December 29, 2005

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. It's hard to believe that we are about to begin another new year. That means that I have been here for over 9 months. That's hard to wrap my mind around. I'm hoping the new year will bring some new changes to life here. Mainly in the work department. Everything else is good. The weather here has been unusually warm over the past week, which has been a really nice break.

I had a great time for my birthday. About 15 of my closest Peace Corps pals made their way to Durres and we had a good time in spite of the torrential rain that caused some problems. Katharine and I have found a restaurant that uses a wood-burning oven, it is always nice and warm inside, so we went there for dinner. I don't think the restaurant was quite prepared to have all 15 of us. Somehow whenever a large group of PC volunteers go anywhere together something always ends up getting broken. Don't ask me why. We've been back since, though, and seem to still be welcome.

Christmas was very low-key for me. I ended up staying in Durres instead of going to celebrate with friends in Fier. It didn't really feel too much like Christmas here. The big holiday for Albanians this time of year is New Years. So I plan on celebrating with friends down in Vlore. People have been shooting off fireworks every night here for the past 3 weeks, and supposedly everyone just goes insane with fireworks after midnight. Somehow, having fireworks around here just doesn't feel quite as safe as in the States. Maybe it's the guys that chain smoke while selling fireworks. Or the kids that shoot Roman candles directly at cars and people. I don't know.

December 13, 2005

Normality

Like I said before, it's nice to travel, but sometimes it is just as nice to have a normal week at home. That's what my week was, just normal.

I spent the weekend in Tirana with friends, so that was a good time. However, I left my umbrella in my friend's car and had to walk to the bus station in the rain on Sunday morning. It is starting to rain fairly frequently here. Winter hasn't been as cold here as I had imagined it might be, but I guess that is one of the perks of living on the coast. My friends up in the mountains I know aren't thinking the same thing.

Friday, I had a meeting with the director of the organization I work for. He called me in because he had heard that I was having problems with work, ie not having any. So we talked and it was good. I'm waiting to see if the talking is backed up with action. Today I am meeting with my coworker and hopefully we can organize a work and project plan. Right now, I'm thinking if things don't change soon I am going to take some of the other offers I have received to work in Durres.

The big news of this week, of course, is my birthday on Sunday (25). I am throwing a bit of party at my place Saturday night. Just the old Peace Corps crowd having a good time, so I may be posting some embarrassing pictures next week. We'll see what happens.

December 05, 2005

Trip

On the train to Krakow

Oh, it’s good to be back in Albania. My trip was great, but as happens with all traveling, I was much more exhausted when I got back than before I left.

I left on Thanksgiving and flew to Prague. Spent 3 days in Prague, 2 days in Krakow, and 3 days in Budapest. The rest of my time was spent on trains and buses going from one place to the other. Finding the right transportation steadily got harder as I moved further south (I still don’t read Cyrillic), but somehow I managed to make it back not too much worse for wear.

My time in Prague was definitely the highlight of the trip. The city is gorgeous and people are quite friendly as well. Plus I was able to meet some fun people at the hostel, and that always makes the days and nights a little more interesting. Other good times from the trip were spending time in cafes watching people, learning history, seeing snow, visiting Auschwitz, good conversation with people from all over the world, eating Chinese and Greek food, and having enough cash left at the end to buy a bus ticket from Macedonia to Albania.

There were also some lowlights, of course. Food poisoning in Budapest, almost running out of cash with no ATMs in sight, having to turn down three prostitutes per block in downtown Prague (they were very nice though), visiting Auschwitz, forgetting that just because someone doesn’t speak English doesn’t mean that they speak Albanian, realizing ten minutes after the fact that I had accidentally booked a ticket Warsaw instead of Krakow, and the sleep deprivation of traveling on trains at night.

It really is good to be back in Durres though. Understanding some of the language and culture always makes it easier to be in a place. Plus, until I left and came back, I didn’t realize how much this place is starting to feel like home.

I’ve posted the pictures from my trip, but like always, they do very little to portray what the trip was really like. Oh well, memories are better anyhow.