wow

I am in shock...i bought a car today. Actually I bought it a couple days ago, but it was delivered today. I love it. Its a Toyota Scion xD. Its dark gray. I will post pictures later, too busy today to remember to take a picture before it got dark. I never thought I would own a new car.

Tomorrow I have an interview. I am kind of excited and a little nervous. I am not too nervous as its not my number one job choice. But would be nice to get a job. This interview is to work with an organization that does refugee and immigration services. I applied to be an ESL teacher there. I think it would be adult classes, but I am not sure. More info tomorrow! Maybe I will find some Albanians.

america

wow, its fun to sign into blogger and not have everything be in Serbian, a language I don't even understand.

I am still confused when I walk into a store and the people all speak English.

The other day I went to a mall food court by myself, and I chose to sit next to a middle eastern family. Then another non-english speaking family sat on the other side of me. I was happy. No albanian speakers, but just hearing other languages was good.

I did find an Albanian at the airport when I arrived. That was a nice surprise and gave me something to do while waiting for my bags. The guy worked at the airport and I think I really surprised him when I started speaking Albanian to him. Once I am more settled I will start searching for some Albanians near where I will be living.

So I am finally back in the states and trying to figure out life here. Its a bit complicated. I am looking for a job and its not as easy as I had hoped. At the same time I am looking for a car, but again thats hard without a job. I did buy a phone and a computer on the first day and I have been very happy with them. (Ok, i did exchange my phone, i was used to a really simple phone in Europe, but decided since I have the possibility to do so much more on my phone now, why not get a phone that can do stuff. I think I am happy with my choice now.)

While I wait for a job and a car I have been enjoying time with the most wonderful nephew in the world. I can't believe how big Owen is and I have loved every minute I have spent with him so far. He is so cute, makes so many funny faces, and has such a great personality. Click here below to see more pictures of him from my first couple days here.

one week

Its hard to believe that I only have one week before I get on a plane and say bye to this country. I had lunch with some friends today and as we were talking about my departure, I realized that its probably not going to hit me that I am staying in America, until I am there for a couple weeks at least. At first it will be just like vacation...except I will be moving into my grandfather's house, preparing for work, and getting ready for school.

Its hard to pack up 5 years of your life in 4 suitcases. I am not even sure where to start. I have been making piles and going through different sections of my apartment slowly for the past couple weeks, but now I really have to get to it. The funny thing is that the airline told me on Friday that I can actually only take two bags. I just laughed. No thats not really funny, I hope its not true. I am bringing 4 bags to the airport and testing my luck. But I have come to realize its just stuff. I will try to pack my favorite clothes in one bag and gifts and stuff I want from here in another. The other two bags will be stuff that would be nice to have right away, but not necessarily priority. Having bags left here would be a nice excuse for me to come back and visit soon.

I had a goodbye party last week, but a lot of students are on vacation or in their villages and couldn't come. All that came to the party I hope to see again this week. But today I have started saying goodbye. I would like to tell people I will see them again this week, but I know I am going to get busy and I need to just say bye, or better to say "see you later." I know I will be back here, I just don't know when or under what circumstances.

Yesterday I finished up some cover letters and printed up a few copies of my resume and sent them all off. I am trusting that they will all get to where they need to go. I have applied to teach English as a Second Language in three different public schools near my grandfather's house. One is in the same town my mom went to school. I am hoping that I will get one of these jobs, and that way I will have the whole summer off (i.e. a chance to come back here.)

Leadership Program

Here are some pictures from last week in the mountains for our leadership program.

And you can watch a fun video from it too. (Thanks Kaylee!)

emotions

So I have less than two weeks here in this lovely country and I am not sure what to think. Of course I am excited to go home and see my family, but this has been my life for 5 years. Thats a long time! And the uncertainty of the future makes things so much harder.

In the past couple days I have found that I get stressed out easily and cry even easier. The littlest thing sets me off either yelling and screaming at someone (often just inside my head and thankfully not out-loud) or crying. Its a really bad combination. I am trying to be strong and make the most of these last couple days I have here. I am working on trusting God completely, but its hard. I know He will provide all I need - financially, emotionally, physically - but its still hard.

And to top it all off my internet is not working. Thankfully I know about the old fashion dial-up through the phone line. But its awfully slow. I hope to post some pictures from last week at camp once my fast internet is back.

What a summer. A few months ago when I was planning when I would go back to the states I thought, I will take it easy this summer and just enjoy being here during my last couple months. Well, its been anything but that. I now have three weeks left and it seems maybe my last 10 days will be relaxing…and also packing up 5 years worth of stuff and deciding what to put into my 4 bags.

Tomorrow I am off to the mountains for 5 days... not to relax, but for a leadership program for University students. There are 10 of us as staff from the states, and about 25 Albanian students. It should be a great time. I am teaching on Tuesday and have the topic of Communicating in Love. I am excited to see how the students react to the activities and learn through them. Hopefully I will post about this when I return from the mountain. For now I ask you all to lift up this camp, that Truth would stand out and be heard, and that He would be glorified in everything that we do.

I always find it hard readjusting back from vacation. We drove back through the night, then slept all morning. I woke up around 12:30, relaxed a bit with the family I went with, then headed home to my flat. Since I have been here I have been overwhelmed with the work I need to get done, and can't seem to put much order to it to figure out where to start....so I decided to ignore work and look at my pictures. But we took about 1400 pictures during the one week on the beach, so I got tired of the pictures quickly and thought to post a couple here.

Finally on the last night we went and watched the sun set. It was beautiful!