Dates, dates, the magical fruit!

So the coolest thing happened to me today! I went down to eat a late lunch (I wasn’t hungry when Ian and Emiljian were eating) and while I was down there, Ian and I noticed a tray full of this tomato-like fruit. We could tell the fruits were frozen by the small white specks surrounding the bottom surfaces. But all the fruits had these small black lines on them, giving them the appearance that they were rotting. 

As Ian and I stared at them debating on if they were actually frozen tomatos, our host dad came into the kitchen and said “Hurm, those are hurms.” Ian and I looked at each other. Hurm? What the heck could hurms be? We figured it was just a fruit common to the Bulkans that was probably not in the US. Our host dad saw that we were still confused so he cut one of the fruits into pieces so we could try it. Ian was a little skeptical so I took the first bite. It was SUPER cold. Yep, I can confirm that it was frozen! haha. I took another bite. It was very, very sweet but super good! “Yum,” I said to Ian, “It’s really good, very sweet!” Ian took a bit. “It’s weird,” he told me, “It looks like it’s rotten.” “No, it’s not rotten,” I told him, “Take another bite, it’s good!” He took another bite but he didn’t look as thrilled as I was about how good the fruit was. 

While this was going on, we could tell that our host dad and mom were trying to find the English words to describe the fruit in more details in hopes that we might know what the English name for the fruit was. He told me about how the trees of this fruit grow in the fall and that in November they pick the fruits and put them in the freezer to store them over the winter. Then he asked us to go get our English/Albanian dictionary so we could look up the word (we’ve relied on this dictionary many times since we’ve moved in but have tried to make it our last option so we could learn the language better). 

Ian came back with the dictionary and handed it our host dad. He flipped through the pages, trying to find the name of the fruit. When he found it, he shouted “Dates!” Date?! Dates?!!! Really?! My eyes got huge! I looked at Ian in amazement “Dates? These are dates?!!,” I said. I was so excited! I eat dates all the time back home! They are like the main source of sweetness for many health-minded gurus like myself. But I had never seen them in their fruit state before, only after they had been dried out like raisins. 

I took another bite of the fruit with a huge smile on my face, and yes, I could totally taste the date-i-ness taste! “That’s why it’s so sweet!” I told Ian. My host father was so happy that I was so happy about eating this. I tried to explain to him that in the US, we mainly eat them dried, but it was kind of hard to describe since he told me that they don’t have raisins in Albanian. He was so happy that I liked them that he said that I could have one every day if I liked! I’m not sure if he was joking but I’d totally be up for that if it’s true!

It was such a great moment, I had to share it will all of you!

Oh I love dates! :)

Kuqan Hike

Today, our group (minus Ian) decided to enjoy the nice weather and go for a hike around the hills of our village. Our goal: go to the highest point that we see! 

We already kind of knew the direction in which to go because of the community map activity we did. So we headed to the edge of the map and into the unknown.

Around every corner there was a new hill that looked taller than the one we just climbed. So we kept climbing. At the highest point, on the tallest hill (which actually wasn’t too high) we had reach the cemetery. It was quite a beautiful cemetery! All the graves were decorated with colorful flowers and shrines, along with a plate of fruit that sat at the edge of each tombs. I think that this is a common theme here in Albania, to have cemeteries on the top of hills, that is. Just the other day when Ian and I went walking along the main road into other neighboring villages, we spotted another cemetery that was on the top of the hill. I’m guessing that it symbolizes putting their loves ones above them and having the deceased watch over the living around their grave. I could be totally wrong but I like the idea! Plus, what a gorgeous site to see from the top of the village! 

As we made our way around the cemetery, we spotted a whole line of bunkers that were carved into the neighboring hill. We had to go check them out!

Albania is known for their bunkers. They have over 4000 of them in the entire country, and Albania is not a very big country at all! I don’t really know too much about them, just that they were built during the cold war. But, hopefully I’ll learn more about them as I learn more about the culture. 

I was so excited to go into a bunker! It was actually quite funny! I was racing through the weeds and plants along the path, as if I had just found a cave with hidden treasure like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. When I got to the one labeled “2” I hopped over the branches blocking the entrance and began to look at the interior of the bunker. And of course, the bunker was completely empty. It was quite large, though. Much larger than I had imagined. But no hidden treasure, haha. I waited for the others to walk into the dark abyss that made up the bunker. We walked all the way to the end and took a few pictures just to have proof when we told our friends back home that we were actually inside a bunker! haha. Oh, the things that amuse American volunteers in Albania. haha.

As we headed back, we passed an abandoned building that looked as if the windows had been either knocked out or blown up. We ventured inside where we found the remains of nicely painted walls that had been covered by graffiti by what I assume are young teens and children of the village. And of course, the path that we chose to come  back on must have been a trash dump for some of the villagers that live in the higher areas because we walked through this watery path lined with pop bottles and food wrappers. A few villagers working on their gardens watched as we hopped through the path, trying to avoid all the mud and trash puddles. I could only imagine what they were thinking. haha. 

Overall, it was a nice hike. And I can now say I’ve been in an Albanian bunker! Yay! :) 

First week of shkollë!

Wow, this week has gone by so fast. Yet it feels like I have been here in Albania for so long! It’s amazing how close all of us volunteers have gotten in just a week! I feel like I know most of them so well, especially the other four living in Kuqan with me. 

So this is the basic schedule of a volunteer: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday (morning only) is for Language classes at the local elementary school in our village. Tuesday and Friday are HUB days where all the volunteers travel to Elbansan to meet as a group and to go over logistic stuff and technical training.  But, we are always busy! When some of the current volunteers told us that PST was going to be the hardest and busiest part of our volunteer experience, they weren’t kidding! But it’s a good busy. If we’re not studying the language or sitting in meetings, we’re hanging out with our host families and learning about the culture. There’s never a dull moment!

Language classes are my favorite! I’m learning the language so much faster than I expected, especially since I knew coming here that the Albanian language is unlike any other language in the world. I know how to ask the basic questions like “How are you?”, “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “How old are you?”, etc. Plus, I know how to respond to these questions as well! Ask me anything outside of that and I’m lost! haha. But it’s only been a week. I’m sure I’ll get there. :)

The school we have language classes at.

Language Class

Part of the language classes involve doing different projects and activities to learn about the culture and to put our language skills to the test. One of my favorite activities that we were assigned to do this week was to make a community map of our village so we can familiarize ourself with our surroundings. So, on Wednesday, Laurel, Emilie, Lawrence, Ian, and I all went walking around our village, tracking our steps and the places we saw on a piece of scrap paper.  Along the way, we got to introduce ourselves to different people in the community. We met the people at our favorite little market in town, Emilie’s host brother (who had been out-of-town till now) at another market, and we introduced ourselves to a few of the people that work at the municipal building (which we struggle, yet successfully did in Albanian). We also passed by many community members that we had perviously met like Lawrence’s host mother, Laurel’s host brother, our host grandfather, and a few of the neighborhood kids that we had chatted with before. At one point, while looking for the church, we were being followed by a family of goats.  When we moved, they would move. They, and the two young boys that were their owners, followed us all the way back into the hills of the town, while advising us on which paths to choose so we didn’t end up going on to private property. It was quite funny. 

Cindy and Emy, our host family's nieces. :)

After we had trekked around the entire village (which took less than an hour, it was so small), we all headed to the cafe/restaurant that Emilie’s host family owns. We go there so often that we have officially claimed it as “Our Hub."

Our Hub!

While deciding how to put the map together, Laurel and I thought it would be pretty cool to make a computerize version of the map. So Emilie and Ian drew the hand-drawn map while Laurel and I made different icons and roads on our laptops. The drawn map took like 20 minutes, whereas the computerized map was taking forever! But Laurel and I didn’t mind. We were actually having a blast. And as soon as we were finished making a building or a car, we would think of more and more details that we could put into it. Laurel’s host brother, Vasili, who was running around with Ian while we were doing this, occasionally would pop his head over, correcting us on our mistakes in colors of buildings or placement of stores, speaking in all Albanian of course. It was very cute! By the time the map was all finished (which we continued to work on a little each day after that), we had a full map of Kuqan with color-coded businesses, houses, cars, fruit trees, chickens, goats, sheep, and the one donkey on the side of the road near the school that we have named Gomar (donkey in Albanian). It was a masterpiece! 

The one donkey in our village that we have named Gomar :)

Our map was the hit at our gallery walk on Friday! Everyone clapped for it! Laurel and I felt so honored yet kinda dorky since we put so much pride into a silly, little map. haha. It was so much fun though! 

For security reasons, I’ve edited the map so that it doesn’t show our exact locations but I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Another part of language class that I absolutely love is the daily coffee breaks we get. Most of the time we go to our HUB at Emilie’s family’s restaurant, but we have tried venturing out and finding a new place. But the coffee we get is really good! I remember traveling around South America and having instant coffee everywhere I went, but here, it’s the real stuff! However, unlike in America where you can go to Starbucks and get your Venti or Grande size Latte, here in Albania you only get one size; that is, basically a shot of expresso that is placed in a teeny, tiny coffee cup. The first time I got it, I drank it in one glup. But I’ve learned that Albanians can spend an hour or more just sipping on this size of a coffee! I couldn’t believe it. I guess how they see it is the act of drinking coffee is more about socializing rather than getting your caffeine fix. Something I’m definitely have to get us too. Or, I guess, I’m just going to have to socialize a lot! haha.

After just a week, I can see the difference in my speaking and understanding skills. It just makes me even more excited and anxious to learn more of the language. 

Familja Ime

Oh my! I love my host family! They are absolutely perfect! 

Let me take you back to when we first arrived. So, Saturday after a language classes and lunch, we packed all our stuff (again! haha) and jumped in the vans to our designated villages. This was kind of a sad moment because we had to say good-bye to most of the other volunteers. I know it probably sounds funny but we all created such a strong bond in the past 4 days that it was weird splitting us all up into different areas. But, we knew we were still going to see each other on HUB days (technical training days) twice per week. 

Ian and I were headed to a small village called Kuqan, about 8km from Elbansan. It is the closest of all the villages that the PC volunteers are staying at, so it really didn’t take any time to get there. We were with three other volunteers: Emilie, from South Dakota, Laurel from Tennessee, and Lawrence from Texas. 

Lawrence’s hosts’ house was the first house for the van to stop at. We watched anxiously through the windows as we watched Airi, one of the Peace Corps staff, mediate the introductions and assisted with carrying all of his luggage into the house. Next was Laural’s hosts’ house. Emilie recieved news that a family member of her host family had passed away the day before so she was staying with Laurel and her host family for the weekend. So, again, Ian and I watched as they met Laural’s host mother and 2 young brothers. 

Then it was our turn. The driver put the van in reverse until we reached this tiny dirt road. As we made our way down the tiny, rock road, Airi pointed to the yellow building to the right of us “This is the school where you will have classes.” The dirt road, winded right next to the school. As the van made an “S” shape around a small white shack sitting right next to the school, we saw a yellow, two-story house with perfectly-arranged marble slabs leading up to it, surrounded by lushes lemon and orange trees. It was like a house you’d see in a storybook. Our host family was patiently waiting for us at the foot of the steps of the porch. With butterflies in my stomach, Ian and I quickly got out of the car, grabbed our first set of luggage, and headed up the marble walkway to make our introductions. Then, with much excitement, I said the only phrase I remembered from the few language classes we took, “Unë jam Jenny.” My nerves made me pretty much forget all the other things I was suppose to say to my host family. But that’s aright. They were really excited that I tried speaking Albanian. We met our host mother, Lindita, our 16 years-old host brother, Emilijan, our 22 year-old host sister, Elda, and their 5 years-old niece, Cindy. They guided us up the steps to our room and then we all]headed downstairs to get to know our host family more. 

We all took a seat at one of the three couches that surrounded an elegant coffee table that made up their living room. Elda, our host sister speaks pretty good English which really helped with the communication barrier with the other family members. They mentioned that they had three previous PC volunteers in the past few years which made me feel more relieved since they have been in this situation before. After getting to know each other a little bit, Ian and I headed upstairs to unpack some of our luggage. 

Now, this was a big deal for us. This was the first time during our entire Peace Corps experience thus far that we got to go through all the baggage that we brought. Back at the hotel, they only allowed us to bring up one suitcase and our carry-on since the rooms were so tiny. Therefore, I was really excited to get out some of the things that I had been missing for the past 5 days. Half-way through our unpacking, our host dad, Kujtim arrive and introduced himself. He speaks English too! Yay! After he arrived, we were kind of tired of unpacking so we all just hung out around a table on the balcony that we walk through to get to our room.

Their house has an amazing view of the village. You can see all the mountains and hills surrounding the area and both the sunrise and sunset. As we chatted, we could hear their many chickens and roosters playing in the field below. 

FUN FACT: Did you know that chickens climb trees? They do!!! Ian and I got all big-eyed as we watched 7 to 8 chickens climb into one of the trees and then rested there. It was insane!

While chatting, their grandfather and grandmother stopped by to say hello. Elda told us that they live in the house directly next to us, in the same property. They are Kujtim’s parents. He told us how he was the oldest child of 8 and that he was born in his parents’ house (and I thought I had a huge family!). He then built this house when he got older so he could take care of them if they needed help. 

Just as the sun was setting, Lindita called us all down for dinner. When we walked through the door of the kitchen, a nice wave of heat smothered us. It is definitely the warmest room in the house. Dinner was a vegetable and potato soup with bread and a fresh green salad. Everything was vegetarian! I felt so honored that they were kind enough to respect my vegetarianism! I had been worrying about that since the Peace Corps staff told me about how much meat was involved in the Albanian culture. And every meal since then has been vegetarian! It’s been wonderful.

Watching the sunset on our balcony 

The one difference that Ian and I saw was that Albanians like to from communal plates. The fresh green salad made with lettuce, green onions, olive oil, pepper, and salt, was prepared in two separate plates, placed at the two ends of the table.  We did get our own soup bowl, thank goodness, but when we wanted to eat some salad, we would have to take our forks and stab the leaves from the community plate. It was kind of weird the first night, but I think I’m getting use to it. I love cultural difference like this!

After dinner, they cleared the table and immediately grabbed a deck of playing cards. They really like cards! Every night so far, our family insists on playing a few games before bed. This is much different than what we’ve heard about the other volunteer’s families. Most families watch tv. Not our’s though! I’m so happy we were placed with them. Cards are definitely more entertaining than tv. Plus it’s more family-based and requires you to actively-think; good for the brain and socializing. :)

I could go on and on about our host family, but I’ll save more stories for another day. All I can say is that they are awesome! I’m really going to enjoy my stay here. Plus, I’m going to get really good at cards! 

Welcome to Albania!

We made it to Albania!!!

After hours and hours of traveling. We have finally made it! And let me tell you, it is absolutely beautiful here! We arrived in Tirana thinking that it was going to be bitterly cold. But, to our surprise it was SUPER warm! Like t-shirt and shorts warm! And as we made our way to Elbansan, our site for training, we passed through many types of ecosystems. From the beaches to the mountains. It was a beautiful sight to see. Could this really be my home for the next 27 months? Amazing!

But it wasn’t as smooth of a trip to get here as we thought it was going to be.

The group’s main problem happened when we tried to check into our flight with Luftansa in New York. Firstly, somehow the tickets that the Peace Corps staff gave us were not up-to-date. In other words, the ticket people weren’t accepting them. But we quickly got that figured out, thankfully. The biggest problem was that Luftansa was only allowing each person to bring one carry-on luggage, regardless if you were taking an additional purse or laptop bag. One bag means one bag only! And here we are, 30-something Peace Corps volunteers who have packed belongs to last us each two years in a foreign country and the Peace Corps only reimburses us for two checked bags. How the heck were we suppose to only bring ONE carry-on bag? So, some of the ticket counter people were charging us $100 for an extra checked bag. It was absolutely insane! And, the worse part was that no one knew who was going to be charged extra and who was going to slide by; it all depended on which counter called you up. It was like Russian Roulette with baggage. Most of us got by without paying extra, but there were about a handful of unlucky ones that had to pay the extra fee. It took A LOT longer than we had anticipated but thankfully our flight was still a few hours from departing. The good thing is that we all made it through. Plus, we all got to go on the same flight! Woohoo!

I think one of my favorite parts of the traveling day was when we were waiting for our flight to Germany in the JFK airport. While waiting, everyone was starving for some food, yet there were only like two small restaurants in the entire terminal. Almost the entire group ended up at the restaurant closest to our flight’s gate so we pushed together tables so that we formed a long line of tables, spreading straight through the middle of the entire restaurant. The funny part was that the cooks at the restaurant were on break till 2:00pm, about 30 minutes from when we sat down. So while we waited for that, we sat and got to know each other more. It was a grand ole time! The terminal definitely lit up after we arrive! We were so loud! In a good way of course. All you could hear is laughter; people really enjoying their time. It was great! I could tell that this was going to be a good group of people! 

As bad as the luggage situation with Luftansa is, they definitely made it up with their hospitality and service! I mean, oh my goodness! It felt like we were on a first-class airline! The flight attendants were constantly refilling our drinks, giving us yummy snacks, their meals were tasty and had a vegetarian option (always a plus!), and they had many free movies, tv shows, and radio stations to listen to. It was probably the best airline I have ever been on. Loved it!

When we made it to Albania, Rudy, the Safety & Security Coordinator was there to welcome us at the baggage claim! And, everyone’s baggage made it all the way to Albania! Yay! After gathering all of our bags, we made our way to the bus that would take us to our final stop, Elbansan. As we made our way to the bus about a handful of the Peace Corps staff were there to welcome us with huge smiles on their faces. I felt like a VIP

When we arrived to the hotel in Elbansan, we all were so excited to be done with traveling and to explore our new home for the next three months. We all hurried to get off the bus and to get our luggage up to our hotel rooms. As soon as we got off the bus, Ghenti, the Volunteer Training Coordinator, was there to greet us. 

The Peace Corps staff was so excited for us to arrive that they had plans for us as soon as we stepped off the bus. After dropping off our bags into our hotel rooms, they split us into groups and had a staff member give us a tour of the city. I was so tired from all the traveling that I didn’t really take in too much of the surroundings. But it was nice to get some exercise after sitting down for so many hours. Elbansan is a pretty neat city, from what I saw of it. The city is kind of built around this the walls of an old, beautiful castle. There’s lots of coffee shops, bars, and other small businesses. It’s a lot different than other Europian cities I have seen. Not as much of the cobblestone, fancy street lamps, and pigeons you see in most cities in Europe. But I can definitely see myself getting use to a city like this. 

After the city walk, we got an hour break before dinner. Both Ian and I crashed! We didn’t even have to try. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. Luckily, I have a good biological clock and I woke up just in time for dinner.  At dinner, the Peace Corps staff gave us our new cell phones and gave us many announcements about the days to come. Like I said before, you could tell they were excited for us to be there. We even got to meet the major of Elbansan who wished us luck in our service. Unfortunately, all of us were so exhausted that I think we only retained like half the information. But at the same time, we were all so excited to be there. I think we all went to be at like 8:00pm that night. haha. 

The next two days were Orientation days. Lots of meetings and eating! With each meeting, I got more excited about starting my future projects. We even had some of the current volunteers serving in Albania to come talk to us about their service so far. All of them were so happy and encouraging. They kept telling us that Albania is like the all-star place to do Peace Corps service! Every volunteer here loves it and every volunteer elsewhere wishes they could be here. And the best part is that all Albanians LOVE the US! Ever since George Bush came to visit during his presidential term (which was the first time in history for a US president to step foot in Albania), Albanians adore Americans and almost wish that they could be the 51^st state. This is going to be an awesome experience!

Oh, and OMG, we started language classes! You won’t believe how long all these Albanian words are! I mean, like to say “Thank You”, you have to say “faleminderit.” That’s just one word! Not to mention that saying “Hello” is “Përshunditja!” Crazy Albanians! haha. But I must say, I’m really surprised at how quick all of us are catching on to the language. 

Now tomorrow is the big day...we are moving out of the hotel and into our host family houses! I’m nervous and excited to meet my host family. Surprisingly, Ian and I have the same host family which will definitely make the transition easier. I’m not sure what to expect but from what we’ve been told, I hear it’s most volunteer’s favorite part of PST (Pre-Service Training).  Wish me luck! :)

Staging

Today I woke up at 4:45am….fun! haha.  No, it actually wasn’t too bad. I was so excited to get going that I didn’t even think about complain about waking up so early. It was still dark outside when Ian and I brought out all of our luggage to the car. Since all of our luggage took up the entire truck area and backseats (minus one for me to sit in while being covered in our carry-ons), I was forced to say good-bye to my mom before heading to the airport. This is the moment when everything started to feel real. I’m extremely close with my parents and saying goodbye to my mom for two years was like saying goodbye to my safety net. As much as I was telling myself “Don’t worry, I’ll skype with her and she’ll visit,” I couldn’t hold back a few a tears. But they were good tears! I was saying goodbye so I could go do good things in the world and to a new, exciting adventure in my life. 

When we arrived at the airport, my dad helped us unpack all our luggage and then gave him a big hug and kiss goodbye. Then it was time to tackle the luggage. We had never really thought about how were we going to carry everything. I had two huge suitcases, a small CamelBack backpack, and my big backpacker’s backpack. Ian had two huge suitcases, his big backpacker’s backpack, and his guitar case (with no arm strap). We knew right away that we were going to make complete fools out of ourselves. 

After experimenting a few ways on how to assemble our baggage, we finally made it to the check-in counter. Luckily, there was no one in line to check in when we got there. We went straight to the available counter and handed the airline assistant our passports. He checked us in and directed us to a lady behind the desk to help weigh our bags. This was it ladies and gentlemen, the moment Ian and I had been stressing about while packing and repacking our bags hundreds of times in the past three days. Would we make the weight limit requirement? We were about to find out. First bag…..47pounds! Woohoo. One down, three to go. Second bag…..49 pounds! Barely, but we made it! Third bag…..53 pounds. Oh no, three pounds over. But the bag assistants weren’t too worried about it. It almost looked like they were going to let it pass. Then we put the forth bag on the scale...66.5 pounds. Not even close!!! So we knew that we were going to have to pay for one overweight bag. We knew that there was absolutely no way that we could rearrange any of our other bags to compensate for the extra weight since all of them were filled to the brim. And, the bag lady told us we would have to pay for the 53pound bag as well if we didn’t take some weight out. So Ian and I laid down the overweight bags and rearranged them so that one bag was under 50pounds and the other was over 50 pounds but under the maximum limit of 70 pounds. If you didn’t think we looked like fools carrying all our baggage into the airport, you definitely would think we were sitting in the middle of the airport, with two of the many bags we had surrounding us opened on the floor as we tossed items back and forth to each other trying to get this weight balance just right. 

This was very strange for both Ian and I since we both are avid travelers and have gone through this process many times. We were always the ones that had planned in advance before going to the airport and rolled our eyes at people who just couldn’t seem to get the whole airport-process correct. Now we were the one’s looking inexperienced and out-of-place. haha. 

But we got it too work. And that’s all that mattered. We made it through security in time and made it too our gate early. The whole process was actually quite simple after that. 

The funny thing is, once we made it to our flight, the airline staff announced over the intercom that since the the flight was fully booked, we had the option to check one of our carry-ons for free. FOR FREE! We definitely took advantage of that. Ian actually got to check both his bags since they were so large. 

I slept almost the entire flight, which I never thought would happen since I was so anxious and excited to get to Philadelphia. But I did. I shouldn’t really be surprised since I can fall asleep anywhere!

We arrived in Philadelphia a half hour early which was awesome because we were suppose to arrive at 12:30pm and we were told a few days before that Staging started at 12:30pm as well. So having this extra half-hour was going to help us not be so late to our initial meeting. But, little did I know, we were still going to be late. 

When we were waiting for our bags to come out of the baggage shoot, we over heard two ladies about the same age of us chatting about Albania. “PEACE CORPS” instantly popped into my mind. “Are you guys part of the Peace Corps?” I asked. They both replied’ “Yep!” with much excitement! Yay! We had just met Jill and Makena, the first of the 36 volunteers going with us to Albania. And little did we know, Jill was on the same flight as us, coming from her home town of Denver as well. :)

After introducing ourselves and gathering all of our bags, we all headed to the transportation desk to schedule the hotel transit to come pick us up. Now, the website of the hotel told us that the shuttle came every 10-15 minutes. Well ours didn’t come for like 40 minutes. So that’s we we all ended up getting to Staging late. But we did make it and that’s all that really mattered.

We were feeling very rushed when we arrived. We had some paperwork to fill out before we could go inside the banquet room and as we were finishing the last page, we could hear the Staging Coordinator introducing everyone to the event. We rushed inside and grabbed the only two open seats available. It was time to begin.

Now, I’m not going to go through all the details about staging. But what I am going to say is that it was very helpful at getting an idea about what we could expect for training and also, it got me really pumped up to start this amazing journey with all these people that just want to do good in the world. After staging, we were all quite hungry. So, as a group, we decided to meet up after moving all of our luggage (that was temporarily in storage) to our hotel rooms to go get some dinner nearby. We all split into groups based on what type of cuisine we were craving. We had a Philly cheesesteak group, a Mexican group, an Italian group, and then the group that I was in, Indian! Some of the girls had passed by an Indian restaurant while they were discovering the city earlier that day so a group of 13 of us (Peace Corps people must be very similar if they all like Indian food, haha) headed in the pouring rain (which we didn’t realize was happening until we went outside) to the Indian restaurant.

When we arrived, the restaurant was packed! There was absolutely no open sits anywhere. And here we are, 13 Peace Corps volunteers that haven’t eaten all-day, wet from the pouring rain, bombarding this tiny Indian restaurant in downtown Philly. Some of the group debated about leaving but most of us pretty much had our minds set on Indian. So we waited. About 25 minutes later, there was finally enough room for 8 of us. 5 people decided to go get pizza instead so it was perfect! And let me tell you, the food was amazing! For being an Indian buffet, I was really impressed on the quality and the spiciness of the food. Yum! 

Ian and I sat with two volunteers we hadn’t met yet: Kat and Megan. Kat is a fellow Health Education Volunteer with me and Megan is a Community Outreach Development Volunteer. We had a very pleasant dinner chatting about our past experiences and sharing our thoughts and curiosities of training and our placements. It amazed me how well all of us in Group 16 Albania seemed to click right away. I can tell that we are all going to work and support each other well. 

Tomorrow is a full travel day. We leave on a bus to JFK airport in New York at 10:00am and our flight to Munich, Germany is at 6:30pm. Then on Tuesday, we fly to Tirana, Albania at 9:30ish (I can’t really remember the time, haha). And then finally we get on a bus to Elbasan where our training will begin. 

Lots of traveling but totally worth it! Group 16 Albania, here we go!

It's my time!

The time has finally come to start my Peace Corps adventure. Can you believe it?! Tomorrow at 7:30am, I will be on flight to Philadelphia for my pre-departure staging to Albania. 

You know what that means….PACKING! How the heck are you suppose to pack for two years?! Well, that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past two days. I’ve narrowed it down to the essentials:

Clothes
-Winter attire! (As I’ve heard countless times from previous volunteers and the recruitment staff, Albania has very cold winters!)
-Summer attire (uh, hello….I’ll be hours or less from the beautiful albania coast, not to mention Greece and Italy)
-Business Casual Wear (highly emphasized by the Peace Corps staff! I hear Albanians are very fashionable.)
-Workout clothes (how could a fitness guru not bring workout clothes with her?)
-Shoes to fit the attire (hiking boots, flat dress shoes, healed dress shoes, winter boots, running shoes, and flip-flops)
-socks and underwear (fit as much as possible!)

Camping Equipment
-Tent
-Sleeping bag & liner
-Sleeping pad
-Multi-fueled stove
-Mesh kit
-Headlamp
-Pots and Pan kit
-Utensil Kit

Electronics
-camera (I definitely want to document as  much of this experience as possible)
-laptop (couldn’t live without)
-kindle (much lighter than carrying all my favorite books)
-iPhone (I know what you are thinking: ok this might be too materialistic for the Peace Corps, but if it helps me stay sane, it will be worth it! Plus, it could double as an iPod)
-VitaMix (What is a VitaMix, you might ask? Well, it’s only the coolest blender to exist on the face of the earth, and it’s every nutritionists god-sent appliance. I remembered how difficult it was to get healthy meals in 3^rd world countries, being a vegetarian and everything. So I promised myself that I would never let myself get in that situation again. So the VitaMix is coming with me :) )

Other random things:
-Reusable water-bottle
-Thermos
-Shaker cup (to make protein drinks on the go, or could double as a cup for other beverages)
-Gifts for host family
-Pads and tampons (Probably too much information, huh?. But I thought it might be important for future female volunteers to know. I definitely stocked up on these, since I hear Albanians are weirded out by the concept of tampons! haha)
-Towel
-Deodorant
-Makeup
-Straightener (which might end up being thrown out if it doesn’t work in the Europian outlets)
-Shampoo, Conditioner, and Body soap (I hear that it might be difficult to get these during staging and PST, so I’m stocking up now just in case)

Now the question is, how do I fit all of this into two suit cases and still get it to weigh less than 100 pounds (plus two carry-ons)? Well I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Focusing on all this packing has distracted me from coming to terms that I’m leaving the US for two whole years. It definitely hasn’t hit me yet. But I’m sure once I get on the plane tomorrow, I bet I’ll feel it. Nevertheless, I’m excited and anxious to meet all the other volunteers of Group 16 Albania. I have no idea what to expect! Eeeek! I can’t believe it’s finally here!