Half-way around the world

I’m seven hours ahead. Just thought I would let you know. Next week I will be eight hours ahead, because Albania, like the rest of Europe does Daylight Savings time on March 30th. By the way, each of my calendars has different days for Daylight Savings listed and none of them are March 30th. Have I told you how much I hate Daylight Savings? Well I do. And now that I’ve come here, I have to do Daylight Savings twice in one spring. Fantastic!

Anyway, so we have arrived. The end of Staging was good. I am starting to get to know all the rest of my group. There are 37 of us right now. We started with 38 but lost one before Staging even got going (I never even met him). Apparently he decided to go get married and go to grad school. At least he made that decision in Philly rather than in the Munich airport or something. I know that there will probably be other volunteers to leave early, but at this point it is really hard to guess who it might be. I’ve heard that often the people you least expect to make it will be the most successful. There are 15 of us in the Community and Organizational Development (COD) sector. I think that the experiences of the group vary greatly. There are few just out of college to a couple that have been working in the field for 20 years. I feel like I am in the middle. I have some experience and a fancy degree, but I still have a lot to learn.

For the first three days of training we are staying in a hotel in Elbasan, a medium sized town in Central Albania. Elbasan has all the comforts of home- Internet cafés, appliance stores and Greek restaurants. There is a University here that focuses a lot on teacher training. Many of our language trainers attended Elbasan University. Tomorrow we leave the comforts of the hotel to go to our training host families. We are split up in groups of 4-6 volunteers in small towns or villages near Elbasan (and by near I mean up to 45 minutes by bus). These small sites are where we will do most of our language training and work on training projects. Two days a week we will travel to Elbasan to do trainings in large groups.

So far, there has not been too much in the way of adjustment or culture shock problems because we are still in our little American bubble at the hotel. Tomorrow when we go to our host families, I expect that will all change. We have had our first two Albanian lessons, and although it is hard, I am pretty confident that I can learn.

That is it right now from Albania. I will post again soon about my host family and how training is going.

Mirupafshim!

I'm leaving on a jet plane. . .

Staging is done. Philadelphia was ok- I had a cheesestake. We fly out this afternoon.

I don't know when I will next have internet access to post, but I will update as soon as I can.

In the meantime- sing me out. . .

Kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Tell me that you'll never let me go

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe I hate to go

My last day in Denver

6:38- My alarm will not go off for another 7 minutes, but I am awake. I'm not sure how much I slept last night, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours.

7:15- Ok, I'm awake. I'm out of bed. If I'm going to be awake I might as well do something and packing is making me crazy. My big backpack is 3 pounds too heavy and I don't know what to take out. Guess I'll go see a rock show.

7:45- Holy Shit! This line goes around the block. I guess that there are some people that have been waiting since like 7:00 last night. Crazy people. There is no way I'm going to wait in line. But who needs to wait in line? I know the band! I call Jamie and he comes outside.

7:50- Maybe it is the lack of sleep. Maybe it is the millions of people in line. Maybe I'm just nuts. When Jamie asks me how I'm doing I have a mini breakdown and start crying in his arms. He calms me down and then convinces the radio rep to give me a pass to get in. Sometimes it is nice to know people.

8:00- After lots of shoving and craning and searching I find Ria and Coby hanging out. There are way too many people in here. There is no way that this is safe.

8:15- A U2 cover band is playing somewhere over there. I don't really like U2. I really don't like U2 cover bands.

9:30- The Flobots are about to go on. We push our way to the stage, but decide that getting stepped on is not really that fun. Ria and I back up and Coby disappears. We are next to the stage with our backs to the stairs and because of the gigantic speaker we can't see a thing. They have a burping contest on stage. Gross. The Flobots start playing and of course it is awesome. Even though I can't see the stage (If I stand on my tip toes and lean back a little I can sometimes see Andy's head) I can hear them. I'm glad I decided to come.

10:15- The Flobots are done and they were awesome. We head outside because it is getting hard to breathe in here. We almost go and get something to eat (I'm starving) but Jamie comes out and gives us VIP passes to get back in thinking that there might be food inside (the Eggs part of Keggs and Eggs). We find where the food used to be, but it is all gone. We chill out in the VIP area for a bit anyway, cause we're cool like that.

11:00- Goldfinger are playing downstairs but I am upstairs hanging out with MacKenzie and Ria and Colin. Some guy just asked Colin for his autograph. We're not really sure who he thought Colin was. . .maybe Jamie? The funny thing is that MacKenzie is right here, and she is actually in the band!

12:00- We decide to go get food after all and drive to Watercourse. The whole place is surrounded by cops and has police tape all over. We find out later that there was a stabbing. Watercourse is open, but there is no place to park. On to City O' City instead.

2:00- I drop Ria off at the SCG office and say good bye to everone there.

3:00- A few last minute errands then home to pack. Well actually, unpack then pack again.

6:00- My suitcases are exactly 50 pounds each. Minus a few t-shirts, a roll of duct tape and some random odds and ends did the trick.

8:00- Head over to Liz and J's for the party. Liz made cupcakes with the Albanian flag. Awesome. Also awesome is Liz's chess set cake for J's birthday. People show up and give me cds. Oh so awesome.

2:00- Say my last goodbyes to Liz and J and the last stragglers of the party. Head over to Chronic's house for breakfast.

3:00- Chronic made me rasberry crepes and turkey sausage. Even though he forgot the whipped cream, it is awesome. We watch MTV and eat our breakfast on his living room floor.

3:30- In bed. I sleep.

7:00- Awake and trying to get everything together. Oh my God, I'm actually doing this.

10:00- Dad takes me to the airport. I don't know how I got it all in but I did. My bags weigh about as much as I do. I can almost walk without tipping over. And now I'm on my way.

Do I need that?

"Probably not," is the answer that I keep coming up with. "Do I want that?" unfortunatley is a different question with a very different answer. The problem is that I have been brainwashed by the American consumerist culture into believing that I need everything that is in my house and now given the challenge of trying to fit several rooms worth of stuff into two bags weighing no more than 50 pounds each. . . Argh!

Anyway, I think I'm starting to get nervous. My nerves are manifesting as stressing out about the one thing I have control over right now- packing. I have so far packed and unpacked my suitcases at least twice in an effort to get everything in and stay under weight.

I am also starting my goodbye process. My mom left this morning for a trip to Vegas for her Aunt's 90th birthday. Of course this trip was planned before I got my departure date. So instead of her wishing me off to the airport, it was the other way around. Yesterday I went to spend some time with my sister and the girls. Tomorrow will be the big goodbye to all my friends.

Ok, enough procrastination, back to packing. . .

I don't get bathroom breaks

With only one more week left of substitute teaching, here is a list of things that I WON'T miss about replacing absent teachers:

1. Getting up at 5:45

2. Signing bathroom passes for students all day while I have had to pee for like 2 hours because of all the water I drank with lunch.

3. Being told "you look like a student!" but punk kids with sagging pants.

4. Being asked "how old are you?" 47 times in one class period. Didn't anyone ever tell them it was impolite to ask a women's age?

5. Getting up at 5:45.

6. "Miiiiisssssssss! Did you see that? He just hit me!" (and from high schoolers too!)

7. Watching the first 45 minutes of the same movie 5 times but never getting to see the end

8. Getting up at 5:45.

9. School lunches.

10. Being shorter than middle school students.

I will miss all (well, most) of the kids and teachers (especially at DCIS!). Thanks for some (mostly) good times!

I'm still here. . .

for three more weeks.

Things that I'm going to to before I leave:

Trivitron- 2/24, 3/2 and 3/9 (Possibly with some questions written by me on the 9th)
Trunks- 2/23 and 3/8
Starship Troy- 2/27 and 3/12 (I may even put myself in for Ensign McCoy)
VIP dinner 2/26
Peace Corps Leap party- 2/29
Family party thrown by Lola- 2/29 (also celebrates the birthdays of my mom, my sister and my niece, which are all within a week of this date)
FAC Happy Hour- 3/7
alumni board goodbye dinner- 3/11
Birthday (J's)/Housewarming (Liz and J's)/Bon Voyage (me) Party- 3/14

I also want to go to the following restaurants:
Pasquini's
Watercourse
Racine's
Twin Dragon

The best way to see me is to call me and go to one of the events above.

Also, if I see you in the next two weeks, expect to get from me a blank CD which I would love for you to fill with music for my trip. If you feel the strong urge to get me some other gift, let me know and I'll tell you what is still on my shopping list. :)

And somewhere in all this I might start to pack. . .

Destination Wedding (or the Wedding-moon)

I wasn't sold on the whole "Destination Wedding" thing. Mostly because it was going to be pretty expensive to travel to Mexico for a week and I'm trying to save my pennies right now. I almost didn't go- my original departure date for PC was Feb 15. After thinking about it a lot, I decided that I would regret more not postponing and missing my cousins wedding than I would regret postponing and spending the money to go to Mexico. So far I'm right. I don't know what my assignment would have been had I left in Feb instead of March, but it wouldn't have been Albania. I'm still nervous about Albania, of course, but the more I learn, the more interesting it becomes. And I really needed a beach vacation. And I'm really happy that I got to spend some QT with my fam, especially my Aunt and Uncle that I don't see too often. And I'm excited that I got to meet my cousins in-laws and actually got to know them a little bit because they are now part of my family (and they rock). And I'm really glad I didn't miss the beautiful wedding on the beach. So I get it. Destination Wedding, it works. And I got a tan, so yeah for that. :)



The bride and groom with my parents and me

The view from our cabana (no electricity, sand floor but right on the beach!)