Ha-Merr-Ik (Eat, Take, Leave) - mission accomplished

I recently returned from a nice two week trip to the states where I was encouraged to keep blogging, so I figured what better to do when I got home and all caught up on my sleep, than blog...

I had a great time back in the states, saw my family, friends, ate copious amounts of food, drank flavor filled beers, spent entirely too much money, but most importantly shared my experiences and heard all that I've been missing while abroad.  Special thanks to anyone and everyone who took the time to meet up and say hi.

Adjusting back to life in America wasn't too bad.  I only made a few mistakes in conversation (speaking in Shqip) or out in the real world with cultural differences.  But, shortly after arriving home I realized why the transition that you hear so much about while serving wasn't that difficult, I wasn't making a transition.  I was on vacation.  I didn't have to worry about finding a job, or somewhere to live, something to drive, something to do.  I was there, and that was all that I needed to do, or be.  So to everyone who wanted to ask me, or did ask me if it was weird, or hard being back, sorry if I didn't give you a good answer, but the correct answer (for me at least) is "not yet."  It was a nice taste of what will come when I get back, but all the stuff I listed above, that will be the difficult stuff, the vacation stuff was great!

Towards the end of my trip, as much as a love seeing family and friends, I was ready to come home, er, to Albania, which really is my home now.  At the moment I just feel like this is where my purpose is, this is where my home is, and this is where I belong.  I still have work to do, which was actually a great feeling.  I remember waking up sometimes in the states and not wanting to go to work before I ever got out of bed, not a good feeling.  But, wanting to go to work from some 3,000 miles away, it actually put a smile on my face and reminded me of how happy I was to finally make this decision to join the Peace Corps.

So, thanks to everyone who met up with me, can't wait to see you all a year from now, but for the time being, I have work to do.