Resident without an address

Day 3 and it all seems to be coming together. Baggage has arrived, moved into the apartment, using the internet and washing the same pair of jeans and shirt I wore on the flight over and for the first two days here. Drank a bottle of wine and ate a bowl of rice. Haven't managed to find salt and pepper yet, so it was a bit bland. I did get a bottle of red wine though. Makes any ordinary bowl of rice edible.

Today was spent bumping elbows with the big dogs. After being picked up at our hotel by MotorPoll, we were taken to Alpha Gate of the US Mission compound. Literally a village where all the diplomats live and work. It's a bit unfair that these people claim to be living abroad. Other than the fact that they pay in Euro, there is nothing foreign about the way they live. They even admit to living better here than they do back in the states with their mansions, maids, cooks and drivers. All of the Foreign Service Diplomats have taken extensive Albanian language courses and could probably speak it quite well, but they'll be damned if anyone asks them to use it. Every Albanian they work with speaks English, Serbian and at least one other European language, but they can't even bring themselves to speak the local language in the country they call home for at least 2 years.

We had a security briefing where we were pretty much just told which bars to stay away from unless you want to be a "lady of the night." No land mine warnings, no lessons on how to disarm anyone, nothing more than "lock your doors and don't walk home alone too late when you've been out drinking with the other internationals here." Guaranteed I'll see the Deputy of Security out at a pub one night. I'll just make sure to follow her lead.

But now I'm settled into the apartment. The view is amazing and the balcony a real treat. Internet and 150 satellite TV channels but I can't get anything mailed to my front door.