Sorry about the long wait for an update! I do not have internet in the home where I'm staying so my internet time is limited.
So far I think things are going well! I moved in with my host family almost a week ago. They live in a small village called Thane, which is not too far from Elbasan. I will be staying with my host family for the duration of pre- service training, which lasts 10 weeks. There are 6 other peace corps volunteers (pcvs) staying in Thane with me, and we each stay with a different family. I have two host sisters (20 and 18) and a host brother (17), who I live with along with their parents. They are very friendly and welcoming, and they even threw me a party when they found out it was my birthday.
Pre service training is really intensive and I am honestly working my ass off. We have around 5 hours of language class every day, and we go into Elbasan two or three days a week for technical training. I do technical training with the other COD (community and organization development) trainees. There are three sectors in Albania for peace corps, COD, which is my sector, Health education, and teaching english as a foreign language.
The language is not easy and we are learning at a fairly fast pace, but I think I am doing ok so far. The language barrier was really hard at first with my host family because I spoke essentially no Shqip (Albanian) when I was dropped off at their house, but it gets better every day.
Yesterday we had a hub day in Elbasan, where all of the trainees come together for the day. The trainees got me a cake/ card for my birthday, which was really sweet. Afterwards we went out for some much- needed beers before heading back home. I will be really busy with language and technical trainings over the next few weeks. Next weekend I am going on a site visit to stay with a current volunteer and get a feel for life as an actual volunteer. I don't know where I am going yet, but I am definitely excited for the trip.
I hope everyone at home is doing well and hopefully I will be able to post again soon!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
arrival
I am safe and sound in Elbasan, Albania! We got into Tirana yesterday, March 15, around 2:30 PM. We were all fairly exhausted from our flight/ 4 hr layover in Vienna, but we still had a two hour bus ride from Tirana to Elbasan, where we are staying in a hotel until Sunday. I struggled to stay awake during the bus ride, but it was kind of a losing battle.
The peace corps training staff has been very helpful and well organized so far, and I am ready for our first full day of actual pre-service training. There are 43 other trainees in my training group who all seem very smart, motivated, and interesting. Anyways, I just wanted to put up a quick post to let everyone know I am here in Albania and everything is going well, I will take the time to write a longer post later on this week!
The peace corps training staff has been very helpful and well organized so far, and I am ready for our first full day of actual pre-service training. There are 43 other trainees in my training group who all seem very smart, motivated, and interesting. Anyways, I just wanted to put up a quick post to let everyone know I am here in Albania and everything is going well, I will take the time to write a longer post later on this week!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
getting ready
Hello everyone! So I'm going to give blogging a try as a way to keep family and friends informed while I am serving in the Peace Corps.
Here is my timeline for the next week: On Monday March 12th I am heading to Boston and spending the night there, and I am catching a flight to DC the next morning. We have to be at a hotel in Georgetown for an orientation/ registration session by 12:30 on Tuesday, March 13th. I will spend the night in DC with my fellow trainees and the following evening we will fly to Tirana, the capital of Albania, by way of Vienna.
What all of this means is that I really should be all packed by Sunday. For anyone who knows me well, you will know that organization is not one of my strongest assets. I quit work about a week and a half ago so that I could "really concentrate on getting ready to leave." Last week that translated into re-watching episodes of arrested development, downloading music, and hanging out with my cats while thinking about all of the things I had to do.This week has been better in terms of productivity, mostly because my little sister is on spring break so she is forcing me to be proactive (thank you anna!). I am essentially taking it for granted that I will forget something important, because that is the way I function, so I just trying to minimize the impact.
I was able to say goodbye to a lot of my friends over the past two weekends, which was really fun, albeit bittersweet, and is definitely making this whole thing more real. I am finally getting a bit nervous, but mostly feeling excited.
Here is my timeline for the next week: On Monday March 12th I am heading to Boston and spending the night there, and I am catching a flight to DC the next morning. We have to be at a hotel in Georgetown for an orientation/ registration session by 12:30 on Tuesday, March 13th. I will spend the night in DC with my fellow trainees and the following evening we will fly to Tirana, the capital of Albania, by way of Vienna.
What all of this means is that I really should be all packed by Sunday. For anyone who knows me well, you will know that organization is not one of my strongest assets. I quit work about a week and a half ago so that I could "really concentrate on getting ready to leave." Last week that translated into re-watching episodes of arrested development, downloading music, and hanging out with my cats while thinking about all of the things I had to do.This week has been better in terms of productivity, mostly because my little sister is on spring break so she is forcing me to be proactive (thank you anna!). I am essentially taking it for granted that I will forget something important, because that is the way I function, so I just trying to minimize the impact.
I was able to say goodbye to a lot of my friends over the past two weekends, which was really fun, albeit bittersweet, and is definitely making this whole thing more real. I am finally getting a bit nervous, but mostly feeling excited.
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