a 9-hour picnic

Last Sunday (15 April), I was invited to go on an outing with a class of 35 16-year-olds. As the “outing” started at 7am, I assumed that we were joining the older gents for their morning exercises in the mountain and would be back by 9.30 or 10 at the latest. Well, it turned out that we went for a picnic. A jam-packed minibus and a car drove back and forth a 5 km. stretch until we found the perfect spot for a picnic. [There are no “picnic grounds” – people find a spot and stop :)].

So there we were – 7.30am, a bunch of bread, soda, bread, meat, bread, chips, and bread, and a ton of 16-year-olds (and a teacher and a clueless American). Although my first couple of steps on this adventure included sliding down a little embankment and falling on my rump in front of the class (great 1st impression), it turned out to be a faboo time. There was no agenda – just “picnic-ing.” We ate twice, snacked the whole time, played futbol (soccer – I have no skill whatsoever), sang and danced (one gal played the guitar…and WOW can she play), chit-chatted (“no, I have never met Paris Hilton or Shakira”… “Yes, I know that you all know a ton more song lyrics to American songs than I do”), meandered around the mountain, putzed, etc. …FOR 9 HOURS. (what!? And I even left early!)

The whole experience was incredibly impressive: a class of 35 peeps and a teacher, and everyone behaved decently and all seemed to enjoy one another [there aren’t really subcultures here at all…and, in this class at least, everyone is friendly with everyone]. They even (wait for it…) picked up their garbage at the end! The girls wore sneakers (I haven’t seen girls in sneaks yet!) and played futbol. None of the students smoked (weird). They planned the whole thing by themselves, and the teacher didn’t do any of the work (meaning the students made the fire, picked the spot, and carried all of the supplies). And, even at 16, they were incredibly hospitable (I was given twice as much meat on my breakfast and lunch sandwiches as anyone else).

Points:
- It was hilarious to be around fabulously awkward 16-year-olds (squeaks, snorts, belches, splats).
- I tried to play a couple of Albanian worship songs with the guitar gal – and she played along and sang with me. It was so strange but cool (and she outplayed me on the songs I taught her :). We also sang Christmas carols (some students gave a concert at the US base for Christmas).
- The guys who did the cooking (holla!) took a piece of fat the size of a football and dragged it up and down the grill until it was the size of a deck of cards. This hour-long process is how they prepped the grill.
- I forgot sunscreen and got a little red-necked.
- I kind of feel like I was stuck in the movie “Never Been Kissed” (w/o the guy) as I’ve had several opportunities now to pretend like I’m still in high school (I’ve been in one class 4 times now…not for anything special…but I’ll call it “culture research”).
- Their school system is interesting in that these students have been in the same class for 2 years and will be together until they graduate. Maybe that’s why they’re so tight…and why they choose to get along so well.
- I thought it would be fun to roll down a hill. Um…no one else thought it would be fun.
- There was a “quiz roberta” time – they asked me how school, life, picnics, etc. are different in America. Oiy…as often as I’m asked questions like these, it’s really hard to know how to answer. Plus, after so many hours of trying to understand and speak Albanian (and try to understand some peoples' english), my brain was tired!

Although I haven’t thought of a way to thank them yet (oopsies…), I hope to think of something. Any ideas?