Wednesday, June 29th

No Chicken McNuggets in Tirana, nosiree...

So imagine you’re walking to work in the downtown area of the bustling capital city of _____ (your choice – Washington, Stockholm, Paris, Moscow, ok maybe not Dushanbe or Dar es Salaam though). You’re making your way along a busy street with other pedestrian commuters; late-model Mercedes Benzes and other more seasoned vehicles are whizzing by.  All of a sudden walking toward you comes a woman toting… a briefcase?  A purse?  A gym bag? A chicken?  Why yes; she is carrying, one in each hand, actually, a couple of enormous  rusty-colored chickens – carrying them by the feet, so their feathers are all fluffed out and they appear to be the size of small turkeys.  (Just another of those times when all you can do is take a mental snapshot and wish you could download it via USB cable to your laptop.)  A bit later I came to the place where the woman must have come from – a small shack on the edge of a traffic circle – and just as I was passing, a man was wrestling with another couple of chickens which were crying plaintively and fighting for their lives.  I had never heard a chicken cry before, but as I continued my hurried pace to work, I felt both sad and guilty that I hadn’t stopped to plead their case as I am sure that in the next minute, their necks were wrung and they became as lifeless as those I had seen earlier. ...so, what did I choose for lunch at the Embassy cafeteria?  Chicken.

That was yesterday morning. This morning’s walk was not quite so interesting, but I did have a fun morning.  The Regional Security Office’s ARSO (Asst. Regional Security Officer) took me out to the city of Tirana police shooting range where he periodically trains the Embassy armed guards.  Today 30 guards were practicing shooting Glocks and a semi-automatic rifle of some kind.  And of course midway through the practice, when the men were taking a rest, the ARSO let me try it out J.  So I was handed a Glock, given an abbreviated “Glock etiquette” briefing, and got to shoot 15 rounds into a target with the image of a swarthy, mustachioed man holding an AK-47.  All I will say is that I’m glad the man was only made out of cardboard.  He wouldn’t have stood a chance!

Today on my way home from work I finally mustered up the courage to check out the gym close to my apartment (and the apartment I’ll be moving to in a week or so).  As it turns out, it was not a challenging endeavor – a “Nuk flas Shqip” and a smile was all I needed for the man to dust off his broken but very understandable English – so I learned that a single visit costs 300 lëk (about $3.00), and an entire month costs 4500 ($45.00), while 13 visits in a month costs 3000 ($30.00).  Not a bad deal at all!  It’s a very small facility with maybe fifteen treadmills/elliptical machines and some weights.  And some aerobics classes!

Lastly for today – GOOD NEWS!  I got some pics of the Spelling Bee from the Tirana Embassy Facebook page!!  See below.  You’ll see me in the first picture – I’m in the back row, with my back turned – at that moment I was meeting the daughter of one of the ladies I was sitting next to J.

Spelling Bee kids; Christina in the back

A confident speller!

The three winners!