My name is Xhensila Velencia hence why my URL is xhensilablogs.blogspot.com but I go by Janie. It's a double identity crisis I've struggled with pretty much my whole life.
A quick explanation of my name: I was born in Albania and came to the US at the age of 5. My first day of kindergarten my teacher could not pronounce Xhensila, pronounced Jen-see-la, so I told her she could call me Xheni, which is a nickname for Xhensila. She didn't understand that either so she wrote Janie on my name tag, which kind of sounds like Xheni. Anyways, the name stuck and so I go by Janie now, as well as Xhensila.
Ok, back to the prelude of this blog. This summer I decided to do a study abroad in Salamanca, Spain to finish up my language requirement for my International Studies major. My study abroad in Spain will be from June 26th to August 6th. However, that didn't really leave me enough time before or after to do anything else with my summer such as find a job or internship so instead I decided that I would go to visit my grandparents in Albania from May 10th up to June 26th and while I'm there I will be taking language classes to polish up my Albanian.
So for my next 13 weeks abroad, I figured I'd blog about my adventures and experiences. I've never blogged before. I'm kind of excited- that's why I started this blog 2 weeks before I have to depart. So stay tuned, It should be a fun summer.
An explanation of the title: Why did I title this blog Feeling the Heat: Albania to Spain? Welllll... because I was having a hard time finding a clever name (I'm not very creative) and because summers in Albania, as well as Spain from what I hear, are really hot and it is hard to find air conditioning. So, I suspect I will be feeling the heat in both countries. (Kind of clever, right?)
