adpate

3/21/2010

i’m just people watching other people watching me - jack johnson

so it’s 7:35 am on sunday morning...i’ve been up since about 5 am...got into my host family’s house yesterday afternoon and so far so good...my host father, Nazmi, is retired, he’s 62, and my host mother, Hava is a housewife, she’s 58...they call me jeffrey since that is how i filled out my peace corps app. and that’s how my name is written everywhere...

everything i had read about in blogs so far has been true...to recap:

*albanians are super hospitable...from the looks of things, my host family gave me their room and they’re sleeping in the guest room...pictures of my room to come...

*albania is cold..we’re not even in winter, and one of the PC staff was commenting on how great the weather is, and i, along with a few other volunteers, am cold...

*albanians love to feed you...so far i’ve had two meals with my host family, and i’ve walked away full both times..no need to worry about lack of food here...

*no central heating or insulation? no problem...i’m sitting in my room and it feels as if my window is open

*update: i was just in my room studying..and it’s sorta cold..so my host mom and dad set me up in the living room and they have the stove going to heat me up...they are tooo nice and i feel bad because i know in a normal circumstance they’d be saving that wood...once i learn how to speak better i will tell them that hosting me is nice enough and they don’t have to do all these extra things

other interesting things:

*my host family doesn’t speak a word of english..they have two boys who are between 24-28 (both married) who immigrated to italy to work...its been said that i will stand a better chance at learning the language since my host family doesn’t speak any english...so i’m excited for that...i’m also excited that i came to albania knowing about 500 words...these have proven to be extremely useful so far...

*there are 3 other voluteers within walking distance of me..no more than 10 minutes away..two within about 3 minutes...so i’m not too isolated...i’m sure we’ll get together at various points during training..