Being American in Kosovo

One thing that my class could never get away from when in Kosovo was being easily identified as Americans. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, we were starred at, had strangers coming up to us, and in general always stuck out no matter where we were. Thankfully, unlike some areas of the world, in Kosovo it is wonderful to be an American. When we confirmed that yes, we are Americans , the Albanians were overly friendly and extremely helpful in navigating Prishtina (the capital where we stayed most of the time). Since I am not typically a big fan of this sort of attention it took a little getting used to, but near the end of the week I was getting used to having people in restaurants, stores, and the streets come near me to stop and stare.

(U.S., Albania, Kosovo, U.S., Kosovo - flags)

I dare to say that many places in Kosovo fly more stars and stripes than in many U.S. cities. For instance, during the ride from the airport to our hotel, which was a relatively short distance, I counted 14 U.S. flags, and saw a statue of Bill Clinton. This in addition to the fact that we were driving on Bill Clinton Boulevard led me to believe that Kosovo is definitely a pro-U.S. country!

(statue of Bill Clinton)

Oftentimes where ever we were in the country, when the Albanian or Kosovo flag was flying, next to it would be the U.S. flag. All the taxis we took on the trip had American flags hanging from the rear view window, and the shops coordinated their manikins so that they were oftentimes dressed in red, white, and blue. Even in the countryside, far from where most tourists go, there were American flags.

(House in the countryside flying an Albanian and American flag in the tree)

Reflecting back on my trip to Kosovo, there is one moment in particular which epitomizes an Albanian’s enthusiasm for the U.S. My friend Beth and I went shopping together at various points on the trip, but the one thing we had trouble finding was the Kosovo flag. Though it flies from almost every building, we could not find the flag in a store. At this point we had almost gaven up on our quest to buy a flag, and we were wandering down Mother Theresa Boulevard (Bulevardi Nënë Tereza) talking. As we were passing people selling things on this pedestrian street we noticed that one such person was selling flags. This man, who was over 60 years old, had goods spread out on a blanket on the ground with a duffel bag of more goods next to him. Since we do not speak Albanian and he only spoke a few words in broken english it took some time to purchase the Kosovo flag. After trying to sell us an American flag, he pointed and said – British? When he didn’t understand what we meant by saying U.S. I pointed to his duffel bag which was covered in US flags and said United States of America. At this he face lit up and he was so excited, repeating the word American over and over. He then shook our hands and talked to us in Albanian for a while, of which I unfortunately did not understand a word. Despite not understanding what he was trying to say in Albanian to us, I shall always remember how genuinely excited he was when we were able to relay where we were from, as a pure expression of the enthusiasm in Kosovo for Americans.