First of all, I would like to apologize for the fact that my journal is ten times as good as this blog will ever be. I typically write in it first and because it isn’t public it is far more interesting and better written. That being said, here’s the update:

I played my first game of futboll Saturday night with kids almost half my age. In Albania, people pay to play by the hour at caged in, Astroturf fields. I am not in game shape for anything, but I did score the three ugliest goals in the history of all sports in which goals are scored.

The first was the least ugly of the three and they went down from there. Essentially, I kicked in a rebound that wasn’t cleared, but I kicked it so softly that two players on the opposition almost caught it before it went in.

The second was more of a mistake by their goalie who decided to roll the ball to me like I wasn’t even there (most of the game was played like I wasn’t even there). I trapped it with my left, shuffled it to my right and my right foot repeated its earlier performance by barely striking leather. This time the goalie, who had fallen down in disgrace, got up and almost caught it before it bounced off the post and in.

The third goal, if it could be considered a bicycle kick, would be the ugliest bicycle kick goal to ever be kicked by man or beast. It was bad. I was at about mid field and I kicked the ball absurdly far, over the teammate whom I wanted to receive it, and off the fingertips of the goalie who was not paying attention and into the goal. I felt bad because everyone laughed at him, myself included. I did turn the other direction. Worst part is I think he’s been having a tough week. He’s normally one of the more obnoxious, upbeat and loud kids in town, but for the last five days he’s been quiet as a mouse. I almost didn’t recognize him when he came into our class on Thursday to invite us to the game. His decibel level couldn’t be considered a mumble at that point.

The extent of my futboll skills are best described by the following press release, “Despite my lack of grace and skill and taking into account how disgusting my three goals were, I am unabashedly and profoundly proud of my performance.” The best part was that because of my goals our team won and therefore did not have to pay for the field.

It was good to see teenage boys spending time productively and given the opportunity a small percentage might want to do more of it. The fields are kind of expensive (two dollars an hour). It was also good to see young kids betting on sports. If you lose, you pay double because you have to pay for the victors. To the victors go the spoils.

I then went home and ate 3 to 4lbs of spaghetti. Albania, great nation or greatest nation?

Today was a great day. I went on a hike with two friends living in another town and a couple of their host brothers and neighbors. It was a good group and good times were had by all. Our goal (as all my hiking goals have been in Albania thus far) was a cell phone tower. We hiked up to a grassy knoll and took a break to shoot JFK. I kid. We did hike up to a grassy knoll though. There we had a quasi sound of music experience (without the music) playing soccer and volleyball and watching in awe as a certain someone performed acts of incredible agility before proceeding up to the tower.

Albania is a beautiful country. I can’t say enough about it and when you get off the roads the garbage is gone. Wild dogs and sheep don’t litter.

At one point we had to throw rocks at a dog and after hiking past it and up a hill the two brothers pointed back down at the bushes that the dog ran into and I saw something white which I assumed was the dog so I said, “qeni” which means “the dog.” A second later it was apparent that the white thing was the shall of a “gyshe” or “a grandma.” This was a pretty good joke though and they laughed at me.

The older host brother was wearing a straw hat (it was similar to the one Eric stole from Krupp during the 2nd (or was it 3rd?) Santa Cruz trip only it was the narrow shape of an old British admiral’s hat). When I told him I liked it we traded hats for the rest of the hike.

During one of our breaks I witnessed a childhood game in which on person (the first party) stands with a 90 degree bend in their hips and grabs the legs of someone (the second party) who is facing them for support. Then a third party thinks of a number and tells it to a fourth party and after the number is set the third party jumps on the back of the first party and the first party tries to guess the number. It’s unique to say the least. We also had a jumping contest and played soccer on top of a rampart shaped retaining wall.

Good hike, beautiful scenery, good conversations in English and Shqip AND I didn’t even have to use my AK…I have to say, today was a good day.