new blog 1

3/22/2010

the son never shines on closed doors

-flogging molly

first day of class...4 hours of language didn’t get me quite as far as i’d expected, and only reinforced the fact that i’m going to have to work even harder outside of class to get this language down...i can’t imagine having to learn an entirely new alphabet like volunteers in other countries...only 1 different letter, and 9 other combinations of english letters make up the 36 letter albanian alphabet...

so after language class today and brief walk around our town...bisquem.i was back home studying more language..for about 3 and a half hours...fortunately my host mom sat with me the entire time to help me pronounce the words correctly...the second part of memorizing the language is actually pronouncing it right...i was so thankful to have her next time me correcting me and helping me along the way...turns out she is very very smart and used to work as a doctor or a nurse....she pulled out the stethoscope to help me understand..one day i’ll be able to get that information from a conversation...

regardless, originally i thought joining the peace corps would give me some time to reflect and spend on myself...that time has yet to come..i’ll be diligently studying language with all my extra time in hopes of understanding the conversations that occur when i go out with my host father for kafe...

as for kafe...this is a major part of albanian culture..and this is one thing that i’ve merged into my life as a calbanian...in america i never drank coffee...here, i’ve had at least two small cups a day...i think they’re called expresso shots, maybe?  i add a whole packet or sugar (sometimes two)..before i even think to drink it...btw, the packets are about twice the size of the american equal/splenda packs...pure sugar...haha...so far so good though...plus, i’m trying to socialize...

another alteration to my life as a calbanian has been the removal of working out...peace corps has encouraged us to continue some sort of a workout routine if we had one in the states...so as soon as i can settle in i’ll get back on it..possibly when i have been waking up (at 5 am, i’ve been going to bed at about 9 pm)....

that’ll be all for now...

actually, scratch that..while looking for a title song i decided i wanted to comment on something americans can learn from albanians...not once in my host family’s house have i seen a light on in a room they weren’t in....albanian tip for americans number 1...if you’re not in the room, turn off the lights...tv...etc..don’t be lazy

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..

what's up gangster's? what's up guys?

superbad...

anyway, we just finished our staging in philidelphia...and are now sitting at the JFK airport waiting a few more hours for our flight to Albania...staging went great...i had heard different stories about it possibly being boring or long and tiresome...fortunately i sat at some pretty fun tables and met some pretty cool people..and i'm sure many other volunteers would agree that the MC kept it interesting...all in all it was a good time and has me pumped to go to albania..

a bit about my blog..i'm going to try and keep it short and sweet...i'm not big on reading, so i'm going to try not to be big on writing...expect a lot of bullet points..incomplete sentences, and bad grammar...hope you all enjoy..i also hope to put up more pictures to give a better idea and hope to make myself a cribs video at some point..we'll see when i have the time...