My husband's cousin used to show us photos of all the concrete bunkers all around the country. Surreal.
Being married to a second generation Albanian-Irish-American, I had all the recipes and cookbooks handy. That meant that I had the pleasure of taking some new graduate students in my department to the grocery store for an orientation.
This took three hours. Fifteen minutes staring at yogurt and butter. More time explaining which items combine to make an approximation of something not found even in Market Basket Lowell. Fifteen more minutes fighting tears in the meat aisle. Gleeful produce selection celebration time.
At least the later students came via Europe - but there is something about a brightly-lit, clean, well-stocked, and thoroughly international supermarket that is totally stunning to people accustomed to lighting candles to finish their homework.
Then there was the classroom fun - I said something about a tenuous statistical method being about as certain as reading tea leaves. When my office mate looked puzzled, I remembered that Albanians read their coffee grounds, not tea leaves. So I said the word for the long-handled coffee pot, and mimed the motion of turning over a cup. Success.
Comments
Albania!
Thanks for the opportunity to post this remotely related local TV classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_tT-q8EF0
I now defy you not to think of this song when you hear the word Albania :-)
Not deprived of bunkers
My husband's cousin used to show us photos of all the concrete bunkers all around the country. Surreal.
Being married to a second generation Albanian-Irish-American, I had all the recipes and cookbooks handy. That meant that I had the pleasure of taking some new graduate students in my department to the grocery store for an orientation.
This took three hours. Fifteen minutes staring at yogurt and butter. More time explaining which items combine to make an approximation of something not found even in Market Basket Lowell. Fifteen more minutes fighting tears in the meat aisle. Gleeful produce selection celebration time.
At least the later students came via Europe - but there is something about a brightly-lit, clean, well-stocked, and thoroughly international supermarket that is totally stunning to people accustomed to lighting candles to finish their homework.
Then there was the classroom fun - I said something about a tenuous statistical method being about as certain as reading tea leaves. When my office mate looked puzzled, I remembered that Albanians read their coffee grounds, not tea leaves. So I said the word for the long-handled coffee pot, and mimed the motion of turning over a cup. Success.