It’s been a long three days. Travel from South America to Eastern Europe with a pit stop in the United States. The last night in La Paz, Bolivia I didn’t get to sleep much due to a late night Karaoke Party and an early departure. 2 hours of sleep there. The next night I am in JFK airport in New York to sleep. Even though I slept pretty good, 5 hours was not enough. The next night I am on an airplane to Turkey and only sleep a couple of hours. Amount of sleep in 3 days: 10 hours. To sum up, I’m exhausted.
Traveling with such a big group of people (50+) is quite stressful for me. And so on top of being tired, I am stressed.
We arrive in Albania and after getting my passport stamped, I go to retrieve my luggage and it never shows up. There are 9 of us that our bags never made it to Albania. They are lost somewhere in between here and New York. Great. Guess I will be wearing the same outfit I have been since Sunday. (and it is now Friday). But I honestly wasn’t that upset about my bag. I wasn't too worried and just too over traveling to really care.
We get on a bus to head to Korce (Core-cha). Our contact left us in Tirana (the capital) and so we are on a bus with all Albanians (and no English speakers). We all fall asleep even with the crazy mountain driving. We stop 2 hours into the drive to eat. We order sandwiches, but the waiter doesn’t know English (I miss Spanish). Luckily an Albanian who speaks English is near and he offers to help us. We all get a bowl of soup and bread. I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of that this month. Back on the bus. 1.5 hours later we see a sign to let us know we have entered Korce. I’m counting on the driver to know where to take us. He does and soon our new Contact, Tony, picks us up and takes us to the college office.
We get our sleeping assignments. Steven and Nick with Zamir. Emily and Nicole with Julie. And Ashley and I with Tony.
Tired. Stressed. My bag is MIA. Separated from my team. All I wanted to do was cry. I held it in when I was around people, but as soon as I was alone, the tears fell. My pillow was soaked. Did crying help? Yes it did my emotional side, but honestly did nothing for the situation I am in. I keep praying for contentment and peace about it all, but being so overwhelmed with so many things at once is hard to cope with.
