Miremenjes ("Good Morning")
Driving into Pristina, the highway is dotted with gorgeous cherry-red poppies. In California, we have fields of marigold poppies that I've missed since being in Virginia so the poppies here are deeply appreciated. The other striking component of the drive is all of the new construction one can see. Huge buildings and planned residential developments featuring the exact same townhouse a dozen times over being constructed next to old city single homes. I don't think I saw the same construction company name twice on any of these developments. Once in Pristina proper, the amount of cranes next to half-raised buildings lets you know exactly how much construction is underway here.
Pristina is a city of layers. A city with a past stretching before the Ottoman Empire trying to carve a modern European face onto itself. A beautiful old mosque with white minarets sits across the highway from a megamall featuring Levi's and Zara. The post-Yugoslav American presence is omnipresent with a mini statue of liberty greeting visitors on top of a building as one drives by Bill Klinton Boulevard and the Madeline Albright square. The cab driver played 1950s Stand by Me on the radio as we drove to my apartment.
I lived in Rome for a few years while earning my Bachelor's Degree before coming to law school. I was most excited to see what would be the same and what would be different on the Balkan side of Europe. During my first week all of the familiar actions came roaring back: stepping confidently into the street to cross the intersection because no one is stopping just because you're standing on the corner, turning on the hot water heater a half hour before you need it, hanging clothes on a clothesline, drinking multiple cups of espresso per day, and so on. Pristina takes its coffee just as seriously as Rome does except you order a macchiato in the morning instead of a cappuccino (just kidding, I'm still ordering the cappuccino).
I do think the people of Pristina are the best part. They're incredibly kind. At the airport, I needed to buy outlet converters for my phone and laptop. The saleswoman not only helped me pick out the right one but she opened the package and had me try it out to make sure we had the correct converter. The barista at my new favorite cafe already knows what I want when I make my pre-work order. The grocery cashier showed me how to use the produce label system as I stared helplessly at it.
My summer workplace, the Academy of Justice, is no different. The staff has been tremendously kind since day one. The Academy of Justice is an independent public institution whose mandate is to organize and create training programs for judges, prosecutors, professional court staff, and other interested parties. They develop two main training programs: one is an initial 12-month mandatory program for all new judges and prosecutors and the other is a voluntary continuous education program that fills gaps for needed skills. Last year, the continuous training program held seminars addressing topics including money laundering, terrorism, and crypto currencies. Each year, the Academy along with the Kosovo Judicial Council conducts surveys to identify what areas judges and prosecutors feel they need additional training in. The Academy then uses those surveys to plan and create the training calendar for the next year. They frequently conduct multiple training seminars each day, providing thousands of hours of education per year.
For my first week, the research department asked me to create a template for a methodology into conducting legal research in the United States in order to compare with how they conduct research at the Academy. I am also working to identify databases and sources that can be added to the Academy's resource bank to facilitate material gathering for new and updated training programs.
I encourage everyone reading to check out the Academy of Justice's website. The work they do is incredibly important to establishing a robust rule of law and functioning court system in Kosovo. They publish multiple materials in English, including the contents of this year's training program.
Below is the Newborn Monument, probably the most famous monument in Kosovo. It was displayed on February 17, 2008, the day Kosovo formally declared its independence. On the day of its unveiling, over 150,000 citizens signed their names on the monument. "Newborn" has a plurality of meanings for Kosovo- new statehood, new future, new hope. It is repainted in a new design on its anniversary every year. This year's theme for 2024 is "7 skies" is dedicated to the freedom of movement showcasing symbols of different European countries where Kosovo citizens can go without visa restrictions now.
It is a direct inverse of the 2016 theme, "sky with wire fences", which was a protest painting of the various visa restrictions that were placed on Kosovo citizens.
