I wanted to take a few minutes a focus on my initial impressions of the country and of Pristina, the city. I'm currently in Temporary housing, so I'm going to be moving again and I'm living half out of boxes and mostly using things that aren't mine (thanks to the Embassy's welcome kit). But there is an end in sight, even if there's no set date!
So. Kosovo. It's such a hard place to describe. The newest country in Europe, (independence was declared in 2008, although most countries, and even the UN don't recognize it) Kosovo is still trying to establish its own identity. Kosovo struggled through years of war with Serbia, and the overwhelming majority of its citizens are ethnic Albanians. There is still a lot of strife between the Serbs and Kosovars, which affects pretty much every diplomatic move the U.S. makes. From what I've seen so far, there are more Albanian flags and symbols around then there are Kosovar. I'm not sure if that's because the new generation of Kosovars aren't old enough to be representing yet, or if they, too, will claim their rich Albanian roots.
During the war with Serbia, the U.S., along with many European countries sided with Kosovo and helped them gain independence. Because of that, there are major international footprint here in Pristina. There are quite a few UN-based organizations here (I'm still trying to figure them all out and what they all do), and quite literally people from all over Europe and the States working to improve the quality of life here in Kosovo, and the greater Balkans. And the Kosovars seem to be taking the leads they're given and running with it. To an extent. There's still a lot of work to be done. I notice a strange dichotomy here: for instance, there's a lovely tree-lines street with restaurants and cafés boasting free wifi where people sit and visit for hours. And in the evenings, it's a strip of bars and nightclubs: truly a place to go out and have some fun (not in a NYC kind of, mind you, but still!). But yet, the city doesn't have any real trash service. Power seems to work *most* of the time. There seems to be no real zoning of any sort; construction starts and stops,when ever, wherever.... In a nutshell, I guess, the infrastructure is still in its infancy. And it has growing pains. In the last few weeks, there have been 3 incidents of tear gas being set off in Parliament. The Minister of Justice was hit in the head the other day with eggs.
BUT, the people are so nice. And its a safe city. Americans are respected and no one bothers us (in general), so although there are some idiosyncrasies, I could be in much, much worse places. Pristina has pretty much everything I need, it's just going to take a while to find it. I stumbled on almond milk at the fancy grocery store my first weekend here (grocery shopping often involves multiple stops at multiple places). And the bread here is better than I want it to be. It may not be the same as it is at home (ok, almost NONE of it is the same), but that doesn't mean it's not doable. There's going to be quite a learning curve involved, but I think I will really like Pristina!
