So Far...

It's day 4 of being in Albania.

After 24+ hours of travel time I finally made it to Albania. My flight was really tiresome and long. It was the first time I have flown by myself; it wasn't too bad. The worst of it was the hour plus car ride from the airport in which we had to drive 30 mph on up and down mountains with sharp turns. One quick turn on those roads and you're a goner. (I have provided a visual aid below to illustrate my point). Anyhow It took me a couple of days to recover from the jet lag but I am all good now.

This part of the road fortunately has a railing, there are a lot of areas that don't .

I am staying in the city of Elbasan with my grandparents in their 3-room apartment along with my aunt, her husband, and their 3 daughters.  Things are a little tight but we make it work.   The weather has been really nice with high 60's in the early morning and night and high 70's during the day.  I have been waking up at 6 AM the last few days mostly because my grandparent's apartment is off of a main street and the noise of morning traffic along with vendors opening their stores for the day and mostly because of the smell of breakfast food that comes from the surrounding restaurants tend to wake me up. It seems like everyone wakes up early here. I don't mind it though. I think I'm starting to like becoming a morning person.  Hopefully I can carry it over to the fall semester when school starts.

The first morning here I finally got to eat Simite me Bugace. This is a breakfast food made only in Elbasan. It's pretty much bread with fried dough and a lot of butter. It's one of my favorite things to eat here for breakfast.  (see picture)

Simite me Bugaçe

In other news, It's election time here right now. People have been glued to their T.V's watching as the government counts every single vote live (no joke).  Being a developing democracy with an unemployment rate of what seems to me to be ridiculously large, politics is a big thing for people here.

My grandma has been really sick lately and so I haven't done too much yet. I've mostly just been home  trying to help her out here and there.  She seems to be doing much better lately though. Regardless, I don't mind staying in, I love spending time with her and my the rest of my family too.

I don't see too many changes since the last time I was here 2 years ago. Although, they have fixed a lot of the stone/cobble roads and  the city has become more developed. Otherwise the pollution is still really bad. My eyes itch all day and I'm constantly sneezing. I think the people that live here have just become immune to the pollution because they don't seem to be having as many problems with it as me. Water is still not available 24 hours a day here. This has been challenging; it comes on and goes off unexpectedly. You really don't realize how important having constant water is until you don't have it.

Tomorrow I start my first day of Albanian tutoring. Today I met 3 American boys who are here as missionaries. They have only been here for 3 months and they speak Albanian better than I do! I am embarrassed. Anyhow, tomorrow I am going with them and their church to volunteer at a local orphanage. I am really excited to go.

Here are some pictures I took around town today so you can get a general idea of what the city looks like.