Knowing When to Fold 'em

About two weeks after my computer started screwing around (late September I think), I took a trip to Tirana to see if someone at the Peace Corps office could fix it or atleast tell me where I could get it repaired. Well that whole part of the trip was a bust but I ended up having a blast anyway. I was going to be staying at Ian’s place and Kumar, a volunteer in a small town in the north, was also going to be staying with us. The two of them wanted to go to that casino that is in the bottom of the Taiwan Center in Tirana and seeing as how I had some extra money to play with I decided to join them.

The only other experiences I’ve had with casinos are one in Las Vegas and one in Freeport and based on my time at those places I had figured that I was going to be walking into a loud, tacky disaster zone. This place was anything but that. It had a fairly chill atmosphere, the music wasn’t too loud, and the drinks were pretty good considering they were free. My plan was to walk out as soon as I had lost my fifty bucks and then resign myself to eating beans for the rest of the month.

I decided to try roulette as I had never played it before and I’m in Albania to try new things right? I got up an hour and a half later having cleaned out all the blue chips and walked out with the equivalent of $200 in my pocket. Ian had won about $400 playing poker and Kumar had managed to come out $10 ahead so the three of us were pretty happy. We headed up stairs and went bowling to celebrate.

Once the game was over, we head outside to grab some ice cream and to head out into the darkness to find some of our other PC compatriots.  The rest of the night was filled with loud rock music, fried chicken, and spilt beer. T’was a good night indeed.

Nje pushim të gjatë

Things not to do on a camping trip

Well that was a long break now wasn’t it? You can blame part of my absence on Albanian’s natural tendency to eat technology as though it was a bowl of Chexmix at a frat party, but the rest of the blame is squarely on my shoulders. Sorry about that. I won’t promise that something like this won’t happen again but I’ll harder to keep my breaks a bit shorter from now on.

So what the hell has been going on with me since we talked last? I don’t have working internet at the moment so I can’t check where I left off before so I’ll start way back in August because that’s bound to be near where I started getting lazy. August started off with me going to Pogradec and then heading off with of group of volunteers and high school aged Albanians to go camping as an Outdoor Ambassadors activity. I was pretty excited about going on this trip because I have dreams of opening my own branch of OA in Erseke (I’m thinking in the spring sometime).

I had never been to Pogradec before but I’d been through it many times because the road to Erseke runs through it. It’s a really well put together city on the edge of lake Ohrid (the deepest in the Balkans they say). It has a great lake front area where you can take a relaxing stroll, grab a coffee, watch local artists work on their latest endeavors, or rent a paddle boat and go out on the lake. As you can imagine it is pretty popular during the summer.  There are some really nice restaurants in that area of town as well. I kind of fell in love with that place as soon as I got there. I think it’s got to do with me growing up by the Savannah River and the Atlantic Ocean; I’ve caught myself missing the smell of saltwater in the air and the sound of sound of waves moving.

Anyway that night was really fun and everything went pretty well until the next morning. 

I met a girl in Matt and Brad’s OA group who had been accept to a university in Oregon and was going to be leaving for America in the next month or so. We got along really well while we were waiting for the bus, and once it arrived and our group began piling in, we decided to sit next to each other and continue or discussion. 

Everything was going well until my brain and my stomach decided that I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my surroundings. I causally looked up and peered out the window only to have nausea grab me as though it was the monster in the garbage compacter in the Death Star.  It didn’t matter that we were only 10 minutes away from our destination nor did I have enough warning to grab a plastic bag. So I puked all over myself. It was one of the most thoroughly disgusting situations I ever been in. I was pretty frakking embarrassed but everyone was cool about it. I was really glad I had packed extra clothes and I ended up stripping right there on the side of the road. Luckily there was a river close by that I could wash my stuff in.

The rest of the camping trip was fun but super exhausting. I managed to puke all over my snacks and bottles of water so I ended up writing them off as a lost cause when I got back on the bus after my initial clean up. So after becoming massively dehydrated from ralphing on the bus I ended up walking about two or three miles until we found our camp sight. After resting for a bit and leaching water and snacks off of people I helped gather firewood. At dinner, I wrapped my stuff up with too much foil so much of my food wasn’t really edible. Also, I was a dumbass who thought that he wouldn’t need a sleeping bag because of course it doesn’t get cold in August. So guess who didn’t get more than one hour of uninterrupted sleep because he was freezing his ass off?  This guy. The final blow to my ego came when I boarded the bus the next morning. It still reeked from the previous day’s events.

Overall my trip to Pogradec was a lot of fun but I’d never been so exhausted before. As soon as I got to Erseka I fell on my couch bed and slept for 10 hours or so.

July, July, where have you gone?

So my water schedule is back. Apparently they can fix it during election season but once that's all over things go back to normal. This means no water from 9am to about 4 or 5pm. Normally this isn't a problem as I usually shower at night anyway. However, I keep forgetting about the water schedule when I try to wash my dishes and foolish think there will be water at 11 am. I guess I'll just have to adjust right.

So what has happened lately? Let's see this month Jason and I have been giving a small English course for high school students. I was doing a beginners class at 11 and then Jason would come at 1 to help out with the advanced class. These classes have certainly been interesting.

The beginners class started off kind of rocky with the class starting with about 7 girls and then dropping down to one the next session. As much as I wished the other girls would come back, I tend to work better with individuals so I wasn't too bummed out about having only one student. Juliana attended a middle school where she learned Italian and entered high school knowing nothing about English. She worked pretty last year and now she has a decent grasp of the language but still needs a lot of help. I thought she was doing pretty well during our classes but she stopped coming the third week and I ended that class. I really hope I get to work with her when school starts.

The advanced class started off with the opposite problem; every time we had class more and more students showed up. I wanted to keep the class manageable and eventually split the class into two group of up to 15 kids. Of course that didn't happen until week 3 and only a few kids came. I know that Jason wasn't sad to see a lot of the boys who in were in the class go because they tended to get really loud. I too found them rather frustrating but I felt like I was making headway with them during each class. I wasn't making huge leaps or anything but I could get them to calm down and do their work for the most part. Anyway, I designed this class to be more of a creative/ critical thinking class. I never once gave out a vocab list or taught grammar or verbs or anything like that. During the first week, Jason and I handed out pictures from magazines and had them make stories about what was going on. The next classes we made them write skits based off of different scenarios. After that we gave out quotes and did a class discussion. The first class last week was a discussion about what life was like in Albania and what the future has in store for them. It also focused on the 2012 Mayan Calendar prophecy.  During the second class that week, we had them listen to two instrumental pieces and then write about what ever came to mind while listening. All of them produced very interesting things (one girl wrote a song, another drew a cartoon, another wrote a story about her friend) and we ended the class with a discussion about what they made and why they made it.

This week is the final week of course and I wanted to end it with another musical exercise so I'm going to have them listen to a song and do a pseudo fill in the blank exercise and then we will discuss the lyrics. I really hope they've been enjoying it. I know I've learned a lot.

Didn't realize it had been a month since I wrote something

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Time has been moving oddly for me lately. It's hard for me to comprehend that I've been it site for a month already.

Anyway I suppose I should let you know what I've been up to the last few weeks. Well the first two weeks of June I went to school to observe how my counterparts teach and to meet with the students. I went on a camping trip with a group of volunteers to a waterfall near the city of Gramsh. I spent two days at my host family's place to celebrate my younger brother's birthday. He turned 10 and I gave him a small nerf football and the game bananagrams. After that I came back to Erseka and told my students about the summer course I was going to start in July. The next week I spent most days working at the Outdoor Ambassadors camp that being held in Erseka.
 About 60 kids from all over the country came to the camp and they all had a great time. I helped out with teambuilding and photography activities, while also going on the hiking/ camping trip, making sure no one shot their friend during archery, and teaching a some of them some card games (they really liked oh hell). I also acted as a dj during the big dance the final night and during thank you variety show that the kids put on for us. Those kids were pretty awesome and I really wish them the best in the future.
This week I haven't really done much except for tittle my thumbs and try to figure out my plans for this weekend and to try and plan my course. It starts next Wednesday and I'm hopping it goes well. As for this weekend, I didn't get a ticket to the party at the Embassy but I'm going to go visit some friends in Berat Friday and then spend the weekend with my buddy Ian tooling around the capital.
One of the more unexpected things that has happened this week is that some neighborhoods kids came over and wanted me to teach them English and how to play American football. It's been pretty fun but one of those kids needs to take a chill pill before he punches a hole in my front door. He also tends to distract the other two kids during our small English lessons which is kind of a drag.

Well that's enough for now I think. I promise to write more next month.

Erseka

So I arrived in Erseka (my students' pointed out that I have been spelling it wrong in class this morning so no more Ersake)  on Thursday afternoon around 5pm after driving down from Elbasan once my Swearing-In ceremony was finished. The ride itself wasn't horribly long (only one pilaf stop) but it was still a good 4 hours.
When we were changing furgons in Korce, Jason and I ran into my landlord so we rode with him to Erseka. It started raining on that leg of the trip and the driver was nice enough to drop us all off at my door.

My landlord showed me around the place and I started arranging stuff and asking him questions while Jason waited around for his counterpart to come and give him the key to his apartment. Unfortunately for Jason that didn't end up happening until around 9pm. We had decided to go grab a pizza for dinner around 8 and his counterpart snagged us right as we ordered so we waited til after dinner to go check the place out.

Compared to most cities, Erseka is very small and seems to get smaller every year. This is due to the fact that there's very little work here. From what I gather there used to be many more jobs here and since they have gone missing many people have gone in search for them in other places. I know there's a fairly decent amount of logging that goes on around here along with some farming and other smaller industries, but I get the feeling that if people find a opportunity to leave Erseka they jump on it.

Start slightly random almost stream of conscious stuff here:

So far things have been pretty relaxing here. My temporary apartment is pretty nice, and my landlord is pretty easy going. I've managed to cook a few meals without burning down the place. Fought off two scorpions Friday and Saturday. Taught a few classes today. Went with Jason for a long walk along the outskirts off the city. I accidently left my wallet at a supermarket today only to have it returned a few hours later by the store owner's son. I inherited a small library from Marie and chewed through Ender's Game over the weekend and am about half way through another book right now. Jason and I ran into the local missionaries on Saturday and discovered that they will be hosting a camp for blind students over the summer sometime. I created another facebook page and gmail account specifically for my students and friends here. Going to visit Leskovik and maybe help Jason and his counterpart with an anti-smoking lesson. Got invited to go on a field trip with the 11th grade students to Sarande over the weekend. Probably won't go but it was really nice to get the invitation.

I can tell I'm gonna have a lot of good times here.

An end of sorts

This week marks the last week of training. Our languages classes are over, we had our final tests last week, and we have our final assessment interviews with our program managers over the next few days. Thursday we will all be sworn in as official volunteers by the Ambassador and then head off to our sites. It's a pretty exciting time but it's also bittersweet for those of us who have become very close with our host families.

Over the last ten weeks my host family has done so much more for me than I imagined they would when I arrived on their door step. Not that I had low expectations, but I really had no idea what to expect. I had no idea that they would come to mean so much to me.

They helped me with the language so much that I give them almost as much credit as I do my teachers for my level of Shqip. They've helped me integrate by bringing me to parties and family gatherings. They've taught me how to cook some new foods and play some new games. I've translated American movies subtitled in Greek into Shqip for them and they've broken down what was going on in Shqiptar films and television so that I could understand them better. They are always asking about what my life was like before I came here and what America is like. Whenever I tell them I've talked with my family and friends back home they ask how they are doing and want to learn more about them. We've talked a lot about the differences between politics here and in America. We've went on long hikes in the hills and bunkers in the surrounding area and played many games of futboll. They've helped my training group with projects and let us pester them with new phrases and questions when we learned them in class.  They helped us deal with the very few problems we had in the village as well. We've shared tons of laughs and even a few scary times ( like when Ben broke his leg and when we thought Vasil had broken his arm).  

Honestly when I read back over this list it all seems so small. I know they've done a million and one things to help me in the short time that I've been here. No list could ever encompass what they've done for me. I'm just glad I'll have the next two years to say thank you.

Pastaj

So what to say about Durres? The hotel was pretty nice. I managed to squeeze in a short walk on the beach before things got started in the conference rooms. I met Ardi, one of my future counterparts, briefly before we headed off to dinner with everyone else. Our meeting was a little awkward because he didn't want to come across as stepping on the toes of my primary counterpart, Niko, who was unable to make it to the conference. We did manage to talk a fair amount over dinner, although I was trying to get over a cold at that time so I kept coughing and being slightly disgusting which didn't help the flow of conversation. Ardi and I went our separate ways after dinner and, after a short xhiro around the hotel grounds, I found my way into a card game.

The next morning brought promises of warm breakfast and I'll I can say is that the staff at the hotel did not disappoint me at all (I did hear that the milk for cereal was pretty awful but I've yet to find any milk that I've enjoyed here and being that I'm not a huge fan of cereal it wasn't any hair off my back). After breakfast, we split into our sectors and went through a few sessions with our counterparts about working together.

Because our trip south was going to be a long one, Ardi talked with the rest of the counterparts heading close to our region and decided that the best course of action was to head out before the closing speech. Jason ( the HE volunteer who's going to Ersake with me), Laurie (a COD going to Korce), and I thought that this was a pretty good idea. Our counterparts had even been talking to a furgon driver who said he would pick us up pretty quick. So we dragged all our bags to a nearby cafe and waited for the furgon to arrive. Being that time is a more fluid concept here, our ride showed up about an hour later. Before we left we even got chat with some the people who had attended the closing speech, apparently we didn't miss much.

The ride to Ersake was a long one and required us to switch furgons two times. We switched from our original van in Elbasan and after Laurie and her counterparts got off in Korce, the group of us heading to Ersake managed to grab the final furgon of the night that was heading to Ersake. The trip was like visiting a museum dedicated to the different landscapes, living areas, and road conditions in Albania. The trip took us through lush hills and flat plains, through one horse towns and modern cities where every cafe had a plasma tv. We traveled on both some of the best kept and worst kept road. While most of the roads were fairly straight cut, however once we got past Korce, most of the last leg of the journey was switchbacks leading us up to snow capped mountains.

Right before we got to Ersake, Ardi had the furgon stop on the edge of town near his house. We said short goodbyes and departed with Jason's counterpart, Mondi, leading the way. The next stop was my future apartment, which was where the TEFL I am replacing was currently living. Marie, Katie (the COD who still has a year left in her tour) and Meredith (the TELF in Humarra who had come to work on a project with Marie)  helped us take our stuff upstairs and into the apartment.

After Mondi left, the four of us grabbed some drinks and talked while Katie got to preparing dinner. The rest of the night was basically a continuous conversation ranging from stuff about Ersake to the differences between the volunteers in groups 12 (Marie's) ,13 (Katie's) , and 14 (Jason and I's) and just just about everything in between. We all got along really well which is hopefully a sign of things to come.

The next few days are kind of a blur. The next day I went to a few classes with Ardi and then joined Jason and Mondi for a tour of the city. We met with the mayor, the director of the local hospital, the directors of both schools, and the minister of education. After awhile Mondi had to go back to work and Jason and I went back to Marie's place and chilled with Meredith while waiting for Marie to get back. After she returned we went to an awesome pizza joint where we met Katie for lunch. Afterward, Jason and I did some more tooling around Ersake while the girls got some work done. We eventually met back up with them at a really swanky cafe that looked like something you'd find back in the states.

That night Katie again lived up to her rep as one of the best cooks in PC Albania by making a herb crusted chicken dish.

The next day I went back to school with Marie and sat in on some more of Ardi's classes. I also finally meet Niko and participated in two of his classes. After class, the five of us muched on leftovers before Meredith caught the bus back. After that we took a walk to a neighboring village and narrowly missed getting rained on. Later than night, Jason and I headed off to grab a coffee with Mondi. We walked around the same  few blocks for almost an hour and just as we decided to head back we finally saw him walk into a store with a friend of his. We followed him in and the group of us headed out to the swanky cafe again. Of course when we got there it was closed for a private party being held for an Albanian popstar who was from the region. So Mondi invited us to have a coffee at his house instead. We talked with his family and drank some raki and tea for about an hour. They are pretty nice people and it was fun talking with them. I imagine it might happen fairly often.  After all that was over we headed back to Marie's place and had a Mexican themed dinner with her and Katie.

I think I'll save the next bit for tomorrow. I'm not a fan of writing such long posts when I'm sick and my allergies kicked in hard today.

Events that have kept me off the computer lately

I spent two weeks teaching classes at the local high school and middle school in Kuqan as part of my practicum as a TELF volunteer. It was quite eye opening and fairly enjoyable. I had some success using group work in a few classes and watched as those same ideas melted faster than butter on a hot plate. I didn't have too many discipline problems although I did have to tell one kid to slow his roll when he was becoming a bit more of a distraction than I wanted him to be.

Most of the kids seemed to have fun, but it was interesting to see how many students were in the upper classes that knew no English. This problem stems from quite a few things: the use of the Russian style of teaching in which the teachers teach to the top ten percent or so and let the other kind of fend for themselves, the set up of the Albanian school system which makes it nearly impossible for a student to fail a class, often a lack of interest in the student. It can even stem from an undiagnosed learning disability. Whatever the cause there are always two or three students in every class that have no clue what is going on and most teachers don't have the time to help these students catch up.

My sitemates and I each had to teach eight classes and observe seven while still attending language classes and coming up with ideas for our community project. All I can say is that when practicum was over on Friday we really had something to celebrate. So we bought a few bottles of wine and played a few games of scrabble to relax once it was all over.  

The following Sunday I caught a ride to the town of Belsh, or what I like to call the land o' lakes. There's something like 84 lakes in that area but I only saw one of them. I went to Belsh because another group of trainees was holding their community project and seeing as how the group had invited anyone who wanted to join them and I hadn't yet gone to that area I figured I'd pop in. The group in Belsh is split between community development (COD) and health (HE) volunteers, and they had decided to host a walk/ run around the largest lake near the city and follow it up with a field day in front of the local high school. While no adults got involved by the end of it about 50 kids joined in which was pretty awesome. We were all really happy because we thought the crappy weather would drive people off but the weather was ok for the most part aside from a few minutes where the sky spit rain.

The next day I caught an early bus to Elbasan and met with all the other trainees and head off to the capital city of Albania, Tirana, and the seaside city of Durres. After making a perilous journey through fog covered mountain switchbacks in a touring van, we made it to Tirana and disembarked to get a small group tours of the Peace Corps office and important sites around the city. The tours were led by current volunteers so they talked to us about their experiences in Tirana and in Albania in general while we walked. Almost as soon my group left the office we ran into trouble. One of the other trainees snapped a picture of the US embassy as we were walking by it and the security officers were more than happy to discuss with us at length the follies of taking pictures of secure facilities. All I'm gonna say is that perhaps they could put up a sign that says don't take any photographs. The rest of the tour was fairly uneventful aside from a car rolling over my toe as I was walking across the street. Good thing I was wearing my boots that day. When the tour was over, we returned to the bus and headed off to Durres.

After having to turn the bus around three times a busy road and almost parking in the lobby of a pharmacy, we arrived at the Tropical Resort. It's situated right on the Adriatic and has a semi private beach behind it. We were there to attend the Counterpart Conference and spend some time getting to know the people we will be working with for the next two years.

Well I'm really tired so I'll end it here and pick it up where I left off next time. 

Random Facets

Sorry It's been so long between posts, I've been pretty busy the last few weeks.

People send a lot more time outdoors here than people do in America.

When playing chess, pieces do not take each other; the eat each other.

If you don't ask for a glass you'll probably end up getting a brightly colored bendy straw with your coke.

In some areas of the country more people speak Greek than Shqip. Most places where this occurs are in the border areas, but it does occur in a few towns that are very far from the border too.

August in Albania is wedding season because that is when many Albanians return from Italy to spend time with their families. From what I've heard just about all businesses in Italy give their employees a month off at this time. I'm not really sure about that, but I've yet to met an Italian and ask them about it.

Albanians love American pop music but because most of them don't have time or tools to access any other forms of American music they tend find other American music kind of strange if it's stuff that is very far from pop music.

The range of American movies shown on TV channels here is quite strange. The movies range from Alvin and the Chipmuks to The Shadow to The Blindside to Tropic Thunder. Mixed in with these are a ton of crime and action films. They also get movies coming over from Greece, Italy and other European countries but they don't seem to be as popular...at least not in my house.

That being said there seems to be a great appreciation for films about Albania. Just about every night there are films telling the stories of Albanian partisans who fought the Nazis or dramas set during the communist era. I haven't seen any Albanian films about the post communist era though, and I would really like to find some.

The status of schools and schooling ranges drastically across the country. Some schools barely function and have major infrastructure problems whereas others are very modern.

While the country in general needs major improvements when it comes to waste disposal, there are more than a handful of areas where modern systems have been set up. Citizens of places like Korce and Ersake love to boast about how clean their cities are.

Using double negatives is grammatically correct in Shqip, which throws a lot of English speakers for the loop when learning the language and also causes much grief for those Albanians who are learning English.

While I haven't done an extensive search for them no one I've ever talked to has seen a red potato here.

Local elections were held this past Sunday and got me thinking about why we always have elections during the week. Does anyone really know why? It hasn't ever made much sense to me.

While I don't think they occur that frequently in big cities, it seems like short rolling black outs are fairly common in villages and small towns. The power went out 3-4 times yesterday for a total of about 3 hours or so. Today it went out for maybe twenty minutes. It's not an everyday or even weekly thing but it seems to happen at least a few times a month.

A list of sorts

These are just a  few ideas I've thought of for when people start wanting to send me care packages.No, I don't know my address yet. I also assume ya'll can split stuff up among yourselves so I don't end up with  a million socks and nothing else.

packets of mexican spices

a can of old bay seasoning

some different card games like ninja burger (portable and light are what I'm going for)

a foldable map of ga and a foldable map of the us  (I plan on pinning these up in my apartment to show guests)

some action figures (iron man or yugio if you can find them I plan on giving them to my host brothers as gifts)

a few ga tech and assu shirts ( I wear a size medium or small depending on the cut)

some thicker socks

a few good graphic novels or compilations of them would be great ( I hear the Walking Dead and Y the last Man are almost done hint hint)

My copies of Maus 1&2, Persopolis, In the Shadow of No towers, and 300 ( I have some crazy idea that I might be able to use some stuff from these in my classes)

some buttons or stickers from assu or ga tech ( I am thinking about giving them out as prizes to my future students)

some random magazines that have good photos in them NatGeo, Time have good stuff too but really whatever grabs your attention ( I'm thinking of using them in my classes)

some poetry that uses fairly standard english and covers a wide range of topics and styles ( as much as I like shakespeare and beowolf I don't really see the point in having toil through yet another language with my students) There was one book of poetry that I read in middle school that was about a shooting at a high school that I remember really enjoying ( It was title something along the lines of The Taking of Room 213)

Randomness

Just a list of a few things I've done since the last time I posted.

1) Went to a bachelor party, was forced to drink a lot, circle danced, watched people set the husband to be's favorite sports jersey on fire as a sign that he was no longer a boy.

2) Had some language evaluations. I've been speaking in shqip a lot more since then because the feedback I received was very positive ( I'm getting the feeling that a large part of the evaluation was supposed to be a confidence booster). I've actually had a few fairly lengthy discussion in shqip with my host parents and some other people since then which makes me really happy. I know I've not hitting the grammar points exactly but I am able to communicate fairly well.

3) Learned where my permanent site will be. I'm going to be living in the south east of Albania in a city called Ersake. It's maybe an hour away from Greece and is situated on top of a plateau, which means that even though it's in the south it is much cooler year round than other areas in that part of the country. There are two volunteers living in Ersake at the moment, though one of them will be finishing her service in May so I won't be spending much time working with her. The other volunteer still has another year to go so I'm sure I will see her often. Another volunteer from my training group was also stationed in Ersake so I'll have a buddy going into it.

4) Going along with number 4, I learned what I'll be doing for most of the next two years. My primary assignment will be to work with English teachers in the high school. I would be following in the footsteps of the volunteer who is leaving May. They would also like me to try and build relations with the middle school that is close to the high school. The staff at that school has expressed interest in having a volunteer work with them but have never actually had one work in their school. From what I hear, Ersake hosts quite a few camps during the summer so I'm sure I'll send time working at those as well.

5)My host brother Vasi injured his collarbone after falling off his friends bike the other week. He had to go to the hospital in order to get an xray. He got a sling and is doing ok but gave us quite a scare when we first found out. A neighbor told me and my host mother a few minutes after he fell and we ran over to the field to check on him.

6) My practicum started this week, so I've been teaching classes in the high school and observing my sitemates' lessons. I taught 4 classes this week and will teach 4 more next week. It's been interesting because I've never really taught an entire classroom before and while we have a had few sessions on classroom management and the fundamentals of teaching, I know that I'll be learning something everytime I step in the classroom.

The day things slowed down

When laughter turns to shrieking in less than a minute you know something very bad has happened. Ten minutes later I found myself running down a dirt path into an unknown village in the hopes of finding help. I didn't know the exact phrase for broken leg but I knew enough to get the point across to the people I ran into.

Two trainees from Librahzd had come to Kuqan for the day, and we had gone hiking in the hills. Everything had gone well before that fateful leap. We had just finished a picnic at the summit and were making our way down when we came to a slight ridge were we could either slide through a large patch of Albanian stickerbushes or we could jump over them. The first two trainees had no problem vaulting over the brambles, although their landings left them a bit bruised.

Ben was not so lucky.

As soon as he hit the ground on the other side of the bushes, there was a loud SCHRICKT and Ben started screaming.

Those next few minutes were a flurry of action. I don't really remember bushwacking through the brambles but as soon as I got down I heard Eric on the phone with the PC medics, Lauren and Sam were talking to Ben in an attempt to calm him down. After making it down and helping to give Ben some aspirin, I grabbed my host brother and tore off down the rest of the hill to try and fin help in the next village.

Despite my broken shqip we managed to get a bag with some ice and some small pieces of wood just in case we needed to make a splint. After running back up the hill and getting caught in some stickerbushes, we made it back to the rest of the group. Eric and Lauren had carried Ben down to a lower part of the hill, closer to the road. After I made it back up, Sam and Eric headed into the village to get more help while Eric also talked to other PC Albania staff. Lauren and I needed to keep Ben from passing out so we kept asking him question after question so that he would have to stay with us. Soon, Eric and Sam returned with some PC staff and a taxi. After we all took turns carrying Ben down the rest of the hill and down the path to the taxi, Lauren and Eric rode with Ben to the hospital. The rest of us headed back to Kuqan and told everyone what happened.

Today I found out that Ben broke both the bones in his leg a few inches above his ankle. He will be flying back to America for surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. I really hope he gets better soon and that he is able to return to Albania. He's a great guy and a good friend, and I wish him all the best.

Te lumshin kembat!

I hope you had fun figuring out what a gomar is. Being that I live in a small village I see them almost everyday. So why did I want you to think of a one legged crab with the rhythm of a gomar? Because that's exactly how I dance when I'm sober. I know this because in our cross culture classes we've been learning traditional Albanian circle dancing, and I figured today's post would be about this phenomenon. I know that I won't be able to talk about this in too much detail just because I haven't done much research on it but I thought ya'll could look up more about it if it tickles your fancy.

So circle dances can occur pretty much whenever people want to dance. Outside of my classes I've witness people do it at a bar in Elbasan last Friday and at a wedding I crashed my first week of being here. In Albania, weddings can last for days and for a good chunk of that time the bride and groom lead the party in a circle dance. During that dance guests stuff the bride's dress and the groom's suit with money to help them begin their new lives together. At one point a few minutes before they cut the cake, the bride and groom perform a couples dance. During this dance the husband twirls a handkerchief which is eventually set on fire to show that he is now a man. The couples dance is interesting because from what I could understand in class there are no real assigned moves and it is almost an interpretive dance the shape of which depends on the dancer.

The group dance's on the other hand do have specific moves which everyone must follow or else the circle will end up looking like a slinky. There are multiple styles to choose from. A few are slightly akin to the hokey pokey in that you take a few steps and then push a leg out into the middle. Other versions include leaps and turns are can be quite beautiful depending on the dancer. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I will probably never attempt such dances as if I did I'm sure I'd end up breaking someone's nose on accident. 

Oh Zot!

So it's my third (almost fourth) week here in Albanian, and I'm having trouble coming up with something to write. Not that I have nothing to talk about. In fact, my problem lies in the opposite direction entirely. I've observed many aspects of society in my short time here ( I've crashed a wedding, taken a tour of a Orthodox Cathedral, seen tons of dolls used to ward of the eye evil hanging off the sides of buildings, even learned some traditional dances) and whenever I sit down to type something everything pops up at once. After much hair pulling, I finally decided to write a bit about how my language classes are going.

During a typical week I have at least four classes on Shqip. For three of those classes I and my sitemates head to a classroom in the high school in Kuqan. The fourth class is in Elbasan and that is where sitemates are broken up and people from different sites are split into groups of about eight. Those classes take place at different locations in Elbasan ( three are held in a high school, one is held in our hub space, and the last is held in the training office). The classes in the villages are taught by two teachers who rotate depending on the day. The sessions in Elbasan are co-taught by two teachers. Each session is about four hours so.

Well that was a bit more technical than I meant it to be so now on to something a little more interesting. I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of Shqip I've managed to acquire so far. Sure I can't hold a conversation on anything all that meaningful yet, but I can buy stuff in a shop, get a ride from one city to another, order food in a restaurant, among other things. I've been able to read quite a few things inside and outside of class because I can get the meanings through context even if I don't know exactly what I'm reading. I do have some problems with pronouncing new words because I'm not sure where the syllables break up. My teacher has told me just to slow down when reading because I've been pronouncing most of the letters surprisingly well. I still have some problems with listening because most people speak very quickly, and because I can't see the words on paper to help with context, I have some trouble understanding long spoken sentences. Outside of the fact that my vocabulary is fairly limited at this point, my other big problem is conjugating verbs. Shqip has three types of verbs and each is conjugated slightly differently depending on the case and the tense. When I start busting out my Shqip my conjugations are always off but most people get what I'm trying to say.

Lately, I've been thinking of was to increase my fluency, and I've come up with a few things I'm gonna try. First and foremost, I'm going to make sure I set aside at least thirty minutes a day to do my homework and go over what I learned in class. I've been really about about working outside of class and I need to stop that now before it bites me in the ass.  I'm also going to make myself learn five new words everyday, not including stuff in my classes. I feel like this is a pretty achievable goal especially since I hear tons of new words and phrases each day. I'm also thinking of picking up a newspaper every time I'm in Elbasan. Seems like a really good way to work on my reading skills that's much cheaper than buying books. Last but not least I'm going to start a reading trade with my host mother, Marsela, tonight. I'm really excited about this because she has old textbooks from when she was in university, so I'm not going to be starting out reading children's books. I know that sounds kinda of weird, but the way I see it I'm going to be reading aloud to work on my pronunciation, and I'll gain new ( and useful) vocabulary from the more advanced books. During my sessions with Marsela, I going to help her work through the exercises she skipped in her books during her English classes.  

Well damn

So I spent a good amount of time writing something to put up here when I was at my house earlier. So I walk to the internet cafe to upload it only to find out that the computer I sat at doesn't have a working usb port. So I guess you'll just have to wait for that one.

For now I will leave you with an image for you to ponder. Imagine a one legged crab with the rhythm of a gomar.

No I'm not gonna tell you what a gomar is you'll have to look it up. Just keep the image in your head until you read my next post and I'll let you know why I told made you think of that.

Let that shqip flow

So as many of you know I've never been the biggest fan of pop music. I've always been more of a rock n roll guy and I probably always will be. Sure there was the occasional song like "Replay" by Sean Kingston or "Empire State of Mind" by Jay- Z that I found to be quite quite catchy, but I've never found much of the genre to be that good.

Having been in Eastern Europe I can say that I am definitely changing my mind about that. I hear tons of pop music everyday; Albanians guzzle American pop music like it's going out of style here. I've often heard my little brother singing bits and pieces of "Boom- Boom Pow " or other songs. Like most Albanians he sings the lyrics without understanding them, which is a good thing because many of the songs are not very appropriate for anyone under the age of 13 or so. Most of the songs remind me all the times Michelle and I would put her ipod on shuffle and play cards or tackle that ridiculous puzzle we bought . It's so funny what reminds you of home when you won't be seeing it for such a long time.

Till next time

Getting on top of that Shqip

How should one start a piece about hiking up a mountain? I don't really have a clue so I'll start in the middle and see how it pans out from there.

So there I was leaning against a cube like block on the side of a mountain about 5 miles west of Librazdh. Ben and I were were both trying to push ourselves back onto the path and make our way up the last leg of the mountain. On the way up the mountain the group had split and Ben and I were now the tails of the group which had fallen behind. We had to do something to get our minds off how tired we were and how far we had yet to go. Being that nerds that we are we turned to movie quotes. Soon I was singing “I love block. Block, Block, Block. There it goes down my throat” while Ben asked           “What is this? Why is it here? What does it mean?”. Those ridiculous lines sparked enough laughter that we were able to break free from our lethargy and return to the task at hand.

We had already bushwacked our way up through the foothills close to the highway and crawled our way up a rocky hillside and were now taking an old mining road that wound its way back and fourth across the mountain. The two other volunteers in our group, Sean and Zoe, were further up the path than we were but that was mostly due to Sean's indomitable will ( Zoe was quite the trooper but had only managed to order a plate a fries at the resturant we had a lunch at hours before which meant she had very little energy). Ben and I quickly catch up the the pair and we head up the rest of the path together. We keep thinking that the path must end soon and that we'll be with the other group in no time. Sometime later we here a few distant yells and look around. There on the spire stood some of the other members of group. They were waving at us and telling us to keep going but honestly when we rounded the next bend and saw how much further we had to go Ben and I seriously thought about stopping. Instead decided that perhaps the best way to go on was to try checkpoints like in many of the video games we played before we flew to Albania. So we pointed to a turn in the road and said ok let's go there and then take a break (we were joking that maybe the guy with the mouse would forget about us for awhile while he checked on some other stack of volunteers as we headed towards the corner).

About 30-45 minutes later we finally make it to the base of the spire and the final section.  When we arrived we heard someone talking on a cell pone only to find that Narith, another volunteer, had received a call from a family member and so decided not to tackle the last leg of the hike. We talk with Narith  for awhile and then began our way up the last leg. We had to do some more bushwacking and scramble up some more lose rocks but we made it.

Or so we thought. It ended up that we arrived not at the spire but at a grassy knoll somewhat below it. Here the other volunteers had a made a pseudo basecamp where we found them much on fresh apples and hunks of cheese. Ben and Sean decided to make the final push to the summit but Zoe and I said to hell with it and set about getting some much needed rest.

It's really too bad I hadn't thought to charge my camera the night before. The views were awesome. I'll have to grab some pictures from some of my fellows and put them up here.

Jumping Shqip

So Monday was the first day of school for me and the rest of the volunteers here in Kuqan. I was looking forward to it and while I wasn't sure how it was going to go I would have never guessed in a million years what happened in the first 20 minutes of school.

I walked in to the sparsely decorated chilly classroom and grabbed a desk. They're pretty small because they are made for younger students but you work with what you have right? Anyway as I'm unpacking my shqip ( we're quite puny here in kuqan) my stomach starts acting up and I realize that I really need to run to the bathroom. SO I asked our teacher and she said it was at the end of the hall. I run into the the bathroom and pick the last stall. As soon as I close the door I realize that theres no handle on the inside but I couldn't stop to think about that because of my current status. As i'm finishing my business I start hearing female voices. Thats right I was in the womens bathroom. To make it even worse the door was locked.

So there I am trapped in the womens restroom of high school in a country halfway around the world. I really didn't want to ask for help from the girls because I was think about how the people at the school and in the town would see me. Would they see me as some kind of perv stalking the girls restroom or just an dumb American? SO I text my sitemates and our teacher telling them that I was locked in the last stall of the women's restroom and couldn't get out.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity ( it was really like five minutes) I start looking around for a way to get out and as luck would have it theres a window right next to me. I check to see how far the fall would be  and seeing that it wasn't anymore than 10 feet I climbed up the sill and jumped out. I landed square in the middle of another volunteers host parents backyard. Her host father then came over started asking if I was ok and what was wrong. I tried to explain but my shqip was pretty bad and I was kinda discombobulated so I just said that everything was ok.

So yeah until there's a lightsaber duel between Darth Vader and Darth Maul at your school my first day of school story beats yours hands down

There will be more later

I promise there will be more later but for now know that everything is really freaking awesome. We spent three days in a hotel in Elbasan and am now living with my host family in Kuqan. The family I am living with are very generous and kind and very friendly. We play cards every night. I hoping soon to know enough shpiq ( albanian) to introduce them to uno. I spend alot of time hanging out with my host brothers who are 5 and ten years old.

Like I said I promise to put more up soon bye for now

Today

Today is my last day in Atlanta...whoa

Developments

Things that have happen this week:

My stint at Borders ended and my final two checks will show up quite soon.

I beat Fable 2 again. When back and found all the silver keys, demon doors, and gargoyles. Still didnt give me the achievement for all the doors...whatever.

I convinced the mailman to let me in my box even though I still can't find the key ( it's been a week). I'm so glad I did that because the Peace Corps sent me a CD with info about the people I'll be working with, the area I'll be living in, along with letters from current and past volunteers talking about their experiences and what to pack, and with information about the Albanian language.

Well that's a first

So over the last couple days I've been anxiously waiting for the paycheck I deposited on Saturday to go through so I could start paying for things that I'd rather not ( new tires I'm looking at you). I called the bank Wednesday while on my break at work and gave them the old where's my money? line and all they could say was that they can hold checks up to 7 days but that it would be available to use after 5pm that day. Fast forward to today, I take a peak at my bank account...still no credit...plus a bounced check fee. I heard a rumor that had happened to a chick at work but that it had been resolved. Apparently this is happening around the country. They say the problem will be fixed shortly and that they will reimburse us the fees. I hope they do it quickly.

Staging Info

Well it looks like things are finally starting to pick up steam. I got an email yesterday saying that I'll be heading to DC on March 14th for staging. I'll be there for a day and a half and leave for Albania the night of the 15th. Now all I've got to do is finish everything on the massive to do list I made at work yesterday.

Things I've read at work: The Boys

On my ten minute and hour long breaks at Borders I usually pick up a comic or a graphic novel. When I was at the midtown store I read roughly 5 single issues a week and now that I work at Brookwood I go through 3-4 of those a week while polishing off 1-4 graphic novels. I thought I'd share some of what I've read recently with you.

The most recent GN I've read is The Boys, a mag that is most definitely graphic. There's tons of sex and gore in the book not to mention language that could make a sailor blush. The story centers around a CIA funded group of anti-heroes looking to set irresponsible supers back in line through blackmail, scare tactics, and the occasional beat down. The group is run by a dude by the name of Butcher. He's out for revenge and spends his time off fucking the the head of the CIA on her desk. He's British and has a really creepy bulldog. As you don't really get a lot of details on most of the other characters in the group and because I'm bad with names there's not much to tell about the 3 other people in the group. One's is a psychotic Frenchman who wears a flight cap with goggles, talks to his tea and beats people to pulps. Then there's the Female ( that's what everyone calls her). She's creepy ( in a pasty goth way), doesn't talk much, and kills in very creative ways. Next there's Milk Man, an African American wall of muscle, who tries to improve the lives of the children he's adopted during the day while helping Butcher keep things shipshape in his free time. Finally, there's Hughie aka Simon Pegg. That's right Shaun of the dead is part of this group. Unlike the rest of the group, he's got really no clue as to whats going on at first. The book opens with his girlfriend becoming collateral damage during a superhero battle and the "good guy" just shrugging it off and leaving. Butcher later finds out and recruits him. Moving away from the story and into the more nitpicky bits, the artwork is great. It's got a slightly gritty style without much gloss. The story seems to be put together well and the dialog is also very well done. Overall, a pretty good read. I'm gonna pick up the second one on my break tomorrow.

Figuring it out

Over the last few months I've been struggling to come up with a solution to my debt problems. I'm not talking about my student loans or anything big because my wonderful parents have decided to help me with those while I'm away. No what's been weighing so heavily on my shoulder's the last few weeks is my credit cards. You see this came about because despite their many warnings about not counting your chickens before they hatch I thought I had a Peace Corps trip in October in the bag and so after graduating in August I sat on my ass for a month before realizing perhaps that wasn't going to happen and that I needed a job.
So as ya'll know I got two   ( Borders and Resto) and I kept tutoring ( though it was only once a week so it was more of a  hobby. Anyway fast forward to now; last week Resto closed and I worked my last day on Thursday. The week before I narrowly avoided being laid off at Borders by transferring to a store that is closing. The plus side to the transfer is that I'm working way more hours than I ever got at my first store, the downside being that they have no idea when the store will actually be closing. The estimations range from Feb 11 through the end of the month. I'm really hoping for the end of the month.
Now although things weren't great financially it seemed that I was well on my way to paying off my cards back around October/ November and things like store closings wouldn't be an issue. Of course then entered the ghosts of DragonCon aka medical bills. Well those put a huge kink in my plans and are a big reason why I am in the pickle I am in today.
But I believe I have found a way to actually sort all this out and not have to worry about anything preventing me from leaving in March.
I'm going to sell my car.
I really don't want to do it but I think it's the best move I can make.

Make Your Own Lane Day

So when I last left you I was up around DC spending sometime with my grandparents before heading up to see my girlfriend in Leesburg. It was a great time and I'm so glad I took that time off of work. Seeing my family was wonderful all peace corps madness aside. Michelle and I left to go back to Atlanta on Sunday after lunch and would have probably made it back around 1am. Apparently mother nature had other plans much to the delight my actual mother. About 50 miles into GA we ran into blinding snow and had to decide what to do. Luckily an exit that would take us to my moms house was coming up fast so we got off 85 and headed to Athens. It was my first time driving in real snowy conditions but Michelle and I managed to keep level heads and were lucky enough to find ourselves behind a snow plow that lead us straight to the entrance to my mom neighborhood. Aside from figuring out what was going on with work, I spent the next two days watching the Star Trek marathon on SyFy,drinking coffee, playing cards and empire earth, and watch my stepstep dad drive himself crazy with cabin fever since he couldn't go into work. Overall a pretty nice extra vacation but I'm ready to go make some money.


//Star Trek First Contact was the best Next Gen movie...don't forget it

Getting pushed off the edge

So according to my uncle I suck at this whole blog thing and I suppose he's right. So here's me trying to get a little better at it.

Discoveries over the last few weeks.

While they have gotten progressively better no Spider-Man game has every broken the mediocre barrier. I think an rpg could fix this.
Three Blind Moose is a very crappy wine.
Fade to Black is a pretty good dark beer but it has an almost chocolaty flavor that takes some getting used too.
Fixed Gear is a very good red beer but I should have let it cool before drinking it.
White Russians are great.
Credit cards suck.
I should really stop by a mechanic to see whats up with my tire instead of bartering with it whenever my car starts to shake.
The speed limits around Richmond, VA are way too low...and the police like to enforce them.
Despite what you might have heard Albanians have access to paper, running water, decent food, decent housing, like Americans, aren't located near Russia, have some electricity and even internet access.

Welcome to the interrogation

So many questions!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH