Back across the pond… temporarily!

Five and half months later and I’m heading back to the US for Chris & Amy’s wedding… it’s almost hard to believe that 1) SO much time has passed in what seems like a blink of an eye and 2) I’m ACTUALLY getting to go to the WEDDING! I’m overwhelmed with joy and wish I could just teleport myself over instead of be miserable on an airplane for 12 hours. Unfortunately we still don’t possess the power to teleport so conventional methods must be used.

Arriving at the Tirana airport at 3am was one thing, but finding out at 7:15 that my flight home was cancelled due to a malfunctioning button was disaster. I waited 3 hours in line to be re-routed, only to be waitlisted for a flight home. When time for check-in came, a German couple was gracious enough to give me their one booked flight due to the fact that they refused to split up, and I was successfully onto Munich. Another glitch came in Munich of course. The Albanian airport never registered my re-route so it took 20 minutes to get a boarding pass, which was then followed by a 20-minute run across the airport that barely landed me on my connecting flight. One perk: a business class ticket for my 9 hour flight into the US with a full reclining bed, a gourmet menu, and excellent entertainment options on my personal television. Glitch in Chicago: lost luggage, to be reported on arrival in Detroit. Seriously, worst luck ever! Anyways, I managed to make it into the US at some un-godly hour, ride 2 hours home, and finally be greeted by my very own bed!

The week to follow was almost equally as hectic, full of spending time with family: primarily my brother on the days before his wedding/honeymoon and the rest of the family came after. Things with Chris were just like always, he made me laugh until I cry and cry until I felt almost sick and had to take a small break from his comedy. My mom, sister-in-law, and I did our usual pedicure routine in preparation for the wedding: though there were some discrepancies due to “flower” nail art that still is making me laugh. Just like always, my oldest brother BJ and I “watched TV,” which may sound silly but definitely is our tradition. His children are simply beautiful and I am so sad to be missing out on their lives. My nephew luckily remembered me and enjoyed my company while my niece had forgotten me and cried every time I stepped within some invisible 3-foot radius. Things probably don’t bode well for me with the baby on the way… after a 2-year service they will only know me as a complete stranger. My grandparents were there with me every day, overwhelmed with joy that I was home and being there with me just to enjoy my company. And to my mom and dad- they made this all possible, helping me with everything when I was home and I sadly did not nearly get to spend enough down time with them... which means I’ll be expecting them to visit Albania soon!

Wedding events kicked off Friday with the rehearsal for the wedding followed by dinner for families and the wedding party. The Toledo Zoo runs a tight ship, and after much practice we nailed the rehearsal and they released us into the wild. Dinner was to follow, but my jet lag caught up to me so I hit the hay early. Wedding day came sooner than my sleep schedule wanted, but nevertheless it began. Amy, her 2 sisters, her mom, and myself got our hair done together in the morning followed by lunch. Around 3 in the afternoon we headed toward the Toledo Zoo, getting all G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S. for the big event. Next thing I knew, we were headed in for the ceremony, which turned out beautiful… every single thing about it was perfect. The weather was great, we didn’t mess up our timing walking down the aisle, Spencer actually MADE IT down the aisle, Julie pronounced all her words correctly, and Chris & Amy were finally made husband and wife. The rest of the night is a blur… eating, speeches, talking to family, drinking, dancing, and divine joy. We all made it out alive- some of us better than others on the day to follow but still alive. We finally saw Chris & Amy off…well, I’m not sure I actually saw them off due to the amount of tears in my eyes… and then, we too, headed home.

What was to follow was complete and utter exhaustion. Still, I somehow managed to see friends between Ann Arbor and Columbus, get some necessary shopping done, eat as much Mexican, Chinese, and sushi as possible, and before I knew it my time was up. I left Detroit 6 days later. My flight in Chicago was delayed 2.5 hours due to the crew packing food in dry ice next to live turtles. Thank you United, I was late for my connecting flight and spent a lovely 13 hours in Munich airport only to arrive in Tirana at midnight. Some luck, huh? Either way, I can say it was definitely worth the trouble and I had the most wonderful time at my brother’s wedding: Congratulations again Chris & Amy! To everyone, I love you and miss you, and it was so great to see you all.

Rehersal at the zoo Friday night.

Amy & Chris now MARRIED!

The Wedding Party

With Dad & Mom!

Hitting the dance floor with the groom

Wedding Season: Albania

Summer in Albania is just like summer is the US: weekends are full of weddings left and right. And no matter where you are at any one time during the weekend you are most likely to either see or hear part of the festivities. Albanian weddings are in many ways similar to American traditions, but here are the major differences I have noticed:

1) No ceremony or exchanging of vows is ever done; the “wedding” is equivalent to our receptions.

2) They have at least two consecutive days for a wedding: one with the bride’s family and one with the groom’s family.

3) Gifts are given in the form of cash, usually which is thrown or slammed against the head of the bride and groom while dancing at the wedding.

4) Brides do NOT smile- it signifies that they are sad to leave their family and makes all brides look absolutely pissed off on wedding day.

5) At least 10 times more food is served at Albanian weddings: mmm mmm good.

6) They have a wedding cake, but they don’t eat it and they don’t serve it =(

Beginning early on wedding day, the groom usually picks up the bride and drives around the streets for a prolonged period of time honking in celebration. Albanians, just like Americans, want their weddings documented on video. So, don’t be alarmed when you see the car preceding the bride & groom’s with a person fully hanging out the window equipped with the world’s largest video camera slung over their shoulder. The video to come will most likely have 2 hours footage of this “driving on the streets”… trust me, I have seen one too many wedding videos.

For a special weekend in Bishqem (my host family/training site), Tyler and I were invited back by my favorite bar owner to 2 weddings. What I didn’t know was that we’d be put to work at both of them… I guess we technically are volunteers though right? After the setup for the first wedding was complete, we hopped in a car to pick up the meat and such for the wedding the following day. We made it back late for the 1^st wedding, but enjoyed the food, danced towards the end, and cleaned dishes for hours on end. The next day everything was bigger…better, much better. We started preparation at 4pm: setting tables, starting to cook, and running last minute errands. By 9pm, we were shuffling hundreds of plates from the basement kitchen up to the tables while the crowd gathered outside the doors and the live band tuned up for the night. At 10pm the festivities began- we served case after case of beer and then finally all sat down to eat and enjoy the wedding temporarily. Throughout the night we had random tasks to complete, but for the most part the group of “servers” including Tyler and myself had a pretty incredible time. I somehow lasted until 5:00am, when a multitude of fireworks were set off for the occasion, confetti was thrown, and sparklers were lit. What gets me though, is that they didn’t even know what SPARKLERS were or what to do with them. I feel as though I fulfilled some American duty showing them the ways of Sparklers, and they were truly enjoyed by all. The big bang however marked the end of the night. It was so late, so we were off the hook for washing dishes! After all of the circle dancing and celebrating I definitely crawled home and into bed for a good night’s sleep! I'm sure there will be many more weddings to come...

Tyler & I ready to enjoy festivities after hard work

Yes, the 12 year kids at our table drinking beer... Cheers all around.

Tyler's host dad, Rifat, preparing the MEAT PATTIES.... man these are GOOOD!

The bar owner, Arjan, sitting down and enjoying himself finally.

Bledi & I taking a quick break to eat some food before more work!

Circle dancing with confetti flying everywhere!

Cutting the cake... yes, the ones you never eat. RIDICULOUS!

Sparklers to wrap up the night!

Cinderelly! Cinderelly!

Through a little persuasion and a LOT of luck, my gracious Country Director decided to let me come back to the USA for one short week in order to attend my brother’s wedding! The news came a mere 3 weeks before the big plane trip; much planning was to follow. Leave forms were filled out and signed, plane ticket was booked, but WHAT you may ask was Cinderella to wear to the ball?

Thanks to my wonderful Albanian colleagues at the Berat Municipality, I was pointed in the direction of a rrobaqepsi or tailor by request. The first consultation with my tailor was rough: she refused all pictures I liked of potential dresses and decided to come up with a dress of her own. Unfortunately, her idea for the dress was extremely low cut, extremely short, and complete with millions of laces and bows- think along the lines of a “street worker getup” if you will. After much debate she finally agreed on one of my pictures and instructed me on how much fabric was needed. Then she finally asked, “What color will this be?” to which I replied “Brown.” Her response back was “më mire rozë” or “better if pink.” Luckily, the client is responsible for buying the fabric, so I bought brown and was self-assured that I would not be surprised by a pink dress come pick up time.

After returning with the fabric she took my measurements and opened her client book- here is my favorite part of it all. I found out that almost ALL of her current projects/orders were the same exact dress she drew for me to begin with… the street worker style. Looks like some girls are about to show up to prom in the same dress… disaster waiting to happen. I only lost one small battle to her in the end, she insisted on making STRAPS for the dress to cover my bra, since strapless does not exist in this country. After all was said and done, she made me a beautiful dress in time for the wedding and even admitted to liking the color brown for a dress. She even told me that I was inspiring to her and hoped I would come visit her with photos when I got back (though she might be upset that I did NOT wear the straps).

The suggested dress- HOT, yes?

The final dress- sans straps.

Happy Birthday America

Though I am all the way over here in Albania, 4^th of July is one holiday still to be celebrated. By extremely special invitation only (and a fee of 5 bucks) all Peace Corps staff and volunteers were invited to the party with the US Ambassador on the 3^rd of July. Now, from what I understand, the party is usually held at the US Embassy in the capital of Tirana. This year it was sponsored by another organization and the party was moved to a nearby school.

Now, let me dive off subject to quickly explain Tirana from the local pedestrian point of view. Things in Tirana are NOT nearby. Things in Tirana are NOT easily located. You could virtually ask someone for directions to a restaurant across the street and they would have no idea what restaurant you were even talking about. Also, from my bus stop to the center is approximately a 40-minute walk. From the center to the Embassy is also an additional 40-minutes. Thus, you can now safely assume that simply walking to your destination can require hours of your time… and in the summer heat of Albania, prepare to show up at your destination dehydrated and drenched in your own sweat. Seriously, do not even bother showering before you come.

Okay, back on subject. “Where is this school?” you ask. Personally, I only know that it is nearby the Embassy, in the middle of a neighboring park/woods. As I set out from the hotel with my friend Marie, we walked until we found the edge of the woods and felt pretty confident of our navigation skills. Upon entering the woods however, we realized we might never make it: no buildings were in site, paths split off every which way every 10 yards, and it was sweltering. We asked security guards all along the way for the school and each one pointed us in different directions. Marie & I also managed to pick up about 5 lost American families who did not speak Albanian. Now we had responsibilities: we were in charge of getting others to safety. Last but not least, some man had instructed us to walk INTO the woods to get to the school- and after hiking through ravines and stepping over millions of logs we were able to hear music from what HAD to be a party. If only I had known it was going to turn into some sort of Summer Camp 2009 to simply GET to the party, I would have brought my hiking boots, sleeping bag, and tent along for the journey.

Hours later we successfully made it to the festivities, and boy were we greeted upon arrival. Greeted with hamburgers (which do not exist in Albania), hotdogs, potato salad, pasta salad, ice cream, brownies, free spirits, live music, fireworks, sporting events, and yes, EVEN a clown show. Ironically though, I somehow missed the clown show and only ran into a clown that night when I was in the bathroom (and almost had a heart attack). The night was simply amazing up until the point when we finally had to leave. Since it was now dark, hiking through the woods was unsafe, so our only option was the park path, which took 1.5 hours by foot to clear ourselves of the woods. Once we made it back to real life we decided to reward ourselves with some Tirana nightlife, the only nightlife comparable to American standards in the whole country. And, as always, a 30-minute walk back to the hotel awaited us in the end. Who’s planning on giving foot massages tomorrow…anyone?

The Venue: NOT your typical Albanian School.

Me & Marie: proud of FINALLY finding our way to Summer Camp '09!

The Gang- ready to depart on our 1.5 hr walk back to human contact.

Me & Sofie: full of American food and happppyyyy

The lovely FIREWORK display!

High School Graduation- Albania Style. (Matures)

When my neighbor in my host family village of Bishqem invited me to his high school graduation party, I said “Of course, I’ll be there!” When he told me to bring a nice dress for the occasion, I said “Certainly, no problem!” When I got there, however, I realized I was in for quite the night, and said “Uh oh!”. For some reason or other, I managed to forget that I was in Albania - that things here are always different then they are in the U.S. - but this time, in a good way.

High school graduations in Albania are not done with caps & gowns, nor are they celebrated with family. Instead, they are celebrated in a lokal, or bar, from 8pm at night until approximately 6 in the morning with only classmates and apparently selected dates (i.e.- myself). I wore my nicest dress but failed to realize until we arrived I was at the equivalent of prom. All girls had their hair done complete with 1000 bobby pins and glittery hair spray and were all wearing snazzy high heels. They were also either wearing a full out ball gown or something so tight and slutty it seemed X-rated- either way, I was definitely UNDERdressed. The boys were also dressed nicely with black pants & a white dress shirt or something similar.

We all waited outside until the whole class was accounted for and then the ceremony began. A red carpet was rolled out with rose petals, we lined up 2 by 2, arm in arm, and walked in couple by couple with THEE most intense music blaring (which I can only imagine is their Pomp & Circumstance), 4 video cameras and 3 photographers in our faces, and all of this to be done in true Albanian style- with a straight face. I almost died of laughter walking in, but managed to keep it cool for a grand total of 1 minute in front of the cameras. We were seated at 4 long tables, served a round of beer and pop, Welcomed by the Principal and 2 student speakers, and then the party took off and never looked back. We were served a feast of food throughout the night- at least 10 courses served up until 3am, limitless beer, had video cameras & photographers constantly in our faces, and danced until the sun came up. My favorite part of the night was when some girl willingly karoke’d an Alanis Morissette song. Due to the depressive mood of the song, the DJ decided to speed it up and mix it a little, to which the girl got angry, slammed the microphone down on the table, and stormed off. Everyone was silent for a couple moments but the music started again and the normal party resumed.

We kept this going until about 5:30 in the morning, when most of us crawled out the bar, saw the sun was up and immediately wanted to go to bed. Bledi and I got home around 6am and definitely had an amazing night. And just in case I were to ever forget the moment, myself AND EXCITINGLY the whole neighborhood has their own 2 hour copy DVD of the party to watch for the rest of our lives. Congratulations graduates!
The end of the night on the dance floor.
Me & Bledi at the Grad Party.

Summer Life- and ONLY MEAT.

Moving apart from the other volunteers still makes me sad. Luckily, there are weekends- a perfect time to travel around the country and visit our long (it has only been 1-8 weeks) lost friends. After settling in, Group 11 threw our group a “Welcome to the Berat Region” party at my house, and we had some good old-fashioned BBQ and a lot of “get-to-know-you” conversations. I realized Berat is a good central region amongst my friends and since I have a mansion for a home it is an especially good meeting spot.

Most of the group reunited for 3 birthdays at the end of June in Durres (the 2nd largest city in Albania and near the beach). It was great seeing everyone and the beach was definitely beautiful- however, I must say that my most favorite part of Durres was our night out for dinner. If I have not previously mentioned, Albanians LIVE for coffee, it’s known as a coffee culture. You literally cannot step two feet without running into a café. Unfortunately, most café’s say “RESTAURANT” on them but FAIL to serve ANY FOOD WHATSOEVER- talk about false advertising. As a result, searching for a restaurant in an unknown town can be quite the challenge. My group finally stumbled upon a restaurant where a friend confirmed with the owner that they DO in fact have mish (meat). So, assuming it is a safe bet, we push together tables and sit down to order. (Other side note: menu’s do not exist). When we ask what they have, the woman says ONLY MEAT. We clearly take this for a joke and ask question after question along these lines: Do you have salad? ONLY MEAT. Do you have rice? ONLY MEAT. Do you have potatoes/fries? ONLY MEAT. ONLY MEAT. ONLY MEAT. Riddle me this: how often do you come upon a place that just serves up a plate of piping hot meat, any way you want it, no side dishes, JUST MEAT? This has GOT to be the only place that would do that- and I’m happy to say that we found it here in Albania. Unfortunately, we did not eat there and the owner understood so she kindly wrote a note in Albanian saying “These are my American friends, take good care of them,” and told us to go to her friend’s restaurant down the street. If you, however, are into the idea of only meat for dinner, come visit and I will know where to take you =) Happy eating!
Tyler grilling up the kebobs! Sofie & Kristine came to visit Berat
Host family giving me a box or two of juice for the bus ride home=)
Raino being escorted to the Durres restaurant while simultaneously being hit up for $$ Some of the bday party crew on the beaches of Durres

And so the work begins...

Now that I have settled in my home for the next two years, I have started my volunteer work. Let me describe Albanian work in the shortest explanation possible: summer is too hot for work, winter is too cold for work, while fall & spring are JUST RIGHT. Now that you have the Goldilocks explanation, you can understand that we as new volunteers are starting in summer (the too hot period), so beginning work is rather difficult. As mentioned previously, we were all assigned counterparts with whom to collaborate over the upcoming 24 months. My first Monday at site, I set out for my first meeting with my counterpart Dorina with much enthusiasm. After waiting an hour in the office, she finally sent me a text that she was ill from pregnancy and would not be at work for summer. Enthusiasm- crushed. Plan B- full speed ahead. Luckily, I had met people around town during my site visit and had their phone numbers. After a few phone calls I was back in action. Apparently I had met the few people putting in serious work hours over the summer and therefore they were extremely excited about my help.

I am now working every morning with the Bashkia (municipality) where I helped with an ecotourism project. Basically, we trained a group of 30 high school students to be tour guides around the city of Berat. We went on hikes around and outside the city to show them all of the great features the city possessed. Now we are operating a tourism office for the very first summer, and we’re keeping busy updating all hotel information, restaurant hot spots, bus schedules, local hiking trails, information on all monuments in town, and of course updating information on our infamous castle atop the mountain. And although this project is not so health related, there are a couple other volunteers gathering tourism information and we are all working hard together. I am finding myself getting very involved and I think it is the start of something exciting for all of Albania should tourism be a hit for the country- it definitely has a lot of potential.

On the health side of things, I have found myself working at the Residential Center for Development called Une Jam Si Ju (I am like you). The center houses 27 people living with disabilities- mainly because having a disabled child here is still extremely stigmatized. The residents are anywhere from 10-40 years old, and the incredible 29 person staff are probably the most amazing and patient people I have met in Albania to date. I volunteer at the center just hanging out with the kids, they rarely have guests visit and to have someone around is special for them. They are also having an upcoming 15th Anniversary in December and I am working with them to release an informational pamphlet on their services. It is really an incredible site and I am fortunate to be able to work there.

Hopefully come Fall I will start teaching health classes within the schools and work more with my original counterpart. As for the Albanian perspective of work in the Summer… they are right. It is a scorching 100+ here with no escape to AC anywhere and I literally feel like I’m melting at all points of the day. BUT, I still keep on working because being busy is better than feeling miserable from heat all day. Keep cool on your side of the world America!
The ecotourism students on a hike up to St. Michael's Church The Mayor of Berat presenting the students with certificates for completion of training! The Development Center!
Staff and Children of Une Jam Si Ju