Goings and comings and sore muscles.

Hello Family!

So I was on the way to Tirana and I think that i got lost.... I don't know where I ended up but these are some of the people that I met.

Northerners.... minus the head covering

"Don't I look pretty"

I didn't get the memo.

I went to Tirana this past weekend because there was a Campus for Christ 20th year anniversary. I know Aldo and his wife Blerina and they are working with High School Students in Tirana. I had a good time but I was so exhausted (sleeping late.... I'm the type that needs sleep) and trying to talk Albanian with an exhausted mind is like swimming through a big pool of chocolate pudding. 

I did have a nice time though walking around a park and enjoying being outside. I wanted to straighten my hair (mostly because I left their house early and didn't have time to do my hair so I wore a hat and then i figured that going to fancy evening with hat hair just doesn't do it in Albania where they dress up to the Nines! And also because I had about 3 hours to kill and didn't know what else to do and didn't feel like shopping....) Anyways, I did it, took the picture.

This week I'm going to be here on Sunday, I got confused with the week. Its on the 3rd that I'm not here as I'll be coming back from Montenegro.

There was a bus accident here just this past week and a bus with University Students went over the edge of a road and into a riven. 13 students have died and most others are still in various hospitals. There was a 'National Black Day'. All activities on the TV and festivals were canceled for that day. I heard from some friends who are working with the University where the students were from, that two of those who passed away were believers.

We painted our house on Monday and Tuesday. We just need to paint the two bedrooms and then we are finished. But we were too exhausted and maybe that'll be this next week's plans. The house was almost black from the wood stove smoke so we had to paint most of the living room/ kitchen area by hand. The walls also kept coming off every time we used the roller brushes. Ha ha. We'd be painting and then someone would say 'oh no' and then we'd have to scrape at the spot to get off the flaking wall. The paint is also really funny, its like powder. Is that normal?? Its wet but after it dries its powdery. Anyways we finished it and now its white!!!  We're excited.

I've been talking to Joy (grandpa's cousin Norm and Nana's daughter) and I'll be staying with them in Belfast for 5 days. My goal while I'm there is to find a scone the size of my head! (As told by grandpa on numerous occasions!) And to eat an Irish breakfast, which I'm told is a must!

I hope to talk to you guys on Sunday. Hey Wes, will you treat us by being on skype???

Love you guys!

Netty

Only in Quebec . . .

Yesterday, Montreal 'celebrated' its 100th day of student protests! (So much for my theory that the protests would end once summer began and the students started protesting on their own time.)  Anyways, yesterday the protestors (students and now concerned citizens of Montreal) invented a novel way of voicing their displeasure against the Jean Charest Government (the protest is no longer just about tuition, but the 'anti-protesting' law Bill 78, the blatant corruption and all other manners of annoyances - great and small).  At 8pm sharp, people in neighbourhoods around the city, leaned out their windows, stood on their balconies and made noise - they banged pots and pans, they shouted, they chanted and they clapped.  Today, at 8pm sharp it started again.  They've been at it for 1/2 an hour already, though it has gotten quieter (its tiring banging a pot - not that that I know from personal experience . . . ).  Today, one of the residents in the building seranade the mainly percussion beat with his/her sax - at one point they actually had a good thing going.   I tried to capture the sound in MP3 format, but I can't figure out how to attach it to the blog - anyone know who it can be done?