Days 2 and 3

The road in the Grand Park

Did I tell you they have great coffee here?? Mark bought me 2 very important items.. a Coffee Maker and Martini Shaker!. I feel very much at home.. except for the fact that we don't have a dryer!  Right now it's ok cause the weather is nice, but when it rains, not sure how long our clothes will take to dry inside. Thank goodness Mark likes to iron.
Monday was the first day back at school and University.. We live on one of the main streets leading up to the School, lined with bars and restaurants and Students..Traffic becomes a nightmare for Mark to get to his office, so he's been leaving early for the next few weeks till things settle in (Sound familiar to my Vegas friends?) There's also lots of foot traffic and unlike most places, pedestrians do not have the right of way; crosswalks are not observed and its really more like human dodgeball crossing the street.  I've been told that you have to stare at the car, make total eye contact, then the chances of them hitting you is less.. very comforting!  Or you can cross with a group and be in the middle, again less chance of getting hit.
In the morning I had a nice pink and white manicure..not cheap 3000 lek ( $30) but good job. Its like being at home, except instead of Vietnamese spoken quickly, it's Albanian.. They all laugh and I only can understand the American music in the background. No worries, they're all pretty nice to everyone.

Gracie in her apartment living room

Gracie and I took a long walk in the Grand Park. It's about 10 minutes from the apartment, and amazingly clean and litter free..A paved walking path takes you to a man made lake with lots of benches and water stands along the way.There's also popcorn available off of carts on the back of bicycles, smells good, but I've been warned not to eat anything off these (local) stops.Remember, we can't drink the water from the faucet, so we stick to bottled water, and of course, Mark's coke lite. It's the only diet drink available, so I'll be drinking lots of water with gas!
 Gracie made it most of the way up, but I got my exercise carrying her back. I guess Shih-Tzus are a novelty, everyone pointed and petted her along the way.
Back at the apartment with it's cool airconditioning and fan, a nice afternoon listening to music and reading.
Mark gets home by 5:30, and hopefully most eves we can go for walks as well, while the weather is nice.
Oh, forgot the 90 minutes I skyped with Delta planning our Xmas holiday.. OMG what an ordeal, but finally confirmed flights, using every skymile we have to pay for his flight, and hopefully my buddy pass works again
(thanks to John). Drank a nice bottle of Macedonian Merlot to keep from screaming at the computer!
Another almost good night sleep, jet lag is getting better..