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