So I have finally found an apartment. My apartment search has been a long and harrowing one, but an end is now in sight. The Peace Corps came yesterday to approve it and now all I have left is to have the breakup talk with my host family. They have been expecting me to stay I think, but it would be much better for me to go to my own place. Here is one man’s journey through his Albanian apartment search…
I have been back and forth on whether or not I even want to move. It would have its pros and cons, which I will list for you below.
Pros:
1) My apartment is small and it would be nice to have something bigger to host other volunteers when they come to visit as well as to have places to put all of my stuff
2) I would kind of like a kitchen. I currently have a sink in my bathroom, one burner on my balcony, and a sink in the 5x7 room that is technically the kitchen
3) Turkish toilets are not all that they have been made out to be. Living in a new place and eating new and sometimes questionably cooked foods do not mix well with these contraptions. I can explain these toilets in more detail at a later time.
4) Closet space. I don’t have a lot of clothes, but I would like a place to put what I have.
5) I would like to live more in the center. It is a 15-minute walk from the center to my house and it is all up hill. I am not complaining and I know that I am young and that I can handle it. Its just annoying. I also feel like there is more activity in the center that I could involve myself in.
6) This is the natural order. Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to live with a host family and then to move out on their own. I could stay but then I would be in a kind of crappy apartment and still with my host family.
Cons:
1) The apartment, however small, is kind of cozy. I kind of like the place at times. At other times I am just really frustrated by everything. I also have a really good view, the result of the hill I have to climb to get here. This is probably the best thing about my apartment.
2) I like my neighborhood. I am close to the school and the neighbors are great. I have been afraid that if I move the neighbors will all turn on me.
3) I like my host family. They are a good family. Maybe a little crazy at times, but they have grown on me. I have lunches with them five days a week and the food is really good (except for okra, but I don’t think that can be helped). I think that they have wanted and fully expected me to stay. There are also financial complications that pertain to them and I will explain this in further detail.
4) Guilt. People tell me that under communism entire families lived in these small studio apartments (I have also heard two families with ten people, but I think this is an exaggeration). For this I am sorry, but I have noticed that they are almost all empty at this point. There are four like this in my building and besides mine only one is occupied. The others have been turned into storage rooms or are just empty. I am sure that there are others like mine around, but you don’t even see too many of them. I know that I could reasonably live in one of these, but I just don’t want to. If the Peace Corps will pay for a larger apartment, why not take it? Also, if I am supposed to exemplify all of the great things about American capitalism, I would get the best place I can with the money that I can pay without mixing emotions.
5) So apparently this is my host family’s apartment. They (a family of four) lived in this room. The neighbors moved to Greece and offered their two-bedroom apartment to the family. This family doesn’t have a lot of money and couldn’t afford to pay rent, so they worked out a deal where they would fix this apartment for a Peace Corps volunteer that they were expecting last year and the money that the volunteer would give the family would go to Greece. This was kind of their rent. My leaving will throw off this system. I don’t know what the consequences for this will be, but I doubt that my family will be thrown out. They can find another renter or do whatever they were doing for the year before I arrived.

So I think what this has come down to is the fact that I would like to move and have a bigger apartment and a few basic luxuries like a toilet and kitchen, but I feel like I shouldn’t move. Throughout my apartment search I was able to put these things off until I needed to make a decision, but when the time came I felt that I should move. The other volunteers were able to help me out a lot with this too, as my sitemate had to put up with all of my agonizing.
The Peace Corps told us that in Kucove we could pay only 6000 leke or about $60 a month. It was almost impossible to find apartments in this price range. Juliet and I both asked the Peace Corps to raise our limit and they raised it to 8000 leke. We had hoped for more, but it didn’t happen. We looked at a bunch of apartments but most of them were 10,000 or 15,000 leke. This is probably factoring in the special foreigner price that we were both quoted. People assume that we have more money because we are Americans, they don’t usually believe that our limit really is our limit. I found an apartment that was spacious, it had two bedrooms, but not very modern. The kitchen was old and the bathroom was old and kind of smelled (but it didn’t have a Turkish!) It was a compromise, but the only thing I could find in my price range. The night before the Peace Corps was going to approve our apartments (actually it was about 9:00, it was cold, and I was in my pajamas watching a movie) Juliet called and said that there was one more apartment that she had heard about. I almost didn’t go, but she talked me into it. It was nice, it had a nice kitchen and a nice bathroom. This was the one that I had decided on. I am glad that I looked at it and it came in right under the wire.
When someone from the Peace Corps arrived to approve the apartments we ended up looking at all three (Juliet’s one and the two that I was looking at). We got to the apartment that I had looked at the night before last, but the guy thought that the apartment was for Juliet and not for me. He almost didn’t want to rent the apartment to me. I guess that he thought that I would destroy it or something. I don’t really know. The poor program assistant for Juliet who didn’t really even know me had to defend me and tell the guy that I was a good boy who wouldn’t break anything or even smoke in the apartment. Eventually he relented and decided that I could live in the apartment as well.
And that’s where I am right now. I told my host mother that I was looking for apartments a few weeks ago, I told her on Friday that I looked at an apartment, but I haven’t said exactly that I will be leaving on the first of November. I was hoping that they would connect the dots, and maybe they have and I don’t know yet, but I need to sit them down and say that I am leaving. I have been kind of putting it off, but I will do it soon. Ahh.
The guy said that he would clean the place up, fix the refrigerator and give me the keys so that I could start moving things in before the first. Once I get some pictures I will post them up here.

Ryan’s Review of Books

This summer I had a lot of time on my hands. A lot. Probably more than I have had for as long as I can remember. Even finding things with which to fill my time, I had a lot of time to travel around Albania and read a lot of books. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a few of the books that I read over the summer. Maybe, depending on how this one goes, I will do this again in another year, or in another six months or so, and see how my opinions or reading lists have changed.


Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
This book was really good. An account of an Everest summit where everyone dies. Who wouldn’t want to read this. I am sure that I am a latecomer to this book and that you have all read it anyways, but I think that its good.

Against All Enemies – Richard Clark
I like this book, and would probably like most books that bash our current president, but I think that he brings up a lot of good points. Clark seems like a smart guy and not just someone who is out to make a few bucks and stick it to the administration that fired him. I think that any political book like this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, no matter how convincing it can be, but for all its worth it was a good read.

The General of the Dead Army – Ismail Kadare
The most famous book by the most famous Albanian writer. I never would have read this if wasn’t living here in good ole Shqiperi. Most people think that his writing is amazing, but I would say that it is good. It is about two men, Italian I think, who come into Albania to collect the bodies of the solders that were killed here during the Second World War. One is a General and the other is a priest. They travel around Albania and discuss some of the places here and discuss the history and what they feel is the character of the people. Kadare was one of the few authors who was allowed to publish in Albania under communism, so his writing obviously goes along the party line. Now people say that he was an anticommunist and you can see the subtle undertones in his work. I have only read this one but whatever it is would have to be very subtle. I like him enough, however, to say that I would read whatever else of his I could get my hands on though.

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This book was amazing! I had heard of it before, and just picked it up as I was browsing for a few books to bring to Albania with me. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. It is about the birth and death of both a small town and a family somewhere in the Americas. There are some weird parts of the book, but there are also some weird parts of life. I would highly recommend this book to everybody and think that it should be on any reading list.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
Meh. It was alright, a quick read. I don’t have a lot to say about it though.

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
This book exceeded my expectations in fact. But they were quite low. This was my first foray into Dickens, but I have always heard that he is dry and boring. This book wasn’t what I expected at all. It is divided into three parts. The second part – where Pip is living within his expectations – kind of drags a bit, but the rest of the book was really good.

Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
Really messed up childhood. Anybody with a childhood like this probably needs to become a writer. It was pretty entertaining, but strange enough where I haven’t really felt that I could recommend it to anybody.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
Really good book. It is divided into four sections, the first one is really hard to get into because you have no idea what is going on, but if you can plow through that chapter and continue on through the book, it is definitely worth it. This book is really amazing, but in some ways I feel that it worked on a level that I didn’t really understand. I think that this is one that I might try to read again in time.

Bluebeard – Kurt Vonnegut
I love Vonnegut, and this was a really good book. Classic Vonnegut.

Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner
This book was really entertaining. I think that it is best for those analytical people because what the authors do is try to apply economic theory to random things like a correlation between baby names and future success, sumo wrestling, or real estate. It doesn’t really go into deep theory (or maybe my intense minor in economics helped me to understand its intricacies). This book was informational and entertaining.

The Runaway Jury – John Grisham
Do I need to write about Grisham here? He is entertaining and I can breeze through a book in a day. That’s why I read him so I don’t have to think.

Founding Father – Richard Brookheiser
This is a biography of George Washington. It was pretty readable, which is good for history books, but not very critical. He is an editor at the National Review, which is apparent in the book. He does a great job of praising Washington. It was still entertaining and I learned a little bit about our first president.

Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut’s first novel. It was actually really good, you can tell reading it that Vonnegut was still in the early stages of developing as a writer. His later books are far more complex, but many of his overriding themes and ideas can still be found here. This isn’t Vonnegut’s best work, but I hold it to higher standards.

Bless Me Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya
I think this is a book that most people read in high school. It was good, but some parts were a little dry. It is about a boy growing up in New Mexico I believe, and an older woman, a healer, comes to live with them. This boy learns a lot from Ultima and he also has a chance to get in touch with his roots as he is trying to figure out who he is and to grow up.

Seabuiscit – Laura Hillenbrand
I don’t know if this was a history book, a biography, or a sort of novel. It was kind of a mix of all three. I think that a reporter was trying to write a history book which kind of turned into a sort of novel. Where she tried to be academic, she failed, but where she tried to write a good story she succeeded. I don’t know why she didn’t just stick with what she was good at. It wasn’t a great book, but it was a good topic. I never knew that one horse had so much impact on the nation at such an incredible time.

A Movable Feast – Earnest Hemmingway
Great book detailing Hemmingway’s early years as a struggling writer in Paris. He is a great writer and the book was great. It was written posthumously – sometime in the 70’s or 80’s I believe. This book also contains some of his insights into other writers that lived at the time that I can’t remember right now.

The Old Man and the Sea – Earnest Hemmingway
I had never read this before. It was really good. I read most of it on a bus coming back to Kucove – its short – but I love how Hemmingway can capture human nature. I think that this is the struggle for writers, and why many of them fail. I love when a great writer can really capture the essence of people and their innate responses, reactions, and desires. Hemmingway is great at this art.

How we are Hungry – Dave Eggers
This is a book of short stories published by Eggers, but it was the first work of his that I’ve read. I don’t really think that you can judge a novelist by their short stories. I need to read another of his book to see how I feel about him. They were good stories though.

Jailbird – Kurt Vonnegut
Another Vonnegut. This was probably one of the best Vonnegut novels that I have read. It is about the least famous guy involved in Watergate. This is another writer who can really capture human nature, but everything is random and happenstance. People are irrational and kind of directionless, and their lives are composed of these random events that happen to them. Its hilarious, but I think that it really reflects life sometimes.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelly
Everybody said that if you read this book expecting the movie, you will be disappointed. I have never seen the movies so I didn’t really know what to expect. I still didn’t really like it. It’s so Victorian. A guy makes another living person, gets scared and lets him free. This living thing quickly learns to read the classics while living in a hovel and within a few years is more eloquent than the guy who made him. Because everybody is scared of this monster he decides that he needs to kill people unless the guy who made him also makes him a wife. I don’t really understand why this book is still so popular.

Bee Season – Myla Goldburg
This was better than I though it would be. I was kind of expecting a chick book, but it was pretty good. There were a few weird twists at the end that I wasn’t expecting. I would recommend this, it was a pretty good read. I wont say what its about though.

Slapstick – Kurt Vonnegut
I’ve noticed that I’ve read a lot of Vonnegut since I’ve been here. Another theme of Vonnegut’s is the fact that everybody is always looking for acceptance and looking to find other people that are like them. Maybe these are to replace our imperfect families. The main character – the former president of the United States after the world kind of collapsed – had created new random families for people during his term as president. They were successful because everybody is looking to reach out to other people. This guy is probably the greatest living writer. Hi ho!

The Brothers K – David James Duncan
Great book. This is one of the ones that has been passed around the volunteers for a while and is written in and underlined, but I received it with high recommendations. It is about a family – three sons, two twin daughters, a father who was supposed to be a successful baseball player but was injured, and a kind of crazy mother who is a part of the Seventh Day Adventist church – and the difficulties that they have to face in the tumultuous times that were the 1960’s. You can really see how the strengths and weakness of the parents have affected and been ingrained into the children. The similarities with the Brother Karamozov are surprising. Not in number, but in the subtleties that the two books share. There were some connections that I assumed would be there but weren’t. There were other connections that it took me a while to notice. I don’t really know what to say about this book, but just read it.

Life if Pi – Yann Martel
This book was really entertaining. It was about a kid trapped in a boat at sea for almost a year, but he was with a tiger. The book chronicled the complex relationship that one would obviously form with a tiger in a small space. I think that the worst part of the book was then end where I had to come to terms and wonder if this was a true story or not.

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
This is a book that I have been meaning to read for a long time. I have to admit that I am not actually done with this book, but only about half way. I was reading it and needed a break. I’ll probably be picking it up again before too long. It’s a project, but I think that I made some pretty good strides. Even the part that people said were boring like the rise of socialism and opposition in the late 19th century I thought was great. I have just come to the part about World War II, and I think that the modern stuff will be even more interesting

Light In August – William Faulkner
Lastly, the book that I am currently reading. Maybe it is premature to add this to my list, but I’ll do it anyways. Where The Sound and the Fury was really difficult to get into, I got into this one right away. Racial tensions in the South, especially around 100 years ago is a subject where I don’t claim to be an expert, but reading Faulkner you can feel like you are there. I am really liking Faulkner, more than I thought I ever would. I always assumed that there were Hemmingway people and Faulkner people, but why the dichotomy? Can’t we all just get along and be Hemmingway and Faulkner people?