-- Before Departure --
--Thursday, 24 August 00--
The first day I decided to keep continuous daily notes. Yes, a diary. Why have I always dreaded a diary? For fear that it would be read by someone else who would learn something about me that not even I knew?

Why now? Since I have been electronically publishing my edited foreign diaries, my attitude has changed. My life -- even here in Chicago -- is not mundane. Perhaps mundaneness depends more on how you see it than any collection of pedestrian activities. It isn't what you do, it is how you see it -- and describe it.

At the pool I got a whiff of kerosene & immediately thought of Prishtina. But it was the Air Show and big, exotic planes were routinely passing by our building. We could see a B-52 flying low over the lake shore and later a Stealth bomber. In the daylight they make as much noise as any other plane.

A friend of mine in Kosovo emailed me asking me to bring him back some Colgate Total because he simply could not find it in Kosovo. I said yes, what could be easier? On my next trip to chain drugstore nearby I stopped by the dental section and looked for Total. I couldn't believe what I found: shelves and shelves with rows and rows of Colgate toothpaste products. I could not believe the variety I had to choose from and the range of prices. (All figures per pound.)

$ 5.44 Cavity Protection Winterfresh Gel
$ 5.44 Tatar Control Gel
$ 5.75 Tartar Control Mint Paste
$ 6.23 Cavity Protection - Great Regular Flavor
$ 6.64 Cavity Protection, Great Regular Flavor
$ 6.73 Tartar Control with Baking Soda & Peroxide
$ 7.08 Sparkling White with Tartar Control
$ 7.08 Sparkling White With Baking Soda & Peroxide
$ 7.17 Whitening with Tartar Control
$ 7.17 Tartar Control With Baking Soda & Peroxide, Clean Mint Flavor
$ 8.54 Star Wars Episode 1 Galactic Bubble Mint Flavor
$ 9.98 Total
$11.39 Mild Gel - Barney
$18.76 Sensitive Maximum Strength
$36.21 Platinum Whitening Winter Mint

From the above we might deduce that basic needs (cavity protection) are relatively cheap, appearance (sparkling white) is more expensive, celebrity status costs (Star Wars, Barney), contradictions (Sensitive Maximum Strength) you have to pay for, and the really ridiculous (Platinum Whitening Winter Mint) is for people with more dollars than sense.

In addition to this, there were the toothpastes provided by Crest, Pepsodent, Aim and others. And in November Americans will have to choose between George Bush and Al Gore. This really scares me.


--Thursday, 31 August 00--
I live in Chicago -- or at least pay rent there -- but no trip to the States is complete without a trip to Boston, where I was born and grew up and where most of my friends still live.

Up early for the flight to Boston. The America West flight to Columbus was so small I was told to check my TravelPro. I was supposed to leave it at the end of the jet way but when I got there, the only cabin attendant told me that the flight wasn't full and I could put it under a seat if I wanted. As I rolled it aboard he said "That way you are sure it will arrive." Amazing! A helpful, supportive crew member.


--Monday, 04 September 00--
The Weekend's Weather
It is as if an irritable Autumn had crashed the going away party for an elderly Summer. It seemed boorish and unnecessary. Summer admitted his age and promised to leave gracefully in a little while. Autumn didn't have to push his face into defeat and make everyone so aware -- and prematurely uncomfortable.

The Coast Guard training ship, Eagle, in Gloucester harbor.

I had a sail around the harbor and sail out to where the Mayor's Cup race was being held. Both were delightful for the many schooners I got to see up close.


--Friday, 08 September 00--
Back in Chicago
It takes a long time to really relax and I had really relaxed deep down. But now it was time to get ready to leave for my return to Kosovo.

Took the El train to the loop to get some DMs. Standing in the front car staring at the sinuous tracks ahead has a curious fascination for me. I feel the sway of the train, listen to the clicking of the rails and stare at the curving lines in front of me on every trip I can.

Saw a Cubs game with Rod and eventually Mark. Baseball is something of a ritual for me. I care about only two teams, the Red Sox and the Cubs. What a collection! The Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918 (the Curse of the Bambino) but the Cubs haven't won since 1909 and I am not aware they ever did anything as stupid as trade Babe Ruth to the Yankees. In Chicago they even have a reverse pride about not winning: they sell T-shirts with the words "Chicago Cubs, World Champions 1909" and on the reverse side the the sentence "Any team can have a bad century."

The Cubs eventually lost 13 to 10 to the Astros but the beer was good and everyone was in a nice mood. Sitting in the bleachers was fun. Cubs fans know how to enjoy the little things in life.


--Saturday, 09 September 00--
Leaving for Kosovo on a 5:00 flight. That means leaving the building at 2:30 to take a cab to O'Hare.

On the flight to Vienna, I sat beside a tall handsome big boned guy who said he was a Croatian-Bosnian who had gotten to America with only a few lies. After eight years here he was now an American citizen. You could sense his pleasure with that. In fact, he told me that he had legally changed his middle name to Jones. I asked why not Smith? He said that for him there was something particularly American about the sound of Jones. I didn't pursue the matter.

He had knowledge of Kosovo, Prishtina: It is a nice place destroyed by the war. He said that other Yugoslavians were obliged to donate one day's salary a month to Kosovo. He called it a bottomless hole. He had his own business in HVAC in the rich towns north of Chicago. He said, "Keep them busy," but whether he spoke of his employees or the Kosovars I am not sure. When he listened to music on the head phones, the sound was so loud that I wondered if he were partially deaf.

What can you say about a trip that consists of 2.5 hours getting to/being at the airport, 9.25 hours in flight, 2 hours in the Vienna airport, two more hours of flight and a final half hour drive in to Prishtina? It was uneventful, the food was no more than usually disgusting, the crying babies no louder or closer than usual; in all respects a mundane experience. In short, boring as hell -- without quite rising/descending to the nightmarish status such trips are prone to.

Kosovo was still there when I arrived at Prishtina Airport. The weather was mostly cloudy, humid and slightly cool in the shade. I picked up my bags, told the Customs guy I had nothing to declare and walked to the waiting car. Whatever happened to immigration and passport control? I filled in no forms, signed nothing, displayed nothing, got nothing stamped.

After checking into the Grand (which, gasp, is actually improving), I went to visit Smile and Kimeta only to find out that Kimeta's mother had died recently and that she and Smile were at her brother's house.

I went to the Kukri Bar and had lunch and some Efes drafts. Smile came buy and we had some auld lang syne.

Author Paul William Roberts in his travelogue, "River in the Desert", describes his book as "a compilation of experiences, histories, anecdotes, feelings, and conversations" which is as good a description as I could write about these emails.

Joe