beautiful experience.

We have arrived at the temples in the village of Abu Simbel which is still part of the Aswan region of Egypt. The temple on the left (The Great Temple) was built by Pharaoh Ramses II in roughly 1200BC. The temple on the right (The Small Temple) was also built by Ramses to honor Nefertari, the favorite of his 200 wives.

If you remember earlier in this blog I showed some pictures of the Aswan Dam. One negative part of the building of the dam was that it would flood the Abu Simbel temples. It was decided in the 1960’s that they would need to move the temples in order to preserve them. An international team of engineers and scientists moved the temples about 200 feet to preserve them from the rising water of Lake Nasser. The moving of the temples was paid for by more that 50 countries contributing to the project. In 1979 the temples were designated as UNESCO Wold Heritage Sites.

Another interesting part of these temples is that they were buried until 1813 when a Swiss researcher rediscovered them.

The four huge statues in front of this temple are all of Ramses II. He built the temple to intimidate his enemies and as a place for the people to worship him after his death. You can see several smaller statues around Ramses which represent some of his 100 children and 200 wives.

We thought that by traveling in mid-October we would miss most of the crowds. Unfortunately that was not true.

The second temple we visited was built as a tribute to Hathor, the goddess of love/music and as a tribute to Ramses’ favorite wife, Nefertari. I am standing next to a statue of Ramses, just to give perspective as to the size of the statues.

There was not as much to see inside this temple. We did see several cartouches on the walls.

On the drive back to our ship, we saw lots and lots of trucks like this. They were all headed south which made me wonder if they were headed to Sudan to help relieve the hunger in that country.

After spending the afternoon cruising the Nile, we toured another temple in Kom Ombo. I was so glad we could see it at night because of how beautiful it is.

Kom Ombo Temple is located right next to the Nile River and was built in 180 BC. It is called a double temple because it was dedicated to two gods: the crocodile-headed god Sobek and falcon-headed Horus.

Can you see the ankh and eye of protection in amongst all the other heirglyphics?

Since this temple was partially dedicated to crocodile-headed Sobek, there was a small museum with mummified crocodiles in it. The crocodile was said to be the god of water and a symbol of power and strength.

The next morning we were up at 4:30AM to visit the Edfu Temple which is dedicated to the falcon-god Horus. It is well known as the best preserved temple in Egypt and was built in 237BC along the Nile River. It took 180 years to construct the temple.

Since this temple is dedicated to the falcon-god Horus, we saw lots of falcon depictions throughout the temple.

Look at the smiling child in the front seat of what I am guessing is a school bus.

How many children can you put on a motorcycle?

After visiting Edfu Temple we spent several hours cruising to Luxor and enjoying the sights. It was good to have a few hours to relax since we have been busy visiting sights nonstop since boarding the ship.

We even went through a lock. It made Randy and I think of the Erie Canal even though there is big difference between the canal and the Nile River.

I mentioned earlier in this blog how aggressive the shopkeepers were, to the point that it made me not want to buy anything. While we spent the afternoon cruising there were several small boats following our ship to sell their goods (primarily tablecloths and beach towels). They would yell up to the passengers and then throw the goods up onto the ship.

Our next and final stop on the cruise was Luxor. These posters sum up our impression of Egypt, a country full of hospitality and history.

We had a short, picturesque walk from our cruise ship on the Nile over to visit the Luxor Temple.

We arrived in Cairo on October 14th, one week after the Israeli War began. Before arriving in Egypt we did hesitate about the safety of making the trip. Randy did some reading on the U.S. State Department website which said Egypt was still a safe place to travel. We never felt unsafe except for when we walked to the Luxor Temple. We walked by the pictured protest which we found to be very intimidating. The protestors were screaming words in Arabic. Since we speak no Arabic we had not idea what they were saying. I expressed concern about safety to our guide. Our guide said this was the first protest in Luxor in the past five years. He said there was no need to be scared because Egyptians highly value the tourist industry and would never do anything to a tourist. Nevertheless, I would have been happy to skip this experience. These pictures were taken later when we drove by the same location in a bus.

The Luxor Temple was built in 1400 BC and unlike most temples is not dedicated to one god or pharaoh. Instead it was a place where many pharaohs were crowned. The obelisk was built by Ramses II and has hieroglyphics showing his military victories. This obelisk is one of a pair. The other obelisk is in Paris.

If you look carefully you can see some frescos on the walls of the temple. These are remnants of when the Romans converted the temple to a church in 350. In 640 the temple was converted into a mosque.

This is the 2.7 km road that connects Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple. It was built 3,400 years ago. It is called the Avenue of the Sphinxes or the Road of the Rams because there are hundreds of sphinx and ram headed statues along either side of the road (see below).

The road was built to celebrate many different occasions like feasts or coronations. The boat like structure is a recreation of the transport used by the pharaohs between the two temples.

A hot air ballon ride was included in the cost of the Nile Cruise so we were up at 4:00 AM again so we could get to the balloon launching site.

Posing like an Egyptian pharaoh and his queen. 🙂

Although it may have been hard to get up so early, it was well worth it to experience this beautiful sunrise in a calm, quiet ballon.

You could easily see the results of irrigation as we flew over such varied terrain.

We are now headed to the Valley of the Kings which was Randy’s favorite spot that we visited in Egypt. It is hard to believe when looking at these barren hills that there could be such beauty hidden beneath them.

The Valley of the Kings contains 65 tombs varying in size from a simple pit to a tomb with 120 chambers for Rameses’ II sons. These burial sites were used over the course of 500 years from the 16th to the 11th century BC.

Walking down, down, down into a many chambered tomb.

Another common Egyptian symbol is the scarab beetle which stands for good luck and good fortune.

And more ankhs, a cartouche and an eye of protection. They were everywhere at the Valley of the Kings.

I have probably overdone it with the pictures but I simply could not get over how absolutely beautiful the painted scenes were inside the tombs. What I found to be the most fascinating was that these are the original colors. They have not been enhanced. They are so far under the ground that they are protected from the sun and do not seem to fade over time. These paintings are more than 3,000 years old. The paint was created from natural resources like plants and rocks.

Even today there are archeological digs happening at the Valley of the Kings, as can be seen in this photo. Archeologists from around the world regularly come to discover new tombs and learn more about ancient Egypt.

Here we are approaching the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. A mortuary temple is a temple built close to a royal tomb. Valley of the Kings is only 5 km away. Hatshepsut was the only woman to have full power as a pharaoh during the 3,000 year old history of ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut is considered to be one of the greatest pharaohs (male or female) because she brought great wealth to the region by having many trade expeditions with other parts of Africa. These trading expeditions brought back gold, ebony and incense. She is also known for the many building projects she oversaw. She reigned for more than 20 years and during much of that time she portrayed herself as a male by wearing traditional male clothing. This was done as a way for her to establish herself in the Egyptian patriarchy.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, the surrounding area is continuously being excavated in search of more information about Ancient Egypt. These stones were laid out with number labels outside of the Hatshepsut Temple.

Karnak Temple was the last temple we visited. I must admit that by this time of our tour we were actually getting burned out on seeing one temple after another in the space of three days. A friend had told me that Karnak Temple was her favorite but we did not see it that way just because we were tired.

This model of Karnak Temple shows it’s immense size. It is considered to be the largest temple complex constructed anywhere in the world.

This is the other end of the road that begins at the Luxor Temple and ends at Karnak Temple. As mentioned earlier, it is 2.7 km long and is 3,000 years old.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the obelisk could guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife. One of these obelisks was built for the Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

The small rounded object on the top of this stone block is a scarab beetle. As mentioned earlier, they were thought to bring good luck and good fortune. I found it interesting that people visiting Karnak Temple believed that if you walked around the scarab beetle several times you would then have good fortune, hence you can see people walking around and around.

Some friends had suggested that we consider staying at the Winter Palace after we got off of our Nile River Cruise in Luxor. We looked into it and tried to make an advance reservation for one night but their was no availability. We did end up getting a room at the last minute because several tourists had canceled. The Israeli War had made them decide not to come to Egypt. Of course we were glad to get to stay but sad for the reason.

The beautiful gardens were by far the part I enjoyed most about our stay at the Winter Palace. This hotel was built by the British in the early 1900’s to host English nobility. Although Randy and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay we felt that the experience did not seem authentic. We felt like we were not in Egypt but instead visiting a lovely British hotel.

On our last day in Egypt we made arrangements for a local guide to take us on a two hour tour of Luxor. We said we were interested in getting to know more of the culture of the city rather than seeing anymore tourist attractions. Our first stop was a local market where we saw no other tourists. 🙂

Next our guide took us to an Egyptian Coptic Church. The Coptic Church has similar beliefs to the Orthodox Church. Our guide pointed out that Christianity was part of Egypt before Islam came to Egypt. He also said that there are Copt schools in Luxor to help preserve the Copt language.

Our local guide also took us to get falafel which is a traditional Egyptian food made from chickpeas and fava beans. Delicious!!

It seems that most of the world is seeking peace.

We loved our time in Egypt and found it to be full of so much history that it was hard to take it all in at times. The people were friendly and welcoming, the sights were amazing and cruising on the Nile River was majestic. Personally, I would rather have had more time to spend but I only had a week off from school.

Just a few extra points that we found interesting about Egypt were some of the tight government control that we were unaware of most of the time. For example, VPN’s are not allowed in Egypt. It seems that the government wants total control over communication. One of our taxi drivers told us that he had taken a family group of four Israelis to tour the country for a week. As a result, he had some government officials at his home questioning him. I asked if he would be allowed to communicate with the Israeli tourists after they returned to Israel. He said that would be forbidden by his government. Also, when we were checking out of the Winter Palace we had made our own arrangements for a taxi, we did not do it through the hotel. When we were waiting outside the hotel, our taxi arrived and asked if we were staying in room 361. How did the taxi driver know what room we were staying in? It turns out we were being tracked the whole time by what is called the tourist police. It felt a bit “1984ish”.

Flying through Athens on the way back to Tirana. This is how Randy and I both felt…

It had been a long time since I had run more than a 5K so I decided to run the Tirana Marathon 10K. I started training in early September but had always told myself that I might not do it if I was too tired after our trip back from Egypt. As it turned out, I ran the 10K because if I did not do it then, then I would never get the chance since we will be moving back home in July. There were more than 4,000 participants (in several categories) from a total of 47 different countries. It was such fun to be part of it all!

One quick update about my class, I no longer have 24 students! My class was split when the school hired another international teacher. My teaching life and my students’ learning life has become much, much more productive. Yay! This Halloween photo was the first one taken after the class was split.

Well, it only took me two and a half months to get this blog update published. I thoroughly enjoy reflecting back on our adventures using this blog but I often don’t seem to have the time to actually sit down and work on it. This post seems especially long because there was so much to share as we visited Egypt. I am going to try to do a short blog about December. Hopefully, it won’t take as long to get it published. 🙂

Thank you so very much for allowing me to share our experiences with you!

Getting Started on my Fourth Year of Teaching in Albania Plus a Saturday Morning Run in Tirana

I have been slow in writing a new blog post. As my teacher friends know, September is always a hard month as the students and teachers get back into the school routine. I am glad October is here! Randy and I arrived back in Tirana without an issue in mid-August. We have the same apartment which makes life much easier. We have finished five weeks of school. The primary part of Albanian College has gone from 300 to 500 students this year. That means every part of the school is overcrowded including the cafeteria, classrooms and the playground. There has been a shortage of everything from desks to chairs to drinking water. I have 24 students which is about twice as many as I have had in the past. Having 24 students is not unusual in many American classrooms but for an inquiry-based international classroom, 24 is a lot of students. In the previous three years of teaching at ACT I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about and implementing the international baccalaureate curriculum. Unfortunately, with 24 kids, it is much harder to use the IB. I have gone back to much more direct teaching. 😦 Many of the parents have expressed concern about the overcrowded classroom so the school is working to split my class and a few more that have too many children.

Here are the usual silly and serious photos of my class of 24 children. My assistant this year is a young woman named Alba. She has her Master’s degree in teaching but this is her first teaching job. She has been delightful to work with. She will make an excellent teacher!

In mid-September, Randy was asked to be a witness at the marriage of two teachers from ACT. Corey has been a biology teacher at the school since it opened 8 years ago. He is originally from Philadelphia. Mikela has been a teaching assistant at the school for the last two years. Her family now lives in Greece but she is originally from Albania. They are a lovely couple! Randy was honored to be a witness at their wedding.

My sister, Kim, who is 18 months younger than I am, has four children with her husband, Phil. I missed her first child’s wedding because we were in Albania. We missed her second child’s wedding because of Covid. When her third child announced that he was getting married in late September, I decided I did not want to miss another of her kids’ weddings. As a result of that decision, Randy and I made a very quick trip to Cleveland, Ohio for the wedding of Andrew and Jessie. Andrew and Jessie truly love the outdoors and did not want to have a traditional wedding so they rented out a summer camp for a weekend. We were altogether from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Our children and grandchildren were there along with all my siblings. It was wonderful!!!!

I missed three days of school plus it was an exhausting trip but well worth the effort.

On most Saturday mornings I like to go for a run. Since much of my blog centers on us traveling to different places I thought it might be a good idea to show several pictures from our temporary home of Tirana. I then decided to take a bunch of pictures of the places I run past on Saturdays.

I frequently start my run by taking a bus to the park. It costs 40 lek (40 cents) to take a bus anywhere in the city. There is no schedule for the bus, you just go stand next to a bus stop and wait until the bus you want comes around which is usually every 10 minutes or so. The picture on the right is the entrance to the park. Throughout Albania trash is a problem. People think nothing of throwing trash on the ground. However, at the park, there is no trash which is one reason I like it.

The centerpiece of the park is a large artificial lake with a walking/running/biking path around it. As you go around the lake you will see mountains, tennis courts, an amphitheater, a football (soccer) field and coffee shops. It is never boring, always lots to look at.

These two monuments are also part of the park. The picture to the left and above are a nod to the informal alliance between China and Albania in the 60’s and early 70’s. The picture on the right is a tribute to the Albanians that sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. There were 11 times more Jews in Albania at the end of the war than there was at the beginning of the war. Most of those Jews immigrated to Israel at the end of the war.

At times, I run back to our apartment from the park instead of taking the bus. I pass an Orthodox Church, a Mosque and a Catholic Church. About 60-70% of the country is Muslim, 10-15% is Orthodox and 10-15% is Catholic. One of the many things I love about Albania is it’s religious tolerance. Many other countries around the world could learn something from the Albanians about the lack of judgement they have for religions other than their own.

The blue and green building is one of my favorite skyscrapers in the city. Love that it is so different and colorful. The yellow building is the new Intercontinental Hotel that is replacing the original white one in front of it. There are lots gorgeous florists in the city.

I usually end my run with a cucumber, celery, apple and ginger juice from here. Yum!

That is the update for now. We are looking forward to our son, Josh, visiting next week for five days. Our Irish son, Daniel, will also be visiting from Belfast at the same time. Can’t wait!!! Our week-long October break is coming up in a couple of weeks. We have done a lot of exploring in Western Europe so we want to try something different. Many of the teachers here have said how much they like Egypt so we are heading that direction.

Thanks, as always, for reading my blog.

October. 2023

Family, Family and More Family

We were fortunate to have several family visitors during May and June. Our apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms which makes hosting visitors an easy and enjoyable thing to do. It is a real treat to introduce family and friends to life in Albania.

In mid-May our son, David, and his boyfriend, Kevin, came to visit for six days. They arrived on a Monday so our first stop was to school…

…which included the usual meeting and talking with my second graders.

At the Square with a staue of Skanderbeg who is the national hero of Albania.

On one of the days that David and Kevin were in Tirana, they came back to school to give the children some hands-on experience with what they do in their careers. David (who is a heart surgeon) went to a local butcher and got a goat heart and lungs. He showed the children and then let them feel the various parts of the organs and used a straw to blow air into the lungs. Kevin (who is a physician’s assistant working at Sloan Kettering in cancer reconstructive surgery) brought some tools with him to let the students practice giving stitches. Of course, the children were highly focused and full of questions during this experience.

On the weekend we took a two hour drive to Vlore, Albania and spent the night at Hotel Liro. We love this hotel that is built into the side of a cliff and offers beautiful views of the Adriatic/Ionian Sea.

This area of Old Town Vlore just opened up and is full of charming restaurants and shops.

I did not take this picture but wanted to include it to show the boardwalk and island.

The next day we drove to Berat. I am not sure why but I find murals very intriguing. They often appear with some kind of message or perhaps are simply open to interpretation. This mural was just recently completed in Berat. Here is the translation for the words on this mural: “A woman with freedom and a pen has the power to move the nation. A woman with a mind and a voice has the power to change the world.” This message is especially appropriate in Albania because the country does not yet consistently embrace equality for women.

As has been true of our other guests, I made arrangements for us to stay in the Berat Castle. This castle has had people living in it continuously since 400BC.

A trip to Berat is not complete without dinner at Lili’s. Lili and his family live in the same house that his great grandfather did. The restaurant is part of their house and is tucked in amongst the 1,000 windows of Berat. The restaurant seats up to 10 people, Lili’s wife does all the cooking and he and his adult children serve the food and interact with the guests. As you can see the menu is very simple and includes homemade wine and raki. It is a wonderful experience to eat at Lili’s!

On our drive back to Tirana, we stopped in Apollonia which was founded by the Greeks in 500BC. At one time, it was a center for Greek learning with a renowned school of philosophy. One of the students who studied here was Caesar Augustus.

This last picture of David and Kevin’s visit was taken at one on my favorite restaurants in Tirana. Look at the fun cocktails they ordered!

One of our final international baccalaureate units was called “Sharing the Planet”. We took the children to an aluminum recycling center, a plastics recycling center and then to the park for a picnic and playground time.

One of the other international teachers celebrated her 40th birthday by hosting a Disney themed party. She LOVES Minnie Mouse and wanted all her guests to dress up in Disney-themed costumes. In case, you cannot tell, I am Mary Poppins. 🙂

End-of-school farewell dinner with the team of second grade teachers I worked with over the school year.

In mid-June two of my sisters came to visit Albania. My sister, Kim on the left, lives in Johnson City, Tennessee. My other sister, Jeanette lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. The statue of Mother Teresa is a beautiful new addition to the Tirana airport. Mother Teresa’s parents were born in Albania. Albania is only one of many countries that claim Mother Teresa as being from their country. Tirana has a Mother Teresa Hospital, a Mother Teresa Square and the airport is named after her.

As with everyone else that visits, I took my sisters to see the school.

Once again, I took our guests on a free walking tour of Tirana. The stained glass window is in the Catholic church. About 15% of Albanians are Catholic.

Visiting the markets which are full of beautiful, inexpensive fruit. As you can tell, Jeanette loved the fruit markets too!

On our way to Berat we stopped at Cobo Winery. The young man in one of the pictures is the 17 year old grandson of the original owners of the winery. The painting is of his grandparents.

Chatting while overlooking the city of Berat from the castle.

Spending the night in Vlore on the Adriatic Sea.

I am so honored and blessed that my two sisters took the time, expense and had the interest to come visit us in Albania.
We loved hosting them!

Look who came to visit in Albania a couple days after school ended. The last week of June our daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Ben along with their four children visited for five days. This restaurant is a 5 minute walk from our apartment and with the pool for the kids was a good first dinner location.

An ice cream treat after a big day of flying to Albania from America.

Every late afternoon and evening a neighborhood group of children play football in the community space outside of our apartment. Even with a language barrier our grandson, Bennett (in the blue jersey) was brave enough to ask if he could play with them.

The following day we visited Kruje Castle where the Albanian hero Skanderbeg was born in the 1400’s.

Elizabeth had the children pose in front of a statue of Skanderbeg in the same way they posed in front of the statue back in 2019. Four years really makes a difference! Look how our grandchildren have grown!

…a trip to the fruit markets.

The Chervenak Family, Randy and I took a four hour drive north for a two night visit to Montenegro. Our first stop was one of the most popular coastal cities, Budva to see the bronze sculpture of a ballet dancer. The sculpture is the main symbol of the city.

My favorite two ballerinas: Elizabeth took ballet classes for years and Juliet is getting ready to start her second year of ballet.

Our final destination was Kotor, Montenegro which has a charming, medieval town dating back to the 5th century.

Yummy, mussels were a favorite in Kotor.

Cats, cats, cats all over Kotor. The grandchildren loved them!

We took a two hour speedboat tour of the Bay of Kotor that was SO much fun!! Prices in Montenegro are similar to Albania which means tours like this are very reasonably priced.

One of the stops on our boat tour was Our Lady of the Rocks which was built on an artificial island in the Bay.

We also stopped briefly in the beautiful town of Perast where the grands went for a swim.

We even found a fire station where Randy checked out some of the trucks. He is a volunteer fireman back in New York so he is always interested in checking out other department’s equipment.

Enjoying our last meal in Kotor before making our way back to Tirana on the following day.

On our way out, we drove by one of the nearly 500 cruise ships that arrive in Kotor each year. As is true in many parts of the world, there are too many cruise ships arriving in places that have a hard time handling the huge influx of tourists.

The day after this picture was taken the Chervenak Family headed for Denmark and Sweden where they visited friends that they met while living in South Africa.

Randy and I felt very grateful that Elizabeth and Ben brought their family to Albania to visit. We seem to never get enough time with all of them.

After the Chervenaks returned home to Virginia from Europe they came to stay with us in Fairport for three weeks. Elizabeth works remotely which made the extended visit possible. Ben was able to came up and spend time in New York on the weekends. LOVED having them in our home!!!!

As much as I have enjoyed teaching in Albania, I am having a hard time thinking about leaving Fairport to head back across the ocean. Our flights are on August 19th and school starts on the 28th. I know once I get back into the swing of things it will all be fine. I had these same feelings at the end of every summer before going back to teach in Fairport and in the Midwest. I am sure my teacher friends can relate. 🙂

Thanks for reading my blog!

August, 2023

A Health Scare, California Cousins and Visiting Turkiye

In late February Randy returned to the US to spend a couple weeks at home, specifically to get our taxes figured out and filed. Although the whole tax thing can now be done online, Randy prefers to set up a card table, make hard copies of documents and sort through it all at home. I am just grateful that he deals with it year after year so I don’t have to do so.

While he was home he had a couple of routine doctor’s appointments. One of those doctor’s appointments led to several other appointments which resulted in Randy being diagnosed with prostate cancer. The diagnosis was scary for all of us. I wanted to go home immediately but Randy was firm in saying that he felt fine. He was going on fire calls, working in his woodshop and spending time on our property in Scio, New York. Two months later and after several more appointments, it was concluded that the cancer had not metastasized. Thank you, God! He was treated with a procedure called HIFU which is a highly focused ultrasound. The procedure is common in Europe but is relatively new in the US. He was treated on May 11th and has had remarkably few side effects. He returned to Albania in mid-June. All of this has been a bit stressful. I am so appreciative of my family and friends being very supportive through it all.

Back in April, 2020 one of my cousins (Chris from Pasadena, California) and his wife (Cathy) planned to visit Albania for a few days and then the four of us would travel to explore Turkiye together. Of course, COVID hit so those plans were canceled. Fast forward to the spring of 2023. We again made plans for Chris and Cathy to visit Albania and Turkiye. Our first hurdle was Randy’s health situation. I said I wanted to come home for my Spring Break but once again Randy was firm that he felt fine and thought I should go ahead and do the trip with Chris and Cathy. We considered having Randy come over but he wanted to stay put in the States until everything was taken care of heath wise (which is understandable). I felt a bit unsettled with this decision but decided to move ahead. I asked each of our three children if they had the time and/or desire to accompany us since their dad would not be traveling with us. Josh was in between projects at work and was excited about a trip to Turkiye. I was thrilled that he could join us. I treasure time with our adult children because it does not happen often.

Chris and Cathy flew directly from California to Istanbul, spent the night in Istanbul and then flew to Albania the next morning. When they arrived in Istanbul, there was a problem with Cathy’s passport. It was within six months of expiring. She had noticed this back in January but after doing lots of reading about visas, felt confident that she would be okay. There were a few issues getting into Istanbul but after paying for a very expensive visa she and Chris were able to enter Istanbul, spend the night and fly to Albania the next day.

Cathy is a teacher and Chris works with scientists which was all very interesting to my students. They had lots of questions for Chris and Cathy.

After spending a couple days in Tirana, the three of us rented a car and drove to Berat. It you read this blog on a regular basis, then you have seen many pictures of Berat because we have taken many guests to this charming city full of windows, a castle and delicious traditional Albanian food.

The following day we drove along the Albanian Rivera towards Sarande. We saw these paragliders at one of the overlooks. It was amazing (and kind of scary) watching them run off the edge of a cliff and then sail through the air.

This is the beautiful view from our hotel in Sarande. Thanks for sharing this picture with me, Chris! Sarande is a beautiful city in the far south of Albania. You can see Corfu, Greece in the distance. After doing lots of driving over the two day weekend, I decided that Sarande is simply too far to go for the weekend. I look forward to having a three or four day weekend to spend in Sarande in the future.

The day after arriving back in Tirana from Sarande, Chris, Cathy and I flew to Istanbul to meet Josh and spend the week together in Turkiye. When going through passport control, Cathy was again stopped. She showed the passport official the very expensive visa that had been purchased the week earlier. They said that did not work and she and Chris were taken to a police station within the airport. It turns out the expensive visa was really just a fine for having a passport that would expire within six months. Cathy was not going to be allowed in the country and would need to fly back to California. YIKES, IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! Chris and Cathy were given a few minutes to decide what to do. Chris had to make the difficult decision as to if he was going to go back to California with Cathy or continue the trip with Josh and I. He decided to continue with us partially because all the arrangements were already paid for and in his name and it would be difficult to figure everything out if he was not there. We so appreciate Chris and Cathy’s very hard decision. I am passing along a difficult lesson that was learned. Do not travel with a passport that will expire in less than six months of your travel.

Three hours after landing in Istanbul we boarded a flight to the region of Cappadocia. Istanbul is in the far west part of the country and Cappadocia is 150 miles from the far east side of the country. It was about a two hour flight between the two locations. We stayed in the small city of Ortahisar which was about an hour’s drive from the airport. As we drove along we started seeing overlooks like this. Wow, beautiful and unusual!

After settling into our AirBnB we drove to this area to do some exploring.

This is how Chris and I felt without our spouses. Cathy and Randy were definitely missed!

Josh is happy to be visiting Cappadocia, as are we. Beautiful, unusual terrain!

That evening we ate at this restaurant that our AirBnB host recommended. We saw all these pots in front and wondered what they were for.

We found out that this way of cooking food is traditional in Cappadocia. It was interesting to see it prepared plus it was delicious!

The following morning Josh and I were picked up at 4:30AM to go for a hot air ballon ride over the Cappadocia rock formations known as “fairy chimneys”. When we arrived at the launch site the balloons were laid out on the ground waiting to be inflated.

Ready for take-off! It was freezing cold and fortunately Josh had brought some extra clothes which he lent me.

Chris tracked us from the ground and was able to grab this picture of our balloon.

For whatever reason, I could not figure out how to shorten this video. It is too long but it does give you the feel of being in a hot air balloon.

Later that day we took a tour of the Cappadocia region. The most interesting part for me was visiting the Derinkuyu Underground City. The multi-layered city was built in the year 700 and goes down 200 feet under the ground. The city could house up to 20,000 people at one time including their livestock and food. The city had wine cellars, stables and chapels in them. People would hide in them for up to six months at a time from roughly April through October. They lived in the caves during this time of each year to protect themselves from invaders who came every spring during the Arab-Byzantine wars. Fascinating!

We also visited a family-owned ceramics factory where Josh tried his hand at throwing a pot.

We are visiting Pigeon Valley which included beautiful views of the area. It is named Pigeon Vally because of the thousands of pigeon houses that have been carved in the soft volcanic rock. There are only a few hundred pigeons there now but at one time there were thousands. The pigeons were used as messengers and their poop was used as fertilizer for the region.

As mentioned earlier, we stayed in the small city (population 3,000) of Ortahisar for two nights. The central part of the city was the rock castle (in back of the mosque’s minaret) pictured on their city emblem, it is a daunting and iconic natural structure.

Of course, we wanted to climb to the top of the castle for the views but mostly for the experience. It was a tight fit at times but well worth the trip to the top.

The next day we flew back to Istanbul to spend a few days getting to know this city that is partially in Europe and partially in Asia. Our AirBnB was very close to The Galata Tower which was built in 528 AD. It was originally built as a watchtower and was an important spot for the military. It later was used as a fire tower. It is now a museum with beautiful views from the top.

Our first night in Istanbul was spent walking to and climbing up the tower.

Istanbul Food Tour!

We had lots of Turkish Tea during our visit. I don’t care for coffee plus I don’t really love tea. However, Turkiye had a tea called apple tea that was wonderful.

Can you see the Galata Tower on the horizon?

Cruising the Bosphorus Strait that runs through the middle of Istanbul.

Until visiting Istanbul, I did not understand what the Bosphorus Strait was and it’s significance. First of all, it is a strait not a river (as I mistakenly referred to it more than once). We took a boat ride through it and as we moved along, there was Europe on one side and Asia on the other. Currently, the Bosphorus is playing a role in the war in Ukraine. Turkiye has closed the Bosphorus to the Russian military which means they cannot get more of their military ships from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. Yay, Turkiye!

Spring has sprung at this beautiful public park in the center of Istanbul.

When we were making plans to visit Turkiye, a teacher friend of mine said, there are two things you cannot miss when you go, a Turkish Bath and a Turkish Breakfast. Josh found and booked this experience for us. I was not sure what to expect and found it all to be very relaxing. The bath included a steam room, body scrub, bubble massage and finished with a relaxing cup of tea. This Hammam has been around for a long time so several former sultans and other famous guests have visited.

Whenever I travel with Josh, he manages to find a small music venue away from all the tourists. His choice this time definitely did not disappoint. The music was sometimes familiar but mostly new for us. The other patrons all seemed to be Turkish. It was such an enjoyable evening!

Here we are walking along the most famous pedestrian street in Istanbul called Istikial Avenue. When you attempt to get an ice cream cone in Turkiye there is almost always a challenge to actually getting the cone. Fun!

The Grand Bazaar (on the left) is one of the oldest (around 1730) and largest covered markets in the world. 250,000 or more people visit everyday. We spent about 15 minutes there because it was so overwhelming, crowded and congested. On the right is the Spice Market which we visited a couple of times. As the name suggests, it has many, many stalls that sell spices, herbs, baklava and nuts. It smelled so good, was beautiful and not nearly as busy.

The Hagia Sophia (translated Holy Wisdom in Latin) has a very complicated history. It was a Greek Orthodox Church for 900 years and then a Mosque for 400 years. In 1934 it became a museum. Then very recently, in 2020, it was converted back into a Mosque. As I understand it, Erdogan (who was just recently re-elected as President) made the decision to turn the Hagia Sophia back into a Mosque with no consultation and through a surprise announcement.

Leaving our shoes before entering the main part of the Mosque.

When we arrived inside the mosque, a service was being conducted.

I took this short video to show that only the men are allowed to pray in this beautiful part of the mosque. The women pray in another smaller, much less beautiful part of the mosque. There are many things I respect about Muslims but their prejudice against women is hard to understand or agree with.

The service has finished so now the whole mosque has been opened up for tourists to wander around.

Can you see the white, triangular curtains near the dome of the mosque? Those curtains are covering up Christian faces and symbols that were part of the original Greek Orthodox Church.

I took this picture because it shows the Christian Lamb of God on the stone carvings with the Muslim minaret in the background.

Chris researched Turkish Breakfasts and we ended up on this street which was full of restaurants offering this traditional meal. This picture of our breakfast does not accurately show ALL the small plates involved with eating breakfast in Turkiye. It was delicious!

We visited the Dolmabahce Palace on our last day in Istanbul. When we were cruising down the Bosphorous earlier in the week, we had seen it and wanted to check it out. It is the largest palace in Turkiye and is relatively new, being built in the mid-1800’s.

There is no picture to go with this but I did want to comment on the political situation in Turkiye. I am definitely not a political person and do not usually pay much attention to the politics of a government when I visit. However, it was hard to ignore some of the things that are happening in this country. When we were on one of our tours, the guide told us not to refer to the president (Erdogan) by name. If we felt we wanted to ask about him about the president, we should use the term “tall man” to refer to him. A few weeks previous to our tour, our guide was taken in and questioned because the government did not like what he was saying on his tours. Obviously, freedom of speech is endangered in Turkiye. In the recent elections, Erdogan’s party did not like the results so the whole country voted again. Many Turks feel the election was rigged. As I understand it, Erdogan is wanting to become more friendly with Russia and China. The opposing party (made up of more young people) wants to strengthen Turkiye’s ties to the West. One more stressful thing for the Turks is their inflation rate. It stands at 40%, depressing! Although the United States is far from perfect, all of this is a good reminder of how fortunate we are as Americans.

A big thank you goes to my cousin, Chris, for all his careful planning for our time in Turkiye. We saw a LOT in a week, stayed in a perfect AirBnB and had such a variety of new experiences. The only thing that would have made it better was to have had Cathy and Randy join us.

Here are a couple of pictures that were taken near the end of the school year. I will miss these 14 sweet faces next year even though I feel they are definitely ready to move onto grade three.

It took me awhile to write this blog post because when Randy had his health scare I lost my motivation to make another post. Now that I finally have this ready to go, I am glad I went forward with it. You really are amazing if you read all this. It has many details that I want to remember from our experience here and I am always happy to share. Thanks for reading!!!

Tomorrow we fly back to America for a six week visit before returning to Albania for my final year of teaching.

July, 2023

Spain, Portugal and Two Visits from Germany

We had a week off school in February so Randy and I decided to visit Spain and Portugal. In the past we have spent one or two nights in a few different cities in an effort to see as much of each country as possible. This time we decided to pick one city in each country and stay put for a bit longer. We spent four nights in Barcelona, Spain and three nights in Porto, Portugal. It worked out well and was not nearly as exhausting to stay in one city for a longer period of time. We chose to visit Barcelona because it is on the coast and we had heard so much about the architect Gaudi and wanted to see his work. Also, several teacher friends had recommended Barcelona plus when our daughter, Elizabeth, spent a semester abroad in Luxembourg, she said her favorite European city to visit was Barcelona. As you will see by our pictures, we were not disappointed with our choice.

We have discovered many new airlines over the last few years. This trip we discovered Vueling which is the largest airline in Spain and is part of British Airways. It is also a low cost airline which is why we chose to fly them. When we were walking through the Barcelona airport we noticed all the signs were in three languages. The languages are Catalonian, English and Spanish. Until we traveled to Barcelona, we did not understand the depth of feeling in this part of Spain about wanting to separate from Spain and become their own country of Catalonia. Much of this disagreement happened as recently as 2017. We certainly never fully understood this disagreement but the feelings were made clear when the airport places English above Spanish in their airport signage.

When we arrive in a new city we often take a tour (sometimes a food tour) to help us get familiar with where we are visiting.

We found that using the Barcelona subway to move around the city was easy to figure out plus it was efficient and inexpensive.

Photos from an early morning run.

Here are a few of the buildings where Antonio Gaudi was the designer and architect. As you can tell, the design of his work was modern. HIs passions in life were architecture, nature and religion.

I can see Gaudi’s interest in nature in this design.

Park Guell is a 40 acre private green space which features the designs of Gaudi.

We took a half day trip out of Barcelona to visit Montserrat which includes a Benedictine monastery in a gorgeous setting. There are currently 80 monks living within the monastery. The photo on the far right are two angels carving the “teeth” of the surrounding mountain which is one of the legends of how the mountain was formed.

The apostles above the entrance to the church. Can you recognize Judas on the far left? He is the only apostle looking away and down.

The church houses the Black Madonna. Questions arose about why the Madonna is black and the answer given was that years ago she turned black from the use of candles in the church and since that time the color has been maintained. We climbed up behind the altar to get a better view of the Madonna. There is an opening in the protective glass surrounding her that allows you to touch her and say a prayer.

If you zoom up and look carefully at the photo on the top right, you will see a cross. After touring the church, we took a hike up to the cross, beautiful!

One evening we attended a Flamenco Show which is native to southern Spain and includes dance, singing and guitar playing. This was the setting for the show, beautiful!

Flamenco dancing is known for being very passionate which I think you can see in this video and the following video.

Here we are arriving at the La Sagrada Familia. This is a large Catholic Church that started to be built in 1882 and is scheduled to be complete in 2026 although that date has been extended many times. Gaudi was the designer and architect for the church and devoted the last 40 years of his life to working on the construction of the church. He designed it to have a total of 18 spires symbolizing the twelve apostles, four evangelists, the Virgin Mary and the tallest spire to represent Jesus Christ.

Gaudi hired different artists with vastly different styles to complete different sides of the church.

You can easily see the different artistic styles between the nativity and resurrection sides of the church.

Look at the gorgeous inside of the church. Earlier in the blog I said that Gaudi had three passions in life: architecture, nature and religion. I can see how clearly these three passions come together in these pictures. By the way, Gaudi attended Mass daily. He died at the age of 72 when he was hit by a tram on the way to church.

We took an elevator up and then climbed down one of the towers of the Sagrada Familia. The spiral picture is the steps going down, down, down. The wheat and grapes at the top of the spires symbolize the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.

After spending four nights in Barcelona, we flew to Porto, Portugal. I originally thought we would take the train because the train system in Spain is excellent but then I learned that it was an 18 hour train ride. We debated as to whether to visit Lisbon or Porto for three nights. We settled on Porto because we had just spent time in the large city of Barcelona and we wanted to spend time in a smaller city. Porto is more walkable and is full of Old World charm. We loved our time there and hope to go back some day.

One of the first things we were told when arriving in Porto was that if we did not know how to speak Portuguese, we should only communicate in English. The Portuguese people do not appreciate it when people speak Spanish to them and expect them to respond.

We found our Airbnb apartment along this pedestrian street very close to this charming pharmacy.

These street performers are students at a local engineering university who enjoy making traditional music together.

Porto is all about blue and white tile. In the 17th century the Portuguese imported massive amounts of tile from the Netherlands because they liked the look of it so much. Much of the tile work tells the history of Portugal with pictures. In the case of the church tiles, Biblical stories are told.

Exploring Porto…

The Livaria Lello is known as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world and after visiting, it is easy to understand why. After the death of her mother in 1991, J.K. Rowling moved to Porto where she taught English, got married and had her daughter. Porto is also where she wrote the first three chapters of the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I am not a big Harry Potter fan but Randy is and he said this bookstore was like the Hogwarts Library.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of reflections in these pictures so it is hard to see but outside of the Livaria Lello there is a vending machine that sells coffee and books!

Codfish is one of the more traditional dishes in Portugal. It is seen on almost every menu. Portugal is the world’s largest consumer of codfish. What we found most interesting is that Portugal does not produce any codfish. All of it is imported from the UK and from northern Canada. Portugal imports codfish in such large quantities that they also supply Spain with codfish.

We typically do not eat at American franchises when we are abroad but we were told we needed to check out this McDonald’s. Randy enjoys McDonald’s at home so that was another reason to go. Look at the fancy entrance and chandeliers inside the restaurant. The menu even includes four different types of soup. As in many McDonald’s in Europe all ordering is done electronically. I wonder if electronic ordering at McDonald’s happens in the States.

We took a day long tour outside of Porto to visit the Douro Valley which is known for it’s beautiful landscapes, wines and history. The Douro Valley is listed as a World Heritage Site.

The winery is owned and run by a father and his two sons (one who is pictured here). This is where the grapes are actually stomped once a year at a festival.

When we toured the winery we were told that Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork. 50% of the world’s cork comes from Portugal and is primarily used for wine bottle stoppers.

Our next stop was Sabrosa with a current population of about 6,000 people. This was the birthplace of Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who was the first to circle the globe in the early 1500’s confirming that the world was round, not flat.

The local school bus dropping the children off at the end of the day.

Our final stop on the tour was the small town of Pinhao. We boarded a small, wooden, traditional boat and cruised down the Douro River for an hour as we admired the beautiful landscape.

A couple other interesting bits of info we found out about Portugal during our visit is that during World War II, Portugal was neutral and actually supplied canned sardines to both sides of the conflict. Lastly, another random fact about Portugal is that the three most prevalent religions in Portugal are Catholicism, Church of England and Judasim. We were not surprised that Catholicism is the most popular. There seems to be several close connections between Portugal and the UK but I do not yet understand the history of why that is true. The Portuguese people hid hundreds of Jews during WWII so that is why the Jewish population is so high in the country. We loved our three night stay in Porto and would readily return if the opportunity presents itself. As usual, we felt like we did not have enough time to explore all that we wanted to see.

In mid-March Peter and Julia came to visit in Albania. You may remember from previous blog posts that Peter stayed with our family in Fairport for a year when he was 17 years old. We have stayed well connected since that time. While Peter and Julia were here we went for coffee (at one of the many coffee shops in Tirana), took a walking tour and they visited my class at ACT.

We took an overnight trip to Berat, visited a winery and spent the night in the castle. Julia is an artist and took many of these beautiful pictures. Also, Peter and Julia are looking forward to the arrival of their baby daughter in early June.

The following day we drove to Vlore and enjoyed time at the Adriatic Sea. Beautiful! I loved having Peter and Julia visit!

The second visit from Germany came a few days later when Lulu and Marie came to Tirana. Lulu was an au pair for Elizabeth and Ben’s family five years ago when they were living in Virginia. Lulu and her friend are in their 20’s and are within a year of finishing their teacher certification. They are wonderful young women and it was good to spend time with them. They were in Tirana for a few days and then took buses to visit several cities in southern Albania. The cherry blossoms were in bloom when they visited. As you can see, they also visited my classroom. I think it is so good for my students to meet people from other countries, introduce themselves and ask questions.

Recently I finished teaching a unit called Where We Are in Place and Time to my grade two students. The unit centers on the children learning their family history. The children marked the origins of their families on a map, interviewed an older family member, made a personal timeline, created a family tree, wrote an autobiography and brought family and personal artifacts to school. They then invited their parents to come to school to help them present what they had learned to children from other classes. It was a fun unit to teach and the children really loved learning about their own history.

I just finished taking individual pictures of my students for an upcoming project. I thought the pictures turned out well so I wanted to share them with you. These children are wonderful kids who I enjoy teaching every day. Of course, there are some challenges but overall my teaching at Albanian College continues to be a positive experience.

Later this week my cousin Chris and his wife, Cathy, will be arriving in Albania. It will be good to share this beautiful country with them. Next week is our spring break when we will be heading to Turkiye for a week. Chris and Cathy have visited Istanbul before so it will be good to be introduced to a new part of the world through them.

As you read this blog I hope all is well with each of you. Thanks for taking the time to follow along on this adventure.

April, 2023

Covid, London and Home for the Holidays

A couple weeks after my last blog post, in late November, I tested positive for Covid for the first time. I felt horrible for two days and then just tired for a week or so, grateful for my relatively mild symptoms. When we came to Albania in August, we brought several Covid tests with us plus a supply of cold medication. We ran out of both. It is not possible to buy at-home Covid tests here but there are many clinics where, for $15, you can have a test done. The person at the clinic wore no mask even though her job was to administer Covid tests. So interesting and different than many other nations.

Since we ran out of our cold medication supply from home, I went to one of the many small pharmacies near our apartment to find something similar. We have roughly 5 small pharmacies within a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Almost all the pharmacies are staffed by pharmacists who speak excellent English. They suggested I try Tylolhot which cost $2 a packet and could be taken every 6 hours. It is a powder that is dissolved in hot water and consumed like a hot tea. I found the taste to be likable and it felt good to drink something warm when I didn’t feel well. Maybe we have something similar in the States and I am just not aware of it. I liked using it better than DayQuil and will probably bring some back to the States to have on hand.

A final thought about Covid. Last fall I asked about getting a Covid booster. I was told it would be better to wait until I went back to the States to get the vaccination. The physician I was talking to said that most Covid vaccines that were administered in Albania were donated from other countries and there weren’t many available at the time.

That was probably way too many details about being sick but I did find it interesting to get a glimpse of health care in Albania.

As you might remember, Randy went back to the States in late October to deer hunt. Our son, David, was very sweet and said he wanted to meet me somewhere in Europe so we could visit the Christmas markets. He said he felt bad that I was by myself in Albania. I feel perfectly comfortable on my own here since I have a supportive school community to socialize with. Regardless, I appreciated our son’s concern and thoughtfulness. We decided we wanted to go someplace that had a direct flight for both of us. After some thought, we decided London was the best choice.

Upon arriving in London, after a 3 hour flight, one of the first things I saw as I walked through the airport were several of these signs. I admire the UK for being so welcoming to Ukrainian refugees.

Another interesting sign was a reminder about Brexit and that the UK is no longer part of the EU.

Look what else I saw walking through the airport!! Ben & Jerry’s is a big weakness for me. I had never seen it come from a machine before. Yum!!!

We walked over to visit Harrod’s on our first morning. Most things were well out of our price range but it was delightful to spend time walking around this beautiful department store. I included a picture of the Baccarat crystal because it reminded me of my beloved mother-in-law. She had a few pieces of this crystal in her home. The Wedgewood china gave me a warm feeling because my maternal grandmother had the same china.

Loved seeing the Christmas Lights of London.

We watched the Changing of the Guard Ceremony which starts at St. James Palace and ends at Buckingham Palace.

Heading towards Buckingham Palace.

The Queen’s (King’s) Guard arriving at Buckingham Palace. The Guard’s uniforms are gray during the winter and the more traditional red during the warmer months of the year.

Seeing Buckingham Palace does not disappoint. This was the first time I had ever taken a tour, it was well worth it. The flag on top of the palace let us know that the King was not at home at the time we were there.

Isaac Newton is buried at Westminister Abbey as are many others including the following:

The Coronation Chair which has been used at the coronation ceremony for every British monarch since the 1300’s. It will be used for the coronation of King Charles III this coming May.

I found these items to be a charming addition to the Westminister Abbey gift shop. On the left is a Bible with folded pages to make a Christmas tree and nativity. On the right is the same idea but a Book of Common Prayer was used instead.

Just some interesting sights as we traveled around London (often in a traditional Black Taxi).

Hearing a Salvation Army Band on the street added to the charm of being in London at Christmas time.

Dishoom restaurants (there are eight of them) are very popular in London. They take limited reservations which meant we ate dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon so that we would not have to wait in line as long. This was our favorite place to eat featuring flavorful and authentic Indian food.

The Churchill War Room is a relatively new (2003) museum in London. We felt it was well worth the time it took to walk through the actual underground emergency shelter where so many decisions were made during WWII. Also, learning more about the life of Churchill was interesting.

The last time we were living in Albania we did not go back to the States for the holidays. We traveled instead. Now that all of our children and grandchildren live in the northeast part of the U.S. we decided to go home for three weeks. The time went super fast and I felt like I squeezed in a lot in those three weeks.

I don’t usually take pictures out the window of airplanes but the sunrise as I took off from Tirana seemed especially stunning.

The grandchildren and their Grandaddy thought it would be fun to cut down a Christmas tree from our Scio property. Notice how huge the tree seems to be.

Dragging the tree to the truck to load it up and take it home.

My mother used to make candy villages with her mother at Christmas time, then I did the same with my mom. My children made candy villages with me when they were young and now my grandchildren have made a candy village to celebrate Christmas. Making candy villages at Christmas time is a five generation family tradition! I loved seeing all the creativity from picking out the various candies to how the children wanted to design the village.

We weren’t sure David and Kevin would be able to make the three hour drive from Schenectady to our home because of the blizzard. They ended up having no problems.

Since the Chervenak Family has lived in South Africa for the last four years, Juliet has no memory of going to see Santa Claus. It looks like she enjoyed the experience!

Pictures in front of the Christmas tree: our three children, David and Kevin, Elizabeth and her family.

Christmas Eve dinner followed by Christmas Eve Church

This picture was taken around midnight on Christmas Eve. I love the calmness of this time of the season. All the preparations are complete and there is now time to sit, relax and take it all in. Although I am not Catholic, a tradition I always enjoy is watching the Christmas services from the Vatican which is what you can see on the TV. The experience is so calming and helps center me on why we are celebrating. Notice how small the Christmas tree looks compared to how huge it looked before the family cut it down.

It was a treat to have one-on-one time with each of my grandchildren. Bennett and I went for pancakes. Ella and I went to the library where they had various dogs that the children could read aloud to. Juliet and I ended up at Starbucks for a snowman cookie. I forgot to take a picture of Jacob at Shake Shack in Virginia. Although we are temporarily living far away from our grandchildren we are grateful that they were able to stay with us for a couple of weeks.

After Christmas I rode back to Schenectady with David and Kevin so I could spend a bit more time with them. David took me to see Ellis Hospital where he started his career as a heart surgeon last August. Schenectady is a city with a population of about 70,000 located right outside of Albany (NY’s state capital). After many years of training he is happy to finally have his own practice. Kevin has continued as a Physician’s Assistant at Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. It is a two hour train ride between Manhattan and Schenectady so they are able to see each other often.

I spent the last five days of my time in the States with Elizabeth and her family in Fairfax, Virginia. Ella and I did some baking and I attended one of her basketball practices. We all enjoyed some hot chocolate after school…

…and a family dance party…

…and watching Bennett zip around on a scooter that used to belong to his Uncle David.

One of my favorite activities while I was in Virginia was taking a five minute walk with the grandchildren to and from school each day.

I flew back from Washington D.C. in early January in time for school to start again on the 9th. As I was waiting for my luggage in Tirana, I noticed this sign which I thought was so interesting.Who knew there was medical tourism in Albania?? I do know that there is a plastic surgeon from Italy who has set up a practice (primarily doing nose jobs) near us. It is very common to see young people walking around our neighborhood with big white bandages covering their noses. As I understand it, the plastic surgeon makes a lot more money practicing in Albania. He offers some type of package that includes the surgery, airfare from Italy and a hotel stay. I never get tired of learning about the happenings that occur while living internationally.

Well, that’s it for now. School is going well. Right now I am teaching my grade two students a unit on family history. They have been busy making timelines of their lives, making a family tree, interviewing family members from an older generation and writing an autobiography. It has been a fun unit to teach!

Next week is our February Break so Randy and I are headed to Barcelona and Porto, Portugal. I am looking forward to some time away from school.

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

A First Birthday, the Albanian Alps and a Trip to Southern Italy

The first year I taught at Albanian College I had an assistant named Edlira. She was a wonderful translator and assistant in the classroom but also she quickly became a friend. She was helpful as I tried to sort out some of the culture and traditions of her country. Edlira, her husband (Aldo), Randy and I have shared many meals and outings together. For the first time this year Edlira has been promoted to being a full teacher with a class of her own. Since Albanian College is an English immersion school she teaches in English and has her own teaching assistant. Last year Edlira and Aldo welcomed a precious little boy into their family.

We were honored to be invited to Aled’s first birthday celebration in early October. As has become the tradition in America, first birthdays have become bigger and bigger celebrations. However, Aled’s birthday took the first birthday celebration to a whole new level. Edlira has three brothers who are all married with children and live in Florence, Italy. They all traveled to Albania to celebrate as did Edlira’s parents who also live in Florence. Aldo’s married sister and three teenage sons all traveled from Greece to be part of Aled’s first birthday. Aldo’s parents and other relatives traveled from different parts of Albania too. Aled is a well loved little boy!

The proud Mommy with her son. We were completely underdressed for the occasion. I had worn what I would typically wear to a child’s birthday party in the U.S. while all of Aled’s family wore clothing that I would have worn to attend a wedding. Also, it is tradition to wear blue to a boy’s first birthday and pink, purple or white to a girl’s first birthday.

Here are all of Aled’s grandparents. They are all in their early to mid-60’s but none of them are still working. In Albania, it is a law that women cannot work past the age of 60 and men cannot work past the age of 64.

Note the balloon arch and special lighting for the birthday.

There was even a DJ at the birthday party who played popular and traditional Albanian music for dancing. One of my goals is to learn to Albanian dance more confidently. As you can see, I could not take my eyes off my feet in order to follow along. 🙂 I love how all the family members dance together and everyone from young to old knows how to do the same dances that have been passed down over many generations.

Part of the tradition at a first birthday is to cut off a small piece of hair which is supposed to ensure thick hair in the future.

The family then enjoyed a huge meal as a culmination to the birthday clebration.

We loved being part of Aled’s birthday party and meeting so many extended family members. It was an honor to be included!

The following weekend a group of teachers went to the Albanian Alps to a small village called Theth. If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you know that Theth is my favorite place to visit in Albania. The mountains are stunning and breathing all the fresh, outdoor air is a wonderful change of pace.

We left Tirana at 6:00 in the morning as the sun was rising. Mountains, here we come!

We are about halfway to Theth and the views are becoming more and more fantastic.

After arriving in Theth, our first hike was to the Blue Eye with unbelievable blue water.

The next day we hiked to Grunas Waterfall. We passed a small working farm with a stone house and barn. There was even a coffee shop halfway up the hill to the falls. Two friends are modeling traditional Albanian headwear.

One of the charming parts of Theth is this small Catholic Church nestled in the mountains. Since the last time we visited Theth, outdoor night lighting has been added to the church. Also, this is the first time the church was open so we could see the inside. This church is financially maintained by Albanians who used to live in Theth but now live in the United States. They consistently send money back to take care of the church.

What a fun group of people to travel with! These teachers are from Spain, Egypt, Canada and the States.

On the bus ride out of the mountains look what I saw out the window!

The following week was our nine day October Break. Randy and I rented a car in Albania and headed to southern Italy.

We drove our rental car from Tirana to the Albanian port city of Durres where we boarded an overnight ferry to Bari, Italy.

If you read the reviews for traveling on the ferry they are not very positive. Contrary to those reviews, we found the trip to be relaxing and an easy way to get to Italy with a car. It was much less expensive to rent a car in Albania and take it on the ferry instead of flying to Italy and then renting a car. The car we rented was a Suzuki Swift which I thought would be too small but it worked out perfectly.

We are arriving in Bari after a 9 hour trip across the Adriatic Sea. The trip went very quickly since we slept for most of it.

One of the many parts of Italy that I love is all the small and large churches that we randomly come across as we visit various cities.

After getting off the ferry we drove three hours to Naples where we stayed for two nights. The only reason we stayed in Naples was because of its close proximity to Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii. I have loved everywhere we have gone in Italy but Naples is the exception. Someone used the term “gritty” to describe Naples and I think that would be accurate. The city has not yet figured out how to deal with their trash. It was common to see overflowing trash cans, empty beer bottles and unkept streets. Naples is not a city that I would want to return to. That being said, there were aspects of the city we enjoyed.

Naples was founded by the Greeks in 300 BC. We saw Greek ruins at different places throughout the city.

Naples is the birthplace of pizza and it was delicious! We have never eaten so much pizza in our lives.

We took a food tour while in Naples and fried pizza was one of the featured food items.

Since Naples ia on the sea, we saw fish markets everywhere we went. It was so interesting to see the huge diversity in the seafood they were selling.

I came across this beautiful sight on an early morning run. That is Mount Vesuvius in the background.

A typical Italian breakfast for us… The hot drink in the foreground is cocoa, not to be confused with hot chocolate. As in Albania, if you order hot chocolate you will get a hot, thick chocolate pudding. If you want hot chocolate like in the USA, you need to order cocoa.

This is the street where our hotel was located. It was a lovely hotel in a central location but I found the the neighborhood to be somewhat dreary.

Street musicians always add so much to the experience of wandering around a city.

A small beautiful city park that shows the trash problem that seems to be everywhere in Naples.

I am always a bit startled when we randomly come across soldiers and military vehicles. We have seen this throughout Europe in our travels over the years.

In 79AD Mount Vesuvius erupted. The rocks and ash from the explosion rained down on Pompeii for almost a full day. Pompeii was a city of 20,000 people. Most people fled the city but there were 2,000 that stayed behind and perished. The 79AD explosion was the most severe. The volcano most recently erupted in 1944 and is expected to erupt again.

It was well worth it to make the mile long hike to see the crater at the top of Mount Vesuvius. They even had an ambulance parked at the top and bottom of the hiking trail to help people who may have trouble.

Our next stop was Pompeii which was fabulous! If you get the opportunity to visit then you need to go for it. I never realized how big Pompeii is. The city was buried until sometime in the 1700’s when a farmer was trying to dig a well and was unable to because he just kept coming across lots of ash instead of water. Since that time the location has been an active archeological site.

You can see Mount Vesuvius in the background.

This is graffiti carved on the walls hundreds of year ago.

This is a mold of a person who perished in Pompeii. It was made by pouring plaster into the cavities left by the ash that covered the people.

I hesitated to add these two pictures but we found this so amazing that I decided to go ahead and include them. Our guide explained that Pompeii was a port city with many sailors coming and going. They spoke several different languages. Many of them wanted to visit a brothel when they came to Pompeii but did not speak the language to ask for directions. The picture on the left is the town brothel. Throughout the city there were signs to direct the sailors to the brothel. The picture on the right is a wordless sign of the male genitalia that was carved in the stone wall to direct the sailors to the brothel.

We drove all over southern Italy with no problems. Most of the roads were four lane divided highways with tolls similar to the E-Z Pass lanes we have in New York. We drove through lots and lots of tunnels since southern Italy is so mountainous.

We drove from Naples to Salerno which took about an hour. The hotel we chose had an artist’s theme to it where every room featured a different artist. Charming!

There are many gorgeous places to stay on the Amalfi Coast. We took a lot of time weighing the options and decided on Salerno because it was significantly less expensive plus it provided easy access (by ferry) to the other scenic cities i.e. Amalfi, Ravello, Positano, Sorrento and Capri.

We had heard lots about the narrow, curvy road along the coast so we choose to use the ferry most of the time but we did want to experience a short segment of the scenic road so we took a bus from Salerno to the city of Amalfi. We came upon this bus and our bus had to back up plus both busses had to collapse their side mirrors so they could pass each other. I took some motion sick medication before we left but even with that I felt sick by the end of the hour long trip. From then on we took the ferry between cities.

The beautiful city of Amalfi…

Ravello was my favorite place on the Amalfi Coast. It is a smaller, less touristy town that is charming and incredibly beautiful.

Visiting the Villa Cimbrone Gardens in Ravello was cathartic and breathtaking.

Next we visited Positano which is the most popular town on the Amalfi Coast. It is known for it’s upscale shopping. Here is one of the charming walkways throughout the town. Positano was VERY crowded so I felt happy to get this photo with no tourists in it.

Positano is also known for it’s beaches with crystal clear water.

As we walked along the narrow streets we could peek into the entrances of some of the very upscale hotels which start at $1000 a night.

There were lots of people, cars and even a gas station on some of the narrow roads.

Interesting art looking over the sea in Positano.

Arriving in Salerno by ferry after a day of touring this beautiful part of Italy.

This was our favorite meal on our trip. It was a small family owned restaurant where the grandmother (who only spoke Italian) took our order by us pointing at the menu.

It was a five hour drive (including a ferry crossing) to our next location in Taormina, Sicily.

Another one of the many tunnels we drove through in Sicily.

This was the hotel where we stayed. We loved it and could have stayed there a week if we had the time. As you can see the same family has owned it since 1833.

These are some pictures from our hotel including the deck off our room and the charming place where we ate breakfast each morning.

Dipping my toes into the Mediterranean Sea

Walking around the charming town of Taormina

I loved coming across this school bus picking up children to get them to school. From what I can tell all European school buses are smaller and have a driver and a bus assistant. I know there are many schools in the USA that wish they had bus assistants on all their buses.

We took a sunset hike to Mount Etna. The volcano has been erupting for the last 2,700 years, most recently in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. In all that time it has killed a total of 77 people. We asked our alpine guide how he could be sure it was not going to eminently erupt. He said there are usually several small earthquakes proceeding an eruption. Walking around on the volcano seemed like we were on the moon or in a Star Wars movie.

We were able to climb part way down into the crater to actually feel the heat that continuously radiates from the volcano. Amazing!

The sunset view on Mount Etna did not disappoint, 85% of what you see coming out of the top of Mount Etna is water vapor. The rest is sulphur, radon and other things that I do not remember.

That is my update for now. Randy is currently back in the States enjoying some deer hunting. I am in the midst of writing extensive reports about each of my students since the end of term one is approaching. I am flying home on December 16th to celebrate the holidays with the whole family. I cannot wait!!! As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you skimmed through lots of it since it is soooooo long this time. Not sure if I will make another post before the holidays so I am wishing you all the best over the upcoming holiday season.

November, 2022

Wow, it is already October!

We have almost completed our 6th week of school. I am always glad when October rolls around because by then most of the students are into the school rhythm and we are past learning all the routines that come with a new school year.

As always, I have enjoyed getting to know my new group of students. They have some excellent academic skills. It has been a while since I have taught second grade so it has been interesting to observe how strong they are in reading, writing and math. Most of these children attended Albanian College last year which means they are all fairly fluent in English. In the past I have always had at least 3 or 4 children who had no English in my class. Several of my current students are trilingual. Some of them speak Arabic or Russian. I have students who were born in Russia, Egypt, Kenya and of course, Albania. One of my Albanian students has lived in Ukraine for most of her life but because of the war, her family moved back to Albania from Kiev last spring. I have never had such an international class. I love the diversity! One more thing, my assistant’s name is Stefi. She is a 22 year old young woman who is just getting started with her career. I am enjoying getting to know her.

If we take a regular picture then we have to allow time for a silly picture too!

Here is an updated picture of the school. The addition on the right was completed in September, 2021.

You may remember from a previous post that the school building was originally built by the communists as a place where they could train their officers. The architecture of the building says communist style. Many of the older buildings in Tirana have this same box like, somewhat dreary look to them. Anyways, the new part of the school is for the Early Years (ages 3-5) Program and the Primary (grades1-5) Years Program. It is a nice addition to the school. Because of all the windows it can get really warm even though there is air conditioning. My classroom is on the third floor. In much of Europe, what Americans would call the third floor, Europeans call the second floor because they call the first floor “zero” or ground floor. Confusing at times but I am getting the hang of it.

Here are two of the other three grade two teachers. Nilda is from Albania and Rawand is originally from Lebanon but is now a Canadian. We make a good team and I am glad to get to work with them.

The children sang happy birthday to me in both English and Albanian. After they finished, one child raised his hand and asked if he could sing happy birthday to me in Russian. Loved it all!!!

We celebrated International Dot Day a couple weeks ago by listening to the the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. The book has a good message about “making your mark” which led to lots of good discussion.

The day was full of lots of dot activities.

This is what a week of teaching Grade Two at Albanian College includes:

Between 8:00 and 8:30 the children arrive at school and go directly to the canteen where they eat breakfast that is provided by the school.
The children have these special classes each week. Each special area class is 45 minutes long.
- 4x/week Albanian Class; the children who are not native speakers attend a separate class so they can become more proficient in Albanian.
- 2x/week Music
- 2x/week Art
- 2x/week P.E.
The children are given 25 minutes for lunch which is provided by the school.
There are three 20-25 minute recesses every day. That is one of my favorite parts of Albanian College. It is SO good for the kids to get outside often during the day.
The children go to their bus or to parent pick-up at 3:10.
Three days a week the children can attend an after school club if they are interested. The clubs dismiss at 4:00.
Each teacher has some type of duty everyday. I supervise for 25 minutes during lunch. That means I have a shortened lunch period each day but I am fine with it because then I have more planning time during the rest of the day.
There are weekly hour long staff meeting after school in addition to twice weekly grade level meetings during the school day.
Each teacher is required to teach a club after school until 4:00 one day a week. I teach the Sudoku Club. 🙂

Now you have been updated about school so far.

The second week of September Derek and his dad, Karl, came to visit us in Tirana. A family member of theirs was married in North Macedonia so they decided to come visit us before heading back to the States. Our families have been friends for more than 30 years. We loved hosting them for a few days!

Karl could not stay more than a couple of days but Derek was able to stay through the weekend. We took him to Berat which is about a two hour drive from Tirana. Berat is known as the “City of 1,000 Windows” for obvious reasons.

**Can you see Derek running up to the top of one of the castle walls?**

We stayed overnight at Berat Castle which has been continuously lived in since 400 BC. We love the tranquility and beauty of staying at Kris Guesthouse inside the castle walls.

This is my favorite picture from our trip to Berat, Derek standing on one of the castle walls at sunset.

In 2021 Tirana hosted an International Mural Festival with over 30 artists visiting the city. I just adore coming across various murals as we walk around the city.

This is my favorite mural that I have seen so far. It is titled “A Mother’s Love”.

Well, that is my update for now. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog. I really do enjoy sharing our experiences with you. My first school break is approaching so Randy and I are renting a car to take on a ferry from Albania to Bari, Italy. From there we will drive to the Amalfi Coast and then head south to spend a couple days in Sicily. Can’t wait! Randy heads back to the States at the end of the month to spend time deer hunting. I always dread his departure but then when he is gone I always end up handling it just fine. 🙂