| See below for my journal about training for my first marathon
-----Original Message-----
From: Jake Cowan [mailto:jakemcowan@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 1:58 PM
Subject: One more message from Albania
Hello again from Albania –
I’ll stop tormenting you with mass emails after this, I promise (at least for now, who are we kidding, I love an audience!). First of the all, the web site is functional, and has been updated with new pictures. I also fixed it up so that it will not take as long for the photos to load, for those of you who had trouble with it the first time.
Immediately after finishing posting the pictures, I began to experience “technical difficulties” with my laptop, and subsequently have lost a day fixing it (and finally it is fixed!). So, I’ll have to be brief in this message. The web site has been updated, and with captions you’ll see much of what I have been up to. Many of the pictures of Tirana were taken yesterday, as I went on a bit of an urban hike through the city.
Probably the most interesting night I have had in the last week was bar hopping in the “Block”. The Block is a bustling area of restaurants and bars that until the fall of communism had been completely closed off to the public, only accessible by party officials. I stopped by a bar called Qvo Vadis Café, and had a few drinks. I chatted with two gentlemen next to me, who turned out to be the owner (a Russian) and his brother-in-law (an Albanian). The Russian and I toasted to the “two superpowers” which I’ll note was at his suggestion, not a drunken request from me! I had originally gone into the bar because when I walked by I heard a woman singing a Beatles song, and I wondered if it might be karaoke, which would have been quite entertaining. It turned about to be an Albanian cover band. Throughout the night they sang mostly Beatles and Clapton songs, as well as other classic rock. They got quite a crowd reaction for the Sultans of Swing, instrumental.
Under the “it’s a small world” category, the Albanian has studied law in the US and Canada, and was at Georgetown law in the summer of 1996, the same summer I was in the Georgetown political science department, living on campus and interning. The law school is separate from the main campus, however, so there was really not any chance we’d have met. We talked some politics; the Albanian surprised me a bit with a flash of conservatism, but also had much praise for Bill Clinton, who I have found to be generally popular here, I guess is part for the actions he took against Serbia. He also was really enthusiastic about an Avril Lavinge cover of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”. Incidentally, everywhere I go here, there is an American boy band playing on the radio. Yet in spite of this amazingly odd taste in American music, the only live concert of note that has taken place in my time here was the Wu Tang Clan, who I listened to from my hotel room, as the performance was just around the corner. Talk about surreal – listening to Wu Tang live from your hotel in Albania.
And with that, I wish you well. I return to America this coming Saturday. Sometime before the end of June I will post a final round of pictures, and one more journal. Those of you in Washington may see me turn it into material for an upcoming open-mic as well.
Cheers,
Jake
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