Success!

I am pleased to report that after six hours of fighting with the stove, I finally got the fire to catch! (Go ahead and laugh... everyone else does!)

Here are some other things I have successfully done in my short time here:

I have done TWO loads of laundry! The washing machine downstairs was clearly made by aliens and was stolen off a UFO. Ariesa, whose name I may have just horribly misspelled, is my landlord's older, married daughter. She came by the other day and helped me figure out the crazy controls on the washer.

I have started the fire TWICE by myself, on the first try! Yippee! I haven't cooked over it again because people keep bringing me food (not that I'm going to complain--the best meal ever is one I didn't have to cook for myself!) Today, I keep looking at the stove and thinking that I probably should start a fire because I'm going to be here all by myself all day, but then I remember that if I do that it means I have to put blue jeans on because you don't go out of the house in your sweatpants here, ever, and especially not if you are going to waltz in to your landlord's courtyard and mooch from their woodpile. It also means that I have to find my coat, and then my Crocs, and then I have to go downstairs and put my shoes on to go outside, and then I have to come back inside and put my Crocs back on to come upstairs. Not to mention actually starting the fire. I think I'll just shiver for today.

I have gone grocery shopping in Macedonia, where I spent $2,449.00 on groceries.... Just kidding! Macedonia uses the Denar, which is worth $0.02 US. So really I only spent like $50. On a side note, I now have a $1,000 dollar bill in my wallet.

I have also walked all by myself through the park in Skopje ("SCOPE-ya") without being kidnapped by Gypsies. My knife got stolen when I went through customs, but I glared at anyone in Skopje who looked suspicious and was ready to bust out the kung-fu if I needed it.

I have had Turkish Coffee with Shemsija ("Shem-SEE-ya"), my landlord, whose name I also probably misspelled. Twice! We count to ten in Albanian every time we see each other, but I haven't figured out how to ask her what the words for eleven and twelve are; I've tried holding up two fingers on one hand and one on the other, but she thinks I am asking for the word for "three". I've also tried holding up all ten fingers and then one thumb, but she thinks I am starting over from one.

I have walked from my house to David's house alone, but nowhere else. I have the worse sense of direction of anyone I know. I am actually forcing myself to get out of the house this afternoon to walk around the city and figure out where things are, because except for this street that I live on, I can't find anything by myself.

I have been nicknamed "Kimet" by the locals, because it is easier for them to say. Albanians have trouble with the T in my name, so they either call me "Kimet" or "Kejti", which is Katie spelled out phonetically. Americans pronounce it "kay-dee", but Albanians say it "kay-TEE". I haven't gotten used to it yet.

So. Because I know you are all super super interested, I have some pictures to show you!

This is a nap pod. They had them in the airport in Munich. It's like a little tiny hotel room; you pay 30 Euros for two hours and get a real bed with real sheets and real blankets and a real door that really locks so you don't have to cuddle with your backpack and purse to keep them from getting stolen. It was a wee bit expensive for my tastes, but still very cool.  

This is the BOWL of hot chocolate I had in Munich. It came with a spoon in it, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to drink it from the spoon or pick the bowl up and drink it like you do when you drink the last of the milk out of your cereal bowl. My thought process was this: When in doubt, always use silverware. 

This strange contraption sprayed antifreeze (I think) on the wings of the plane before it took off out of Munich. 

This is the front yard of Wrenn and David's house. There were six inches of snow on the ground when I woke up on Friday morning! We had a snowball fight. Also, I am very bad at shoveling driveways. 

This is what 1,000 Dinar looks like. 

The mountains of Macedonia on my walk in Skopje. 

This is a fort which is mostly original and very old. Wrenn and I hiked up to the top of the hill  to see it, but then we had to turn around because the gates were locked and we couldn't get in.

So. Clearly I have been very bad about taking pictures; I promise that the next time I post you will see pictures of my house, and also of the stove (which I am about to start... It's cold!) 

The only thing you won't ever see pictures of is the girls I am working with, because until they are ready to post online their picture and their name and their willingness to accept Christ, I'm not going to do it for them. Also, I won't call them by their real names on here either (so if I say, "My friend Iceland and I went out for coffee yesterday" then you can be pretty sure that my friend's name is not, in fact, Iceland). 

Okay. That's all for now--love y'all!