Category: Uncategorized

 

So oops.. I’m a bit behind in my blogging (a week to be exact) but I’m going to try my best to outline these past two weeks so far. I can’t believe I arrived in Pristina two weeks ago today!

 

Here are my first impressions:

MOUNTAINS!! – Living in flat Michigan my whole life, I’ve always found mountains fascinating. The way the mountains surround Pristina from all sides is really beautiful- one of the mountains in the distance even has snow on the top.

 

Driving is crazy here—Its actually kind of scary and I don’t understand how I have yet to witness an accident. Cars switch lanes without warning, enter roundabouts at full speed regardless if other cars are coming, and barely stop for pedestrians. Cutting people off and driving over curbs all seem to be the norm here. Drivers don’t even get mad at other drivers when they drive crazy.. its all a mutual understanding or something. Also, the roads here can be really narrow and sometimes cars have to pull to the side to let another car pass. At first, its really bizarre how different the driving is here than in the US, but I’m starting to get used to it, and I’m just glad I don’t have to get behind the wheel of a car while I’m here!

 

Pedestrians are also crazy!—People cross roads regardless of crosswalks and regardless if cars are coming at them. Due to the narrow streets, and cars parking on sidewalks, pedestrians are also often times forced to walk in the middle of the street. When they do, cars zoom past them only centimeters away (I’m not joking). Its crazy to me because no one even flinches when a car almost hits them.

 

Coffee—The coffee here is incredible, and the coffee culture is so important. My first day at work I went out to an hour-long coffee break with colleagues.. An hour long! Just for coffee!! Kosovars also never hesitate to make sure I know that Kosovo has the best coffee in the world (even better than Italy).. and apparently its true, just look it up! They are known especially for their macchiato, and it really is so delicious. At work, if my colleagues don’t feel like leaving the office for coffee, they make Turkish coffee, which is super different from any type of coffee I’ve ever had. It has this frothy/foamy layer of thinly ground coffee grounds at the top and is super strong. Most people here are surprised I like it because it’s so different, but lets be honest, I’ll drink any kind of coffee. In fact, as an avid coffee drinker back home, the Kosovo coffee culture has definitely been a perk!

 

People are SO nice—Everyone I have met is so nice here (I know I’m probably over-generalizing but…). I haven’t met someone who hasn’t gone completely out of his or her way to make sure I feel comfortable and am having a good time. For instance at work, my supervisor has not only made me feel so comfortable in the office, but has also shown me around Pristina, has taken me on a day trip to a neighboring city (I’ll get to that later), and has invited me to get coffee or food or just to hang out almost every single day. Also for the first week and a half in Pristina, I stayed with a Kosovar University of Michigan alum and her family. She was the most incredible host, and continues to be even though I have moved to my own apartment. We constantly bond over UofM and Ann Arbor, and even though it’s only been about two weeks, I feel like I’ve known my whole life—people here seem to have that affect. In addition to these two women, multiple colleagues at work have reached out to me about doing things on weekends and have asked me to call them if I need anything. This is all so comforting because before I got here, I was worried that coming to Pristina on my own and not knowing a single soul would lead to feelings of homesickness and loneliness. Honestly, the people I am surrounded with every day here have made those feelings impossible and I am so thankful for their welcoming nature.

 

Architecture and infrastructure– The infrastructure here is really interesting.. Most homes that are located in the countryside look the same—they all have red-ish orange roofs and adobe siding (unfinished buildings expose red bricks as their structure) and from a distance these homes look like they’re stacked on top of each other, the way they are located on the green hilly mountains. Some buildings look run down when you view them from the outside, and sometimes you’ll see a really run down or abandoned building, and right next to it will be a building in pristine condition. The way the buildings are organized here is all really random. My host explained to me that there are no “good” neighborhoods and no “bad” neighborhoods in Pristina in terms of quality of houses/apartments. For instance, there can be some really nice homes or buildings and right next door there is a crumbling building or shack. She explained that after the war, poor villagers flocked to the city, resulting in homes that are of more poor conditions, and also people starting building anywhere (there were no rules) and that resulted in a lot of abandoned homes that could not be finished. I’ll try to post some pictures of this contrast in architecture soon!

 

Food– Everything is SO fresh and tastes SO good. I’m going to rant for a second about the onions.. Yes I know, onions. Back home, I like onions. They compliment a burger well, and taste good in various dishes, but I would never think to eat an onion completely raw without anything else. Here.. It’s a different story. The onions are so delicious. They’re super small because they don’t genetically modify them here, and they are so juicy.  I love them and eat them raw sometimes and, yes, I know its weird. In addition to the onions, the strawberries, cherries, peaches, cucumbers, and tomatoes are also great. I also love the traditional food here. I’ve tried qebapa, burek, and this dish with peppers and cheese– all delicious.

 

 

 

 

Work So Far

In addition to my first thoughts about Pristina, I’ll get into work and what I have been doing at FINCA. For those who don’t know what FINCA is, I’ll give a brief overview. FINCA is an international microfinance non-profit that offers financial services (loans) to those who are turned down by traditional banks (most notably, the poor). So FINCA Kosovo is the FINCA subsidiary in Kosovo that provides all of these financial services to people in Kosovo. If you want more info, click here and here.

 

FINCA Kosovo has a really nice office pretty close to the center of the city. The office consists of a branch down below where clients can inquire about their loans, and the corporate offices are above. If you mention FINCA to most anyone in Pristina, they have heard about it because its financial services are of assistance to many people here.

 

Within FINCA I’m working as a marketing intern and my main project is to create a booklet that is filled with client success stories, so that it can be used as a marketing tool aimed at investors and donors. It is basically going to consist of multiple stories of clients and how their loans from FINCA have helped them create a better life for themselves. This means that I get to go out in the field multiple times a week to visit the various FINCA Kosovo branches and interview clients (!!!). It is a little difficult since I do not speak Albanian, so FINCA has a local intern come with me and act as a translator. I’m really excited because the project is so hands on and I get to meet the clients directly and see what exactly the loans are being used for. It’s exactly what I wanted to be doing.

 

The project so far has been extremely interesting. I have visited a client that grows flowers for a living, a client that opened a salon, a client that buys and sells dairy cows, a client that opened a clothing store, and an Iraqi refugee client who used their loan to buy a sewing machine to make and sell clothes. Meeting with these people in their homes and businesses has been a very humbling experience and has made me more aware of my privileges as an American. It has also helped me better understand my position within these types of situations and how to conduct myself. As of now, I have only visited 3 of the 19 FINCA Kosovo branches and have met with 7 clients, so I still have a long way to go in the remaining 6 weeks.

 

In addition to the booklet project, I am also working on a research analysis project. The group loan service is not doing so well in Kosovo, so my department is conducting surveys and research to figure out why this may be. Hopefully we’ll find some good insight and be able to make a decision about what to do next with the group loan option.

 

So this concludes a (very brief) summary of my past two weeks in Pristina! I’m going to make sure things are more up-to-date in the next coming weeks, and I’m excited for what experiences are yet to come.

 

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. 🙂

Before I go into talking about my second week in Tirana, I wanted to mention some highlights about my trip to Montenegro last weekend.

First off, Montenegro is amazing. The name of Montenegro literally means “black mountain” and the name is definitely obvious when you visit the county.  Montenegro is almost entirely mountains and those mountains average more than 2,100m (7,000 ft) in elevation. The country literally looks like someplace out of a movie. It’s a beautiful place see especially when you’ve lived in a very flat Michigan all your life. The car ride from Tirana to Ulcinj (our first stop in Montenegro) took about two hours. Ulcinj lies right off the Adriatic Coast and is surrounded by mountains and colorful houses.

Our group visited an ancient castle which was built by lllyrians, a people of Indo-European origin. Then we had dinner at a restaurant off the water. The view wasn’t that bad. 😉

We ended up driving to our first hostel in Podgorica and fell asleep almost right away because we were exhausted from traveling and it took us about a half an hour to find our hostel. The next day we woke to a amazing free breakfast which was pretty much just bread and more bread. The man who made us breakfast gave us each three different kinds of croissants. He also made Turkish coffee which was extremely strong but very good. In the hostel, we met people from all over the world. There was a women from Japan who was traveling Europe by herself, a man from Ukraine also traveling by himself but then heading to Russia to study film, and an Australian couple who worked at the hostel and cooked us breakfast.

After breakfast, we then headed from Podgorica to Cetinje but not before we stopped at another local cafe for more coffee. (Europeans like their coffee) There wasn’t much to see is Podgorica except for a few monuments and a bunch of weird robot sculptures that looked like transformers.

The main square had a large fountain and that was pretty much the central area of the capital city.

   

 

In Centinje, which is one of the oldest cities in Montenegro, the streets were really wide and the houses were very colorful. There was also a main square in Centje where everyone in the town was gathered talking and visiting with one another. There were also a ton of little kids around the area riding small, plastic, battery powered trucks. (Definitely made be relive my Barbie jeep days). We walked around Centje, had dinner, and then headed on the road again for Kotor.

After many many hours of driving around winding mountainous roads with crazy drivers passing us all along the way, we finally made it to Kotor. Kotor basically looked like Minas Tirith (I just had to throw in the Lord of the Rings reference) It is a medieval city surrounded by water and mountains.

Just around one of the mountains near Kotor were the boarders of Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. The “old city” of Kotor was so beautiful and romantic. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was built between the 12th and 14th centuries. The city is almost entirely smooth stone and throughout the city there are churches, shops, and of course a lot of restaurants and cafes. All along the mountain behind the old city are ancient fortifications. (I definitely wouldn’t want to try to attack it) The city wall extend over 4 kilometers.

We arrived at our hostel in the old city, threw all our stuff in the room and went right back out into town. Our group sat by the water and watched the sun go down over the mountains. It was truly breathtaking. We all sat by the water and talked for a couple hours about so many things including different cultures, politics, and social issues both abroad and in the US.  Although the material seems like it would be heavy to talk about in such a peaceful setting, our conversations were great and always stayed respectful. This was one of the aspects I loved most about staying in hostels too. So many people from very different countries throughout the world stay in hostels. Every person I have meet in hostels has been open-minded, respectful, interesting and so fun to be around. That night in Kotor, our group met people from Singapore, California, the Netherlands, and Montenegro and we talked for hours about our lives, ideas, and experiences.

Our new mantra after staying at hostels was that, “life should be a hostel”.  I think I’ve learned so much meeting people from different countries at hostels it’s hard to even recount everything we discussed during our conversations. These experiences bring people together in a very beautiful way.

The night wasn’t all deep conversation however. The manager of the hostel and I had a fun yet intense game of floor tennis in the hostel lobby. The court was drawn with chalk, and the racquets were cutting boards, and the balls were ping pong balls…(hey whatever works right?) Regardless of the equipment, I still managed to beat the hostel owner in two games. 🙂 He wanted to play a third game but by then my knees were already bruised from the several games we played beforehand.

Unfortunately, like all my time in the Balkans so far, the day went by way too quickly. After floor tennis, long conversations with good company, and hours of travel, it was already 2:00 am in the morning and time to head to bed.

The next morning Will, Peixin, and I woke up early and went to an Orthodox church since Will is Orthodox. I’m not Orthodox but it was really interesting to watch the ceremony. The service was in Church Slavonic so I didn’t understand a thing, but the church was absolutely gorgeous and it was an unforgettable experience.

Before we left Kotor to head back to Albania we had a really good lunch at one of the restaurants in the city and then we were off for a six hour drive back to Tirana.

Life in Tirana

Going into my second week of living in Tirana was definitely full of transitions, but I was able to adjust very quickly thanks for the support and advice from the other Michigan interns who had already been there for about a week before I arrived (shout out to Peixin, Will and Siri). Also, another Michigan intern Eni, arrived the week after me and she fluent in Albanian. She was so helpful when trying to communicate with Albanians who didn’t speak much English and teaching me basic Albanian phrases.

A couple things I had to get used to in Albania

-Boiling tap water to make drinkable water (water standards are different in Albania and the city itself didn’t have guaranteed safe drinking water, bottled water was also very cheap)
-Hang drying laundry (the energy needed to power a dryer in Albania is crazy expensive so no one uses them)
-The elevators (they’re so tiny)
-Buying groceries very frequently rather than in bulk trips (Europe does not use the kind of preservatives that the U.S. uses in food therefore it makes more sense to frequently buy food rather than buy a great deal of food at the grocery store)
-Limited wifi (this is actually kind of nice, I don’t feel the need to check my phone often)

Work has also been going well too. I helped design a hat for the staff of the National Coastal Agency, also known as Agjensia Kombetare e Bregdetit. I’ve also been working on drafting letters to various research centers and universities asking if they would be interested in conducting research projects in Albania. Opportunities to conduct  research in areas such as anthropology, archeology, marine/coastal biology, and environmental studies are just a few areas of study available in Albania.

Some of the highlights of Albania include

Really cheap food (I can get byrek, which is basically Albania vegetable/meat pie, for 30 leke which is less than 30 cents in the U.S.)
Coffee, coffee, coffee (Albania has really great coffee and coffee breaks are a regular part of the work day)

The people (My co workers have been very welcoming and so nice to be around, almost everyone in the office speaks English too so it’s easy to communicate)
The office (The National Coastal Agency is a beautiful office to work in)

 

The travel (the second week in Albania our group headed down to a city called Saranda in southern Albania. We were lucky enough to have Auron Tare, who runs the National Coastal Agency, take us down south with a military vehicle and driver. Our driver’s name was Wilson or Vilson in Albanian. He was so nice! We tried to speak to Wilson in English so he could practice his English language skills and in the process he also taught us a lot of useful words in Albanian.)

 

I’m a little behind in my blogging but there’s more to come about my last week in Albania, site seeing at Butrint, and my first week in Cardiff, Wales. Mirupafshim!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t believe I’ve finished the second week of my internship, that’s 1/3 of the time that I’m here! This week was filled with new experiences. I added another project to the one that I was working on, and am now researching tour companies throughout Europe that we can contact about the new destinations in Albania for them to consider when creating their tour packages for clients. I’ve been working with a few of the other interns and office members on these projects. I love how collaborative everything at this office is–our director loves hearing our ideas and honestly takes them into consideration, and often times if our ideas are good, he lets us work on our own projects!

On the social side of the week, I spent most of the time hanging out with my family in Tirana. Throughout most of my life, I’ve only known my dad’s side of the family, so this week I was able to meet my mom’s side and spend time with them after work, which was a great experience. I spent the weekend in Tirana, relaxing and enjoying the city. The weather has finally improved, so I am appreciating the lack of rain!

Sadly, Amanda and Will have left us (for other internships, but Amanda will be back)! As a good-bye send off, we had a dinner at our house. I took the opportunity to cook some Albanian food, like “fergese” which is made with peppers, tomatoes and olive oil, and “pilaf” which is spiced rice. Siri also made onion shrimp which was yummy!

In the following week(s), I hope to do more work on my project and travel more! Next week, we the interns will hopefully be visiting my hometown and going into Macedonia as well!

Until next time,

Eni

This marks the end of my first week in Tirana! What a wonderful week it’s been. I was born in Pogradec, Albania and lived there until my family moved to the United States when I was eight years old. Although I’ve visited Albania almost every summer since then, I’ve spent little time in Tirana (sticking more to my hometown), so visiting and living in the capital of my home country has been amazing! This is the view from our apartment, and I love it.

My internship at the National Coastal Agency has been great so far. Our director, Auron Tare, is working to improve the tourism in Albania by managing the coastlines, as well as the island of Sazani, which he plans on turning into a sustainable tourist attraction and a research hub. The other interns I’m working with have been very helpful, especially given the fact that I was the last arrive in Albania this month and had to learn the ropes! Everyone has been very welcoming. My projects have included some translation work from Albanian to English, but I’ve been mostly helping to create a framework for reaching out to people and institutions that may be interested in conducting research on Sazani Island. My goal over the next week will be to reach out to various university programs that perform research and ask about their framework (such as the Bio Station and Camp Davis) in the hopes of creating these similar opportunities for students and universities in Sazani! Below is a photo of the boulevard we walk on to get to the office (which is just outside of the picture)!

The first weekend in Albania, I decided to go home and spend time with family. It’s been great seeing them. However, over the next few weeks, I’m hoping to join Auron and the other interns in exploring the coastlines and Sazani itself! This has been a great week, and I get the feeling that the rest of the summer will only top it! To say goodbye, I will leave you with my favorite food in Albania (and the reason that I keep coming back, my friends joke): it is called sufllaqe!

Why Albania?

Over the past 10 months since I made the decision to intern in Albania this summer I’ve been asked a lot of questions from family, friends, and classmates. Where is Albania? Is that in the Middle East? What language do they speak there? What kind of government do they have? Why Albania?

My answers: Above Greece and across from Italy. No it’s in Southeastern Europe. They speak Albanian. Parliamentary democracy.

That last question however does not have a simple answer.

Why Albania?

There are many reasons why I decided to go to Albania this summer but what stands out most in my mind is that I’m going because it is completely out of my comfort zone.

Albania is far away. It’s not the typical European country that you travel to like France or Italy. It was an isolated country up until 1990 under a communist regime. It’s uncommon and unexplored. It’s an adventure.

So now the final countdown has begun and I’m leaving in 10 days. I’m sure that my experience in Albania will give me even more answers to the question, “why Albania?” so stay tuned.