A few last adventures

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.

Group Hug!

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.

This feels like when my seniors graduated . . .

When I was a freshmen in high school, I was adopted by some seniors. They had known my sister and they must have thought I was cute or something (like a kitten) and so they allowed me to follow them around for the year. I had friends in my own grade too, but particularly that year, I hung out mostly with older kids. When it came time for graduation, I nearly had a breakdown. I mean, the people I had gotten closest too in that year (and remember high school is hard) were all of a sudden leaving, and many of them were going far away to scary places like California and Colorado Springs. I was afraid that I would never see them again! Of course, that didn't happen. I e-mailed with some of them regularly, hung out with them when they came home for holidays and when most of them moved back to Denver at some point after college, we became close again. In fact, a few of these kids are still some of my closest friends more than 10 years later.

Right now, the volunteers from Group 10 are getting ready to leave. This has a big impact on me since my sitemate (read platonic husband) is in this group. I was worried when I first moved here that Kenji and I would not get along. Of course this didn't happen and we have become great friends. I'm really excited about having a new sitemate (Dylan, I'm sure you'll hear about him soon) but I'm sad that Kenji is going to be leaving. And just like at the end of high school, this time is full of goodbyes, parties and questions (that I'm sure they are tired of answering) about what will come next. Most of the group is doing some sort of traveling before eventually ending up back in the states, although a few are either staying here and looking for jobs or going to some other far off land. The first of them left last week (I miss you JK!) and there is a big group leaving this weekend. Kenji won't leave until the middle of June, but that seems to be coming faster every day.

The difference between when my seniors graduated and the group leaving now is that my seniors (for the most part) all ended up back in Denver for a time (some of them went off again for grad school or jobs), but with this group there is a good chance that they will be far flung forever. This is not a bad thing really, it just means I will have lots of people to visit in the future . . .

Anyway, good luck to all of G10 on your next big adventure wherever that may take you and I hope our paths cross again someday . . .

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. . .