I am writing from our training site in Elbasan. Obviously, we arrived safely from our long day of traveling, although my luggage did not...again!!! (got it the next day though) Our flights were all on time and both were on Lufthansa Air, which was a great airline. Big new plane on the way over here that had a 2, 4, 2 seating configuration. Every seat had a video screen on the back and lots of movie and TV shows to choose from. I even had the seat next to me free! i watched Enchanted and National Treasure ( the second one) and slept a little. The only bad thing was it was sooooo hot on the plane. They had central air and heat and I guess for everytime I ask for it to be turned down someone else asked for it to be turned back up. I was sweating it was so hot, like 80-84 degrees....HOTTT!!!
We landed in Munich and only waited about two hours, then took a smaller (2X2) plane to Tirana, which we boarded from the tarmack. Our bags didn’t all make the plane, because there were too many and too much weight for such a small plane. (more on bags later) The flight was about 1 hour, and the view out the plane window was gorgeous. Lots of snowy mountain tops. i thought of you guys skiing. Got to tirana about 12ish and very easily past through “customs”, looked for our bags...mine were not there, and then took a 2 hour bus ride to Elbasan. Nice bus, little old, but nice.
The view on the way was great. IT’s starting to be spring here and the grass and trees are green. Looks a lot like all the pictures from the CD’s. We checked into a hotel when we got here. I have two roomates this time that are very nice. We have electricity, beds, and a hot shower!!! Meals are great, although there is a lot of cheese and dairy. Fruit and Vegetables are good and there is meat with every meal...don’t know what kind of meat...just meat. We have had some time to walk around town in between training sessions, and it seems like a pretty nice town. Got a hairdryer! Lots of little shops, but not too much time (or energy) to explore, yet.
Training is going well. We are on info overload. Lots of safety , health and language training and there is a lot more to come. Got my host family site. It’s a small town called Belsh. I have a mother who is an economist, a father who is a school director, a son in Italy, a daughter, 23, who works away from the home as a chemistry engineer, and a 15 year old daughter. The housing lady for PC says that the town is really nice. The only bad thing is that it’s about an hour away from Elbasan. So on HUB days we have a little futher to drive in. We will take Buses, called Furgons, and they have given us money to do so. 6 other volunteers are at that site.
That’s about all I know for now. Feeling pretty good. Not home sick, but I do miss you guys. We’ll see how it goes when I’m away from the group. Slowing making friends, so that’s good. Hope that things are going well. Don’t know when I can write next, so …until next time!
