Ok, so the past couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy! Because I am going to be teaching English in elementary and secondary schools, I had to teach several classes over the past 2 weeks. Some of my lessons went very well while others were complete messes. The first week I taught in the Pajove high school. I quickly learned that teaching a multi-level class is a huge challenge. This past week I taught in a 9-year school (1st-9th grade). My favorite class and grade I taught was 4th grade. The kids were so excited, wanted to learn, and really tried their hardest. My lesson I created was also tons of fun to execute. Because schools begin teaching English in 3rd grade, the 4th graders only know the basics. The lesson I taught was on possessive pronouns. I was so much fun to think up games and activities that the 4th graders would enjoy, but would also help them learn all the possessive pronouns and how/when to use them.

The language has definitely proven to be difficult, but I now can have conversations with Albanians, get to where I need to be, and know what is generally going on around me. I really thought that there was no way I would be able to conquer this language, but I am slowly but surely being able to integrate. Understanding and learning the language has helped me with my host family as well. My host family is only a "father" and a "mother" so there really isn't a lot going on in the house at night or should I say after sun-down. Since I now understand Albanian I can communicate much better with my host family and being at home is not as lonely as it has been these past 7 weeks.

My host father is a farmer and he has a huge orchard with cherry, pear, plum, apple, and orange trees. I got the opportunity to visit the orchard and he walked me though it telling me where each kind of tree was located. I have heard that the cherries here are absolutely amazing so I am super excited for cherry season, especially because it is coming up and my host family will have tons of them!