The Adventures of Denise

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2010-02-24T14:40:00.002+02:00

So it's official! I'm now a very happily married Denise Taylor. I have a new job and I'll have a few new nephews soon. Because of all of these momentous changes, I've decided to add another tiny one. I'm changing my blog.

This will be for Matt and I together and will hopefully help keep everyone up to date on our comings and goings as we join the Foreign Service and head out to another country.

So check it out. Thanks to everyone reads this one! It's been an amazing way to keep in touch.

www.mattanddenise.com

What a Difference a Year Makes

2009-12-20T17:39:00.005+02:00

This time last year, I was living in Albania, starting to look for jobs, considering graduate school or moving to Thailand to teach English, and who knows what else. I enjoyed my birthday in the company of Peace Corps Volunteers and open source Guitar Hero.

This year, I'm engaged, starting a new job, moving to DC and then (somewhere) overseas, and preparing to add 4 nephews or nieces to my family. Two from Matt's side (Levi and Luke) and two from my side. Whew!

I'm getting married on January 30th at the Kimberton Inn. It will be a small wedding with only a handful of family and friends, but I think it will be perfect. I've been having fun planning the wedding and it adds a dash of excitement that it's so soon.

A few days ago, I got official word that I am invited to the February class as a Junior Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State. I'll start on February 16th and be in Washington DC for at least 4 months for my training. It might be more if I need language training.

I don't know where I'll be posted yet, but I'll be sure to keep you posted.

I'm Engaged!

2009-12-01T14:23:00.005+02:00

Matt came to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my family (with a side trip to South Carolina to visit his sister and her family.) On Saturday, we headed out to Valley Forge to see the historical sites. After a walking tour and a gun demonstration from some Park Rangers, we went to the Washington Memorial Chapel and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes. The chapel is beautiful and the moment was perfect. The ring is turquoise and a diamond (his birthstone and mine.) It's non-traditional and just perfect for me.

He plays the guitar, wrote the famous Mire song, speaks Russian and Albanian, loves to read the almanac, and is the love of my life.

I'm happy, excited, and still can't believe that I'm engaged. The next couple of months are going to be a whirlwind. But I can't wait to start the marriage adventure.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T14:12:00.008+02:00

I might be a little "bah hambug" about Christmas. (A tragic combination of too many retail jobs playing terrible Christmas music and my birthday being a week before the big day) But I do love Halloween. This year, I wasn't planning on dressing up, but at the last minute I decided to redux my pirate costume from a few years ago to give out candy to my parent's neighbors.

Gotta admit, I was a bit disappointed. First, there just weren't enough kids. I wanted to inundated. I wanted to have to make rules, stretch our candy to the last drop, and go rummaging through the pantry for something to give the lines of kids. Instead, we got about 30 kids who came in a few big groups. Secondly, there wasn't a single homemade costume. Isn't that half the fun? We got a Transformer, a couple of princesses, and even two Anakin Skywalkers. My favorite costume was a boy dressed as a taco. I gave him extra credit for not being a movie character, but it was still a store bought costume.

I'm not disappointed with these three little guys though. They are all too cute for words.

Flicker Photos

2009-10-12T23:19:00.003+03:00

Reading back through my Albania blog, I realize that I definitely missed a few things. So I made a little flicker slide show. Take a look. Enjoy. It's not all of Albania, but it shows you the things that stand out most in my mind. Or at least the things I photographed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43253482@N06/sets/72157622447281827/

What's on my bookshelf

2009-10-06T20:32:00.002+03:00

The upside of part-time employment is that you have time to do the things that you've always wanted to do. The downside is that most of these things cost money. But one thing that is nearly free is reading. And I have been using this time to my advantage.

So what am I reading? Here goes...

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. A famous author wanders around the US in a big, old truck with a poodle. It makes me want to go on a road trip and reminds me of all of the "characters" that I've met over the years.

Religious Literacy by Stephen Prothero - His main point is that Americans are very religious, but don't know much about religion. He spells out all of the things that we should know in order to be religiously literate. I'm only a few chapters in so I haven't gotten to "what you should know" part yet, but its an interesting idea.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - It's like the Da Vinci Code but set here in the States. A slightly literate guilty pleasure. It's actually my Book Club book so that is added incentive to read it.

Twist of Faith by Anne Beiler - This is the story of Auntie Anne. It's interesting especially since I'm related to her in a sort of six degrees of separation way.

The Story of Christianity by Justo L. Gonzalez - I lifted this one from my Dad's library. It's a summary of the history of the church, but its still pretty easy to read. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good overview.

The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - The story of a Haggadah which starts in Sarajevo and ends in Spain. Matt's mom recommended it and I think its awesome. Books, religion, history, eastern Europe... sign me up.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer - Straight up guilty pleasure. It's the fourth book in the Twilight series. I read the first one in one day. Fortunately I was flying across the country so I didn't feel too guilty. Now I'm totally hooked and I'm on Team Edward.

Walk down memory lane

2009-09-29T02:31:00.002+03:00

In my current state of suspended animation, I've been going through a lot of old boxes. It's been a fun walk down memory lane. I found a huge stack of papers that I wrote in elementary and high school. My teachers would always tell me that I would appreciate them some day (and then fail me for having a run-on sentence) and looking back... It's true. And having been a teacher (briefly) I now realize just how hard they were working to get our 5 paragraph essays in tip-top shape.

I also found a few parodies of nursery rhymes that I wrote when I was in high school. They are so ridiculous that I have to post them here. I must have been watching the news when I wrote these because I don't remember being all that aware of current events. Here goes..

OJ Simpson sat on a wall.
OJ Simpson had a great fall.
All the not-guilty verdicts of the jurymen
Couldn't put his reputation back together again.

Little Miss Croat sat on a tuffet
Fighting the Serbs all day.
Along came the UN which gave them a pen
and said sign this treaty today.

Where are they now?

2009-09-17T20:21:00.009+03:00

People keep asking what I've been up to... So here is the long awaited answer. Not a whole lot. On second thought.. there are a few things to share. I finished up being a Peace Corps Volunteer in May 2009. Then I headed on a month long trip in Eastern Europe. I'll try to post a few more pictures on that one. I managed to get through Bosnia, which was truly the highlight of the trip. Don't let your memories of the war scare you. They are at peace and it is an interesting country to visit. Sarajevo will certainly pique your Ottoman curiosity.

After that I headed home to Downingtown, PA. It's been a great time to reconnect with my family and make some special memories with my nephew. Back in November 2009, I took a test to be a Foreign Service Officer, the people who work in the embassy. I passed the written and the oral test and now I'm waiting on my security/medical clearance. Any one who has gone through a similar clearance can probably sympathize. It's a long drawn out process that involves a lot of waiting time. But I'm hoping to start working with them somewhere around January/February.

Other than that, I visited Arizona, started working for my dad, contemplated the meaning of life, and have been catching up on past issues of reality TV. I also discovered that American Big Brother isn't any better than Albanian Big Brother. Who knew?!?

Bosnia Baby!

2009-07-26T20:04:00.005+03:00

The Plotjice waterfalls near Jajce. We actually swam right up to the waterfalls. It was incredibly cold, but amazing

While we were visiting a town, we stopped by this woman's house who makes homemade syrups. You mix about a tablespoon of the syrup with water or sparkling water. Super refreshing. My favorite was the mint.

Kosovo

2009-07-18T17:16:00.006+03:00

After the Peace Corps, I decided to take the long way home and went on a month long trip through Eastern Europe. First stop, Kosovo. It was an interesting place because there were a lot of similarities between Albanian and Kosovars. Exhibit 1. The very large statue to Skanderbeg who is a national hero in Kosovo and Albania. About 95% of Kosovars are ethnic Albanians so it was fun to use my Albanian language skills and make some comparisons between the two cultures.

The Fatih mosque in Prishtina which is painted in a floral motif. There was a little old man who was the key keeper of this mosque who thanked me profusely for being an American. He was one of several Kosovars who were really excited to meet me.

I also had the fortune of running into another PCV, Bill. Here we are in Gjakova, a smaller town whose name means place of blood. Hmmm.

We also visited Prizren which is really the jewel of Kosovo. It's an amazing example of a stone town built in the Ottomon style. The entire center of the city is built out of stone and filled with hamams, mosques, and cobbled streets.

Not to end on a sad note, but this picture shows the difficulties that this country still faces. This Orthodox church is surrounded by barbed wire to protect it from looters. There is a long history of struggle between the Serbian and Albanian Kosovars. Kosovo declared independence while I was living in Albania, but it doesn't look like it will be admitted into the UN anytime soon.

Thank you

2009-06-25T16:06:00.002+03:00

For the last two years, I had the incredible opportunity to learn (and teach) in Albania. It's a fascinating country filled with some of the warmest people I have ever met. Each and every day held a new adventure and I met some amazing friends for life.

To everyone I've met, thanks for all of the great times that we had. To all of my friends and family back home, thanks for all of your support.

I will talk to all of you soon.

Just in case....

2009-05-05T16:02:00.002+03:00

Meet America

2009-05-03T08:16:00.004+03:00

Two weeks ago, another PCV and I took a group of 25 of our students to participate in a program called Meet America. It was great. They got to meet three diplomats and the American Ambassador to the United States. The most impressive thing was that the ambassador was one of the most personable people I have ever met. He answered every single one of their questions and was incredibly inspiring. I still can't believe that we got to meet him. Check out the link at the US embassy in Tirana's page.

RIP

2009-04-11T09:47:00.002+03:00

After three years in America and two amazing years in Albania, my computer has gone on to a happier place. We've laughed together; we've cried together. And as long I fed it a steady diet of electricity, it was an unfailing friend.

But now it is time to part. I'm sorry to say goodbye and I apologize to anyone who has emailed me recently because I am seriously far behind. I will try to catch up but be patient with me. Internet cafes are not great places to type emails.

Go You!

2009-03-28T07:15:00.001+02:00

I just wanted to take this opportunity to announce that the Outdoor Ambassador project is now fully funded. I will (hopefully) be taking a group of students to the southern town of Erseke in May. This will be my last hurrah because I will be leaving the country less than a week later.

So, on behalf of my students, a great big thank you to all of you who donated. If you missed the opportunity there are projects currently open all over the world for Peace Corps Volunteers who are doing awesome things! So check it out.

Here’s a picture of my students for you to enjoy. They are making posters about biodiversity.

Albanian Article

2009-03-15T09:10:00.005+02:00

Sometimes it's difficult for me to remember what it was like experiencing Albania for the first time. So here for your reading enjoyment is a great article about a guy who visited Albania. I enjoyed his take on the country. Albania: The Tail Wags the Dog.

The No Electricity Blues

2009-03-11T12:28:00.001+02:00

Today I got back from school around 3:30 and there was no electricity. Last year, I wouldn’t have blinked an eye, but we have had pretty stable electricity since last November. Sadly, we still have occasional black outs. I settled into my electricity-less existence and warmed up some vegetable soup on my little camp stove. Then I tried to get caught up on emails until the battery died on my computer. I put clothes into the washer, but couldn’t turn it on. I straightened my house and then it started to get dark. Grabbing my head lamp, I curled up under the biggest blanket you’ve ever seen and read for about an hour or so. As the darkness deepened, I noticed that my neighbor’s lights were on. Hmm. While it is possible that they recently purchased a generator, it’s unlikely. Eventually convincing myself that this was worth investigating, I left the warmth of my blanket and realized that somehow the breaker had flipped. We were not under a blackout and the rest of Kavaje had been experiencing an electric evening. Sigh.

My new website

2009-02-19T19:00:00.003+02:00

You can now access my blog from www.denisemgreen.com. How cool is that!! I have a website. Technically, it just redirects you back to this blog, but maybe, just maybe I will add more thrilling content. Probably not till I have internet at my home though.

Side note: I have a new internet cafe and one of its most attractive features is its soundtrack. For those of you who don't know, I love that Albania loves love ballads. Since I've been here, I've heard, "Said I loved you, but I lied," the song from Robin Hood, and Total Eclipse of the Heart. I keep catching myself singing along. Those of you who have had coffee with me in Albania realize that this is true!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T18:14:00.002+02:00

I must admit, I do not view Valentine's Day as a "real" holiday. If you have someone special its a great excuse to tell them that and if not its a great reason to go out with a big group of friends and have an anti-Valentine's Day party.

All this to say, that I was a bit surprised to find out that not only did we get out of school early on Friday, but the school psychologist planned a disco party. The fact that the school psychologists plans disco parties says something, but I'm not sure what.

So, I jumped in a car with some of my teacher friends, followed by three bus loads of teenagers. It was fun to watch my students cut the rug. They danced. I took photos. They begged me to dance with them. I politely declined. They drank. I looked on uncomfortably. After about an hour of floor shaking, techno music, I was mercifully released to head upstairs with my teacher friends and have a nice seafood lunch. And this was all before the final bell would have rung.

Just another long, tough, day at school!

Italian Yoga Class

2009-02-01T14:21:00.000+02:00

For the last couple of months I’ve been taking Italian classes. It’s a change of pace to be in the student’s seat. Even though it is a beginner class, they have all taken Italian courses at school and have grown up watching Italian television. Needless to say, I’m not the star pupil. It’s humbling to be beaten on your conjugations by a 9 year old.

So one day, we began learning vocabulary for activities. “Doing yoga” was one of the vocab words. The teacher translated it (into Albanian) as Chinese exercises. I laughed to myself, but let it go. A few minutes later, we had to say sentences like, “I always read books.” One of my sentences was, “I sometimes do yoga.” This caused a great stir in the class. They started peppering me with questions. “What is yoga?” “How do you do it?” “Where did you learn?”

The teacher closed her eyes and started humming. “Is it like that?” she said. Nope that’s meditation. One student started karate chopping the air and I had to say that that wasn’t it either. So after several attempts at explaining, they finally convinced me to show them.

So in my jeans, three shirts, sweater and a coat. (It was really cold that day.) I did a sun salutation for my fellow students.

Just a moment of sharing “American” culture.

Inauguration Day

2009-01-22T16:50:00.004+02:00

I'm constantly amazed at how closely my Albanian colleagues, students, and friends have followed the election process. It seems like ages ago that I was giving endless (and confusing) explanations about the electoral college to my students and watched as their faces fell when I explained in primary after primary that there still wasn't a winner. As a people, they were early supporters of Clinton because of Bill Clinton's actions during the Kosovo conflict.

Another great moment was in my extracurricular activity - Club America. I split the kids into two sections and gave them summaries of each party and asked them to design their own political poster. It cracked me up how quickly both groups began designing smear campaigns. I quickly stopped this and declared they could only put positive statements on the posters. By the end of the evening, they could actually summarize each political party. It was great.

But the most memorable event was the morning after the election. I arrived at school (like always) and was greeted with a standing ovation, numerous double cheek air kisses, and cries of Gezuar (Cheers, in Albanian) It was a really touching moment. To top it all off, my counterpart came up to me and told me that she never thought she would see an American president who was not only African American, but the son of an immigrant. She followed it up by saying, "Americans have taught me today that democracy can work."

So to all of you out there, from my Albanian friends
Gezuar

We Need Your Help

2009-01-08T19:30:00.005+02:00

This isn't my typical blog post, so I hope you don't mind if use this opportunity to do a little marketing for one of my Peace Corps projects. I'm working on something called "Outdoor Ambassadors." Outdoor Ambassadors is a club for Albanian students who get together to learn about the environment and participate in environment-related activities. As a developing country, Albania faces a number environmental challenges, and we're hoping to make young people more aware of them through Outdoor Ambassadors. This volunteer-initiated project has been implemented in ten cities all over Albania. One activity we did in my club in Kavaje was a discussion of the animal species native to Albania. The kids had no idea how many species were uniquely indigenous to their country.

So far, the entire Outdoor Ambassadors project has been funded out of volunteers' pockets and by contributions from Albanians, but it has grown enough that we need to raise a little bit more. The additional money will be used to translate and print the Outdoor Ambassador organizational manual. It will also be used to fund a conference in the southern Albanian city of Erseke for the ten local clubs. This conference is something that I'm particularly excited about because very few of my students have had the opportunity to travel outside of their own region. My kids are really looking forward to this adventure!

If you want to contribute to one of the great Peace Corps projects here in Albania, please think about donating. We don't need much to get this project underway so a contribution of a few dollars will go a long way. The project description and donation options are available online here at the Peace Corps website.

Feel free to email me with any questions. When I get myself organized from my trip to America I will post a few pictures of my group enjoying their time together.

Santa Claus: The Symbol Man of the New Year

2009-01-04T04:20:00.003+02:00

I taught a bunch of my students how to make construction paper turkeys for Thanksgiving. It was great. They loved it.

Montenegro

2008-12-28T20:56:00.000+02:00

This is me at the Madonna concert in Montenegro. This was quite a while ago, but I'm not always the best at getting things up especially pictures. The most that I can say about Montenegro is that it was a long bus ride to see about half of a Madonna concert. The border wasn't really prepared for the thousands of Albanians and a few random Americans who would descend upon it at the chance to see the Material Girl. So much so that most of my pictures are from the border not from the actual concert. But it was fun to be with friends.

We had a good time on the bus, there were a handful of PCV's and when we all started to get rather hungry at hour nine of the bus ride, we jumped off the bus and ran into a local shop and grabbed some cookies and crackers for the group. It was my only cultural interaction.

But it was an experience and as they say, half the fun is the journey.

Guilty Pleasures

2008-12-08T07:34:00.000+02:00

I visited the nicest grocery store in Durres and they had avocados. Fast forward one hour. I had delicious homemade guacamole. We ate it on potato chips, but it was still melt-in-your-mouth amazing.

In the Time of the Scorpions

2008-11-23T09:14:00.000+02:00

This was originally written for Hajde Hajde, our newsletter so you might not get all of the references, but I thought you would still get a kick out of it.

One fine autumn afternoon, I was sitting on my bed enjoying an episode of Gossip Girl when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was a scorpion taking a stroll across my bedroom floor. Now, I know I joined the Peace Corps. I know that somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I expected to run into critters from the other side, but scorpions?!? Shouldn’t the Peace Corps warn us about such deadly animals? Maybe provide us with some sort of defense. I grabbed my available protection: a plastic bucket. Tragically, my bucket was filled with sand, so I couldn’t use it to trap my fearless foe.

And so alone, sitemateless, I sat, facing the dreaded challenger. And then, I did what any self respecting Pennsylvanian would do. I screamed, stood on my bed, and called someone. This PCV, who shall remain nameless because he’d just edit it out of HajdeHajde anyway, managed to convince me that scorpions get a bad rap and that my desert stinger wouldn’t actually hurt me. In fact, it would be better to be stung by a scorpion than by a bee.

Armed with the most dangerous weapon of them all: knowledge. I decided to confront my roving rival. My action plan: strategically sweep it out of the bedroom and out the door. Obstacle: all appropriate footwear was conveniently located outside. Creative Solution: Three inch heels.

The scorpion was indeed a cunning opponent. In a fit of bravery and daring, it grabbed the tines of the broom with its mini pinchers and held on for dear life. Inspired by its courage, I let it live another day. I left the broom outside and by the next morning, my clawed friend was gone.

Since this epic battle, I have learned some interesting facts about scorpions. They can be killed using a book (alternate uses for your two volume language set?) They like indoor wood piles so watch out you wood stove owners. Being born under the sign of Scorpio does not give you immunity to scorpion venom. Scorpions are not mentioned in our health handbook, although centipedes and millipedes are. And the name for scorpion in Shqip is akrepi which is also the name for the hands of a clock. I haven’t the foggiest idea why.

Adventures in your own Backyard

2008-11-20T16:43:00.000+02:00

Here is an interesting little story about Kavaje which I actually read in a travel book. And then confirmed with a bunch of friends who seemed confused about why all of this interested me so much.

Back during the Communist times (pre 1991), Kavaje was quite the industrial center. There was a rug factory, a glass factory, and several other plants. Unfortunately with the communists the factories went too. In a clever use of passive voice, my friend says, "The factories were destroyed because we thought democracy would build us new ones" Democracy didn't live up to its end of the bargain and as a result there are several massive, broken down factories scattered throughout town in various states of destruction.

Meanwhile, there was a mosque that didn't have a place to say the call to prayer from (I can't remember the word for this, the one I always use is actually something totally different) So a group of people decided to put loudspeakers and a silver top to one of the old factory smokestacks and voila. We have a new definition of recycling.

Preview of Coming Attractions

2008-10-21T10:29:00.000+03:00

1) A dramatic story about scorpions
2) My adventure in Montenegro in which I saw Madonna in theory, but not in reality
3) The most wild adventure you can imagine in Macedonia. (Technically, I'm leaving for Macedonia on Thursday, but here's hoping that I will have a wild adventure.)

Albanian Fun

2008-10-21T10:21:00.000+03:00

The lemon trees in my front yard. I love em and hate em.

Wild horses and bunkers. On the beach.

In case you think I work to hard. This is the Albanian Riviera

Pictures, Pictures

2008-10-21T10:17:00.004+03:00

My neighbor kids. They love my guitar and especially the orange trees in my front yard

Kids at our end of the year party

A group of last year's students

I'm Alive

2008-10-21T10:17:00.003+03:00

Check out this new Albanian tourism link. It will make you want to come visit me.

http://www.albaniantourism.com/

Amf 08

2008-08-15T08:37:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I decided to go to the store. As a good PCer, I am trying to participate in the viral campaign to not use plastic bags at the grocery store. But this time I forgot, so I decided to stick my purchases in my purse.

About half way home, I thought I felt something like water droplets on my leg. It hasn't rained on the coast in about a month, so it wasn't rain. Couldn't see anything, so i ignored it. I walked another 50 feet and felt more drops. I realized it was coming from my purse. So i moved my purse from the back of me to the front of me to investigate.

I had bought a container of kos, which is Albanian yogurt. Some volunteers hate it; I love it. But the container's lid wasn't sealed properly so i had been dumping the entire one liter container of kos into my purse, down the back of my leg and now that I had moved my purse, it was all down the front of my leg. I just kept walking as quick as I could.

I got back to the house and realized that my key was still in my purse. Now the canvas material had acted like a filter, so what had been dripping down my leg was mostly water. I had to shove my hand into the curdled milk. Past my ruined notebook and money bag and squish around in there until I found the key.

I unlocked the door, kos on my pants, kos half way up to my elbows, kos drying in the key hole, and leaking all over the floor. I had to laugh... just another day in Albania

2008-07-24T11:27:00.000+03:00

Since I have a little bit of time with free internet, I've been browsing the blogs and catching up on the ones i don't read to often. i noticed a theme. everyone said what their fourth of July plans had been. So here is mine...

Albanians don't really celebrate the fourth. Their independence day is in November and interestingly enough is two days long. One is for their independence back in the twenties and one is for liberation from the Nazis. You would not believe how long it took me to figure that all out. They do, however, get very excited that it is a holiday for us and I was kissed, hugged, and gezuared all day.

For my fourth, I headed up North to a town called Lexha. Its on the coast and the city of Skanderbeg. We had a big bash at one volunteer's house and it was great. Hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, pies. It was amazing. The hostess even tried to make homemade hamburger rolls. They weren't much of a success, but everything else was delicious.

A fun event was that we ran into British people who were cycling from England to Istanbul and had arrived in Albania and needed a place to crash. Of course, being kind Americans, we invited them to stay and then proceeded to have an anti-British fest. They were very nice about our patriotic spirit and didn't mind at all that we teased them all night. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of home. I miss you all and wish i could have enjoyed the day with every single one of you.

Love Ain't a Stranger

2008-07-09T11:48:00.000+03:00

Here's a quick update.

It's summer time and it is hot in Albania. My students all just want to spend time at the beach. So when in Rome... I've been hanging out at the beaches near my house a bit. Recharging my batteries. Checking out a few Albanian historical treasures. And really enjoying my days off.

I am teaching a little bit at the private school and a course in my house. It's been a great few weeks.

Extra points if you can identify what movie character I am

2008-07-09T11:45:00.001+03:00

Special thanks to the Matt Trifecta, Kenji, and Andrew for making this special moment come true

Can we pay for this in Euro?

2008-06-30T10:54:00.000+03:00

It’s official. I’ve finished my first year as a school teacher. It was a long, strange trip to say the least. The last few weeks, my students have been obsessed with this song by Timbaland, called Apologize. I don’t know if it’s popular in the US, but it is crazy popular here. I can’t tell you how many people (young and old) have asked me what hanging off a rope or apologize means in Albanian. So as a goodbye present, I printed the lyrics for each of them and we played it on my iPod.

Now I have to admit, this is not a favorite song of mine. Maybe it’s because I hear it being played on the cell phones every day in class, maybe because it is crooned to me at every restaurant in town, but I have a great amount of hate for this song. So I spent my last five classes of the school year listening to my students sing along at the top of their lungs. It was a great moment for the kids, but by the fifth time it was played in one class. I gotta admit. It was definitely too late for Timbaland to apologize.

School's Out for Summer!

2008-06-16T12:48:00.000+03:00

Getting my hair cut. Always an adventure!

Cleaning up in Fushe Kruje

the Ampitheatre of Durres. Those Romans were amazing

Skanderbeg's a Hero

2008-05-18T19:58:00.000+03:00

This is the main square in Tirana. And the oh so famous Skanderbeg, a war hero in Albania. Google him.

A BEAR on the BEACH

2008-05-18T19:56:00.000+03:00

Do not let my nephew see this

2008-05-18T19:54:00.001+03:00

The Americans Will Fix It

2008-05-11T13:59:00.000+03:00

Things I’ve learned in Albania

1. Bidets are the perfect foot washing station
2. Sleeves are not good pot holders
3. Albanian
4. Central heating/shower curtains/wireless internet/Netflix are the greatest inventions ever…I miss them
5. I’m better at reading emails than replying
6. How to write a haiku 5/7/5
7. How to play (extremely basic) guitar
8. How to make Turkish coffee
9. Don’t leave eggs boiling on the stove. (This rule also applies to perogies which is a lesson I learned in Harrisburg)
10. That I don’t miss CNN’s up-to-the-minute scroll on the presidential race.
11. Okra is a delicious vegetable that the North has somehow missed out on.
12. How to make a burrito. Mediterranean style.
13. What meta grammar is
14. Arrested Development is a really funny show
15. Skanderbeg is a hero
16. My nephew is cuter than any kid in the whole world
17. Phrasal verbs are evil.
18. Kosovars are ethnic Albanians
19. Albanians are truly the most hospitable people I have ever met.
20. Three espressos in one day is too much espresso
21. Chickens really do run when their heads are cut off and what a lamb led to the slaughter looks like
22. The verb tenses of English. At the end of this year, I will have been living in Albania for two years…future perfect continuous.
23. That the History of the Peloponnesian Wars is a good book in theory, but not in reality
24. “Are you done that book?” is some sort of Philadelphia expression that people from the Midwest/south just don’t understand
25. I can direct a play
26. I love Albania

The Quest is Over!!

2008-04-12T16:52:00.000+03:00

This Saturday (update: this was actually a while ago, I just forgot to post it), I had a really interesting experience. I went up to a historical city outside of Tirana with a group of Albanians and Americans. We were there to do a clean up at a local school. We met a group of Albanian students and distributed bags and plastic gloves and set to work picking up trash from the school yard. The students got really into it and a bunch of other children from the town also pitched in. I got to talk to two girls Ana and Renisa (rhymes with Denisa, my Albanian name.) We ended up picking up about 15 bags of trash from the school area.
Then we headed up the mountain to see the ancient city. It’s an unexcavated site that was built by the Illyrians (the original people of the area) and dates back to the 5th century BCE. Right now, most of it is uncovered, but you can see the tops of the walls and the remains of a number of city gates. It was a beautiful walk and we ate pomegranates off the trees. They also were picking a berry that we later identified as myrtle, but I didn’t try any of that. I wasn’t 100% sure what it was and wasn’t too keen on experimenting with wild berries. We were followed along the way by about 20 boys from the town. We were definitely one of the more exciting things that had happened to them lately. A funny moment was when one of the boys found a dead snake and showed it to me and very seriously told me not to eat it. Maybe he was confused by the pomegranates, but believe me I had no desire to eat a dead snake.

Adventures in Teaching

2008-03-28T12:50:00.000+02:00

This post is dedicated to my nephew Bennett who is 51% Canadian.

Like a trendy film, I will start with the end. One of my students looked at me and said in confusion… “Canadians drink blood?”

So how did I get myself in this situation? One of the things that I do here is speaking exercises with the various classes at the private school. And there is only so many things that I can talk to with a bunch of 14 year olds. So I came prepared with a map and we were talking about the world and the countries that speak English. I mentioned that my brother in law is Canadian and one student asked why there was a leaf on the flag. I jumped on this and brought up that they make a lot of maple syrup in Canada. But then comes my problem, how do you explain what maple syrup is too a bunch of kids who have never eaten a pancake?

So I said it was really sweet and it came from trees. They all smiled and said… like cherries. Back to square one. Maple syrup is not like cherries. So I said… No, it’s not a fruit. It’s sap. Blank stares. Sap is not a word they teach in Basic English courses. I attempted to draw a picture… No go, it just looked like squiggly lines on a tree. So then, I came up with a metaphor. Sap is the blood of trees. Which led to the now infamous question. At this point, I realized I had to give up. They still have no idea what maple syrup is, but I did clarify that Canadians DO NOT drink blood.

On my way home, I realized what I should have said. It’s like honey, but it comes from trees. Live and learn.

Break a leg

2008-03-23T14:00:00.000+02:00

So what have I been up to? A lot of the same things. Teaching, doing a whole bunch of PC stuff. But i did just finish a really fun project.

I had a group of students who put on a short version on Romeo and Juliet. We did the play on Valentine's Day and they did a great job. i was really nervous because the practices just before the play were terrible, but somehow in the 20 minutes between the last rehearsal and the actual event they got it together.

They were so incredibly cute. They remembered all of their lines and delivered them with all the drama they could muster. and at the end, they were so proud of themselves. It was great to see them smiling and congratulating their success.

Who knows what else is next... King Lear??

Some old pics for you to enjoy

2008-03-04T17:54:00.000+02:00

my mom and i in apollonia

my summer kids

Fresh Vegis, Fresh Meat

2008-02-03T14:19:00.000+02:00

My country director recently asked me to write up a couple of vignettes about my experience here to send to the Director of the Peace Corps who is doing some stuff with my alma mater, Messiah. I decided that you might enjoy it as well so here goes.
In March 2007, I joined Peace Corps, Albania. Albania is a small country in Eastern Europe which lived under a communist dictatorship for 50 years and was considered one of the most closed countries of the world. It is now an emerging democracy and is opening its doors to the world. I live in Kavaje (pronounced Kavaya) which is a small city on the Adriatic Sea thirty minutes south of Durres, the second largest city in Albania. I am a TEFL volunteer and teach English at the high school in Kavaje.
My experience so far has been incredibly rewarding and challenging. Teaching a group of 47 Albanian students is not easy. During my first week of school, a group of boys lit a fire in my class. I knew a rough road was ahead of me. But fortunately, I am blessed with a great school director and Albanian co-workers who have helped me regain control of the class. These same students who couldn't speak a word of English at the beginning of the year can now hold brief conversations in English. Albanians are incredibly generous and helpful people. They have bent over backwards to help me even when I butchered their language. In my first few months I kept getting the word for little girls and eggs confused. Imagine their shock when I told them I like to eat little girls for breakfast.
One of the most interesting projects that I have worked on recently is a production of Romeo and Juliet in modern English. An Albanian English teacher and I have been working with a group of 20 students with excellent English skills. To begin this project, I rewrote Romeo and Juliet into modern English. It's a strange experience to rewrite Shakespeare. "Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo" becomes "Romeo where are you?" At some points, I feel like it loses its magic, but it’s much more important for them to learn modern English than Shakespearean English. It's also interesting to determine what translates cross culturally. Almost all of the funny lines from the nurse and the amazing speeches by Mercutio had to come out because they would require translation skills that I don't have. Also interesting is that Albania is over 80% Muslim. So when it came to the part of Friar Lawrence there were some challenges. I offered to change it to Imam Lawrence. They didn't like that idea, but at the same time, none of the Muslim students wanted to play the part of a priest. So we searched the school for an Orthodox Christian student who could speak enough English to do the role. After asking his priest's permission, he agreed to do it. Interestingly enough, he is studying to be a priest so he will be wearing his priestly robes for the performance. Another challenge is the lack of budget. In Kavaje, they don't really have extra-curricular activities, so my co-worker and I have chipped in to photocopy the script and buy "swords" (wooden broomsticks.) To help the audience differentiate between the Capulets and the Montagues, the students are wearing different colors, but they'll still be wearing their usual school clothes. Finally, when I agreed to help with the production I forgot just how romantic the script truly is. Albania is much more conservative than America and male and female students don't interact as much. The students playing Romeo and Juliet have really struggled with their embarrassment of saying such romantic things to each other. I tried to convince Romeo to kiss Juliet's hand when he says "with this kiss, I will leave." But even that is a little too much for them. As a result, we will be putting on a "kissless" play, but it's Albania so that's OK. It's been really rewarding to watch them develop their English skills and see the natural leaders have a chance to shine. One of the things that is much easier here than in America is getting the students to memorize their lines. As a result of their years of schooling using rote memorization, these kids have an incredible ability to memorize even in a foreign language. I am really looking forward to Valentine's Day, when I can tell my students to "go break a leg." And then I'll attempt to explain to them what this goofy English idiom means.
I've been here for a year and its been an incredible cross cultural experience. I will always have special place in my heart for Albania and its people.

Gezuar Cubed

2008-01-21T17:53:00.000+02:00

During the few days between Christmas and New Year’s, I decided to head to Athens. It was a great time! I would truly recommend it. This is the second time I’ve been to Athens and I wasn’t sure if there was enough to keep me busy, but believe me there is so much to see in that city. The only thing that I did which was the same was go to the Parthenon and watch the sunset from this certain hill which is really pretty. Other than that everything was different.
And by the way, I love Greek food. We had KFC, McDonald’s, and Applebee’s. Before you judge me too much, please remember I live in Albania. I do really like Albanian food, but I miss American food. And Greek food is really similar to Albanian food. We did go out to a Greek restaurant one night and it was great. About half way through dinner, these two guys came in. One played the keyboard and the other the bazooki which is some sort of Greek guitar. We were almost the only ones in the restaurants so we had a great private conversation and got to talk to them a little bit. It was a very cool cross cultural experience.
When I got back, I got ready for the biggest holiday in Albania. NEW YEAR’S. I don’t think words can really describe what it is like here on New Year’s. On the days leading up more and more fireworks arrived in Kavaje. They were selling them everywhere and I’m not talking about sparklers, I’m talking about big fireworks that shoot high in the air and explode. Eight year olds were buying them. So all day fireworks are randomly going off, but about 10 minutes before the ball drops they really start going. None of the fireworks are sponsored by the city or anything they are just shooting them off randomly from people’s homes and the main square. So the whole city is just lit up. My next door neighbors were shooting them and I felt like they were going to come into my house. At some point, the fireworks set off a small brush fire near my house. So I watched my neighbor attempt to put it out with a hose. He was hampered by the fact, we had no water at the time. So once his reserve was out, he had to just watch it burn. Eventually some fire fighters showed up and put it out. This year, I observed this all form the comfort/safety of my home. Maybe next year, I will go crazy and wander down to the square. I will never forget New Year’s 2008.

2008-01-05T16:28:00.001+02:00

Because of the holidays, I’ve been in a very reflective mood. I’ve been thinking over my life in the last year and how much it has changed. Because of a random set of circumstances, I quit my job last year on my birthday. So I kind of view that as the beginning of this crazy year. Last year’s Christmas was filled with me drinking up the last bits of family time. Then in March, I headed here. It’s been a great experience so far. I’ve done things that I never imagined possible.
School at the high school is going really well. It took a few months for me to get into the swing of things and for the students to get used to my broken Shqip/English conversations and I teach differently than they are used to. But I have mastered the use of the register (the teacher’s grade book) which is way more difficult than you would imagine. And I think some of the stuff I’m saying is getting through to them. And I taught them the phrases TGIF and bling, bling. So clearly they are better off knowing me.
The private school has been great. I teach a beginner class and team teach an advanced class. The beginners are getting to the point where we can have brief conversations in English. The school decided to have a New Year’s party and it was a really great time. Each different class worked on a presentation in English – a song, a story, a dialogue or poem. I taught my class Jingle Bells and they did a great job singing the song. I was a bit worried that my class wouldn’t be as good as the other classes so I pulled a favor and brought a guitar playing friend which ensured that ours was the best. Another highlight was the Romeo and Juliet scene. Two kids asked me to pick out a scene in Romeo and Juliet for them to act. I suggested that I translate it into modern English and they agreed. So I picked the balcony scene. I did forget how ridiculously romantic the play is and I definitely had some fear of screwing up Shakespeare. Especially the really famous lines. "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?" It was a bit nerve wracking. But they memorized the whole scene and really brought down the house. The party ended with circle dancing and some hip hop. And the party ended at 11:30 am so all of this went on before lunch!
So in summary. I don’t think that I’ve ever had a New Year where I felt that my life had changed so much, but it all has been for the best. I’m enjoying my time here, meeting all kinds of great people, and hopefully making a bit of a difference here.
Hope you enjoy the pic of me shaking it up with my students.

A few pics

2007-12-07T18:52:00.000+02:00

My Orlando Bloom lighter - love it
A view of Albania from the top of Albanopoly

More pics to come..... I have a few days off of school so should have time to upload some.

Coffee American style part 2

2007-12-07T18:51:00.001+02:00

Add Starbucks coffee to your french press - generously donated by your sister.

How to make American coffee in Albania

2007-12-07T18:49:00.001+02:00

Take one camp stove. The electricity goes out a lot so we all have these. Add water in your Turkish coffee maker

Light it up with your Orlando Bloom lighter (which ended up on a entirely other post) See next post for more details.

Thanksgiving

2007-12-03T17:47:00.000+02:00

So I had my first Thanksgiving in Albania and it was a great experience. To be clear, Albanians do not celebrate Thanksgiving. It seems though that Little Bajram (which might be the Feast of Ede) is somehow related to being thankful. The first Thanksgiving adventure was in one of my classes. It was the private course that I teach in the afternoon. I had the idea to teach them how to draw a turkey using their hand. Something got lost in the translation/demonstration because I ended up with every single picture being a tracing of their hand with a picture of a turkey drawn next to it. Which makes no thanksgiving sense, but they did have a lot of fun. The other challenge was that I was trying to explain to them the complexities of Thanksgiving. I tried to explain how we celebrate the fact that the Native Americans became friends with the Pilgrims, but that isn’t really the whole story. The complexities of this were completely lost on them and I ended up having to tell the story in all of its stereotypical glory, but I really did try.

After school was finished, I headed up to Durres where the plan was to get together with an older couple here who were cooking a turkey. They ended up getting sick so my not so old friend and I were given the turkey and given instructions. An Albanian friend of the Durres crew got the turkey especially for us from the village. There were definitely some interesting Albanian challenges. First, we had to scrub the turkey with hot water. The only place that hot water comes out of the spout is the shower and the hot water wasn’t turned on. So we turned the hot water on, waited 45 minutes for it to heat up and then gave the turkey a nice shower. Then we covered it in butter and spices and popped it in the oven. Keeping in mind that we had a limited time because the lights were scheduled to go out right around the time the turkey was supposed to be done. The stove doesn’t have any number markings on it so we put it about where we thought it should be. Ten minutes in we checked it and the turkey was already brown and the oven was filled with smoke. Clearly, it was a little too hot. Thinking it was ruined, we turned the oven down. The lights went out before it was completely done, but we left it in the still hot oven for a few more minutes and it seemed to work.

About an hour in, I was left alone to finish all of the cooking while Matt went and got our other friend who was coming from the far north. The couple had made us stuffing and I made mashed potatoes. Against all odds, the turkey was actually pretty good. We had turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and everything was delicious. We even had enough left over for Black Friday leftovers!! It was great to spend some time with some American friends even though I was so far away from my family and friends.

Side note… It was about 70 the whole weekend so it was gorgeous and we walked along the sea on Black Friday in perfect weather. My friend from the far north was particularly enjoying it because he hasn’t taken off his coat even to sleep because it is so cold up there. The weather didn’t stay too long and it is back to being slightly chilly. So to everyone out there. Gezuar Dite Falemenderimeve. Happy Thanksgiving.

Scruffy Jumper

2007-11-27T10:19:00.000+02:00

So I was wandering through this grocery store the other and just kept having to laugh. First, it can be a little bit of a potshot when you are buying things here. There are a lot of products which are made for Albania so I can usually muddle through the labels in Albanian and determine what’s inside, but the ones in Macedonian, Greek, Italian, and Russian are still at a loss to me.
There is not a lot of American products here. There are a lot of Italian and Greek stuff. Randomly, one of the only American products (other than Coke) is Philadelphia Cream Cheese. And by the way… it is delicious. And reminds me of home.
Thirdly, the baby food and the liquor are in the same aisle. I’m from Pennsylvania so its weird enough for me to see liquor in a grocery store, but it cracked me up to see liquor sharing the aisle with baby food.
I was looking for chicken breast which they don’t have any, but fortunately they have not run out of sheep’s head so I picked up a few for a delicious soup.
Finally, they have Titanic chocolate here. It has a picture of Leonardo and Kate Winslet on the front. When did this movie come out?!? I swear I remember going to a midnight show my freshman year of college (which was quite a while ago.) I decided not to buy the Titanic chocolate.

The Quest

2007-11-19T14:36:00.000+02:00

I am now living on my own!! This has made me a happy happy person. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to live with an Albanian family because it really gave me a glimpse into their culture – the food, the language, the family structures, but it was time for me to have a space of my own.

I know live on the first floor of a two floor house. It has a bedroom, a big entry way with a table and couch, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It is a great house. The kitchen is very modern and the whole place is nice. I had a bit of a struggle getting all of the electricity and water hook ups, but now I think I’m good to go.

That is my main excitement so my last few weeks have been focused around cleaning, rearranging and buying a few new things for the place. I did manage to fit in a cultural event.

I went and saw the Albanian International Opera Festival. It had entrants from countries all over the world and it ended up being won by a South Korean. He sang the song Figaro and it was awesome. It is particularly interesting because our Asian volunteers are constantly frustrated by the lack of knowledge about Asian culture here, so it was great to see an Asian winning the prize.

And I have officially fallen in love with opera. This was the first time I had ever seen an operatic song live and it was AMAZING. I’m planning to go see the Albanian opera at some point. Who knew I would join the PC and end up falling for opera.

Vayo con Dios

2007-10-13T16:21:00.000+03:00

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Starting school has been alternately frustrating, exciting, nauseating, and confusing. Things are starting to settle down a little bit into some sort of routine. Most of the kids in my classes are starting to get their book which helps a lot. And I’m feeling more confident with lesson planning and classroom control. Having never taught kids in America (unless you count Highway Foreman) it’s been a real challenge.
I teach five classes a week at the high school (each class meets two times a week.) And two classes at the private school. For one of the classes at the private school, I’m just the assistant teacher. It is a really high level, so I pretty much just show up armed with a bunch of discussion questions to get them talking in English.
I’ve learned more about English grammar than I ever thought possible. I cheat and look everything up the day before the class so I can explain it to the kids. Like did you know that when we use the phrase I wish, we put the verb in past tense even if the event is in the future… Try it out. I wish I will be going to the party just doesn’t work, does it? The even weirder thing is that I start to analyze my writing to figure out why I do the things I do. I could go on, but I don’t want you falling asleep.
It also makes me want to go back and apologize to my high school teachers for the days I spent writing notes, day dreaming, and pretending not to care when my teachers were working their butts off trying to teach us stuff.

Note on my blog names for Carla---- There isn’t always a relationship between my blog posts and their titles. Some of it is just stuff I want to remember in the future, but it is either not appropriate for a blog post or not enough of a story to blog about. The story behind the bear with a pocket. I was in class and koala bear was a vocab word. I was trying to explain it to the kids complete with drawings. And let me tell you, me drawing animals does NOT work. If anyone wants to send me a kids book with animal pictures in it. I would love it. So after a long time of guessing all sorts of things. The kids finally said in Albanian… Oh it’s a bear with a pocket. I said yes thinking that they were describing it, but it turns out that that is the word for koala (Ari me jep or a bear with a pocket.) It cracked me up. So it is now immortalized as a title on my blog. I’m sort of known for being the one who knows all sorts of useless words in Shqip. It’s the way my brain works. Its easy for me to remember the word for a koala, but I still get all tripped up trying to say I need.

A Bear with a Pocket

2007-09-24T17:13:00.000+03:00

Today bird droppings landed on my head. Fortunately, in Albania this means good luck. If, however, I had done something to increase my chances of getting bird droppings in my hair, it would not have been good luck. Like the time, I went to the beach and accidentally put my bathing suit top on backwards. That was good luck, but they very seriously asked me if I had done it intentionally. If I had, it would have canceled out the good luck.
There are also a lot of things which are bad luck. One of them is naming your children before they are born. I stopped telling people the name of my unborn nephew (Bennett) because they were so worried about the whole situation. So remember, the next time a bird goes on your head. It's good luck so smile!

The End of Summer

2007-09-19T14:49:00.000+03:00

I finished my last few summer courses. The students were great and I really hope that I’ll be able teach them again in upcoming courses. One of the funniest moments came towards the end of my time there. We were listing wild animals and hippopotamus was in their picture dictionary. Picture eight Albanian ten year olds attempting to say this word. They were saying hippopatamatmus, and hipponapotatmus. And all sorts of other variations. It was hysterical. I almost didn’t want to tell them that they could just say hippo because them trying to say the whole word was so funny.
It was also fun when my parents came to the class. The day before the kids were talking up a storm about what they would say to them and the questions they would ask them. Fast forward to my parents walking in the door. The kids got looks of terror and would barely say a word. I forget how comfortable they have become with me. It was making me laugh, but I kept trying to get them to say something so my parents didn’t think I taught a bunch of zombies. Oh well. Maybe they will be less scared with the next American they meet.
With the end of summer courses comes the end of summer. Albanian summers are very relaxing. Generally people take the month of August off and relax and go to the beach. So to fit in. I joined them and headed to the beach. It was a great time of relaxing and hanging out with my new friends. I will definitely go down to the beach more times for coffees and lunches, but it is cooling down so the days of laying by the sea are probably over until next summer.

Are you digging it?

2007-09-17T19:53:00.000+03:00

So it has been a while since I’ve written, but I’ve had a busy tail end of summer. I have a bunch of things to write about, but I will probably break it up and post a few thing in the next few days. The most exciting thing was that my parents came to visit. It was great to have them here and to show them Albania. They had a great time and we got to see a lot of the country.
A brief summary of their trip. They rented a car so we were able to jump in the car and travel to all sorts of cool places. It always surprised me how fast we got places because I travel by bus and furgon (like a station wagon that take people to nearby towns.) When you don’t have to stop every five minutes to pick up people, it takes a lot less time to get places. They got to meet a bunch of my closest friends here (Albanian and American.) They realized that Albanians are really friendly and that PCVs are not all crunchy granola types.
It was funny when my parents met my host mom. She is an older lady who can’t speak any English so I was translating for them and my dad was being bad and kept making jokes to me and I was laughing and she kept asking me "What’s he saying?" It was stuff that I wouldn’t translate even if I could. At the end, he gave her the traditional Albanian goodbye (a kiss on both cheeks) and said on one cheek "Lord bless you" and on the other "Go Eagles." I was cracking up laughing, but couldn’t even begin to explain what he had said.
My mom had a great line about what you can’t post in your blog, but since this is the blog I can’t post it. Ask her what it is. You may be shocked.
It was great to have them here. They got to see a great cross section of Albania. Small towns,a big cities, the mountains and the sea. Thanks to people who sent me presents by way of my parents. I loved everything that they brought me. My favorite present was the Starbucks coffee press that my sister sent me and a bag of coarsely ground coffee (for using in the coffee press.) I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m already excited for my American coffee.
I have to say though. I stopped by a place in Tirana which is run by Americans and has American coffee. The coffee wasn’t great. It tasted really weak to me. It is just a little bit possible that I will come home and only be able to drink Starbucks because the other stuff is just too weak after my two years of espressos. Speaking of espressos, before drinking her first Albanian espresso, my mom said "Can I drink two?" I was a little surprised because I can’t down two in one sitting. But said "Sure, go ahead" After she got through half of it, she realized that there was no way she could drink two. She graduated to cappuccinos which come with more milk and usually whipped cream. She was happier with that then two espressos.

Random Thoughts on Albania

2007-08-21T15:05:00.000+03:00

August is the June of America. It is around the clock weddings. All of the Albanians who have emigrated to other countries (mostly Italy, Greece, and the US) come home to relax on the beach, visit their family, and get married. There are a couple of Albanian wedding traditions. First, they play music and dance well into the night. They drive through town in decorated cars honking their horns. When I walked to coffee yesterday, I passed two wedding processions and saw four cars being decorated in preparation. Although I love all the joy and happiness, I will not be sad when my town quiets down a bit.

I had parent/teacher conferences at the summer school in Albanian. It actually went pretty well. I had the school director there who can speak some English so if I was missing a word, she could supply it for me.

I saw a bear on the beach. This guy was leading it on a leash. Another friend of mine saw a guy with a big snake so apparently, animals on the beach are quite the Albanian trend.

My parents are coming to Albania on September 1. I couldn’t be more excited… Now I just have to make some exciting plans for them

I saw how roasted sheep entrails are made. I’m not making this up, but my host mother hung the raw entrails on the doorknob and braided them in preparation. As if I needed more reason to avoid this delicacy

I got proposed to. The kid is 13 so it’s unlikely that it is a match made in heaven. I told him he was too short for me so now every day he stands next to me to show me how much he’s grown… it’s so cute.

It’s still pretty hot here, but nothing like it was about a month ago. So it’s definitely bearable.

Thanks to everyone who emails, sends pics, letters, and packages. It is awesome to hear from you all.

Glamor Shot

2007-08-14T18:53:00.001+03:00

So what’s the story on this picture. Couple of things. First of all, I fell in to the trap of Albanian glamour photography. All of my Albanian friends love to get dressed up and take pictures of each other. The funny thing is that a lot of times they don’t smile (especially in wedding photos.) So you end up with a lot of pictures of people looking rather sad. Behind me is the Adriatic Sea. It’s the sea that runs up between mainland Europe (Albania) and Italy.

What’s behind me in the sea you ask? Glad you asked. It’s a bunker. Albania was under a communist dictator for about 50 years until 1991. After he broke ties with the two big communist nations (Russia and China), he started to fear being invaded so he had thousands of bunkers built all over the country. They are everywhere especially along the border areas. Some are little, some are big. And no one really knows what to do with them now. They are really expensive to move so they pretty much just sit where they are. I’ve seen a few creative uses for them. They’ve been made into restaurants or parts of restaurants, used as trash cans, painted crazy colors, or even used to keep their animals in.

This particular bunker is about 100 feet out into the sea. I’m not 100% sure why they would put them in the water… unless the water has risen since it was built, but I’m pretty sure I would not like my family to be assigned to this particular bunker. I’m fairly certain that none of the bunkers were ever used as they were intended (to defend Albania from invasion), but don’t quote me on that.

So there you have it glamour photography and a history of Albania. All in one post.

Shkojme ne Party

2007-08-03T13:02:00.000+03:00

I went to the local high school’s graduation party which is the equivalent of our prom. It was quite an experience. I mean where else can you dance to traditional Albanian folk music complete with live clarinet, singer, and circle dancing and then next song be dancing to some dirty American rap song. Whenever I hear rap, I’m just happy that very few kids know enough English to understand slang. The songs that they were playing would never have made it to an American prom, but I was probably the only one there who understood why.

Everyone was really dressed up and looked beautiful. The guys all had suits on and the girls were all in super flashy, sparkly dresses. It was great to watch. I was way undressed because I definitely left all my prom dresses at home. I’ll have to get my parents to bring me a better outfit for these types of things.

The party started at 9 o clock and we got served dinner at 12. Then at 2, they served another round of meat. Which was exactly what I was hungry for at 2 in the morning. I stayed until 3:30 and the party was still going strong. I have no idea how late they were out, but this little teacher was tired.

In other news, the heat wave is over. According to the news, it hit 107 in Kavaje. I’m not sure if it was really that hot, but it was pretty miserable here. Especially since electricity is usually out for 6-8 hours a day so no fan. Even at 10 o clock at night outside it was still just sweltering. Thankfully, temps have ulued and it is much more pleasant here this week.

Swing It

2007-07-19T01:30:00.001+03:00

This is me being artistic. This is a classic Albanian house. It is made out of cement and only the first floor is finished. Typically, they will finish part of a house and live in it and when they get more money will finish another section.
This is the Albanian train system. I've never actually taken one, but it might be an adventure.

Here is the ampitheatre in Durres. It's second century Roman. Pretty cool stuff. There is a 5th century basilica in here too and it has a a mosaic. There are some great old ruins in Albania that are pretty unexplored because there aren't many tourists. Although the day we went, we ran into a Polish bus tour. Just another random day in Albania.

Face the test of world trend

2007-07-16T10:20:00.000+03:00

I hate the metric system or maybe I hate the united states for being the only country in the world that doesn't use it. I'm trying to learn Albanian I really am, but it doesn't help when after I translate it in my head it still doesn't help. I do have a converter on my phone, but you look a little ridiculous when someone asks how big your nephew was when he was born and you have to whip out your phone to do calculations.

I have learned that 40 Celsius is really hot. 1/2 a liter is bigger than 40 oz. The turn off for my road is not 5 meters from the center of Kavaje and that its ok to just make up how many kilometers it is from harrisburg to philadelphia. Any guesses? I said 500.

Albania eshte shume buker

2007-07-13T17:18:00.000+03:00

Usually within the first few minutes of talking to an Albanian they ask me if I like Albania and I always tell them the same thing that I really like it here.

So here are a few of the reasons that I like this country. First, it really is a beautiful country. When you drive between the towns, you are surrounded by hills and mountains. It sometimes can be a bit scary taking the mountain curves on a public bus, but it has endless great views. Kavaje is surrounded by small hills because it is on the coastal plain next to the Adriatic Sea. The farther you head inland the higher the hills get and they eventually turn into mountains. The Adriatic Sea is also great. Albania is bordered by two seas: the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea. Both are part of the Mediterranean Sea. The Adriatic Sea has sandy beaches and the Ionian Sea has rocky beaches. I’ve been to both and they are both really nice. I’ve heard that Vlore (the city where the two seas meet) is a great place to visit, but I haven’t been there yet.

The food is good. They have fresh vegetables and great bread. They eat a ton of meat which is something I can pass on, but when you explain it they manage to make some delicious vegetarian recipes. You can eat breakfast byrek (some sort of cheese or meat filled pastry) for 20 cents. And they drink lots of coffee. Recently I’ve been turned onto mocciato’s which are espressos with a little steamed milk in them. Very tasty. I might just come home and only want espresso… Who knows?

Also, the people here are the nicest people I have ever met. They always go out of their way to help a wayward traveler and are incredibly shocked and pleased with any Albanian that I can speak. A random example of the kindness of strangers. I was going to visit my friend in a town south of me for a day. The directions she gave me were a little spotty (sorry Julie) and I ended up sitting at the wrong ring road for a while. Once I had explained to the lady selling corn on the side of the road where I was going, she jumped up at the first minibus that passed and explained my whole situation (including that I was American living here for two years which was probably unnecessary information for the driver to know.) Then she gave me some corn for the road and sent me on my way. The people on the minibus having heard my story made sure I got off at the right stop and the ones that got off with me walked me to the place where I could catch the furgon. Like I said complete strangers.

The other reason I like it hear is that I’ve made some amazing friends. Albanian and American. My Albanian friends listen to my Albanian and make corrections, but sometimes they just let me talk. They ask me all sorts of questions about America and love to hear stories about my nephew. I’ve cried with them because I miss my family just as much as they miss their families in Greece and Italy. They love to look at the pictures I brought and know the names of everyone in the pictures (although they rarely pronounce them correctly.) My American friends know just when to send a goofy text to cheer me up and will listen to me talk about just about anything.

I also love the students. The good students have a thirst for knowledge and love to talk to a real American. They can speak Albanian, Italian, and are now learning English. They encourage me to speak Albanian and tell me about their country from their young fresh perspective.

The PC keeps telling us that we go through ups and downs throughout the course of the two years, but right now I’m on an up. I’m sure that at some point many of you will get an email where you will be thinking “I thought she loved it there.” But for now, I’m riding this wave of love for Albania and hoping that it lasts.

An Enterprise in your belly

2007-07-09T14:15:00.000+03:00

A new one day in the Life of Denise

I am now out of Training so things are very different for me. I wake up around 6 and read books. In case you didn't know, I read a lot so I'm catching up with some great stuff and my wonderful mother sent me a ton to read. I head to the school at 9. Right now, classes are over for the year, but the teachers still report and do grading and other things to close out the year. I usually go to coffee with a couple of teachers. This might not sound like work but it is because I generally only speak Shqip at coffee which taxes my brain. It is also very good because I'm getting to know a lot of the teachers much better which will help me when I start school again in the fall.

This week, I started teaching classes at an organization here. The students are great. its been fun to jump into lesson planning and other things. They are pretty close to being beginners so my Shqip is about as good as their English. Next week, I'm starting a course at the school for teachers who want to improve their English.

After classes, I usually head back to the house for a siesta through the hottest part of the day. Then I go to the internet. I have another class later in the afternoon. After the class, It's back to house for dinner then I go on a nice long walk and explore Kavaje or go for a coffee with one of my friends.

It's definintly a different life than in my previous job. For those of you who work where I used to work. I just heard the news about the budget crisis and my thoughts are with you. I remember the stress that last year caused and can't imagine what it is like there now.

Shkoj ne Plazh

2007-06-26T13:38:00.000+03:00

This weekend was great. I went to the beach with my school direcotr for a day. It was a lot of fun. There is some debate here about the cleanliness of the Albanian beaches, but so far i seem to have survived. It is getting really hot here (around 96-100 degrees) and there are very few places that are cool and no public place (that I know of) in Kavaje that I can go to with an air conditioner. So the beach was great. The Adriatic doesn't really have many waves like the Atlantic, but it is much warmer so you don't freeze going in to the water. As far as I know there are no jelly fish or other stingy things. Also, they have coffee shops and restauraunts right up along the edge of the beach so if it gets to sunny you can go there to relax and have a coffee. Also, guys with donkeys come and sell fruit to you... Not making this up. It's great. If you want to come visit, let me know. I'd be happy to take you there.

Swearing In fun

2007-06-25T17:10:00.001+03:00

This is me and the language crew swearing in... Check out the secret service agent man in the back!

Mire

2007-06-18T11:39:00.000+03:00

So I now officially moved to my permanent site Kavaje. It is a welcome change. Although I met a lot of great people and had a lot of great experiences during Training, I was ready to be done with the training. I'm just getting settled here trying to unpack all of my bags. My stuff seems to have grown and grown. I can't explain it but my new host mom did ask me how I got all of this stuff on the plane. A lot of it is from the PC. I now have a huge water filter and a small library full of manuals. It's good to have it all, but it takes up a lot of space.

I swore in last Wednesday. It was a cool experience. There were a bunch of Albanian and American people there and it was a good ceremony. So now I'm a real volunteer not just a trainee. The swearing in came a few days after Bush's visit to Albania so it was quite a week for American/Albanian excitement.

Bush's visit was interesting. The entire day the news was devoted only to his whereabouts. They named a road in Tirane after him, there were commercials detailing his life, and everywhere you went people were talking about it (and I wasn't even in Tirane.) Also a few volunteers actually got to go and meet him which was a great experience for them. I think that it is good that he came here. It was interesting to see a visit from their perspective (a small country) being visited by the leader one of the largest countries. It was interesting.

Everyone seems to love the pictures so I will keep them coming.

Thune and Thall

2007-06-10T18:18:00.000+03:00

this is me working on my community project. We made posters with the kids in kuqan. It was a great project. A lot of fun.
Here is the Kuqan school. Notice the cow. He was only there after their school let out. Us americans were still there. We named him the interrupting cow because everytime I tried to say anything he would Moo really loud.

This is my new host families house. Just kidding. It's an old abandoned military base we hike too sometimes.
This is my language crew in the library of the school. This is towards the end of language classes.
This is in Tirana. the capitol of Albania. They were really excited to have Bush come. i've heard that its been covered in American news. there was crazy coverage here!

Kavaje

2007-06-03T11:40:00.000+03:00

So I'm at my site, Kavaje. It's a lot different than Kuqan. Kuqan was a tiny little town outside of a pretty big city. This is a small city. I've been slowly exploring the city. Because I have no sense of direction, I have this plan. I see things that I haven't been too before when I'm in the car and then I try to concentrate on the way there and then replicate it. So far, I've found a church, the stadium, and a hospital. So I think my method is a success. I'll be staying here for a week than heading back to Kuqan for a few weeks and then heading back here to stay for 2 years. I will be living 5 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea and it is really really nice. I live very close to the center of the city so I can walk to a park, the school, and a whole bunch of cafes from my house.
I have a new host family here and will be staying with her for a few months. I hope that it is as wonderful as my first host family experience. They were really wonderful people. The last couple of days were the counterpart conference. At the end of the conference, everyone in my language group got together and did a song and dance routine that one of our guys wrote. It was really funny. As most of you know, I can't sing or dance so it was a funny experience. I think that there are videos that exist, but I don't intend on ever watching it because I'm sure I'd be embarrassed.
I've been to the school to observe lessons and the students are really great. My counterpart and I are beginning to work on my plan for the summer. I will probably teach a few courses which will be nice practice for me and hopefully help some of the students who are in the middle of the pack. It's a lot different at my site because I'm the only volunteer. It's still a bit nerve wracking to walk into the Post Office and attempt to get something accomplished, but I've been lucky and have somehow been able to communicate. Although sometimes, I wished I had prepped myself by looking up a few key phrases. Like when I went to the post office and forgot how to say send. It's a simple word, but its important at the post office.

water and mountains

2007-05-29T18:49:00.000+03:00

This is Saranda. It is very close to Greece. You can actually see the Greek island of Corfu from here. It's a great place to relax and to visit.

This is outside of Elbasan on another hike. Special thanks to my dear sister Katie who uploaded these for me. I will send her some more, but these are what I had on my flash drive.

More Pictures

2007-05-29T18:48:00.000+03:00

This is the castle of Girokaster which I visited several weeks ago. These are some old men playing chess in Delvine. One thing you quickly notice in Albania is that there are always men around drinking coffee and playing chess or dominoes

A picture is worth a thousand words

2007-05-29T18:46:00.000+03:00

These are both pictures of the hills behind my town in Kuqan. On one of our many hikes.

Bushi or Clinton

2007-05-25T18:59:00.000+03:00

So I'm at the counterpart conference in Durres right now. it's a great town that is right on the Adriatic Sea. Sigh, its tough to be a Peace Corp volunteer. No, actually its been really good. I've gotten to meet my counterpart (the woman I'll be working with for the next two years) She is really enthusiastic so I'm excited to get started. Next week, I get to spend the whole week in Kavaje experiencing the new site!!

I'm really ready to check it out and start to get an idea of what I'll be doing. Up until now, things have been a bit theoretical. Once I get there and start talking to people I'll be able to have a better idea of what I'll be doing.

Today, we went to Tirana which is the capital. We got to seea lot of resources and had an amazing lunch at the mexican/chinese place. Albanian food is very good, but tends to be a lot of repeats especially in the villages. It was good to get a different flavor. I also bought diet coke. Good to be in the capital and get a tiny piece of home.

I finished my 5 hour marathon language sessions. I give a shout out to those of you who put up with me for 5 hours a day learning Shqip. We still have a test in a few weeks where we have to speak to our teachers in Shqip. I think I should be OK, but I've got a little bit of practicing to do.

Tomorrow night is the talent show and my language group is doing a song and dance routine. Since I have no talent in either of those things it should be interesting. Cross your fingers. I will let you know how it goes

Also, my dear sister katie has come up with an idea for posting pics. It will be my weeks project. so hopefully I will have some posted soon!

Roasted Sheep Entrails

2007-05-23T14:21:00.000+03:00

I was going to copy Greg and just leave it the title. But I will fill you in a bit.

I ate them....

It's Mire?!?

2007-05-21T17:26:00.000+03:00

So another week of PST down. Just a few more to go and these ones should go really quickly. This weekend I went to Pogradec with my host family. It's this really pretty town with a lake. The lake is halfway in Albania and halfway in Macedonia. So I saw Macedonia. It was really nice, but the weather wasn't great. It rained a few times which made it less fun to talk around. After walking around for a while, we went to this restauraunt on a little river and watched the ducks swim. Then we took a rowboat around the river area for a bit. That was fun. I ran into a bunch of volunteers so now my host family thinks i'm very popular. It was a really good day. very relaxing. I have a friend who is moving to Pogradec. He's lucky. It is a really nice town.
I only have 3 more days of official language training. Then at the end of the week I go to a conference in Durres and then after that I head to Kavaje to check it out for a week. I'm really curious what it will be like. I'm going to live there for two years so I'm dying to see it. My host family offered to take me up earlier, but I figured that I would wait like everyone else.
Nothing else exciting to report except that we finished our community project!! We made English language posters with about 25 kids and they really seemed to enjoy it. It was fun.
Oh, one mini story. A four year old asked me today if I had a brother because she wanted to marry him. Unfortuately for her, my only brothers are happily married! (and possibly a little to old for her) It was really funny.

Speaking in a Silent Way.

2007-05-13T16:03:00.000+03:00

I still haven't been able to get pics on my blog so I'm trying to send some stuff via email. Things have been going really well here. I'm more than half way done my training time which is good. I've lived in Albania for 2 months. I can't even believe it. The next few weeks should be interesting. I have one more week of regular classes and then I go to Tirana (the capitol) for a conference and then I head to my permanant site for a week to meet people and check it out. Of course, I'm really curious and can't wait for that part to get here.
The weather is really starting to heat up. It's now in the upper 80's I think. I'm not actually sure. Yesterday, a friend came out to my town and we went on this hike. First of all, i was in charge of finding our way. As many of you know, you should not trust me to be in charge of something involving directions. So we started up the hill. We backtracked three times because we got to dead ends in the road. Then we finally ended up at this spot where we had to cross a canal across a rusted out pipe. We actually did attempt to do this, but the pipe was so burning hot that we couldn't touch the pipe. Plus the water under the canal was so disgustingly dirty.. it would not have been cool to fall in. So then we were going to have to seriously backtrack to get across the canal. when a guy came out of his house and had the tightest shorts on I've ever seen on a guy or a girl. He took us through his backyard to a bridge. It was a silly moment and we cracked up laughing. So then we continue up the hill. Again. I have no sense of direction. We got lost again and three little boys helped us find the right sheep path. We finally thought that we would be able to find our way so we tell the three little boys to go home and then got lost again. At this point, we start jumping over these sheep fences which are made out of brambles. We did finally make it to an abondened miliatry base and got chased by a bat. My legs were bleeding in 8 different spots from all of the brambeles.
Advice...Don't ever go on a hike when I'm in charge. We did have a ton of fun, but my legs definitly suffered. And to be honest, I have led much scarier hikes. I'm surprised I still have friends after my Granadan hike.

The Ring

2007-05-07T16:53:00.000+03:00

I still can't upload pictures. Maybe it is the computer or maybe it is operator error. who knows.

Right now, I'm in the middle of practicum and I have started to teach a few classes in the school here which has been an experience. It's really good practice. The kids give me flowers everyday so I'm constantly carrying around roses, callalillies, and other flowers. The guys always laugh at us and our flowers.

Last weekend, I went to another town and saw a culturla presentation with singing and children dancing. It was pretty cool. We also ate by the river at a cafe. It was a good break after the busy last couple of weeks.

In terms of cross cultural communication. My host mom came upstairs one morning and knocked on my door. What I thought she said was that breakfast was ready downstairs and that I could go eat it whenever I wanted. So I waited another 30 minutes and then headed down. The kitchen was completely filled with smoke. Apparently, she had left the eggs on the stove for me and I was supposed to take them off the stove when I came down. They were burned so bad that I had to throw the whole pan away. Incidentally, three perogies burnt to a crisp look a lot like three eggs burnt to a crisp. Just in case you were wondering.

The Quest for American Coffee (Part 1)

2007-04-29T12:04:00.000+03:00

I'm begging you all too click on the link that says Katie and Ryan (or maybe it says the Enns) I'm not 100 percent sure. It has so many cute pictures of my new nephew. I love him so much even it is only through photos.

So apparently no one but Americans like American coffee. They have no love for a big mug/styrofoam cup of steaming hot coffee. Here in Albania I get only espreso and Turkish coffee. So I am on a quest. A quest for American coffee. don't get me wrong. I like espressos. I drink them every day. I like Turkish coffee. I drink it every day. I can even make a mean cup of Turkish coffee. If you come to Albania, I'll brew you one. But I can't get american coffee out of my head. It's the only thing (other than family and friends) that I miss right now.

So far i my quest I've attempted to explain to a waitress who had nescafe in the kitchen how to make it. That was less than successful. She didn't have enough so she put it in an espresso cup and it ended up being even stronger than espresso. next time, we left it up to the waitress to figure out and ordered a nescafe. They used cappucino nescafe so it came out really sugary with cream. And if anyone has seen me drink coffee I really don't like sugar in it. Yesterday in Elbasan (attempt 3) resulted in a can of nescafe iced coffee. Although it was tasty it was not meeting my crazy craving. Finally, we decided to walk about 20 minutes across town to the American bakery. I haven't been to the american bakery becaue I'm not to into baked goods, but they have filtered coffee. So after 20 minutes, we arrived and guess what... It was closed because they had a catering event. Sigh.... My quest continues.

So next time you sit down to a big mug of coffee. take a sip for me.

Teza Denise

2007-04-28T16:05:00.000+03:00

So I am officially an aunt. My sister had her baby. Bennett Aaron Enns. He is super cute. i saw pictures. I'm sure that there will be pics on Katie's blog so check out the link. I actually got to talk to my parents for a few minutes. Thank Julie my very dear language friend.

Things are well here. I went to bumper cars this morning in Elbasan which was a fun way to spend a dollar.

I also found my flash drive so mom can stop looking it also means that I will hopefully post a few pictures for you all to see the Albanian mountains. They are truly beutiful.

I'm actually chatting with my brother in law right now. Isn't the internet amazing.

will right more later. I'm just hear waiting for my pics of my nephew to download!!

Site Announcement

2007-04-21T19:03:00.000+03:00

So its official. I know where I will be for the next two years. I'll be in Kavaja. Its a town near the coast. South of Durres. And near the beach and fairly close to the capitol. I'm really happy with the placement. I'll be really close to several very cool volunteers. You know who you are!

Yeah! It's such a relief to know.

So some funny language blunders just to give you a laugh. I'm trying to increase my vocab (and have learned past tense) but I still really mess things up. There are a lot of words that sound very similar, but are completely different.

For example, I introduced a friend of mine to a bunch of people as my school. I also told a group of kids that my brother in law was a drum. Finally, I constantly am telling people that I eat little girls for breakfast (instead of eggs) Not even joking.

On a brighter note, we had this exercise where we go around with a language teacher around the city and they observe us speaking with Albanians. I did all right.

Talk to you all later.... I miss you all!

Temperature

2007-04-16T16:01:00.000+03:00

I think I forgot to mention how beautiful the weather is here. It's been in the upper 70s for the last few weeks. It's cooler in the morning and gets fairly warm throughout the day. It's been sunny every day this week.

I heard that in America we had a lot of snow. Unfortunately, I didn't get to here where this April snow showers were. I'm assuming it is not PA!

Also we had our first earthquake. It shook the school for about 30 seconds. How scary is that! I never felt an earthquake. Two of us ran to the doorway, one hid under the table and the two guys just sat right next to the windows and bookshelves. It was an interesting experience.

The South

2007-04-15T18:55:00.000+03:00

So I just got back from my southern adventure. It was awesome. At some point, I'm going to figure out how to post pictures because I think that that would be the best way to describe it.

I went down for a volunteer visit to see how people live after this crazy training. We stopped in at Girokaster on the way down and had lunch with some people at this very nice restauraunt on the top of a hill. Girokaster is a UNESCO site and has a 13th century castle. It's also built on this crazy steep hill. You have to climb almost straight up and there are cars driving beside you. It's really nice there. We didn't have time to go to the castle, just see it from afar so I will have to return there.

Then I went to another town farther south. It's a really tiny town about 45 minutes north of greece. That's were I stayed. The next morning we went to Sarande which is a city on the beach. You can see the Greek island of Corfu from there. The volunteers life is tough! It was a great trip to see some neat things and it was really nice to talk to some current volunteers and hopefully learn from their experiences.

I still do not know where I will be permanantly, but I should find out soon. It's a bit nerve wracking because it takes a very long time to travel to certain places so I have no idea if I will be anywhere near the people who I'm the closest to. Cross your fingers.

The Krew

2007-04-11T14:46:00.000+03:00

As an update to my making food adventures. I appreciate all the suggestions, but I think that you overestimated my cooking abilities or the availability of american cooking supplies in Albania or my ability to communicate in Albanian.

Anyway. I ended up food processing tomatoes and throwing in pepper, salt, olive oil, basil and throwing it on top of macaroni. Then at the last second I melted a lot of butter and threw that in and tossed it around.

It vaguely resembled spaghetti sauce (but not really) Not my most succesful cooking adventure, but I didn't have a lot to go on. And I do know that spaghetti sauce is not particularly american, but its tough cooking american here. The important thing was that it was a cross cultural exchange. And the family all ate it so it couldn't have been that bad.

In other news, I'm going down south at the end of the week for a site visit. I'm really excited about that. I will post more later!

Let us think in the imagination of our minds

2007-04-06T18:25:00.000+03:00

So many people are asking me about What it is like here. it's a difficult question to answer so I'll do a Day in the Life of Denise.

I wake up at 6:30 and usually take a shower. Then I have a hard boiled egg, a banana, and boiled milk for breakfast. I'm getting used to the egg still. Can't say I ate many of those in the states. Then I head to class for 5 hours or so of language training. This part is pretty intense. It's not that it is very hard, but we move really fast. One day we learn present tense, the next day future. But the teachers are great and my language group is super chill. We laugh a lot.

During language class, we have a break where two of us coffee addicts dash to the cafe for an espresso. Espresso's are 40 cents so they are almost as cheap as the coffee from upstairs. I've drank more espressos in the last two weeks then I ever have in my entire life. I'm averaging 3 a day.

After class is lunch. This could be a toasted sandwhich, rice pilaf, fried potatoes, or salad. It's all pretty cool. The rest of the day might be other kinds of training or could be community project work. I walk back to the host families house around 5 and sit around and drink turkish coffee and talk to my host mom and her friends. This stretches my language ability, but is really fun. Then I do lots of homework. They give us tons of stuff to do so it fills the day. We eat dinner at around 9. Yup I said 9. Then I chit chat more and head to bed. It's a busy life and a lot of fun.

The town is surrounded these awesome hills/mountains that we hike up when we get a free few minutes. The main focus of the first few months is the language. That's pretty much what goes down. It's actually a lot more fun/challenging then it might sound.

Suffled as it Gushed

2007-03-28T18:03:00.000+03:00

So I arrived safely in Albania. It's really a great country. We flew into Tirana and jumped immediately onto a bus to go to Elbasan. Elbasan is about two hours away from Tirana. We spent two days of orientation and then were split into groups.

I'm staying in a small town outside of Elbasan with my goup. I really like it here. I live with a very nice host family who are dedicated to teaching me Albanian. There is a lot of pointing and smiling. Not a lot of nodding because Albanians shake their heads differently which makes for some very mixed messages from me, the volunteer. It works out better for me to say yes or no. Except when I mix them up which creates more confusion. I'm waiting for the moment when po and yo flow easily.

We are in training all day. Some language training, some technical training, and some group activities. It's a lot of work and a lot to stuff into my brain. Everyone here is great to work with. The language teachers are very patient and repeat things a lot for me.

Lots of small funny things have happened, but the main thing that happens is that I'm never entirely sure what is going on. I'm supposed to be cooking some American food on Sunday, but I had trouble explaining that I'm not used to making anything from scratch. If anyone has any suggestions for something that contains pasta, tomatoes, cucumbers, meat, olive oil, bread, or potatoes that would resemble something American let me know. I explained what spaghetti sauce was and they suggested that I make that, but I have no idea how to make spaghetti sauce from scratch. I'm scared i'm going to end up with a salad with chopped meat on top. I do have the entire day to cook so your helpful suggestions could involve hours of preparation!

Albanian food is really good. All of the vegetables, fruits are really fresh. I apologize to anyone who grows tomatoes at home, but PA tomatoes can't even touch the Albanian ones. That's all for now.

Keep emailing. I love getting emails!

Goodbye to All

2007-03-21T02:59:00.000+02:00

This is my last post from the states. I fly out tomorrow to head to Albania. The last few days I've been in Washington DC in staging. We trained on a whole bunch of different topics and got a lot of information about our flight and the first few weeks in training in Albania.

I wanted to say my last goodbyes to everyone. I'm sorry that I have not kept in better touch, but the last few weeks were extremely busy. I visited my very dear friend Liz and also spent some quality time with my sister.

The next few months will probably be sporadic as I might not have access to the internet, but everyone is in my thoughts as I start on my adventures.

Love you all.

Baby Shower

2007-03-04T14:50:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my sister Katie's baby shower. I was an awesome time, but unfortunately I didn't take a single picture. I'm hoping to get a few from her mother in law. This is a picture of Katie and Ryan from Christmas.

Carla and I made a whole bunch of onesies using iron on transfer paper. It was awesome. There was one from each family memeber -- mine said "My aunt loves me all the way from Albania" and had the Albanian flag on it. It was awesome. Too bad I'm leaving; we could go into business because they were a hit!

We had great food too including my famous chocoloate fondue and red velvet cake from my mom. yummm.

Katie got a bunch of stuff; we got her a car seat and some clothes.

She's due April 20 and is having a little boy named Bennettt Aaron. Congratulations Katie.

Car for Sale

2007-02-28T22:56:00.000+02:00

Anyone interested in buying a car?

Here is the information:

2004 Honda Civic LX
42,000 miles
4 door sedan
Air Conditioning
Power Windows/Locks
Front/Side Airbags
Metallic Gray

$12,700

Email me if you are interested.

School's Out for Summer!!

2007-02-24T16:48:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was my last day of work. Its such a wierd mix of feelings. It reminded me a lot of graduating from high school. Walking out of the building for the last time brought this odd mix of relief, fear of the future, and excitement. It hit me at odd moments like when I clicked Shut Down on my computer and got a bit teary eyed.

I am really excited, but I will miss everyone I worked with. For the last five years, I had such a great time. I learned a ton about myself. It's amazing to think back to my very first day as a trainee. I was so nervous about the whole experience and now I'm starting it all over again.

I had an awesome goodbye party which was really bittersweet. It was great to have everyone there hanging out and enjoying themselves. These are the times that I will miss. I have a few things that I will not miss, but nostalgia is already setting in and my days of work of taking on a rosy glow.

Thanks to everyone I worked with. I love ya and keep it up. You are all incredible people who deserve to be applauded.

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning - I will never forget being a CWP, having "discussions" about politics, Howard Stern, the Redskins, Lancaster County and all my other crazy opinions, beng yelled at for my trusting nature, soaping the floors, climbing a volcano, meeting a teef who smells bad, and wearing pearls to my interview. Don't worry - the stories will continue.

Ice Storm

2007-02-14T17:08:00.000+02:00

This is how far I got in shoveling. After this, I was too tired and cold to continue

This is the river. Makes you want to snowmobile.

My poor car. It is covered in ice.

My gate (frozen shut)

Things that are good about an ice storm:

Guilt free relaxation: It's dangerous to go to work or to go get stuff done

Talking to people: I've talked to every one of my neighbors this morning (even ones I had never met!)

The trees look pretty

Bad things about an ice storm:

Shoveling

Clearing your car

Having a craving for soup and not having anywhere to get any.

So you are joining the Peace Corp?

2007-01-29T03:02:00.000+02:00

Since I started telling people that I'm joining the Peace Corp, I've been getting lots of questions. Here are a few of the most common.

Where are you going? To Albania.

Where's Albania? Or is that in Africa? No, its not in Africa, that's Algeria. Albania is just North of Greece.

Is there an Albanian song? Yes, there is. My boss would be happy to sing it for you.

How long will you be there? 27 months. The first three months are training in Elbasan or a town near there and then the next two years, I'll be assigned to a site somewhere in the country.

Do you know where you will be located? Nope. One of the things that the Peace Corp constantly talks about is being flexible. Fortunately, I'm pretty flexible. But, it makes packing a challenge though!

What will you do with all your stuff? I'm getting rid of a lot of it and then the rest is getting stored in my parent's basement. Thanks Mom and Dad. If you are looking for any furniture, let me know because I have a number of good furniture pieces that are looking for a good home.

Why the heck would you want to do this? There are a lot of reasons and I've thought about this for a long time, but the bottom line is that I was at a point in my life where I could continue doing what I was doing and living where I was living or I could really make a change and do something completely different. I decided that because I don't have many responsibilities that I would do something different!

Is it safe? Of course this is a difficult question because there are no guarantees, but the Peace Corp tries very hard to keep its volunteers safe and Albania is pretty stable politically.

What did your mother say? The people who ask this question usually don't know my parents (who are extremely well traveled.) They both think it is very cool. Although I've heard through some of her friends that she is worried about me!

Do you get paid? Not really. Peace Corp pays for your flight and gives you enough money to live like a local which means I won't be saving much.

Do you know anyone who is going? No, but I do go with a group of about 30. So I'm sure I'll get to know them real quick.

Do they speak English there? No, they speak Albanian. Do you know Albanian? Not a word, but I will be learning.

What will you miss the most? The birth of my first nephew :(

Is that a picture from Albania? No, its from Old Forge, NY, but it can get really snowy up in the mountains of Albania so I though it fit.

That's all the questions for now, but if you post a comment question, I will do my best to answer it!

Dental Clearance!

2007-01-25T19:21:00.000+02:00

I'm dentally cleared!! Yeah. This means that I am officially invited to the Peace Corp. There are a whole bunch of things you have to do before you can join the Peace Corp including being cleared by Medical, Legal, and Dental. I had already had my Medical and Legal Clearances, but I was waiting on my last set of Xrays before I could be dentally cleared. Now I am done!

The next step is getting my staging instructions. Staging is the two or three days you spend in the US before you fly out. Most likely my staging is in Philly which is slightly anticlimatic because its 45 minutes away from where all my family lives. Oh well. After staging I fly to Albania and have three months of in country training. The first three months, I will be in or around Elbasan which is a city near the capitol.

The next few weeks are going to be a little nuts for me. My last day of work is February 23 and I move out of my apartment on March 1. Then I will spend a couple of weeks in Downingtown soaking up time with my family and friends. Oh and packing which is another all together.

Wish me luck. My good friend Tiffany told me that I am not very task oriented and I have a lot of tasks to complete between now and then. But I think it will be worth it.

This is a test

2007-01-10T03:22:00.000+02:00

This is a test. This is only a test. If this was a real post, it would be followed by hilarious stories of my adventures in Albania.

The picture has nothing to do with Albania. It is a picture taken in Puerto Rico, but it is really pretty there. Check out that sky.