I'm finally here!!!

After three plane trips over the course of 16 hours, I'm finally here! It took a bit of time to find an open internet cafe because it's Sunday here.

Last night I went to a party at a friend of Kris's.





He's an old doctor who used to work in Switzerland and now he sells guitars a a shop near that base. We had SO MUCH FOOD!!!! Veal is very popular here! You should see the food.
We had plate after plate and after we'd long finished, the old men kept eating! It was something to see!
Today I did a lot of walking around by
myself...the city is such an interesting
mix of old and new.
New construction with no windows, right
next to crumbling old buildings.

They don't really have zoning, so wet laundry of underwear drips down on the entrance to the supermarket. I went in and got some snacks for the hotel room! I just put the cold stuff outside on my balcony! The whole place smells like yummy fireplaces because everyone heats with wood stoves. The flowers are still blooming, even though it's snowing...they don't shovel and I didn't bring my boots, so my wet pants are now rolled up to my knees. Very cute! I napped and then watching elections news.


The polls were still open at 11:00 pm when I went to bed, but then at 11:30, there was a lot of partying outside the hotel, with fireworks. I guess they think the elections were successful. There's been reporting on CNN that "an ex-rebel" won...it's news to everyone here. We didn't even know that the counting was done. It's always interesting to see the differences in reporting. Everyone is still trying to figure out what's going on. This former rebel claimed victory, but it's still up in the air as to whether or not 52% of people voted. If not, they have to hold elections again!

I have tons of meetings set up, but also a lot of fun to be had, with the culmination of my speech on Friday. I've also been taking lots of pictures, but none to post yet because I can't get my computer to work with the internet!

Everyone has been so nice. This morning I had breakfast with the owner of the hotel. We don't speak any of the same languages, so we settled on a mix of broken italian and broken spanish,. It was so sweet of him, but also very awkward. The hotel is really nice and I have 2 rooms and a bathroom to myself. The owner and his family are so sweet. Walking on the streets seems really safe, people smiley and are so nice! It's pretty quite on a Sunday. There are huge loud callse to Muslim prayer right outside the hotel. I haven't seen anyone yet, but the prayers are really beautiful. I've never heard that before!



Tonight I met with Ivone, a translator of Kris's. We had dinner at a beautiful old castle near the mountains at the outskirts of Gjilan, which is the city I'm in. Anyway, we start with meetings tomorrow. It's the staff of a women's shelter. I hope to learn a lot from them!

Hopefully I'll get plenty of time to post, and perhaps I'll be able to find wireless!