Suffled as it Gushed

So I arrived safely in Albania. It's really a great country. We flew into Tirana and jumped immediately onto a bus to go to Elbasan. Elbasan is about two hours away from Tirana. We spent two days of orientation and then were split into groups.

I'm staying in a small town outside of Elbasan with my goup. I really like it here. I live with a very nice host family who are dedicated to teaching me Albanian. There is a lot of pointing and smiling. Not a lot of nodding because Albanians shake their heads differently which makes for some very mixed messages from me, the volunteer. It works out better for me to say yes or no. Except when I mix them up which creates more confusion. I'm waiting for the moment when po and yo flow easily.

We are in training all day. Some language training, some technical training, and some group activities. It's a lot of work and a lot to stuff into my brain. Everyone here is great to work with. The language teachers are very patient and repeat things a lot for me.

Lots of small funny things have happened, but the main thing that happens is that I'm never entirely sure what is going on. I'm supposed to be cooking some American food on Sunday, but I had trouble explaining that I'm not used to making anything from scratch. If anyone has any suggestions for something that contains pasta, tomatoes, cucumbers, meat, olive oil, bread, or potatoes that would resemble something American let me know. I explained what spaghetti sauce was and they suggested that I make that, but I have no idea how to make spaghetti sauce from scratch. I'm scared i'm going to end up with a salad with chopped meat on top. I do have the entire day to cook so your helpful suggestions could involve hours of preparation!

Albanian food is really good. All of the vegetables, fruits are really fresh. I apologize to anyone who grows tomatoes at home, but PA tomatoes can't even touch the Albanian ones. That's all for now.

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