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.

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.

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.

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.

Christmas Eve dinner followed by Christmas Eve Church

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.

• Covid, London and Home for the Holidays
• A First Birthday, the Albanian Alps and a Trip to Southern Italy
• Wow, it is already October!
• Settling Back into Tirana
• Teaching in Albania- Round Two