--Saturday, 13 January 01--
Thuy and Colin invited Jan and Tony and me for dinner at their apartment. Thuy first told me that it would be around eight-ish but later said that the pattern of the power outages was such that we should arrive around seven-ish so she could get the food cooked before the electricity stopped and then we could have a romantic dinner by candle light.

It had been snowing slightly all day, yet so lightly that it didn't seem that it would effect anything. I left my apt at 6:30 to walk up to Germia to catch a bus. I noticed that the cars on my street were driving surprising slowly on the snow covered street but it was only when I tried to cross Germia and realized that it was a sheet of ice. Reaching the other side, I immediately abandoned hope of a bus and took the first cab that came along. We had a careful trip to Thuy's building.

The food was good tasting and the company even more enjoyable.


--Sunday, 14 January 01--
A gray bright day with a steady light snow. Looking out my windows toward downtown I could see the contrast of red clay blocks and roof tiles with the white snow. Pretty.

I went out to get some essentials, mostly beer, and found Germia to be covered with a brown, sloppy, slushy mess that was sprayed toward sidewalks by passing cars. Not very nice going.

Spent most of the day in my apartment. The electricity went off at 10 this AM and didn't come back on until 2:30 PM so my options were limited. I finally cooked a cheddar cheese omlet and relaxed. The electricity went off again at 4 PM.

When you are cooped up in an apartment you can think the oddest thoughts: Can you taste mad cow disease? What particular tang does it give to beef? Being here in Kosovo is like being between inanity and insanity with a tilt to the latter.


--Monday, 15 January 01--
Another hellish day with some surprise end-of-year discoveries.

Smile came over at 7 and was even early. The conversation was very pleasant.


--Tuesday, 16 January 01--
We develop our routines without realizing that it is happening. Tonight I realized that completing the Monday IHT crossword at the Kukri has become one of my routines.

Soccer games command great attention at the Kukri.

I realized it when I sat with three young women in the Kukri who smoked like chimneys and made no effort to keep it away from me. Some of them left and other people arrived who also smoked, all of it floating in my direction. No on seemed to notice me fanning the air with my folded newspaper trying to waft the worst of the smoke away from me. Subtlety doesn't go far with the cigarette smokers here.

When the young women left, I met a 20-year old guy who said he was Italian but had spent the last 15 years in Germany (in Essen near the Netherlands) but who had been sent back to Kosovo. He spoke German, perhaps some Italian, and little English. Conversation was difficult. He said he had no family and didn't speak Albanian. He made reference to having a head injury -- which was as much sense as he made.

He had a letter from the UN Commission for Refugees in Kosovo which he showed me and which said that he was known to them (it gave his name as Arturo something with an AKA Albanian name) and that he was a refugee. He mentioned it in conjunction with a remark about having problems with the police. He said, in despair, that if you had no papers, you were no one.


--Thursday, 18 January 01--
This time Tony went along with Peter, Ram, Sami and me on a trip to Gjilani. We visited our office and talked to the staff. Since Tony had a 1:30 PM Prishtina meeting we couldn't treat our staff to lunch which I regretted. I had few opportunities to become acquainted with our regional staff.

I stopped into a pharmacy and asked if they had Tylenol. They did and showed the box of caplets to me but when I tried to by it, the person behind the counter asked for my prescription. She wouldn't sell it to me without a prescription. Later, at another pharmacy, I found out the active ingredient, paracetamol, and bought it without a prescription. Go figure.

i stopped in the shop on Germia where I had been buying beer (and the occasional other thing) and asked for a case of Skopka beer. The price had been 20 DM for a long time but recently it had dropped to 17 DM. Today one of the guys who runs the place indicated apologetically that the price was back to 20 DM. I never understood why it had gone to 17 DM so I shrugged my shoulders. But when the guy behind the cash register became involved there was a slightly contentious discussion between them and 17 DM was the price. Hmm. I paid and left thinking that some people stick to principle.


--Saturday, 20 January 01--
The seventh day of dreary, bleak, gray weather in a row, yet no fog. But when I got confirmation of my reservations back to the Chicago on Sunday, Feb 4, the weather seemed less important.

Actually got my desk cleaned up and the number of research issues down to a relatively small number.


--Sunday, 21 January 01--
At least the eighth dreary, gray, overcast day in a row. During the past week the sun has peaked through the clouds for a total of only 3 or 4 hours.

Walked downtown, bought the IHT, but found the Kukri getting a make over. John told me that he hoped to reopen by tomorrow. He also told me that he had been visited by the guy who lives directly above him and the guy had complained that John's plan to extend the Kukri would interfere somehow with his apartment (though I can't see how). John rejected his claims, said that everyone else was allowed to expand as they wished and he was not going to be the only one who didn't expand. Now there was a delegation from the building who were upset and talking among themselves.

Joe