It was June 20th; we had come to the 7th day of our trip and our energy was starting to run a little low. It didn’t help that the previous night had included some beer and tequila (spot the picture of me getting beaten in chess by Levin), but, moreover, the current day included many zoom meetings. I can speak for all of us when I say that we all get a negative feeling when we even hear the word Zoom and as I found out during the day and in the following week, I find it extremely difficult to focus online. Needless to say, I did not think the day would go greatly for me. However, as the day went on, I was able to centralize my thoughts in my journal and kind of start processing all that had happened in the previous days and in the end, the day became one of the most important days of the trip.
The interview with Vesë Mirashi
For the first time during the trip, the sun had started shining and the warmth vibrated through the city. We had had our first online meeting and my project group and I went off to Newborn to get ready for our first planned interviews. We had managed to secure two interviews at 11 am; one with the waiter at the café where we came together every morning before the meetings and the second one with a 17-year-old named Vesë Mirashi, whom we met in the meeting with the Global Shapers of Pristina earlier that week. We split up into two groups: Daan and Josie went to interview the waiter and Mara and I went to talk to Vesë.
Vesë brought us to a bar called the Journal Lounge. The interior was bright and colorful with blue, red, and yellow filling up every corner of the bar. We sat ourselves down at one of the green high tables surrounded with three highchairs in red and yellow. Unique music echoed in the background as we started to talk to one another. I call the music unique, because if there is one small, random thing that has stuck with me from this trip, it would be the music that plays in all the little cafés, stores, and restaurants. The essence of background music in Kosovo to me has become any and all pop music, be it current hits or hits from the 80s, under which a beat of some genre is put, be it reggae or electronic or disco. Throughout our conversation with Vesë I could hear amazing songs ranging from none other than Shakatak to Stevie Wonder, but always with a slight twist of a different beat. Though I might have found this type of music annoying at times, I now look back at it with great joy.
The aim of our project was to bring to light the third places that the youth of Kosovo like to visit. Third places are an important concept to all of us as they signify the places we feel at home at outside of our actual home or workplace/school. For me, a place like Studio K is a place where I feel comfortable and at home. What had been 10-minute conversations with people on the street up until now had turned into a full 1-hour-and-20-minute conversation with Vesë about this topic. We talked about everything ranging from growing up in a city, music culture, finishing high school, the appeal of abroad, and more. There is so much that she mentioned during the interview, but what stuck most with me was her love for the people and culture of Kosovo.
Open hearts, open minds
Throughout the rest of the trip and upon returning home, I kept thinking back to the conversation we had had with Vesë. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who was as open to talk about any and all experiences they had gone through in their life to absolute strangers. And more than anything, I look back on it now with full admiration and I can honestly say I have learnt something from the openness she had in her mind and heart. She gave us so much with such eloquence and asked nothing in return. She ended up shaping our project to such an extent that we decided to give her her own page on the website accompanied with some beautiful pictures taken by Mara, which you can find here: https://turquoise-cod-9z83.squarespace.com/config/(password: PeaceLab).
Overall, this trip changed a lot for me in so many ways. Most importantly though, I feel reenergized and inspired in a way that I hadn’t felt before and this is because of all the amazing people such as Vesë, the people from our group, all the people we met at the meetings, and, of course, Anne the wonderful teacher. Everyone has taught me something new about the world, about myself and, ultimately, about my future.
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