Author: Peixin Yang

I’ve been in Albania for more than a week now. Thanks to Will’s strategic plan we moved in pretty smoothly. On the first day we were picked up by someone from Auron’s office, signed the lease, got the key for the apartment, which is located just near the center of Tirana, and we got our Albania SIM cards. (I’m glad my phone is not on contract so I can simply switch in the new SIM). We even walked around Skanderbeg Square which is very nicely constructed.

As a Chinese national, my first impression about this country is it has a strange similarity to China. If it were not for the appearance of the people and the Albanian language they are speaking, this could be a third-tier city somewhere in China. The way people walk on the street, the clothes they are wearing, the overcrowded buses at rush hour, the style of advertising in the stores, and the way they clean their streets are all very similar to aspects of China. Even in the apartment, the way they boil water with a whistling kettle and the way they hang their clothes on the balcony are all similar. That’s why I haven’t really experienced much culture shock.

The only reason I feel out of place here is due to my Asian face because there are not many Asian people in Albania, (everyone that I talk to seems to point out that there’s a “Chinese market” here). I get many stares every single time I walk on the street. I can’t tell whether they are being friendly or not, but even if it’s out of curiosity, that’s too many stares for me. I will admit the staring makes me feel uncomfortable and to some extent makes me aware of my personal safety. On the third day of my internship, I finally started wearing my sunglasses during the day, which is an extremely useful strategy.  Still, when I was walking around by myself on Friday afternoon, I was very conscious about the way I stand out of the crowd. I definitely tried not to look like a tourist in town but I guess my camera suggested otherwise. 

That afternoon was also the first time I went out to the street and bought bread by myself without knowing much Albanian ( I have no idea how to say “wheat bread” and basic numbers—all I know is “bukë”=”bread” and “Sa kushton?”=”How much”)  The clerk didn’t know any English either (in general I haven’t met too many Albanians that can fully speak English). I pointed to different breads on the shelves and struggled  to express what kind of bread I wanted. All I could do to communicate was to make weird gestures at the clerk (Yes it’s my surviving skill). Luckily, a young girl around my age came into the store and solved my problems with fluent English. Mission accomplished! I can buy food in a foreign country without speaking its language!!!

Speaking of my internship. I’m interning at National Coastline Agency under Ministry of Economy, Tourism, Trade and Entrepreneurship. (It’s a long name I know). Auron Tare is my boss. As a journalist and historian, he’s been doing a lot of tourism promotion around Albania from coastlines to national parks. Most of the time, he is referred to as the “Burtrint Guy” because he is the one who integrated the Burtrint National Park and turned it into a successful UNESCO site. He is a very interesting person and the only one who responds to emails according to American standards (aka reply within a maximum 24 hours). Other people in the country I have worked with (especially when I was dealing with my Albanian visa), email responses took three days, a week, or even longer. This may be due to the laid-back, more relaxed Mediterranean culture. Same thing with punctuality. I’ve been told that there’s no break between 8am to 4pm at work. But the fact is I arrived at the office at 9 and there’s only one girl there. I was shocked, and later on realized that even though I go out for a morning coffee or take a coffee break at noon that’s totally acceptable. Apparently, they have a very flexible schedule and punctuality is more relaxed than Chinese and American culture. 

I’m still very confused, or to some extent, anxious about my project because what I’m working on right now is largely independent from everyone else’s. My goal is to do whatever I can to attract more Chinese tourists visiting Albania as well as the Balkans. This is a topic so huge and so ambitious that even breaking it down can be hard. I’ve been “thrown in at the deep end”, with zero experience about the tourism industry, and I have to learn everything from scratch. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—it’s just tough.

What I’ve done up until now is doing research on Chinese outbound tourism market, trying to contact travel agencies in China by phone (because they don’t really use email that much — thank the Lord the Albanian mobile plan for oversea phone calls is really cheap), talking to a Chinese tourist from Xinhua News Agency in Tirana, and even pushing through the Chinese tourist visa issue with Auron (if Chinese tourists are not applying for an Albania visa directly, they need a multiple entry Schengen visa/American visa to enter Albania, and the visa has to be used once before entering Albania). Every day my mind is flooded with a ton of information and at the end of day, I just want to eat delicious food to boost my brain power, which usually includes byrek, chocolates, even ice-cream (food is so cheap here!). Apparently, cooking my own dinner relieves my stress, and it’s very much an enjoyable process too. I’m pretty sure that by the end of June I will be a good cook.

There’s a lot more good stories to tell, but I guess that’s all for today. It’s 11pm already and I have to be in the office by 8:30 tomorrow for a television program (Auron set up a debut for Michigan students on national Albanian T.V.). We’ll see how it goes…. 🙂 

Here are some of the pictures I took in my first week