New Year's in Kosovo

2005. New Year’s Day. Hmmm. I’ve spent it in my traditional way, wathching movies and eating Chinese take out. However, instead of being surrounded with my friends, I have spent it alone. Boo. I’m really missing the Gang right now. This was our New Year’s Day specialty.

So New Year’s Eve in Kosovo was interesting. Instead of organized fireworks, they sell them openly on the streets. For the past few days you couldn’t walk through town without some little kid throwing a black cat at your feet. But that didn’t even begin to compare to midnight last night. It was insanity. It sounded like the whole city was going to explode – and it looked like daylight. We were at my friend Brikena’s house on the 6th floor and from that vantage point we had a 180 degree view of the city. People were shooting massive fireworks off of their balconies in every direction – the big balls of color, the ones that explode into white light then twinkle down like falling stars, the whistling rockets that whizzed past her windows only to explode on the ground below, whole packets of black cats falling from the roof dancing on the pavement in a cataclysmic jig – all of this mixed with the rat-a-tat-tat of automatic weapons being fired into the air. Even with all the calamity and commotion going on, you could easily pick out the sound of gunfire amidst the fireworks. This was my first reminder in 2005 that there was a war here recently. Aside from the few remaining bombed out buildings and the occasional casual comments by my students about missing family members, I really haven't felt the whole "war" thing much. But that sound, and the smell of gunpowder that hung in the air like mist, made it come crashing into focus with the sour taste of reality. It made me glad I wasn’t in the streets, that I was in someone’s house. Brikena and her brother were joking about it being 1999, not 2005... "Helloo, NATO..." A little surreal actually. We didn’t venture out to the big parties until nearly 1 am, when most of this had died down. From there we ended up at the Kukri listening to the worst Karaoke I have ever heard in my entire life - and I've worked in bars with Karaoke. This was truly awful. Then it was on to the Irish Pub, and around 3 am we tried to go to another party, but it was €10 to get in and none of us were really feeling like paying that much to go to a party that we were likely to leave in an hour anyway, so home we went. Pretty fun, but just not the same without the gang.

So New Year’s resolutions… don’t have any this year. I actually didn’t even think about it that much. I guess I should have. There’s a lot of things I’d like to change about my life. I’d like to exercise again. I’d like to quit smoking again. (yeah, I’ve started again - it's hard not to here… dammit) I’d like to fall hopelessly, madly, deeply in love. I think two out of three of those are possible this year. You decide which ones. Ha. Anyone else got anything more interesting?

By the way, I’ve posted new pictures this week – some of the Christmas Party, and some of Prishtina in general. They’re under Kosovo December and AC Christmas Party. Enjoy!