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...