Apparently, I’m a person that can answer questions. My host brother asked me to tell the whole family that cannons, you know, the ones on sides of ships, exist. A debate about American currency amongst my family members was settled when I promised them that there is no $500 bill in circulation today (although my host cousin who “studied economics in Greece,” swore otherwise). A friend recently called me to settle another debate she was having with some Albanians: where England and Great Britain the same thing?
Another popular question I here is simply: “What is this?” One of the more memorable answers came this week. While I was cooking, my host mom told me that a “package had arrived from Germany.” An Albanian children’s magazine similar to Highlights called Mrekulli (Miracle) frequently distributes packages to its subscribers. We examined the contents of the packages and I look at a small note enclosed that stated the package came from a Scottish Christian organization.
The package contained the usual items: toothbrushes and toothpaste; colored pencils; coloring books; and sets of hats and gloves. There was also another item, tiny and wrapped in plastic. “What is this?” My host mom asked.
“It’s a towel for to wash the body like have us,” I said. In spending time abroad, I feel like it’s only Americans that have large wash cloths for the shower. Everyone else has fake plastic sponges, or if you’re German, a type of washing mitten that you put your hand in.
“I don’t believe you!” my host mom answered.
And I told her that you had to put it in water. Now I was really sounding ridiculous.
“I think it’s one of those notebooks for to write on with tape on them,” she replied skeptically. My host cousin had visited a few weeks later and armed with a post-it note pad, had decorated the backs of our kitchen chairs with his artwork.
Imagine her surprise when I cut the plastic off the outside and put it in a bowl of hot water.
“I would have died before I figured out what that was,” she said.
***
I went to get my haircut earlier this week on my day off. A wash, cut and styling cost $4. The weather was so nice outside that I decided to walk for a little until I took a furgon home.
I was enjoying the sun and walked about 20 minutes, when the city bus drove past me. I thought it was too late to flag it, so I didn’t bother raising my hand. It stopped fifty feet in front of me and didn’t start going again. It was waiting for me.
When I hustled to get in, the man that collects the fare told me that they remembered me from earlier that morning. How often has that happened to you in the States?
***
Speaking of uncanny Albanian memory skills, I was shopping at the gabi today. The gabi is a giant used clothing market that I will severely miss when I come home. I can’t imagine the number of people that pass through on a given day, much less associate people with the clothing they buy. When I showed up at a stand I visited a few weeks ago, the woman complimented my shirt (I had bought it from her) and asked me how I was. Now, I know that we’re probably the only foreigners she came in contact with, but it’s still pretty impressive.
***
Albanians use plastic bags and bags in general in ways I’ve never seen before. Sometimes, they use them to carry live chickens. I’ve seen kittens put in bags. Albanians are astounded when we tell them, “I don’t need a bag for that” after we buy something. Even the grocer across the street looks at me funny when I don’t want to put my carton of milk in a bag to carry it about 20 steps across the street to my house.
So when I bought a large messenger bag… should I have been surprised that the messenger bag was packed into a plastic bag and given to me?
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