A Teacher's Journey

First of all, it is pronounced GrachaNIcha, not GraCHAnica.  I tell my students all the time that syllable stress impacts understandability more than anything other aspect of pronunciation, and the very nice lady at the bus station couldn't understand anything I said until I showed her the town on Google maps.  She of course gave me a lesson (very politely of course) on how to correctly pronounce GrachaNIcha. Anyway, I got there for 1 euro, wiith two English Teaching Assistants along for company (the ETA program is a cute little program for recent college graduates who are very young and take themselves WAY too seriously but are basically cute and fun to have along on an outing).  There is a lovely llittle monastery in Gracanica built in the 1300s, and I wanted to go check it out so I can attend services there, seeing as how there isn't an Orthhodox church here in Pristina, or so I thought.  Surprise!  The very nice men at the monastery told me that St. Nicholas...

As I said in an earlier post, I'm kind into cemeteries as fascinating reflections of culture.  And because Covid has delayed the start of classes I have some time on my hands to explore the city.  So, without further ado, here are some pictures of the Orthodox cemetery at the south west side of town.  It is still active - there are recent graves - but terribly overgrown and poorly kept.  I'm not sure if it is because there aren't resources available to pay someone to maintain the cemetery or few family members living nearby or what.  The church and chapel on site appear totallly abandoned and in disrepair. But here's the thing - there was the guy with an official-looking vest there at the church, as if he were guarding the place.  He was just hanging out.  I wouldn't have worried except that the cemetery was so isolated, and I was the only one there and frankly this guy creeped me out.  So I stayed alert, took my quiet meditative stroll around the...

I think cemeteries are fascinating reflections of how different cultures deal with death.   This is the first of three postings about cemeteries.  Sorry if you find the topic macabre.  I find it all just fascinating. Loosely translated, Varrezat e Deshmoreve means Cemetery of Martyrs .  It's on a hill overlooking the city, and contains the gravesites of national hero Ibrahim Rugova (led Kosovo to independence from Serbia and served as Kosovo's first president) and Ahmet Krasniqi (a promenant colonel during the 1998-1999 war, assassinated in 1998), and many others who died in combat.  Many of the gravestones were engraved with the name of the person followed by the word Hero .  Kindof like our Arlington Cemetery, but much smaller and newer. What I thought was most interesting was a row of nine simple graves all marked May 10, 2015.  What happened on May 10, 2015? I had to look it up.  Apparently there was a big ol' shootout between ethnic Alb...

Let me preface this blog by saying that I am not going to take sides here.  Albanian Kosovars and Serbian Kosovars don't like each other.  That animosity has gone on now for generations.  More recently, Serbian President Milosevic in 1998-1999 genocided ethnic Albanian Kosovars, and if it were me and my family I'd have a hard time getting past that too.  It's unfortunate that Orthodoxy is connected so strongly here to Milosovic and the war/bombing/genocide on the 1990s, but without any high-level reconciliation it's hard for either side to move on. So, here are pictures of the Orthodox cathedral in Pristina, Church of Christ the Saviour.  Construction was halted in 1999, and the site has been contested since then.  Wikipedia actually has a lengthy discussion about the church if you are interested - I won't go into it all here.  But the pictures here of a vandalized and apparently abandoned church make me sad. Plus, as I was taking the pictures a very p...

It seems that every city I visit has some outdoor space - a city park with trees and walking paths for people to go, take a stroll, have a picnic, and just chill out surrounded by trees and quiet.  Pristina is no exception.  I spent the afternoon walking to the city park and taking a stroll.  It is a lovely refuge from the hustle-bustle and the street noise.  Of course there was a playground, and hearing the kids playing here like they do in playgrounds back home made me feel much more comfy in my new home. After strolling around the park I walked (Pristina is infinitely walkable) to the Xhamia e Madhe - the Great Mosque (sometimes it is referred to as Xhamia e Mbretit - the King's Mosque or the Imperial Mosque), built in 1461.  Below are lots of pictures of the scenes: Here is the entrance to the city park: There are several basketball cages scattered throughout the park.  I'm kinda liking the cages that keep the basketball contained instead of...

 The people of Kosovo have had a long friendship with the US. I say the people of Kosovo rather than Kosovo because Kosovo has only been its own country since 2008, and the friendship extends further back than that.  In 1998-1999 Slobodan Milosovic bombed the crap out of Kosovo, which at the time was part of Serbia. He further perpetrated genocide against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.   Enter Bill Clinton and NATO, who bombed Milosovic to get him to stop bombing and genociding Kosovo.  In their gratitude or whatever other reason, Pristina has a great statue of Bill Clinton and named a major street after him.  Here are some pictures of the statue AND the Hillary store next door.  There is also a George Bush Blvd. in recognition of really both of the president Bushes. George HW wrote a letter in 1992 telling Milosovic to back off of Kosovo or else.  George W. recognized Kosovo as an independent country on Feb. 18, 2008, the day after Kosovo declared i...