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.