February 26, 2024
We made it to Prishtina
around noon (Kosovo time) and our flights went well. Our tickets were still messed up when we got
to Dulles International, but we told the ticket agent about the problem when they started checking us in. The ticket agent made the changes and it did
not take us extra time as it did in Madison. Our group got into Vienna early in the morning after our 8 1/2 flight. Then we flew from Vienna to Prishtina where we arrived around noon. It was just about an hour and half
flight. We got to see some beautiful views of snowcapped
mountains and a very large lake, just a bit before we neared the airport.
The airport in Prishtina is small and very easy to navigate. We were met by
a group of Peace Corps – Kosovo staffers and they were so welcoming. We also met one more member of our group, who
flew in from Copenhagen last night. He
was finishing up school in Denmark and they decided not to have him fly back to
the U.S. for orientation. So now KOS 09 has team members.
(There is a better photo at the link)
The Hotel Amazona, where we are staying, is on the outskirts of Prishtina and it is quite nice. We have a small two room suite with a couch and easy chair in the one room and a bed in the other room.
We met more of the staff and had a nice lunch
with lots of salad and vegetables. There
was other good food, but the salad was exactly what I felt like. I had sat next to one of the staff and she is
a vegan. She told me that it should not
be a problem to maintain my diet, which is almost vegan. I don't eat meat or dairy, but do still eat eggs.
After lunch, we met other
members of the staff. We got our
language workbooks, our Sim cards and our new phone numbers for Kosovo. We learned who will be in our language
group. I will be with Winston, Vincent, and
Geena. Thom is with Sarah, Alyanna, and Cloe. Noah and David are doing the Albanian/Serbian Language program and will be in a group by themselves. We will start our lessons tomorrow. Even though I am worried about passing the language competency in 10 weeks, the language staff is confident that they will get me to a point of passing.
We had only a short
session today and we had the afternoon to get organized. Everyone was tired, so we all went to our rooms
after dinner. Tomorrow, we start at 9 am
and go until 3 pm. We will eat our meals
in the hotel with our group.
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