Pauza Magazine Winter & Spring 2006 | Page 19

P a g e 1 9 P A U 3 A ! My Entertainment Report by Erika M. Steiger, MAK 10 There isn’t a whole lot to do in my town. We have restaurants and internet cafes, but no movie theater or anything. There is one supposed dance club, but I’ve never seen anyone actually dance there. The main activity is hanging out in cafes, many of which morph into bars as the sun goes down. This can be fun. I get to know people a little better, and I can practice my Macedonian and Albanian a bit. Not much, though, since it’s always so loud, and since people always want to practice their English, and it does get a bit monotonous. I need a break sometimes. That’s when I watch TV. Well, to be truly honest, I watch TV a lot, but there are a few programs I’ve become particularly attached to. I watch Friends often, even though I was never a very big fan of the show. The reason is that MTV shows it with Macedonian subtitles, and Top Channel shows it with Albanian subtitles, and it’s on somewhere practically all the time. It’s mildly entertaining and excellent practice. The MTV channels show a lot of English language shows and movies with Macedonian subtitles. I try to watch those if they’re not too unbearable. Top Channel sometimes has other shows with Albanian subtitles. They also show The Bachelor dubbed in Albanian. They call it Princi i Kalter, The Blue Prince. I’m not sure why. I couldn’t stand that show in English, but dubbed in Albanian it’s kind of fun. I’m not so conscientious that everything I watch includes a language practice component, though. The two shows I watch most regularly are The Daily Show: Global Edition (on CNN International at 1:30 and 21:30 on Saturday and 12:30 and 23:30 on Sunday, if you’re interested) and embarrassingly enough, Breaking Bonaduce (on VH1 at 22:30 on Mondays and 21:30 on Thursdays). The Daily Show is easy to justify. It is both hilarious and informative, and it helps me remember what my life was like in America. Sometimes America seems not quite real, like something in a parallel universe, and Jon Stewart brings it back into focus for me. I don’t know why I’m so hooked on Breaking Bonaduce. I’ve never been the kind of person who slows down to look at car accidents. I’m not really interested in train wrecks. So