Do you see what I see?

 Here is the story of our viewings of the great conjunction of 2020. 

On Dec. 21, we hauled ourselves and two of Val's friends down to the artificial lake of Tirana, figuring the dam would be the best viewing point for that part of the sky. Terry has been taking evening walks around the lake for exercise and has been tracking Jupiter and Saturn in their twilight arcs.

Alas, a screen of clouds obscured our view of the celestial marvel that night. We hung out there by the dam for a good hour, but didn't get a break. We saw one twinkling light near the horizon that we thought *could* have been the conjunction, or not, but it was too dim to tell where the hilltops were across the lake there. 

Tuesday was a pretty evening, but also still cloudy. Made for a nice sunset, though!

Last night we finally had our chance! As the sun was doing down, I saw how clear the sky was and called the kids to get their shoes on - we didn't have time to get all the way to the lake, but we could walk down to the central plaza (Sheshi Skenderbeg), the most open area nearby, to see what we could see. 

And there it was! We could spot it without difficulty and unbelievably it even shows up in my phone's camera, just over the big Orthodox church near the center. 

Welp, that was it. So we went into the big bookstore there to pick up a World War II history book that Val was interested in, and then headed to home. 

But, as we were leaving the plaza, I saw two men hauling in a big old telescope! I was sure they were going to set it up to see the conjunction, so we turned around and followed them. Quicker than you could say "Bethlehem," they had it set up and pointed at the planetary marvel. We were the first in line to see it (and toss a few coins into their collection box). We could see both planets and a few of the moons, not very clearly, but distinctly enough. I think there was some cloud haze at that point. Then they turned it around to look at the moon, which was incredibly clear and beautiful. 

So we got to see the great conjunction of 2020.

Here's hoping for some 2020 vision going into the new year. 

Ancient Apollonia

Last Saturday we had the pleasure of visiting the site of an  ancient Greek settlement some way down the coast, near the city of Fier. Apollonia was established over 2,000 years ago and within a few generations had developed its own distinct identity as a small city-state, neither Greek nor Illyrian. At its height, the population was around 40,000 people. 

The archaeological ruins have only been 6% excavated and explored. What is visible is this partially restored temple, an amphitheater, and the foundations of several homes where families (counting enslaved people) averaging around 30 members lived. 

The major river that was this city's main access highway and irrigation source for the lush farmlands all around was diverted by a major earthquake (I forget when), after which the city declined. 

In the 13th century, an Orthodox monastery was built on the ruins of the city, and it still stands today. We briefly saw a priest in his black robe standing under a tree as we came up the hill. 

It was very dark inside, but we were able to see ancient frescos, stone carvings, and a beautiful floor mosaic that has been partially uncovered.

The layers of history run deep here. 

One of the most fun parts of the excursion was the company of two other families, whose sons are classmates and good friends of Gabriel. The boys were so happy to spend time together on a Saturday! 

After the visit to the archaeological site, we all went out for an amazing fish and frog leg dinner at a nearby restaurant. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but so worth it - a place I'd been wanting to see for a long time! 

 

Tree is up

These are not the clearest photos in the world, but we had fun setting up the tree yesterday and hanging ornaments. This one detail really makes it feel like we've vaulted into the Christmas season. 

The kids have been buying and wrapping gifts for an "angel tree" activity at school where donations go to a local organization, Tek Ura, that does really great work here with marginalized communites. 

I set up a bunch of candles in our fireplace, makes a nice little grotto. The light colored stones in the middle are a fossil of some kind of mollusc that I found on one of our hikes.

And we made ginger cookies with sprinkles! Terry and Val ground up whole cloves for the spice mix. Yum! 

 

The Road Goes Ever On and On

We went on a great hike on Sunday, up on Dajti Mountain and around to the back. 

When we walked through this tunnel, I told the kids "We're in Narnia!" 

It's such a relief to have the US election called. It feels like we've all dodged a bullet collectively, and I hope we have. 

I guess it's what you would call and mountaintop experience! 

 I don't think I take enough pictures of Terry :-) I'm thankful for everything he does for and with us. 

Pause

I was walking home after a staff meeting on Tuesday, along a busy grimy street and turned my head to see this amazing sunset. Since daylight savings time ended, the sun sets so early. It was good to be reminded that there is beauty everywhere, but sometimes you have to pay attention to see it. 

Two weekends ago we went hiking with a big group of people, 7 families from our school went in 6 vehicles to an area not far from Tirana where there are some old castle ruins near a little village. To get to the village, you had to hike up a very precarious path, however, so half the group took the wide road around - but went off track and ended up invading someone's private farm. 

Nothing bad happened, we just had to turn around and retrace our steps back.

I was thinking about these steep slopes - how we have to pause to catch our breath, and in doing so we see the big picture. 

Weekends are such important pauses for me right now in this high-stress school year. This weekend the same folks who organized this hike are ambitiously organizing another. We're thinking Terry will go while the kids and I stay home, and pause. 

Elbow Grease

This morning I got up to a new, happy feeling - a real sense of relief from pain I've had in my right elbow early August. There have been days when I would wake up and my elbow hurt less, or hurt more, but today it was a qualitatively different feeling than just a mathematical decrease in pain. I think it's finally getting better 

We got bikes over the summer, calculating a savings cost and health benefits for getting to and from school in the coming months. Meanwhile, to get the kids (and myself) in biking shape we used them to get to and from playdates. One day coming back from picking Gabe up, I lifted the bike quickly over a curb at an awkward angle and felt a sharp, intense pain in my right elbow. 

That was the first injury. I iced it, took Ibuprofen, and tried not to use that arm too much, but it hurt even to try to open a pickle jar, or to scrub a pot while washing dishes. 

Then, about 10 days later, I was foolishly trying out Gabe's hoverboard and fell hard backwards, hitting my head on the low wall of the balcony and also landing on that same right elbow. 

I was truly frightened about possible head injury, because school was just starting, but I was fine as far as that went. 

The elbow, though, was bruised and swollen. Over the next few days it got better, but I was stuck with chronic pain that was exacerbated by knitting, using the mouse, and using the handbrake on my bike. Anything that involved grasping with the thumb and first two fingers on my right hand. 

Physiotherapy was the next step. Turns out that the radius was very slightly dislocated, but the therapist shoved it back in place and gave me a series of exercises to do. That helped, but the pain continued. Less, but still there. 

I went back again and got instructions to prop up my forearm while using the mouse or typing, and I think this has done the trick. It's the ergonomics of it - plus continued careful stretching. 

We're coming to the end of the first quarter of the school year and I finally am feeling some relief - both in reduced stress overall, and relief from this chronic pain. I am so thankful.  

Shpella Pëllumbasit - hike to a cave

We had this week off from school, a nice long Fall Break, so it seemed like a good opportunity to head out of the city and explore more of Albania. The weather had other plans, however, so we spent Monday and Tuesday hunkered down with books and Minecraft while it rained, and rained, and rained. 

Thankfully, Wednesday dawned clear and beautiful and we were able to borrow a vehicle for a lovely day trip to Petrela Castle: 

We had gone a few years ago when my parents came to visit, but this time the weather was nicer and we're all in better shape so made the short climb to the top to see the amazing view from the top. It was pretty amazing to envision the people who built it, strategically located to look along the valley to Durres.

After that we made our way to Pëllumbas, a small village where we got a bit of lunch to eat before following a well-maintained trail along the mountains to an amazing cave called Shpella Pëllumbasit (the cave of Pëllumbas). 

The silence of the mountains was only disturbed by the rushing sound of the river below, and the occasional braying of a donkey from the village. The trail was not too muddy, and there were handrails and steps installed in the trickiest spots, as well as a few benches at lookout spots like the one above. We saw a lot of mushrooms, beetles, and grasshoppers. 

I was about to give up when we finally got to the cave - it was pretty impressive, having been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic! (well, not continuously - I don't think anyone lives there now)

There were steps carved into the cave wall here near the entrance.

Apparently you can rent lanterns and helmets to do a proper spelunking, and hire a guide, but we just moseyed around the entrance and imagined being ancient humans living there. The cave floor was quite dry, so it seemed like a perfect ready-made place to hunker down in bad weather between hunting and foraging trips. 

 We don't know much about mushrooms, but there were a number of different kinds visible and I imagine some are edible. 

It was a beautiful, amazing day trip and I'm so glad we did it.

A bit of a melange

It's October already! Life continues to be full and busy. I'm slightly less tired than I was a few weeks ago, and only 30% as scared on the way to and from school. Yesterday Terry used my bike to pick up the kids since I had a staff meeting after classes, and he got a flat tire, so I was spared (ha ha) from having to deal with that. I'm still, overall, really enjoying biking. 

So, can anyone identify the tree that is in this picture, with the broader/bigger leaves? There are lemon, tangerine, and olive trees in the garden at school, and the students are telling me that this new tall tree (upper left quadrant) is an avocado. I'm skeptical but willing to be convinced! 

In yarn-related news, I'm very excited to have all these beautiful new yarns from Indigo Dragonfly! I ordered them a while ago, before I knew whether we would be able to go to the US this summer or not and they'e been living at Rosanne's house. Now a friend of hers has unexpectedly come to Albania and he was able to bring them to me. Yarn heaven! One of these days I will have the energy to decide what to knit next, download the patterns, and get started. The pinkish one is Corona-virus themed (it's named for Dr. Tam, who has headed up the Canadian response to Covid-19; the pattern includes "droplets" in sets of 19 and the colors are based on a photo of the virus).

We recently went past this mural, which you can see has been repainted to match our current reality. 

This is what it looked like before: 

Masks are starting to feel normal, to the point that I showed my students a photo of a crowd of people in Tokyo from several years ago and their reaction was "it's so strange that they're not wearing masks!"

Next week is Fall Break! We're hoping to go somewhere outside Tirana 

Moving into Fall

 

It feels like this corner of the world has started shifting into Fall. The shops are still stocked with sandals and swimsuits, but temperatures have dropped slightly and rains have blown in this week. I was very nervous about biking to school in the rain, but we have managed so far. Got new raincoats and sturdier shoes. 

The first rainy day, I wore these nylon pants that I've had simply forever. They are not waterproof but they do dry very quickly so they are suitable for wet days; I just take a skirt or something to change into once I get to school. Not very stylish but they'll do the job. 

I actually did the math then, because I remember wearing these in Bolivia, back when I would drive a motorcycle in the mud and hike into pastures in our work with MCC. I remember that my uncle Dave gave them to me. They are Champion brand and I'm pretty sure he got them at Wal-Mart. They have to be at least 25 years old, then. I don't remember having them in college so I can peg the date at or around summer 1995 when I graduated. 

Not that my memory is that reliable. 

But I do have vivid memories of mosquitos clustered thickly on these pants during community meetings in Yapacaní. 

It feels good to have clothes that old, still useful. Older than some of my colleagues at school! 

School in the time of Covid-19

 Week one of in-person instruction for the 2020-2021 school year is in the books!

On Monday I was ready to collapse from exhaustion, but it turned out to be mostly dehydration. The weather continues to be very hot in Albania, and we are required to keep our classroom windows open and wear masks at all times indoors. We can turn on the A/C in the classroom, but it isn't very effective with the windows open (although it helps). 

I forgot to drink water, and since we biked to school and back, I got home with a massive headache and just kind of fell into bed.

The rest of the week went better, although by Wednesday I actually thought we'd been in in-person school for two weeks already!

About a month ago, when staff meetings began, I discovered this card on the whiteboard in my classroom, under the date: March 9, 2020. That was the last day we were in the building until this fall. It was a poignant moment. I left the date un-erased, as a kind of marker of the massive transition that happened that day. 

As far as school itself goes, there have been no major disasters, no huge problems, no massive snafus. It has been a surprisingly uneventful first week back in the classroom. I absolutely love being face-to-face, despite the masks, despite the heat. I love getting overly dramatic while reading out loud or explaining concepts. I've always had a bit of a diva in me (I loved acting in plays or performing music, even though I'm at best mediocre in those areas) and it's really fun being in front of a classroom again. 

The students have been mostly cooperative, and also glad to be together again. Everything depends on their cooperation, so that's encouraging. 

At the same time, I am deeply tired. I have very little down time for planning since we have to cover more study halls (keeping class cohorts separate) and more stringently supervise lunch time and down time in general. As an introvert, it's wearying to be always "on stage." I like being on stage, but I need the backstage time to recharge and rest. 

Hurray for weekends! 

Feel the breeze in my face

Last year we bought a second-hand bike for Gabe, and a new one for Val. During lockdown there were not many opportunities to use them, and then this summer with all the unpredictable travel restrictions we opted not to do our usual grand world tour of places we have lived before and instead invested that money in wheels for the whole family. We upgraded the kids bikes, and bought two more adult sized bikes as well. 

I absolutely LOVE biking. I think the last time I used a bicycle was around 1997 or so, when I rode one around the Yapacaní area in Bolivia. But a combination of factors gave me a lot of lower back pain, which was exacerbated by biking, so I quit and hadn't mounted one since then. So it has been over 20 years. I had forgotten how much fun it is! 

It reminds of how Harry Potter felt the first time he rode a broom:

“He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him- and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught- this was easy, this was wonderful." (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

There is another description of how the broom seemed to know what he wanted it to do, how it responded to the lightest touch of his hand. That's how I felt on my bike today, gliding down this bike path (below) to school.  

 The current mayor of Tirana has expanded the bike lanes all over the city, and during lockdown continued to do so. Drivers of vehicles are not very happy about it, as on-street parking has diminished considerably. Public use of the bike lanes is also not ideal - a lot of pedestrians walk in them, and people often stop their vehicles in them to pick up and drop off things or passengers. The traffic lights at major intersections are not terribly well organized. However, it sure beats walking (to me - Terry still prefers to hoof it). 

We are planning to have the kids bike to school, at least we'll try it out. If we manage to bike for 60 days out of the 180 school days in the year, the cost of the bikes will balance out the cost of a taxi. The exercise and renewable energy benefits are superlative. 

But most of all, gliding down the street on my bike is just pure joy. 

The Tirana Pyramid

 The Tirana Pyramid is a well-known landmark in the city, on the main boulevard between Sheshi Skenderbeg and the university. When I think of pyramids, I think of Egypt, of course, and of the Mayan and Aztec pyramids in the new world. Something in the way that the shape evokes mountains obviously invites climbing.

The Tirana Pyramid was built as a monument to Albania's cruel dictator, Enver Hoxha, and was a center for communications for many years. Now, it is a decrepit, graffiti-covered trash pit, more or less, although the current municipal government has ambitious plans to turn it into a center for digital technology innovation and training. 

It's also a kid magnet. It's something of a rite of passage for kids in Tirana to climb to the top, and yesterday my kids and their friend S. did just that! It was such a beautiful day out, that I suggested we all ride our bikes to the lake after school. Well, a simple bike ride turned into extended playtime in the park by the lake, and "can we stop and climb the pyramid?" on the way back!

My heart was in my throat watching them become little ants before my eyes, ascending on a slant, raising their arms in triumph at the top, then inching their ways back down again. 

Last year we enjoyed reading the Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch. In the first book, The Name of This Book Is Secret, our hearts were in our throats reading the thrilling story of Cass and Max-Ernest who sneak into a pyramid-turned-spa to rescue their friend Benjamin from the nefarious designs of Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L, who want to live forever.  

Whatever the context - communist Albania, Egypt, the Americas, a book of fiction - pyramids seem to confer a sense of magical power. I love that my kids met this challenge, this Albanian rite of passage, scaling to the top of this new height. I love that they came back down to earth, grounded with me again. 

A hot minute

Hello! 

It's been a hot minute since I've posted here, actually more like 1 million thirty thousand minutes (give or take...). Basically I spent a year after that last post processing a lot of "life stuff" internally that I wasn't really comfortable making public, and then this past year I've been super busy teaching. Plus, the kids are at an age where they're a little more aware of what gets posted about them on social media, so I haven't felt as free to talk about them as much here. 

But here we are, and I thought it might be a good time to rev up the ol' blog again. 

We have started school online this year!

We had hoped to begin in person on the 20th, then on the 24th, and then got word that permission to open face-to-face was denied by the Albanian Ministry of Education. But, we could start online, and then transition to face-to-face once all the Albanian schools open on September 14. 

It seems like everyone connected in any way, shape, or form to formal education is struggling with the pandemic and all that implies for the ways that we do school, at all levels. It has been a learning curve, for sure, but I've felt a lot of confidence in our administration - the thoughtful planning, consultation, and decision-making that has gone into preparing for this year gives me a great sense of optimism.

And, so far so good! There have been tech issues and glitches, to be sure - on Tuesday, four of my 9th-graders living near each other lost power! But students, teachers, and families have shown themselves to be adaptable and resilient. The four 9th graders got together at one home and used 4G to connect on one laptop to their class. It looked to me like they were actually really enjoying doing school together. 

We have had our own little family "pod" as well. 

Over the summer, our kids have had regular playdates with a couple friends from their respective classes, and so when school started we decided to keep the friend-pods going and invited the other kids to join us at our house. We hired a recent high school graduate to look after them while Terry and I work, and so far it's been going really well. 

COVID-19 stats in Albania have not been great this summer. We are up to 101 deaths per million, which is lower than the global average, but not by much. After lockdown lifted on June 1 (after a whole month of *no deaths*), people seemed to feel quite free to do whatever and also seemed to be trusting in the summer weather to knock out the virus. Daily cases soared - and are only now just starting to come down again as people seem to have realized the consequences of their actions. 

So, we will see how things go. That's all we can do, really - prepare and plan, but be ready to flex at a moment's notice.