New to Albania

We expected life in Albania to be different than in any other place we have been, but there is always culture shock.  There are a handful of English speakers, and I doubt we will learn much of the local language in the three months we expect to be here, so we appreciate keeping in touch with family and friends back home.  Internet and skype availability are wonderful.

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We live in a city of about 60,000 inhabitants.  We were told the city is divided into three sectors:  the Orthodox (the area in which we live), the Muslim, and the Gypsy.  One cultural phenomena that we observed last night as we walked down the main boulevard was that there were great numbers of men walking together and enjoying Turkish coffee in outdoor cafes.  Women walked together in groups and dined together.  We saw very few couples together, but we did see an elderly couple, several mid-age couples, and a few young couples hanging out together.

We ordered our first meal out which was a pizza, because "pizza" is pizza in any language.

Many of the old cobblestone streets are being torn up to put in a new sewer system,   which is a good thing as the lines are too narrow to handle flushing paper down the stool.  So a canister sits beside each toilet to collect the discard paper.  This we take to a trash bin daily.  If that is the only inconvenience we are quite lucky.  We were told that the city of Korce has had 24/7 running water for the last 5 years and is the only city in Albania that has thanks to a good manager of the Italian and German funds who helped make it possible.  We were also told that for only the last 2 years has Korce had electricity 24/7.  Many cities and most villages in Albania still do not have much electric power.

John and I took a long uphill walk this morning(one on which our students showed us yesterday.)  We enjoyed the exercise and the view.  We did however get very warm as the temperatures here are still in the 80's.  It cools off in the evenings which is a very good thing as there is no air conditioning.

We have much to learn and more of life to experience.  We look forward to working with our students: Ashley and Issac.