The weather has warmed up in Kaçanik and the snow has melted. The snow melt caused quite a bit of fog and I really missed the sun, but Monday was nice and sunny. On Thursday, I subbed for an English teacher at the gjimnaz (regular high school). I did three classes there in the afternoon and my normal two in the morning at the vocational high school. The gjimnaz had got some smartboards, which were being installed and they were in the process of taking down the chalkboards in the classrooms. I used one of the chalkboards to write info about future simple and future conditional verbs. On Friday, after my last class, I saw two chalkboards being carried into our school. The chalkboards were from the gjimnaz and were being moved to our school because they are better than the ones we have. I know they were from the gjimnaz, because my handwriting was still on one of the boards.
On Saturday, we headed to Ferizaj to meet up with a large group of other volunteers to celebrate one of our volunteers' birthdays (Cody). Cody is an amazing volunteer, as this is the sixth time he has volunteered with the Peace Corps. We helped him celebrate his 67th birthday. We started out at the Temple Lounge shortly after 11 a.m. We stayed for only a little bit at the Temple Lounge, because Noah (who serves in Ferizaj) knew of a place that would let us bring in cake, rakia (homemade spirits), and wine. I made a chocolate banana cake with peanut butter frosting and a lemon poppy seed cake with fresh lemon from my lemon tree. Cody brought Ouzo and wine. Winston brought Rakia. We enjoyed all the treats and then we headed to McDonal's for lunch. Cody wanted the mixed salad that I had the last time we were there. After lunch, some people headed out as there are limited buses to some towns. The rest of us headed to The Villages shopping area. Some of us went for ice cream while the rest of us went to another lounge.
Thom and I left after that, but we decided to go to the ETC (which is like Kosovo's Walmart). After nine months of living Kaçanik, I found non-dairy cheese in Ferizaj. That was pretty exciting.
Sunday, we went for a hike from Prevalla to the Peak of Arnen in the Sharr Mountains. It was another fantastic winter hike with the most amazing views. We were actually opposite the peaks we hiked last summer. We had lunch on the top of the peak looking across the valley to Bistra and Konujsha (the peaks we hiked last summer). There were a lot of hikers along the trail and a lot of people visiting Prevalla.
On our way to the peak
For those who do not yet know, Thom is returning to the US in mid-February. After the roll-over accident, there was an incidental finding and after many tests here, it was decided that he should return to the US for medical treatment. I am staying in Kosovo to continue my service and he will eventually return. We found out during our holiday trip back to the States and it has been a challenging time to navigate.
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