Monday, August 08, 2005

Coming home

Tomorrow morning I get on a plane for the long journey home. Friends, family, food... can't wait. I have taken a break from figuring out what the hell I need to pack to sit at an internet cafe and waste an hour. It's such an odd feeling to think that tomorrow night I'll be at my dad's house with my sisters (Duchess of Sconce, get off your butt and drive over from Dallas!), Daddy and Deb, that I'll be able to pick up the phone and hear voices that are only memories at the moment, and that I'll be able to sit comfortably in an air conditioned house while the world sweats away without me. :) It is the little things.

It's actually chilly in Prishtina today - the rain has cooled things off considerably. When I first arrived last week it was unbearably hot. I took the best course of action I could think of - leave. We had a girls' trip to Plav, Montenegro for some incredibly scenic hiking (complete with caves, canyons, waterfalls, and skinny dipping inthe coldest river known to man). Couldn't ask for a much better weekend away from the city. We stayed with a family, who turned out (oddly enough) to be related to one of my students. The Balkans are truly tiny and everyone really is related to everyone else. I don't see how there are so many blood feuds here when everyone is your cousin. Really. The farmhouse sat right on the lake, and the balcony off our bedroom had a stunning view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. To visit a place like that, where they have hardly ever seen a foreign tourist, where the locals welcome you into their home, and where the world seems completely unconcerned with everything else around it, is a true blessing. I feel fortunate to have caught a glimpse of what life in the Balkans must have been like before the wars, before the predjudices, before the modern world came creeping in. There are signs of it now - all the cars present were Mercedes, evidence of the vast diaspora that feeds money into the region. Our hostess said that most people in Plav now live in the States or in Germany and only come back for the summers. We saw every country in Europe's license plates represented as the parade of big Benz's careened through town. Still, it is stunning, and I have the feeling it will continue to be that way for a long time, as difficult roads and lack of access keep this little paradise isolated from the throngs that rush to the coastline every summer. Pics to be posted soon!!

And on that note, I really must go pack. I'm a leaaaavin' on a jet plane....

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