Thursday, June 7, 2012
We had breakfast at 9:00. I went
downstairs at 8:30 and took out my clothes from the washer and hung them up. I
put my second load in which got taken out during our break later. As we
finished breakfast, Nathan and Gabriela arrived with Ana Baba. We said prayers
with them and had quiet time. Then we sat in the room where we had done said
prayers, and had a 2+ hour review session of the trip. We all said our
impressions and our thoughts about Albania and the trip, and then Fr. Luke,
Nathan, Gabriela and Ana shared some suggestions for keeping the missionary
spirit alive in ourselves and for sharing our experience with others –
suggestions for how to proceed with “re-entry” :)
We left a little after 1:00 and
went to the Orthodox University Center in Student City. They have someone there
who mounts little (2x2-ish) paper icons – I bought quite a few for various
friends who love many different saints :)
Typical Albanian hospitality – they
had a lot of fruit, sweets and drinks in the other room where we sat and
talked, and they gave each of us a little Albanian zipper-purse with a
student-made bead cross inside. I also stuffed some of my icons in there for
transport :)
We went a few minutes up the road
to a student cafeteria and had a very good, cheap lunch with the people from
the student center. We returned to the student center and once we all got
there, and Ana had called two friends to join us, we all took off for
bowling!
As usual I lingered. I was inside
finishing buying my icons and being told by various people to hurry up. I
walked outside to see the van (full of Americans) pull away. No problem, the
Albanians told me. You’ll go with us! That was fine with me – I was spending so
much time with the Americans and was glad to spend time with my new-found
Albanian friends!
We walked down a lot of back roads
that I would not have been able to figure out. We then ended up on a main
boulevard and piled into a parked 15-or-so-passenger van that was sitting
there. We drove a long way from where we were – 10 minutes. And I thought we
were going to walk!
When we got to the bowling alley we
split up into teams. I got the biggest size shoe (European 46 or something), which was too
small :P I asked, and they let me play in my socks.
Three of us all think
that being on the other side of the world has something to do with our skill at
bowling. I got 105, I believe, and two teammates also did much better than
they expected. We were all surprised. The way I put it is that there is a
bowling alley down the street from my house. I bowl enough to know that I’m not
very good, but not enough to get better :) Somehow I got the
highest score on our team, though! ??
On our way back to Tabor one van
stopped at Petro’s icon studio for a little bit. Then we walked around some and
went shopping (4 of us had fun getting lost after staying
at the icon studio, and then taking a taxi to where the others were walking and
shopping). Two of us split the 400 lek ($4) cost of an Albanian flag for the 3rd
floor “flag lounge” at school. A small group went to a post office
because I think someone had to mail something, and someone else wanted to buy
Albanian stamps. We stayed there awhile and when we came out everyone else had
left. We got into two taxis and went up to the Tabor Center where the others
had just started dinner outside with Bishop Asti.
It was a nice dinner :)
I tried a sip of beer (Korça Beer, I believe) but didn’t like it so one of the
Albanians drank mine. After dinner I got to “watch” Daniel again which is
always a joy! Gabriela and the three kids were with us :) but Nathan wasn’t able
to join us :(
I packed as much as I could, got
all ready to go to Greece, and went to sleep at 1:30 am.
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