Do I smell smoke?

I thought I smelled smoke one morning - and not just the smoke of the ubiquitous cherry bombs and firecrackers which every boy over the age of 3 seems to have in endless supply - but smoke as in "hmmm, is something burning?" Once I deduced nothing in my place was on fire, I went to the balcony where I spotted lots of smoke coming from a business on the ground floor about two doors down from me. A police officer was on the scene first and joined dozens of five and six-year old boys in observing the smoke, and then came the fire trucks. One was a regular ladder truck, and the other was this....

I just love it. It looks like a toy truck. I feel like I time warped to the past to watch a fire being put out. I never did figure out where the fire was exactly although I think it was in the hairdressers. It smelled for days afterwards but other than that and ankle deep water where the firemen pointed the hose, there were no other consequences.

A Kosovo Thanksgiving

I had 20 people over for Thanksgiving. Much to my surprise, there weren't that many Americans around for the holiday, so I think I had a captive audience. The deal with my office colleagues was that I would cook dinner if they would get me the turkey - and it is not easy to come by here - they are not a popular food. The office manager and senior staff attorney traveled around Kosovo, village to village, and finally came across a bunch of turkeys wandering in a yard. They found the owner, picked out a bird they assured me via text message was 8 kilos and had the owner slaughter the turkey. The wife of our handyman plucked and gutted the bird, and it arrived to my house Thanksgiving morning and was - a mere 4 kilos! (8.8 pounds - the size of the bird my mom cooked for her and my dad). It was the scrawniest bird I have ever seen - clearly a marathon runner amongst Turkeys - nothing but skin and bones - I imagine that he kept himself fit believing his anorexic physique would keep him safe from ever being chosen for the chopping block, until my senior staff attorney and finance manager saw him, that is. They still swear he was as plump as could be with feathers. Anyhow, the sight of the scrawny bird precipated a call from me to my country director who then at my behest traveled to the Irish pub downtown (where I learned they were hosting a sold out Thanksgiving dinner, go figure) to persuade the owner to part with 10 servings of turkey, which he did along with an unsolicited side of boiled cabbage - apparently a bit of our tradition was lost in translation. So ultimately the dinner was a success, everyone ate their fill, and I had to wait two days to do dishes because we had no water. (I also have 21 bottles of wine - I feel as though I should open a wine bar for my closing month here to cash in a bit).