Hotdogs, hamburgers, and Mexican food…

This may not come as a surprise to anyone but I like food. I especially like food that reminds me of home. For example, a nice decently sized, made from ground beef, hamburger with ketchup and mustard or if you’re feeling really crazy, add in a slice of white cheese. These two options and many more were available at the Ambassador’s July 4th party. It was awesome. In addition to the above described burgers, I also had a hot dog, two servings of ice cream (both with red, white, and blue sprinkles), chips, potato salad, grapes, baked beans, a small brownie and a small apple pie thing. I think that’s it. I know it sounds a bit gluttonous but I had good reason. First and for most, the little shindig carried a hefty $10 ticket price. That’s a nice chunk of change for my living allowance. Secondly, the United States of America is the land of plenty right? I felt it my patriotic duty to take advantage of the “plenty” that was available to me on that day.
Most of my fellow volunteers made it to Tirana for the festivities. It was good to see everyone and hear their stories from the first three weeks. Everyone seems to be doing pretty well. The volunteers that do not have another volunteer at their site have it the worse right now. It’s hard to get integrated with the community so a lot of the time they are bored. Heck, sometimes I get bored and I have a great site and great site mates.
The other highlight from this weekend was the other food I had. A place called the Stephen’s Center serves pretty good American food. It’s run by a mission organization. I was told it was Catholic but the servers had the Jesus fish (I don’t know how to spell the word for that “igthus”?), which I didn’t think was used by Catholics. Whatever the religious affiliation, they had good waffles and refills of filtered/brewed coffee. Yay. I think I had 5 or 6 refills. It was to the point that I wasn’t wired but rather tired after all the caffeine. I also dinned on “Mexican” food. It was good but keep in mind that my standards are a little different these days. It tasted like someone had been told what Mexican food was and made it from that description but had never actually eaten it. It was close but not quite there. I still ate it all and enjoyed cleaning my plate of every last bit of melted cheese. Ummm, melted cheese.
Despite my rambling on about the food, I did manage to do other things than just eat. We went out both nights and explored the city during the day. I didn’t do any of the tourist sites yet but I figure I’ve got two years. Avash avash (pronounced ah-vosh, meaning slowly or not rushed). I use that phrase to describe almost everything I do. Life for me now is avash avash.