Diagnosis

Ah, it's that time of year again for the annual Tirana International Film Festival (TIFF). One of the only film festivals where all programs are free.

I missed the first four days of the festival because I was in Rome for Thanksgiving. Yesterday my husband and I took our places in the eighth row of this year's upgraded venue--Teatri Kombetar-- Tirana's national theater.

TIFF is known for short films. Like short stories, short films frustrate, titillate, captivate and seldom satisfy film-goers, luring the audience into the story just as the credits begin to roll. The final film of a ten-film short program featured a Ukrainian film entitled Diagnosis directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytsky. A fifteen minute view into the lives of drug addicted squatters and pregnant Tatiana who learns she has just given birth to an HIV positive child. Tatiana, also diagnosed HIV positive asks her boyfriend to pull the plug from the baby's life support in fear the hospital will sell his tiny organs on the black market.

Tatiana's boyfriend smothers the baby with a pillow as he lies breathing on his own in Intensive Care. As the pillow makes contact with the baby's face, my husband screams, "bastard," slamming his fist into the red velvet theater seat in front of him. He stands to walk out of the theater. "I can't take it," he says. "It hurts my heart."
"Then it's a good film," I say. It's supposed to hurt, to shock, to make you think. But it's OK Zemer. That baby boy is just an actor. He isn't dead."
"I won't sleep tonight," says my husband."
"It's just a film. The world is made up of people who are so desperate they do shocking, vile, and contemptible things.

Fortunately the last film of the evening was a heartwarming Romanian documentary, Constantin and Elena by Andrei Dascalescu about the simple love of the director's grandparents--a couple married for 53 years.

On the first day of TIFF we traveled to Sarajevo, USA, Chile, UK, Iceland, Finland, Ukraine and Romania. Today I heard the Icelandic language for the first time; I learned Santa Claus used to be a fascist; I learned how many patients die unable to cross Israeli checkpoints to get to hospital. Today I am off to France, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Kosovo, and Hungary. The language of film is universal.

Back in The Saddle

Tirana welcomes the Dajti Diva home with gorgeous 70-80 degree weather, tress in full bloom, and sunny skies.

I missed my Luminous Lakeside Sanctuary and suffice it to say, I am MORE THAN MOTIVATED to get back to working out H-A-R-D.

To the left, you see a photo of my terrace gym. How can this be a gym? Well with a little bit of creativity, personal drive, and some help from Cross Fit, I am proud to say I am in the process of working off all of the cheese, chocolate, and bread I consumed in France. Watch out love handles and jiggly upper arms!

But I am proud of the extra weight I gained in the past three months. That weight symbolizes the completion of 230 pages of my book. I am now ready to dedicate my time to writing the query letters and proposal in order to get an agent and a publisher.

If that isn't reason enough to celebrate with cheese and chocolate in France, I don't know what is! And it's OK. I have the drive and the power to change my body. We only live once. We only have one body. Our bodies are our homes and our temples. They need to move, sweat, and be challenged. We ALL have the knowledge to create positive physical changes. As long as we cultivate the COURAGE to begin we can achieve anything we put our minds to--from marathons to weight loss.

Every time I experience an accidental exercise hiatus, I am surprised how great I feel when I get back on that horse. Every time I am shocked that I no longer want to eat cheese, chocolate, and pasta because I just worked out and those foods aren't conducive to muscle tone and fat burning. Good habits go hand in hand. Treating our bodies like trash cans doesn't feel as good as endorphins!

I just completed and laughed out loud at how slow and out of shape I was doing it, but thank God for muscle memory and the knowledge that next week at this time, I will do the same workout in half the time. Here is the Dajti Diva's workout of the day (WOD) for upper body:

Warm-up:
50 Jumping Jacks
4 laps of spider crawl (my terrace is 31 feet one way, so 124 feet)
50 Jump ropes

20 Bicep curls (using 10 lb band)
10 push-ups
20 triceps extensions (using 10 lb band)
20 front raises (using 10 lb band)
10 push-ups
10 dips (using my fridge see earlier blog post)

Rest two minutes. Repeat warm up. Repeat tricep, bicep, shoulder, and chest series two more times. Have fun. Play great music. Get dirty! Do it again and again and again until you look like Chastity from today's Cross Fit WOD.

Dajti Diva Goes Back to School

Since La Diva de Douai teaches English to French children, I was invited to speak to her students at four different elementary schools, one junior high school, and a very unique school catering to students whose parents work at traveling fairs and on canal boats.

The students of Ecole Bateliers et Forains live on school grounds during the week since their parents work on canal boats and carnivals. I have never heard of such a school in the USA. Pictures hanging on the walls of the school depict the circa 1910 canal boats that utilize lift locks, trapping the boat into a section where the water level rises allowing it to be pulled on land by horses or mules. Tourists in Washington D.C. can experience what life was like on these type of boat on the C & O Canal Boat Tour.

I spoke to one hundred French children ranging in age from seven to twelve years old in the cities of Loffre, Erchin, Auberchicourt, and Douai in the Nord Pas de Calais region of France.

I told them how lucky they are to be able to take foreign languages at such a young age, as most American children don't begin until high school.

We began with the children asking me basic questions in English: what is your name, how old are you, what is your favorite color, etc. Afterwards, since their level is elementary, their teachers let them ask me ANY question in French, about American culture, American stereotypes, and anything else their little brains imagine. Questions were asked about everything from Brussels sprouts to the stock market.

Overall French children believe Americans are richer, fatter, and personally know celebrities. They believe America is very violent as well, thanks to what they see on film and on television. Many believe Americans literally dine on burgers and fries all day long.

Elementary school age children have Wednesdays off and usually attend school from 0830 to 1630 every day with two hours for lunch. They were shocked to learn American kids attend school Monday through Friday from 0800 to 1500 with only two recesses and a quick 45 minute lunch.

La Diva de Douai and I did our best to open their eyes to the benefits of cultural exchange, traveling overseas, and developing fluency in foreign languages. Who knows, maybe several years from now, one of these children will study abroad because they got to meet a real live American when they were nine years old. I know my own international journey began when I was six and my father's friend had a French wife who gave me the story of Cinderella (Cendrillon) in French. Since then, I have lived in five countries, traveled to more than 25 countries, and speak five languages with various degrees of fluency. You never know. I hope I planted a similar seed for some of these adorable enfants de Douai.

Following this experience, I am very curious to compare what American ten year old children know about other countries, other languages, and what kinds of questions they would think to ask a French person who came to speak to their class.

Finally I would like to thank teachers all over the world. You have an extremely important and difficult job. Vive les enseignants!

France has changed a great deal since I was last here in 1998:

• All grocery stores in France outlawed plastic and paper bags in grocery stores. You must bring your own reusable bags, if you don't have any, you can purchase them for about one Euro.
• The image of the average French person purchasing bread at the Boulangerie, meat at the Boucherie, fruit & vegetables at the Farmer's Market, and cheese at the Fromagerie are sadly, a thing of the past.
• French grocery stores contain more packaged, microwavable, frozen, canned, and pop-in-the-oven food than American stores. Many families are spending less time cooking fresh food.
• Obesity is clearly rising in France, as are the presence of McDonald's and other fast food chains like Quick. Many French are adopting more American habits of eating in front of the television and eating on the run.
• Giant malls and chain stores like Wal-Mart, Big Five, and Costco are all over French suburbs, but they are called Decathalon, Auchan, and L'incroyable.
• Most French have an automatic espresso machines in their kitchens called Tassimo.
• Most French recycle paper, plastic, glass, cans, and receive government refunds for installing solar heating systems.
  
• On the negative side, you still have to pay to pee in public places.
• The French still love their pharmacies and their drugs and you can find a pill, syrup, and drops for anything that ails you. The syrups actually taste great, like caramel and lemon tart.
• Border crossings are also a thing of the past and entering Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg are no different than living in Washington D.C. and driving through Maryland and Virginia. No more collecting stamps in your passport!
  
• France copys American TV shows. American Idol is called Nouvelle Star, 60 Minutes is called 66 Minutes, Super Nanny is called Super Nanny, The Amazing Race is called Pekin Expres. French children are dangerously obsessed with American All Star wrestling, called Catch.
  
• No matter how often I am in France, I am stunned by how much better everyday products such as shampoo, shower gel, face creams, and home cleaning products smell. Vetiver. Ocean. Sandlewood. Vanilla. Savon de Marseille. Cedar.
  

May 8th Holiday in France

The Dajti Diva was fortunate enough to participate in France's annual celebration of le 8 Mai, a holiday commemorating the end of WWII. In every French city, town, and even the small village of Loffre from where we blog tonight, people gather to sing La Marsaillaise and have a little parade. The photo on the right shows an older Frenchman's war decorations from the French Algerian war (1954-1962). I marched from the Ecole Henri Matisse to the Monument aux Morts (about 5 minutes) where we listened to a short speech from Loffre's illustrious Mayor, Yves Brillon and listened to a lovely chorus of children singing France's national anthem. Of course le 8 Mai is a public holiday!

Nous autres les francais sommes et serons eternellement reconnaissants aux americains d'etre venus nous aider a gagner cette derniere guerre... Sans eux, nous parlerions tous allemand !
THANKS

La Diva de Douai would like to remind everyone the French are and will continue to be eternally grateful to the Americans who helped them win the war, otherwise she would be speaking GERMAN!! Merci beaucoup!

Dajti Diva Meets La Diva de Douai in FRANCE

The Dajti Diva left her Albanian Luminous Lakeside Sanctuary to spend a few weeks in a rather unknown region of France, le Nord near Lille and the Belgian border made famous in the French 2008 hit film, Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis directed by Danny Boon.

Will Smith recently purchased the rights to this film and is making an American version called Welcome to The Sticks, in the hopes of topping Titanic's box office success, as it did here in France.

The Dajti Diva met up with her French friend of 19 years, La Diva de Douai (a city 35 km south of Lille) to share some cultural observations of France: how much France has changed since I was last here in 1998; some silly tidbits about the Nord Pas de Calais region of France, and how so many things are, well, just BETTER in France.

For all of my Francophone readers and followers, please Netflix Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis. I promise you will laugh and develop a deep craving for a fricadelle, a fifteen centimeter sausage that people in the north flock to the baraques à frites which I suppose Americans would call a Fry Shack.


Lille is one of the largest cities in France and offers annual expositions with rather quirky themes. This year's theme is La Parade des Anges et Demons, The Parade of Angels and Devils, however it is actually twelve, six meter high GIANT black sculptures of babies made in Spain displayed on Lille's broad Rue Faidherbe. Lille's gastronomic delights reflect those typical of Belgium, such as Moule Frites, Waterzoi, potjevleesch, REALLY stinky cheeses such as Maroilles and the truly putrid Vieux Lille.

Shqiperia Ne NATO

Shume urime! Congratulations to Albania who became the 28th NATO country on April 4, 2009, happily joining Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.
It only took 17 years of effort to satisfy the alliance's required reforms, overcoming a difficult period in history to become contributors to regional stability and international security.
Albania's successful entry into NATO is one giant step closer to the dream of becoming a part of the European Union. A giant poster hangs this weekend at the National Opera House in Tirana's Skenderbeg Square boasting, “This is the miracle of freedom.”
Tirana was aflame the entire week-end with free concerts by UB40 and local musicians. A twenty eight cannon salute erupted on Saturday celebrating Albania as the 28th NATO country.
NATO and Albanian flags hung from every traffic light as well as the enormous banner seen above left.
NATO forces have operated in the Balkans since the mid-1990s, when thousands of peacekeepers were sent to Bosnia in the aftermath of a four-year civil war between Serbs, Muslims and Croats in which nearly 100,000 people perished. Albania has had troops in Afghanistan since 2003.
Albania will now benefit from collective security the alliance offers, but will also bear the responsibility that collective security requires.
Sources: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29995397/
http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/17860/
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_48891.htm