The Next Chapter

Things have begun to look up here in Durres. The weather has turned into fall which is quite pleasant and cozy. Our regular bartender has gotten familiar enough to joke with us. We did indeed find an authentic restaurant to enjoy a lovely meal out. We know where the cheapest good-enough pizza is ($4.22 for a medium which feeds us both for lunch). We’re getting comfortable.

The best part is that we’ve finally made a few friends. Craig found an ex-pats group in town that was having a coffee meet up. I have mixed feelings about the ex-pat community, I don’t want to travel the world just to hang out with other Americans. That said, we really need some social connections and have not found inroads with locals yet. The cool thing about this group is that there are a diverse mix of folks, definitely not all Americans. Some people have lived here for years, some are just passing through like us but they’ve all been very welcoming. At the coffee meet up we were turned onto the bar that everyone hangs out at, which is right on the water. Last night was trivia night so of course we had to go.

As soon as we got there the owner introduced himself (native Albanian married to an English lady) and chatted for a few minutes.  He introduced us to some other Americans sitting nearby and they immediately introduced us to more people and called us their friends. Already off to a great start. We teamed up with a group (one woman from Peru and her Albanian boyfriend, one woman from the US) for trivia and had a great time. They didn’t have high hopes for our trivia chances and didn’t initially seem impressed when I mentioned we’re not bad at trivia. Three hours and a hundred drinks later, we were indeed the winning team and we made a pile of new friends.

We now have an invitation to Sunday dinner at someone’s house. Craig has a friend to play billiards with. We are planning a road trip to visit someone’s mom, a 6,000 year old town and a village on the edge of the deepest lake in Europe. We also got tips on where to eat, how much things should cost and how to order food delivery. For lunch today we had food delivered; bean and sausage stew, chicken noodle soup and a large Greek salad. With tip and fees it came to about $10. Local friends are absolutely what we needed.

We walked home last night at 1:30 am, the only people still out, passing by 1,800 year old Roman ruins and felt the first bubbles of true excitement since we got here. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve enjoyed our time here so far and have had fun, we just hadn’t gotten that spark of possibilities yet.

This morning brought a little bit of a slow start for us both but nothing too dramatic. That is, until I went for a hair cut. Last week I got a pedicure from a very sweet woman, she’s young and cute and did a great job on my toes. I figured she could help me find someone to cut my hair. I messaged her and asked for a recommendation for someone who could do a modern cut with a razor and speaks English. She said she had a great option and took the liberty of making an appointment for me for this morning. Great! I got there and nobody spoke English at all. They did not seem to be expecting me but indicated that it would be okay and they would fit me in. I showed them a few pictures of what I was looking for, a shaggy layered look with bangs. The woman who was gong to cut my hair made such a face at the picture I showed her, that should have been enough for me to walk out the door but unfortunately I did not. A patron of the salon kindly translated for us and told me that my forehead is too small for that type of bangs, hence the look of disgust on the stylist’s face. We talked about longer bangs instead and she took me back for a wash. She then got out scissors, not a razor and began to butcher my hair. I have had enough haircuts in my life to have an idea of how it goes and this was definitely not it. I didn’t know what to do. I decided to just be okay with whatever happened, I can always find a different salon and get a pixie cut if necessary, the world wouldn’t end.

The whole time she was cutting my hair, the woman was whining and complaining, I don’t know what she was saying but it was obvious she didn’t like what she was doing. Eventually every person in the salon was standing behind me and talking, seemingly about me and my hair. Finally, the woman who was obviously the boss who had been working on the hair of the English speaking patron stopped what she was doing, pushed my stylist out of the way and spent the next 20 minutes yelling at the stylist while fixing my hair.

Is it exactly what I imagined? No. Is it shorter than I wanted? Yes. Is it cute enough? Also yes. On top of it all, it cost me $12 and that included a tip big enough that the lady looked right into my eyes, touched my arm and thanked me. So, at the end of it I suppose it all worked out.

Work has been so busy, it’s been hard to get much exploring in, it’s a good problem to have, as Craig likes to say. This weekend should give us some more opportunities to wander.

It’s been amazing to still be able to send video messages back and forth with the kids, our parents and our friends. It makes me feel like it will be possible to maintain these important relationships, even while we’re far away. It’s a different dynamic, obviously, but it’s so lovely to see their faces, hear their voices and to be able to share what’s going on with us in real time. Thank goodness for technology.