From Albania's newest Peace Corps Volunteer:
We all had our swearing in ceremony this morning and it was really nice to get it out of the way and to finally be done with training. When something like this is evolving as it should, we are usually ready for the next step to come into place. Also, after my site visit, it has been strange to go back to my site because I knew that I was leaving and it doesn't really feel like my "home" anymore. The idea that I will go to Kucove now and establish some roots and make it my home for the next two years is very exciting to me.
There are a lot of things that are really scary about this as well. During training you have this nice security net where you are surrounded by other people, the Peace Corps staff is always right there, and you are very very busy almost all of the time. Once I get to my site there will be another volunteer there and others within 20 or 30 minutes. I will have a lot of free time, however. Especially in the summer teachers dont really have a job. I know that I will be able to get some reading done and I will teach some independent English lessons, but that doesn't fill up very much time. I am excited that I will be able to travel around Albania a little bit. Wow there has been a lot of rambling here.
The ceremony was really nice. The Ambassador, the President of Albania, and the Mayor of Elbasan all spoke. The Ambassador administered our oath. It was all really nice. Just a few minutes ago I saw the report on the news. It was kind of a big deal in this town.
I was really glad that my host family was able to come to the ceremony as well. I know that they had to give up other things in order to come, and I was really happy that they wanted to. Last night my family and the family of another volunteer had dinner together. Our host fathers are brothers and they live next door to eachother, so we usually end up spending a lot of time together. John and I bought a big chocolate chip cookie cake from an American bakery here in Elbasan and the family really enjoyed it. It was kind of a late night, however, and today I am pretty tired. I know that tonight will be a late night as well because this is kind of our last night together and everybody wants to go out. A late night here is all relative, however, being around 11 (actually last night was more like 12:30).
That is all I have for now. I will send out an email when I get to Kucove and it will have my new mailing address. Letters can still be sent to my current address for those of you who have it.

So I visited my site this last week, and I thought that I would write a little blog about it. It is a town called Kucove, there are about 3o,000 people who live there. It is pretty big by Albanian standards, but it still has that small town sort of feel to it. Its actually a really nice place.
Trying to find information before I went there was diffucult because people dont really go there. Everybody who knew where it was could only say, oh thats close to Berat. Berat is a really cool old town. There is a castle and a lot of old houses that are being preserved by the state. It is called the city of a thousand windows, and if you ever visit you will know why. All of the exteriors of the old buildings are property of Albania and residents own the interiors of the houses. There are literally around a thousand windows and they are all surrounding a big river. I'll post a picture someday.
Back to Kucove. It is a fairly new town, only started in the 1920's when some British guy found that there were oil reserves in the area. Its kind of an oil town, but the only one in Albania. During communism it was one of the more developed cities in the country. It was named Qytet e Stalini (or something like that) or City of Stalin from the end of World War Two until 1992 when the dictatorship fell here.
The town is pretty nice though. There are a lot of old oil well pump type things, whatever they are called. People said that you can see oil seeping out of the ground but I didn't actually see any of this. There are two secondary schools, the regular high school where I will teach and there is also a technical school. There are two English teachers at this school, but one is also the vice director so she teaches part time. The full time teacher is young, 26, but she is pretty progressive and really wants to impliment some new strageties to get students excited. The other teacher is a little bit more traditional, but I think that she will be really great to work with.
My living situation is also pretty good. I am connected with a family, but I will be living in a studio apartment next door to this family. The apartment is small and pretty modest. There is a room with a bed and a couch, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The kitchen doesn't actually have a sink and the stove is in the bathroom (probably because it is bigger than the kitchen and it has a window) so the bathroom is kind of more the kitchen than the kitchen is. I have a turkish toilet and I have to stand over it to shower. I know it all sounds amazing and I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance. I think that my favorite thing about the apartment is the fact that I do have a small balcony with a pretty good view of the town. It will be nice to sit there and drink coffee in the evenings.
My family is also pretty good. The host family that I have here in Kuqan is really great and I think that it would be difficult to beat them. With my new one there is a mom who is a housewife, the dad works in the oilfields, there is a 15 year old son and a 17 year old daughter. The dad doesn't really talk much, the thing that he has probably said the most to me is avash, avash, which just means "slowly, slowly". Its a turkish word that people use, but I dont really know why he says it to me. The mother is kind of crazy. She is very touchy, like a lot of Albanians, and when she thinks that I dont understand here she just talks louder. She also talks a lot, so I think that we will have an interesting relationship. The kids are alright too, I think that the son lives with the grandparents.
There is another volunteer who will be living in Kucove with me. She will be working in the municipality. I am glad that I am not alone, and when I need to speak with an American we can always go to get coffee and complain to eachother.
Thats all I have for now. I'll probably send out another email soon. I have said this before but once I get some pictures hosted, I'll let you know.