Friday, April 23, 2010

And still I am a wandering

well this will be brief as as how often happens i have gotten a stomach ache as soon as i got to the internet place.... i have moved host families. my host father was going through some things which i will not mention to maintain his privacy but i was removed so the host family could deal with their issues. i have now been moved to a bigger town labrazhed and man do i prefer town life to villiage... i am not a farm girl, period. but i suppose we all knew that. so no more chasing chickens out of the house, and now there is more freedom (i told my host sister that i was going out with some friends and she said i didn't even have to ask as before it would have been "why, why, why"). It's been rough leaving the other volunteers in my village as i was good friends with them though, and tough to be in a new group, but as always i'll work it out.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Placement

Well, I have received my placement! I will be living in Shijak, it is simultaniously in the suburbs of Tirana and Durres, so yes although they do not place in Tirana they do place pretty damn close. I will be about 10 min drive from Durres and 20 from Tirana. Shijak has about 12,200 people and I will be the first volunteer to ever serve in this site (they opened up about 7 new sites this year). I will also not have a sitemate. I will be working in the Bashkia (municipality) and am supposedly going to be helping with their urban plan and their information office (but this could really prove to be something else once I get there). I don't know much about this placement but we'll see. Ummm it has had a recent urban boom but w/out a plan, it is the only municipality headed by a Female mayor in all of Albania, so that's exciting. I'm prety nervous and scared being as I will be alone (I know, that's what I signed up for but most people do end up with them over here). Otherwise life is good, some type of drama in my house but I don't know exactly what. Anyway hope all is well I have to go home and cook Gnnochi for my family (hopefully it works). Love you all and talk to you soon!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Alive

hello all, do not worry i am alive and kicking, i have just not had time to get to an internet place and now i have! not much to report here, still learning the language, still trying not to make cultural mistakes and get my family and the other volunteers to like me. already forgetting how to spell in english... or maybe i never knew... Yesterday we went for a hike/walk in the mountains (we being the 3 girls in Bishqem and the 2 host sisters of those girls).... ADVENTURES!!! We fell/sank/slipped in plenty of mud, got midly attacked by thorns, and my friend got stung by stinging nettle (to which when she told the health person over the phone about it she was told to take anti-biotics, maybe a misunderstanding?). I find out where I will be place on Friday, there is a lot of excitement, nerves, and buzz about that among the volunteers (all of us finding out). Sorry that these are generally so poorly written, i am usually doing about 4 things at once, and i don't like to type entries on my home comp and use a flash drive due to all the viruses on the comps. Anywhose... been playing lots of uno w/ my host brother, chasing chickens outside of the house, going on walks, and trying to speak the language... you know the normal everyday things.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Language

Well... Still learning the language. Got in a little bit of trouble because I kept using the word shok (male friend) w/out realizing there was another word shojsha (female friend) so my family thought I had TONS and TONS of male friends and was never spending time with females (certainly not the case). My language is steadily improving though, and I'm beggining to mix more with my family which is good. Life is still good here! Getting to know the other volunteers is nice. We go on a site visit to another volunteer this whole weekend, I think we will be going hiking which should be fun. So yeah, hope all is well with you all!