Monday, October 13, 2008


A night out.
Our landlords took out the whole OM team for a nice dinner (pizza).
This restaurant is considered expensive by Albanians.
It's about $4-6 a pizza which feeds 1-2 people.


Yes, that's a worm in between two walnuts.
While preparing a salad, I (Jamie) was sifting through
the nuts to separate pieces of shell and little twiggy
things from the nuts we would eat. Unfortunately,
I was doing this in my hand when I saw our little friend
here writhing around. The nuts went flying and I had
the willies for about 10 minutes. I am really glad I
caught that before we put any in our salad!
While I'm on the subject of food, I thought it would be
interesting to note some foods that are not here.
They just aren't anywhere. There a couple things
we can only get in the capital like taco dinner
packages and broccoli and canned beans. Here's some
specific things we miss that's not available concerning food:
Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,
DiGiorno pizza, corn on the cob, berries of any kind,
pancake syrup, half and half or any kind of cream
that's refrigerated, chili powder, cheddar and
colby jack cheese, grainy bread, brownie mixes,
chocolate chips, raisins in a box that aren't hard
little rocks, sour cream, ricotta cheese, canned pumpkin,
cupcake liners, cooking spray, pecans, sliced turkey,
prerefrigerated milk (not in a box on the shelf),
iced coffee from Starbucks, Quiznos, Chilis, Subway,
IHOP, and Super Target. BUT, on the other hand,
we are VERY grateful because while talking to an
Albanian friend a couple days ago, she told us what it
was like during the Communism and how it was when
it fell and so many new things started coming in.
She remembers seeing a banana for the first time,
and they didn't know what it was or even how to eat it!!
Things have improved much since then!
They actually have more than I assumed
they would in coming here.


Here's Jamie with another woman on our team who is from Australia.
Then on the right is our language teacher.
She's also a good friend and great ping pong player.
Not one guy has beat her yet - including Tim. : )

5 comments:

Shelley Family said...

Worms, worms, worms... looks like a moth worm to me. Yes, we have them in Peru. I remember taking a couple bites out of a mango and then discovering the worm crawling across where I had already eaten. And that's not the 1st time or the 2nd. Hahahaha!!! I cracked up reading your post.

Tracy

Anonymous said...

tim.....come on man.....do nick and i need to come over there so you can feel good about your ping pong skills? haha-i include nick in this because he doesnt have an internet connection!

Tim & Jamie said...

I can just hear Nick now saying "Oh, I let Tim win. I had mercy on him because he is so old" or something like that. And just for the record, I beat Nick lefty as well. As far as Eva our teacher, she is good no doubt. We only played 2 games to 11 each one so we might play again this week and I will not lose to a woman ever again!!! (Lord help me) But if something bad happens, yes, I'll give you guys a call to come over. :)

Julie Keefe said...

Hey Bartletts...just wanted to let you know that the Keefes are here praying for you. We go to the Journey and we've been blessed by your sacrifice already. Let the blog stalking begin!

Anonymous said...

I love how the word 'writhing' just hangs in the air when talking about food... yummay!