"Me want Cookies!"

So...Stephanie and I were attending a friends birthday party today and we thought it only appropriate to bring something to the Birthday girl.  Seeing that we are poor volunteers, we opted to make cookies...Snickerdoodles! Great Idea!  A real taste from home!   The only problem is that neither Steph nor I has any experience cooking in the States, much less in our less familiar Albanian kitchens, that lack any sort of measuring cup, flat cookies tray, Pam spray or American luxuries of the like.  When we were visiting Burrel, or host volunteers had given us may recipes to take home and try, so we decided on Snickerdoodles, seeing as we could find most of the ingredients!  

We met at Stephanie's house to prepare our special treats, and Stephaine's host mom was definitely interested to see what the Americans were up to now!  Steph and I in the kitchen was like the blind leading the blind!  "What's the difference b/t self rising flour and regular", she asks me?  "Have not idea," I reply!  "What's cream of tarter," I ask?  "Who knows.  Don't have it, so...let's just add more baking soda," Steph says to me.  To add to the uncertainty of our whole little baking bonanza, the oven is in Celsius and our mom has told us the temperature is not that constant...at least that is what we thought she said in broken Shqip.  

We got them made up and baked, and amazingly, they turned out Great!  We were and still are so proud that we were able to conquer the kitchen! 

It's Party Time!

Last night we had a big family party for the brother of my cousin (I guess that makes him a cousin, too) He was in town from Canada, where he lives.  Rob was invited to come for dinner and the whole family came too.  Very My Big Fat Greek Wedding!  Mami had been telling me all afternoon that we were having a huge sheep.   She kept showing me with her hands just how big it was going to be.  She was very proud to show it off when it finally arrived.  We just all pulled meet right off the carcass!  It was very good but a little salty and a lot fatty, as lamb tends to be.  All in all, a very great send off for Lufta before he left to go home.

Another Beautiful Day in Belsh

We have been blessed with another day of good weather here in our little town.  After a week of rainy days, the sun is awesome!  After a productive morning in language class, Amber and I went on a long walk around our lake.  I am back at the house, and amazingly have had internet here for several days in a row.  I am soooo excited!

Headed South

I am really excited to tell you all that I am got my site placement for the next two years, and I am going to Berat!  It is going to be awesome.  It is in the center of Albania and a very historical city.  It is a great location for travel, and they have volunteers there and active for many years!  If you guys remember me talking about reading Blogs from James and Katie....they were in Berat, too!    I am really looking forward to spending my two years there.  

Oh why so soon?

Today my streak was broken!  It was a day that was going to come sooner or later...but later would have been nice!  I had to use the turkish toilet at the school today.  Not as bad as I thought (still not good), and it was pretty tricky.  Positioning is critical!  Anyway, going to Burrel for our volunteer visit tomorrow, so that will be a nice break from training, especially after last weeks language debacle!

TEacher...I have a question

Today's language lesson was really hard!  We have started grammar and I barely know grammar in English!  It's a lot to learn in three months and sometimes I leave class and my head is just spinning.  Albanian used cases which are really difficult and the word structure is much different.  For example, there is not word for "the" in Shqip, so we change the form of the word to make it definite.  A friend is Shok and the friend is Shoku...and that's just the singular form of the word.  Yikes...I should probably go study!

quads of steel

My time here in albania is seriously contributing to the sculpting of my legs.  The hill to our house is a wicked incline, and let's just say that, even thought I haven't used the turkish toilet, I still do a lot of squatting.  The cleanliness of some of the bathrooms leaves a lot to be desired.  It's like the wall sits that I did during basketball season!  Two years from now, I'll have the best legs this side of the Adriatic!

Just a few highlights

Sitting lake side a the cafe the we have name the Garden Bar.  We have no idea what the real name of the place is.  It's another great day in Belsh.  Just thought that I would give you some of the highlights from the last two weeks.  

We got to meet the Mayor of Elbasan, the third largest city in Albanian.  Good talk with him, but the whole thing had to be translated as he did not speak any English, and our Albanian leaves a lot to be desired.  We also got to meet the US Ambassador to Alby.  That was great.  He was very interesting and very optimistic and inspiring.  Born in NC, he has lived all over the world.  He has really enjoyed his time her, and says that the people from Albanian are some of his favorite from anywhere that he has ever been.  It's true...the hospitality is amazing!

Still have not used a turkish toilet...so that's a plus!  And, I did my wash for the first time.  There are no tumble dryers here so we hang everything on the clothes line in the front yard.  I have to say that there is something a little unsettling about hanging your underwear next to your host dad's work shirts!  Awesome!