What a great couple of days!

Hello everyone!

I've spent five days together with this incredible group of people. Its nice to be surrounded by such genuine and pure people as we begin our journey in Albania. Unfortunately we will soon break off into our host family communities soon (separated by sector) outside of Elbasan. As for me, I have been assigned to a community with half of the English Education Trainees.

Today is day three in Albania and the training has been intense and rewarding. I have been practicing my Shqip to the best of my ability. I wont deny, the language is very difficult to learn. The words and sounds are very different compared to English. However, that does not impede my ambition to learn it. We have very good teachers in the Peace Corps that work diligently with us to improve our comprehension of Shqip. Yesterday and today we practiced conversing in simple conversations. Here is a brief example of a conversation we had in class with each other.

"Miredita, si jenni?" (Good day, how are you?)
"Mire, falemenderit! Por ju?"(Good thank you! and you?)
"Mire, falemenderit!" Un jam Jacob, por ju? (Good, thank you! I'm Jacob and you?)
"Un jam ____. Mirupafshim!" (I'am ___. Gooodbye!)
"Mirupafshim!" (goodbye)

We are slowly and surely learning more vocabulary as the days go on. I think that in the near future I will be able to talk without too much of a struggle.

Today I also learned a lot more about my TEFL program with the Peace Corps. Its very exciting to hear about the different opportunities coming our way in the near future. I have been assigned to a community called Belsh for PST (pre service training). I will do most of my PST in Belsh. PST will include: observing local schools, practicing teaching in local schools, communicating with students and community members, learning Shqip, learning about the culture of Albania and more.

Things are moving at a fast pace over here in Tirana but I'm ready to go along for the ride! The nine hour bumpy plane ride across the ocean was well worth the trouble. I'm looking forward to have a positive impact in my first Albanian community.