Wow time has flown by. It seems as though I was just arriving at my apartment in Tirana yesterday.
One highlight from last week that I don’t know how I forgot to mention in my last post was that the rest of the Michigan intern group and I were interviewed on Albanian national television. In my opinion, I can now say I’m famous…in Albania.
The reason that we were on Top Channel (one of Albania’s largest morning channels) was because my director who runs the National Coastal Agency, Auron Tare, has some pretty great connections. We called up someone he knew at the t.v. station and asked if they would be interested in filming a piece about why students from the University of Michigan came to live in Albania this summer and intern at various ministries. The interview can be found at the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAFYj_fZA3E. (Check out after minute 12)
We were each interviewed individually and asked questions about the specific projects were we working at the various ministries. During our group interview, the news broadcaster asked us more informal questions like what places we liked most in Albania, how we feel about living here, and what our experiences have been like so far. When you watch the video you probably won’t be able to understand it because we have voice overs in Albanian. (I still recommend watching the video because the voice overs are pretty hilarious seeing as they sound nothing like us).
If I don’t come back to the U.S. for school in the fall it’s because I have gone on to pursue stardom in Albania 😉
Also, another part of last week’s blog I didn’t get a chance to go into more detail about was our group trip to Butrint.
Butrint is an archaeological site 18 kilometers from Saranda. Butrint is also a Unesco World Heritiage site. Auron was actually the director of Butrint National Park. He helped create the first management plan for the park and saw that the area was protected, managed, ultimately transformed into one of the most successful tourist attractions in the county.
To say Butrint has a rich historical history is an understatement. It’s history spans from the Bronze Age until the 19th century and the area contains archeological sites and evidence ranging from ancient Roman ruins to occupation by the Venetians. The area has seen Greeks, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Turks. In addition to the beauty of the ancient ruins, Butrint is located on a hill overlooking the Vivari Channel and has gorgeous natural scenery.
Peixin, Siri, and Will
After our day at Butrint, the group and I bused back to Saranda and got to enjoy a day at the beach. We took a night bus back to Tirana at 10:00 p.m. It was pretty late but at least it was dark out so I didn’t have to watch our bus wind around curvy mountains.
My last work week in Tirana introduced me to a new project that I think will help me contribute to the Coastal Agency and it doesn’t require knowing Albanian. The National Coastal Agency is going to send out newsletters to inform readers about the projects they are working on and general news about the coastlines. Auron teamed me up with a co worker, Anisa, to help design layouts for the newsletters. I’m in the process of teaching myself photoshop in order to create layouts for the magazine.
In honor of my last week in Albania I wanted to list some of my favorite things about staying there.
- The call to prayer (Albania is a predominately Muslim country so five times a day I would hear the call to prayer coming out of speakers at the top of the mosques in the city. The prayer is very beautiful to hear.)
- Sufllaqe (this is very similar to a gyro and is basically a pita wrap filled with lamb, cucumbers, tomatoes, french fries, tzatziki sauce, and ketchup. I think I ate one every single day.)
- The history (Albania has a very rich history but not many people know much about it. I loved living in the capital and learning more about the country’s past)
- I’ve probably mentioned this in my other blog posts but I’m going to mention again how amazing their coffee is.
- The people (my co workers are so nice and always fun to be around. There is always positive energy in the office. We also made a really good friend Erjon while in Albania. It’s always great to hang out with him. He’s also a wonderful chief and cooked homemade lasagna for us the day before I left Albania.)
- The mountains
- The language (although I only know about 20 words in Albanian, it is a fascinating language to listen to and very unique).
The list could go on and on. I’m very blessed to have had three wonderful weeks in the Albania. My blog is a little behind so I’m actually in Wales right now starting a second internship for the summer. The way my whole travel schedule worked out is that I will now be in Wales until the end of July and then I will be returning to Albania for the rest of August. So, this is not a goodbye to Albania but more of a, “see ya later”.
In Wales, I’m interning at Admiral insurance in their Communications Department. I have another blog coming soon with all the details of my first week in Cardiff. 🙂