Saranda!

I spent this past weekend in Saranda. It was really great. Saranda is a town in the south of Albania, really close to the border with Greece. There are a few places here where you could be convinced that you aren't actually in Albania... the beach at Saranda may be one of those places. It was a lot of fun though and there were about ten people sleeping on the floor of someone's apartment there. Two of them were Austrians that were staying with another volunteer.

We took a trip to a place called Butrint. It is a really great national park about 30 minutes from Saranda. Origins date back to the 1st or 2nd century BC, and the place has kind of evolved from there. It was originally dedicated to a Roman goddess of health, then turned into a Roman colony, then it fell apart, then it kind of turned into a farming type community. There are Roman ruins, ottoman ruins, and more modern christian ruins. It is really an interesting place with all of the different influences that all circulate there.

I didn't realize at first how close we were to Greece while at Butrint. From Saranda you can see Corfu, the Greek island. I will have to try to make it there sometime in the next two years. Apparently there are ferries (I heard between 20 and 30 euro) and it could probably be done in a weekend. I have to get permission from the Peace Corps to leave the country first, but I think it can be done. Corfu calls.

This next weekend I will be going to a town called Puke (pronounced poo-ka). It is in the north, and all jokes aside, it is supposed to be a pretty place. Most Albanians who live in the south (I am considered the south. Anything on this side of the Shkumbini is the shouth) have never actually been to the north. People from the south also generally have negative opinions of the north. There is no real reason why, but I think that it is one of those prejudices that has just kind of developed with time. People from the south are called the Ghegs and from the north are called the Tosks (I may have this backwards). There are supposed to be subtle differences in the language, but the volunteers in the north say that they haven't really noticed any.

Joey should be coming tomorrow from Billisht and spending the weekend in Kucove/Berat. We will leave for Tirana on Sunday and meet John in Lezhe in the afternoon. I will be there from Sunday till Wednesday, and return then. It should be a lot of fun. I will be observing John's English class. Hopefully picking up some tips for my own English class.

Sorry I never really post pictures here. I think that the connection here is really slow and it would probably take a few months to load a photo. I will try to load a few while I am in Tirana at the Peace Corps office maybe. For now I will give you my friend Katie's website with lots of great photos. She is from Berat so she lives fairly close and I see a lot of her. It may be a different perspective on my life. Beware though, there are a few bad photographs of me so dont laugh.

www.katherinesilus.com