sometimes when you fall, you gotta get up and run your ass off...

so, I cant remember if I mentioned this in my last blog, and I’m not currently online so I cant check, but I am now at site in gramsh..i made it to site on Sunday, unpacked, cleaned a bit and worked on Monday..unpacked and cleaned some more..then needed to head for the capital city to help assist with the special Olympics. It was a great experience and I’m already looking forward to next year when my shqip is better and I can communicate with the people there that much more…the events they had were basketball, soccer, bowling and running…they had different groups from cities across the country…I assisted with the younger kids from a large city called durres..i had a lot of fun..and will be back to participate next year for sure..

funny story though, in order to make the games in time on the first day my site mate and I had to take the 5 am bus to Tirana…normally this wouldn’t be a problem…but with all the travel, and all the activities taking place over the last few weeks..including moving into my apartment that I had to clean..i was exhausted..my intention was to wake up at 3:50, plug in the hot water heater…go back to bed..wake up at 4:20 and shower…then bounce for the bus stop at about 4:40…my first alarm worked fine..i woke up, went into the bathroom, but then decided that I’d rather sleep than shower…so I went back to my room and thought I changed my alarm..and went back to bed…then at 4:50 I get a text from my sitemate kim (she’s awesome btw)..that she had to get on the bus since it was raining..realizing I was super late and would have to run across town I quickly jumped out of bed…

I live on the 4^th floor of a brand new apartment building (in fact I think I’m the only one in the entire 7 story building since the apartments aren’t quite done yet)…with marble floors..well, it had been drizzling that morning and when I got to the steps leading to the streeet (full sprint)..there was a lady entering the building, she turned right in front of where I was going..i tried to change direction on slippery stairs and went down  flat…she proceeded to yell at my in shqip..i finally got up and realized she was telling me to go to the hospital…I told her (Jam mire) I’m fine…got up and ran across town to the bus…made it to the bus a couple minutes after 5…I think I was running a six minute mile pace with a backpack packed for 3 days on..lol..needless to say..my lower back is still a bit sore…

I’ll try to post pics of my pad and my pain on facebook soon now that I have an internet café relatively close…which also means I’ll be on skype..so if any of you guys wanna hollar let me know when you’re on..it’s looking like during the week I’ll typically be on around 7 pm my time when I go to internet…I can make appts. For the weekend….

All for now…