The Sun Also Rises

This weekend, I visited Macedonia for my second time. After being in Albania, it feels so wonderful to see the amount of infrastructure that our neighbors enjoy--scheduled busses, children's organized sports, recycling, radio stations, and 4-lane highways! It's amazing that such levels of organization now make me gasp with astonishment.

Last week, several volunteer and I painted a mural at the hostel. A friend came up with the design and three of us others helped him to stencil buildings and windows for four days, as he drew a giant child stomping through the city to plant flowers.

Another piece of news is that a friend lent me a fishing rod, which I plan to use sometime this week. Though years of dynamite and net fishing have taken down the numbers of fish in our local river, the Black Drini, new laws have helped to regrow the trout populations. Going fishing in the mornings, I hope to get myself out of bed early often this summer. 

For today's title, I'm switching up my normal routine to include a book title, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. During my recent trip's combined 8 hours of furgons (Albanian minibuses), I listened to most of an audio-recording of the story. As a kid, I listened to Jim Weiss's stories tapes every night going to bed and washed dishes in college listening to short story librivox recordings. So, it feels nice to carry on the tradition.

Where I plan to go trout fishing. 

My friend, Nesti, making breakfast

Walk in the Park

Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan. For a month, many of my friends are fasting food, drink, cigarettes, and even water from sunrise to sunset. During these long summer days, this means no eating or drinking from around 5:30 AM to 8:30 PM. Instead, people eat once at night and wake up early to eat again before going back to sleep, often around 2:30 AM. It's certainly an amazing sacrifice, and I have nothing but respect for my friends observing the fast.

After school ended on June 6th, I attended a conference in an area outside Albania's main port city, Durres. The luxurious hotel was a welcome vacation after a long school year. However, I learned some technical skills and a lot about post-Peace Corps opportunities, so the stay felt justifiably productive as well.

Even though school ended, I feel almost as busy as before--just not constantly tired from listening to children shouting all day. Studying for the GRE and applying for project grants are what I'm making my "work" for this summer. However, I feel the urge to push myself this summer, traveling to new places and making the most of where I am. So, hopefully I'll have some exciting news to report you over the next couple of months.

Today's title comes from Beach House's 2010 album, Teen Dream. I bought the album on vinyl recently, so I've been listening to it a lot lately, imagining how nice it'll sound on my turntable when I get back to the states.

The second mural that we completed in Peshkopi.

The third mural that I worked on.

Heavenly beds at the conference hotel.

The view from my balcony.

The hotel's pool--the first pool that I've swam in for a year. Each day of the conference I swam for an hour before the buffet breakfast. 

Rafting with some of my best friends in Albania.