Just when you think nothing can surprise you...

Lately I've been struggling with ideas for blog posts.  After 6 months in Albania, my life here seems normal to me.

• Waiting for half an hour for a meeting where you drink a coffee for 2 hours but only discuss business for the last 5 minutes?  Normal.  
• Being told to watch for the evil eye by my neighbors when I leave for school in the morning? Normal.  
• Shaking my head to mean yes? Normal.  
• Using 'mirë' as a question, answer, greeting, silence filler, and any other way you can imagine?  Normal.  
• Men drinking raki at 10 AM?  Normal.  (Actually I'm surprised they didn't start earlier.)
• It is raining outside yet my house doesn't have water?  Normal.  (But still annoying.)
• Having my cheeks pinches, my chest rubbed and my rear end grabbed by old women just saying hello?  Normal.

All of those things that when I first arrived in country seemed so foreign to me, are just a part of my life now.  But today I woke up from a nap and was for the first time in awhile surprised.  There is a horse grazing outside of my apartment.

A horse!

I sat there for awhile watching it, assuming that someone would come by to collect it but no, it has been just standing there for 2 hours now with no sign of moving anytime soon.  And the women who normally sit out there knitting and talking during xhiro time?  Why they're still out there like it is any normal day.  I guess I still  have a ways to go...