sunny daysss

It’s been a bit of time between blogs so I figured I’d hit you all up with the latest happenings in gramsh and Albania in general…got to do a little bit of camping last week on a beach in a town called divjak with some fellow peace corps friend…about 12 of us..it was a good time..we had our mini 4^th of july party complete with sparklers and even some fireworks..it was cool to do something to celebrate the 4^th although it is hard to live up to the traditions I’ve gotten used to in el Segundo..pregaming at drews…finding a way to Hermosa and making it back to el Segundo to see the awesome fireworks show…blurry or not….

Anyway, that was last weekend…things at work have been going pretty much the same..i spend the days studying the language and interacting with my Albanian collogues…I’m picking up more and more of the language, and feeling more and more comfortable using it…I’m thinking when I come back to visit for haas’ wedding in august I’ll give you guys a little taste on what I’ve aquired so far…

I guess that’s the next piece of major news..i was granted special permission to leave the country a bit earlier than the “3 months after training” policy thanks to my program manager and our country director…it comes with a slight penalty, but it’s bearable and I’m excited to make it back for the wedding… and see as many people as I can in the short 5 or 6 day window I’ll have in the states..planning on making it down to the tavern on Friday, august 6^th if you want to catch up for a minute..haha

I’m getting more and more settled into my apartment and slowly but surely it’s becoming my home..i’ve also been trying to establish some sort of routine..peace corps says it helps with the homesickness/sadness/etc. during the 1^st 6 months of service, which are supposed to be the worst…I’ve fared pretty well so far and am thankful of that…living and working in another country is hard enough as it is without the added sadness of missing home…so, that’s been going well…

Soccer is huge all over the world, and it’s pretty huge in Albania as well…all the café’s/restaurants put up tvs especially for the world cup..you might not think that’s such a big deal, but keep in mind that a tv here is a lot more expensive relatively than a tv in the states…so I’ve done my far share of watching the world cup..it’s unfortunate that the US lost, but it just didn’t look like they were ever really ready to play…from an amateurs perspective at least…

Gonna try to post some pics on facebook and update the blog more regularly so keep checking back!