beccapiglet's stuff

Festivus . . . for the rest of us

2011-12-26T12:52:00.003-07:00

I'm an atheist. And I love Christmas.

Really, though, I love holidays. I love parties and celebrations and feasts and days off and getting together with family and traditions. So I love Christmas, but I also love Hanukkah, Solstice, Passover, Thanksgiving, New Years and the Fourth of July. I love singing Christmas carols, I really love some of the good old ones like Silent Night and Good King Wenceslas and Here we go a-wasailing (I also love wasail, yum) and Carol of the Bells, but I also sometimes just love singing Jingle Bells really loud. I love the Singing Christmas Tree. I love Christmas lights. I love seeing Denver all covered in snow and sparkling. I love the City and County building getting lit up and I love the Parade of Lights. When I was a kid, I loved getting up at 5am on Christmas morning and going downstairs to empty my stocking and watch cartoons and parades. I loved finding an orange at the bottom of my stocking. I love going swimming on Christmas.

I think that traditions are important and I appreciate the religious background to Christmas, I just don't happen to believe in Jesus as savior and son of God and all that. I like Jesus, I think he was a great guy and that we can learn a lot from him, so I don't mind celebrating his birthday. I also like to celebrate the birthdays of Martin Luther King Jr. and George Washington, cause they were pretty great guys too.

I don't get offended when people wish me a "Merry Christmas" as long as you don't get offended if I wish you a "Happy Holidays" because Christmas isn't the only holiday this time of year. Christmas is included in my "Happy Holidays," but since I don't celebrate Christmas for the religious aspect of it, it is equal in my mind with Hanukkah, Winter Solstice and New Years, which my family also celebrate with fun and tradition (I love lighting Hanukkah candles, and especially cleaning the wax off of the menorah, I don't know why, I just love playing with the wax).

This year for Christmas, my sister and her family cooked a holiday feast for us at their house- they invited their good friends and my aunt came down from Greeley. My mom (the only Christian among us) had to work until mid afternoon, but when she arrived we all sat down to a lovely meal of turkey and stuffing, with latkes from my aunt and pumpkin pie.

Happy birthday Jesus.

Time . . . to get back to writing

2011-12-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have been home now for just over a year. That fact seems so strange to me. I have been home now for half of the time I was in Peace Corps and for twice as long as I traveled afterwards. It is funny sometimes how time can seem so different. How lengths of time are so different depending what you are doing. It is like how the last five minutes that you are waiting in class before a vacation starts can seem like they take years . . . and how hours doing something you love can seem to just fly by. The two years I was in PC and traveling are such BIG times. There were lifetimes worth of experiences squeezed into a little less than three years. Of course every moment wasn't exciting (January in Peshkopi seemed to TAKE FOREVER!). The year that I have been back in Denver does not seem to have taken very long and in many ways I am still adjusting to being home. I have maybe gotten over my NEED to tell everyone about PC, but I still bring up Albania and my time in PC often. I still refer to myself as having "recently returned" and I'm not sure when I will have to drop the "recently." A year ago, my parents picked me up from the airport and took me to a RPCV holiday party. A few weeks ago, I walked to that same holiday party. A lot has changed in my life in the past year, and when I walked into the party, some part of me still feels as though I just stepped off the plane from China.

You may have noticed that this is my first update in a long time. I have been keeping a journal in some form or another for most of my life and blogging seemed like a convenient way for my friends and family to keep track of me while I was gone, but I have pretty much stopped since I've been home. I have started to write in my journals again (something that I did only sporadically when I was gone), but I think that I have missed this outlet. There are some things that are private and belong only in the paper and pen version that sits on my bedside table and there are some things that I don't mind sharing with the world. I have never really known or cared if I had much of an audience (except my parents, hi Mom!) and I don't think that is much of a consideration for me right now. I think that I want to write for myself- to work out things that are going on and to update and remind myself. I doubt that I will come back to blogging as much as I was during my trip, but I think I will try to come back and update every once in a while . . . .

Readjustment

2011-03-02T15:48:00.004-07:00

I've been home for a few months now. I have started to write about 5 different posts, but I keep getting stuck in the middle or distracted. I heard a lot from people (and remembered myself from my previous abroad experiences) that reintegration was harder than the original culture shock of leaving and entering a new country. Knowing that doesn't really prepare you for it though.

Coming home is hard. When you leave, you expect things to be hard- you are entering a new culture, you are going away from everything and everyone that you have ever known. But when you come home, it is not like that. You would think that it would be easier to come home. You know these people, you know these things, you have lived this life. But things at home are never quite what you expect them to be. By the time I went back to China (after seeing my parents in the Philippines) I was really homesick. A big part of me wanted to just go home with my parents When I was homesick, I had this particular idea of "home" that is obviously idealized and not totally correct. So when you come home, the first thing is that it is not exactly what you were missing for all those months. I was missing something, maybe the idea of "home," but real home is this crazy real place that is always changing and is not always how I remembered it when I was missing it.

Second, when I was gone, things changed. I am at that age when a lot of my friends are getting married and having babies. So all of a sudden, I come home and there are all these couples and babies and people with completely different lives from when I left. I went away and they kept on living. They kept on living without me and now they are used to living without me, so it is sometimes hard to come back into their lives. They have been used to not calling me and me not being around. I have been used to not seeing them and not being around.

Third, I have changed. I'm not used to the fast paced American life anymore and I'm not sure I want to get used to it again. Even though it was really hard for me to get used to, I did eventually learn how to slow down and enjoy life a bit more while I was traveling. I kind of grew to love snuggling up to my fire and my laptop and watching a movie and then going to bed at 9:00. I got used to getting a full 8 hours (or more) of sleep. I am not the same person that left three years ago (yes, I just past my three year anniversary of leaving for Albania, crazy!). I have literally been around the world. I want to talk about all the places I've been and people I've met and things I've done, but I also don't want to talk about it too much. I feel a bit like this guy. My life is now defined by the past three years and I don't want to be boring talking about it all the time, but it is a frame of reference that I now will experience things by. My life is now "Before Peace Corps" and "After Peace Corps" and I now have a lot of stories that start out with "when I was on the train in Russia . . . " or "compared to Albania . . . " I don't know if people really want to hear about it or not. I know that I have heard all of my parent's stories about a gazillion times- I love their stories (and I love them even more now that I have taken the trip) but I don't know if everyone loves them. It is sometimes hard to know when to talk about it and when to just be quiet.

All of this is not even to mention the general weirdness of America. The cereal isle in the grocery store. Driving on the highway. Having a regular job. Don't even get me started on Sam's Club . . . This is the stuff that I thought people were talking about when they said that coming home is harder. And maybe I'll never really get used to grocery stores again, but probably eventually it will feel normal again . . . someday . . .

Ms. Lemon

2010-12-05T19:35:00.004-07:00

That's my new nickname (usually just "lemon", without the miss).

So to explain a bit- I came back to China to chaperone a trip that was organized by DCIS, my alma mater and former employer. I went to visit a few teacher at the school when I was home last summer and during a lovely brunch at Racine's, Cathy (one of my former teachers) and I
started talking about China. When she found out that I would be in China in the fall she insisted I talk to Melanie, who was organizing the trip- Cathy had been offered the chaperone gig, but didn't think she could do it and thought it would be perfect for me. I talked to Melanie and got the details- the trip would be three weeks long, two of those weeks in Kunming, Denver's sister city, where we would stay in host families and some of my expenses would be paid. All I had to do was meet them in Shanghai and be a responsible adult. The group was small, only 4 high school students (all of whom I knew well from when they were in 6th grade) one DU student who decided to tag along (who I also know fairly well) and Mel. The kids are great and require very little in the way of actual supervision and I would get a plane ticket home- sounds like a deal to me!

It has been a great deal so far. During the day we go to classes put on for us by the high school we are visiting (Kunming Foreign Language School). With the exception of Chinese Language, which is way over my head, the classes are great. We've learned a few Chinese songs and arts. The kids are having a great time with their host families as am I. I think the kids Chinese skills will have improved a great deal by the time they get home and I think my skills will have improved by more than 100%- from two words to maybe five :-).

I don't quite remember where the "lemon" moniker came from- probably some mispronunciation of my name by someone, but I think I like it- the Chinese pronunciation also seems to sound a lot like my actual name, so I think I'll have someone teach me the characters and just run with it. That's Ms. Lemon to you. . .

Chinese food

2010-12-05T19:35:00.001-07:00

In the first two weeks I was in china I didn't have very much in the way of "authentic" Chinese food. It's hard when you are traveling alone to find good places and because Chinese food tends to be family style, when you are without a family to eat with, fast food is sometimes just an easier option. As a solo traveler, I found China to be a lot like Italy- you know there is good food everywhere if you just had a local to show you where it is!

Luckily, on his last leg of my trip with the DCIS students, I am staying with a host family (an English teacher) and have been taken out to eat many times. Also, the food that my host has cooked at home has been wonderful. Even the school lunches have been better than the Chinese food I found on my own.

Besides fast food, the chinese take on "western food" is sort of funny. My first host (I had to move because her father got sick and she needed to take care ofhim) was extremely worried about what I would eat. She bought a hilariously huge loaf of mediocre plain white bread- I was too polite to tell her that I didn't really like it. Even my second host, who has been to America and understands me a little bit better worried ceaselessly about what I was eating (especially for breakfast). Twice this week we were taken by the school principal to what he described as a "western style restaurant ". It turned out to be a sort of buffet with waiters roaming around
with various types of meat skewered on large swords. I think I would rather eat traditional Chinese food (although eating jello with chopsticks was fun). I love how the Chinese family style works. Depending on how many people you have, you order a ton of dishes (usually a few more than there are people) plus rice and soup and it goes on a rotating platter in the center and everyone grabs things as they go by. I love this because with a big enough group you are always
guaranteed to have a few things you like. I think, maybe because you tend to grab things just a few bites at a time, you tend to eat less this way (at least I think I do), but you also never leave the table feeling hungry. My favorite thing so far has been "hot pot"- basically there is a pot of hot soup that is set on a hot plate on or in the table. You order different meats, vegetables and noodles and then put them into the hot pot to cook. Then everyone reaches in with their chopsticks and grabs what they want (or what they can). All of this family style eating has really improved my chopstick skills. I was not too bad before as we used to practice with our Chinese take out lunches at school, but now I can even eat rice noodles with chopsticks, which is no easy task.

Karaoke

2010-12-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was invited to a weekend trip with a group of teachers to a hot springs in a town a few hours away. It seemed to be a bonding trip for the group of teachers that all teach one grade (junior 3, equivalent to about 9th grade). We started out on Saturday midday and after a lunch stop arrived in the early afternoon. After a short rest, everyone headed to the indoor pool to swim and relax. It was quite nice, with a few large pools of different levels and a wet and dry
sauna. Neither of the two English teachers I was with knew how to swim, so we had a funny afternoon while I (along with the PE teacher and some others) tried to teach them, without much success. The other highlight of the afternoon was the awkward match making that was
attempted by some of the teachers between me and the chemistry teacher, who was not bad looking and seemed sweet, but didn't speak any English and even though he was a chemistry teacher- I didn't feel any.

After dinner everyone split into two groups, one for karaoke and one for mahjong. I really wanted to play mahjong, and they even let me play one hand before they kicked me out to get down to the real business of playing. I think they thought it was cute- they played really fast, not like my friends. I probably could have caught up after a few hands. I was glad I went to watch anyway, since I saw the coolest thing ever- a self dealing mahjong table. A disk in the center of the table rises up and you push all the tiles into a drum below the table. The drum mixes the tiles and pushes them into slots, then the tiles rise up in perfect rows onto the table to form the wall. Magic!!! Anyway, they started to really play and I left, time for karaoke!

If you have ever done karaoke in Asia, then you know it is different than we do it at home. Instead of having to perform for the whole bar, you and your friends rent out a small room and you sing just for each-other. In a lot of ways this is better as people are leas nervous, but you do miss out on the great opportunity to make fun of strangers. . .

When we arrived the singing was already in full swing. A few of the group had great voices, a few didn't, but everyone had fun. One of the girls figured out how to find the English songs on the computer and I stated to look through them. I found what I expected- mostly. There was Madonna, Brittney, MichealJjackson- there were a few other random songs- they somehow convinced me to sing "My heart will go on". My big surprise came when I was scrolling through and saw a familiar title "Handlebars". I was overly excited and confused the Chinese teachers a
lot by trying to explain that I know the band. In fact there were two Flobots songs on the list and I (tried to) sang both of them. I had more success with Handlebars than with Rise since I know the rap part better (mostly on Rise I only know the "rise" chorus part). I asked one teacher to take my picture while I sang, but she was very confused (later I was able to explain why I wanted my picture with the video behind me). I'm still a little confused as to why there would have been two Flobots songs on the karaoke machine at a hotel at a hot springs in rural China- there are tons of English songs that are more famous or more popular that were not there, so I think that it must just be fate- whoever programed the machine is a Flobots fan, which is kind of awesome.

Sleeping in airports

2010-11-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

When I booked my tickets to and from Malaysia the only flights arrived at about very late (about 1:00AM). I spent some time online trying to figure out how to get from the airports in KL and Shanghai to the actual towns and where would be most convenient to stay. In this investigation I stumbled upon a great website: sleepinginairports.net.

For KL I found that it would be easy and not too expensive to just go to town and get to my hostel (and the ratings for sleeping in the airport there were not good). For Shanghai, since I was actually arriving in Hangzhou (about one hour by train or two hours by bus away from Shanghai center) with the late arrival it would be easier to just stay in the airport. Since the airport was new, there were no reviews, but I decided to chance it. I ended up finding a great spot- padded bench seats with no armrests, quiet, no people and with a power outlet close by. I watched a movie and then put on my face mask and went to sleep for about 5 hours. In the morning I found my way to the train and (after going to the wrong address once) checked in at the hotel where I would meet the students from Denver that would arrive later that night.

I spent a little bit of time adding my reviews to sleepinginairports.net for some of the airports I've been stuck in including Iceland, Amsterdam and Tirana. The website is great for those of us lucky enough to fly standby, but not lucky enough to make it out on the first try. My mom wished she had know about the site before they came to see me- it might have made their overnight in Seoul a bit more comfortable. This time in China was the first time I had chosen to sleep in the airport instead of just getting stuck there, but now with this site, I might be sleeping in airports on purpose more often.

Why not Malaysia?

2010-11-25T05:08:00.003-07:00

The Philippines allows Americans to stay for 21 days without a visa which meant that I needed to leave by Nov. 9 or pay a big fee. I was meeting the group in China on Nov. 14. I had a few choices- I could go to China early and spend a few more days in Shanghai or I could go somewhere else entirely. With low cost carriers like Cebu Pacific, going from one country to another in SE Asia is pretty cheap and after looking into it I found that heading to someplace like Singapore for a few days wouldn't cost too much more than flying direct to China. But where to go?

When you are traveling, especially when staying in hostels, you meet all sorts of people and in this day and age with facebook and email it is easy to exchange info. It is not uncommon to spend a few days with someone and then leave them with that general invitation, "if you ever make it to Timbuktu (or where ever) on your travels, let me know and we can meet up!" I've given a lot of those invitations myself- "when you come to Denver look me up!". In a discussion with my mom about where to go she reminded me about the girls that we met in the hostel inNorway. One girl was from China and we missed each other when I was in Beijing because of the national holiday. The other girl is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I sent her an email and she would be in KL at that time. With no better reason to go anywhere else, I booked a ticket to Malaysia. Why not?

KL is an interesting city. The skyline is dominated by huge skyscrapers mostly built in the past 10 years. But when you get closer to the ground, you find an interesting mix of cultures, with China town full of persuasive street vendors and family temples to head-covered Muslims and modern domed mosques to barefoot Hindu temples filled with flowers.

After a day in KL with Sum, I headed to the old capital Malacca. Here I stayed in a hostel and almost immediately after I arrived I was offered a bike ride around town. This was by far my most successful bike outing yet, mostly because I had a good bike and someone to teach me how to use it correctly. I have been thinking more and more about my options for when I get home and I think that biking is a better and better option. I really don't want to buy a car and I know that I will not have the money to do so for a while anyway. Anyway, I spent the day exploring Malacca and shopping. The next day I headed back to KL and straight to the airport for my flight back to China.

Bad day

2010-11-23T22:36:00.003-07:00

Everyone has their bad days I suppose. Here's what mine looks like- me blubbering in the backseat of a Manila taxi. Why? I don't really know. I hadn't had a particularly hard day, but something about the driver trying to charge me 350 pesos for what I know is actually a 50 peso trip (if they use the meter) and I was willing to pay 150 pesos for (since that was literally all the money I had left). It just builds up and gets to you after a while. Part of it is that I can feel the end of the trip approaching and I have less patience for things. I'm over it, in fact I was over it 4 months ago when taxi drivers in Bulgaria were trying to rip me off, but I'm really over it now.

I think I'm ready to come home. My trip is almost over, and the last part, my return to China to meet some of my former students from DCIS is going to be great and different. Because of the nature of the trip, traveling with students, homestay, school visit etc, I won't have to deal with some of the frustrations of solo travel.

I've started counting down the days (25- but there is a good chance that you are reading this much later than it was written) and planning things for when I get home. I have a place to live, I hopefully have work (subbing) and I already have a party to go to on my first night home. This has been an amazing trip, but it will be amazing going home too.

Sagada

2010-11-14T09:49:00.002-07:00

Sagada may be the most laid back place I've been- ever. Set high in the mountains of the big island (Luzon) it is the type of place that you could see hippies getting stuck in and living there forever and everyone seems to have that "it's ok" slow paced vibe. When I arrived, unlike almost every tourist destination I've ever been to (and I've been to a lot) no one met the bus trying to sell rooms or tours or pearl necklaces. There seem to be a lot of tourists here, but it is apparently a slow enough season that you don't get the feeling of constantly running into people. In fact I think I might be the only guest in my hotel. The locals all seem to be taking it easy too- don't plan a trip up here if you want prompt service from anyone- I had to wake the tourist center guy from his mid-morning nap to set up my tour. Not that fast service is really a big deal- why are you in such a hurry anyway?

In Sagada I took a tour of some local caves. Not wanting to pay for the guide just for myself (cheaper if you have at least two people to split the cost) I waited in the tourist center for a long time (chill out kid) and finally met a Korean girl that was also alone and wanted to go to the caves. With a local guide, you descended down into to cavern several hundred feet to a few large chambers filled with interesting formations. My favorite was the rice field formation that looked just like the terraced rice fields that surrounded the area. There were also animal inspired formations (bear, elephant and snake) and the king and queen, which resembled certain parts of the human anatomy.

After my jaunt to Sagada I returned to Baguio "the summer capital" to spend one more night with my hosts there- a couple from Colorado that are teaching at an international school. I was able to talk to them about my plans for teaching when I go home- both of them got certified in Denver, Adam taught for three years at South and they lived in my neighborhood. It is always a bit funny to meet people when you are far from home and be able to talk about local politics and reminisce about your favorite places, like the Decker branch library.

I was sad to leave the Philippines- I had a really amazing time there, but I also know that unlike a lot of places I've visited, I have a permanent connection there.

Surfs up!

2010-11-09T06:03:00.002-07:00

After my parents left, I headed up to Luzon (the big island) for a bit of couch surfing (with Philippines PCVs) and a bit of real surfing. You know like in the water. I am not particularly good at things in the water- growing up in Colorado and all that (I know, I know, there are a lot of people from Colorado that are good swimmers, I'm just not one of them!). Not that I can't swim, I can swim, I just feel more comfortable on snow skis than on water skis. Also, I learned to swim in a swimming pool, so the ocean is a totally different thing. I've never been particularly good at holding my breath and I don't like it when water gets in my eyes, especially salt water. In Bohol, my mom and I tried a bit of snorkeling- it didn't really take; I kept breathing in water and the flippers were hard to use. Its ok, I just know that water things arenot my sports. But that doesn't keep me from trying . . . I must just be a glutten forpunishment . . .

The thing is, that the Philippines is one of the cheapest places to learn to surf, so if I was going to fail miserably, I might as well be doing it for only $10 an hour instead of the $100 an hour I might pay in Hawaii . . . and it looks like fun, right?

I headed up to San Juan, the home of the Philippine surfers. As a whole, the islands (surprisingly) don't actually have too many good places to surf and the native people didn't

actually do it historically. Surfing is something brought by the Americans and still mostly done by foreigners (except the handful of local instructors that have capitalized on some good waves in this area).

I only had one day and the weather was not so great, but I decided to try anyway- I headed to the beach to seek out my teacher. The waves were big and there were not many people in the water. I finally found an instructor, but even I could tell that the waves on this beach were going to be too much for me. We tried anyway, but after about a half hour of me wiping out in huge waves, we gave up. He told me about a better spot further down the shore that had gentler waves that we could try after lunch- Well why didn't you tell me that before! After lunch we headed down to the "cement factory" where the waves were much better and tried again. After a few more wipeouts, I finally was able to stand up! Then I really got the hang of it and stood up three times in a row! After a couple more wipeouts and a couple more successful rides, I was beat. Surfing is hard! I knew that I would be sore the next day, and I was for sure. I have so much more respect for people that do this well- it is basically like doing push-ups over and over for hours (not to mention the beating you get when you wipeout). I think I'll watch Point Break and Blue Crush with a lot more respect from now on . . .

Would you like rice with that?

2010-11-08T01:07:00.002-07:00

According to Filipinos, a meal without rice is not a meal at all. Even at KFC and McDonalds (which are as common here as in Kentucky I'd wager) you can get rice instead of fries or cole slaw. In Cebu i experienced the ingenious invention of "hanging rice" they put the uncooked rice into a pouch made of woven palm leaves, dip it in water to cook and voila! Personal sized portable rice packet!

This abundance of rice is something I've been experiencing my whole life at FACC (Filipino thanksgiving- turkey. . . with rice). Anyway, since I left Denver in August I think (it's hard to know for sure without access to a scale on a regular basis) that I had lost a few pounds. When I travel, I actually tend to eat a lot less and walk a lot more. The walking a lot is easy to explain, when you are traveling (at least the way I travel) all you tend to do is walk. I arrive in a new place and I walk around to get a feel, walk to where ever I'm staying (when I can) and a lot of my favorite travel activities involve walking (long hikes in the mountains- basically walking all day). But why don't I eat as much? For one thing, thinking about food all the time is exhausting when you are traveling- you need to constantly be finding new places, eating takes a lot of time and when I'm alone sometimes I just don't bother.

But in the Philippines with my parents things are different. First, I'm with my parents and it's not good for them to skip meals. Second, we have been staying with friends of theirs- in Davao, with their Peace Corps family and in Bohol and Cebu with family of friends from Denver. They don't let me skip meals- good Filipino cooking doesn't let me eat light . . . lots of rice with every meal. Thanks to my wonderful hosts in the RP any pounds lost have all come back! Talk about lost and found . . .

Patring

2010-11-07T05:28:00.004-07:00

Now, about Patring. Patring was a teenaged girl that lived with my parents the whole time that they were in the Philippines, the two years in Davao and the year and a half on Bohol. When I was younger, that didn't seem too strange- that was just how it was. But as I grew up it started to seem more strange- we don't even have a housekeeper now! When I joined the Peace Corps myself, I started to seem even more strange. They had a housekeeper? And Peace Corps paid for that? Of course it is not strange in the Filipino context, I don't think they intended to have a housekeeper, but they did and it became part of their Filipino normal. My mom wrote about how Patring came into their lives (and about the dogs and cats that kept them company too):

http://mindanoinday.blogspot.com/2008/03/of-girls-and-dogs-and-cats.html

So the first thing we did in the morning after arriving in Davao was go and visit Patring. We found her at home, in the house across the road from her clinic. She is not practicing right now since she has been having problems with her eyes lately. Because (I think) of the visit a few years ago, this was not the tearful homecoming that they probably had then, but it was emotional nonetheless. Patring is exceptionally sweet and I can see why my parents loved her so much. She came with us for a few hours and met us again when we went to the beach.

For me, more than any other person, Patring was the one that I had an image in my head about. In some ways, she is the Philippines for me.

And she is beautiful.

A whole new family

2010-11-06T04:50:00.003-06:00

(My Filipino cousins)

(Nang Tita, my Filipino grandma)

(my mom with her sisters)

While growing up, I always understood a couple things about their time in the Davao: they had their own house, but they lived in the family "compound" of a family and they had a teenage girl that lived with them as their "helper". These things became a lot more real to me when we arrived in Davao. First, the family, I will get to Patring in a later post . . .

We were picked up from the airport by Tombok, one of the little sisters of the Agton family. When my parents lived there, they were adopted by Mnang Tita and Mnoy Juanito (mnang and mnoy being honorifics for respected community members) who were a teacher and banker respectively who had 7 children between the ages of 9 and 18. Of these children, one has since passed away (along with his father) and one (the oldest daughter) lives in New Jersey. The others all live with or near their mother who recently celebrated her 80th birthday surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But I figured all this out later. Over the nextfew days I would be introduced to a dizzying array of family members (not to mention all of the families of Juanito's brothers and sisters whom we didn't really meet, but occasionally talked about).

Immediately I knew this was a special family when I met Mama Tita. She is everything I would want to be when I'm 80- strong, opinionated and sharp. She is still very much in charge of the family and she has to stay sharp to keep control over the masses.

Jojo, Bobong, Nimrod, Tombok and Nene (in case you are wondering, nicknames are very common- I'm no sure of everyone's real name, but Nene is actually Jane, for example) all welcomed my parents as if they were very a respected Aunt and Uncle. The kids, were a little slower to warm up to me, but soon I had made good friends with my new "cousins" especially KJ and Shingay (also nicknames of course). Over he next few days we were taken all around the city by various family members- up to the Eden nature park with Bok and Nene, to the Philippine Eagle sanctuary and People's Park by Nimrod and to the beach with half the family. Jojo and Bong were mostly busy with their own things- Jojo raises cocks for fighting (a long held Filipino tradition) and Bong was running in the local election (against his aunt and at least one cousin) for the neighborhood council. I get the feeling that no matter who you voted for, they might be related somehow, or at least someone's god parent or something- it's that kind of place and that kind of family.

Typhoon!

2010-11-05T23:04:00.004-06:00

Ok, not really, I missed the typhoon by a bit and just caught the tail end of it passing over Manila, which meant heavy rains on the day I arrived. I had hoped to only have to stay in Manila one night, but as my parents had to stop overnight in California and Korea in order to get here (standby travel sometimes means sleeping on a bench in the Seoul airport. . . ) I had a full day and two nights.The weather cleared in the morning (no typhoon for you!) and so I went out to explore Manila. As big cites go, it is hectic and crowed. I've found that while I certain cites are visitor cities and certain cities are livable cities and a few are both, some cities are neither (Tirana)and I think this is Manila too. That said I had an ok day walking around. When I was in thepark, I happened upon a rehearsal for some sort of performance that was going on later.

I went to get a late lunch and then came back to watch the show. It turned out to be a festival for indigenous people and there were over thirty groups from all over the country. Some of them had fantastic costumes and beautiful instruments and weapons (I wonder, do spears have to go in your checked luggage if they are part of your indigenous costume?). There was a parade in the park and then each group introduced themselves with a very short dance. This was followed by longer performances by a few of the groups.

After the first group, it started raining and the audience went up on the stage (the only part of the amphitheater covered) and watched the next groups.

If I understand things correctly (which I'm not always sure that I do) this was an opening ceremony and the different groups were going to perform at different venues (schools etc) over the next few days. After he slightly interrupted performance I took my first jeepney ride back to the hostel to wait for my parents. They finally arrived in the morning and we got the frak out of Manila and headed down to Davao.

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Hong Kong

2010-11-04T03:37:00.002-06:00

Hong Kong is the best of both worlds- Chinese tradition, British efficiency. I made the mistake of not really planning ahead for Hong Kong, but unlike most of the places I've travelled this isn't a very good idea- accommodation as a rule, isn't cheap and if it is cheap it's either not so good or can't be booked last minute. . . I was saved from a cockroach hostel (or $30 a night) by Ian, a Brit living on Hong Kong island teaching Spanish at a private school. He had just started his fall break and was leaving to take his vacation in the Philippines on the same day that I was- perfect. Since he was on holiday, he had time to hang out and show me the city. Together we explored the perfectly planned colonies streets and climbed to the top of Victoria peak to see the whole place. Hong Kong is modern and efficient, but still feels just enough Asian to be charming. I'm not defending colonialism, but it sure was nice to have a taxi driver actually use the meter.On my second day there, Ian and I ventured out to one of the smaller islands, had a seafood lunch and hiked around the tiny island to a deserted (but unfortunately very dirty) beach. We hiked back to the other side to swim instead in the immaculately kept public beach near the village.

On my third day I ventured out on my own to go to see "the big Buddha" on Lantau island. The best part was actually the cable car ride up the mountain. Far below the car (you could pay extra for a glass bottomed car- I didn't) you could see a trail snaking it's way up and around the hills. From the cable car you could see the new airport- built to replace the old one that used to jut out into the bay and that required planes to maneuver through the skyscrapers in order to land- my mom described feeling like the plane's wings might get caught on the laundry lines hung off of the buildings as it landed. . . At the end of the cable car journey there was a tourist village (sole purpose- sell souvenirs) a monastery and as promised a really big Buddha up on a hill. It was a very dramatic placement and impressive. Of course in addition to the British efficiency, Hong Kong has also mastered the tourist sell. While the big Buddha was impressive, it also felt a little like Buddhist DisneyLand (and you can visit Mickey and his friends at Hong Kong DisneyLand just one metro stop away from Buddha) there was a multimedia "walk with Buddha" experience and some sort of monkey theater show, neither of which I did. In fact I is kind of incredible to me how so many countries have managed to make money off their religion. Anyway. . .

Random conversation with Ian (now you see why we got along so well): where did he name for turkeys come from? Turkeys are native to North America. We call them after a country in the Middle East, in Russian they are called индюк (indook) thinking they came from India, in several languages it is hindi for similar reasons, in Spanish they are called peru (at least they got the right hemisphere.) In light of this, I think I like the Albanians name the best- they came from somewhere over the seas and they didn't speculate on where, hence gjell deti- the rooster of the sea.

The prettiest part of China

2010-11-03T01:04:00.003-06:00

After so many people in Beijing and Xi'an (not to mention all the pollution) the countryside near Guilin was a welcome respite. I had heard from multiple sources that this was one of the prettiest parts of the country. It did not disappoint. From the "dragons backbone" rice terraces to the strange and beautiful hills along the Li river, it was a gorgeous place. I only wish I had more than three days.

On the first day I went with a Dutch girl that I met in the train station (and who saved me from having to sit in a hard seat for 27 hours by letting me sleep in her bed for a few hours on he train!) to the rice terraces. We decided to take the four to six hour (according to the guide

book) hike over the mountain from one side of the area to the other. I imagine that you could make the hike in four hours if: you didn't stop at all to eat or take pictures, you were in really good shape and you didn't get lost. We did not meet any of these conditions. It took us more like six hours. Six hours and fifteen minutes. We started at about 11:00 and arrived at about

5:15. Unfortunately for us the last bus left at 5:00. Darn those extra fifteen minutes! We got a taxi to the next town where we barely (by literally getting out and running to the bus) we did catch the last bus back to Guilin. Even with this rush at the end, it was a great day. The rice terraces were fantastic and nearly empty- just what I needed after the crush of people in Beijing and Xi'an. I had a great time with Soenita, one of the few single female travelers I've met on this trip (in Asia anyway- I met lots more in Europe). We had a great conversation about traveling solo (among many other topics over six hours). Neither of us probably would have taken this hike on our own and it was nice to have someone to talk to.

On the second day I took a bamboo raft down the Li river to the town of Yangshuo. Here, I rented a bike for my most successful bicycle outing yet- a ride in the countryside. I passed bemused (or confused) villagers and almost no other tourists. Unfortunately my time was too short as I arrived in the afternoon and didn't want to be caught alone in the country after dark- especially since I figured out later that I had been traveling down a completely different road than I had originally intended (I apparently have very little sense of direction. I blame this on growing up in Colorado- it was too easy there: mountains=west). If I could go back and replan my trip a bit, I would have spent more time in this area and at least two nights in Yangshuo itself. As it was I only spent an afternoon there and headed back to Guilin in the evening.

I spent the third day taking it easy in Guilin. Like it's surroundings, the city of Guilin is a gem. With the river winding through town, an easy walking center and randomly beautiful hills, the only downside was that you had to pay to enter the parks (I didn't bother).

In the evening, I caught an overnight bus to Shenzhen, the city on the Chinese side of the Hong Kong "border". The bus was interesting- instead of seats, it had three rows of bunk beds running the length of the bus (maybe 24 beds in all?). The beds were not enclosed and left little room for rolling over- a strange experience, but much better than a hard seat!

Lost and found

2010-10-24T02:05:00.000-06:00

An inevitable part of travel is losing things. When you are packing up and changing locations every few days a few things left behind or misplaced are inevitable. Unlike when you lose things at home it can be hard to find them again since usually by the time you figure out that whatever you lost was missing you have moved on to the next place. I had been doing pretty well on this trip, as far as I can remember I didn't lose anything important from Albania to Colorado. In Russia the only thing lost was a Russian phrase book, which although I would have liked to keep it, it wasn't really a big deal since I lost it right before I left Russia. But this week I lost three things that I'm upset a bit about. First, I got to Hong Kong and realized that when I did laundry in Guilin somehow a pair of my pants didn't make it back in my bag. I wouldn't have been too bothered if I had lost a t-shirt or pair of socks, but of all the items of clothing to lose, pants are the most annoying. First, they are the most expensive, these particular pants being REI travel pants with the zip off leg- not cheap. Second, while I have a few t-shirts, I only have two pairs of pants with me since in general they don't need to be washed as much and I can wear them a few days in a row. Third, I like most women I know usually have a hard time finding pants that I like and that fit me well. These were pants that I liked, that fit me well an were perfect for travel since they are lightweight, quick drying and become shorts (handy!). I emailed the hostel in the vain hope that they might have found them and can send them to me somehow (when I go back to China in a few weeks). I'm not holding out much hope.

The second lost item of the week happened in the Hong Kong airport. I lost my water bottle. I know what you are thinking "water bottle? Big deal!" but this one was kind of a big deal actually. It was an impulse REI purchase when I was home and it is a pretty cool bottle- it has an internal water filter, making any water you put in safe for drinking, but it is the same size and weight as your average nalgene. This means that all across Russia and Asia I was able to fill up my magic bottle from the tap (or well or stream, what have you) instead of buying bottled water every day. So I was not only saving money, but saving the planet too. The bottle probably already paid for itself in the bottled water that I didn't have to buy. I lost it somewhere between security and the plane. I know I had it at security because they made me dump out the last bit of water that was in it before I went through. I then clipped it to the outside of my bag. When I got on the plane I noticed that it was gone, but since I was already on the plane there was not much to be done. I asked the flight attendant to ask the gate agent to look around the boarding area, but they didn't see it. The funny thing is that the filter itself was not in the bottle (I had taken it out since hong kong water is good) but without the bottle, I can't use the filter!

The third thing I lost was completely my fault- I forgot to check to make sure that I put my leatherman tool (a gift from my friend Melissa to replace the pocket knife that I lost when we were in Romania last summer) into my checked baggage. In the airport in Manila it showed up on the x-ray but through some sort of magic sweet talk I managed to get through. But then it fell out of my bag sometime later (I think when my dad put my bag into the overhead compartment). It may still show up somewhere- I thought I lost it last year at Outdoor Ambassadors camp but it turned up a week later in another pocket of my backpack.

Usually when I lose things I'm only ever mad at myself, since usually it is my own fault (like forgetting my pants in the laundry room). I do believe that there is lost and found karma- I did spend five years working at a movie theatre benefiting occasionally from the lost and found gods (I once got a palm pilot that someone hadn't claimed after a few months). I just hope that someone deserving finds my lost stuff and appreciates it as much as I did.

UPDATE: the hostel found my pants! They will send them to me when I go back to China next month! If you ever go to China make sure to visit Wada Hostel in Guilin. It is probably one of the best hostels I've stayed at and it is in a really beautiful part of the country. And they have the best staff EVER!

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Biking in China- day two

2010-10-23T01:12:00.000-06:00

Xi'an seemed like the perfect place to try again to bike around. My couchsurfing host, Tyler loaned me his bike for the day. It started out great- while busy, the streets are nowhere near as crazy as Beijing. Unfortunately, very early into my day I made a silly mistake by trying to pass a rickshaw and ended up hitting my handlebars and falling. I scraped my knee a bit and jammed two of my fingers in the fall. After a few minutes of self pity an a few tears, I picked myself up and dusted myself off and continued. Needless to say though, my heart (and hand) weren't quite in it for the rest of the day. I stopped not long after for some shopping and then sat in a park for another rest. I did manage to make it back to Tyler's house in one piece with no more incidents. When they say it's as easy as riding a bike, I don't think they were talking about bike riding in China. . .

Brave?

2010-10-22T18:27:00.002-06:00

I met a colleague of my host, Tyler, in Xi'an- she took us out to dinner for my first "hot pot" experience. She kept telling me how brave she thought I was. This is something that I hear from a lot of people on my travels. I guess because I was traveling by myself, away from my friends and family in a strange country. I don't really think of myself as "brave". Is riding the train across two continents or biking through the Chinese countryside alone brave? Some would call it brave, I suppose that some would call it stupid and I just call it beautiful and fantastic. I don't think of what I am doing as brave because I have always seen travel as exciting and normal, not usually dangerous. And now more than ever before, I think you have to be even less brave to travel alone because it is so easy.

In the morning on a boat floating down the Li river outside Guilin I had a discussion with an Australian guy who is traveling from Australia to Europe by land and sea. We talked about how the Internet had changed so much about travel. Just a few years ago, you had to rely on guidebooks for info, which could be incorrect or out of date. A few years before that there weren't even very many reliable guidebooks for many places. Other than this, you had tourism centers and travel agencies or just randomly arriving at a hostel. Now it is all different. You can go on one of several websites (I like hostelbookers.com) and look at lots of options with price comparison and reviews of guests. I almost never arrive at a destination without a prior reservation and all the info I need about where I'm going. In fact it is actually becoming harder to travel in a new way- it is easier to travel, but harder to have an adventure.

Last year I read a few books by Paul Thereux in which he traveled long distances mostly by train including across Europe and Asia and then back on the trans-Siberian in "The Great Railway Bazaar" and a year traveling China by train in "Riding the Iron Rooster". His world was a completely different place than the one I am traveling in. When he was in China, he was escorted by a government "tour guide" and struggled vainly to leave him behind and travel on his own. Now independent travel in China is easier than ever with many places geared towards the young, independent backpacker with hostels, cheap tours and English speaking staff. I was, in fact, a bit nervous about traveling alone in China, much more so than I had been about going across Europe and Russia by myself since I do speak (enough) Russian and knew I could get by in a pinch. China has been harder, since Chinese is harder and not too much is translated, but so far I haven't had too much trouble. The biggest issue I've had so far was my hard seat train tickets and I don't think knowing Chinese would have helped me too much (only a few million less people or not coming to china on a holiday would make a difference there).

I'm not really sure what "brave" is. I'm adventurous maybe, curious for sure. But mostly I'm just trying to see the world. . .

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Hard class

2010-10-22T02:11:00.000-06:00

I meant to book a sleeper, but I somehow ended up with a "hard seat". On the wrong day and to the wrong station (right city, just outside of town). My lesson learned from this- check three times that they understand what you want- even when you think that the person you are talking to speaks English . . . and don't try to travel in china during a national holiday.

So a "hard seat," not a sleeper and therefore, no sleep. Just me, one other American guy and about 100 Chinese people for 15 hours. The other American guy abandoned me to check out the dining car- he heard that if you slip the attendant a few bills they will let you stay there overnight. By the time I got uncomfortable enough to join him, the dining car was locked and any chance I had was gone. So I contorted myself into a somewhat comfortable position just like all my hard seat companions. On the bright-side, I did have a seat- when we left Beijing there were people standing and sitting in the aisles, although it seemed that most of these people had somewhere to sit by morning. This train continued on for another 18 hours to Chengdu and I just can't imagine another night like that. While the Chinese trains are certainly cheaper, I appreciate the Russian trains- I don't even think it is possible to just have a seat (no bed) on trips longer than 12 hours.

If there are no sleeper compartments available for my next section (24 hours to Guilin) I think I might just fly . . .

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The great wall and all that jazz

2010-10-20T09:58:00.002-06:00

(yep, that's me on the Great Wall)

What can you say about the Great Wall, really? Didn't they kind of say it all when they named it "Great"? I decided to take a tour offered by my hostel that would go to the "secret" wall- a part hopefully not covered in tourists and crawling in souvenir stalls. They delivered on the promise and we arrived at a beautiful section of the wall not far from the most touristy bit (with the cable car up and slide down) that was only partially restored and beautifully empty. It also turned out to be a fantastic day with relatively clear skies (only a mild pollution haze) and you could see quite a way in every direction.

It was a fun trip, I spiny most of the day hiking with a pair of British sisters who are English teachers not far from Beijing and in the city for the holiday. There is not much to say except that we climbed up, walked for a bit, took pictures walked back and climbed down. Climbed the Great Wall- check.

Travel in big cities (and any major tourist destination) often feels like a rather endless series of checklists: Great Wall- check, Summer Palace- check, Temple of Heaven- check, Chinese acrobats- check, etc. I feel like I try not to just "do" the checklist, for a lot of reasons. One, I can't really afford it; if I did everything listed in the Lonely Planet, I would be completely broke by now. I think, also that the best times I've had on this trip have been when I got off the checklist- usually with couhsurfers and PCVs. For me it is somehow easier to skip some of the attractions if I have someone to walk around town with- and when I do see things, it doesn't feel quite so listy since I'm sharing it with someone.

Anyway, checked off a lot of things from the list in Beijing. . . Up next, something that has been on my list for a long time: Terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an!

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Blocked

2010-10-18T09:49:00.000-06:00

I had heard that there were a few websites (most importantly for me- facebook) that were blocked in china. I also heard that there were ways to get around the blocking. So far I haven't been able to do that since I don't know how to get a proxy server on my iPod. I imagine I'll be able to use someone computer over the next few days to get to all the banned sites. Shh. I won't tell if you won't.

When I arrived in Beijing I found two more important sites blocked- blogger and wikipedia. Blogger is a problem for obvious reasons- while I have been using e-mail publishing on my blog since I got my iPod (because I can draft a post when offline) I still had to log on to actually publish the post and this is not possible here. I thought the fact that wikipedia was blocked especially ironic since they have this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China

I presume that they are listed, but I don't know since I can't open the page to check it out. If not someone should update it. :-).

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When in Rome . . .

2010-10-05T02:14:00.001-06:00

(me with my bike in a park in Beijing)

Or rather when in China, do as the Chinese do. . .

After spending my first day in Beijing walking and finding that the crowds were terrible and the distances long, I took the advice of the guidebook and rented a bike from my hostel for the day. Although there are still plenty of bikes on the Beijing streets, cars are more and more common, making traffic pretty horrible and becoming more dangerous for the bikers. Now, I haven't ridden a bike in years and between that and in general being a bit out of shape, I started out slow. Of course I couldn't really start out too slow since I had to get through the traffic in central Beijing around Tienanmen square right off the bat- surviving that, I made my way along some of the bike roads and hutongs (alleys) north to the drum and bell towers. I had fun exploring Beijing this way, but it was very stressful and there were several times that I had to dismount in order to get through big crowds and not run over small children or grandmothers. I managed to make it back to my hostel in the afternoon without getting hit by a bus and without hitting any pedestrians (at least not hard). I was sore and tired and happy to be in one piece.

While it is certainly faster than walking, I don't really see myself as a "bike" person. My friends Chris and Courtney are taking a several month bike trip through the middle east right now and while I love reading about their trip and it seems like they are having a great time, I just don't know if I could do it. I saw a lot of the people in Beijing zipping around on little motor bikes and scooters and I think that maybe I could do THAT. I am faced with the problem of transportation for when I get back to Denver in a few months. I would love to live without a car, but a few hinges make that hard- first as I plan on subbing for at least a few months, I will need flexibility that buses and biking just cant offer. Second, I'll be getting back in winter and a bike (or even a scooter) wouldn't be a reliable option for at least a few months. I guess I'll figure that all out when the time comes. . .

The ger life

2010-10-04T19:36:00.002-06:00

(Caitlin and I outside "Dublin Round")

One of he quintessential things to in Mongolia is to stay in a ger (yurt). The easiest way to do this is to pay for a tour that takes you to an "authentic" ger camp. But since I'm not generally for the easy way, I didn't do this. Instead I found a PCV that lives in a real life ger. In case you don't know, a ger is a Mongolian felt tent- usually used by the nomadic herdsman. In modern day Mongolia, many people live in more permanent abodes: apartments, brick houses etc., but many people still live in movable gers and many also live in semi-permanent gers in neighborhoods of towns and cities. Caitlin's ger is like this- she lives in the yard of a Mongolian family's house. Her ger- Dublin Round (probably the best ger in Mongolia)- is pretty great. It is about 12 feet across with furniture all around the edges and a wood (or coal or dung) stove in the middle of the circle that vents out the hole in the roof. She has no running water and has to go a few times a week to the end of her street to fill up a large plastic container for her water needs. She does have electricity and even Internet. Imagine, Internet in a felt tent!

A word on . . .

2010-10-03T19:37:00.001-06:00

Couchsurfing. This is why I love couchsurfing- when you stay with someone, you get a slice of their life, whether it is meeting some Hare Krishna or spending the afternoon in the jacuzzi of the guest house of the president of Mongolia. Sure there are temples and museums, but could you ever get an experience like his staying in a hostel? I didn't think so- just sayin. . .

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I found the foreigners

2010-10-02T19:37:00.001-06:00

(waiting for the train on the Mongolian border)

I found the foreigners- they are in second class. For the trip to Ulaanbaator, there were no third class seats available for the days I wanted to travel so I had to pay the extra money to be confined in a small compartment with three other people and loud rude foreigners next door. . .
In fact, the whole car is made up of foreigners. It seems that there is one normal train a day that crosses the border and in fact for several hours on either side of the border, it is disconnected and all alone (it is very weird to see your train car sitting by itself on the tracks, not connected to anything). And there are no third class seats because there is no third class- or first class for that matter. Just our lonely second class. For the border stop (long!) all of us forieners got off the train and sat chatting on the platform- it reminded me a bit of the people I met in waiting in the Amsterdam airport.

It feels weird to be leaving Russia. I don't think I'm ready, I just feel like I'm starting to understand things a bit and remember words that were lodged in the back of my brain. In Mongolia and China I will back at square one, not understanding anything people say, only worse off than in Russia because I've never studied Mongolian or Chinese.

I am really excited about Mongolia and I wish that I had planned a little bit longer there. I am planing on staying with a few Peace Corps Volunteers, which I think will be awesome as always. I have also started to map out my time in China, which is a challenge because it is just so much that it is hard to decided where to even start. I feel like I almost have to just open my guide book at random and visit where ever my finger lands, but of course that would be a bit silly. Really that is all that I have been doing so far and it has seemed to work out ok . . . Anyway, the trip goes on!

Lake baikal

2010-10-01T19:40:00.002-06:00

Fall may not be the obvious time to come to a place like Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake in the world- its too cold to swim (although I gather that even in the summer the water is pretty frigid) but not yet cold enough to drive on the frozen lake and ice fish. But I think that this was actually a great time to come- it's not too cold yet to not want to go outside, but there aren't a million tourists crowding the beach. And the foliage is turning. I love the fall and the changing of leaves. I think it is one of natures coolest shows and riding around the lake on the old Cirkumbaikal railway I was captured by the golden hues of the changing birches. I stayed for one night in a tiny village called Old Angasolka. I was the only foreigner in the village for the night and it was exactly what I wanted. There is one guy who speaks English ok and his girlfriend a little. I talked with him for a long time about Russia, America, Albania, brain-drain, development and tourism. He showed me some great pictures that were taken on boating, biking and climbing trips around the region, plus a funny video that included skiing an skating on the frozen lake and some crazy ice swimming (with a mad dash to the sauna). It makes me want to come back in the summer and even more to come back in the winter. One thing that is really great about Baikal, especially compared to the horribly done development of some aspects of tourism in Albania, is how simple and conciensiously the tourism here has been developed. There are twice weekly tourist trains that go along the old railroad stopping many times along the way- on this route there are no big hotels, only scattered campsites and small settlements of camps and guesthouses. The big hotels are concentrated in a few towns, or more in the city of Irkutsk a few hours away, making the lakeside quiet and peaceful. And since this is the most inhabited part of the lake I imagine that the rest of the lake is even more quiet and peaceful.

I love the train

2010-09-30T19:38:00.001-06:00

I really do. If I had to rank my favorite modes of transport for long distance travel I would have to say: train, plane, car, bus, furgon- and the car only goes above the bus if I'm driving or in the front seat. I love taking the train though. One thing that I was most disappointed by in Albania is there (nearly) non-existent train system meaning that I had to take furgons or buses everywhere. I wish the train system was better in the US. I think my next big trip might even be to go across America by train- so much better than a road trip . . .

In Russia I love third class. You may think I'm crazy (the Russians usually do- so far I've been the only foreigner I've seen in third class). But let me explain. On long distance trains, first class is a compartment with two beds, second class has four and third class has no compartments, just 54 beds arranged in sets of six in an open carriage. If I could afford first class and it was with someone I know, then that wouldn't be so bad. Again, with people I know then second class isn't horrible, except that with people you don't know (or know but don't like) or when it is hot, second class can be unbearable. You feel trapped in your compartment, there is no space to move around, you are always in someones way and it can get stiflingly hot. Third class however, is perfect for people that don't care too much about privacy and want a little room to maneuver. I like to think of it like a big moving hostel. As long as you have your earplugs and sleeping mask, then you are golden! Except for Moscow to St. Petersburg (hot, uncomfortable) I have been in third class so far on this trip. Unfortunately I have two upcoming long rides (Ulan-Ude to Ulaanbaator to Beijing) in second class. The third class either doesn't exist or was sold out when I got my tickets. I just hope it's not hot. . .

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Hanging out with HareKrishna in Siberia

2010-09-30T00:19:00.002-06:00

No seriously. This is one of those moments when you look at your life and think "what is going on here?" as I sit on the living room floor of a real live Russian Hare Krishna and all the other Russians around me chant in Sanskrit. I got here through couchsurfing- my host for the two days in Novosibirsk is chanting quietly next to me. It is clear that she is new to all this too; it seems that when she came back to Russia after eight years in the US she had become a vegetarian and was looking for some like minded people in her home town. She found the Hare Krishna and has started to spend time with them. On the day that I arrived, they had a guest also arriving. He is a British man that has spent much of the past ten years traveling around Russia and other places bringing the word of Krishna to the people. We met him and talked to him a bit and he did a talk about (I assume) life, god and all that good stuff - mostly in Russia (after all the chanting in Sanskrit). It was not what I was expecting in Siberia, but this is the fun of couchsurfing. My host, Marina, was a great girl, and in addition to introducing me to her enlightened friends, she also took me to meet her (truly adorable) parents and we baked cookies at her house. I wouldn't really say that I saw a lot of Novosibirsk (that's New Siberia to you), but what I did see actually reminded me a bit of Denver. It is about the same size and pretty much smack dab in the middle of the country (there is in fact a church there dedicated to the center of Russia). We went to a small art museum and walked around town. My time was too short to really get a feel for the city, and before too long I was back on the train . . .

Trans-sib section one . . . Yekaterinburg

2010-09-28T00:10:00.002-06:00

I got on my second Russian train in St. Petersburg for the first section of my trans-Siberian adventure. The trip from St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg is the longest section I have planned for the trip, nearly 40 hours. I stocked up on train food and headed out in the afternoon. Two nights of sleeping, eating, reading and staring out the window into the expanse of Russia, I arrived in Yekaterinburg- the last city of European Russia.

I had sent out a few couchsurfing requests before leaving and I actually got two responses so I had to choose between them. They both seemed like great hosts and like interesting people that I would get along with. I decided to stay with Yulia, because she had responded first, but I sent a message to Tanya to see if we could still get together.

With my two hosts, I ended up having two different and rewarding experiences in Yekaterinburg. I spent the first part of my first day exploring the city with Tanya- she is hoping to become a tour guide, so she looks at couchsurfing as good practice. Later in the afternoon I met up with Yulia and got to hang out with her and some of he friends. Yulia works at the university in the study abroad office. Right now there are not many foreigners studying in Yekaterinburg but that she is trying to change this and also encouraging Russian students to go abroad. Yulia is also working to increase volunteerism in her town- partly by volunteering herself and encouraging others to volunteer as well. She was very interested in what I was doing in Albania. The next morning I went with her to a fundraising event that she was helping with for an organization that works with downs syndrome children. It was great to see her and this organization and the work that they are doing.

In the afternoon I met up with Tanya again for tea and cake and then we went to see an art instillation at a factory near her house. The instillation, made up of several different light effects and video instillation's was really interesting. They somehow got permission to put lights up on several out of use parts of the factory, including a 'tetris' game on a smoke stack and a thunder and lightning display on one of the huge cooling towers. I'm not sure that I 'got' all of the instillations (do we ever really 'get' modern art), but I appreciated the exhibition. Much like the event in the morning, I am always happy when people are doing SOMETHING, especially since in Albania it was hard to find people that were doing innovative, interesting and important things. We finished the evening with a movie at Tanya's friends house and then she took me back to Yulia's. At Yulia's I was reminded again that things are still in progress in Russia when the elevator didn't work and we had to climb up 14 floors to her apartment. Overall, an interesting time in Yekaterinburg . . .

Peter's great city

2010-09-25T21:19:00.009-06:00

Raining again in St. Petersburg- time to get lost in the Hermitage museum? I think so . . .

This may be the most impressive art museum that I have ever been to (or rather been to and been able to appreciate, since I went to the Louvre when I was 12 and don't really remember anything but he Mona Lisa). It was room after room after room of masters and greats and then a few more rooms. In fact, the rooms themselves were a big part of the attraction- painted ceilings, gilded decorations, mosaic parquet floors- incredible. I could have wandered around for days- I was only able to listen to about half of the audio-guide selections.

You would think that after the Hermitage and winter palace, anything else would be a disappointment, until you saw the Summer palace- Peterhof. Smaller, but no less or ornate, the real attraction at Peterhof is not the palace at all, but the fountains. Word just can't describe- you just need pictures.

St. Petersburg may be one of my new favorite cities. I appreciate the unified architecture and beautiful planned canals. It feels put together, but not forced. I spent about two days just walking around and around and around. The buildings are beautiful, inside and out. Even the hostel I stayed in the first few days had these beautiful decorated ceilings! I think that St. Petersburg could be a city that I could live in . . . the cities I could live in keep piling up . . .

More on Moscow

2010-09-23T02:48:00.002-06:00

Moscow is not just expensive, it is also pretty great. A lot of people told me that a few days in Moscow would probably be enough, and they were right, but I had a pretty good few days. Since I left Albania this is the longest that I have been in any one place (except Denver and that doesn't really count). I don't actually like the hit and run approach to travel that I did in the early summer, but because of time constraints it was what it was. Even though I usually felt rushed, I knew it could be worse- we were constantly seeing tour groups on crazy fast super tours- follow the group, stay in line, ok next country! While I appreciate the ease and convenience of tours like that, I don't really think they are generally right for me- even if I could afford them. Anyway, so having five days in one place was kind of a treat. You get some time to get used to things, to back to things and not feel rushed.

The jet-lag hit me hard the first day and I opted for taking it a bit easy- I walked around town a bit and when it started to rain, I headed back to my hostel and took a nap. There would be time enough. On the second day I hooked up with an Aussia from my hostel and we went and saw the jewels of the empire at the Kremlin. The next day we went up to the university on the hill above the city for a great view and spent the one once day I had in Moscow walking all around the city.

Probably my favorite thing that I did the whole time I was there (and the cheapest) was tour the metro. The Moscow metro was built in the 1930s at the height of Stalinist Russia. He made the Metro stations "peoples palaces" and filled them with marble, statues, mosaics and frescos. I spent about 6 hours going around the four oldest (and most ornate) lines. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy day- warm under the streets.

How to survive Moscow on less than $50 a day

2010-09-16T01:24:00.001-06:00

Moscow is expensive. Maybe not quite as expensive as Oslo, but in Oslo I had a free place to stay and my mom to help out with the bills. Here, I've just got some random guys I met in the hostel and unfortunately they are not bankrolling my trip. Because of my fated standby disaster out of Amsterdam and the resulting $1000 plane ticket, I am significantly above my budget for the six month trip. When I was home I also had to spend some money on essentials like a dentist appointment (hopefully being reimbursed by PC) and contact lenses. Luckily when I was home l didn't have to spend too much on food since some of my great friends treated me to much needed Mexican food.

Anyway, it turns out that Moscow on the cheap is a bit hard. I wasn't able to couchsurf here since I didn't know when I would arrive, so right away $15 goes to the hostel every day (and that is a steal, believe me!). Food gets a bit pricey, even stuff in the grocery store blew my mind ($14 for a block of Parmesan cheese! Crazy!). But with good shopping, it can be done. It is also possible to eat reasonably out if you stick to mostly fast/street food and cafeteria style places, but figure at least $20 a day (unless you want to eat more than one full meal, then you might be talking $30).

The most expensive things in Moscow, really though, are of course the things it is hard to pass up as a foreign tourist and they know it! The museums, churches and souvenirs are crazy. Today I paid about $35 to get into the Kremlin (cathedrals and armory). It was impressive, but it sure made me long for a free Saturday at the DAM.

Sent from my iPod

America- for reals this time

2010-09-15T06:01:00.003-06:00

So what is the most surreal thing that you can think of doing a few hours after landing at home for the first time in over two years? How about your 10 year high school reunion? Yeah, that would be pretty strange.

I was on the ground less than 24 hours when I headed to the West side for a blast from the past. A year ago, I didn't even think that the reunion would happen much less that I would be home for it. When I got the invitation in February, I was surprised. As far as I know, no West High class has had an official reunion since a least 2003, and I didn't really have faith that the class of 2000 would pull it out. But wonders never cease and our intrepid head girl got all organized and put it together- from Texas no less. I was hoping to have a couple of days to rest, but because of our travel delays, I ended up with less than 24 hours in Denver before the reunion. As a consequence I was in a bit o' shock and a bit o' jet lag.

The reunion itself was nice. There were not too many people there, since there is an a bit of a catch 22 involved in event planning- the more people that come, the cheaper the tickets, but since the tickets were going to be expensive less people came . . . Anyway, it was not super well attended (maybe 30 people out of a class of 300), but it was nice nonetheless. Many of the people there had been following me on facebook and so knew some of what I had been doing, but it was really the first time I got to go through the 20 questions about my last two years (with a few more for the other 8 since graduation).

With the reunion out of the way, I got ready for the main event, the real reason I came home and another totally surreal experience Nichole's wedding.

Regular readers may remember in my pre-PC days (there was a time before Albania?!?!?) that I lived with my friend Nichole for two years. We had been best friends since high school and when she finished college and moved home, we decided to move in with each other. For most of the two years, things were great and we had a great time. Right at the end, things sort of fell apart and we had a bit of a falling out- I won't go in to details, but just say that it took us some time to get back to ok. But we did, get back to ok that is. And when she announce her wedding plans, I decided that this was an event that I didn't want to miss. I know that she would have understood- I was going to be in Russia or some such place, but I didn't want to miss it. I have missed a lot of things in the lives of people I care about since I left, including about a million weddings (or at least 8) and several babies being born. I didn't want to miss this one and I
also hadn't been home in two years- I missed America.

The wedding was actually about four days of different celebrations- bachlorette party, rehearsal BBQ, ceremony and reception. This wasn't really a traditional wedding in some ways- like the rehearsal BBQ and the fact that the reception was at a brew-pub on a Thursday. The ceremony was very Nichole with lots of singing and readings and her and Daryn (that would be her husband) who are both religious scholars obviously had a lot to do with the ceremony. I was not a bridesmaid, which was probably for the best since her colors were yellow and red and I don't look good in yellow- instead I wore a purple dress that I found while my mom and I were stuck in Amsterdam.

The first few days home were a bit crazy and now are a bit of a blur. I guess I had a little culture shock- big moments I remember are seeing my sisters daughters (who have started to become like real people!) and driving again and then coffee, coffee, coffee (and also food, food, food-kind of like Albania when you come to think of it). For a good week, I avoided grocery stores of any kind- and when I finally went in one I had a clear mission- chicken, which actually was hard- do you know how many kinds of chicken there are?!?! But besides these kind of physical shocks, it
was kind of an awkward amount of time- three weeks. It was enough time that I started to get used to things again and got to see most of my friends. It was enough time to eat chipotle, to see a bad movie in 3-D and to have a few days to relax. It wasn't enough time to feel quite normal again. I wasn't working and at some point you hit a wall about what to do everyday. I of course left getting ready for Russia and Asia until the last minute. I was busy, but there was no routine, so I know that it's not like normal. Before I had too much time to get bored though, I was getting on a plane for Moscow- and I made it on the first flight out- no getting stuck in DC!

America! Almost . . . (stuck in an airport or two)

2010-09-14T05:49:00.001-06:00

As you may know, my mom works for Skywest, which is one of the small, regional airlines that flies United Express and Delta Connect. If you don't know anything about the airport business (like me) it is all rather confusing. There are all these small airlines (some with only a few planes) that contract to do flights for the big guys out of all the small airports like Rapid City and Aspen. So my mom works for one of these companies out of Denver. They do all of the United Express flights out of DIA- to places like Rapid City and Aspen . . . She is a gate agent and I think that she loves her job. She gets to talk to people all day and meet all sorts of different folks, which makes her happy. Occasionally (like with any job) things get tough, especially when there is a blizzard in Denver. But unlike her former profession (middle school math teacher) the stress only lasts for a few minutes or hours and the upset people get on planes and out of her hair- she doesn't have to take work home with her. Plus, the benefits are pretty good- as a United Express carrier, Skywest employees have United flight benefits, although with some restrictions (we'll get to that later). Since my mom started working for Skywest a few years ago my parents have been able to take a few good trips including a visit to me in Albania last year.

The biggest issue with employee flight benefits is that you have to fly standby or space available- basically, you don't know if you have a seat until usually a few minutes before the plane is ready to take off, since you can only get a seat if the flight is not sold out or people miss the plane. This can be stressful and sometimes on busy routes you can end up waiting for several flights until you get on. I have spent a night in an airport more than once because I didn't get on a flight. But usually, you eventually make it to your destination.

I'm telling you all this because when my mom decided to meet me in Norway, it was of course understood that we would fly back to America together on her passes. Since I am no longer her dependent (too old, :-( ) I can only fly on companion or "buddy" passes. These passes have some restrictions. First, I can only fly on United, where my mom and dad can fly on United plus several other airlines that they have agreements on. Second, since my mom works for Skywest, she is technically not a United employee and therefore is considered "other airline employee" even when flying on United. Third, there are occasionally embargoes and blackouts for unaccompanied companions and employees of other airlines.

Originally, we planned on flying to Frankfurt from Oslo since as the biggest United hub in Europe it has the most daily flights back to the US. I even bought a ticket to get to Germany. So much for my planning ahead, United placed an embargo on Frankfurt and several other cities for the month of August- exactly when we wanted to fly. I took the Frankfurt ticket as a loss and got a ticket to Amsterdam, the closest city not under the embargo.

We had no problem getting to Amsterdam- I had a ticket and my mom got on the same flight with plenty of seats. The flights didn't look good out of Amsterdam, but there was nothing to do but go and see what would happen. We didn't get on either flight out the first day. We got a hotel room for the night and went into town, ready to return to the airport in the morning and see if we would have better luck.

In the airport the next morning, we met the standby crew- nearly 40 people waiting to get on the two flights out. The flights were heavily oversold and with the embargo, everyone was trying to get out of Amsterdam. We had not met all these people the day before since when we arrived from Oslo we went directly to the gate- they were still all outside in the check-in area and they would only let people go through security if it seemed like they might get on the flight. It didn't look good. We were on the bottom half of the list (the list is arranged based on seniority) and some people higher than us had been waiting for several days. There was even one mother and son that had been there for nearly two weeks! We weighed our options- my mom needed to be at work on Friday (now Wednesday), a hotel room was $100 a night, plus food and other expenses- a ticket through Iceland was $1000 (cheapest last minute ticket available).

We were going to Iceland.

We were not the only people to have come up with this plan. It turned out that there were about 6 or 7 of the stand-by crew that were on our flight to New York and I think many more that ended up on the flight to Boston. We were lucky to get the tickets at all and really have to thank the lady at the Iceland Air desk in Amsterdam for her magic fingers that got my mom's ticket. We met our new friends at the gate and went to Reykjavik. Unfortunately, the layover was akwardly timed- 11 hours, but arriving in the middle of the night, so we didn't leave the airport. We found a quiet corner and slept a few hours- by the way, the Reykjavik airport is a great place to have a long layover; they have comfortable benches without armrests, they are not too busy, so there are no announcements late at night and pretty much you can sleep. We woke up to find the airport sacked in with fog, but no worries, our plane was a bit late, but not too bad. We got to New York and then had to work on how to get the rest of the way to Denver.

As we arrived in New York in the afternoon, our options were not very good for getting out. But I had planned ahead and called my good friends Will and Wendi (RPCVs Albania G11) who are now living near Columbia where Wendi is going to grad school. A new found benefit of service is that as people have returned to the States they have spread out to the far corners of this great country and now I have good friends to call on in almost every major city . . . So we headed to Harlem and crashed on the couch (and floor). In the morning we got up early and headed to LaGuardia where we tried again. Because of a canceled flight to Chicago (and it being a weekend) we weren't looking too good. After three flights, we started to look at out options. My mom could try to get on a flight with another company if they had space, but this was harder since she hadn't planned for this (how could you plan for this!) and she was supposed to buy travel vouchers ahead of time to fly on other airlines. We headed over to the other terminal to see what we could gather from Delta, JetBlue and Frontier. It looked like there were seats available on two flights to Denver on JetBlue (direct from JFK and one through Boston). I bought a full fare ticket on the direct flight and my mom got a stand-by voucher for the Boston flight (it had more seats open).

We got home.

Denver at last.

Norway in a nutshell

2010-09-13T05:32:00.007-06:00

Let me tell you, Norway has this tourism thing down. We bought a tour called "Norway in a Nutshell" that included train tickets and a boat ride. It was not cheap, and maybe if my mom hadn't come with me, I wouldn't have done it, but it was really nice. On the first day we took the train to Myrdal-on a glacier halfway to Bergen- and then switched to the Flam railway. The Flam line descends several thousand feet very quickly through a series of long tunnels, including one which does a 180 degree corkscrew inside the mountain. This section of the trip is gorgeous- ok every part of the trip was pretty spectacular- with a series of high waterfalls. We arrived in Flam in the early afternoon and went to find our accommodations for the night- a tent in the campground. As this tour is very popular in the summer, it was hard to find places to stay (and especially places we could afford) in Flam, the only hostel was full several weeks ahead- so we
borrowed a tent. Now, over the past few months I have slept in some great place and some not so great; since we also had ground pads and sleeping bags, this was actually not that bad for me. I would even say that I was more comfortable than in the hostel in Kiev (horrible bed!). For my mom though, it was a bit hard. My mom is an experienced camper, but in the past fee years, she has had a camp bed or has slept in our camper-van when we have gone camping. The other problem came when we actually tried to put up the tent. As Tor was using their
tent for a boys weekend, we borrowed an old tent from his family. An old tent with missing poles and no instructions. I've put up a lot of tents, but this one was a puzzle- there was a frost line that we decided to ignore and in better weather we may have ignored the rain fly as well, but since it had been raining off and on we couldn't risk that. We got the main part of the tent up and eventually rigged the rain fly so that it was covering most of the tent and not touching it. It wasn't pretty, but when it did inevitably rain that night we stayed dry. My mom was a bit sore the next day, but I slept great . . .

The morning found us and we packed up for the main event- a ferry ride on a fjord. I had never really known what a fjord was before- I was expecting a sort of craggy outcropping, but what it really is is a sort of finger of ocean that juts inland- like he opposite of a peninsula. Anyway, the boat trip took us from Flam which is at one end of the fjord up and down to another fjord and then we got on a bus to go to Voss.

Voss was a nice town with a pretty church and if I hadn't been raining, a lovely mountain lake to swim in. In fact we did see a few people swimming, but they were crazy- it was cold! In Voss we stayed in a nice hostel and in the morning we caught our train back to Oslo.

In Oslo, we got an "Oslo pass" one ticket to cover all the attractions in the city (seriously could they make being a tourist any easier?). The highlight was probably the folk museum where we saw a traditional dance performance and a gorgeous wooden church. Another highlight was the Nobel museum with an exhibit on South Africa.

Our week in Norway was over too soon, but I was excited to get on my way to my next destination: HOME! See you in Denver . . .

Climbing the family tree

2010-08-18T06:33:00.000-06:00

A few years ago, my good friend Tara moved to Norway after meeting and falling in love with a young Norwegian man (they met at an animal rescue reserve in Bolivia of all places . . . I guess thats how love is sometimes). Anyway, so Tara moved to Norway, got her Masters degree and then a job working in human rights and has been living there for about four years. When I moved to Europe, we sent plenty of messages back and forth about visiting each other or meeting somewhere, but you know how these things go. As I planned my trip though, I decided that Norway isn't really that much out of the way when you are already planning on being in northern Europe and Russia, so I decided to make a detour. In the meantime, Tara was also planning the next stage of her life- law school. As I figured out the dates I would need to travel and decided that I would go home for my friend Nichole's wedding, I let Tara know- perfect, she would be leaving Norway the next week to move home to Colorado. This would be a crazy time, but I was always welcome to a spot on her couch.

My great-grandfather on my mothers side was Norwegian, which makes me 1/8 Norwegian. I have never felt particularly Norwegian as I have more Russian (1/4), Polish (1/4), German (1/4) and because of my curly red hair and freckles people often think that I am Scottish (1/16??) or Irish (0). My mom has always identified more with the Norwegian side of her family as she grew up a "Berg", but she has never visited Norway. When I told her about Tara's invitation she decided that she would meet me there for a week. My mom looked up info that she had about her grandfather's family including a genealogy that some aunt or cousin had put together from a family bible and a letter from her aunt talking about a visit to Norway about 30 years ago. We had a destination, we had the information, Norway ho!!!

Since Tara lives in a small (but very nice) apartment and with my mom coming, the whole sleeping on the floor thing wasn't really going to work. Luckily that Norwegian guy that she was with also had a lovely Norwegian family and his sister was going to be out of town for the week, so we could use her place, perfect! It was also nice to be out of the way since as I mentioned Tara and Tor were getting ready to move back to Denver also and they were packing up their place (including selling off some furniture-there's a funny story about selling their bed, but that's for Tara to tell).

Anyway, I arrived from Kiev and my mom arrived from America (first class on the first flight she tried, flying standby which I will talk more about when I get to the part about going home). Tara made dinner and we went to crash in our gorgeous apartment. The next day, we went on our family searching expedition. Based on the letter from my great-aunt Doris, we knew that we should go to the village of Prestfloss and look for the museum there. We took two buses from Oslo and arrived at the small village museum of the Sigdal and Eggdal valleys. After a few minutes of searching around we found the caretaker of the museum, Sigrid. We told her that we had good reason to believe that our family was from this area and that one of the houses in the museum was from our families farm. I have no idea how Aunt Dorris had found this information, but it turned out to be correct. Sigrid showed us around, including in the "Bergen farm house" a typical farm house from the 1750s donated to the museum by the family, and also a nice exhibit of musical instruments. When we sat down in the museum shop for some waffles and tea, Sigrid went and got "the book," a record of the family genealogies for all of the local farms. On the Bergen farm we found my great-great-great-grandmother Kari who left in 1854 for America with two young kids including Marte my great-great-grandmother. In the book we found that her brother had stayed on the farm and in fact his decedents still owned the farm to this day- we had cousins! Sigrid knew the family (of course) and so she called them up. The farm is run by a bachelor and his sister is married and lives nearby. This brother and sister are my 6th cousins (I think???). The sister's husband (former mayor and history teacher) came to the museum to drive us over to the farm and introduce us to the family. Maybe I'm just dreaming here, but I could see some family resemblance- the farmer looks uncannily like my grandfather- the same thin frame, the same features; they could be cousins. . .

One interesting thing for Americans traveling abroad is explaining to people the "Heinz 57" mix that many Americans are, especially after a few generations. In Albania, I got the question all the time "what is your origin- Albanian?" since one way that they could explain my presence in their country was that I was Albanian originally. When I would answer with my litany of origins they would be amazed. I don't think about my different backgrounds so much and I don't think that most Americans do anymore. This was the first time that I had gone searching for my roots; it was interesting, but I don't know if it made me feel more Norwegian. It was nice to be there with my mom, because she was excited about it and it was fun to see her so happy. And it is kind of cool to know I have family- somewhere out there.

I'm sorry

2010-08-11T01:59:00.000-06:00

I don't actually know how many people read this blog except my parents (hi mom and dad!) and Chris's mom (hi Arlene!), but if I do have any other fans, then I'm sorry, becaus I have been a slacker lately. If you go by the blog hen you would think I'm still somewhere in Bulgaria even though I'm about 5 countries past that. I totally intended to get caught up when I was home, but between weddings and my gorgeous nieces and mahjong I got even more behind. I have a couple of long train journeys coming up (I'm in Russia by the way) so I willget to use that time to write. I WILL NOT be writing any "catch up posts" in which I try to cram three months of stuff into one entry, bit hopefully over the next few days I will have several posts ready for upload, hopefully even with pictures.

So, again, sorry for the back log. . .

Now entering the former USSR

2010-08-10T01:24:00.001-06:00

I crossed into Moldova on an incredibly hot bus, which got better briefly when it started to rain- but then the windows were closed and it got hot again. I could tell immediately when we crossed the border as the road became worse. Heading into Moldova felt a little like coming home- I reminded me a lot of Albania. Similar in size to Albania, Moldova surpassed it a few years ago to become the poorest nation in Europe. Like Albania, Moldova has a large part of the population living abroad working and sending money home and Moldova also has many unfinished buildings. In Moldova I stayed with another RPCV with his HCN wife. I only stayed one night, and I imagine that Moldova has a lot of secret places, again like Albania, that could be explored, but I didn't have time. I needed to get to Kiev by August 3rd for my plane home . . . But I'm getting ahead of myself . . .

I took another incredibly hot bus over the Moldovan border to Odessa, Ukraine. I had to be careful about which bus I took as some of the hisses cross through Trans-Dniester an occasionally volatile break away region of Moldova. It is listed as another one of those "restricted zones" by Peace Corps, and even though I'm no longer a PCV and don't have to follow those rules, I had heard that sometimes foreigners are sometimes asked to pay heavy bribes to cross the border and I just really didn't want that trouble.

So I arrived in Odessa- my last chance for nice beach weather. Something has always seemed really romantic to me about Odessa and it didn't disappoint. It had everything I love in a city: walkable streets, nice parks, a beach and of course falafel. In the states, we are used to a lot of different kinds of food all the time. When people would ask me food I miss from home, my answer would be things like falafel, burritos and real (American) Chinese food. I always love the randomness of ethnic food available in different places. Budapest seemed to have a profusion of sushi places and Odessa had a really amazing falafel stand. The guy who owned the stand was not just a falafel stand owner, he was an artist. Each sandwich took about 10 minutes and was a whole process, but it was worth it. Anyway, as indicated earlier, I finally found a nice day and headed to the beach to swim in the Black Sea. The beach wasn't anything spectacular, but it was nice and wasn't too crowded and so I had a nice relaxing afternoon.

From Odessa I headed west to Ukrainian Ukraine (as opposed to Russian speaking Ukraine) to couchsurf with some PCVs in Lviv. One thing to know about trains in Ukraine- book ahead, especially in summer. I had originally thought that I would try to go to Crimea for a few days, but when I arrived in Odessa I found that Crimea was sold out two weeks in advance. So I headed west instead. When I got to Lviv, I found out that the night I wanted to go to Kiev was also sold out- problem since I had to arrive in Kiev, by a certain day to fly to Norway. No problem, as I could stay an extra night in Lviv and take a day train, which brings me to the second thing you should know about trains in Ukraine in the summer---- HOT!!!! And not in a good way.

Anyway, I arrived in Lviv and met Linnea and Kari, my PCV hosts. Linnea actually lives in a town about 45 minutes outside of Lviv, but came into town to meet me, have some American coffee and sushi and use the Internet, all things which can be done in Lviv, but not in her town. Things that can be done in her town, I found, included eating borsht, shopping in the pazar and swimming in the river. I spent a really relaxing few days with Linnea and one night in Kari's weird apartment attached to her school and then headed to Kiev for my last stop on this "Peace Corps couches" part of my trip.

Sent from my iPod

Dracula country

2010-07-29T10:41:00.001-06:00

I arrived in Romania after a short overnight journey with my three down under friends and we went our separate ways. I decided that I didn't need to see Bucharest or Brasov again (even though it PROBABLY is the best city in the world) and so I headed to the adorable town of Sighisoara, which is the actual (maybe) birthplace of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula). Despite this, it is a lovely town with a citadel and old town square and nine towers on the city wall. I sat in the square people watching and reading and took what turned out to be a private walking tour led by two high school students that reminded me a lot of my kids in Albania. The tour was organized by a Christian charity (veritas.ro) that helps the people of the region and also runs a restaurant and a community center. Although obviously the tour is geared towards foreigners (it is in English) I thought it actually showed a great example of how a community could sustainably support the work of a charity. It also gave the kids something worthwhile to do in the summer and a chance for them to meet lots of people and practice English.

I had been in contact with some PCVs in Romania and had originally planned on going to the Danube river delta next. It turns out that because of all that rain keeping me from going to the beach, the delta area was flooded and not very accessible. I had gotten two responses from volunteers around the city of Iasi (pronounced yash) that turned out to be sitemates so I went to visit them. Jenn and Becca were awesome. We cooked Mexican food (my tortilla making skills coming in handy) and Jenn and I went into Iasi to shop and visit the botanic gardens there and make fun of Eastern European fashion. Of course since I wasn't near any sea, it was crazy hot and didn't rain. . . Iasi was also a perfect place to jump off to Moldova and Ukraine as it is right on the Moldovan border. I left Romania after too short a time, but the trip must go on!

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The hostel life

2010-07-29T10:02:00.000-06:00

About half of my travel so far on this trip has been in "hostels". Hostels are loosely defined as private businesses that cater to budget travellers, youth and students for accommodation. The general picture that comes to my mind is a building with several large dorm rooms and some sort of shared kitchen, but I have found that hostels can vary widely. I have stayed in just about every type of hostel- from small, converted apartments with just a few rooms to large corporate affairs with a front desk and swimming pools (seriously, at a hostel in Florence!). My favorite places were probably somewhere in the middle- homey, but big enough that you don't feel like you are stepping on people and with enough people to have a wide variety, but not so many people that you can't seem to meet anyone.

I've met some really interesting people in hostels- from the guy writing his novel in Bulgaria to the many gap year Aussies and a few slightly odd ducks. Occasionally I've run into people again randomly, like the guy we met in Bosnia and then was in my hostel again in Kiev and the Norwegian guys from the hostel in Plovdiv who I played cards with halfway through Romania.

I was worried that I would be lonely or shy or bored travelling alone, and sometime I was. I've decided that I still do prefer to travel with someone (at least someone cool!) to travelling alone, but I have also found that I CAN travel solo. I have met a lot of people that are doing long trips, that make my round the world look like a mini break. I don't know if I could do it-after just a month on my own I was feeling ready for a break. We will have to wait and see how I feel in the middle of the longer (three month) trip later in the year.

Anyway, I have found he hostel life to be fascinating and I'm glad to have stayed in some really interesting places- and a few uncomfortable ones.

Tips for hostel travel- ear plugs and sleeping mask are a must when staying in dorm rooms (sometimes it seems like there is a snoring contest going on), talk to people- if you want to be alone you are staying in the wrong place, keep your belongings neat- the best way to lose something is have your stuff spread all over a dorm room, don't be afraid to cook in the kitchen but ask before you take any food that's no yours!

Happy travelling!

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Back in Bulgaria

2010-07-28T11:19:00.001-06:00

After my short trip back to Albania, I returned to Bulgaria. Last year when I went to Istanbul and Romania, I went straight across Bulgaria three times and only stopped for a few minutes in the Sofia bus station, so I don't think you could say that I had "been to" Bulgaria. I had honestly heard mixed things about the country, but after my few days with the PCVs for the fourth, I knew I wanted to spend some good time there. When I arrived in Sofia, I got on the first possible train to Plovdiv, a sweet town in the central part of the country. Plovdiv has it all for an Eastern European city: Roman ruins, old mosques and churches, ottoman buildings, a pedestrian shopping district with street musicians filling the air with ambient music. Plovdiv was my first real stop without Alexi and I stayed in a hostel on my own for the first time. I will probably write a whole post later on hostels and "hostel culture," but for the moment I'll just say that traveling alone a different experience from traveling with someone or a group. I had to readjust to being by myself a lot and I had to start being brave and talking to strangers. I went to dinner with three British girls and wandered around the city by myself. When I am alone, I am less motivated to go to museums or things like that and more inclined just to wander the streets or sit and people watch.

After Plovdiv, I took the train to the Black Sea coast city of Burgas. I decided last minute to head to Burgas and I sent out a few last minute requests to PCVs that I had found online. I got a last minute response from Tyler, an RPCV living with his HCN (Host Country National) wife. It is not uncommon to find PCVs in relationships with and eventually married to HCNs. Tyler and his wife Stella were great. Even though it rained, preventing me from going to the beach (again!) we had a great time. They were super helpful with getting me a train ticket to my next stop, made me dinner and took me to watch a world cup match at a local bar. The day that I left, the sun finally came out and Tyler and I went for a walk on the beach.

My last stop in Bulgaria was the town of Veliko Turnivo. This town may be one of my favorite stops in the whole trip. First, I stayed in a great hostel. It was the perfect size- big enough to have a lot of people, but small enough to feel homey. Second, I met some really great people- particularly three girls (two Aussies and a Kiwi). And third, we went on the most random, fantastic tour.
When I arrived at the hostel I met Andy, another Kiwi who had come on vacation to Bulgaria a few summers ago and had been coming back ever since to work in the hostel in the high season. His job required him to be on call at night and take tourists out on tours to interesting places in the surrounding areas during the day. In return he got room and board for the summer. The tour was very unique. About an hours drive away from town is an abandoned Communist monument nicknamed "the UFO" called Buzludzha. This meeting hall/monument was built high on a hill in the early 80s. After the fall of communism in Bulgaria, it fell into disrepair and now is closed up and falling apart. The building is just a drab concrete circle from the outside, with a flying saucer like shape (hence the nickname). But inside, the meeting hall is filled with magnificent mosaics in the communist realism style, glorifying the worker and the communist party leadership. You can tell that when this building was built, it was fantastic. As it is now, it is a bit surreal. The surreal aspects were increased by the cloudy, foggy, creepy weather (which turned into a downpour) and the herd of wild horses hanging out outside the building. The crumbling roof didn't do much to keep out the rain and after a little while inside we were all soaked and freezing. As the rain let up, we walked outside into the dreamlike fog and the horses galloping by. On the front of the building someone had written in large red letters "FORGET YOUR PAST" in between the poems extolling the virtues of work and nationalism. Many Bulgarians of the right age (late 20s) will tell you that they remember going to this site when they were school children, but many others now don't even know that it exists and now only foreign tourists with a desire for something unusual come to visit. For many people in this part of the world, remembering the past is still very painful and I guess I don't blame them for trying to forget. The only problem with that is that when you truly forget your past, you are only doomed to repeat it.

56 hours for a Russian Visa

2010-07-25T15:09:00.001-06:00

Travel tip: always allow extra time for visas. Lots of extra time. And expect that the embassy will be closed when you go to pick it up, it will cost more than you think and things will get lost in the mail.
. .

There are only two countries in my plan that required visas: Russia and China. Since I had residency in Albania, I decided to apply for the Russian visa before I left. I took my passport to the embassy in Tirana in April. I should have had a residency permit from the
Albanian government, but of course as things tend to go, I got my permit and found that it had the wrong picture on it, namely it had Amanda's picture on it. Now Amanda is a very nice person, but I don't think we actually look anything alike, so I had to send it back. This delayed the processing for a few weeks, so they only had a month to get my visa before I left. When I informed the lady at the embassy that I would be leaving the country on the 14th of June, she seemed unconcerned. The visa would get there when it got there and my ability to pick it up really had nothing to do with it. There is no such thing as express service.

The morning that Alexi and I left Albania, we stopped by the Russian embassy to see if my visa would be there for me to pick up. We found the door locked and the windows dark- the embassy was closed for some holiday . . . it didn't really matter anyway, when I was able to get online and call the embassy a few days later I was informed that my visa wasn't ready anyway. Call back in two weeks. Maybe it would be done by then. Maybe.

I started to strategize on how I would get the visa once it was done. One thing was sure, my passport had to get to Tirana. Because I was still traveling on my Peace Corps passport (I have two passports, I know, it's weird) that didn't necessarily mean that I had to be in Tirana, just my passport. Could I find someone to carry my passport back to Albania? Could I mail it? Once it was there, could someone else take it to the embassy for me? What documents might they need? I almost had a carrier (missed them by one day in Budapest) and I almost got the notarized documents and mailed it, but as I got closer to Albania again (Serbia, Bulgaria) I decided it would be easier and safer (although more time consuming and expensive) to just take the passport back myself. I had already made plans with the PCVs in Bulgaria to spend the fourth with them, so I planned my quick return to Shqiperia for after that. For resons that are beyond me, there is no direct bus service from Sofia to Tirana, so I had to go overnight to Skopje and then to Tirana (well, actually to Tetova and then to Tirana). I arrived in Tirana at 5pm, just in time to meet up with my friend Fraiser and watch a World Cup match. In the morning I headed to the embassy bright and early, got my visa and got right back on the bus to Skopje at 9am. 56 hours and I was back right where I started but with a permission to visit Russia stamped in my passport.

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Ain't no party like a PC party 'cause a PC party don't stop

2010-07-22T20:48:00.004-06:00

A few months ago right on this very blog, I posted the first outline for this trip with a call for advice, help and people to meet/stay with. I got a comment on that post from a PCV in Bulgaria that basically invited me to come anytime- which was exactly what I was looking for. When I contacted her to let her know I was on my way, the timing wasn't great- her group would be at their MSC conference most of the time I would be there, the new group had not yet sworn in and
the other group was staring to COS- so I might have a hard time finding hosts- but did I have any plans for the fourth if July? In fact, it worked out perfectly because Alexi had just left and I was on my own and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the fourth than with tons of strangers that were certain to become friends quickly.

The great thing about Peace Corps is that volunteers are the same wherever you go- we have many of the same struggles and successes, incredibly similar stories about training, site, host families, staff etc. but just enough difference to still make it interesting. For example, while most volunteers in Albania are placed in towns/cities of moderate size, most volunteers in Bulgaria are in rather small villages.

Anyway, so I arrived at Brian's, a PCV about an hour from Sofia. He has a great house, perfect for a laid back BBQ. Over the next two days I met about 15 PCVs, ate more meat than I thought was possible, and tried three different kinds of Bulgarian beer. We also played kickball, watched the new Twilight movie and sang patitotic (and other songs) very loudly for several hours.

Hanging out with PCVs is probably one of the best ways that I can think of spending a 4th of July. It didn't really matter that I had never met any of them before, we had a ton in common, not least of which was our similar experiences over the past years. One thing that I have found through my travels is that PCVs are the best people to stay with- they have all the inside info, speak the language and understand what it's like to be traveling in a new place. I look forward to staying with a lot of volunteers on the next part of my journey . . .

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Night train to Belgrade

2010-07-21T10:38:00.002-06:00

It was hard to pull ourselves away from Budapest, but the trip must go on, especially since Alexi had a ticket to fly out of Sofia so we had to get there. Looking at our time, we had a few choices- we could go straight 15 hours to Sofia, or we could split it up with two night train journeys and a day in Belgrade. One of the best ways for a budget traveler to save some money and time is to take night trains. Except for the border check that inevitably comes just when you've fallen asleep, I tend to sleep pretty well on the night train as long as I spring for a bed. The problem, of course, is that you never know how things will be. You buy your ticket and just hope for the best. . .

We got on the train (it seems as always) just as it was leaving and dragged ourselves to the compartment to find a full room- we were on the top bunks of the six bunk couchette. We managed to climb up (not easy with 35lbs on your back) and get settled. At around 2:00 when the border check came I woke up dripping with sweat and hardly able to breath. When the door opened a rush of fresh air came in hat made me realize how hot it really was. I climbed down to go to the bathroom and discovered the truth- it was significantly hotter up in the top bunk and there were tons of open bunks in other compartments. Under the principle of ask forgiveness not permission I grabbed my sheet and went to sleep in an empty bottom bunk.

We arrived in Belgrade not very well rested but still determined to make the most of our 16 hours there. Belgrade fit into our tour of capitals nicely. With lots of fountains, a relaxed coffee shop culture and a really, really big church under construction it was somewhere between Sarajevo and Tirana. While I imagine there could be more to see and someday I would love to come and really talk to people (and maybe get another perspective on history) I feel like we made a good choice to spend just the day there. We made it back to the station with plenty of time (time in fact to watch a movie on Alexi's laptop) but still somehow barely made it on the train since we had to go back to the ticket counter to get a refund for the couchette reservation
since the sleeping car didn't actually exist. We were actually able to sleep more without the couchette since we staked out an empty compartment and stretched out on the seats.

Sofia is another one of these cities like Istanbul and Sarajevo that is a strange mix of east meets west. But more confusing. I'm not sure why, but we got lost more in Sofia than in any other city. We would turn down one street and then look up and realize we were on the completely other side of the city from where we thought we should be. We felt like we either must have been the biggest idiots in the world, or the city had some sort of weird voo-doo that made otherwise smart
people get completely lost. From Sofia we took a day trip to Rila Monastary and got Alexi ready to leave Europe. Sadly, my lovely traveling partner had to head home (sad) to start grad school (happy!). So now my journey continues solo.

Next chapter: finding out how PCVs party in the rest of Eastern Europe.

Budapest's second chance

2010-07-08T13:26:00.005-06:00

Eight years ago, when I was studying abroad in Prague I took many weekend trips around central Europe including one to Budapest. I try not to blame it on Budapest, but the trip was not what you could call 'great.' I took the trip with about 9 other students from my program in Prague- first lesson, don't travel in big groups . . . never again.

Things started to go downhill right from the beginning- while crossing the border to Slovakia in the middle of the night two of our friends were taken off the train because they didn't have the correct transit visa to go through Slovakia. None of us really knew what was going on until the train was moving and our friends were not on it! When we arrived in Budapest (two people short), the accommodations that we had arranged were somehow wrong or something changed (maybe because we were two less people, but I have no idea- I didn't arrange it). From that point it was just a mess- trying to get 10 people to agree on anything or move in any direction is impossible. Basically, it was cold, I didn't end up doing or seeing very much of Budapest and the trip was only saved from being a complete wash when three of us broke off from the group and found this wonderful outdoor skating rink in front of a castle and spent the morning by ourselves there.

When Alexi and I first started talking about taking this trip together, Budapest was one of her top destinations. I knew when I left the last time that I would have to go back sometime to give it a second chance. Budapest passed the second chance with flying colors.

Being back in Budapest made me actually get a little bit nostalgic for Prague. It is a big city, but the center is very walkable. It also has some of the best public transportation around (I love the super deep Budapest metro). The Danube, while not really blue, is really pretty and the two parts of the city sit in wonderful contrast to each other. I knew that there were a few things that I wanted to do in Budapest that I didn't get to do the first time around, namely tour the Parliament and go to one of the famous thermal baths. In the former, I was thwarted again when the tour was full the first day we tried and closed the second. I did, however, get a dip in a thermal bath and a massage, so that pretty makes up for everything. Other highlights of the 4 days in Budapest included eating falafel twice, seeing a 5 hour long Waggner opera (in box seats!) for only about 5Euro, and meeting Outi, a Finnish girl that we couchsurfed with for two nights.
We also took a one night trip out of the city to the town of Gyor. Gyor also was lovely. We happened to arrive on the weekend that they were having a festival of some sort. It seemed to involve various kinds of music and dancing, as well as medieval events (there were some people dressed up in armor . . .and flag throwing). So the town felt very festive. We fed the ducks down by the river and watched tango dancing. And in our (never ending) search for the best gellato in the world, we found a good contender in Gyor. Sometimes there are gems in the most random places . . .
I left Hungary feeling as if I could honestly say "I liked Budapest," maybe even loved it. I might just have to go back again, but not because it has anything to prove.

2010-07-07T13:01:00.006-06:00

Ok, so I feel a little bit bad about skipping Croatia. Croatia doesn't deserve that. Croatia is great. Really Croatia, it's not you, it's me. . .

When we left Mostar, we headed to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik has the reputation for me as being one of my mom's favorite places. I don't know how many times I have heard how wonderful it is. Alexi and I talked a bit about this, what makes a place great (or not great) for different people. A few months ago, in addition to posting my plans here, I sent out an email to all of my friends and family getting advice for my upcoming trip. The response I got was great. I got a few tips on places to stay or poeple I could stay with, a few people passed on my message to another friend with more info and a lot of people told me about places they have travelled. I really loved getting these messages, but it was kind of funny, because sometimes I would get completely contradictory advice about a place. It could depend on so many things. How do they like to travel? What was the weather like that day? Who were they with?
I bring this up because I liked Dubrovnik. I didn't love Dubrovnik. It rained both days we were there (crazy hailing thunderstorms) and things were a bit expensive for me. For example, to climb the old city walls and walk around up there cost about 10€. That seemed a bit steep to walk around the city (in the pouring rain no less) so we skipped it. Also because of the rain, we didn't get to go to the beach, one of the things I was really looking forward to in Croatia.
My favorite part of Croatia was Plitvice national park which is in between Zadar and Zagreb. A lot of factors went in to my general "like" of this place. First, it is insanely beautiful- it is a system of lakes connected by waterfalls that you walk across and through on raised wooden platforms. Second, we stayed in a great guest house outside of the park with the softest beds and best shower I've had in ages (especially compared to the bus station floor we slept on the night before).
We skipped Zagreb, partly because we were short on time, partly because we arrived with perfect time for the last train to Budapest, but mostly because we got more "don't bother" reports than "I loved it!" reports. . . But who knows, maybe we would have loved it.

2010-07-03T01:11:00.007-06:00

So I had started to write a post about Croatia, but I got bored writing it and I figured if I was bored writing it, you would probably get bored reading it. As I have been traveling, I have been thinking a lot about the form of the "travel blog" in which people tend to just write "then we went here and it was great" sort of posts. I really hate that. So anyway, we went to Croatia and it was great . . .

About travel in general: Travel is hard work. This is the first time in my life (or since I was a kid, I guess) that I have ever had such a long period of time with no responsibilities whatsoever. This in itself is strange and I tend to feel like I should be doing something . . . My biggest worries each day are getting from one place to another and finding food. Other than that, I have nothing real to do. It's a bit strange. But somehow, travel feels like work sometimes. You have to get up early (some days earlier than I ever did working) to catch buses and trains or get a jump on the museum traffic. You have to do a lot of reading and research.

About travel buddies: I have been traveling (since COS) with Alexi (a fellow G11er). This is the longest that I have ever traveled at one time and the longest I have ever traveled with another person besides my family. I think that finding a good travel partner is hard. If the fastest way to ruin a friendship is moving in together, then the second fastest way to do it is to go out on the road with someone for a few weeks. People travel in so many different ways, that it can be a real crap-shoot. Sometimes someone you are really close to would be the worst person to travel with. Although we have known each other for two years, I wouldn't say that Alexi and I were close during our service. For one thing, we lived on complete opposite ends of the country. We shared a room together at the COS conference and started talking about this trip. I was really happy for the prospect of having someone to travel with for at least the first bit. Things with Alexi have been great. We get along well, we travel well together, we have similar interests. She is a bit more subdued and introverted than I am, but that has not really been a problem. And having a travel buddy has so many benefits- someone to watch your bag when you go to the bathroom, someone to split a double room with, someone to talk about the museum/church/monastery/park that you are visiting. When Alexi leaves in a bit, I will enter a new phase in my trip- my solo/peace corps couchsurfing phase. It will be weird to be traveling without her . . .

Phase two- the Balkans loop

2010-07-03T00:46:00.005-06:00

After getting my dad in a cab to the airport, Alexi and I started the next leg of the big adventure- the Balkans Loop. Our plan was to head west into Montenegro, then go across Bosnia and then swing up through Croatia to Hungary, down to Serbia and finish up in Bulgaria. From there, Alexi will fly home and I will continue on my way.

Our first stop was Durmitor national park in Montenegro. We started off fine, having good luck finding a good taxi driver to take us over the border, finding a bus that (amazing!) took us right to the park, finding a cheap place to stay. The town was cute (although we had a hard time finding any good bread) and the park itself was pretty good too. With a big lake and lots of well marked hiking trails things were looking good. But then we entered the world of cartoons. Two to be specific. First, I want you to imagine Pigpen from the peanuts. You got that? Ok, now imagine that you are Pigpen and he little cloud of dust that follows you around everywhere was actually made up of flies and mosquitoes. So now you have a bit of the picture of the hike that Alexi and I embarked on. It was out of control. I sort of expect bugs in the forest, but not swarms. By the time we got up to the point where we couldn't go on (impassable ice field since we left our ice axes at home. . . ) the war had begun. This brings us to our second cartoon- the one where Mickey kills 7 (flies) in a single blow. I started my attack (on the mosquitoes mostly) and by the time I got down the mountain I had a body count of over 40.

From Durmitor, we headed into Bosnia-Herzegovina, starting with Sarajevo. For me, Sarajevo was very interesting for the fact that I think the was in Bosnia was probably the first war that I really remember clearly. The signs of the war are all over, and even though there has been an incredible amount of reconstruction work, they don't let you forget about the war. Besides that, I felt like Sarajevo was a very livable city. They have tasty food and a great market and a vibrant feeling city center.

We finished off the country with a trip down to Mostar. Where we saw the (new) old bridge (most as in Mostar). The old old bridge was built several hundred years ago and destroyed in the most recent war. A few years ago they decided to rebuild an exact replica of the bridge using the same techniques and materials as the old one (with a few modern safety precautions, like metal scaffolding). The new (old) bridge is incredible; you can't tell it was a different bridge. Which actually brought up some interesting things to think about. When things (especially large/beautiful/historic things) are destroyed should they be replaced with something new or should they destroyed thing restored? If it is restored to its original condition, then have we lost some of the history of whatever did the destroying- which might not be bad, I'm not sure. Anyway, the new (old) bridge was interesting and Mostar was nice.

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The forbidden north (on the Edith Durham trail)

2010-06-21T15:35:00.009-06:00

On Sunday morning I said goodbye to Peshkopi and we traveled down to Tirana to start our journey up to the "Forbidden North." The northernmost part of Albania as well as all of Kosovo is currently off limits to Peace Corps Volunteers and other US government employees living in surrounding countries. I have heard several justifications for this restriction. For the northern part of Albania it is because the area is still extremely isolated and hard to get to, especially in the winter when several feet of snow blocks the only roads in. Other reasons I've heard include the persistence of things like blood feuds and other old (possibly dangerous) traditions. As for Kosovo, the ban stretches back to the war in 1999 and the unstable conditions there since then and the establishment of diplomatic relations since they declared independence from Serbia two years ago. While all of these may be perfectly valid reasons, I tend to think that it is mostly political. Whoever makes the decision to open up these areas puts them on the line, because if anything happens once it opens up, then they will inevitably be blamed. Second, for Kosovo, the US government employees (embassy, USAID, military contractors) currently in Kosovo are getting hazard pay for being in a "dangerous" country- there is still a presence of the UN and NATO forces there. As soon as it is opened up, however, it isn't a hazardous place anymore and bye-bye hazard pay, so the people working there (and there are a lot- many more foreigners in Pristina than in Tirana) don't really want that to happen. The Peace Corps staff have actually been working hard to get these areas opened up, so hopefully sometime soon volunteers will legally be able to go there . . .

In the meantime PCVs either have to go illegally, or just wait until after they COS (we did actually have one girl sent home for being in a restricted area). I went ahead and went for the second option. So after a night in Tirana and a night in Shkoder getting ready and figuring things out, we left for Thethi.

You have probably never heard of a woman named Edith Durham. I had never heard of her either until I moved to Albania. She was a British woman that traveled to the Balkans in the early twentieth century and traveled around the area mostly by herself. At that point in time it was almost unheard of for foreigners to go to some of the places that she went, much less a woman on her own. She wrote several books about her travels and one of them, High Albania, chronicles her journey through precisely the same part of Albania that we were headed to- but she did it on foot. Anyway, since I read High Albania last year I have dreamed a bit of retracing her steps. When planning his part of the trip, it seems as if we did do that to some extent, except we were going to have to drive a bit. Also, a few weeks ago on the bus down to Tirana from Burrell, I met the most awesome old man (who gave me raki at 8 am on moving bus- only in Albania) who compared me to her, so this leg of my trip was dedicated to the memory of Edith Durham 102 years later . . .

A tip for travelers planning on going to Thethi (which I do highly recommend)- you can pay a lot for a private car, or you can furgon it like a local by going to the Kafe Rusi in Shkoder. To get there, walk on the street headed out of town to the north until you get to the area with the fruit stands, the furgons leave early in the morning (7 am).

The road to Thethi is certainly one of the most dramatic in the country. Although it is not the road in the worst shape (that honor goes to the Peshkopi-Kukes road) it is surely the scariest. Barely wide enough for one car, the furgon descends on hairpin curves over the pass and down into the valley. If another car is coming in the other direction one or the other usually has to back up to a wide enough part of the road for passing. When we got to the bottom, I understood what all the hype was about. Thethi is basically a perfect little village deep in a river valley surrounded by beautiful high peaks. Within short walking distance of the village there is a waterfall and a canyon, not to mention all the mountains that had my dad literally drooling.

Thinking of the steps of Edith, we could see the pass that led to the Valbona river valley, a hard 8-hour hike away. After much discussion and deliberation, we decided that it would not be a good idea for us to try that hike, as we were told that it was very difficult. Instead, we enjoyed a lovely day exploring the village and around and then returned on the furgon the next day.

The next step in the adventure was to take a ferry up the artificial lake created by the by the hydroelectric dams from Koman to Fierza. This is something that I have heard about and have wanted to do for a long time. Last year when my parents visited, I tried to figure out a way to make this trip, but there was no way to do it in the direction I wanted in the time that we had, so this was one of the first things on my list for this trip. We got up early in Shkoder and found the bus that would take us to Koman. At the end of the ferry trip we arrived in Bajram Curri and decided to hard straight on to Kosovo. After discovering that there was no afternoon bus, we flagged down a car on the road to the border. Our driver took us into Djakova, bought us coffee and delivered us directly to the bus to Pristina.

In Pristina, we met up with Tien-mu, a G10 volunteer that is doing a summer internship at the ministry of foreign affairs and just happened to have an apartment that we could stay in. It was great to hang out with Tien-mu, and Pristina is a nice town. It feels a lot smaller than Tirana, but is very vibrant. While we were there, they were celebrating liberation day (I assume from the Nazis) and there was a stage set up in the main square with music and dancing. It has a great xhiro street, perfect for strolling up and down slowly on a summer evening. Unfortunately, most of the "old" or historic buildings have been destroyed, so there's not actually a ton to see in town (except of course the big, gold, Bill Clinton statue!) They have a small, good, free museum, which's most interesting point is that it is missing a lot of its collection because much of it was "borrowed" by Serbia and never returned. There is a campaign to try to get their collection back.

On our second day, we headed to Prizren, close to the Albanian border. Prizren has a cute old town and a pretty bridge. The best part about Prizen was probably the museum about the Prizren League starring my new favorite Albanian folk heroes, the Frasheri brothers. I've heard the names of the Frasheri brothers here and there for the past two years (schools, street names, random statues), but never really knew what they did. Contrary to Alexi's position that they were the most famous Albanian doo-wop group, they were (especially Abdyl, with that sexy beard) leaders of the Albanian resistance movement and "Awakening" in which they started the fight for independence.

Leaving Kosovo, we headed down the brand new (and newly reopened) super highway. The only four lane divided highway in Albania, parts of it were opened last summer just in time for the national elections and tourist season (this road is mostly used as a way for Kosovars to get to the beach . . .) and then mostly closed in the fall because it probably shouldn't have been opened that early at all and the big tunnel was probably not safe for cars to go through (I went through it once last summer, on my way back from the tube trip and it didn't feel or look very safe back then). Now more of the road is open and appears to be much safer, just in time for the beach season.

Sent from my iPod

A quick note

2010-06-20T07:17:00.000-06:00

Hey there loyal readers!

So I have left Albania and started the 'big adventure.' What this means is, that this is no longer a Peace Corps blog, but now a 'travel' blog (ok, I know a lot of my blog has been about traveling, but you know what I mean). Traveling, being a tourist is very different than living someplace and traveling from it (which for the most part is the kind of traveling I've done). It is harder in a lot of ways- I don't know the languages of the places I'm going, for the most part, I'm staying in hostels and hotels rather than with friends and I have to carry basically everything I own on my back. So far it has been fun and interesting, hopefully it will continue that way.

Anyway, so a couple of notes about my blog for the next few months: I sent my computer home with my dad, so I'm mostly using my iPod to write blog posts, it takes me longer to write since I'm not used to the keypad quite yet. Second, since I don't have my computer, I don't generally have a way to upload pictures, but I will try to upload as many as I can whenever I get on a real computer.

Thank you for reading!

Hajde Korabi!

2010-06-09T07:50:00.006-06:00

My dad arrived safe and sound (and with my new iPod touch!) on his wedding anniversary and just in time for my birthday. We headed directly up to Peshkopi where he immediately slept off the jet lag and I returned to packing and saying goodbye. On my birthday I had a small party. All my friends were pretty considerate of my gift restrictions and tried to give me small/light gifts. Unfortunately, lots of small/light gifts still add up to a lot and some hard decisions had to be made.

On the day after my birthday my dad, a couple of other PCVs, two of my OA kids and I started out for our adventure on Mt. Korab. At (nearly) the last minute the plans that I thought had been made fell through and other arrangements were made. Sometimes I think that all my efforts to plan ahead are just in vain, like banging my head up against a wall. . . But I still have to try.

Anyway, the arrangement's were made, we had a furgon pick us up and take us to Radomir, the village at the base of the mountain, about two hours away from Peshkopi. As we got closer it just got more and more beautiful. The weather wasn't great, but the rain and clouds added to the atmosphere of the whole thing, especially when a full rainbow came out. I don't know if I have ever actually seen the end of a rainbow before, but this one touched down in a village below us; I'm convinced that if we had looked we would have found some gold. . . Or at least really good food.

Our last minute accommodations turned out to be pretty great, with a family in the village of Radomir. We ate some good, fresh food and slept on sheep skins on the floor. In the morning, we got up early and started up he mountain. With a general direction and a map drawn on a cigarette carton we climbed towards the highest peak we could see. At about 2:00, we reached the top of this ridge. From there, of course, we could clearly see two important things- first, the ridge we were on was a peak, but not THE peak, and second that there was a much easier way up (and down) than the way we came. Knowing that we didn't have enough time to reach the REAL peak, we decided it was good enough to have reached a peak, took our pictures and headed down on the path.

We caught our furgon back to Peshkopi and I spent my last night in town frantically packing and trying one last time to consolidate everything. In the morning we headed to Tirana to have a calm night in with Jan and gear up for the next leg of our adventure.

Next up: the Accursed Mountains (finally not forbidden).

Sent from my iPod

A few last adventures

2010-06-07T07:56:00.000-06:00

I got some great advice from a G10 PCV a few months ago about my last few months here in Albania. He said, "Do EVERYTHING you can do these next few months you have left in Albania. I mean it, do not waste ONE single day. Do those things you always wanted to do but for all the
obvious reasons never did." Thank you Matt for that bit of unsolicited advice- I have tried to take it to heart. Since the end of the Earth Day project, I have been trying to make the most of my time here and get to all the things that I wanted to do.

I started with a visit to the Venetian mask factory in Shkoder. I purposefully didn't buy any masks when I was actually in Venice, because I knew that I could get them cheaper (and help an Albanian small industry in the process) in Shkoder. Before heading on, I spent the night in Rreshen and made sure to say goodbye to the great students there that I met last year working on the play and with MUN.

A few days later I continued with a seriously awesome trip to the Skrapar region to go rafting. Seriously Awesome. Seriously. Everyone should take this trip. It is simply beautiful. I then spent a few days in Berat hanging out and finally visiting the castle there
(I'd been there twice before without making it to the castle.) Very worth it.After that, I spent the week in Tirana- getting medical stuff done, saying goodbye to a few people in my group and helping with a fundraiser party for some kids trying to go to America.

As part of taking Matt's advice and taking advantage of my last few weeks, I really wanted to make sure to spend some quality time with people in Peshkopi too. Seeing more of Albania is all well and good, but I think that what really means a lot to me is being able to go to dinner with my good friends here, having that last coffee and sharing one last circle dance.

But there were a few more things that I needed to get done outside of Peshkopi too. When we were in Italy, my traveling partner Connie and I were given a bottle of wine by the owner of the hostel we stayed at in Rome. She kept it and I promised that before I left I would come down and we would drink it together. Nothing beats a good bottle of wine or a nice walk along the lake shore . . . except maybe the good conversation with a good friend that can go along with those things . . .
What next? What haven't I done in Albania. Well, I've never ridden the train. I know what you might be thinking, "Is there even a train in Albania???" In fact there is- it is slow, only goes a few places and doesn't connect to the European train system, but it does exist! And it happens to exist from Pogradec (where Connie lives) to Elbasan. So decided to catch the train. Unfortunatly, I missed the train by about 5 minutes (the station, outside of Pogradec was a little farther outside than we planned on). But not to worry, the train moves so slowly that I was able to catch a furgon and beat it to the next stop! I actually really enjoyed the train trip. It was slow, but it was also cheap. And it was frankly nicer than I expected. Besides the fact that every window was cracked very badly, the carriages were not in that bad shape- they had comfortable seats and were clean. I could stand and look out the window, sit and read my book and not worry about getting car sick. Sure the trip took about twice as long (3 hours rather than and hour and a half), but it sure was a pretty trip!
From Elbasan I headed up to Tirana to do my final COS checkout and officially become an RPCV. The end was rather anticlimactic since I wasn't actually leaving Albania yet. After COS, I had a few days to wait until my Dad arrived, so I thought it was the perfect time to head to the beach. Probably the best (cleanest and not yet overdeveloped) beach in Albania is Dhermi, south of Vlora. I have heard nothing but good things about this place, but for some reason beyond me I never had the chance to make it down. Until now! Two days camping on the rocky, isolated beach was just what I needed to recharge. Because it was still really early in the season and the weather wasn't that great (a few sprinkles, but no real rain) there were almost no people on the beach. Just like I like it.
I headed back to Tirana to pick up my dad and head back up to Peshkopi for the last time.

Matura/COS

2010-06-01T06:31:00.001-06:00

Finishing Peace Corps can be compared a lot to graduating from high school or college. There are many similarities in the form and feelings- lots of paperwork and thinking about the future, lots of mixed emotions.

Last week was the "Matura" celebration here. I joined some of my students from OA and last years MUN team on their "T-shirt" day. The tradition here is that the whole graduating class gets a t-shirt of the same color (this year it was blue) printed with the "Matura 2010" and they sign each others shirts with markers. I signed as many t-shirts as I could (until my hand cramped up :). This is accompanied with dancing (always circle dancing) in the school yard that last a few hours. Now these seniors are basically done with school except for their graduation exams that are taken in June.

This week I get to complete my own graduation: Close of Service. COS includes me writing my Description of Service, taking a check out medical exam and doing interviews with various staff members. I don't think I'll have a t-shirt to sign, but I do have a COS check-list that requires the signatures of lots of people. Just like the graduating seniors here, I'm not sure what the future will hold, but I can't wait to find out . . .

packing up and parting

2010-05-31T06:31:00.005-06:00

I hate packing. I hate moving. I hate packing and I hate moving. I hate packing, I hate moving and I hate living out of a suitcase. It is kind of incredible how much stuff I seem to have accumulated over the past two years. I didn't think that I had that much stuff, and I think that compared to some other volunteers, I don't, but it still seems like a lot when I have to go through it all. I have started to separate everything out into different boxes: one for things going home, one for things I'm packing, one for things to leave here for other PCVs and of course trash. Whenever I am packing or moving, a big bit om my mom's pack-rat gene comes out. I have some pretty random stuff (some of it sent to me, some of it acquired who knows how) that I just don't know what to do with. Do I really need this? No, probably not, but it doesn't need to end up in a landfill either (or in this case in a burning trash pile). I have some clothes that are completely falling apart that I just can't seem to part with and also some clothes that are perfectly fine . . . except the fact that they don't really fit me well anymore (and I haven't worn more than a few times in two years). Getting rid of this kind of stuff is a bit of a struggle for me, but it will have to be done. The only saving grace for me right now is the fact the my dad will be taking a suitcase (or two?) home for me.

Part of the problem right now is of course the fact that as soon as I start packing, and I mean really packing, then it means that I am really leaving. Every day I get closer to the end here and I have to say goodbye to someone else. It may not seem as important as saying goodbye to my friends and coworkers, but I also sort of have to say goodbye to my house and stuff. Over the past two years, my house became a bit of a sanctuary for me in times of stress and loneliness. It was a place that I could invite friends into, but also a place where I could just be by myself and just be myself, away from the sometimes staring eyes of the people in my community. My house had it's problems, but in the end I love it and I will miss it. Even the frozen pipes and weird noise that my toilet makes . . .

Dasme!

2010-05-18T04:39:00.006-06:00

Since most of my close friends here are either already married or in high school, (and thank god I'm not going to their weddings yet) until this weekend, I had only been able to go to one wedding in Albania (in my first summer, my language teacher Ola), so I was really excited when I found out that one of my coworkers, Marijana would celebrate her marriage right before I left Peshkopi. An Albanian wedding is pretty similar to what I imagine many wedding celebrations around the world- lots of food, drinking and dancing. Usually, an Albanian wedding will be at least two parties, one for the bride's family and one for the groom's family. As far as I understand, unlike in the American tradition where there is a "ceremony" with the exchanging of vows, rings and kisses, usually in Albania there is only parties and the official marriage (signing of the marriage certificate) is done privately. This wedding was a little bit special because the bride and groom are Christian, so they did a sort of modified Christian ceremony with rings (but strangely no kissing . . . hmmmm). Other than that, it was basically like any other Albanian party, in other words, circle dancing.

The Valle Shqiptare, or the traditional Albanian circle dance has it's equivalent in many other Balkan/Mediterranean countries. You find it in Macedonia as the Ora and Greece as the Choreia and even in Jewish tradition as the Hora. The dance can range from simple to complicated and slow and easy to a jumping heart racer. The most basic form involves the repetition of a few simple steps- basically, step, touch, step, cross. The first few times you try, you find yourself staring down at the floor in front of you trying to stay on step with the person you are following. After a while you are finally able to look up and enjoy the dizzying effects of the dance. In Albania, every region or town has their own traditional valle. Many of them use the basic step, but a few, like the high spirited Valle Kuksi (from the northern city of Kukes) includes a running jump step that only energetic youth or very experienced dancers should attempt. My favorite is probably the Valle Kosovari because the music has this great drum beat that I just can't resist. I love the way that the circle dance involves the whole community in the dance together. At the wedding, each dance was taken in turn by a different group; the DJ would announce "this is the turn for the Uncles of the bride on the mom's side" and that part of the family would rise up and dance. By the end of the night, no matter who's turn it was, most people joined the dance. You would think that going around in a circle would get old after a while, but somehow it doesn't. Somehow, it's just comforting to be part of the circle and part of the community that formed it.

2010-05-14T03:20:00.002-06:00

It seems like the countdown to leave Albania started in March at the COS conference, but now it has really begun in earnest with the first real live, official COSs of G11 this week. We have had a couple of people leave since the March conference; one to get her knees fixed (hope you are feeling better!), one to go home for family reasons (our thoughts are with you!) and one to accept a job here in Albania that pays real money (congrats!). But this week is the first week that our group can start to leave without it being an early termination and I feel a bit like every time I say goodbye to people I might be saying goodbye for good.

I think I had an idea when I joined PC that I would become close with my fellow volunteers. I'd been to enough camps and intense study experiences to know that things like this bond you together in a way that is not possible under most normal circumstances. But PC has been a new level of bonding for me. From PST to IST to Midservice to COS and counterparts to hostfamilies and successful projects to failed projects to project ideas that never got off the ground, I feel like my fellow volunteers understand me better than any other people in the world right now. I miss my family and I miss my friends (Hi guys, I'll be home in August, can't wait to see you!), but I know that it will be hard to go home again because I will have to explain things and recount my stories for the folks back home . . .

Will I ever see them again? There are volunteers in my group from every corner of the US. East Coast, check; West Coast ,check; Midwest, check; Mountain West, check (duh, that's where I am! and Paul, hey Paul!) Alaska, check. I think all we are missing is Hawaii. The good news is that I feel like I have places to stay all over the place now and in this age of facebook, email, blogs etc. it is easy to say that you will stay in touch with people. The biggest problem is that it is easier said than done. Just like I feel like I have only sort of stayed in touch with people back home (you read about me here, I stalk you on facebook . . . ) I'm afraid that once we leave Albania I will grow apart not only physically but emotionally from my fellow PCVs (now RPCVs).
So the goodbye process has started . . . and don't get me started on how hard it is to say goodbye to some of the people in my town

Une nuk jam nje gomar! (I am not a donkey)

2010-05-01T12:10:00.000-06:00

Or our Earth Day project . . .

I have to say that overall it went really well, or at least as well as can be expected. Did we make a big difference in the world? I'm not sure, but it was a great process to go through:
For the past four or so months I have been working with my Outdoor Ambassadors kids (about 10 high school students) to plan and implement a project for Earth Day. We started with an idea to fix up one of the parks in Peshkopi and went through the whole project planning process. We applied for a grant from Disney for "Global Youth Service" and won the $500. Now we had to figure out what to do with that money. Probably the most difficult part of the whole process for me was trying to get the kids to make decisions, plans, and lists and not just doing it for them (I think I said "this is YOUR project" about four thousand times over the past few months). I think that we spent two months making task lists and then on the day of the project I still had kids asking me what they were supposed to do . . .We decided to buy new wood to fix all of the broken benches in one of the parks in town, plan some flowers and do some education about Earth Day, protecting the environment and not using plastic bags. For this purpose we also got some cloth bags printed that say "Take drastic measures, don't use plastic bags" (it rhymes in Albanian) and the Outdoor Ambassadors logo.We spent the last week really getting ready for the project- we put up posters around town, we invited important people, we talked to all of the classes in both of the high schools. And finally the day arrived. And it was raining. At about 9:00 I started getting calls from the students, "are we still going to do the project??." YES! It's not raining, I don't believe in rain, rain does not exist! Luckily for me, my positive attitude won over the weather and at exactly 10:30, the project started and the sun came out. The rest of the day was beautiful. And chaotic. We had men from the bashkia (city hall) come to help install the new wood for the benches, and then the kids painted them. We passed out plastic bags and gloves to the (it seemed like) hundreds of kids that came out of nowhere as soon as the sun came out to pick up trash. When they came back with full bags, we gave them candy (whose wrappers ended up back on the ground half the time . . . what can you do?). When I tried to distribute the cloth bags to the kids that worked the hardest, I got literally mobbed. With children climbing over each other and onto me, I almost lost it. It's hard to remember how to say "Get off of me, I am not a donkey!" when children are attacking you. Eventually, most of the craziness died down and we were able to get some work done including planting some flowers and painting the rest of the benches.

Was it a big change in the world? No, not really. It wasn't even that big of change in this small corner of the world (I think between picking up the trash and all the candy wrappers we maybe broke even on the whole thing . . .) but all that is besides the point. Ten motivated high school students, a few supportive adults and two slightly crazy Peace Corps Volunteers took a project from an idea to a reality in a few months. I hope that I have at least proven to these kids that it is possible to do SOMETHING even if it is small and that people will help if you have a good idea. I also hope that I have laid some foundations for projects with these and other kids to continue in the future. I can't wait to see what they do next . . .

One month and counting

2010-04-28T12:10:00.004-06:00

My countdown begins.

I leave Peace Corps in exactly one month (although I will be in Albania still for about two weeks after that). As I approach this date, I am, of course, filled with a lot of mixed emotions. I will be sad to leave, I have come to love this beautiful country and especially my little mountain town. I started to make a list (I really like making lists) of some of the (sometimes very unexpected) things that I will miss and not miss about my two years here:

Things I won't miss:

1. Furgons

2. The weird noise my toilet makes when I flush it, dubbed by my dad "the climaxing buffalo"

3. Frozen pipes

4. Trying to light my wood stove with frozen hands

5. Parties in the bar next door to my house that go till 2am when I'm wanting to go to sleep

6. Furgons

7. Hand washing my clothes and waiting for days for them to dry

8. Having too much time to knit, read and watch movies (alone).

9. The small town of Peshkopi. It is hard every time you walk into the post office or store and everyone knows everything about you and is all up in your business.

10. Mentaliteti Shipatar (the Albanian Mentality) and "avash, avash" (slowly, slowly or step by step). The idea that things will never change is that everything here takes sooooooooooo long. You get beat down when people keep telling you that nothing will ever change and that nothing we do will make a difference. I swear, the next person to tell me, "Mos e merzit, avash avash" (Don't worry, step by step) will get slapped.

Things I'll miss:

1. Getting plenty of sleep- never in my life have I been this well rested. Part of the charm of living in a small boring place is the ability (nay, luxury) of going to bed early and waking up without an alarm. I probably sleep an average of 9 hours a night here, something that I don't think I'd done in America since middle school and something that I don't expect to be able to do in America ever again (being a teacher means getting up at 5!)

2. The view out my kitchen window- pictures say it better than words, but pictures can't capture the beauty of the fog rolling down the hill and engulfing the town or the smell of the apple blossoms . . .

3. The horrible translations on the bottom of the News 24 screen "The president felicitated the country on independence." It may be a real word in English, but no one talks like that. Seriously. Seriously funny.

4. My wood stove

5. The small town of Peshkopi- it's amazing how nice it feels to walk into the post office or grocery store and have everyone know you, ask about your family, your work, and how you've been.

6. Having the time to knit and read and listen to news and watch movies.

7. Cooking dinner with Dylan.

8. 50 lek pilaf.

9. Circle dancing.

10. My students in MUN and OA. They give me hope for the future of this country. When things are going just avash avash, they encourage me and make me believe that change is possible and Shqiperia po ndryshon (Albania is changing- this was the slogan of the Democratic Party in the election last year, but despite that connotation, it is something to believe in!).

My last call for funding help . . . from Albania at least

2010-04-23T05:27:00.003-06:00

As a generally "do-gooder" type, I feel like I am always asking for money from my friends and family. Help me with this project! Support this great organization! The only thing that makes me feel better about this is that when my other do-gooder friends ask, I usually try my best to help them out with their causes (I haven't much for the past two years . . . it is a bit hard when living on $200 a month, but I promise to start giving again when I get home . . .).

Anyway, I have one last call for help before I leave Albania. I have been working for the past year with a group of kids called Outdoor Ambassadors. Last summer I took 6 kids from Peshkopi to a camp in the south of the country for a week. At that camp, the idea came up to try to send some of the best kids from all around the country to a program in the states. Outdoor Ambassadors works with about 200 youth spread throughout the country and a lucky eight of these kids have been selected to attend camp at the Wolf-Ridge Environmental Learning Center in northern Minnesota and to participate in two weeks of home-stays with American families. These youth are the leaders of a new movement toward a cleaner and more environmentally friendly Albania. One of my kids (17 year old Fatjon) was selected along with 7 other students from 4 cities. Right now, Albania is considered by the EU to be the most polluted country in Europe. The young people in Albania have never seen a landscape free of plastic bags, bottles, pop cans, and other garbage. The drinking water is severely toxic due to the highly polluted rivers, lakes, and seas. As the infrastructure in Albania slowly develops, the means to take care of these problems begin to appear, but cannot be utilized until the mentality surrounding these issues also begins to change. It was only thirty to forty years ago that America was dealing with some of these very same issues and showing these students one of our most beautiful national forests, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, will give them a great vision of how the most protected areas in nature can be preserved and protected.

We had a great idea- send 8 great kids to a once in a lifetime experience in America, now we just needed to get it paid for. These types of projects can be really difficult to get off the ground since the cost is so high, but we looked at many different funding sources and decided that if we all worked together (the 8 kids, and volunteers from all around the country) that we could get it done. We found a great camp in Minnesota and with the help of some Minnesotan PCVs found families to host the kids before and after the camp. Then we applied to the US Embassy here in Albania for the airfare. They like to encourage cultural exchange between the two countries and they were happy to help, now we just needed the camp tuition. This is where you come in . . .

More about our project and instructions for donating can be found at:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=304-017

The kids are working their butts off doing local fundraising, but we still have a long way to go. Any little bit helps! Thank you for your support over the past two years and I promise that this is the last time I will ask for money from Albania . . . until I get a job back in America with some other do-gooder type group . . .

Site Mate Roulette

2010-04-19T05:43:00.007-06:00

A year ago at this time, I was anxiously awaiting the announcement of the site placements for Group 12 because one of those lucky kids would be my future site mate. A site mate makes a big difference in your service. A good site mate is someone who you can spend time with, relax with, work with and puts up with all of your crazy. A site mate is the closest thing that many volunteers get to a spouse- it is not uncommon to hear "you guys act like an old married couple." The site selection process can throw together people that would never be friends in any other life than Peace Corps and this random throwing together of people can create some interesting relationships. I have seen site mate pairings that started out great only to disintegrate into silent feud (or all out war) within a few months (two examples that I can think of involve three women placed in one site- this can be a deadly combination as usually it will end up being two against one as two of the girls become close and leave the other one out). I have seen people that you would think never would get along end up the best of friends.

I remember two years ago how nervous I was that I would get to Peshkopi and Kenji and I wouldn't get along. What would I do if he hated me? What would I do if he never wanted to hang out? The only thing I put on my site placement form was that I wanted a site mate (I didn't care if I was in a big or small place, if I was far or close to Tirana) but what I really meant is that I wanted a COOL sitemate. Of course the Peace Corps staff tries their best with placements- looking to work compatibility the most, but they can't predict who will get along. My fears were completely unfounded, of course, and Kenji and I got along great. I was almost just as nervous about the site placements last year. I was so lucky with Kenji, could lightning really strike twice? I was hoping for a girl actually. Kenji was great, but sometimes you just need some girl time, right? The odds were in my favor- like my group, G12 was more girls than guys. I didn't get a girl, I got Dylan. And I was terrified again. He seemed like an alright guy, but what if he hated me? Dylan has turned out to be great too. We have a different relationship than I had with Kenji, which makes sense. They are very different people, but I love them both. Kenji and I became very good friends, Dylan and I are almost like brother and sister (some of the kids here even thought that early on- they were very confused by the fact that we have different last names) meaning that we fight and sometimes drive each other crazy, but in the end we know that there is love . . .
Today, the site placements are announced for the new group, G13. I have only met a few of them as I have been busy here and have not made it down to Elbasan for any training. They are a big group, 50 people, the biggest group ever in Albania. Today they are going to go through the incredible range of emotions that come with site placement- excitement, fear, hope and happiness. Hopefully, whoever comes up to Peshkopi will appreciate the simple beauty of this quiet town and will take care of Dylan for me. . .

No one can warn you

2010-04-14T05:34:00.002-06:00

I would like to preface this post by saying a few things. I don't want people reading this blog to worry too much about my mental health, but I think that it is important for me to share all parts of my service, not just the shiny happy parts like going to Italy for Christmas. This is something that I have been thinking about for a long time, but I was nervous to write about it because I was afraid that it would make everyone worried. Please don't worry, I am good, but this is part of my experience and I have learned a lot from being alone . . .

During Peace Corps training, they tell you that you will be lonely. This is one of the major dangers of Peace Corps. Sometimes you are the only American or other foreigner in your town or village or maybe one of a few (in Peshkopi there are now 2- me, Dylan. The Canadian guy married to an Albanian has now left). They tell you that there may be times when you don't have a lot of work to do when you will spend a lot of time alone. They tell you to be careful and that making friends and being integrated into the community will help. They tell you that it will be lonely, but no one can really warn you.

A lot of my ideas about Peace Corps came from my parents- I have been hearing their PC stories forever. When I think about the difference between my parent's service and mine, there are many differences; internet and other technology (cell phones, ipods, laptops etc.) but also differences that come from the cultures and positions we have. But the biggest difference I can see between my parent's service and mine is that they had each other and so they couldn't warn me because although I'm sure they felt loneliness, it is very different from the loneliness I feel.

No one can really warn you about the loneliness because it is a different kind of lonely than any I have ever been before. I have lived "alone" for short periods of time in my life, but I have always had a support system in place so that my "alone" was never really alone. When I moved to college, I moved about 2 miles away. I had a roommate. I went home on the weekends and did laundry. The first time I was really away from my parents, I lived for a semester in Prague. For that experience, I also had a roommate and 100 other foreign students. Even though I didn't really know anyone, I made friends fast and only felt really lonely a few times.

Peace Corps is different. It is a different kind of alone than I have ever been. During training, things were kind of similar to when I studied abroad. I saw people every day and I was too busy to really feel too lonely. But once I got to site I had to learn to be alone. A lot. It's not that I haven't made friends, because I have, some great ones. It's not that I don't see people, because I do, all the time. It is not only that you are meeting new people and having to create all new relationships, you also have to do it in another language and another culture. I get up, I go to the office, I have meetings, I have coffee, I have lunch (although, often I go home and eat alone), I say hi to people on the streets, and I go to dinner at friend's houses. But I spend more time alone here than I have ever before. Usually at least a few nights a week (especially in the winter) I am at home alone in the evenings. When I'm not traveling, I'm usually home on the weekends too.

For as long as I can remember, my dad has talked to himself. We all would hear him in his office or darkroom or out back working on the car having full on conversations with himself, sometimes in more than one language. I have finally developed my own running dialogue that would rival my father's. I have started talking to myself. I have always had an internal voice over, but for the first time in my life, I find myself vocalizing all the time. I fill the silence with podcasts I download of news or radio and TV programs. I listen while I wash the dishes and cook dinner. I fill the time with baking and knitting and reading and playing solitare on my computer. I think a lot.

When I see people, for example when I travel to Peace Corps training, it is a treat. In Albania we are lucky because even as one of the most isolated volunteers, I am only 4-5 hours away from the capital and other volunteers. I have made some really strong bonds with some of the other volunteers and I see myself staying friends with some for life. But (except for my wonderful sitemate) they are not here and do not ease the solitude. It can be a very solitary existence and even though they try, no one can really warn you.

Is this kosher for Passover?

2010-04-06T03:13:00.009-06:00

Who knew that probably my most orthodox (religiously) Passover celebration would be celebrated in Albania, making it quite an unorthodox event indeed . . .
I'm not religious, not even really a little bit. But I love culture, tradition, customs, holidays and food, so last year when I happened to be in Elbasan during the week of Passover and was roped in to helping throw together a Seder at the last minute by Molly, a G12 PCV who is much more observant. This thrown together Seder was lots of fun, with a few other trainees and some Albanian PC staff, but it was not really like any Seder that Molly or I had had in the past (we tried to make our own matzo, it was interesting . . . ). This year, Molly decided months ago that she would host a Seder at her house in Vlore and started making plans.

The first thing that she did was call the Chabad Center in Thessaloniki. Chabad is a sect of Hasidim that has centers all over the world and does outreach to Jews. Molly called them hoping to get some kosher meat (she has been vegetarian since she arrived here since kosher meat isn't available). It turns out the kosher meat was really the least they could do. The rabbi in Thessaloniki arranged for two huge boxes of meat, a very large box of kosher for passover stuff and enough matzo to last for weeks to be sent with two traveling rabbis. Basically, Molly mail ordered rabbis. Seriously. Who knew that you could mail order a rabbi? Or two?
Before the rabbis arrived with their massive amounts of food, we had to prepare Molly's house. Not being observant in my house, I had the vague idea that you had to get rid of the bread in the house before passover, but we never really did that. But with the rabbis coming we had to be serious about clearing out the bread (and everything else not kosher) and then cleaning the house. For starters, Molly had an incredible amount of food that had to be cleared out and taken to another volunteers house, like more food than I have ever had in my house, more food than I probably ever had in my house in America. Since nothing in Albania is officially koser (and even less is kosher for passover) we basically cleaned out her entire kitchen. We then proceeded to scrub everything down. Even with all the scrubbing and clearing out, when the rabbis arrived they covered every available space in tin foil, just to make sure. We also took all of the utensils and dishes to be used and dipped them in a spring nearby to make them kosher. This was a bit weird, and the Albanians filling up their water bottles at the spring thought we were nuts. For once I agreed with them . . .

The rabbis, Ari and Mendel from Brooklyn, are "young rabbis" (unmarried) of the Chabad sect. They went to religious school their whole lives and started to study to be rabbis when they were very young. It was very interesting to talk to them since I don't think that I have ever had (or probably will ever have again) the chance to meet and talk to a Hasidic rabbi (or man for that matter), since there is generally separation of the sexes in the orthodox Jewish groups and not much interaction with other groups. Chabad, however, is a really interesting group. With a philosophy of outreach, there are Chabad centers all around the world serving Jewish communities. They actually compare themselves a little bit to Peace Corps and their leader often reference Peace Corps as a model for their outreach missions. The mission as I understand it is for the rabbis to help moderately observant Jews (Molly) become closer to their faith and secular or nonobservant Jews (me) come back to the faith. I don't think I'm going to go out and join an orthodox community anytime soon, but it was still interesting to talk to them.

After two days cleaning, we then spent two days cooking. We made all the passover staples- tzimes, brisket and matzo ball soup. I also experimented a little with the random ingredients I had and made apple matzo meal muffins (similar to the vegetable kugel that I would make at home, but without the sweet potatoes). Travis (the other lapsed Jew living in Vlore) came over and helped by creating a wonderful potato apple matzo stuffed chicken. With limited oven space and random ingredients I think that we came up with two really fantastic meals. For the two Seder dinners we had 11 guests at each (including me, Molly, Travis and the rabbis) some Albanians, one Kosovar Jew, a random Israeli guy living in Kosovo and of course some Jewish and some non-Jewish volunteers.
The day after the second dinner I stayed in Vlore to be part of a panel discussion in one of Amy's classes about culture in different parts of the US. The rabbis, restricted from work (including travel) for the first two full days of passover, stayed until sundown after the second day and then raced back to Thessaloniki to get a flight back to the US before the Sabbath set in . . .

This was definately one of the more interesting passover celebrations I have had in my life . . . all I can think now is . . . next year in ?????

PS- because the rabbis kept a pretty strict level of kosher and observed the "no work" rule for the first two days, we also tried to observe this, so there are not many pictures (taking a picture is work too!) all of these pics were snapped before sundown on the first day.

Kam bere ski!

2010-03-25T06:46:00.006-06:00

Being from Colorado, naturally I grew up on skis. Not to say that I am particularly good, but I do love a good ski. When a PCV down in Korca posted on his blog about going skiing in Albania, I decided that I just had to do it. I recruited my new friend Garrett (here in Albania on a study grant from Harvard) to come. He was super excited too- he's a long time East Coast skier and happens to also be one quarter Korcar (his grandfather was born in Korca and emigrated to the US). I knew I would have to wait until after the MUN as all my weekends were full until then, but I also knew I couldn't wait too long as spring has started to creep even into cold Peshkopi . . .

It turns out that we made a perfect plan. It was probably the last weekend that skiing could happen (and even by the end of the day it was starting to get a bit mushy) and it was an absolutely beautiful day. We rode up Mike's doctor friend Izufi, who along with 4 other semi-retired and retired men and their families run the little ski hill. There was the doctor, the professor, the coach and the commissar and they were all great. Based on Mike's referral they treated us like one of the gang. We arrived up at the ski hill at about 10AM and got started right away. It seems that they have pulled together a rather impressive collection of ski clothes, ski boots and skis, you just might have to search a bit to find something that fits. In all honesty, the skis and boots that I got were not really in any worse shape than I would expect to find at most rental places in the states (ok, a little be worse shape, but serviceable for sure). The ski hill is just that, a hill. They have rigged up two rope tows- one for the beginers on the little bunny slope and one that goes to the top of a pretty steep hill. The hardest part for sure is staying on the rope tow. Gloves or no gloves, your grip slips a lot and your arms start to burn about half-way up . . .

I was able to get up to the top only twice- once holding the rope, the second time using a canvas strap wrapped around my waist to grip the rope (much easier, but more dangerous). The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous, with the whole valley and the Prespa/Ohrid Lakes in the distance. The skiing itself was as to be expected- not exactly fresh powder like I'm used to in Colorado. I did a nice faceplant on my first run down, but I'll go ahead and blame that on the skis . . .

In the afternoon (after way too much food, of course!) we convinced the doctor's son to drive us into the village of Dardhe about 5km away. The village is exactly what you would expect a perfect Albanian mountain village to be. There have been recent efforts to get tourists to come to the village, including a new hotel and plans for another ski hill (there are signs for this ski hill, but it does not actually exist yet). We were invited in to the home of some of the villagers for a coffee (that turned out to be a raki) before we headed back up the hill. By this time (and a few shots of raki later) both Garrett and I were pretty exhausted, so we found a ride back to town. The rest of the family stayed for dinner and maybe some night skiing . . .

It was maybe one of the more perfect days I've had in Albania (except maybe the wipeout). Good food, good people, good fun and skiing- what else could you ask for?

For more pictures and a video of me crashing, check out www.flickr.com/photos/garrettnelson

MUN all over again

2010-03-23T05:35:00.004-06:00

I love MUN. It was one of my favorite activities in high school, it was one of my favorite things to help with after high school, and it has been one of my favorite things that I've worked on in Albania. When I found out that Albania had an MUN program that PC was a partner on, I was the first to sign up. After the MUN last year, I was asked to help organize some things for this year's conference. When Dylan arrived, he showed interest in working with the Peshkopi team, since he had experience doing Model Arab League in college. This worked out great for the both of us- he would be the main person on the team and I would spend most of my time working with the steering committee actually planning the conference and all of the things that led up to it like teacher training.

I knew that organizing a big event like this would be a challenge, but I'm not sure that I really anticipated how much of a challenge it would be. First, since I live 5 hours away in Peshkopi, I was not actually present for the steering committee meetings and mostly only communicated by e-mail and phone with the program director. In a face-to-face, sit-down-and-talk-about-it over-coffee culture like Albania this made things difficult. Second, I think I under estimated the bureaucratic hoop jumping that takes place to get a conference like this organized, especially working with an organization like the UNDP. The project was funded jointly by the UN and the American Embassy, but the UN can't disperse funds so a local partner NGO was needed to help with the actual management of the conference. Unfortunately, the process for finding and accepting a partner NGO took a long time (way too long) and so everything was delayed. We started the process in October with the planning of the training of teachers (TOT) but we didn't have a partner until February and therefore we didn't get money out to teams until that point. This delayed everything and meant that teachers and volunteers were paying out of pocket for things like copies and internet time for no reason (the money was there, we just couldn't get to it). When they finally did get the partner on board, everything had to be rushed and when you start with a mad dash and scramble and everything being late, there is good indications that things will continue in that way. To be honest, Mjaft! (the Albanian NGO that became the partner- means Enough!) did a mostly good job once they were in place and I don't envy the amount of scrambling at the end that they had to do to get everything done, but I can see that the whole process would have been about 700% times smoother if they had been able to start working with us in October or November instead of February. As it was we had to postpone one of the mini-conferences (regional meetings with 3-5 schools to practice before the big event) because the money hadn't been transferred yet and the teams couldn't afford to travel. My major stress over the past few months has been my sort of helplessness about the whole thing- as I was the one that the PCVs were most regularly talking to about issues they would talk to me (or complain to me) a lot about things like money or lack of information but unfortunately I had no control over these things and usually unable to help except to hassle other people higher up.

Somehow though, it did seem to mostly come together in the end, even if things were a bit crazed. The thing is really that that is usually how it works here (and sometimes in America too), things are rushed, thrown together and put to the last minute, but it works out. Mostly, I am really proud of the students. This year I got to know a lot more of the students as I had met them all at the mini-conferences and had a more direct relationship with many of them (read: they came to me for help with things because I looked like I might be somewhat in charge). This is great because these kids are truly the future of Albania and now since I'm friends with all of them on facebook, I'll know when one of them gets elected to Parliament or becomes the Ambassador to Egypt.

My work with this project isn't completely done yet. With a firm belief that we don't need to reinvent the wheel every year, I am going to work in the next few months to put together a resource kit and handbook for running the MUN. I hope that the MUN will continue for many years to come and I am sure that with such devoted and motivated teachers, students and PCVs it will just keep getting better.
Me and Dylan with the Peshkopi team and the Egyptian Ambassador to Albania

Group Hug!

2010-03-13T06:39:00.003-07:00

Last week Group 11 and 11.5 (plus Chuck) gathered together for the last time at our COS conference. Over the next few months, we will all start the process of finishing our service and starting in May, we will, a few at a time, leave Albania. The COS (Close of Service) conference seemed to fulfill two main purposes- give us lots of information about the next few months and the COS process and give us a time to get together one last time and be a group. From the start, our conference seemed to be a bit cursed, but only for the staff. On the first day we found out that our PCMO (medical officer) had broken his leg, our AO (administrative officer) had a death in her family and our SSO (saftey and security) got food poisoning! Luckily nothing else went wrong and after some schedule shuffling, we carried on with the conference.

In so many ways it is kind of incredible to me that I have only known the people in my group for about two years. Even though I have tried to stay in touch with people back home, in truth it is these people, people that were total strangers to me a few years ago, that I turn to the most right now. On the one hand it seems like I have been here forever, but on the other, looking back at pictures from staging and training, it seems like such a short time ago. And it is so strange to think that in a few months we will all be headed our seperate ways. Many group members will be returning to the states to go to grad school. A few have jobs lined up. A couple are planning on staying on in Albania for a while longer, either with Peace Corps or with other organizations. There are one or two others like me that will travel for a period of time before going home. A few have no real plans yet (except maybe to crash on Patricia's couch). It was great to find out what everyone else is doing and nice to know that I am not the only one without a real plan for the future.

Peace Corps Cribs

2010-02-19T02:20:00.002-07:00

This is the life . . .

Heading into the home strech, but not heading home

2010-01-25T08:55:00.002-07:00

Welcome to 2010!

2009 was my only full year in Albania, and it sure was a full year. Even though day to day it sometimes seemed like I wasn't getting much done, when I look back on the year, I can see that I have done a lot here. With World Vision, I helped the team do community meetings with over 900 community members in order to design two projects that are getting underway now- one about water, sanitation and hygiene and one about violence in the home and school. I've been working with several different groups of students- a successful Model United Nations team, a Girls Empowerment group (done in Albanian, a real challenge for me) and an Outdoor Ambassadors group (environmental education). I helped another volunteer put on a musical with 45 kids, I helped run a summer camp for 50 kids from all over the country, and I traveled to 6 new countries. I also spent a lot of time traveling around Albania and even more time in my beautiful town of Peshkopi . . .

Anyway, as I get ready to head into the final few months of my service here, I am starting to look forward to when I will leave Albania. I have decided to "take the long way home" and travel for about 6 months before I return to the states. Taking another example from my parent's life, I think that this is the best time for me to see the world. I have a very tentative itinerary below and I'm hoping that you, my friends and family, can help me out with a few things:

1. Take a look at this list. Do you know anyone in any of these places that just might open up their homes for a few nights to a backpacking RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer). I'm traveling on a just got out of the Peace Corps budget, which is basically the same as a still in the Peace Corps budget, which is basically no money! I am hoping to stay with friends and couchsurf when I can. Please help me get connected to people!

2. Have you ever traveled to any of these places? What was the best thing? What should I avoid? These are all new places for me so I am open to all suggestions!

3. Do you want to get a postcard or two? I like sending them, so send me your address and you'll get something from my travels . . .

4. I am doing this trip, for the most part, alone. And so now I'm inviting you to join me! I know that not many people have the freedom to travel for 6 months, but maybe for two weeks? Look over my plan and think about it . . .

June 10- Close of Service in Albania

June- July

North Albania/Kosovo

Balkans (Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia)

Bulgaria, Romania,

August-

Ukraine, Russia

September-

Russia (train), Mongolia, China

October-

S. Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia

November-

Indonesia, Philippines

December-

Solomon Islands, Fiji, California, Home!

Serious Hibernation Mode

2010-01-25T03:43:00.003-07:00

So far it has been a more mild winter than last year, meaning that we have only had a few light snows and my apartment is hovering around 40 degrees most of the time . . . until this weekend. I have now gone into serious hibernation mode. It is really hard to get out of bed in the cold and just as hard to leave the house once it is warmed up . . . I think I've been sleeping 10-12 hours a night just because it is warmer in bed.

It was bitterly cold on Saturday and so I did the sensible thing and stayed inside with my warm fire. I was all ready to get out and do something on Sunday, but it was still freezing and so I stayed in my pajamas one more day. When I decided that it might be good to do dishes or take a shower I turned on my water and found that this would not be possible . . . looks like my pipes are frozen. I didn't have water for nearly a month last year. I am hoping that this year it will be a much shorter period. I have some theories about my water problem- I live on the second floor of a house, below me is not another living space, but a garage and some storage rooms. My water pump (that normally keeps me in wonderful, hot water 24 hours) also lives below me. Now, because there is a general ignorance or misunderstanding of the concept of insulation here (basically every house is bare concrete/brick, with a plaster layer) I am not surprised that both my water pump and the pipes leading up into my house are frozen. I am expecting to be carrying up buckets of water from the unfrozen pipes in my landlords house for all my water needs for the next few days. All I can hope for is that the deep freeze won't last too long . . .

A very Wet New Year

2010-01-15T04:43:00.008-07:00

I've always wanted to go to Venice. I've been dreaming about it for as long as I could remember. I knew that I was already too late to see the "real" Venice and that it was just a touristy amusement park, but I wanted to go anyway. Venice is unlike any place in the world. And it was basically just a touristy amusement park, but it was great anyway.

We arrived in town on the evening of the 30th and found our hostel- a big, real, hostel with dorm rooms and shared bathrooms and a cafeteria full of backpackers- set aside on an island just a few minutes by boat from St. Marks Square.

On New Years Eve, we decided that we were a bit museum-ed out and that we wanted to do something a little different so we planned a trip to Murano- the Venitian island famous for it's glass. I fell in love with Murano glass. If I was filthy rich, I would decorate my house with it and buy a full set of dishes. As it is that I'm not rich at all (filthy or otherwise) I had to make due with a few necklaces. We went to the glass museum and saw the progression of glass making in Italy from before the Roman period to modern day. Glass really is an amazing substance. Especially impressive were perfectly preserved blown glass bottles and jars over 2000 years old. We then wandered around the island a bit before having a rushed dinner and heading back to the main part of town to get ready for the evening.

New Years in Venice is WET. Winter in Venice is wet and the tide is highest in the middle of the night. When we got to the square it was full of people in gum boots and plastic bags splashing around in the high water. While my hiking boots are waterproof (the most waterproof boots I've ever had in fact) they only cover my feet and as soon as water goes over the top, it's all over. We found a place out of the water on some steps to watch the craziness. As midnight neared, the water rose, the excitement rose and we got ready to give the world a New Years kiss. At midnight I shared a few sips of champagne with an Italian (who was of course horrified that I lived in Albania) and then made a dash for the dock to get a glimpse of the fireworks. One thing that Venice doesn't have to worry about is the fire danger of the fireworks. With wet feet we made it back to the hostel (after a bone crushing crowd to get to the boats) and slept contently into the new year.

On New Years day I had planned on trying to go and see my friend Marcos who is stationed nearby in the Air Force, but the plan fell through and Connie and I decided to just wander around Venice instead. Walking around Venice was fantastic. We walked on raised walkways trying to avoid the now receding high water. We shopped for letter openers and necklaces. We walked over bridges and along canals and just wandered. We stopped for coffee and tiramisu. We got lost and then found ourselves. We saw a sign advertising a Vivaldi concert and found the church. We had a wonderful salad people watching in a small square. We went to the concert and sat with a couple from Oregon and enjoyed as beautiful violin music washed over us. We walked back to the hostel barely able to believe that it was our last night in Italy . . .

Italian food

2010-01-07T03:45:00.002-07:00

When I got back to Albania, Jan, my Peace Corps mom, asked me what the best food moment of my trip was. This really got me thinking about the food that I had in Italy and actually how disappointed I was. Here's the problem: while I know that there is truly incredible food in Italy, I just didn't get much of it because it was way out of my price range. As we've already established, everything was really expensive. First, unlike on other trips, I was unable to conference crash, couch surf or be a groupie on the tour bus, so we had to pay every night for a hostel. I am really proud of myself for my hostel finds, actually. They were all clean and well managed and none of them tripled in price for the holidays. But staying in the hostels meant that about half my daily budget went to that and that we had to eat out almost every meal (the hostel in Florence had a restaurant downstairs that we ate at once and the place in Venice served breakfast of a roll and juice/coffee). I found that there were basically two categories of food available to us that we could afford: sandwich/pizza/street food and mediocre sit-down fare. Of the two types, I actually enjoyed the fast food more in general- the sandwiches were made with really good fresh ingredients and the pizzas were really good (the cheese makes all the difference!). What I was most disappointed with was the standard sit down places. We went to several places in which a plate of pasta cost an average of 7-12 Euros ($11-18) and was no better (and sometimes worse) than what I could make at home. I worked in an Italian chain restaurant for 3 years in which the prices were pretty comparable - I didn't think I would ever say this, but the food at the MacShack was much better. Our biggest disappointment was in Venice on New Years Eve. We went to Murano Island to look at the glass there and by 4:00 were starving. It seemed that most of the places were closing down, so we ducked into the first place we saw that was open. The staff was anxious to get out and were not happy to have last minute customers and so hovered over us as we ate. On top of that, the food was terrible! I don't think I have ever paid more for a plate of bad spaghetti. I won't say that I love the food in Albania most of the time, but at least it's cheap!

I don't want to make it sound like we never ate well. I found several surprise moments of goodness, like falafel in the Jewish Quarter of Rome, Suppli (Roman rice balls sold for 1 Euro), wonderful salad at a cafe in Venice and the food highlight of the trip: wine tasting held at the hostel in Florence.

Since we only had a few days in Florence and knew we wouldn't have time to go into the wine country, when we saw that the hostel was having a wine tasting we decided to go for it. Both Connie and I were really glad that we did as it was one of the best parts of the trip. One of the hostel staff (who is in culinary school) and a wine maker from the nearby Chianti region were our hosts. We tasted 5 wines (all excellent) and paired with simple fresh foods like cheese, meat, bread, honey and olive oil. We learned how to smell the wine and taste it slowly, about the wine making process and the differences between the different varieties. It was great.

Like I said, I know that good food is available in Italy, but unfortunately most of the affordable places in touristy areas are overpriced and awful. I need to go back to Italy when I have the money to really enjoy the food there.

2010-01-06T06:26:00.003-07:00

Florence is much more of a manageable city than Rome. In Rome, we spent 5 days, walked A LOT (and had lots of adventures on the metro and buses) and I still only feel like I scratched the surface. Florence, however, in just two days, I fell like I really got the feel of the city. Florence also seemed more calm and refined than Rome and had the art to go along with it. In addition to seeing David (you just have to, you know), we also had a truly wonderful intimate opera experience when we went to see Carmen performed in a small church. Unlike the giant opera house in Rome, this performance was simple and didn't have elaborate staging. The actors were literally just a few feet away from us.

We also had a bit of a scare in Florence when our hostel room was broken into in the middle of the night. We spent a rather sleepless night up with the hostel staff and the police, but we are happy to report that the intruder was caught thanks to the wonderful staff of the hostel and their superior security system. Caught on video! No doubt! Lesson learned- always lock up your stuff, even when you feel pretty safe . . .

Missed the Pope . . .

2010-01-06T05:37:00.005-07:00

But still had a great time at the Vatican . . .

On Saturday (the day after Christmas) we got tickets to go to the Villa Borghese- one of the oldest art museums in the world. The art was fantastic, including several incredible Bernini sculptures, the only downside is that you only have exactly two hours to go through the whole gallery (and they are serious about it), so I didn't even get to part of the upstairs. After the museum, we walked around the mostly shuttered Rome with our new friend from the hostel, Sean. We went to the Spanish steps and to the designer shopping district. In America, the 26th of December is one of the busiest shopping days and we expected all of these stores to be open. To our surprise (and probably to the benefit of our wallets) the stores were all closed. We even had a hard time finding someplace open to eat that night!

On Sunday we got up early and headed to the Vatican. At least we thought it was early, when we got there we found out that early really means 6AM on free Sunday . . . and by 8:30, the line was already all the way around the outer walls and nearly spilling into St. Peter's Square. We got in line and got ready to wait. Some part of me loved all the lines in Italy, just because people in Albania don't really know how to line up. I did not relish standing in line for 3 hours only to have to rush through the museum (they close at 12:00 on Sundays), so when one of those annoying guys offering a guided tour and a chance to skip the line came by, we actually considered it. Maybe if I had been by myself, I would have just waited, but with Connie and the fact that we were already pretty tired from the last few days, we decided that the 20Euros to skip the line didn't sound like a bad deal. That is until we got near the entrance and got accosted by another tour guide! She railed at us for a few minutes about how these people pulling groups out of line were illegal and that no one had the right to skip the line and that the people in the front had been waiting since 6AM and that she was an "Official" guide and that she was going to call the police and . . . . .We were of course a little bit taken back, but our guide assured us that there was no problems and that we just needed to wait until she went inside with her group (she wasn't going to worry enough about us to miss out on her money) and then we could skip the line and go in as promised. We got inside and were put with a group and given very official feeling headsets and it felt mostly on the up and up to us, but who knows. I know that it is not uncommon for there to be guide groups that can skip the line at museums and I don't know the Italian or Vatican rules on the issue, but anyway . . . We were really happy that we got the tour as I think that the museum would have been very overwhelming without the guide. Even with the guide it was a bit overwhelming and I felt that I only really saw pieces . . . Of course, the Sistine Chapel was incredible, but so was the hall of maps and all of the ceilings and all of the statues and there is just too much! And that is not even counting St. Peter's Basilica, which was on just a whole other level. It seems that every Pope has felt the need to add something to the church, so every inch is covered in decoration- and there are a lot of inches to cover.

In the afternoon, we headed back out to stores that had been closed the days before and did some shopping. Let me tell you, it is hard to be in Italy on a Peace Corps budget! Just to give you an idea . . . in the 10 days, including accommodation and travel I spent almost 5 months of my living allowance! But is was worth every penny . . .

Roman Holiday

2009-12-25T12:18:00.004-07:00

Italy was the only place left on my list that I felt like I just had to visit before I left Albania . . . it is just across the water! I started asking around my group to see if anyone wanted to come along for the holidays. I knew that I wanted to go to Italy and I also knew that I did not want to go by myself, especially for Christmas. I was lucky that Connie, one of the volunteers in the more recent group thought Chrismas in Rome was a great idea and we started the plans for the trip.

Our plan for the week: squeeze as much culture as possible into 10 days without actually killing ourselves. This started with seeing La Traviata on Wednesday night just a few hours after landing. You know the best part about only going an hour and a half away for vacation? No jet lag! We also had tickets for The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. Opera, ballet, now we needed some religion! After the ballet we headed over to the Vatican, but found that they closed early for the holiday. After much discussion we decided to forgo the craziness of the Papal visit on Christmas and instead did a much calmer and very beautiful midnight mass at the basillica near our hostel (which happens to be the second largest in the city and seriously amazing!). It was all in Latin and Italian and I didn't really get much of it, but Connie was raised Catholic, so really understood what was going on.

For Christmas, we decided to go another rought- we did Catholic, now lets get some Jewish in there! Rome has the largest Jewish population in Italy and has an excellent Jewish museum and Jewish quarter, which was perfect to visit on Christmas since most everything else in the city was closed. I was able to get one of my long time cravings- falafel (not so Italian, but you really can only eat so much pasta and pizza!). We also had Chinese food for dinner (the only other thing open!).

Our plans for the next few days include a trip back to the Vatican and lots of art, then on to Florence!

Let it snow . . .

2009-12-17T05:06:00.000-07:00

Winter has arrived in Peshkopi. I know that some of you in Denver have had a pretty harsh, cold and snowy winter already, but here in Albania, the winter so far has actually been pretty mild. This is of course mostly good news because when it gets cold here, it gets really cold because there is no insulation or central heating. This week, however, the winter has arrived. On Friday night I was lucky enough to be out to dinner with Dylan, Turi and Dylan's counterpart Habibi when it started snowing for the first time this winter. I say I was lucky because it was beautiful and also because by the morning there was barely a dusting and by the next afternoon the snow was gone. Driving home from dinner as the big, wet flakes fell on the lit city . . . gorgeous. I wish that I could have effectively captured it on film, but I'm afraid that I couldn't. Over the weekend it continued to snow off and on and I snuggled into my wood-stove heated room. Up until this point, I've felt pangs every time I started up my stove- is it really cold enough? Do I want to waste this wood? (not to mention the pollution pangs I always get), but when it is really cold, I feel less bad about using the wood for some reason. Anyway, don't ask me . . .

Next week I'll be going to Italy for Christmas and New Years with Connie, another PCV. When I get home, hopefully I won't have frozen pipes like I did after my vacation last year.

Happy holidays and let it snow!!!

2009-12-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

After living in Albania for nearly two years now, I think that I have become (as much as you can be) somewhat of an expert in Albanian transportation. There are some ways that Albania seems to really be coming along in terms of development and as far as being a PCV here, it is definitely the Posh Corps in many ways, but in terms of transportation, it is clear that Albania still has a long way to go and I'm entirely convinced that this country will not be considered "developed" until major changes are made in many areas of transportation.

For most foreigners, Albania's public transport system is a mystery at best and can be a frustrating experience. First, to be a tourist here, you really have to mean it. It is not that easy to get to Albania. Since it is the one European country not connected to the rest of the continent by rail lines, it is impossible to be sitting in a train station in Vienna wondering where to go and hop on a train to Tirana (like you could with basically every other capital city). This lack of effective train system also makes in country travel more difficult than in the rest of Europe. There are a few train lines going in between a few of the major cities, but the trains are run down and slow and very few people use them. In the summer when I was traveling with a few volunteers from Macedonia (which has an incredibly advanced transportation network compared to Albania) what the Albanian word for "platform" was, I couldn't tell them, because I realized that I had never used that word!

So, without trains, you are left with buses, taxis and mini-buses (furgons). I was contacted a few days ago by a guy that is in the process of updating a guide book for Tirana and is wanting to add in a bus schedule to his guide. He was hoping that he could help with the bus schedule for Peshkopi. The problem with this is of course that a schedule doesn't really exist as far as I have been able to figure out. There are a few buses, I think two that leave at 7 and 8 in the morning, and maybe another one later in the day, but it is not as if they sit at any sort of "station" or that there are "tickets." I have only taken the bus twice in my time here. Usually I take a furgon, which is kind of like a combination of a bus and taxi. Usually a mini-van or mini-bus size (with 8-15 seats), they circle the town until they find enough people and leave when they are full. There is no schedule, but I have been able to figure out that certain drivers like to leave at certain times of the day and that if you can call these drivers and reserve a seat the day before. Even so, if I call a driver and he says he is leaving at 7AM, we will only leave when the furgon is full, so if he doesn't have enough reservations it may still be a while before we are on the road.

Travel is easier for some other parts of the country, particularly the larger cities in the south and close to Tirana. For many sites, there are scheduled buses and there is even a "bus station" that serves many cities in the south (but even this "station" is a challenge to find in Tirana- there is no sign outside, you just have to know it is there . . . ). But for the rest of us, the "stations" are spread out at rather random spots along the side of the road and parking lots of Tirana. I honestly think that a major tourism development priority for the Albanian national government should be a central bus station- how can they expect tourist to find their way to Peshkopi when the "station" is an unmarked strip mall parking lot on the road out of town?!

Once you find your furgon or bus, that is usually not the end of your challenges. On my way to Rreshen last week, we were talking about all of the things that might delay your journey . . .

Top 10 best reasons your trip might be delayed when traveling in Albania-

10. Road Construction
9. Sheep
8. Overloaded Donkey
7. Overloaded gjushe (grandmother)
6. Someone in the furgon wants to buy fruit
5. Pilaf/kafe/cigarette stop
4. Stopped by the police (for a bribe?)
3. Someone in the furgon gets sick (although to be honest, this usually doesn't mean the furgon stops- just throw the bag out the window and keep going!)
2. Driver stops in the middle of the road to say hi to friend in furgon traveling in the other direction.

And the number one best reason that you might be delayed . . .

1. Driver stops to test drive a new truck! (not kidding this happened on our way to Rreshen last week- we stopped for about 15 minutes while the driver negotiated the purchase of a truck.)

Happy travels!

District XI: Beso tek Une!

2009-12-08T06:03:00.007-07:00

Last week I was invited by another volunteer to come to her site and help her in putting on a musical extravaganza with 45 Albanian students and 5 other volunteers. It was a show that her and some of her students worked on last summer when she took them to a theater camp in Texas and then adapted slightly for Albania. The show included singing and dancing as well as small scenes of school life and I have to say it was pretty amazing. The kids worked incredibly hard on it as well as an amazing amount of effort by Sarah, Tauchia and Travis to get the kids ready. Amanda and I came in to play the role of teachers in the show and to help corral the kids as well as joining in on the singing and dancing. The show had the potential to be cheesy or bad and I have to admit that when I first came up two weeks before I was a bit worried. But as these things often do, it all came together in the end and we had three really great shows.

The shows took me back to my days in theater in school and made me realize again what many students here are missing out on when these programs are not available to them. It was great that Sarah has formed a theater group in Rreshen, but this is something that doesn't happen in every town and it is likely that unless the next volunteer to come to Rreshen is interested in theater that the program will not continue after Sarah leaves next year. This is one of the real challenges to being a volunteer- finding ways for the projects you start to continue on after you leave. It has to be a perfect storm of circumstances- a local person that is committed to the cause or other foreigners willing to take it on. But we can only start something and try to build the right conditions, we can't be here forever.

Anyway, even though they were a pain in the butt sometimes, the kids in Rreshen were great and I am really proud of all of them and really proud to have worked with them. Congrats to all the kids that participated on a job well done. Together we can!

Thanksgiving part two: Peshkopi style

2009-12-08T05:12:00.006-07:00

The town I live in is in the northeast of Albania near the Macedonian border. The road to get there takes about 5 hours from the capital and the road (which is not that great, but getting better all the time) winds through the mountains. The trip is beautiful, but long and many Albanians and PCVs have this idea that Peshkopi is really far away, so not many people visit us. It is far away, but it is not really THAT far away, anyway, that is what I keep trying to tell people. . .

So, American Thanksgiving falls at a great time in Albania because usually it coincides with two (and this year three) holidays that are celebrated here. Meaning that we actually get a long weekend- longer than we would have in the US. Most people here had a full five days off- Friday to the following Tuesday and the Americans went ahead and took Wednesday and Thursday off, so basically it was a full week . . .

Taking advantage of this big holiday weekend, I invited some people to come up and extend the eating frenzy. Since they didn't have to be back to work on Monday it worked out. It was also Dylan's birthday this week, so we celebrated that as well and invited some of our Albanian friends to join us. My second Thanksgiving was almost as good as the first, if a bit more Albanian.
We still had all the standards (thanks to a care package or two- thanks Kenji!), but decided to go the slightly lazy rout and get some rotisserie chicken instead of cooking (and killing) our own turkey. We even stuck some sparklers in a pumpkin pie for Dylan . . .

It's funny, I don't think that many people in America have two Thanksgiving dinners, but for some reason I have had successive Thanksgiving dinner repeats for the past two years. Since we are so far away from the normal traditional things and our families, we unapologetically extend Thanksgiving into a full weekend with multiple meetings of different groups in several locations. I know some volunteers that went to as many as three dinners this year. We have a lot to be thankful for and I'm glad that I got to share this with so many good friends.

Diten e Falenderemeve

2009-12-07T04:38:00.003-07:00

There are a few words in Albanian that I love to say like lulestrudhe (stawberry), infaktekisht (in fact) and diten e falenderemeve (Thanksgiving Day). I love saying it. Diten e Falenderemeve.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday whether in America or Albania . . . I love that the point of it is taking time to think about the good things in our lives and reflect on the year. Plus there's the food. The people that work at the US Embassy here have made it a gracious tradition to invite Peace Corps Volunteers to their homes for Thanksgiving dinner. This year I was invited by Mark and Mary, a wonderful couple that works for the military at the Embassy. They live in a big house in Tirana with their dog and cat. Three of us came down on Wednesday night and helped with pie and other food- we made a pretty impressive three layer jello, pumpkin bread (with fresh pumpkin) and lots of goodies. The best thing about staying with expats is that they have a whole bunch of American food. When embassy employees come over from America, they get to bring with them an incredible amount of food. Their allowed amount of consumables (things like food, but also cleaning supplies and laundry detergent) for one year is more than the combined total of all the luggage that all 37 people in my group brought initially to Albania (we get 100lbs. of luggage each . . .), so yeah, it's a crap load of food. They also get to shop at the military commissary in Italy for all those "fresh" kinds of food, like cheddar cheese . . . so in addition to the normal Thanksgiving type things we also got to sample things like queso dip, dill pickles, Dr. Pepper, etc. There were six of us for dinner, plus a few other people from the embassy. I literally ate until I couldn't anymore. And then I ate some more. And then I had dessert. The other great thing about Mark and Mary's house is that they have the Armed Forces TV, so we were able to watch the Macy's parade and the football games. We also went to the "Ridge" (the American Ambassador's housing compound that is basically a small American suburban neighborhood in the middle of Tirana made up of modular houses . . . almost feels a bit Stepfordish . . .) to play touch football with the Marines and Embassy staff. In PC vs. Marines, the Marines kind of killed us . . . but I think I would have been a bit worried if they didn't :).

All in all it was a very American Thanksgiving, which is exactly what I wanted.

Mail call

2009-11-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

It was looking to be a crappy day. It was one of those cloudy, rainy days where all that you want to do is stay home and snuggle with a good book and a cup of hot cider. It’s so cloudy and foggy that you can barely see the house across the way much less the mountains in the distance. It’s eerie and a bit creepy and when you walk outside it feels like you are walking through water; your clothes never seem to be completely dry. When you get into the office, you find that the internet is out and a trip to the internet café down the street tells you that it is in fact out in the whole town. There go those e-mails that you need to send and the research that you need to do for the training you are doing on Friday. You should have just stayed in bed.

So I walk over to the post office expecting the same- no, the packages I am waiting for are not here. Instead, I find (to the delight of post office ladies and me) that in fact I have TWO packages waiting for me. Bingo! And the day starts to look up. I want to give some credit here to two people that made my day today: My mom and Kenji. First, Kenji- who filled a package with everything needed to make a great thanksgiving (except the turkey, but he’s a vegetarian). When I think back to a year and a half ago and how worried I was that I wouldn’t get along with Kenji, it seems so silly. In the year that we spent here together, he became one of my closest friends and someone that I really came to depend on to listen to me (sometimes to the point of over-sharing, sorry K) and even though he is back in the states, he still is someone I can depend on to cheer me up. Second, my mom- of course, she is basically obligated to send me things, especially because I usually ask for specific things to be sent (in this package- some DVDs I ordered and a new hard drive . . .) but I want to give my mom credit here for having a singular ability for packing a care package. She knows how to use every bit of space- packing small, useful things (granola bars, starbursts, hot cider packets) into the spaces (no need for packing filler here!). She also knows the secret of packing everything into it’s own Ziploc bag. The Ziplocs not only protect everything in the package, but also are extremely useful as for some reason that is beyond me, Ziplocs are not widely used overseas. She also knows how to throw in some unexpected love into the mix- something to make me smile. I think that all moms and dads out there sending out care packages to their kids the world over could take some package-packing lessons from my mom. So to Kenji and my mom, falemenderit shume for the much needed cheer up today. And if you ever need a perfect care package, call my mom, I’m sure she’d send you one . . .

baking experiments

2009-11-02T06:35:00.002-07:00

I set out to try to make bagels yesterday. It didn't quiet work out, but I got a loaf of bread out of it. Oh, well. Will try again today . . .

Where's my flying car?

2009-10-15T03:15:00.002-06:00

Last night, my friend visiting from Lezhe again convinced me to host a "Kinema Rebecca" party at my house including cooking (lasagna) and a movie projected on my living room wall. As it has been getting cooler all week, it was a perfect time to start up my wood stove and welcome everyone into my nice warm home. We decided to watch Back to the Future Part II, which I love, but haven't watched in a long time. We realized when we were watching that the future that Marty goes forward into is now only 6 years away!

And I want to know: where is my flying car? Or my hoverboard? Or my hanging fruit thingy in the kitchen? Where are the people that are supposed to be inventing these things? Right now we can barely get an electric car on the market, much less a Mr. Fusion. Maybe my hopes are too high and I should worry about the real important things (like heath care and war and things like that) but some part of me just wants the flying car that was promised to me 20 years ago . . .

End of summer

2009-10-03T08:50:00.003-06:00

The dip. I was looking back and at about this time last year I had a similar dip feeling. Summer is really over and I can feel winter getting closer. I bought my wood last week- this time all at once so that I don't have to buy more in the middle of the winter. Today it is rainy and not quite cold, but you can tell that the colder weather is coming. A perfect day to snuggle into bed with a good book. I've been searching for the reason for my current dip- I'm not unhappy here by any means. Work things are generally good, I'm getting busy again with the start of school. We had a really successful summer camp at the beginning of Sept. and I had a really successful workshop with my staff about time management and strategic planning. I've started English lessons with a few people in my office. The radio station is very close to being registered and start looking for funding. We had more than 20 kids come to our last Outdoor Ambassadors meeting and are hoping to go camping next week. With one of the girls from my MUN team, I am starting a girls leadership club for the girls that live in the school dormitories. I'm busy. And yet I'm feeling melancholy and homesick. I understand it to be more of an abstract sort of melancholy, rather than missing anything specific. I think part of it is the fact that the end of my service now is closer than the beginning- sort of a theoretical reality that I will be going home sooner rather than later, so I feel homesick because I will be there sometime soon (and by soon I mean within the next year or so) but I'm not there now. Ok, I don't know if that really makes much sense, but anyway . . .

not quite fixed

2009-09-15T03:41:00.007-06:00

but getting closer and closer. After a month of panicky kernels, I am getting closer to figuring out what is wrong with my computer. We think that we have maybe narrowed it down to being a problem with my wireless card, which means that I can use my computer again as long as I don't try to get online with wireless. I really don't know what I would have done if I had not been able to use a computer at my office to search message boards and help sites to figure out what is wrong and then how to go about fixing it. A bit ironic, I suppose, that in order to get my computer working again I need another computer . . .

I have never thought of myself as a computer expert in any way, but (especially since I have a mac) I feel like I am probably more qualified to work on my computer (and fix other small problems with other computers) than many other people here, just because I have been around computers for a long time. I also have figured out a secret- in this time of technology, it is not any magical skills that are really needed most of the time, but rather the not so magical skills of asking the right questions and looking things up.

This is exactly the kind of computer expert I am . . . also maybe why I've thought I might want to be a librarian- I'm good at looking up the answer when I have no idea!

Technically possible, just not very practical

2009-08-25T04:26:00.006-06:00

Looking at a map, it is hard to tell a few things- are there places where the river is too shallow or too deep? Are there natural or un-natural barriers? Is the river slow or fast moving? Looking at the map and even getting in the river, we found that it is technically possible to go from near Peshkopi to Kukes (about 60km) but just not in less than about three days. This was a problem only because we thought that we might be able to get there a lot faster and we wanted to bring as little stuff with us as possible (one backpack for four people).

The beginning was pretty great. It was Dylan, Leslie and this German guy Johan that's doing forestry research here and me. The river was really perfect for tubing- not too deep, but deep
enough that you didn't get stuck too often. And our packing system was pretty ingenious- we put a tarp on the bottom of an extra tube and tied Dylan's backpack into it, then one of us held on to the "raft." It took a while to get used to it and we capsized twice (and got ourselves stuck in a few trees), but by the end of the day we had all pretty much gotten the whole steering and paddling to stay in the middle of the river down. We found some villagers that told us the bad news- we were not nearly as far along as we wanted to be- only about 20km away from where we had started.

We made camp on the side of the river and it was a great spot. Sandy, but with a grassy area nearby and lots of trees (so lots of firewood) and close to the road. It would have been perfect if we had a tent (or sleeping bags) but we had tried to pack so light that we were really not ready. We also didn't really have enough food. We got a fire going and were fine until we tried to sleep- then we found how cold and uncomfortable it really was. There was a hay pile nearby and in the middle of the night we got the idea to bring over some hay to sleep on- that made it a little bit better, but not really. Basically we were freezing, even with the fire going all night (which meant we got no sleep).

In the morning we were cold and tired and decided that the last thing we wanted to do was get back in the water, so (for better or worse, who knows) we deflated the tubes and started to walk, hoping that we might find a car going our way (which really was either way, cause we were less than half-way and I would've gone back to Peshk if there had been a car). I think we walked nearly 20km overall, on almost no food. We stopped twice to get water at people's houses and Leslie and I got a short ride from two guys going to a wedding. After the guys caught up, we kept walking . . . Finally around 4 we got picked up by another car from the wedding and they took us the rest of the way into Kukes (about another 20km). This was lucky, because I think that we were all basically at a breaking point- we had had almost no food all day (the fact that it was berry season really saved us) and it was still a ways into town. We were lucky to find a ride, although we would have gotten there eventually- at this point we had already asked the Kukes PCVs to look for someone to come pick us up. But anyway, after a few bumps on the road (including a flat tire!) we got into town ate two dinners (to make up for all the berry eating) and spent the night there, exhausted, but happy in our attempt (at least I was). Things I learned- it is possible to get to Kukes by river, but it will take you three days and you really need to pack well because there is NOTHING out there (we saw more donkey carts than cars, no surprise).

The best thing about this trip, even though it didn't end up exactly as expected, was that we did it! Most of the Albanians that we told about the trip told us that we were crazy. Maybe we were, but we saw something that no one had ever tried before and decided to try it. We had to walk a lot, slept on a hay pile, got bitten by ants and were really hungry, but we survived and actually had a really great time. It was kind of like going to Antarctica or the Moon- people tell you that you're crazy and it's not possible, but you will never know that it's impossilbe until you try . . .

Probably the Best City in the World

2009-08-24T04:13:00.002-06:00

Probably the best City in the world. This is (no joke) the motto of Brasov, a town in the Transylvania region of Romania. It is on every umbrella at all the cafes and restaurants downtown. Seriously, I can just imagine someone coming up with that, "Well, we haven't been to every other city in the world, so we can't really say 'The best city in the world, period', but we've been a lot of places and none of them were as good as here, so we can say 'Probably the best city in the world' until someone proves us wrong . . .

Anyway, Brasov is a pretty cool place, but I don't know if I was there long enough to really be sure of it's supremacy over every other place that I've been (I'm particularly partial to Prague myself, but that's just me . . . ). The town center is full of beautiful buildings and there is a slightly out of place giant Hollywood-esque sign on the side of the hill (just in case you forgot where you were?).

We actually didn't spend too much time in Brasov itself (except Amanda who decided that castles were not her thing and had an adventure with a red scooter . . . ) rather we used it as a base to see a bit more of the region and the castles that this part of Romania is famous for. The fairy tale tourets of Bran Castle harken back to princesses as much as Dracula and I'm all in favor of the former. The only mention of the famous literary biter was in an upstairs room talking about how the castle actually had nothing to do with the historical Vlad Tepes or the fictional Dracula at all except that maybe Bram Stoker may have based his description of Dracula's castle on Bran. What the castle did have, however was a lot of information about the Romanian royal family (who had most recently used it as a country home) and some pretty great views.

The next day, on our way back to Bucarest, we stopped in Sinai and explored another fantastic castle- this one much more royal palace than quaint country home. It seemed that every room we went into was more lavishly decorated than the one before (and it's no wonder that they charged a whole lot extra to take pictures!). Based soley on this and the Parliment I would have to say that the Romanians are skilled interior decorators . . . they take their palaces seriously!

Leaving Romania, we had a truly unpleaseant train ride to Sofia (lights on all night, loud, cold, uncomfortable seats . . . ) and arrived in Bulgaria to a rainy day. We had planned to spend the day exploring Sofia, but after the bad train ride and the rain, we decided to get the earliest possible oppourtunity back to Macedonia. As we crossed this last border, I realized that in just under two weeks I had completly crossed through Bulgaria three times (and had the 6 passport stamps to prove it) without stopping for more than a quick meal. I guess I've technically been to Bulgaria now but I think I might have to go back as I didn't actually see a thing.

Overnight train and Bucharest in a hurry

2009-08-22T10:06:00.002-06:00

After doing everything possible in Istanbul (ok, not really, but everything that was possible to do in four days) we hopped on an overnight train to Bucharest, Romania. After a very short (ha ha!) 20 hours on train and two more border crossings (across Bulgaria again) we arrived in Bucharest in the evening. The next morning we got an early start since we only had one day planned to see the Romanian capital. We were told by our hostel that to see the Parliament Palace we would need an appointment and they were kind enough to call for us. The earliest appointment available was apparently noon, so we decided to head over to the recommended Village Museum first. I probably could have stayed at the Village Museum for days. A really unique concept, starting in 1936, they moved typical houses from villages in different regions of the country or rebuilt replicas of the houses. The houses are filled with traditional clothing and furniture and there is staff that makes traditional crafts with kids who come (basically a living history museum) that you could then buy from the artisans. I really wanted to stay all day and make dolls and clay pots with the summer camp kids, but unfortunately we had an appointment to make at the Parliament. The Parliament building happens to be across town from the other museum and we only gave ourselves about an hour to get there. Even taking the metro (oh, metro! oh, advanced transportation!) we had to walk quite a ways (or run) because the metro stop was not really close to the entrance. Even with running we were late for our appointment, but it turns out that it didn’t really matter because there was a tour that we could join leaving at 12:30 . . . oh, well, we got our aerobic exercise for the day.

The Parliament building was kind of crazy. It is the biggest (not tallest) building in Europe, the second biggest in the world (after the Pentagon). It cost something like 6 billion dollars to build, but no one really knows how much it cost because they didn’t really keep track. Everything inside was made in Romania, including the most ridiculous woodwork, marble work, chandeliers and carpets that I’ve even seen. It was probably the most decadent building that I’ve ever seen. After a (rushed) tour we headed back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and get the afternoon train to Brasov. Again we rushed and barely caught the crowded (hot) train. When I found my seat and finally stopped rushing, I realized that I had left my pocket knife behind at the Parliament building (apparently you can't take a knife into public buildings . . .who knew?). But winning the award for the nicest person I have ever travelled with, my new friend Melissa gifted me her barely used leatherman tool to replace my lost knife since she is leaving PC in a few months and I have another year to go (plus adventures after). Thanks Melissa!

Up next: Transylvania- more than just Dracula!

Kernel Panic

2009-08-21T01:36:00.003-06:00

For some reason, kernel panic sounds like such a funny thing to be wrong with my computer. Like, "hey how are your kernels doing?" "they're going CRAZY, it's a PANIC!"

In reality, a kernel panic is a pretty serious problem, making my computer basically unusable for the moment (as in I can't turn it on). Luckily, I have a great dad who knows a thing or two about panicky kernels and is sending me the tools to unpanic them. But in the meantime, I am only able to get online at the office, only occasionally and several things are trapped on my computer (like written blog posts and pictures), so I will be a little bit behind in updating here for a while.

In completely unrelated but coincidental news, the same day that my kernel panicked, my camera panicked too. Hopefully, the pictures from Romania and my crazy tubing trip can be saved . . . relying on my great dad for that too . . .

Making Friends and Taking Names

2009-08-14T08:47:00.005-06:00

We’ve decided that the men of Istanbul must go to some sort of school to learn how to be smooth talkers. With lines like “I speak body language” and “How can I rip you off today” (to make us laugh) followed by “I wish I were a fish so that I could swim away in your eyes,” it’s no surprise that I spent way to much money . . . but also had some good times and made some fun friends. The area we were staying in is full of tourists and full of guys trying to convince you to eat at his restaurant or shop in his store. The touts of Istanbul are rarely rude, but certainly persistent and we were convinced by a few to actually stop. We also saw all the touristy attractions (Blue Mosque wins for beauty, Aya Sofia wins for awe inspiring impressiveness), took a boat trip on the Bosporus and the ferry over to Asia (where it seems like a lot of actual Turks live and the vying for our dollar basically stopped). We spent our last day at the Topaki Pallace- I’m in love with the tiles there- and the Grand Bazaar. The bazaar was more . . . polished than I was expecting- more like shopping mall than middle eastern souk, but I still bought a few scarves, some earrings and a ceramic bowl. While leaving Istanbul, I was sad to go. The food was fantastic- don’t tell the Albanians, but Turkish food is like what I think Albanian food should be like. Like Albanian food cooked better and with more flavor . . . I think that Istanbul (and the rest of Turkey) is someplace that I can see myself going to again . . . someday . . .

Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople (and wasn’t it once Byzantium?)

2009-07-30T11:15:00.001-06:00

I was sad to leave the conference in Ohrid early, but I was excited to get on with the rest of my trip. I headed north to meet up with Meredith, Melissa and Amanda, Macedonian PCVs to begin our adventure. The bus wasn’t very crowded, so we were able to spread out a little bit and we might have been able to sleep, if only we didn’t stop so much. I have never been on a bus that made so many pit stops. We had two borders to cross (and we had to get out of the bus twice at the Bulgarian-Turkish border) and we stopped at least 4 additional times. Every time we stopped, we all got off the bus and ran to the bathroom (whether we had to go or not) because we were not sure if we would stop again (but oh, we did!). Just before the Turkish border checkpoint, we stopped at a huge duty free mall that also had a food court. For some reason, Popeye’s Chicken sounded really good at 3:00 in the morning. We ordered our chicken but the order was taking forever- we almost had to leave without it as the bus driver was walking around trying to collect everyone and get out onto the bus. Finally at the last minute our food was ready and we ran out onto the bus just in time.

We arrived in Istanbul around 8:00 and after finding our hostel and dropping off our bags we walked around and got a feel for the city. In the afternoon we decided to clean off the travel dust and road weariness with a Turkish bath, possibly the best idea ever. Seriously, the baths are amazing. The whole thing was bit confusing (how does this work exactly?) the next time I go (and oh, yeah, there WILL be a next time) I think I will feel a little bit more comfortable because I’ll have a better idea of what is going on. Basically, you go into a big hot room with a stone floor, lay down and get all sweaty, and then someone comes and scrubs you down with a scubby cloth mit (layers and layers of skin and grime and grossness) and then soaps you up and give you a massage and then rinses you off with cool water. Heaven.

After we were all clean and shiny we went and took a nap (much needed) and then sat in a park and listened to a pops orchestra. Basically a perfect Turkish evening; tomorrow-another busy day with all the big sites: Blue Mosque, Aya Sofia, Bosporus boat . . .

Conference Crasher

2009-07-27T04:48:00.002-06:00

When Jennifer (one of the wonderful social studies teachers at DCIS- my alma mater and former workplace) told me that she was coming to Macedonia for a conference, I made it a point to arrange my vacation time to see her. I didn’t really plan on it, but I have ended up being a Conference Crasher. When I showed up on Friday afternoon, I had already arranged for a hostel bed that night and left my stuff at the hostel, but once I was at the conference hotel, Jen made it clear that I was a welcome crasher- with a free bed, free food and lots of social studies teachers from all over the world, right on the beautiful lake Ohrid . . .

As a Peace Corps Volunteer you know I’m never one to pass up free anything, but I’m also not someone that likes to impose on anyone. But seriously, the teachers at this conference have welcomed me with open arms and lots of questions about my work. I feel like maybe this is a little bit of a taste of what it might be like when I go back to the States and have to field a million questions from people about my service. Some people think I’m a little bit crazy to be using my vacation time to go to an educational conference, but honestly, in addition to meeting a ton of awesome teachers and hanging out with Jennifer, maybe most importantly, I’m learning about and hoping to take the program called “Deliberating in a Democracy” back to Albania to use at least with my MUN team, but hopefully with the whole advanced English class at the foreign language high school. Part of the program is an exchange online and through video chats between the schools in the US and the schools in Europe and even though Albania is not officially participating, I’m hoping to hook up some students with some kids in Jen’s classes at DCIS as well. I still have no idea if it will work, but I would also like to figure out a way to do a cultural exchange trip between the two schools at some point as well.

And then there is the best part of the vacation- hanging out with Jen, her telling me about all the things that I’ve missed since I left Denver almost a year and half ago. From gossip to politics and hiring and firings, it is just nice to talk to someone that knows people that I know and places that I know about. No to mention being able to sing, “If I Had a Wagon (I would go to Colorado)” on the mini-bus back to the hotel . . . and actually have someone sing along with you . . .

Why modern technology should make life easier but doesn't

2009-07-25T03:47:00.003-06:00

What did we do before cell phones? No, really, that's a serious question because I don't remember. So a story of missed connections (and lost luggage):

My friend Jennifer came to Macedonia for a conference and so I decided to go on across the border to meet her. Our fist connection was mostly without incident (except that she was a few hours late in arriving and her luggage was lost who knows where). I came to her hotel, when she wasn't there I waited in the lobby and read a book. But then we planned on meeting up again in the morning and this time we decided to rely on modern technology. Instead of setting a time and place to meet, we said "We'll text." When I hadn't heard from her for about two hours after when I expected to get the message and two of my texts went unanswered, I decided to go ahead and take the bus the 15 minutes to her hotel. Of course about the minute I got to her hotel I finally got the text from her saying that they were downtown! (I'm pretty sure we must have passed each other on the road, but who would ever know!) This whole thing may have been avoided if we had actually tried to make more concrete plans like "meet you at the post office at 10."

This is not the first time when I have relied more on technology than a clear plan to meet someone and have been let down. On the other hand being able to make last minute changes and make other great random connects because of technology is great. I guess the point is that I probably wouldn't want to give up my cell phone, computer etc, but maybe wish I relied on it a little bit less . . .

Luggage update- after two days of calling the airlines to try to locate the missing bags, they were finally found and delivered to the hotel on Sunday morning!

Gearing up for summer vacation part 2. . .

2009-07-23T04:04:00.004-06:00

Normally, taking off for a few weeks in the summer is no problem as not much work really gets done in the months of July and August anyway since most of the Albanians are off on vacation too. But in the World Vision office that I am working with, we have a lot to do, mostly because there was not a lot to do in May and June. We finished the main product of the past year- the Project Design Document (PDD) a detailed plan for the projects for the next three years- at the end of April and May and June were spent mostly in the process of hiring new staff. Only two of the four staff members were kept on for this next phase and 5 more staff members were hired. So now that the staff is complete, we have a lot to do to start implementing that big plan that we spent the last year working on.

The problem is of course, that I already had made plans to take a trip to Istanbul and Romania with a few other volunteers. It was originally planned for the end of August but was moved up due to various schedule conflicts. I almost canceled the trip (in fact I did cancel the trip and then uncanceled the trip), because this is just not that good of a time to go. But it is a better time to go than later when we are likely to have even more to do in the office, not to mention side projects that will really get going again when school starts like MUN and OA. Maybe I'm alone in this and no other PCVs end up with this dilema, but finding a balance between travel, vacationing and staying in site can be hard. I travel much, MUCH more than the average Albanian. Most of my friends and coworkers have not been to many places in their own country besides Tirana and maybe to Durres or Vlora for the beach in the summer. That being said, I generally feel justified with most of my travel. I usually take trips for work/training/meetings and will occasionally add a few days (the weekend) for fun (like my recent trip to the beach). I also feel justified in taking some vacation time and going out of the country. When else will I have the chance to take an overnight bus ride (rather than a plane trip) to Istanbul? Part of the great thing about being in a country like Albania is that it is right in the middle of a great region of the world with easy access to Greece, Italy, Turkey, Macedonia, Croatia etc.

But even with all this, I feel a little bit guilty about leaving right now. I know that if I were here for the next two weeks, I would have things to do, which has not always been the case over the past year (especially over the past two months when the office was basically closed). It's just too bad that I couldn't take this trip last August when I really didn't have anything to do yet . . . Oh well, anyway, I'm taking the trip and I'm going to have a great time and it will all be here when I get back . . .

First stop- Portillo in Macedonia! Can't wait to see you Jen!

Environmental Club Outing Foiled by Climate Change

2009-07-20T02:08:00.005-06:00

For the second time in a row when we planned to have a hike with the kids participating in Outdoor Ambassadors (Ambasadores e Natyres) it rained. This summer is noticeably cooler and wetter than last summer, so much so that I am even hearing Albanians mention “Sa bie shi!” (How much rain!). While on one hand the rain is good (cools down the house, keeps the electricity going), it may be a sign of a larger change in the climate of the area . . . or it could just be a wet summer. Either way, we are talking about climate change in OA and we decided to try again on Sunday.

Luckily, Sunday lived up to its name and we had a wonderful piknik! Dylan and I met 8 students and with Vali (one of my new coworkers) we headed to Vali’s village about an hours walk away. From the village we went down to a beautiful spot along the river to relax, eat lunch and play in the water. Some members of Vali’s family and other kids from the nearby villages joined us along the way. I was particularly impressed by the innovative use of soda bottles as flotation devices by some of the village boys! All in all I think it was a most successful outing and all of the kids were asking when and where we would be going out again!

Life's a Beach

2009-07-08T02:39:00.000-06:00

Summer in Albania means the beach.

Just because I live up in the mountains 5 hours away from the nearest ocean does not mean that there is still not a mad dash for the beach starting on the first of June. For many Albanians, this means beach vacations for much of the summer and for those people close to the sea, daily or weekly trips to the water. Up here in the mountains we don't have a seaside, but we do have a nice cold river and last week I made a trip there with some of my friends.

Since returning from my vacation with my parents, I have been settling back into life in Peshkopi. This summer I am planning on not traveling too much, but when my coworker offered me a free trip to the seaside for a three day training (and then the weekend) it was hard to pass up. So here I am relaxing . . .

Even though I'm glad I came and am having a lot of fun, I'm missing Peshkopi a little bit. Peshkopi is nice and cool and every time last summer I went to other parts of the country, I was relieved to come back to my nice cool apartment. I know that I complained a lot about the cold over the winter, but I think that in general I deal better with cold than I do with heat. Luckily, this summer has not been as hot (so far) as last summer. Cooler temperatures and more rain mean a few things- besides more comfort, it also means more electricity because most of the country gets power from hydroelectric dams. I think that I will be traveling again this summer anyway- in a few weeks I'm planning a trip down to Istanbul, but I know that I'll be happy when I get home . . .

MUN video

2009-07-03T15:12:00.002-06:00

I don't talk in this, but I do show up for a few frames when my friend Tienmu is talking about the role of the PCVs in the project.

Naptime

2009-06-30T02:56:00.000-06:00

It’s never been any secret that I like to sleep. One of the major issues that I had with my job as a substitute teacher was the fact that I had to wake up at 5:30 every morning. I just think that is cruel, and studies have shown that teenagers do not function as well that early in the morning (and neither do I). One more of the unexpected perks of Peace Corps is the amount of sleep that I have gotten over the past year. I think that if you were to take a poll, you would find that PCVs as a group (at least in Albania, but I hypothesize that it is similar in other places) are very well rested compared to our counterparts in America (or even our previous selves). I just sleep more here. I go to bed early (not much of a night life to speak of) and I wake up later (work starts at 9:00) and I often take an afternoon nap. I don’t think that I’ve been this well rested since elementary school. This has a lot to do, of course, with the slower pace of life in countries like Albania. Naptime is part of the culture here. The first question that is always asked is “are you tired?” (the correct answer is usually ‘a little’). You don’t hear about sleep deprivation here like you do in the US. I think this is something that we can learn from the rest of the world . . . and now it’s naptime!