My first attempt at video editing!

Good Morning Young Life!

This guy is my hero:

A Soldier from the United States Army was attending some college courses, between assignments He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God. I'm still waiting." It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Soldier got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Soldier went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Soldier and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The Soldier calmly replied, "God was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid shit and act like an asshole. ...............So, He sent me"

Prague, Czech Republic

From Albania I flew back to Frankfurt, Germany with the whole group of students. Walking into that airport was the strangest feeling, it wasn’t until that moment that I really realized how different Albania had been. I went into the whole situation being very open minded and expecting things to be uncomfortable, shocking, or just plain weird, and things in Albania were all of those but until I was able to step away and look back I couldn’t see how crazy it was. Just being in the airport in Germany was so refreshing. The cleanliness and orderliness was something that I had not had for two months. There was about four hours from when we landed in Frankfurt until everyone left for home. One of the things I missed most in Albania was Mexican food. They happened to have a Mexican place in the airport so a few of us sat down and I got my fix. I said goodbye to the people that I had been living with everyday day for the last three months and went and jumped on a train to Prague with Ben, Ashley, Nicky, and Greg. I started talking with this guy on the train who was from Omaha, Nebraska. He had just finished serving with the National Guard over in Iraq and was backpacking around Europe for a few months. He had been traveling with a friend but was now traveling alone. Once we got to Prague he joined us on a search to find a hostel. My first hostel experience was a good one! After dropping our bags in a room with three sets of bunk beds, which was perfect for us, I went down to the reception area which has a small bar, white walls covered in messages left by travelers from all over the world, and half a dozen tables with people from every part of the world sitting around drinking beer, playing cards, and sharing stories. I stayed down there talking with people and just hanging out till 5:30 in the morning. If you have been following my blog you would realize that at this point I still haven’t had a real night sleep since Tuesday and now it is 5:30 AM on Sunday! Once I finally woke up the next morning we walked to the town center and hung out in downtown Prague all day. We went shopping and sat in cafes drinking hot cocoa, eating crepes, and playing chess, it was exactly what I needed after being in Albania. The next few days were basically the same, hanging out in the hostel at night and walking around town during the day. The weather was cold and snowing but it made the city look beautiful. Of all the places I have been so far Prague was one of my favorite, I will definitely come back here.
PRAGUE PHOTOSHOW

Mirupafshim Shqiperia

Well my time in Albania is finished. It was a great time full of things I will remember for the rest of my life, I learned tons and made many new friends. Some Highlights:

Albanian Thanksgiving

To celebrate the end of Ramadan many Albanian families have a feast where they kill a lamb and invite all their friends and family. One of the Albanian students, Adela, invited me and a few other students to visit her home town of Elbasan and celebrate this holiday. Elbasan is an hour long drive over a mountain pass from Tirana. Meeting her family was a great experience; it was cool being able to participate in the Albania culture. When we arrived they made us take off our shoes and provided slippers for us to wear. Then we went and sat down and began talking with her father. He spoke very little English but was very friendly. He poured each of us a glass of Raki, traditional Albanian liquor which he made himself, and began toasting to our lives, our families, and our success. He did this with each of us while his wife prepared the meal. Then we sat down to a smorgasbord of excellent Albanian food. I would describe it as a thanksgiving meal in Albania.
ELBASAN PHOTOSHOW

Budva, Montenegro
Throughout my time in Albania I was always looking for opportunities to get out of Tirana and see more of the country. I became friends with a student named Andy and so one weekend when we had a little bit of free time, we rented a car and drove to Montenegro with Ben, Sarah, and Kate. Montenegro boarders Albania to the north so I was able to see some of the northern countryside of Albania as well as get another stamp in my passport! We drove to a small town right on the Adriatic Sea, since we got in at night it was difficult to see what it was like. In the morning I saw what a beautiful place it was. The town we were in is mainly a vacation spot for Europeans, mostly Germans, and a fishing village, we were there during the off-season so it was quite empty. The main attraction is a castle that is right on the beach. We spent an hour or so exploring the castle, which is now full of tourist shops and art galleries. While we were exploring I ducked through a small door that only came up to the middle of my chest, I found myself on the beach! There was a café and quite a few local people all hanging out relaxing for the day. We skipped some stones and sat and had a coffee. I noticed a path that left from the opposite side of the beach that wrapped around a rocky point we could not see around. I talked Sarah and Ben into going with me to see where the path went. The path wrapped around the cliff and ended up on another beach that was much more sandy and occupied by only a few vacationers. Looking across that beach I could see some stairs that it appeared went into the cliff face. We walked across the beach and found that the stairs went to a tunnel that led to yet another beach; this one was even more beautiful and completely void of people. We decided to stay and lay in the sun for a while and eventually ended up going swimming. We left that afternoon and drove down the coast back to Albania. We stopped at another castle that completely covers a small island just off shore. It is connected to the main land by a short bridge so we were able to walk out to it but it was not open to visitors. We arrived back in Tirana only 26 hours after we left but saw a lot and managed to get pulled over four times, no tickets though!
MONTENEGRO PHOTOSHOW

Dermi, Albania
I had my 21st birthday while I was in Albania and I wanted to do something memorable. I had heard that in a small village named Dermi in the southern part of Albania almost to Greece they had a company that would take tourists paragliding. I thought this sounded like a good way to spend my birthday and was able to talk three other students into going to Dermi with me. Our whole group was taking a bus to a town called Vlore, which is about half way between Tirana and Dermi, we went with them as far as we could and then hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way. This little tiny village is built on the side of the mountains that plunge into the Ionian Sea, it was beautiful! The morning of my birthday we spoke with this guy while we were eating breakfast who told us of a pirates cave that was in the cliffs just around the next point he had a friend with a boat who offered to take us there for a few bucks each…I know it sounds sketchy…It was! This guy pulled up on the beach in a little motorized dingy, we all climbed in, and off we went. The ended up being really nice and the cave was so cool! After that we walked around the village for awhile, visited a monastery from the 1200s and got some lunch at a little restaurant that served some really good local food. Then we began our journey back to Tirana…that was an experience in itself…you’ll have to ask me about it sometime. Back in Tirana the rest of the group sang me “Happy Birthday” and we had some cake and champagne.
DERMI PHOTOSHOW

Let the Work Begin
There were several things that factored into the creation of the situation I found myself in at the end of our trip, some of it was my own fault (a little procrastination), but most of it was not. I had to write up the presentation we gave to the Mayor’s office as well as write several papers for the classes I was getting credit for in school. This all had to be done in my last few days in Albania. I ended up working almost around the clock from Wednesday morning until Friday night when everything was due. Then I had to have one last hurrah with some of the Albanian students so we went bowling in the Taiwan Center. Then I had to go pack and clean up the room I had been creating into a disaster for the past six weeks. In the end, I only slept for two short naps from Tuesday night until I got on the plane Saturday morning.

There were lots of other adventures and memories from my time in Tirana, Albania, some of which will come to me later and others that may never be remember, staying in Albania forever. Whether they are forgotten or remembered is not important because I know that the friendships I built on those adventures will last forever and the people will never be forgotten. Mirupafshim Shqiperia (Goodbye Albania)

Halloween Parties!

Through a crazy sequence of events and lots of random contacts our group got invited to a Halloween party at the US embassy in Tirana. We made some of the most amazing costumes you have ever seen and rolled up to the marines' barracks at the US compound. We all piled out and took the place by storm. They had all kinds of American food and drinks we were all so happy. Probably one of the funniest things that has happened yet on this trip happened this night. The US ambassador to Albania was at this party, she is probably in her late fifties or early sixties, she was dressed as a nun, had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, on top of all this she was grinding with every guy or girl she could get to dance with her. We had a great time and were invited back watch football sometime. As if that wasn't enough we decided that we needed to introduce the Albanian students we were working with to the American tradition of Halloween. We had our own party on Halloween at our apartment complex for all of them.

HALLOWEEN PHOTOSHOW

Update from Professor Houston

The following is an email sent out by our professor to all the students on the trip:

Hello Everyone,
I must have composed some version of this note in my mind a dozen times over the past two weeks looking forward to the day when I could sit at a computer and send it to you. Well, today is that day, and I want to say to each of you and all of you “Thank You” in the most sincere way possible through an e-mail. I believe I am one of the most Blessed individuals on earth to be associated with a group of generous and thoughtful individuals such as you.
You certainly have a better recollection of the details that took place in Tirana than I do on 15 October. There are many thoughts that I believe represent what did nor did not happen, but the only things that are clear in my mind (other than the vomiting) are the needles and the endoscope… both extremely painful. Nevertheless, when woke up in the Intensive Care Unit in Munich, I knew neither what day it was not where I was. I later learned that it was Tuesday 18 October and I was at the Krankenhausen in Munich. I knew then that several angels must have taken me there and watched over me while I was out for two days.
The care at Munich was excellent! So much so that when I was leaving I told one of the doctors that “it is a shame to want to leave a place where people treat you so well.” The truth was, and they understood, I wanted to get back to more familiar faces and surrounding so that I could begin to heal.
So I left the Krankenhausen in Munich on Tuesday 25 October arriving home that evening. Since then, I am resting and healing at home, except when I’m not undergoing test at the Kaiser facility in Denver. In fact, I spend most of last Thursday there where every imaginable test must have been performed, some repeated from Munich for validation. The only mystery regarding the medical reports out of Tirana and Munich is that I have a “very nasty” would in the public area that was taped over, but not mentioned in any written reports. Outpatient surgery at Kaiser has treated it, taken a biopsy, and it should heal in a few weeks. Meanwhile, it just hurts, mainly because of location. My primary care doctor at Kaiser is trying to get answers
Well, this “Thank you” note has already gone on longer than I intended, so just one more thing. I know that some of you were more involved that others in assisting and keeping me alive. A special thanks you to each of you. I also know that it was the collective thoughts and prayers of all of you that made it possible for me to be at home this afternoon. So when all of you return, and the winter quarter gets underway, I would like to get all of us together again so that I can thank you individually and collectively. (Zani, I hope you can make it to Denver).
Until then, please enjoy the rest of this incredible journey you have been experiencing. Take good care of yourselves; I love and miss each of you.
Love always,

Professor Houston

P.S. I’m writing this note without my primary eyeglasses. If you have them, or know where they are, please take care of them and bring them home with you for me.

Project Kineta

The illness of our professor delayed us getting started working on our projects here in Albania for almost a week but gave us some good time to see some of the city and get to know some of the students we will be working with. Professor Ted Lewis who was teaching in Italy at the time was flown in to temporarily replace Professor Houston and we were able to get back to class. Just the other day we got the opportunity to go and visit the community our projects deal with. This community is known as Kineta, it is a small residential neighborhood that is on top of former swamp area. After the fall of communism in Albania in 1992 people began moving to this area and illegally building houses on the land that was there. There was no form of infrastructure set up for people to live there so they created their own, ditches where dug to manage sewage, garden hoses and other plastic hoses run to carry water, and self spliced power lines for run electricity. The community has spent over 10 million dollars on this infrastructure but because it was all spent individually it accomplished very little. Our projects deal with improving these areas as well as others.

PROJECT KINETA PHOTOSHOW

Professor Houston

We began classes on Monday afternoon where Buie Seawell, an ethics professor from DU, discussed some of the ethical issues we will be facing and Mark Taylor, a Construction Management professor from DU, talked about project management. Buie left and Syl Houston, a professor who has been traveling with us, was going to build on what we had been learning from Professor Seawell. The day that he was to begin teaching he came down with some type of food parasite and had to spend the day in bed and over the toilet. He remained sick for two days but was feeling better Friday afternoon. That night he woke up from his sleep throwing up blood. He was going in and out of consciousness but was eventually able to call and get some help. We rushed him to the hospital here in Tirana. Albanian hospitals are about what you would expect in a third world country so the facilities were not very good. Our professor did not feel comfortable with the facilities or the doctors and requested that no procedures be performed in Albania. We had already begun the process to get him air-lifted out of the country but were encountering some difficulty. His blood pressure was dropping and he was continuing to vomit up blood; it was becoming clear that something had to be done or he would bleed to death. The decision was made to stick a scope down his throat into his stomach to see if we could tell where the blood was coming from. The scope was not able to find any holes, ulcers, or any other cause for the bleeding, it was clear however that his stomach was completely filled with blood. We decided that he needed to get out of the country as soon as possible. We were able to get a medical plane to Tirana but then the doctors here felt that his condition was not stable enough to make the trip. For several hours they were trying to get him stable enough to travel, during this time his blood pressure almost dropped to zero twice. It was decided that something had to be done and it had to be done immediately. He had just thrown up again so the doctors did the scope one more time before cutting him open just to check and make sure there wasn’t anything they could do from the inside. They got the scope into his stomach and Houston began thrashing and rolled over onto his stomach. This gave the doctors a perfect view of a little hole that blood was squirting out of. They could see each heart beat. It was a blood vessel that had burst in his stomach and was not stopping because of the asprin he had been taking from being sick. They were able to cauterize the spot and create a temporary patch. They kept him in Albania for another 24 hours while he was being stabilized and then he was flown to Germany where they were able to fix the problem more permanently. While in Albania he lost a lot of blood which was replaced by blood several of the students on our trip donated. In the end his blood was entirely replaced two and a half times. This caused some minor complications during recovery in Germany because most of the blood he got was universal donor blood not his actual blood type. He is doing much better now and last I heard he was getting ready to fly back to Denver. Please keep Professor Houston in your prayers as this was a very frightening experience for him and he still has a lot of recovery to go through.

Tirana, Albania

I have really enjoyed the first half of my study abroad experience, now it is time to switch gears and do some real work in Albania. We are staying in Tirana, the capital city, on Mount Deity at a resort know as Château Lindza. Tirana lies in a valley about 30 miles inland from the sea. Driving through the countryside I was shocked at how green it is here, we passed several small farm houses and people busy at work with their daily life. It almost feels like I traveled back in time the way that the people here just live off of the milk their cow produces and the vegetables they can grow in their garden. A much simpler life than we are accustomed to in the states. The actual city of Tirana is much more modern. They have been subject to lots of corruption and scamming which creates a very unique culture. The most recent revolt or revolution of the people was only eight years ago in 1997 when the whole country was destroyed by pyramid scams. The latest thing is gambling, there are electronic casinos on every corner and big pushes for some real casinos to move into Tirana. I have enjoyed getting to know the Albania students we will be working with on our projects. They are very friendly and lively similar to other Mediterranean and Balkan cultures.

TIRANA PHOTOSHOW

Sailing in Greece!

This part of the trip was one of the selling points for me and something that I have really been looking forward to. Our group of 20 students was split up into five teams and put on a sailing yacht with world class skippers. Four of the five skippers were members of the first all women’s Americus Cup team! We spent a week learning about the boats, sailing, and team building. Our last two days in Greece we were on the main land in Athens. I saw the Acropolis and other Greek ruins and also made it to a Greek night club!

GREECE PHOTOSHOW

Weekend in Italy

Probably the craziest weekend of my life! In 54 hours and $50 I saw Venice, Florence, Pisa, and two of Cinque Terre’s five villages. I had Thursday night through Saturday night off and was determined to see as much of Italy as I could. Tyler, Ben, Ashley, Liz and I set off on an adventure I thought could only come from Hollywood. From relaxing gondola rides in Venice to packed sleeper trains, 2:30 AM sight seeing to relaxing naps on the beach it was the best we could have possibly done with the time we had. You’ll have to ask me about running from the corrupted train conductors and diving off cliffs into the Mediterranean!

ITALY PHOTOSHOW

Bologna, Italy

Our longest stay in one place so far was in Bologna. It is know as one of the wine and food capitals for all of Europe. Since it is the least touristy of the places we have visited so far the prices were fairly reasonable. The purpose of this portion of the trip is to learn to speak the Albania language. It is the oldest language that is still spoken! We had 16 hours of intensive language study and then a weekend to ourselves.

BOLOGNA PHOTOSHOW

Geneva, Switzerland

Most of my time in Geneva was spent in meetings. The World Summit was being held at the United Nations in New York while we were there so we held all of our meetings with the UN here. Our nights were filled with fondue in a traditional Swiss restaurant and smoking Cuban'’s and dancing at Tony'’s, a Peruvian bar/night club whose owners we met on the train.

GENEVA PHOTOSHOW

Bruges

On our last day in Belgium we took a day trip to the city of Bruges which in near the coast in northern Belgium. It is one of few cities that were not bombed during WWII and therefore has lots of old buildings still in tack. On the train ride we passed by areas that it is said some of the fiercest battles of WWII took place. The city is very pretty and has a canal system running through it similar to Venice. We took a boat tour of the city through these canals.

Brussels, Belgium

It took almost 30 hours of traveling but eventually I ended up in Brussels! Here we met with the EU and a member organization of their the European Economic and Social committee. Brussels was a very fun city. We were lucky to be there during the once a year festival where there is a day without cars. Most museums and tourist type places are free for the whole day as is the public transportation. Most people ride bikes on this day and do not have to work. In Brussels we enjoyed lots of Belgium beer, waffles, and chocolate!

BELGIUM PHOTOTSHOW

New York City, NYC

My first time to NYC! In New York we had meetings with several banks discussing issues such as micro financing and socially responsible investing. We also met with the Rainforest Alliance to discuss sustainability and sustainable development. Between all the meeting I was able to see Ground Zero, Wall Street, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, China Town, Little Italy, and have a traditional Ethiopian meal! NYC PHOTOSHOW

Project Albania

Project Albania is a quarter long study abroad program through the University of Denver that I am embarking on in the fall of 2005.

Students to help improve Albania’s infrastructure

By Jordan Ames

Sept. 13, 2005—A country rich in history yet torn apart by years of political turmoil, corruption and civil war, Albania is struggling to find its identity in modern Europe. In September, a new 10-week servicelearning program will link University of Denver with Albanian students in an effort to improve Albania’s economic, physical and social infrastructures.

Twenty-four students from the Daniels College of Business and the Graduate School of International Studies will travel to New York, Brussels and Geneva to meet with United Nations and European Union leaders for briefings about Albania’s cultural and political situation. They will attend an intensive language and cultural orientation in Bologna, Italy, and participate in leadership training in Athens, Greece, before joining their Albanian teammates—engineers, business students and social science students chosen through a national competition—at the University of Tirana.

The group will attend classes team-taught by DU and Albanian professors. The interdisciplinary courses will address the business, social and engineering needs of the global development process. Students will complete site, economic, social and health assessments of Keneta, an informal encampment of 35,000 migrants near the Adriatic Sea.

Through the Cherrington Global Scholars program, DU undergraduate students are able to participate in the 18-credit program at the same cost as attending a quarter of classes on campus. The course also is partially funded through a DU Public Good Grant.

“The Daniels College of Business has a 15-year history of service-learning,” says marketing Prof. Bruce Hutton, who will co-lead the program with management Senior Lecturer Sylvester Houston. “Our goal is to teach the value of service and how it fits into the ethical mindset and the business environment.”

The Albania project was initiated in 2004 by MBA and international studies graduate student Rick Escoe and was established through GlobalNETWORK, a nonprofit he established to encourage students to apply theory to real-world development issues. The project is now a joint venture between DU and GlobalNETWORK.

Escoe hopes that the DU student presence in Albania will be ongoing. “Our goal is to start a process that will allow Albania to become self-sufficient and prosper on its own,” Escoe says.

In 2006, a second team of DU students will travel to Albania to develop a waste treatment plant, create a business incubation program and assist with social projects to help orphans and disadvantaged groups, utilizing the assessment results of the previous team.

This article was originally published in The Source, September 2005.