Bits and Pieces

It's spring in Tirana, and the trees have burst forth in lovely shades of bright, pale green. Window sills are filling up with flower pots and the parks with little children.

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Election season is upon us as well, and I saw both major candidates out schmoozing last Monday on my way back from my Shqip lesson. They are both very tall men, and that's about all I could tell you about them.

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The other day I was out with the kids and I very conscientiously threw an empty chips bag into one of those little trash bins that hang up on a stand, but just as I dropped it in I saw that the bottom of the trash can had rusted out and my trash fell on the ground.

Cute toddler detail: Valerie refers to all trash as "yucky." She likes to peer under the stairs next door to our building and admire "all that yucky!" She's also learned to call it "pis" ("yucky" in Albanian).

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After a balloon popped, Valerie said "All pieces fell off balloon."

When I was lying on the couch tossing a ball up into the air and then catching it, she said "Ball fall off hands, ball fall off ceiling."

When she lifted her feet off the floor while sitting in a chair, she said "Feet fall off floor."

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A couple days ago Valerie dropped a doll over the edge of the balcony, and it fell down to the balcony below which juts out for a good several yards beyond ours. When I saw the neighbor's little girl playing there, I had a brainstorm for getting it back - I lowered a little plastic basket on a long piece of yarn and asked her to put the doll in. She did, and I pulled it up easily! I sent her down an orange, and she sent up a little toy camel (but I think she might want it back). Valerie was thrilled with the whole operation, so now we have the little basket permanently installed on the balcony. I hung the string over a laundry line and we now play "Baby Up and Down" many, many times a day.

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I've often had people wonder where we're from. One time a woman came up to me and asked "Asia???" Others have thought I'm Turkish. Apparently we don't look like what people think Americans look like!

Oh, and apparently we've been here exactly seven months today. Wow!