- Hearing Albanian rap music that is trying very hard to be American and is even laced with English-language profanity on a furgon
- A student having a USB drive called, “Gangsta XXX” (I blame that on American culture being omnipresent on TV and music around the world)
- The healing powers of being able to shop at EuroMax, a chain grocery store that has a huge selection of Western amenities. They are even decorated for Christmas just as intensely as American groceries stores are now
- If I haven’t mentioned it before, Albanians gently shake their heads from side to side to agree with you; if the answer to a question is “no,” they will usually make a clucking sound
- Seeing a scorpion inside a house
- Using bay leaves not only to cook with but also to make tea (it’s delicious)
- Home remedies: Albanians telling us to eat dairy products if our stomachs are upset; telling us our stomachs hurt because our feet aren’t being kept warm enough; and telling us not to drink cold water because it will hurt our tonsils
- The actual monetary system versus the colloquial monetary system: frequently in spoken Albanian, someone will say something costs 4,000Lek. What they really mean, however, is that something costs 400Lek, or a little over $4 instead of $40. “Old Lek” and “New Lek,” as they are called, have been causes for a lot of confusion no matter how long we’ve been here. You go to a store and see a price tag for 20Lek, but when you give it to the cashier, he will tell you to pay 200Lek, even though what he really means is the sticker price of 20Lek.
- In Albanian, a vacuum is called a “fshese me korent,” or a “broom with electric.” I’m still deciding whether or not I like that better than the German “Staubsauger,” which means “dust sucker.”
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