First week at site

I’ve finally started to settle into my new apartment here in Elbasan and am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer! The first week has been very interesting. First, it was a bit overwhelming to be at site on my own to do shopping and other things and have to speak Albanian – talk about immersion…when I speak the language sometimes I get tongue tied and forget words – which is especially awesome when I’m in the grocery store asking if they sell veal, which in Albanian is “mish vici”. I didn’t remember what it was, so I just said I wanted some “baby lopa” (baby cow). The clerk took me over to the baby bottle section. Needless to say it was a time consuming first trip to the grocery store.

My apartment is in need of some work – when I arrived and turned on the kitchen sink it just about exploded with a shower of water. I have to plug in the water “deposit” twice a day for 30 minutes to make sure that I have water. The toilet was running nonstop, and every time I flushed it water went everywhere. Then, I went into the guest bedroom and found a neat pile of termite-chewed wood on the floor. I’m not sure what they’re building, but now I’m enjoying the pleasant sound of the busy termites. Hey, we all have to make a living right?

Then there’s Albi, or should I call him “wolf dog”. Because he doesn’t have chew toys yet and since I wasn’t able to properly train him when I first got him, this first week has been a circus of him biting my feet, my legs, my clothes, and relieving himself as many times in my apartment as possible. Petsmart where are you?! Just as I can’t tolerate another cleaning-up session, he looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and I am convinced to make this work.

The good news now is that I got the plumbing fixed, I got internet installed, and I’m learning new recipes so I can actually cook ☺ The washing machine was a crapshoot, since I can’t read the settings or the knobs – but after 2 loads my clothes aren’t destroyed so that’s a good sign. When it gets to be winter it might be a different story - because right now my clothes are hanging outside on a clothesline drying. Apparently in the winter it might take 3-4 days to get the clothes dry…