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!
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