I'm falling behind on updating this thing again! I don't even know really where to start. Let me just talk about some of the hi-lites I guess.....
The biggest excitement here was that my mom came to Albania and we spent 4 days in the north, jumped over to Italy for 4 days and hung out with my aunt Shelley, and then skipped back over to Albania to spend 4 days in the south. It was a great time. I was really happy she got to see where I'm living, the people I see everyday, and got to experience true Albanian hospitality. It was super nice to spend two weeks with her and see my aunt and of course get to Italy finally!!! We were in Bari, Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Livorno. I have lots of awesome pictures and if I remember I will try to post a few.
Other things, I went to the kindergartens here in Lezha and delivered a bag to each one with school supplies that I received from America. I found out that all the things we had set aside for them back in June had accidentally been given away to children at the cultural center. Oh well. They still got a few things so they can't complain.
I'm teaching English full swing. I give Yllka an English lesson for an hour Monday through Friday. She's learning quick and I have no doubt that she will be able to speak English half as well as I speak Albanian by the time I leave. I also began an advanced English course for 10 girls in the 4th year of high school here. They all want to pick English as their major at University next year so I'm going to try to help them as much as possible. We are going to create a newsletter and have a mini book club along with other fun activities. I wrote to an organization today asking them if they could send me books for the girls and they said yes! I'm totally excited. The books should get here in about 2 months. They will be thrilled.
I'm starting to think more and more about what I want to do when I finish here. I found out that Yllka is getting married on June 27th next year and I can't miss that so now I feel that I won't leave until the end of June or early July next year. Then I have no idea what to do. Should I travel around?? Get a job? Go for my Masters?? Do another Peace Corps service?? So much to think about.... luckily I have time. Halloween is in 10 days and my birthday is in 12!!! Whoot whoot!! It's gonna be an awesome 2 weeks :)
