There and Back Again

Well, we have been in Albania for about 24+ hours now, but there is much to tell. First about the flights. Our first flight, the long over-nighter into vienna, had some fun moments. Shortly after our early morning breakfast (which would have been around 1am EST) we we asked (i think) by one of the flight attendants to sing a song for them, I believe this was a result of our telling him we were a choir. Well, we all trecked back ‘into the kitchen’ and sang “I am gonna work so God can use me” for all to hear. It was a very unique experience, all huddled up in the rear of the Jet where the food is kept, I was in the very back, hoping that the door stayed closed which was the only thing separating me from the air rushing by at several hundred MPH outside. And as a reward for our signing we were treated to some Austrian sweet wine.

We then caught our connecting flight and made it into Albania. Albania is a very different country. It was similar to some of what I had seen when I was in Mexico, but not really. We passed all kinds of constrution on the way to our hotel, but it seems like 75% of it wasn’t being currently worked on. Tirana, where we are staying, was voted the dirtiest capital city in the world in 2004, and I can see why. It is quite dirty and run down. But the people of Albania seem to be very nice and friendly people on the whole.

Today we woke up a little earlier than usual due to an early early night. And did some walking around the city, during which the power went off (we found out that this is fairly rare in Tirana, although not in other cities, but most shops still had generators despite the claimed rarity of the outtages) after which we traveld to mount Pajti and rode up the mountain on the 3day old cable car that was just built by Austria. I think the reasons it was built were political, trying to convince Albania to join the European Union or some such thing.

I only have a short time before we are leaving for a dinner and then our first concert in the Opera House here in Tirana. So i guess i will leave the news at that for now.

Tonight is the night. We just had our last concert before heading off to Albania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. It was nice too see all the people that we knew who showed up for the ‘Bon Voyage’ concert.
Getting everything ready for this trip has proved to be more last minute than i had hoped for, being tired from trying to fit in evertying I had to get done on this last day as well as having a full concert. But I am looking forward to a decently long bus ride and flight tomorrow, it will be an excellent time to catch some much needed rest. As much as I am looking forward to this trip, I don’t really know what to expect from it, what the places we will be going to will be like, or even when our first concert is . But that is ok, I think i prefer to find out what it is like as the trip progresses, rather than having expectations going into it.

Well, the summer has done its job well, and flown by like it always does. I find myself faced with less than one day left to be in the states until we (the Song for the Nations choir) head out to the airport and fly on over to Eastern Europe. I still have all my packing to do, and some figuring out about what to take with me, but I am not worried about that.

Another thing of note is that I had a job interview today. It was quite last minute as I only had recieved a call from the place a few days ago, but I was glad to fit it in before leaving for 3 weeks. The position seems to be an interesting one, a mixture of many things, programming, technical know-how and client management. I feel like it might be the thing I want to do, but i need to think and pray about it since they are looking for someone to make a fairly serious commitment to the job before hiring them. This stems from the high turn-over they have been having in recent years. But it seems cool, a small company in Camp Hill, and primarily messiah grads from over the years, strange but cool enough.

Anywho, That is what I will be having on my mind while I am traveling Europe, so keep me in your prayers if you can, I would like that. Oh, and check up on the Song for the Nations journal, hopefully some of us will have time to update it with news and maybe pictures too while we are gone. au revoir!