You win some, you lose some. That's a fact of life. Going to Pristina, Kosovo, was some sort of a gamble for me, but nevertheless I took my chances and there I went. As it turned out, the teaching environment over there was not much to the standards I expected, not because of attitudes and circumstances embraced and generated by the Kosovars, but because of those embraced and created by westerners in charge of operations there.

As a result, I only spent one week in Pristina, although I would have liked to stay there much longer than that. This is in no way to say that the Kosovars are not pleasant people to deal with. On the contrary, they are usually very nice. And this I say as an American citizen, as Kosovo is a country where Americans are held in a particularly high regard.

To give you an idea: Bill Clinton has a long Boulevard named after him in Pristina, where there is a huge poster of him right above a statue (of Bill) flanked by an American flag waving nearby.

And if you're wondering why there's so much love for America and Bill in that country, just recall that Clinton authorized the NATO bombing against Serbian forces to stop the Serbian ethnic cleansing against Kosovar Albanians in 1999.

You could also recall that when Kosovo declared it's independence from Serbia in 2008, the US was quick to recognize them as a free country.

Say you're an American in Kosovo, and everybody greets you with a smile.

In any case, despite all that pro-American good will, my days in Pristina were not meant to be too many, at least not this time around.

Onwards.

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