Busy busy...

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last wrote a blog! I'm sorry! Time really flies by here and you don't even realize it. I feel like I'm living in fast forward.

Work is so busy! I just have so much to do all the time that I physically can't get to all the things on my list. Unfortunately, that means that blogging has been falling off the end of the list every time. But, I'll try to move it further up the priority list - its been far too infrequent.

Despite the busyness, everything has been going well. I've just been chugging along trying to keep up. The people here are so wonderful that I've been having a great time. I couldn't ask for better colleagues! :)

The kids are fun most of the time. Like any school, there are the problem kids, but overall they're alright. The middle school girls like to draw pictures and they have been drawing me! Its so cute! So I've been drawing pictures for them too, which they really love. One of them even painted me a "Thank You" poster after I gave her a drawing. :)

We have a break from school coming up - FINALLY! It's been a long haul without any days off. We're planning to use the Thursday and Friday off as teacher work days rather than holidays so that we can try to catch up and get a bit ahead. Then we can actually have some time off regularly in the evenings and on weekends.

Overall, things are going well! Time is flying by!

Learning Albanian

So, I thought I would post about how my language learning is going. Especially since I made my first full sentence on my own this evening. :)

Some things I say a lot:

Good morning. Mirëmëngjes.
Good evening. Mirëmbrëma.
Good night. Natën e mirë.
Good afternoon. Mirëdita.
Have a good day. Ditën e mirë.
Yes. Po.
No. Yo.
Thank you. Falemnderit.
Pig. Derr.
God. Zot. 

It's been really fun thus far. I really like how the language sounds! We've been having a good time learning. I'm looking forward to having official lessons soon.


My first whole sentence:

Ti je i shëmtuar. You are ugly.


Haha!

A weekend that feels like a weekend

So this weekend, our goal was to finish enough work to not have to work this weekend. We stayed until 9pm on Friday night, but we didn't go to school yesterday or today!! Ahhh - yay!! It has been so wonderful to relax and actually not be in work mode.

Yesterday, I went to Germia Park with friends - it was so lovely! We walked through the park and had lunch and took pictures and had a bombi. It was so much fun!! I wish Saturday afternoon could have gone on for days! :) Then, in the evening, we had a few friends over for a movie night! It was all so wonderful!!

Tonight, we're going to see the symphony! :) I love real weekends!!

The sky is so BLUE!!!

Gangsta..... ?

Seesaw!

Piggy back ride! :)

Getting in the groove of things

Hi everyone,

Sorry its been so long since I wrote. School is so BUSY! I had no idea how much work teachers did for me as a student! This is a bit insane! I haven't had much time for anything other than work lately, but I can see things getting better soon. I'm getting faster at lesson plans and getting ready for upcoming days, so maybe I won't have to stay at school all evening every evening forever. And maybe one day I won't have to go to school on the weekend! That would be really lovely. :)

But maybe not soon because I'm getting some new responsibilities. The middle school enrichment program is starting next week. It's their elective course. They will have Albanian (for Albanians or as a second language), Art, Music, Cultures, and Library/ Study Skills one day a week. I will be teaching the music class, which I think will be fun but also exhausting. Fortunately, its set up as a pass/fail class, so there isn't a curriculum that I absolutely have to get through with them. We can rather casually do what we want. So hopefully it will be relatively low stress.

Also, starting in October, we will have pause time. It's a break during the afternoon between classes when clubs meet like student council, recycling, tutoring, etc. It's to give them a mental break during the long school day and let them have those types of clubs without needing other transportation home after school. I'm planning to teach Ballroom Dance for the high school. That should be a lot of fun. :)

Overall, things are going well. I'm super busy and swamped with work, but also realizing that I need to get out on occasion, so we've been having coffee with friends in the evenings. That helps with my sanity. :) I'm missing family and friends at home, but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be now, so I can be at peace. I love hearing about what's happening at home, so drop me a line sometime. :)

Beginning of School

Hi there everyone!

There's so much I could say about school starting that I don't even know where to begin. Overall, it went pretty well. Of course, there are things I wish I had done differently (mostly in the classroom management/ discipline category), but I think it'll all work out okay. Now, I'm feeling overwhelmed and mostly exhausted. Teaching is a lot more work than you realize as a student. All the things I start working on usually end up taking three times as long as I think they will, but I guess better time management will come with time.

I'm currently teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade math, and high school physics. I will probably be adding middle school music once a week. The kids in my classes are mostly pretty good, but as in any class, there are the few that are talkative or hard to handle. But I think I will be able to keep control of the class.
I didn't expect the high schoolers to be easier than the middle schoolers. I thought I would be able to treat the middle schoolers more like adults than I can - they're more immature than I remember middle schoolers being. But the high schoolers are easy. They're almost too quiet. Hopefully, when things get going and I can get them up and moving around the room doing experiments, they'll liven up.

The first two days were only half days of school, so I only had each class for 25-30 mins rather than 45 mins. I'm a bit worried since I found that exhausting, but, I'll have more to do when the actual subject gets going.

I have a wide range of skills of students in my middle school classes, so adapting the lessons for each of them will be a challenge. I think I have at least three different levels of students in each class. There are some that are really bright and finish everything really quickly - I know I'll need extra work for them to do. On the flip side, there are a few that will need a lot of attention just to get through. I hope that I pick up the 'art of teaching' quickly, because these kids need me to.

Today, there was a school-wide field trip to a fancy pool/ resort south of Prishtina. It was mostly the middle schoolers that went along. It turned out to be a rather relaxing day, when I wasn't too hot to function. I enjoyed the lazy river and a short nap on a lounge chair. :)

I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend, but its looking like it will be very busy. I have a lot of work to do for school and will probably be there most of the weekend. I wonder if my teachers always did this and I just had no idea....

First Day of School

I realize that I skipped a lot of time in my story, but, since I know people are curious/ anxious to hear about today, I decided to just give a tidbit. I'll have time to write this weekend...

5 Things About My First Day of School

1. A kitten in the hallway.

2. Middle schoolers eating foam shapes.

3. A student with an aching kidney.

4. A student who barely speaks English.

5. The chairs for my room arriving half-way through the day.

Settling In

Hi again. I've been procrastinating on writing - just being honest. Writing is not a strong point for me, so it takes a lot of effort to try to get a blog out.

The past week and a half have been just for setting in here in Prishtina. We've been so blessed to have such a strong support system of people around us, so we definitely haven't felt alone in the endeavor. Many returning school employees have been taking us around and making sure we know where to get everything we need. Everything from the egg store, the green market to get veggies, the pharmacy with reliable items, a great hairdresser (yay!), office supply store, etc... So I think we're pretty much set on things we need or know where to get them.

The four of us girls that are living here together, we have two flats across the hall from each other, are getting along really well - we're so much alike. It's so cool to hear all our stories of how we got here and see how God has placed us together. :)

Today is Bayram, or Eid-ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. This month was the ninth month of the Islam calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn to night fall. Today is the celebration of the end of the fast, and the biggest holiday of the year - similar to Christmas for Christians. It's really interesting to be here during this time. We've been invited to come to an Albanian's home, Ismet who works at PHS, this afternoon. I'll write more about it later...

In Prishtina

Hi there - sorry its been so long since I last wrote. We've been trying to get the wifi working, but have been having a lot of issues.

I'm in Prishtina now in my new apartment! It's really nice!! It's quite big and has lots of windows so its very sunny and pleasant. My apartment-mate and I each have our own room with a balcony and we have a guest room. We're in a really convenient location to the city and school- it's really wonderful in that respect.

We've been here since Friday and have been really fortunate to meet up with lots of people from the school and been on a few tours. There's so much good food here- its a good thing we walk everywhere!! And we're looking for a gym. ;)

Teacher orientation begins next Monday - I'm really looking forward to that! Everyone is getting here soon and I'm excited to get going! It's going to be a great year!

Finally in Kosovo!

I made it to Kosovo - hooray!! It took me a while, I know. :) The traveling was fine, although the route wasn't logical - I flew through Oslo, Norway! I didn't really like it there - the airport was confusing and the people weren't particularly nice since I didn't speak any Norwegian. Oh well, I was only there a couple hours. The flight to Prishtina was longer than I thought - about 3 hours - and felt longer since the young girl next to me was sleeping halfway in my seat the whole time. lol! Fun times, right?

When I was on the plane and in the airport, I will admit that I having those "what am I thinking?!" moments. I had forgotten how scary and lonely it is to not be able to talk to anyone. I've only ever been in countries where I didn't speak the language briefly, and that was stressful enough. Moving somewhere that you don't speak the language is a whole other ball game, and I admit that it is still freaking me out. But fortunately, Lydia and Jeton were there waiting at the airport to rescue me. :)

The past couple of days I've just been hanging out at the Chesnut's house relaxing and reading up. I'm already working on my Albanian! I can say "Hello. My name is Caitlin." Amazing, huh? (not.)

Mirëdita. Unë jam Caitlin.

Next I need to figure out "I'm learning Albanian." and "Do you speak English?"  ;)

London

Sorry this post is so late.... London was so much fun! I traveled on Thursday without issue - except for some running to catch my train. You seriously should have been there to see Heather running through the masses of people on Princes Street with my giant case, knocking people out of the way - it was hilarious! I was having trouble keeping up because I was laughing so hard!

Friday, Elspeth and I went to the Olympic Park! I really thought that it would be really crowded and miserable everywhere, but it wasn't at all - I guess all the Londoners listened and stayed home. We barely had to wait for anything. We spent the morning wandering around the park and exploring the shops and things. It was a lovey day until about noon, when we were sitting by the jumbo screen at Park Live to watch the rowing finals and have lunch, when there was a spontaneous torrential downpour for a few minutes. Fortunately, the sun came right back out to dry us all off. Our event, women's handball matches, was at 2:30pm, so we headed over the the Copper Box in the afternoon. We had really great seats! Perfect height, no rows in front of or behind us because we were at the level of the walkways, and right by the athlete's area door so all the athletes and coaches watching were next to us. It definitely turned out to be a great experience - handball is really fast paced and exciting to watch! I'm totally invested now and have been keeping up with the matches. We chose both winning teams, despite who the majority of the crowd was rooting for - both Croatia and Russia won!
I'm actually really glad we went to a less high profile sport because we got to be so close to the athletes! I actually even pointed one of them to her teammate that had walked away while she was texting - lol! After the matches, we wandered some more, got some dinner, and watched the swimming finals on the big screen with lots of other people. It was so cool to be there and get the atmosphere, even if you didn't get tickets to be in the arena.

Olympic Stadium!

Epic handball!

Saturday, I went into to London and met up with James - he came all the way from Norwich for the day to hang out. :) We spent most of the day at Madame Tussaud's - I'd never been to one before and really wanted to go. Fortunately, James was very nice about it and tolerated me dragging him around to all the wax twins of movie stars to take my picture. haha! But, we made friends with an Olympian (I think she was from Algeria) and she took some pictures for us and I took a few for her - she was really sweet. :)  Especially compared to most of the people there - it was really crowded with some seriously pushy people. :(  But we still had fun. We had a nice dinner in a nearby park afterwards - such a lovely day! Thanks, James!

This was a necessary picture!

James and me and Julia Roberts - haha! Taken by an Olympic athlete!

Awww cuteeee

Sunday, I went to church with Elspeth and her sister. :) Then, Elspeth and I went into London to see more sights. She took me to Camden Market - such a CRAZY place! But I could do some serious shopping there! haha! We went to the National Portrait Gallery - they had a special Olympics portraits there and even some abstract art which included a video of David Beckham sleeping. Hmmm not sure how that's art, but none of the ladies seemed to be complaining.... We wandered through lots of shops and had sweets at a place called Candy Cupcakes - sounds amazing, right? I had a Mounds milkshake - soooo good!

I'm so blessed to have such awesome friends that made my holiday to the UK a blast - thanks James, Heather and Elspeth!!

Edinburgh 3

My last few days in Edinburgh were great! Monday, while Heather was at work, I went over to Old Town where I used to live and walked all around my old stomping ground. I went back to uni and to the halls where I lived and all the shops I loved. It was weird to be back, but still cool. That evening we went to a Belly Dancing class - which was really HARD but also really fun! Haha! I think if I lived there, I would keep going! It's a great ab workout! lol!! Then we met up with one of my old friends, Hugh, for dinner. He was the guide that took Mom, Grandpa and me on our Clan MacKay tour of the highlands two years ago. Plus, we saw him at the Scottish Festival in Williamsburg the following fall and he has taken some of our friends on tours since then. He is a really fun guy and it was good to see him again. :)

Hey there, Hugh! 

Tuesday, Heather and I went to a pottery painting place in the morning - so fun! She made a Mickey Mouse pasta dish (Disney - surprise, surprise, right? lol) and I made a Cher mug! Oh yeah! I'm the only person I know that is awesome enough to have a Cher mug. bahaha! Then we took the bus out to Ratho again to the Rock Climbing Centre and actually got to climb this time! It was so fun and we had a great instructor! You could just tell how passionate he was about climbing and that he loves job.

hard at work...

climbing!

Wednesday, we saw a really neat rendition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a promenade style performance by the Scottish Youth Theatre in the Royal Botanic Garden. It was so very cool! I've never been to a performance quite like that before. The actors are all around you rather than just in front - which is a new experience. Plus, the fairies were talking with us "mortals" while we walked between scenes, which was just an entirely new level of performance. Overall, I think it was fantastic and would definitely recommend something like it.

Olympic rings!

Today was my last day. We picked up our pottery this morning (so exciting! It looks good!) and then had lunch before I had to go. The past 10 days have been so much fun. Heather, you are amazing and I'm so blessed to have you as a friend. :) I love you!!

Edinburgh 2

Friday was kind of a bust. We took a bus all the way out to Rotho to go rock climbing, but it was fully booked for the day. So we booked in for next Tuesday evening and took the bus all the way back into town. Fortunately, we got some lunch and dessert at the chocolate lounge, which made up for it. :)

Path on the way to the climbing centre...

Awesome climbing centre we haven't climbed in yet

Millionaire with GLITTER!!!

Saturday, Heather had to work, so I went into Old Town to visit my old home. :) It was fun to be back and see uni and Pollock (where I lived). It mostly looks the same, but with some different shops and restaurants now. Saturday night we saw FOOTLOOSE. It was fantastic - especially for a amateur show. These kids are extremely talented. Plus, we got to sit in the director's box - best seats in the house!

Best seats!

Sunday, we went to church and then climbed Arthur's Seat (Heather's first time?!) and had a picnic up there. Then we came back via the Royal Mile and jewelry shopped. :) We tried to make Kosovar Fli for dinner, but it was not so good. We didn't cook each layer enough, so we ended up eating dough. : /

Picnic view

On top of Arthur's Seat!

Fli - good in theory, bad in execution...

Edinburgh 1

Hi everyone! I'm in Edinburgh now with my lovely friend Heather, who is not only letting me stay with her and feeding me, but letting me use her laptop to write this post - I'm so blessed. :)

We've been having a grand time! We went to a comedy club the night I arrived. Then yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens - so beautiful!

I love lilies!!!!!

HUGE lily pads!

Aw cute!

And spent the evening baking cookies (yum!) with an awesome recipe provided by my friend Will all the way from New Zealand (hooray for Will!). They taste wonderful even though they look like a mess - haha!

Does it look done enough?

Today we went to the Edinburgh Zoo! Did you know its built on a MOUNTAIN! The walking we did was certainly enough to make up for all the cookies! haha!

Rockhopper Penguin!

My favorite picture of the day - leopard!

Zebras!

Cutest monkeys EVER! They're Squirrel Monkeys!

Norwich

Today James took me around Norwich after church. It's such a lovely city - I think I would quite enjoy living here! Everything is so quaint and adorable. James was amused at how much I was amused by everything. :) But, seriously, who wouldn't want to live here?!

chillin at the cathedral

cutest houses EVERRRR

adorable cobblestone streets

By the seaside...

Today, James took me to the beach! It was so nice and picturesque! I thought it was too chilly to be in the water, but there were people (mostly kids) swimming and wading. I just got my feet wet. :)
We did the typical seaside things and got an ice cream, and later got chips. Yum!
We also had brought a frisbee and thew it a bit. Although, we soon realized that neither of use were very good at throwing it, so we took to kicking a pebble instead. Ha!

 Lovely beach

 Lookie there! (I don't look so bad!)

I want to fly in one of those!

Travel

So, getting here was the worst trip of my life. Goodness, I don't even know where to start, except to say that I'm fine now, so this sad story will have a happy ending (all the best ones do, right?). So, I was doing all right until I ate dinner on the plane from New York to London (airplane food is apparently very sketchy). I managed to sleep some despite being nauseous, but not much. About 10 minutes before we landed, I got sick for the first time (warning: anyone with a weak stomach isn't going to like this story). That's the first time I've ever used a barf bag, or "motion discomfort" bag, for anything other than a paper for doodling.
Once I made it through the boarder and customs, which turned out to be somewhat more difficult than I remember from before, and found my bag, which was more difficult than I expected because my cute luggage strap didn't make the trip with my typical black suitcase, I made my way towards the underground. But on the way, a man convinced me to take the Heathrow Express, as it would be quicker and I didn't have much time until my train to Norwich. I bought the ticket and finally found the train - which took me quite a while. Meanwhile, I was getting sicker and literally collapsed on the ground while waiting for the next train. Just a few minutes outside the airport station, we were stopped and were stuck there about 20 minutes because of an accident with another train. Fortunately, I had grabbed another bag from the airplane because I used it then. After the wait, we were taken back to the airport. Then I waited in line for a refund on my ticket. Then I headed for the line for underground tickets, which was excessively long since it was the only transport running at that point. While waiting in line, I realized that there was no way I was going to make it on the metro. I could barely even stand, much less take care of my bags. So I got back out of that line, and headed up and out to try to get a taxi to the train station. I had to walk pretty far, but I didn't have any other options.
I managed to get a cab, but that poor guy had no idea what he was getting into. He had to pull over at one point to keep me from getting sick in his car. He was quite nice about it though, and gave me what water he had in his bottle and a bucket in case I needed it. When we finally made it, the cab fare was... let's just say a lot. He wanted to round it down, I think he felt sorry for me, but I insisted on including a tip - the guy had to pull over so I could throw up on the curb! He deserved something!
After all that, I still missed my train by just a few minutes. But I managed to get it switched to the next train at no charge - that's one thing that didn't go terribly. Also, a nice young lady helped me get my bag into the train because I couldn't lift them myself. I got sick on the train twice more - I couldn't even keep water down. I was getting really worried at this point that I would get so dehydrated that I would have to go the hospital for IV fluids. Fortunately, the 7UP I bought on the train seemed to settle my stomach some, and I didn't throw up any more.
I arrive at Norwich about an hour before James's graduation. He picked me up (in casual clothes, with extra dress clothes, and lots of bags - fully prepared for me to be sick in his car - poor guy!) and we were straight to the university. After changing clothes in the car park (no one was too close by) we were actually able to enjoy the evening. His family was quite nice to me and I was glad to be there.
All I can say is, I hope no one else ever has to endure a journey like mine. It wasn't fun. But I'm feeling much better now- eating again and having fun times with James. :)

Last night here...

so this is my last night at home. lots of mixed emotions as you would expect. im really excited, but also sad to leave. this is also a test for writing a blog post from my phone. obviously not the best since the shift and alt keys dont seem to work. youll have to bear with me on the bad spelling , grammar, and punctuation in the future. but at least i can update from my phone.       the return key doesnt work either, so no new paragraphs. wow, this is going to be fun. tonight has been about packing. im almost done. i still have quite a mess going but nothing that wont clear up soon.     thank you all for your love and support. i wouldnt be able to do this without you.

Three days left....

This past week has been both difficult and wonderful. Saying goodbye to everyone has been really hard. I'll admit that I curled up in bed with my official crying movie, tissues, and my 'emergency chocolate' to have a good cry one night. That helped. Then I was blessed to go to Established Footsteps Women's Vacation Bible school Friday and Saturday and hear the Word. And then on Sunday, the elders of my church prayed over me to send me off.
This weekend reminded me of the power of God that I have going with me on this adventure. Its easy for me to forget why I am doing something in the midst of all the craziness of doing it. I was so caught up in the details of getting everything ready and packing that I forgot that I don't need to worry so much. This what God called me to do and He will be with me every step of the way.
I'm back to being excited about going. It's going to be an awesome year.

Two weeks and counting...

Today is two weeks from when I board that plane for London. :)  I'm beginning to get quite excited to visit my lovely friends James, Heather and Elspeth. And I'm getting really excited to be back in Edinburgh. I love the lifestyle there - it fits me much better than anywhere I've lived here in the states.

Yesterday, I began the grand adventure that is packing. I don't really know how to pack for a year long trip to so many places. I eventually decided that I couldn't possibly take everything with me, so I'm planning to only take clothes and a few electronics like computer, camera, etc. Anything else (really everything) I can get when I get there when I need it. Well, when I sorted my clothes into the "packing in my backpack for trip to UK" pile and the "suitcase I don't want to have to dig through until I get to Kosova" pile, I was shocked at how HUGE they both were!! There is NO WAY all of that will fit into one suitcase and one pack. And that was only clothes! Oy! I have a lot of work to do. I really need to go through everything a few more times, preferably with a friend to help me take things out that I really won't need, and get these piles a lot smaller.

On another note, I'm back at UofR today and tomorrow for my last visit with my college friends. Tomorrow is going to be a very sad day. :( The past four years have been amazing and I don't want to see it end. I finally understand why people always say that college was the best years of your life. But we'll see. I think God has some amazing things coming up for me.

Caitlin

How to start...

So I've been putting off starting this blog for a long time. Mostly because I couldn't come up with anything profound to say that felt worthy of being the first post. Heads up - I still haven't. But never the less, I decided to just go for it and write something. After all, this blog is not going to be the most profound thing you've ever read - probably the furthest thing from really. I'm not a writer at all- when I do have to write, I write like a scientist. The majority of my writing is in a lab notebook or a lab report, so its not flowery. It's too the point. Straight forward. Which I don't think is a bad thing, its just not the typical blogger style.

But anyways, let's talk about Kosova since that is what this blog is meant to be about. Where am I now? preparation mode. July 19th is coming up much faster than I expected, and I don't feel prepared at all. I feel physically prepared - I think I've bought enough work clothes (news flash - lab scientists don't dress up so I've had to get a new teacher wardrobe) and think I have all the items I need. But I don't feel mentally prepared. But how can I? I've only been to Kosova once, for just a few days, and that was 2 years ago. I've never taught a class before. And I only know 4 words in Albanian - and they're not the most useful ones.

But, every time I've tried to work on getting mentally prepared, looked for teaching experience or at least a tutoring job, God has closed the door. I think He wants me to be unprepared. That way, if I don't completely blow it, I'll know that it was Him and His guidance that got me through.

So, there you go. Even though I believe 100% that this is what God is calling me to do, doesn't mean that I magically know how to do it. God's people are just regular people. But with a great God to lead us.

What do you know - maybe that was profound. :)

Caitlin