1st Days in Albania

Leaving the docks of Corfu

On the Mediterranean Sea

Professor Hernandez on the land rover

 I'm in Albania. We arrived at Corfu on Thursday and slept on the island in order to get up for the 9 am ferry ride to Albania. I christened my food journey with calamari and french fries on Corfu, and a Coke. Coke is really an international brand, so everywhere we go they sell coke, diet coke, sprite and orange crush. We took the ferry to Albania on Friday and then took the land rover from Saranda, the main city in our area to Butrint.

The team is considerably smaller than usual years, as we're on the study season this year and aren't actually excavating anything, but rather organizing and working towards a final product. The team is currently composed of three Americans (myself, another  undergraduate and a graduate student), five Italians, and Professor Hernandez. The Italians don't know what to make of me. They make fun of my attire (they're all cold and I'm in shorts and a t-shirt) my spirit (I haven't stopped grinning, as evident by the photo) and my card skills. The five Italians speak different levels of English, but we're quickly finding ways to communicate. Cards is universal, so I've already taught the team to play Hearts, Oh Hell, Switch and BS. I win more often than not, but I'm a Hite and am learning my father's talent of dealing aces to myself. Still, it's a lot of fun and it's bringing us together.

I'm living the dream right now. We had our first day on the site, and it's absolutely spectacular. It's late, so I'm going to sleep, but tomorrow should be a longer post. I'm missing mass tomorrow due to lack of close Catholic churches (either I learn to drive stick and take the land rover, or walk 6 miles for a 9:30 am mass,  I'm looking for other options) but I'm going to get up early and meditate a bit. We work six days a week here, so the team will sleep late and then we'll take the two minute walk to the beach, swim in the Mediterranean, eat seafood, and hang out for the rest of the day. I have lots to say about the site (snake stories and Albanian observations), this place (video coming), and the experiences [wedding party (not mine) and weird restrooms]. However, you'll all have to wait till tomorrow. Goodnight and carpe diem.