it’s already been roughly 8 or 9 days being here but I just wanted to inform everyone that I am alive and well. After long days of travelling and recovering from jet lag I made it here. The view of the mountains from our camp is astounding and our days in town are amazing. It’s hard to have alone time to think of things to write about due to the compact size of this facility where 50 young adults are staying. Being alone is a rarity. But never the less here I am in a restaurant typing this up.
I’m still baffled that I’m in another country. This hasn’t really hit me yet and I don’t think it really will. It’s weird to think I’m the foreigner in another country. I know very little about this country and I’ve learned probably 6 Albanian phrases that I’ve used for everyday encounters with locals(cier, mier, falamenderet, merebapshem, Meech and chekemi) these are totally spelt incorrectly but that’s what they sound like and that’s all that matters. I know how to say “how are you doing” “good” “thank you” “goodbye” “hello” “friend”. This doesn’t necessarily help with having a long conversation but it’s good enough for short encounters. It really helps when the people know how to speak English. Everyone here knows how to speak like 4 languages. Honestly I’ve never met nicer people in my life. There have been times where I’m with my friends walking in town and we stop and say hello to someone with our poor Albanian speaking skills and they completely welcome us as friends, trying to teach us phrases. At the beach my friends and I met a man who could speak a little English and started talking to him. Next thing you know, we are having a great conversation with him about his life and he’s buying us all coffee as a way of showing his kindness. This has happened probably 3 days in a row with other locals. It’s ridiculous. In America we never just have conversations with strangers and offer to buy them a coffee. We are often too busy and stressed out about our schedules to have the time to do things like this. This inspires me to meet someone and buy them a coffee. As simple of an act this is, it has a strong effect. When my new friend Evelyn bought me coffee I just felt this deep appreciation for him and his kindness. It gave me this feeling that I need to give this to others as well. As cliche as this sounds, a simple act of kindness can really make a persons day. It can show them love that they might not know of. Overall my stay in Albania has been extremely pleasant. the work has been slightly unpleasant but it’s manual labor and as one can imagine, it’s not the cleanest job. It’s what I’ve signed up for and I’m happy to be here. Side note here are two photos. 
