I have recently returned from the great city of Istanbul. It was a really great trip, I'll tell you a little bit about it. Unfortunately I am bad about carrying by camera around with me because it is a piece, so I don't have any original photos. I'll post some others here sometime later.

We started out in Thessaloniki for a few hours. The original plan was a "tour de force" of some American restaurants like Applebees, TGI Fridays, and Ruby Tuesdays, but we couldn't find them and ended up going somewhere that was probably better. From Thessaloniki we took the overnight train into Istanbul, getting there around 11ish. I was able, though, to visit a few Starbucks in Thessaloniki as well as in Istanbul. I think that this is a sign of a developed country, when Starbucks shows up.

There is a lot to see in Istanbul, being there for only a few days was not enough and I think that I'd like to go back someday to see the rest. I also want to visit the rest of Turkey, along the coast and further East. I have a feeling that Istanbul isn't much like the rest of Turkey... the culture may be a little more convoluted with the tourists and western influence.

I got to see the Blue Mosque and the Hayga Sophia... two things that you have to see in Istanbul. The Hagya Sophia was an old Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque after the Ottomans or someone took the city over. It is huge and has one of the largest domes in the world. It is full of old mosaics, both Christian and Muslim, making for a really interesting mix. I was a little surprised, however, I thought that they would be in better condition and the place overall in a little better condition. Most of the mosaics have not been restored and it seems like there is a lot of work to be done at this point. When we were there the dome was full of scaffolding, so maybe they are doing something there. The Blue Mosque was built later and seems even bigger. The Mosaic work throughout the inside of the building is very detailed and intricate. It is a really beautiful place.

We also visited the enormous grand bazaar and the spice bazaar, two cool things that turn into tourist traps. They are really big. I bought some tandoori marsala. I am not really sure what to do with it though.

We also visited a few other random mosques, all very cool. There are a lot of big mosques. From the Taximi area, one can look towards the skyline on the other side and it is really cool how many marinates there are. The Taximi area is on the other side of the bridge from where we stayed and is more of a locals place. I think that it is the trendy place to live, filled with little shops and great bars and restaurants. I think that next time I would like to stay over on that side.

After I arrived back in Albania I stayed in Korca for a few days. I then had to go to Pogradec to attend the Group 10 language refresher for a committee meeting. I haven't been home for some time and I am really ready to get there and sleep in my own bed... I'll be getting on the bus for Kucove in about an hour in a half and then three hours after that I will be home I hope.

Hail to the Chief!

Yes, the President was here yesterday, and yes I met him. Let me tell you the story...

I went to Vlora for the weekend for John's birthday. We went to the beach on Saturday and then went out for pizza on Saturday night. I left at around 9:30 for Tirana (having to meet outside of the embassy by 2:15) and I kind of barely made it.

He was the first president ever to visit Albania, and the country went nuts. I had to walk through the normally crowded streets of Tirana and they were pretty much empty. I think that there were almost 5000 police in the city brought from all over the country. There was one standing at about every 20 feet along the motorcade routes. The streets were closed to traffic so I had to walk for about an hour in the heat to get to the Peace Corps office.

I did end up making it here in time and even had time to take a quick shower and get dressed. We had to meet at the buses (not air conditioned by the way) and drove out to the airport where they had what they called a "meet and greet." We had to wait for about an hour, but finally Bush, the First Lady, the Ambassador, and John Negroponte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte) all came out onto the stage. Bush gave a short speech where he talked about the hope of Albania and that it was an example of "emerging freedom" and he called the Albanian's who work at the embassy here "nationalists" where i think that he meant to call them Albanian nationals.

He then went down the line to shake hands and got to us where we shook his hand and he asked us a few questions. He put on a Peace Corps hat and called Laura over, who then put on the Peace Corps hat and spoke with us for a few seconds. Then we went outside to watch the plane take off, and it was back to Tirana.

Other than that things have been pretty uneventful. I have been staying busy though. School ended on Friday and they have the graduation for the fourth year students on Wednesday. I have been planning a "summer leadership program"for the last week in June... I am a little nervous about that because I think that I got in a little over my head with this one, but we'll see how it goes. I hope that everything will work out alright with it. I know that if nothing else there will be a few participants and I can just stand and talk to them for a week. I hope that it will turn out a little better than that though.

We have also been working to plan the Model United Nations program that will take place at the beginning of September. Hopefully that will go well too... the embassy kind of "dropped the ball" if you will and it is to four of us volunteers to pick it back up and make something happen with it.

Here are a few news links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/world/europe/11prexy.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061000203.html And a video:http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/politics/2007/06/10/henry.bush.albania.cnn

Its been a while...

I have been gone on and off for a while, but that isn't a very good excuse for not posting regularly. I guess that to some extent I have kind of gotten into a routine and there isn't a whole lot new going on, and at the internet cafe in my town blogger comes up in Italian. I know that there is a way to change that, and I also know that I could probably figure out how to work it in Italian, but I never really want to spend the time on that.

So whats new you ask? I went to Athens to take the GRE. I actually took the test on the 9th, but I was still able to see a little bit of the town. We studied for the test at Starbucks - great idea - and at the hostel that we stayed at - bad idea - but apparently I didn't study enough. I am not too happy with my test scores... they might still be enough to get me into a grad program, but I may consider retaking the test when I get home. It will give me a chance to pay off all of those student loans that are currently sitting accruing interest.

I traveled to Athens with Joey and Kayla, two of my esteemed colleagues here at Peace Corps Albania. We met Joey's parents there who were awesome and it was a lot of fun to hang out with them. We went to the Acropolis and experienced some of Athens dining options. They stayed at a nice hotel with a rooftop pool, we spent part of the afternoon chilling out there after we finished our test. It made me call my own mother to remind her of her promise and desire to come out here to Albania.

After Athens, I came back to Albania for about a week just to leave again, but this time for Belgrade in Serbia. There was an English teaching conference in Belgrade to which I went with some more of my fellow volunteers.

Belgrade was an awesome city reflecting many different periods in it's history. It is an old town, full of old buildings. There are a lot of typical communist buildings, there are modern buildings, there are still shells of buildings from when the city was bombed by NATO in 1999.

We went on a sort of a quest - taking almost two full days - to find the grave of Tito. We had seen it on a map and walked to where we thought it was, but we couldn't find it. We then went back to our hostel and asked the guy where Tito was buried, he told us that we hadn't gone far enough. We probably would have given up, but talking to a woman that evening, she insisted that we visit the grave. She said that he was a simple man, and remembering a greater Yugoslavia, she said that it is really worth seeing. We saw that it was located near the new Albanian embassy, so the next day we set out again in search for the grave. We walked for a long time, my feet were tired, but we continued on. We still couldn't find it. We found an Indonesian embassy, but no Albanian one. We were just about to give up when we stumbled onto a park and a large building. We went up to the building and found a marker (in Serbian) the only word that we could make out was Tito. We assumed, again, that this was the grave. It was kind of a let down.

I walked up to the museum and asked some guys who were sitting outside if that really was the grave. They said that it wasn't and that the museum closed in five minutes so that I should hurry. Behind the museum sits the Hall of Flowers (or something like that) and I walked through it and then through Tito's museum, to finally find the building where he is sort of enshrined. When I finally found it I has a small sense of accomplishment, just because we had spent so much time looking for this place. Looking through the one book that they had in the "guest shop" or more the desk with the old book on it, there used to be special guards specifically to guard the grave, but they were somehow missing. I guess that there aren't as many people who want to harm Tito as once thought. There was just one guy standing there who kind of waved me inside.

Albania!

I celebrated Easter with my host family from training yesterday, and that means that I have a little bit of internet time in Elbasan before I have to go back to Kucove. One thing that sucks about that town is transportation. I am close to Berat which is a bigger city, and I can get busses there whenever I want but that means that I have to transfer in a town called Ura something... I have grown to dispise that town because the only times that I am ever there I am standing on a street corner waiting for a bus. There is one bus from Elbasan to Kucove, but at least the timing is convienent.

Easter was a good time with the family. Like any other event with that family we ate so much food and we drank more than I really wanted to. Oh well, what better way to celebrate easter?

I have been having problems with my water in my apartment, and if we ever talk you probably already know about this. I am really REALLY annoyed by this point. A pipe is leaking in my floor into my neighbors apartment. One month and something like six plumbers later, the problem still isn't fixed. I have finally picked up on the hint that my landlords don't want to fix the problem, which leaves me looking for another apartment. That is going really slowly at this point. I just don't want to have to step down into a lesser apartment, but that may be what ends up happening.

I wont write a long blog today, but I think that this is better than no blog which is what I usually do. I have been thinking that I'll write a mass email here in the near future. Maybe I will post that here too.

I should say though, most of the pictures that I have posted on the fliker link were not taken by me. Credit needs to go to those who did actually take the photos:

Juliet

James

John

Joey

Jeanine

Kayla (I think)

Probably some other people

Its been a while since I have updated my little blogger account here. Internet has been rough in Kucove, something I believe has been stated already, but I'll state it again. There have been a lot of power outages and the Internet cafes in my town don't have generators, so I haven't been able to get to the Internet a whole lot.

We had a Peace Corps conference this week in Durres called our In Service Training. It was a good time with some technical stuff and big group meetings and what not. Durres is the second largest town in Albania and it sits right on the beach. Nobody should really go in the water though because it is dirty and gross, but it is still nice to sit on the Adriatic (?) and look across with yearning for Italy and the rest of civilization. Oh well though.

I am now in the town of Korca, known to many as the Paris of Albania. I guess that after some war the French were the ones to occupy this area and so Albanians will say that there is a French influence in these parts. I dont know about that but it is a pretty area. I went to a nearby town called Bilisht to see my friend and former training sitemate Joey, but he had something to do so I came into Korca today. Korca is one of the bigger sites so it becomes one of the meeting points for volunteer gatherings.

I like to call my town the Texas of Albania because in the summertime it is hot and there are some dwindling oil reserves around the town, but other than that there isn't much there. I have never actually been to Texas, but I feel that I have a right to make assumptions.

Any other updates? School is going well. The term just ended so we had a four day weekend. Our IST was well timed to coincide with this break. I'll be back on Monday ready to teach... or something. I am currently reading a book called the Accursed Mountains. It was written by a guy who trekked through Albania in 1996 and 1997, right before the civil war. It is really negative, he focuses on all of the bad things about Albania and Albanians, but it is kind of funny to read it during this point in my time here because I can identify with a lot of it. I dont think, though, that I'll end up writing a book about this country when I leave.

Hello folks,

I am sitting here in Tirana. With a little bit of computer time I wanted to type a quick and probably short blog.

First off, while I am thinking about it I wanted to post a link with some phots that I posted on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonetoalbania/

They will only let me post 200 photos which kind of sucks. I found this out after I had already loaded the photos and didn't have time to post more before I left. It will probably be a while, therefore, before I will have the opportunity to post more photographs. I wish that I had taken more photos while I was home, but I didn't.

Home was really great. I think that I wrote about most of the stuff that I did while I was there. I just wanted to reiterate that fact. I didn't expect to see so much family while I was there so that was good. Nor did I expect a blizzard and that was kind of cool too.

The trip back was fine. I made it back to Albania but it was kind of hard to readjust. It was the little things like the lack of power and water, among other things that really hit me and kind of pissed me off for the first few days that I was here. In my town we currently go for ten hours without power (8am to 4pm and then again from 6pm to 8pm). Its really annoying. I had kind of adjusted to the water thing (I usually have it for around 6 hours a day) but it was really annoying coming back to that when at home I could shower whenever I wanted (and in a warm bathroom too). Oh well though, I am currently in the process of readjusting again.

I didn't have a chance to stock up on everything that I wanted to get while I was home, so I am gratefully having my mom send out another care package with some vital items. I think that being home I only noticed the things that I miss here.

I will hopefully continue to post regularly.

Hello from wonderful Greeley Colorado! Its been an exciting trip so far, but time is passing quickly. I think that in some ways it hasn't yet hit me that I'll be returning to Albania in about a week and a half (is that right?)

I have had the luxury of sitting at my mom's computer with all this fast and free internet. The computer still has a few problems like shutting down randomly (it could do so any minute) but at least I can upload things onto the internet!

My flight here was alright. It was really long and then to top it off I got stuck in Washington DC for a few hours. I have been saying that it is a result of my stupidity (30%) and United Airlines being totally incompetent (70%). I missed my flight in DC, and then after recieving a lecture from the woman at the customer service counter was issued a standby ticket. Too bad for me that everybody in Washington DC had decided to travel to denver that day. I waited out two flights and then there was a flight at 9:30 that night that I didn't expect to get onto because they said that it was overbooked by 20 people. Luckily I did make it onto that flight to get into Denver around 1am, but I didn't have a cell phone so I couldn't call my mom to have her pick me up until I made it into Denver. I guess I could have used the airplane phone, but for some reason this didn't occur to me. Anyways I made it home around 3:30 in the am and here I am.

A lot of things have happenned since too. I'll make a list for you:

1) We got a big blizzard, I think it was the second or third biggest in Colorado history or something. That was cool because I was snowed in my house for a few days.

2) I saw my new niece and nephew. They are about 4 months old now and really cute. Jordan is the boy and Lexi is the girl

3) I saw other misc family members like my mom, brother, dad, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister and inlaws

4) My dad had a water pipe freeze and then later burst under his house. I came for the freezing but not for the bursting.

5) I became a Nuggets fan when I heard that Alan Iverson was coming to Denver. Now can we say the words Nuggets and Playoffs in the same sentence?

6) Celebrated Christmas. This one is a given.

7) Ate some great food. This may be what I have been looking forward to the most. Mexican food, christmas type food and everything. Its been great.

8) Heard that Gerald Ford died. Maybe I am a nerd, I won't debate this with you. Gerald Ford was not what I would call a great president by any means. He wasn't even really a president... more just filler material. I still like to see the funerals and the things that accompany a president's death. This is also an interesting time to see random people analyze the presidency. Nobody is going to say that he was a bad president right after he died though.

9) I am going to an Avalanche game tonight!

10) Watched a lot of great TV. I really miss TV sometimes like Seinfeld reruns, the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and the Simpsons. I also watched a little bit o' football. The Broncos beat the Bengals with a fluke, but it made for a good ending.

11) I really wanted to connect with a lot more people, but that blizzard really threw things off. We'll have to connect before I leave though.

Well, thats about all for now. I think I'll get off before this computer shuts down randomly. Hopefully I'll post again before I'm through here.

Hmmm I guess its been a while since I have last updated my blog. I am home in the good ole US of A right now and this internet access is a little overwhelming. I'll post a blog about my adventures in Colorado soon but for now I wanted to post a blog that I had written previously. I probably wrote this blog in the middle of November or the beginning of December. Here ya go!

Thanks for coming to Ryan’s blog. I know that you all have many questions, and I will try to answer them all in the most logical and orderly fashion that I can. And once again, thanks to all of my loyal readers (mom) who like to keep posted on Ryan’s life.

Why did you post two blog entries at the same time? Did you find an alternative internet source?

Please, only one question at a time. I have begun to pre write my blog postings before I put them online. It is in this way that I can ensure a well thought out and fully developed blog posting. I know that you have precious little time to spend sitting at your computer reading about my zany adventures. To answer the second question, no I haven’t yet found a better place to access the Internet. About a month ago the guy at the Internet place told me that fast Internet would be coming to Kucove in two months. In Albanian terms this could mean any time within the next five years. I just hope that I can see the day that Kucove has high speed Internet before I leave the country.

Are you really coming back to Colorado for Christmas?

Why yes I am. I will be in Colorado from about the 17th of December to the 4th of January. I will be able to meet my new niece and nephew as well as to see the family. Anybody interested in seeing me will have to make an appointment in advance. Or just tell me. But I don’t have a cell phone so find a creative way like emailing me or if you don’t want to do that you can find me. Or just tell my mom.

Did you ever get that package from Sarah Martin?

Yes! It arrived earlier this week! I was pleasantly surprised, and thank you everybody who contributed to this effort. I am currently enjoying the variety of delicious and exotic foods as well as the entertainment options and the teaching materials. I think that it will take me a while to get through all of those things, so I’ll let you know how helpful they will turn out to be. I did notice, however, that when things are shipped ground as opposed to air, not only do they take longer to arrive, but they are also thrown into walls and dropped off of forklifts far more often. There were a few damaged boxes and books, and one may say that there was a package of Pringles that can be considered a casualty. I’ll still eat them though.

Did you really read all of those books? You must be some kind of genius!

Yes I did read all of those books, but I wont reference your comment because I am a humble man. This is what happens when you spend a summer in a foreign country where you can barely speak the language, you don’t have a job, you don’t have a television, and it is hotter than the fiery blazes of hell half the time. I sat a read a lot. I also read a variety of other things like Newsweek (thank you uncle Peace Corps as well as the American taxpayers for this reading material), back issues of the Economist (thanks for sending these mom, and I know that it is a conservative magazine, but I like it), and more recently back issues of Harpers (thank you Evan from Skrapar).

Rolling into winter, where my recreational options are dwindling, I think that I will be reading even more. I am a little worried about my book selection. I have some books and other volunteers have books, but I am worried because most people do the majority of their reading during this time. When I go home I will stock up on books that I already have, but you are all welcome to send me books as well (ahem) or any other things like food (ahem) that you think I would want.

Did you ever move into that new apartment that you told us so much about?

Yes actually, I am in my new apartment now. It is really nice too. It is older (50’s communist style) but has a modern kitchen and bathroom. It is fairly unusual for a kitchen to have as much counter space as mine (which isn’t really saying much) and my sink seems ginormous. My bathroom is nice; I no longer have a Turkish toilet (yay!) to drop my soap into. I am also closer to the center of town and don’t live at the top of Mt Kucove (that’s just what I call it, probably not technically a mountain) and walking from the bus stop with a heavy bag isn’t the ordeal it once was. I can now host guests. If anybody is planning on coming to Albania, or would just like to visit Ryan, you are more than welcome. I will even make breakfast for any international traveler. Well, ones that I know anyways.

How is everything else?

Things are going well for the most part. Sometimes I want to kill the students… I mean they really suck sometimes, but I hold myself back. Learning to teach is really difficult and learning to manage a classroom I think is one of the most difficult parts. Especially when you come into a very teacher centered classroom. I am used to classes where discussion is encouraged and classes are relatively small. When I walk into a class with 40 to 50 students and try to get them to talk chaos breaks out. I am supposed to be team teaching but sometimes my counterpart leaves halfway through class or just tells me when it is starting that she will be busy. I then walk into the classroom alone with nothing but the register. I am now learning that it is the most powerful tool I have because I can give grades to the students. I hope that with time I am not just seen as the substitute where, when the real teacher is gone, Ryan comes and they get a free period. You wouldn’t realize how draining it can be. Some days I feel like my job is just to stand in the front of a room and yell because sometimes that’s what I end up doing. Ugh.

So I have finally found an apartment. My apartment search has been a long and harrowing one, but an end is now in sight. The Peace Corps came yesterday to approve it and now all I have left is to have the breakup talk with my host family. They have been expecting me to stay I think, but it would be much better for me to go to my own place. Here is one man’s journey through his Albanian apartment search…

I have been back and forth on whether or not I even want to move. It would have its pros and cons, which I will list for you below.

Pros:

1) My apartment is small and it would be nice to have something bigger to host other volunteers when they come to visit as well as to have places to put all of my stuff

2) I would kind of like a kitchen. I currently have a sink in my bathroom, one burner on my balcony, and a sink in the 5x7 room that is technically the kitchen

3) Turkish toilets are not all that they have been made out to be. Living in a new place and eating new and sometimes questionably cooked foods do not mix well with these contraptions. I can explain these toilets in more detail at a later time.

4) Closet space. I don’t have a lot of clothes, but I would like a place to put what I have.

5) I would like to live more in the center. It is a 15-minute walk from the center to my house and it is all up hill. I am not complaining and I know that I am young and that I can handle it. Its just annoying. I also feel like there is more activity in the center that I could involve myself in.

6) This is the natural order. Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to live with a host family and then to move out on their own. I could stay but then I would be in a kind of crappy apartment and still with my host family.

Cons:

1) The apartment, however small, is kind of cozy. I kind of like the place at times. At other times I am just really frustrated by everything. I also have a really good view, the result of the hill I have to climb to get here. This is probably the best thing about my apartment.

2) I like my neighborhood. I am close to the school and the neighbors are great. I have been afraid that if I move the neighbors will all turn on me.

3) I like my host family. They are a good family. Maybe a little crazy at times, but they have grown on me. I have lunches with them five days a week and the food is really good (except for okra, but I don’t think that can be helped). I think that they have wanted and fully expected me to stay. There are also financial complications that pertain to them and I will explain this in further detail.

4) Guilt. People tell me that under communism entire families lived in these small studio apartments (I have also heard two families with ten people, but I think this is an exaggeration). For this I am sorry, but I have noticed that they are almost all empty at this point. There are four like this in my building and besides mine only one is occupied. The others have been turned into storage rooms or are just empty. I am sure that there are others like mine around, but you don’t even see too many of them. I know that I could reasonably live in one of these, but I just don’t want to. If the Peace Corps will pay for a larger apartment, why not take it? Also, if I am supposed to exemplify all of the great things about American capitalism, I would get the best place I can with the money that I can pay without mixing emotions.

5) So apparently this is my host family’s apartment. They (a family of four) lived in this room. The neighbors moved to Greece and offered their two-bedroom apartment to the family. This family doesn’t have a lot of money and couldn’t afford to pay rent, so they worked out a deal where they would fix this apartment for a Peace Corps volunteer that they were expecting last year and the money that the volunteer would give the family would go to Greece. This was kind of their rent. My leaving will throw off this system. I don’t know what the consequences for this will be, but I doubt that my family will be thrown out. They can find another renter or do whatever they were doing for the year before I arrived.

So I think what this has come down to is the fact that I would like to move and have a bigger apartment and a few basic luxuries like a toilet and kitchen, but I feel like I shouldn’t move. Throughout my apartment search I was able to put these things off until I needed to make a decision, but when the time came I felt that I should move. The other volunteers were able to help me out a lot with this too, as my sitemate had to put up with all of my agonizing.

The Peace Corps told us that in Kucove we could pay only 6000 leke or about $60 a month. It was almost impossible to find apartments in this price range. Juliet and I both asked the Peace Corps to raise our limit and they raised it to 8000 leke. We had hoped for more, but it didn’t happen. We looked at a bunch of apartments but most of them were 10,000 or 15,000 leke. This is probably factoring in the special foreigner price that we were both quoted. People assume that we have more money because we are Americans, they don’t usually believe that our limit really is our limit. I found an apartment that was spacious, it had two bedrooms, but not very modern. The kitchen was old and the bathroom was old and kind of smelled (but it didn’t have a Turkish!) It was a compromise, but the only thing I could find in my price range. The night before the Peace Corps was going to approve our apartments (actually it was about 9:00, it was cold, and I was in my pajamas watching a movie) Juliet called and said that there was one more apartment that she had heard about. I almost didn’t go, but she talked me into it. It was nice, it had a nice kitchen and a nice bathroom. This was the one that I had decided on. I am glad that I looked at it and it came in right under the wire.

When someone from the Peace Corps arrived to approve the apartments we ended up looking at all three (Juliet’s one and the two that I was looking at). We got to the apartment that I had looked at the night before last, but the guy thought that the apartment was for Juliet and not for me. He almost didn’t want to rent the apartment to me. I guess that he thought that I would destroy it or something. I don’t really know. The poor program assistant for Juliet who didn’t really even know me had to defend me and tell the guy that I was a good boy who wouldn’t break anything or even smoke in the apartment. Eventually he relented and decided that I could live in the apartment as well.

And that’s where I am right now. I told my host mother that I was looking for apartments a few weeks ago, I told her on Friday that I looked at an apartment, but I haven’t said exactly that I will be leaving on the first of November. I was hoping that they would connect the dots, and maybe they have and I don’t know yet, but I need to sit them down and say that I am leaving. I have been kind of putting it off, but I will do it soon. Ahh.

The guy said that he would clean the place up, fix the refrigerator and give me the keys so that I could start moving things in before the first. Once I get some pictures I will post them up here.

Ryan’s Review of Books

This summer I had a lot of time on my hands. A lot. Probably more than I have had for as long as I can remember. Even finding things with which to fill my time, I had a lot of time to travel around Albania and read a lot of books. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about a few of the books that I read over the summer. Maybe, depending on how this one goes, I will do this again in another year, or in another six months or so, and see how my opinions or reading lists have changed.

Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer

This book was really good. An account of an Everest summit where everyone dies. Who wouldn’t want to read this. I am sure that I am a latecomer to this book and that you have all read it anyways, but I think that its good.

Against All Enemies – Richard Clark

I like this book, and would probably like most books that bash our current president, but I think that he brings up a lot of good points. Clark seems like a smart guy and not just someone who is out to make a few bucks and stick it to the administration that fired him. I think that any political book like this should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, no matter how convincing it can be, but for all its worth it was a good read.

The General of the Dead Army – Ismail Kadare

The most famous book by the most famous Albanian writer. I never would have read this if wasn’t living here in good ole Shqiperi. Most people think that his writing is amazing, but I would say that it is good. It is about two men, Italian I think, who come into Albania to collect the bodies of the solders that were killed here during the Second World War. One is a General and the other is a priest. They travel around Albania and discuss some of the places here and discuss the history and what they feel is the character of the people. Kadare was one of the few authors who was allowed to publish in Albania under communism, so his writing obviously goes along the party line. Now people say that he was an anticommunist and you can see the subtle undertones in his work. I have only read this one but whatever it is would have to be very subtle. I like him enough, however, to say that I would read whatever else of his I could get my hands on though.

One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This book was amazing! I had heard of it before, and just picked it up as I was browsing for a few books to bring to Albania with me. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. It is about the birth and death of both a small town and a family somewhere in the Americas. There are some weird parts of the book, but there are also some weird parts of life. I would highly recommend this book to everybody and think that it should be on any reading list.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon

Meh. It was alright, a quick read. I don’t have a lot to say about it though.

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

This book exceeded my expectations in fact. But they were quite low. This was my first foray into Dickens, but I have always heard that he is dry and boring. This book wasn’t what I expected at all. It is divided into three parts. The second part – where Pip is living within his expectations – kind of drags a bit, but the rest of the book was really good.

Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs

Really messed up childhood. Anybody with a childhood like this probably needs to become a writer. It was pretty entertaining, but strange enough where I haven’t really felt that I could recommend it to anybody.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

Really good book. It is divided into four sections, the first one is really hard to get into because you have no idea what is going on, but if you can plow through that chapter and continue on through the book, it is definitely worth it. This book is really amazing, but in some ways I feel that it worked on a level that I didn’t really understand. I think that this is one that I might try to read again in time.

Bluebeard – Kurt Vonnegut

I love Vonnegut, and this was a really good book. Classic Vonnegut.

Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

This book was really entertaining. I think that it is best for those analytical people because what the authors do is try to apply economic theory to random things like a correlation between baby names and future success, sumo wrestling, or real estate. It doesn’t really go into deep theory (or maybe my intense minor in economics helped me to understand its intricacies). This book was informational and entertaining.

The Runaway Jury – John Grisham

Do I need to write about Grisham here? He is entertaining and I can breeze through a book in a day. That’s why I read him so I don’t have to think.

Founding Father – Richard Brookheiser

This is a biography of George Washington. It was pretty readable, which is good for history books, but not very critical. He is an editor at the National Review, which is apparent in the book. He does a great job of praising Washington. It was still entertaining and I learned a little bit about our first president.

Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut’s first novel. It was actually really good, you can tell reading it that Vonnegut was still in the early stages of developing as a writer. His later books are far more complex, but many of his overriding themes and ideas can still be found here. This isn’t Vonnegut’s best work, but I hold it to higher standards.

Bless Me Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya

I think this is a book that most people read in high school. It was good, but some parts were a little dry. It is about a boy growing up in New Mexico I believe, and an older woman, a healer, comes to live with them. This boy learns a lot from Ultima and he also has a chance to get in touch with his roots as he is trying to figure out who he is and to grow up.

Seabuiscit – Laura Hillenbrand

I don’t know if this was a history book, a biography, or a sort of novel. It was kind of a mix of all three. I think that a reporter was trying to write a history book which kind of turned into a sort of novel. Where she tried to be academic, she failed, but where she tried to write a good story she succeeded. I don’t know why she didn’t just stick with what she was good at. It wasn’t a great book, but it was a good topic. I never knew that one horse had so much impact on the nation at such an incredible time.

A Movable Feast – Earnest Hemmingway

Great book detailing Hemmingway’s early years as a struggling writer in Paris. He is a great writer and the book was great. It was written posthumously – sometime in the 70’s or 80’s I believe. This book also contains some of his insights into other writers that lived at the time that I can’t remember right now.

The Old Man and the Sea – Earnest Hemmingway

I had never read this before. It was really good. I read most of it on a bus coming back to Kucove – its short – but I love how Hemmingway can capture human nature. I think that this is the struggle for writers, and why many of them fail. I love when a great writer can really capture the essence of people and their innate responses, reactions, and desires. Hemmingway is great at this art.

How we are Hungry – Dave Eggers

This is a book of short stories published by Eggers, but it was the first work of his that I’ve read. I don’t really think that you can judge a novelist by their short stories. I need to read another of his book to see how I feel about him. They were good stories though.

Jailbird – Kurt Vonnegut

Another Vonnegut. This was probably one of the best Vonnegut novels that I have read. It is about the least famous guy involved in Watergate. This is another writer who can really capture human nature, but everything is random and happenstance. People are irrational and kind of directionless, and their lives are composed of these random events that happen to them. Its hilarious, but I think that it really reflects life sometimes.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelly

Everybody said that if you read this book expecting the movie, you will be disappointed. I have never seen the movies so I didn’t really know what to expect. I still didn’t really like it. It’s so Victorian. A guy makes another living person, gets scared and lets him free. This living thing quickly learns to read the classics while living in a hovel and within a few years is more eloquent than the guy who made him. Because everybody is scared of this monster he decides that he needs to kill people unless the guy who made him also makes him a wife. I don’t really understand why this book is still so popular.

Bee Season – Myla Goldburg

This was better than I though it would be. I was kind of expecting a chick book, but it was pretty good. There were a few weird twists at the end that I wasn’t expecting. I would recommend this, it was a pretty good read. I wont say what its about though.

Slapstick – Kurt Vonnegut

I’ve noticed that I’ve read a lot of Vonnegut since I’ve been here. Another theme of Vonnegut’s is the fact that everybody is always looking for acceptance and looking to find other people that are like them. Maybe these are to replace our imperfect families. The main character – the former president of the United States after the world kind of collapsed – had created new random families for people during his term as president. They were successful because everybody is looking to reach out to other people. This guy is probably the greatest living writer. Hi ho!

The Brothers K – David James Duncan

Great book. This is one of the ones that has been passed around the volunteers for a while and is written in and underlined, but I received it with high recommendations. It is about a family – three sons, two twin daughters, a father who was supposed to be a successful baseball player but was injured, and a kind of crazy mother who is a part of the Seventh Day Adventist church – and the difficulties that they have to face in the tumultuous times that were the 1960’s. You can really see how the strengths and weakness of the parents have affected and been ingrained into the children. The similarities with the Brother Karamozov are surprising. Not in number, but in the subtleties that the two books share. There were some connections that I assumed would be there but weren’t. There were other connections that it took me a while to notice. I don’t really know what to say about this book, but just read it.

Life if Pi – Yann Martel

This book was really entertaining. It was about a kid trapped in a boat at sea for almost a year, but he was with a tiger. The book chronicled the complex relationship that one would obviously form with a tiger in a small space. I think that the worst part of the book was then end where I had to come to terms and wonder if this was a true story or not.

A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn

This is a book that I have been meaning to read for a long time. I have to admit that I am not actually done with this book, but only about half way. I was reading it and needed a break. I’ll probably be picking it up again before too long. It’s a project, but I think that I made some pretty good strides. Even the part that people said were boring like the rise of socialism and opposition in the late 19th century I thought was great. I have just come to the part about World War II, and I think that the modern stuff will be even more interesting

Light In August – William Faulkner

Lastly, the book that I am currently reading. Maybe it is premature to add this to my list, but I’ll do it anyways. Where The Sound and the Fury was really difficult to get into, I got into this one right away. Racial tensions in the South, especially around 100 years ago is a subject where I don’t claim to be an expert, but reading Faulkner you can feel like you are there. I am really liking Faulkner, more than I thought I ever would. I always assumed that there were Hemmingway people and Faulkner people, but why the dichotomy? Can’t we all just get along and be Hemmingway and Faulkner people?

Ryan is now an international traveller...

My first time out of the country, a trip to Macedonia for a TEFL conference. It was amazing.

We went to Struga on Friday for a TEFL conference. It was a really good time. The conference took place Saturday and Sunday and afterwords we went to Ohra (I dont remember how its spelled and I can never pronounce it) for the night and then returned to Albania on Monday.

The conference was more expensive than I thought it would be (50 euro) and I was also hoping that it would include a hotel and/or some food. But no. Luckily as we were wondering around Struga on Friday looking for cheaper accomidations, food, and a bank we happened to run into a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in Struga. She generously offered her apartment to us and we gatefully accepted. It saved us a lot of money and it was fun to hang out with her and her Macedonian friends. Thanks Patty... wherever you are.

Struga was really beautiful. Ohri was also really nice. Both way different from Albania. The streets and sidewalks were clean and in good condition, there was a variety of restaurants and shops lining the streets, there was grass and there were even manicured lawns. There weren't as many ugly communist buildings and there were more older ones. There was also a noticable difference in the atmosphere. I don't know what it is but just walking around I felt a difference in the people.

Even coming back was interesting. Crossing the border into Albania you could see where the road changed. The road was fairly new with a nice line painted down the center until we came to the sign that said Mirsevini ne Shqiperi. The road from that point was old and lineless. There was trash thrown on the side of the road and bullet holes in the sign. Thats how we knew that we were back in Albania. Go figure.

The conference was also pretty good. I like going to these because it makes you feel like a professional something. I guess it depends on the conference. There were some good presentations and what not, on everything from teacher development to portfolio writing to different learning styles. Some presentations were also better than others, but overall it was good.

What else can I say? School is going well. I am looking forward to going home to visit in December. If you didn't know that I will be coming back (and you actually read this) now you do. Maybe we can hang out. I am still trying to find an apartment. If you hear of anything in Kucove let me know. I have resorted to asking random people. I think that I'll ask the guy here in the internet cafe when I finish here.

Late

I added this photo. This is when we were coming back into Albania from Macedonia. You can see how the road changes and if you look closely you can see the bullet holes in the Welcome to Albania sign.

These two pictures are both from Tirana. The first is of Amy and I at some sort of night club, I dont really remember which one right now. I think that this was from the night of the Embassy party. The second is of Tirana at night. I think that this is actually the municipality of Tirana building. These buildings were built by the Italians (when the facists occupied the country for a short period of time) and they are probably the most attractive government buildings in Albania.

This photo was taken in Elbasan I believe. Panaroma restaurant is one of the best in all of Albania. If anybody decides that they would want to visit me here, I might take you there. We can see how things go. It is of me, Katy, and John. The second one is of a sunset in Puke. It is a really beautiful place and (I may have said this before) reminded me of home (colorado) more than any other place in Albania yet.

Anyhoo, I am in Tirana right now. I had to bring in some forms and eat some breakfast fajitas at the Stevens Center. They were great.

School has begun (two weeks and counting). The students haven't killed me yet, nor have I killed them. That is a good sign. I am teaching two to three classes a day at the high school (my counterparts are afraid that I'll get tired). On Mondays and Thursdays I also teach three after school classes either with my counterparts or at the youth center. Its enough to keep busy I guess.

Next weekend I might be going to a conference in Macedonia. A TEFL conference in a town called Struga. I am kind of excited to leave the country. I think that it will be really fun. I will write a little bit about how it goes.

I am again sitting in Elbasan, where I spent my three months of training. I figured that it was about time to visit my first host family again. I am at the good ole Rosevelt, the kind of posh internet cafe. I miss the days of fast internet and air conditioning. And Cake playing overhead. Oh well, I will survive.

I have had a few apprehentions about going back to visit my host family. I don't know if I said this earlier, but my host father is kind of a lush. Tonight will be a drink fest if he has anything to do with it. That doesn't excite me as much as it should. I am excited to see them though. It is strange coming back here, it almost feels homey still. I went to a good fast food place and got the sanduic ala mexicana. It is probably one of the best sandwiches that you can find in all of Albania. I then came on over to the Rosevelt, probably one of the nicest internet places in Albania, even if it is overpriced and everyone is kind of an asshole.

I was in Berat last night. Good times as always. We drank a little wine and got a little fast food with some Albanian friends of Katie's. We then ended up at a strange club. I don't think that there are gay bars in Albania, but if they exist I think that we were at one of them. It was entertaining anyways.

School starts on Monday (ahh). I hope that I can be a teacher. I'm not really even sure what I'll be doing for the first term. I think that I will be shadowing my counterpart for a little while and then eventually begin to teach some conversation. It will take time to work my way into the teaching of grammar. Maybe when I have my own classes or am at least a little more independent after the beginning of the year I can start to teach a little bit of grammar.

Another interesting link from the good doctor. I saw Ridge on the news here, but the volume was down and I didn't know what was going on. This cleared things up for me. I dont really know why this is happening, I think that it is pretty random, but here ya go!

Albania to employ Ex-Homeland Security chief Ridge

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2392445

Not too much has been going on here in Albania. School begins here in the 18th, so the teachers have begun to go back and hang out at the school. Nothing is really happening with that yet though, we go and drink coffee, and then I usually go home.

I went to the school this morning, but neither of my counterparts were there. There is really no other reason for me to hang around there, so I went home for a little bit and then ended up here at the internet cafe.

I was in Puke again this past weekend though. We went up to camp. Juliete and I went up on Friday morning and were waiting for Joey. The last bus out of Tirana was at 1:00, and Joey arrived around 2:00. I stayed in Tirana with him though and we saw Pirates of the Carribean 2 which was pretty good but a little confusing... Its a movie though, and I dont really have any standards anymore. I would go to see just about any movie that is in English here, maybe some that aren't. After the movie we went to get some crepes and then sat and had some wine. We had to catch what we thought was the 5:30 bus for Puke (actually it was a 6:00 bus, but we didn't learn that until we got there at 5) and we woke up at 4 to walk across Tirana, so we didn't stay out very late the night before.

Anyways, we got to Puke on Saturday and hiked up to a hill to camp. The wind was blowing and it was pretty cold. We all assumed that the wind would die down, but nope. We were kind of on a plateau where the wind was the strongest. We slept there and froze. Its not like we have tents or anything either. It was really cold. It was fun though. It is always good to hang out with these people. Yesterday was also interesting, sitting for around 7 hours in a bus.

Albanians dont really camp, nor do they understand the concept, or even why people would want to camp. It isn't something that they do generally. One of our program managers came with us though and that was really nice. It is always good when the staff makes an effort to make connections on more of a personal level with the volunteers.

I haven't had much internet access lately. My internet cafe here in Kucove closed. There are two others, but almost every time I go into either one of them I have some sort of problem. Either the internet goes down, the power goes out, or there is a room full of boys playing on the internet and yelling profanities. The thing that I liked about the other place was that it was just internet and not a bunch of boys playing games on the computer. Oh well, I guess I am in Albania.

Before I forget, I want to post a link that Dr Frantz Murphy sent me:

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-albania3sep03,0,1808491.story?coll=la-home-travel

It is a travel article, but it talks about some good sites in Albania. I was in Butrint while I was in Saranda (see Saranda! post), but I haven't been to Apolonia, nor have I heard of this other place. Too bad she doesn't say where it is. I think that it is a good article though.

I went to the school today. We start school on the 18th. I finally found that out last week. I had heard different things from both students and teachers. I knew it was around the 15th, but there was a rumor that it would start as early as the 4th, but I asked Bruna last week and she told me the 18th.

My two counterparts were in England with some students at the beginning of August. I hadn't really talked to either of them since they returned. One of them was telling me, though, that while they were leaving, at the airport one of the students disappeared. She didn't know what had happened to him and she went to the information desk and they were calling for him, but they couldn't find him. It turned out that he had escaped. I guess that he had some extended family in London, and he wanted to go and live with them. It is very difficult for Albanians to get visas to live or even to travel in most countries. England is no exception. Because of this it was very difficult for the teachers to get travel visas for them and 11 students. The student ran away because it would be difficult for him to get a visa to live there. He didn't even have his pasport or any paperwork. She was holding on to all of the student's passports. Anyways my counterpart was very upset by this whole thing and she is going to have to go and talk with the British embassy tomorrow to explain. Could you imagine, as a teacher loosing a student? In a foreign county much less? They ended up having to leave without him once she figured out what was going on.

I am nervous for school to begin. I guess at first I will be team teaching with both of the counterparts. This is better because I don't really know English grammer well enough to teach it. They will be doing grammer while I will be teaching conversation, class activities, and games and what not. I guess that I need to learn some of these as well. If anybody has any good ones, send them my way.

I have stayed around for the past two weekends now. I was supposed to go to Fier this past weekend (pronounced fear), but I wasn't feeling well. I am going to go to Puke again next weekend to camp, depending on the weather. It should be a good time and I think that there will be a lot of people there. I guess with the added structure of having a job, I'll have to cut back on my traveling a little bit.

I tried to post pictures, but to no avail. I dont understand. I think that it takes a while, but I dont have a while.

Puke was a lot of fun. It was really fun to hang out with John and joey again for a few days. I went on Sunday, and came back on Wednesday. This was all for business leave to watch a class of John's on Tuesday morning. This is your tax dollars at work folks. It was a lot of fun though.

I may have already said this, but I think that people here view the north like we view the South in the United States. Totally backwards with weird people, but most of them have never actually been there. When I told people that I was going to Puke (in the north) they were usually pretty suprised or shocked and asked why I would go there. Most of them have never been there.

The only one who was really excited was my host mother, who was born in tropoja (sp?) which is even farther north than Puke. That is blood feud country up there. I wont get into blood feuds or cannon law here, mainly because I dont know much about it. You can always look that up somewhere else. Peace Corps volunteers arent even allowed to go to Tropoja though because it is kind of dangerous.

Anyhoo, the north kind of reminded me of Colorado. It wasn't the furnace that is Kucove or the central region where I live. There were a lot of pine trees and mountains. I miss that smell. The town itself was really nice. It wasn't like the typical Albanian town, there was a different character to it. The buildings were more old poor Europe than the brick communist style buildings that you usually see in other towns.

Saranda!

I spent this past weekend in Saranda. It was really great. Saranda is a town in the south of Albania, really close to the border with Greece. There are a few places here where you could be convinced that you aren't actually in Albania... the beach at Saranda may be one of those places. It was a lot of fun though and there were about ten people sleeping on the floor of someone's apartment there. Two of them were Austrians that were staying with another volunteer.

We took a trip to a place called Butrint. It is a really great national park about 30 minutes from Saranda. Origins date back to the 1st or 2nd century BC, and the place has kind of evolved from there. It was originally dedicated to a Roman goddess of health, then turned into a Roman colony, then it fell apart, then it kind of turned into a farming type community. There are Roman ruins, ottoman ruins, and more modern christian ruins. It is really an interesting place with all of the different influences that all circulate there.

I didn't realize at first how close we were to Greece while at Butrint. From Saranda you can see Corfu, the Greek island. I will have to try to make it there sometime in the next two years. Apparently there are ferries (I heard between 20 and 30 euro) and it could probably be done in a weekend. I have to get permission from the Peace Corps to leave the country first, but I think it can be done. Corfu calls.

This next weekend I will be going to a town called Puke (pronounced poo-ka). It is in the north, and all jokes aside, it is supposed to be a pretty place. Most Albanians who live in the south (I am considered the south. Anything on this side of the Shkumbini is the shouth) have never actually been to the north. People from the south also generally have negative opinions of the north. There is no real reason why, but I think that it is one of those prejudices that has just kind of developed with time. People from the south are called the Ghegs and from the north are called the Tosks (I may have this backwards). There are supposed to be subtle differences in the language, but the volunteers in the north say that they haven't really noticed any.

Joey should be coming tomorrow from Billisht and spending the weekend in Kucove/Berat. We will leave for Tirana on Sunday and meet John in Lezhe in the afternoon. I will be there from Sunday till Wednesday, and return then. It should be a lot of fun. I will be observing John's English class. Hopefully picking up some tips for my own English class.

Sorry I never really post pictures here. I think that the connection here is really slow and it would probably take a few months to load a photo. I will try to load a few while I am in Tirana at the Peace Corps office maybe. For now I will give you my friend Katie's website with lots of great photos. She is from Berat so she lives fairly close and I see a lot of her. It may be a different perspective on my life. Beware though, there are a few bad photographs of me so dont laugh.

www.katherinesilus.com

Ready for something to do...

Summer is rolling along. It is interesting to get here without much to do in the way of work. I am a teacher, and I dont have anything to do this summer. Summer is going by quickly though. Kind of living for the weeked, not because I am busy but because that is when I can travel. I didn't really travel this weekend just went to Berat. It is like 30 minutes away so it doesn't really count. I think that next weekend I would like to go to Puke (a town in the north, halarious all the same). I will have to coordinate this trip with a few other people though so we'll see how it goes.

Not having a job makes things a little more difficult because I live without much sense of purpose (this isn't on a grand purposeless life sort of scale, just a professional one). I know that when school begins I will have days when I will yearn for the summer again, but for now I usually have to find reasons to leave the house on a regular basis. It just makes the days a little longer. The heat doesn't help. It actually rained quite a bit though last night. It was really nice to wake up at around 1:30 or 2 in the morning and see rain off of my balcony.

Samantha asked me if I were to go home tomorrow, would I come back? I think that I really would. I think that it is important to remember that even though there are things that I miss, I would end up falling into a routine if I were to go back (or when I go back I guess) and things would be kind of the same that they were when I left. There are a lot of little things that I miss including (I will try to include my entire list right here):

- SJ

- Jags

- My family

- My friends

- 24 hour water (I only have it for 6 hours a day which gets frustrating because it dictates when I have to shower, brush my teeth, sleep habits, etc)

- 24 hour electricity

- Variety of resturants

- Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich

- Target (out of convience)

- Starbucks

- Grocery stores

- Insulated houses and central heating

- Readily available internet access

- drivers who have some concept as to what they are doing

And a few other things I'm sure. But as you can see, with some obvious exceptions, they are generally little things. It also makes me appreciate when I can have some of these things. There is a real honest to God grocery store in Tirana (we had to take a special bus to get there) and I dont think that I have been that excited to actually see a grocery store before. Finding things like Cyanne pepper (even though it was $6 and I didnt buy it) and peanut butter. Also in Tirana there is a Mexican resturant, a few chinese resturants, and a place where you can get an American style breakfast with coffee. These places are all pretty much amazing when you can actually get there. I really like the fact that I am able to appreciate them as much as I do.

I also like this whole "living abroad" thing. There is something that I really like about sitting in the Stevens Center (the place with the american breakfast) with mainly other foreigners and there is a collective appreciation of the situation in the room as I eat my Mexican omlette and drink my coffee. Of walking down the street and hearing somebody speak english and doing the double take, or vice versa. Or people assuming that I am a tourist and being suprised when I can speak Albanian to them. There have even been people who have asked me if I was Albanian, and if I am not why am I able to speak the language. This is flattering because I can barely speak the language.

Hello blog readers

Things have been going well here in Albania. Kucove has been rocking (not too hot which is good) and I have been able to travel a little bit and see everybody in some other towns around the country.

Last weekend I went to Girokaster, an old city in the south were there are four volunteers all from group nine. It was really nice to be able to see everyone down there. There is a big castle that we saw with an old armaments museum, mostly guns left by the Italians and Germans from World War Two. I was also told that they have a collection of antique weapons that they are afraid to show because they aren't sure whether they are legal or not. There is someone down there who wants to work with the museums there though to bring their collections a little more up to date. I think that it sounds like a great project.

We also ate at a nice resturant that overlooks the city and were able to walk around a little bit. If anybody wants to come and visit me (really) I would make another trip down there.

Other than that I have been hanging out a lot, reading a lot (I just finished Great Expectations and it was much better than I had expected), and teaching a few classes at the youth center. Things are going well there too. I think that the students are slowly warming up. I have two classes. One is with more advanced high school students where we are reading articles and doing a lot of discussion. I think that it will be a really fun class to teach. The other class is with beginner students and is a little more challenging. I am using a book to teach with for that one and I have to teach mostly all in Albanian. This only highlights my shqip inadequacies and makes me realize that I need to keep studying. Eventually with enough effort I am able to get my ideas across, but there are still those times where I just have to give up and move on. Oh well.

Thats all for now. I hope that things are going well and keep in touch.

Ryan

Hello, I have been told that I need to update my blog more often, so I am writing a post right now. I have some free internet time and a few minutes and I thought that this would be a productive use of such resources. We are able to go into the Peace Corps office here in Tirana when we like which is really nice and they have computers with the internet and such. It is a luxury that I do appreciate.

This was my first weekend in Tirana. The first time I was here I wasn't that impressed, but this weekend was really fun. There was a fourth of july celebration at the ambassador's residence and that was a good time. There were hamburgurs and hotdogs (which you cannot find in real Albania). The compound for the residence is kind of surreal. It is seriously like walking into an American suburb but it is in the middle of Albania. There are driveways with garages, mailboxes, and even garbage cans that roll out the the curb. To get mail here most people have to hear by word of mouth and go to the post office to pick it up. I don't think that many post offices deliver mail regularly, but it depends on the person that works there. And with garbage most people just throw it on the side of the road. Which is really disgusting and it is definately a major problem here. The embassy party was a good time though, and I will probably go back next year.

After that we hit up night life in Tirana. I haven't even caught a scent of night life yet here in Albania except for world cup games. There are actual bars and clubs in downtown Tirana. They serve a variety of beers and have drink specials and everything. When you aren't exposed to these things for some time I think that it is the little things that get to you. This being my first time in Tirana as well, it is the same way. Most of the bars are in a section of Tirana called The Block. I guess that this is where most of the party leaders lived during the communist times. Enver Hoxha's house is still there (he was a dictator in Albania until the 1980's). When one walks through this part of Tirana it feels like you could be in any city almost anywhere in the world. It is expsnsive to spend much time here however. I am not used to paying $4 for a beer, they are usually around 50 cents. I think that it is a nice place to come and unwind every month or two, but making sure to keep an eye on the prices of things.

Lastly it was nice to see some of the history and buildings that are in Tirana here. Skanderburg Square was good to see, a lot of recent Albanian history has happenned there. There was the monument they built for Enver Hoxha after he died, the block, and some other things that I can't think of right now. If you come out to visit in Albania we will go and hang out in Tirana for a bit.

Right now I am going to meet some people at a French bakery that supposedly has good coffee, and after that I will go back to Kucove and rest. I didn't get too much sleep this weekend, it is a good thing that I dont really have a job. It will take me about a week to recover.

From Albania's newest Peace Corps Volunteer:

We all had our swearing in ceremony this morning and it was really nice to get it out of the way and to finally be done with training. When something like this is evolving as it should, we are usually ready for the next step to come into place. Also, after my site visit, it has been strange to go back to my site because I knew that I was leaving and it doesn't really feel like my "home" anymore. The idea that I will go to Kucove now and establish some roots and make it my home for the next two years is very exciting to me.

There are a lot of things that are really scary about this as well. During training you have this nice security net where you are surrounded by other people, the Peace Corps staff is always right there, and you are very very busy almost all of the time. Once I get to my site there will be another volunteer there and others within 20 or 30 minutes. I will have a lot of free time, however. Especially in the summer teachers dont really have a job. I know that I will be able to get some reading done and I will teach some independent English lessons, but that doesn't fill up very much time. I am excited that I will be able to travel around Albania a little bit. Wow there has been a lot of rambling here.

The ceremony was really nice. The Ambassador, the President of Albania, and the Mayor of Elbasan all spoke. The Ambassador administered our oath. It was all really nice. Just a few minutes ago I saw the report on the news. It was kind of a big deal in this town.

I was really glad that my host family was able to come to the ceremony as well. I know that they had to give up other things in order to come, and I was really happy that they wanted to. Last night my family and the family of another volunteer had dinner together. Our host fathers are brothers and they live next door to eachother, so we usually end up spending a lot of time together. John and I bought a big chocolate chip cookie cake from an American bakery here in Elbasan and the family really enjoyed it. It was kind of a late night, however, and today I am pretty tired. I know that tonight will be a late night as well because this is kind of our last night together and everybody wants to go out. A late night here is all relative, however, being around 11 (actually last night was more like 12:30).

That is all I have for now. I will send out an email when I get to Kucove and it will have my new mailing address. Letters can still be sent to my current address for those of you who have it.

So I visited my site this last week, and I thought that I would write a little blog about it. It is a town called Kucove, there are about 3o,000 people who live there. It is pretty big by Albanian standards, but it still has that small town sort of feel to it. Its actually a really nice place.

Trying to find information before I went there was diffucult because people dont really go there. Everybody who knew where it was could only say, oh thats close to Berat. Berat is a really cool old town. There is a castle and a lot of old houses that are being preserved by the state. It is called the city of a thousand windows, and if you ever visit you will know why. All of the exteriors of the old buildings are property of Albania and residents own the interiors of the houses. There are literally around a thousand windows and they are all surrounding a big river. I'll post a picture someday.

Back to Kucove. It is a fairly new town, only started in the 1920's when some British guy found that there were oil reserves in the area. Its kind of an oil town, but the only one in Albania. During communism it was one of the more developed cities in the country. It was named Qytet e Stalini (or something like that) or City of Stalin from the end of World War Two until 1992 when the dictatorship fell here.

The town is pretty nice though. There are a lot of old oil well pump type things, whatever they are called. People said that you can see oil seeping out of the ground but I didn't actually see any of this. There are two secondary schools, the regular high school where I will teach and there is also a technical school. There are two English teachers at this school, but one is also the vice director so she teaches part time. The full time teacher is young, 26, but she is pretty progressive and really wants to impliment some new strageties to get students excited. The other teacher is a little bit more traditional, but I think that she will be really great to work with.

My living situation is also pretty good. I am connected with a family, but I will be living in a studio apartment next door to this family. The apartment is small and pretty modest. There is a room with a bed and a couch, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The kitchen doesn't actually have a sink and the stove is in the bathroom (probably because it is bigger than the kitchen and it has a window) so the bathroom is kind of more the kitchen than the kitchen is. I have a turkish toilet and I have to stand over it to shower. I know it all sounds amazing and I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance. I think that my favorite thing about the apartment is the fact that I do have a small balcony with a pretty good view of the town. It will be nice to sit there and drink coffee in the evenings.

My family is also pretty good. The host family that I have here in Kuqan is really great and I think that it would be difficult to beat them. With my new one there is a mom who is a housewife, the dad works in the oilfields, there is a 15 year old son and a 17 year old daughter. The dad doesn't really talk much, the thing that he has probably said the most to me is avash, avash, which just means "slowly, slowly". Its a turkish word that people use, but I dont really know why he says it to me. The mother is kind of crazy. She is very touchy, like a lot of Albanians, and when she thinks that I dont understand here she just talks louder. She also talks a lot, so I think that we will have an interesting relationship. The kids are alright too, I think that the son lives with the grandparents.

There is another volunteer who will be living in Kucove with me. She will be working in the municipality. I am glad that I am not alone, and when I need to speak with an American we can always go to get coffee and complain to eachother.

Thats all I have for now. I'll probably send out another email soon. I have said this before but once I get some pictures hosted, I'll let you know.

Hey people. I have added a few photos to this blog thing. I am not sure if this is the best way to host photos, but if I can figure something better out later I will. The first picture is of a few volunteers on some weekend excursion... I cant remember where right now. The second photo is the house where my family lives. It is a nice house and they are very proud of that photograph. Whenever people come over they want me to show that picture to them. The third photo is on the balcony of the neighbors house. He is my host father's brother and I end up spending a lot of time drinking raki on that balcony with John, the volunteer who lives there. The fourth photo are the parents of my host mother. This photo was taken on Pashke, the Orthodox easter. I think that her entire family is Muslim, but they were all at our celebration anyways. The last photo is of Kuqan, the village where I live. It is a really nice photo from the balcony of my house. The man walking in the corner is Sokoli, my host father. I didn't even notice that he was in the photograph until he pointed it out to me. In the photo with the two grandparents, the woman is wearing all black. This is usually a sign that the woman is a widow, but she obviously isn't. For a long time I couldnt figure out why she always dressed in balck, but one day I found out that she had a son who died. I still dont really know why, but he was 21 and he died twenty something years ago. I really like the two grandparents, they are really nice. It is much harder to communicate with the older people... I think that they mumble a bit more. When a group of old men get together to talk, I can not understand anything they say except they keep repeating the word respect over and over again. A little like older men in the states.I will try to post some more photos later, maybe on another blog. Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing.

Hey guys, I am still trying to get this whole blogging thing down. I hope that my information quenches your blog thirst. I feel like my mission to spread a knowledge of albania throughout the entire known world can best be done through blogs about my life. Although they may be boring... and I have to censor out the bad stuff, this is how I will do it. I will try to find the most monotonous things to discuss here to keep the bad people away.

I taught my first English lesson today. I will be a high school teacher, but today I got to teach about 55 elementary students. It was a little out of control at times, but I eventually got the job done. The person observing me was a group 7 volunteer who will be leaving in June. She seems like kind of a badass with the whole teaching thing. She said that I did a pretty good job. It was kind of frustrating trying to get so many kids to pay attention and not to talk. I know that other grades will kind of be the same way though.

This is how I ended up teaching so many elementary kids today... We were supposed to set up a "practicum" with the local english teacher and school director. The school director is in charge of both the primary and secondary schools here in Kuqan plus he works in Elbasan at the university or for the government or something... I dont really know. Either way he is a very difficult man to get a hold of. We talked briefly to the english teacher who told us that she would tell her students to come to our lessons. On the first day nobody showed up. It was fine because we just ended up drinking beers in a bar next to the school. Everybody freaked out the second day and I they ended up talking to both the high school kids and the elementary school kids about coming because they figured that nobody would show up. The second day we had tons of little kids and some high school kids as well. Today, the third day, we had a whole bunch of everyone. Albanians are never really on time, so for the first 20 or so minutes of class there were all kinds of people coming in.

I dont know what kind of "cultural analysis" to take out of this. People dont really communicate with eachother in the ways that we would expect communication to take place. Everything is very informal, and to get things done one has to talk to everybody individually. This cannot happen too far in advance, however, because people dont like to plan in advance. I have heard once that people will say, "but what if something better comes up?" As a westerner we would think that this would be the reason to book times in advance.

Thats all I have for now. I will write anther blog later... maybe next week sometime. I'm also going to try to figure out how to post a few pictures on here. Albania is a really pretty country, especially this time of year. It has been raining a lot and everything is really green. I am not really looking forward to the heat that we will get to live through this summer. Apparently it is just really hot and dry all summer long. Albanians like this because they are always cold.

The Kuqan group came into Elbisan today and ended up at the internet cafe. This is probably the nicest place that I have seen in all of Albania. It is a large bar with a row of nice computers at one end. Like everything else, however, it is really smoky.

We came in to go to the gabbi, where they sell used clothes, but by the time we got in they were closing. I am sure that we will have plenty of time to explore used clothing stores. We did go to a restaurant where they had real spagetti though. It is not uncommon to have pasta, but they just put about a gallon of butter on top. The spagetti was really exciting.

Last Sunday I celebrated Pashke with my family, the Orthodox easter. It was a lot of fun and I got a few pictures that I will try to post here or somewhere else when I get the chance. It was a pretty big deal and my host mother's family all came over - her parents and brothers with their families. I think that they are all Muslim though so it probably wasn't a big deal for them. They roasted a lamb and got a small keg and everything. In the end it kind of just turned into a drink fest. They danced a little bit to some Albania music and then all of the men got together and sang at the end of the table. The only word that I could pick up was raki, the kind of traditional drink that people make here.

I have had my share of raki since coming here. Most families make their own, and my family owns grapes so they pretty much have to make it. It is probably the strongest stuff that I have ever had, and for most, two or three rakis is more than enough. My host dad can drink about four, but afterwards he is noticably drunk.