Sunday 30 January 2011

Here Come the Girls

I would like to introduce you to some of my new friends, officially called "The Girls". Yesterday they came over for some coffee, cake and a film. It was good. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You, and they did a great job of keeping up with the English! Significantly better than I'd have managed had we watched in Albanian... It's been great hanging out with them over the last few weeks and I'm excited about spending more time with them. You'll defintely be hearing more about (Floren)Tina because she's my super-patient Albanian teacher, and Norah who runs the Kid's Club (and is my informal Albanian tester).

They tested out my first baking adventure using ingredients available in Kosovo. Turns out vanilla essence is a no-no, but vanilla sugar will do the job instead. And it turned out fine, I managed some pretty tasty chocolate chip cookies (no pictures managed before consumption) and also a coconut slice thing, minus glace cherries. I don't think we missed them though, they still tasted pretty good. YUM.

The Girls also bravely agreed to let me drive them home... Getting behind the wheel has been in the back of my mind since I arrived, armed with my driving license and ready to go! But driving here is not quite the same as driving at home. For a start, check out my wheels:
The truck is a little bigger and heftier than the little Ford KA I drive at home, but I think I'm getting used to it. Even being a left-hand drive hasn't flummoxed me too much yet. The bigger problem here is probably more the general approach to driving by the locals. You will hear more of this in the weeks to come, but for now I will just that the first rule of driving in Kosovo is there are no rules...
CORRECTION: Last week I told you that there were 10 additional characters in the Albanian alphabet, but on further study I realised that there's actually 11 and no w. But those of you who read my last post carefully will know that because you'll have counted all 11 that I introduced to you...

4 comments:

  1. Cake and friends and 10 Things - all excellent! Driving cars (or even, a truck, fun times!) - even more excellent (come on, you know me!!) Have fun, just try and remember some of my driving tactics, from the sounds of it, I'd fit right in driving over there!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, you and your driving would fit in very well over here, I thought just that the other day! I will try and channel you when driving...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yey for 10 things! I love that movie :)
    Have been sneakily reading your blog since you started it, it's all so interesting! So I thought I'd stop lurking and finally comment... xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Haha, you must, I will send you lots of 'bad driving' vibes!! Good luck!! xx

    ReplyDelete

Popular Posts