Preparing for the harsh Balkan winter

When I arrived to Tirana about one month ago, it was warm and sunny. I even had to wear 50+ sunscreen on my face to avoid those nasty sunburns. On several days I would regret I was not wearing sandals but boots. 

Now, just one month later, everything has changed. Looks like that harsh Balkan winter is approaching us. I guess many of my readers are familiar with the  horrendous winters during the siege of Sarajevo or with the case of elderly Romanians dying of cold in their homes a few years ago. Actually, no need to worry, according to the locals, those stereotypical Balkan winters will never arrive to Tirana. I should head to the mountains if I was looking forward to such an experience. Yet, after the warm autumn, I feel I'm freezing with temperatures now dropping close to zero. The humid climate of Albania does not help the situation. Alas, I don't have central heating at my apartment. On a couple of sunny mornings, I've gone to the balcony to get warm. It is really freezing inside, reminds me a lot of my time in Scotland and London.

I am preparing for the harsh winter by browsing the numerous small boutiques across Tirana. I don't think many people come to Tirana for shopping, but I have found this city to be full of nice, little treasures. Not only they provide me with warmth but they are also aesthetically appealing, especially for my style!

Wool dress in grey and a pink jumbo belt

Wool hat and scarf in grey with pink embroidery,
beads and pom-poms

Tresure! Pink wool coat with amazing embroidery.
Made in Italy but this could be traditional Balkan style too.

Balkan must-haves: handmade woolen sock-slippers,bought
from an old knitting lady. These come in a range of colours and
styles, can't wait to get some more!

Don't worry, I don't plan to turn this into a fashion blog. With this posting, I would just like to inform you about my ways to adapt into my new life in Albania. By the way, this is the first time I have taken selfies by using a mirror, so I hope you are not bothered by the not-so-impressive quality of the photos.

I have also come across with another problem: Albanian food is too good. My typical Balkan diet consists of seeds, souflaki, cheese, bread, byrek, different seeds, different byrek, different bread, seasonal fruits (right now apples and mandarins), kebab, some more byrek, some more souflaki, some more cheese, coffee, coffee, coffee... I think I have even found my favourite bakery, as usual for the residents of the Balkan cities. But now I'm facing the problem of gaining extra weight. Looks like I should head to enjoy the amazing running paths around the Lake (pictured below).

The good news and the bad news

Amazing views of Tirana

Slowly but surely I'm getting settled to Tirana. I have just moved away from the high school dormitories and now I live in a nice, big apartment. Quite ironically, and without any exaggeration, this is overwhelmingly the best apartment where I've ever lived. Yes, this is much, much better than any of the many apartments where I have lived in Glasgow or London. Luckily, the apartment is only a short walk away from my office, although I have to be extremely careful of those so annoying open manholes in the streets.

So what are the good and the bad news? The bad news is always-so-frustrating rejection after a job interview. This was not even a "real" job position but an internship. I feel like I'm now paying the big price for studying so much, and not caring about doing too many of those unpaid internships that-would-look-so-good-on-my-CV. If competition is this high into underpaid internships, what will it be when applying for the real jobs?

Then the good news (besides of my new apartment). I finally got the long-awaited results of my second master's degree and the grades really exceeded my expectations. So it looks like that my long (I mean very long) way towards applying for a PhD has taken one small, although significant step forward. I guess I'll be busy with proposal writing until January, probably longer. Now all thumbs up that my dream of doing a PhD will finally come true! Very good that I'm here in Albania, what a perfect place for inspiration!

Change Maker loves Tirana

Albania: Even more radical a change

 

After considering many, many options, I ended up choosing an AIESEC internship here in Tirana, Albania. I could have made my life radically easier if I had opted for an internship in good old Bosnia or in somewhere else in the former Yugoslavia. I mean I am now supposed to work in a country of which I know very little about; I have never been here before, I am mostly unfamiliar with the culture and customs, and after a few days I speak less than ten words of the local language (which is not related to any other language in the world). However, what attracted me in this internship was the opportunity to deliver an authentically Radical Change In My Life: a completely new situation in life, a completely new job in a completely new environment. As I have proven before, such shock therapy may result in enormous initial suffering, but after a while turns out to be the most rewarding and educating life experience.

I can honestly say that the radicalness in this change exceeded my expectations. It was indeed a really good idea to turn on an "adventure mode" before traveling here. I bet that 99% of my friends would have run away (and never come back) upon seeing my current accommodation. (I don't want to go too much into details in order not to shock anyone. As a hint, even the local Albanian girls hate it here. Some say even Albanian prisoners live in better conditions...) When I saw the showers I thought I had seen something similar before... Maybe in some film about Auschwitz or the Gulag.

Anyway, my initial impressions of Tirana and Albanian people are for the most part very positive. Am I right, is this an authentically liberal, secular and fast developing place? Or am I again buying into illusions of yet another Balkan town (and country)? Time will tell... Right now I truly hope that I don't soon find myself living in a country which is to become the dumping ground for the chemical weapons of Syria.

Once I get started, I will tell more about my job and my other (hopefully great) experiences here in Albania.

Time to go

Looks like the change I am going through is going to be even more radical than I first thought. I'm heading to a new country, I have never been there even as a tourist. Changing the country is never easy, and it is obviously even harder when I suddenly find myself in a new, strange environment where I must encounter with a new language, new customs and local bureaucracy. I know for sure (hopefully) where I'll be for the next three months, but what then? Such uncertainty is the reason why I have prepared myself for almost anything ranging from serious work to adventure traveling. Accordingly, I am taking a wide range of clothing and other items with me. How often do you see someone packing business suit into a travel rucksack, as I'm doing here?

I'm normally very seasoned in packing, but this time it has been anything but easy. First thing to consider: should I take a rucksack or a suitcase? Thinking about all the bumpy roads, narrow staircases, but first and foremost, my love of camping, I decided to go for a rucksack. Secondly, even though I have traveled many times, my long trips have usually taken place in the summer, when one obviously needs much less warm clothing. Squeezing all the winter clothing and shoes into the rucksack was quite tough, especially considering that I need clothes both for work and leisure time. Still have to practice for serious business packing (if I ever find myself in such a position...)

Where I'm going and what I'm going to do will be the topic of my next post.

When a forgotten dream came true

I understand that it is important to have some dreams to guide our life. With dreams we can set our goals, we can consider what we want out of our lives. Dreams are especially important during the transition periods. In case we don't have any dreams, how can we decide how to go ahead?

I am going through all the dreams I've had. Like so many other teenage girls, I wanted to be a Hollywood actress. As soon as I realized this is virtually everyone else's dream, I gave up. When I was in high school, the expression "I have determined I will be an actress" was a cliche. As someone who hates and loathes everything that seem popular, I decided to pursue my dreams into another direction: opera singing.

I was practicing opera singing with one great ambition in my mind: to sing Wagner at Savonlinna Opera Festival. (Believe or not, this is the first time I am admitting the latter part of my dream in public...) When the years passed, I understood that serious singing was a deadly struggle. Unlike pianists or violinists or clarinetists, singers are not allowed to practice many hours a day, which means we must learn a lot in a short amount of time. This never worked for me; in order to learn everything I wanted, I had to push my voice until my vocal cords were (almost) bleeding... Also, with my lyric voice type and tender, girlish appearance, I would never, ever become a Wagnerian soprano.

I have learned how important it is to allow dreams to fade and change. But how about making a forgotten dream a reality?

When I was a child, I used to admire many war heroes, among them the renowned English admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. (Sorry, at those days I never thought that in reality, there are no war heroes, just villains of different degrees.) I remember spending hours and hours reading about his battles, his ships, his tactics, his infamous love affair... Obviously, I had an enormous dream to visit Nelson's most famous ship, H.M.S. Victory in Portsmouth. Yet, the dream shortly faded and got buried under my bigger and more prominent dreams.

We travel ten years ahead in time. I have lived in the United Kingdom for six years; four years in Glasgow and two in London. Studying abroad was my dream when I was a child and I suddenly realized this long-forgotten dream had come true... So I decided to go ahead and make another forgotten dream a reality: me and my best friend in London bought train tickets to Portsmouth and the first attraction to see was, of course, H.M.S. Victory.

Often I think dreams never come true. But just a quick look at the picture above will always serve as a reminder for me to follow my dreams, even those that seem lost or forgotten.

It's been almost two months since I submitted my second master's dissertation. I still can't believe I'm not going to attend university again this year. Sounds pretty normal? Well, not for me. I can't describe how much I miss my struggle with post-structuralism or latent class variables! I miss the long days in the libraries, the hours of despair with some post-modernist and rather pseudoscientific articles, and even the last-minute attempts to formulate a short but sensible titles for all my numerous assignments.

Here I am going to write about my experiences regarding my current transition from an "eternal student" to a "normal", productive citizen. This is to share my encounter with this radical change. Or actually, we are not talking about only one "change" but rather a series of transitions and transformations. The first is right behind the corner, but I'll return to it in a couple of weeks.