diff --git a/tests/addFastAlignedTM.py b/tests/addFastAlignedTM.py
index 2459925..a29f254 100755
--- a/tests/addFastAlignedTM.py
+++ b/tests/addFastAlignedTM.py
@@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
 import json
-import requests
+import urllib2
 import sys
 import host
 import time
-import codecs
 
 BUFFER_SIZE = 500
 LEAVE_OUT = 1 # that does not leave out anything
@@ -14,8 +13,6 @@ LEAVE_OUT = 1 # that does not leave out anything
 address = 'http://'+host.concordia_host
 if len(host.concordia_port) > 0:
     address += ':'+host.concordia_port
-headers = {"content-type" : "application/json;charset=UTF-8" }
-
 
 
 def file_len(fname):
@@ -25,7 +22,10 @@ def file_len(fname):
     return i + 1
 
 def add_examples(examplesData):
-    response = requests.post(address, data=json.dumps(examplesData, ensure_ascii=False).encode('utf-8'), headers=headers).json()
+    req = urllib2.Request(address)
+    req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
+    response = json.loads(urllib2.urlopen(req, json.dumps(examplesData), timeout = 3600).read())
+    print(response)
     if response['status'] == 'error':
         raise Exception(response['message'])
 
@@ -62,10 +62,12 @@ data = {
     'tmLemmatized':True
 }
 
-response = requests.post(address, json=data, headers=headers).json()
+req = urllib2.Request(address)
+req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
+response = json.loads(urllib2.urlopen(req, json.dumps(data), timeout = 3600).read())
 print(response)
 tmId = int(response['newTmId'])
-print("Added new tm: %d" % tmId)
+print "Added new tm: %d" % tmId
 
 data = {
     'operation': 'addSentences',
@@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ data = {
 
 examples = []
 start = time.time()
-with codecs.open(sourceFile, "r", "utf-8", errors='replace') as source_file, codecs.open(lemmatizedSourceFile, "r", "utf-8", errors='replace') as lemmatized_source_file, codecs.open(targetFile, "r", "utf-8", errors='replace') as target_file, open(alignmentsFile) as alignments_file, open(sourceIdsFile) as source_ids_file:
+with open(sourceFile) as source_file, open(lemmatizedSourceFile) as lemmatized_source_file, open(targetFile) as target_file, open(alignmentsFile) as alignments_file, open(sourceIdsFile) as source_ids_file:
     addedCount = 0
     for lineNumber in range(sourceFileLength):
         if lineNumber % LEAVE_OUT == 0:
@@ -90,7 +92,7 @@ with codecs.open(sourceFile, "r", "utf-8", errors='replace') as source_file, cod
                 data['examples'] = examples
                 add_examples(data)
                 mark = time.time()
-                print("Added %d of %d lemmatized examples. Time elapsed: %.4f s, current speed: %.4f examples/second" % (addedCount, totalExamples, mark-start, addedCount/(mark-start)))
+                print "Added %d of %d lemmatized examples. Time elapsed: %.4f s, current speed: %.4f examples/second" % (addedCount, totalExamples, mark-start, addedCount/(mark-start))
                 examples = []
 
 
@@ -99,15 +101,17 @@ if len(examples) > 0:
     add_examples(data)
 
 end = time.time()
-print("Added all %d lemmatized sentences. Time elapsed: %.4f s, overall speed: %.4f sentences/second" % (addedCount, end-start, addedCount/(end-start)))
+print "Added all %d lemmatized sentences. Time elapsed: %.4f s, overall speed: %.4f sentences/second" % (addedCount, end-start, addedCount/(end-start))
 
-print("Generating index...")
+print "Generating index..."
 start = time.time()
 data = {
     'operation': 'refreshIndex',
     'tmId' : tmId
 }
-requests.post(address, json=data, headers=headers)
+req = urllib2.Request(address)
+req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
+urllib2.urlopen(req, json.dumps(data), timeout = 3600).read()
 
 end = time.time()
-print("Index regeneration complete. The operation took %.4f s" % (end - start))
+print "Index regeneration complete. The operation took %.4f s" % (end - start)