My Neighborhood

Perhaps you are curious to know where I live. Well, I mean, I know you know that I live in Albania. And if you've been following my blog from the beginning you've also been on a tour of my house. BUT until this point you have not seen too many pictures of the neighborhood/community where I live.

Early one morning last week, Katie (my missionary partner) went out on a photography adventure and captured some pictures of the Kenet. She has generously given me permission to post a link to her blog here so you can see some of the pictures (with captions) that she took. Hope this gives you a better visual as to where we are living. Enjoy!

Click here for the neighborhood tour

Nicole & Katie In Albania: Video Update 8

The weather dropped from 96 deg. to 70 deg. overnight. Katie and I were super excited. Check out our video for more information about the change in weather.

 Oh...don't forget to watch all of our videos until the very end! ;)

Getting Out of the Boat

Right now, building relationships is my job. Sounds easy, right? Would you think less of me if I admitted how incredibly difficult it is? Especially for shy, introverted me. It’s hard in my own language to go up and make conversation with people I know… and multiply that by (at least) 100 when it’s in a language you’re just barely treading water in, people you don’t know, and a culture you still don’t completely understand. Why the heck did God call ME to Albania to build new relationships? There are so many other people in this world that would be so much better at this than me. Why me??

I have the desire, but not the courage. I’m willing, but terrified. But here’s the thing I’ve learned over the last 2 months: all I have to do is take the initiative. Take the first step. Get out of the boat. And God meets me there. When I step out of my comfort-zone, He’s there with the safety net ready to catch me so I don’t fall. He’s holding my hand, pushing me from behind and on the sidelines cheering for me all at the same time. He’s there to help me every step of the way. He wants to see me succeed- all I have to do is take the first step.

God didn’t call me to Albania because it would be easy. He called me here at this time because He knows it’s where I am supposed to be according to His plan. With everything in life there are growing pains- they are uncomfortable, hurt like heck, and stretch you more than you desire. They don’t kill you, but instead make you stronger. They increase your faith and mold you into the person God created you to be.

I’m still not sure why God called me to do this. I know that this is where I’m supposed to be. It’s not easy, but as long as I continue to make an effort, God will give me all of the strength I need.

Nicole & Katie In Albania: Video Update 7

Katie and I have been in Albania for two months now. We have a solid base of language and can hold a basic conversation. Or so we think...

We have started to speak only in Albanian one day a week in our home. No English... What a challenge!

Watch our first "Vetem Shqip te Shtunen.

We have included subtitles on the bottom of the screen- read them first time around. THEN, watch the video again and read the thought bubbles up top to get a glimpse into our minds as we try to speak only Albanian.

Nicole & Katie in Albania: Video Update 6

Fanta Exotic. Eggplant. And tiny glasses. The latest update live from Albania.

Have any questions, topics or thoughts you'd like us to discuss on our next video? Let us know. Until then... uh, mirupafshim.

EuroConference 2011: Part 3

The ride home wasn’t nearly as eventful as the ride up. We did run into a bit of traffic the first day, which added a few extra hours onto the trip, but it wasn’t too bad. Driving through Germany and Austria I caught myself thinking what it would have been like for my ancestors many years ago when they were living there. I’m definitely not a history person but there’s something about being in a place so rich with history that makes me stand in awe.  Are there any similarities still today? Or is everything completely different? I tried to envision what life might have been like back then and wished I had the chance to ask and discuss this with them personally. Thankfully we’ll have a lot of time to catch up in heaven. ;)

Sunrise in Germany

Anyway… back to the story… On the return we spent the night outside of Venice, Italy and had about 2 hours to spend in the city. It was beautiful. There is just something about water that I find very attractive and relaxing. We had just enough time to visit St. Mark’s Square, get some pizza, and head back to the hostel. 

Venice, Italy

Add caption

St. Mark's Cathedral

Venice by night.

We were all wiped out, and as our head hit the pillow that night we were out. Another early morning to ensure we returned the rental cars and caught the ferry on time.

We got to Bari and were hit with good news and bad news. The good news was the rental cars were returned on time and we didn’t get charged an extra day. The bad news was the ferry was delayed… of course, a reoccurring theme of our travels.

We split up into two groups. One group stayed with the luggage as the second went to get dinner and then we switched. It was a long 8 hours of sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting (Yes, I feel that repeating myself three times makes it more dramatic.)

A pretty sweet castle in Bari, Italy

Waiting for the ferry... (L-R: Katie, Me and Dawn)

Waiting with the luggage for the delayed ferry.

The ferry finally arrived. We made it. And, well, the rest is history. 

The End. 

EuroConference 2011: Part 2

The conference itself was pretty exciting but not nearly as exciting as the journey to the conference... really though, how can you follow that adventure? I felt like I was living my dream of being on the Amazing Race.

It’s always a pleasure being around like minded people. People with the same mission and goals. People who can relate to things you are going through. And after only a month in the field it was nice being surrounded by native English speakers again.

The conference was a time to worship. A time to learn. And a time to grow. The speakers were all very inspirational and left us with good practical advice to take back to the field with us.

The center we stayed in was beautiful. It was really nice being able to drink water from the tap (and brush our teeth with tap water) and take long showers. Though I gotta admit I didn’t take nearly as long as I could have. There was internet access available, the roads were paved and there was tons of grass everywhere. Minus the fact that the natives spoke German and not English, I felt like I was back in America. It was refreshing. 

Schonblick Conference Center

Schonblick Conference Center

Schwabisch Gmund, Germany

Each afternoon we had a block of free time to use at our leisure. A few days we walked into town. I'm always amazed to be in a place that is so rich with history. It makes me feel so small.

Schwabisch Gmund, Germany

some shops

stereotypical German building

beautiful cathedral

having fun

EuroConference 2011: Part 1

Every year the Europe Area has a conference where all fields gather together. It is a time of praise and worship. Fellowship and camaraderie. Inspiration and motivation. And a time to create and share goals for the upcoming year. 

The location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. 

In attempt to save money 8 of us (the Bishop Family, Danika, Katie, and I) decided to pile in the 9 person van, the BLemon, and drive to conference. Surely this would be exponentially less money than it would cost for 8 plane tickets. 

The plan: take a ferry from Durres, Albania to Bari, Italy. Drive from Bari, Italy to Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany via Trento, Italy. We had 2 drivers. It was infallible.

...or so we thought. 

So off we went. We left on a Thursday night and took an overnight ferry from Durres to Bari. 

our little room on the ferry

I claimed the top bunk

We woke up in Italy, bright eyed and bushy tailed for our 8 hour trek to Trento, Italy for the night.

Ready for the road-trip, unaware of what the future held in store.

pulling into Bari, Italy

4 hours into the trek the van started to make noises. 4 hours and 2 minutes into the trek the van was making louder, more consistent noises. 4 hours and 10 minutes into the trek we were slowly coasting into a VW dealership in Seniqallia, Italy, only to find out the dealership was closed for another 30 minutes on lunch break. 

Lunch break at the VW dealership

Approximately 5 hours into the trek we were informed that it was a broken piston in the van and we would have to leave the BLemon at the dealership for the week. 

the BLemon

Emptying our luggage, leaving the BLemon in Italy.

Have no fear there was a train station down the road. 

Go with plan 2. Take a train from Seniqallia, Italy to Stuttgart, Germany and a bus to Schwäbisch Gmünd. Problem: all trains were booked for 2 days.

...Plan 3. Take a bus (or multiple buses) from Seniqallia, Italy to Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. Problem: all buses were booked for 2 days.

...Plan 4. Rent a van and continue the drive. Problem: rental vans are outrageously priced.

...Plan 5. Rent 2 economy rental cars, split group between 2 cars – 3 people and 1 driver per car. Continue the drive. Problem: none. Activate plan 5.

As you can imagine it took a few hours to get plan 5 in place. So while Ken and Dawn Bishop were figuring it all out, the rest of us sat in the train station with all the luggage for 4 hours trying to pass the time.We kept ourselves busy by playing estimation games and taking shifts walking around town.

The lovely train station we sat at for 4 hours.

trying to keep busy

random photoshoot

After our 4/5 hour setback we were on the road again. With only a few wrong turns we arrived to the hostel at 1:30pm. Thankfully Katie studied a semester in Italy and was able to get out and ask for directions in Italian to get us back on track.

The next morning we woke up early so we could spend a few minutes in Trento before hitting the road again. 

Early Morning, Trento, Italy

At 8am we were good. Starting new. Back on track. Leaving Trento, Italy at 8am we would surely be in Schwäbisch Gmünd by 1pm. 2pm at the latest.

Well it might have been 1pm, or 2pm at the latest if the whole continent of Europe wasn’t on holiday the same week. We ended up getting caught in standstill traffic for 3 hours. But we pushed on and made it through. We endured the traffic and were back on the road again continuing our game of follow the leader.

playing follow the leader

a castle on a hill in Austria.

…until traffic picked up again and we got separated from our leader and made a wrong turn… with no map in the car or an exit off the highway for 100km.

Thankfully there was a rest stop where we picked up a map and were able to navigate our way to the conference center. Arriving around 7pm and only a half hour after the first car.

To Be Continued: Part 2: the conference, and Part 3: the adventure home

Nicole & Katie in Albania: Video Update 5

Do you know the difference between Coca-Cola and Cola Cola? What about the difference between a Souvlaki and Sufflaq? Watch this video to find out.

Eggs In A Bag and Milk In A Coke Bottle

Life here is different. For more reasons that one, but today I will highlight on difference: supermarkets/ grocery stores in the Kenet.

Going to the store is a daily affair. Thank God we have a store at the end of our street (100ish yards,) literally I am thanking God for this. This shop is the most convenient and we visit it frequently, however it is not the only one in our neighborhood. Stores are everywhere. If you want to sell something, open a shop, no problem. There are at least 10 shops (probably more) within 5-minute walk from our house.

There are no Super-Walmart's or Wegman's. Some shops are as small as the size of our bathroom in my house in the states. In the tiny shops, most common, you enter the shop and tell the shopkeeper what you are looking for and they fetch it for you. Much easier than walking up and down the 100 aisles of Wegmans or even 10 aisles of Aldi/ Dash’s.

Along with the size of the store, the selections are much smaller as well. This makes life much a million times easier for an indecisive person like me. You get what they have and you don’t have to decide between 92 types of cereal, 57 varieties of ketchup or 23 brands of toilet paper.

Eggs come in a bag and you can walk into the shop and specify the number of eggs you want. You can get 1 or 20+, you aren’t locked into multiples of 12.

Milk... there are many options for milk; none of which you regularly find in the U.S. You can buy powdered milk. You can buy a box of milk, 1.5l. Or you can order milk from the milk lady. In this case milk comes in a coke (or other soda) bottle. It is cheaper and supposedly tastes better if you get it from the milk lady. However if you choose this route you must boil it before use.

Cheese here is not creamy. It is crumbly like feta, heck maybe it is feta, beats me. It’s salty, has a strong flavor, and delicious. It doesn’t melt in grilled cheese sandwiches. Trust me, I know. We have grilled cheese about twice a week…the nights I am on dinner duty. I’m pretty sure my cooking skills make my mom and grandma proud ;-)

Pop comes in 1.5l bottles, not 2l. Fanta (a coke product) and Ivi (a Pepsi product) are popular here. Fanta Exotic and Ivi Peach are my favorites and should be bought by all if you can find either an/or both in the U.S. If you come for a visit I will treat you to both a Fanta Exotic and Ivi Peach (it’s a great incentive to come visit!)

Corn on the cob sold at the market is not “sweet corn”(?) You can’t just boil it and eat it. The only way to consume it is by grilling. We learned that lesson the hard way. That was a fun night.

Not everything is marked, price wise. Maybe people just know the prices. Maybe they change depending on the person and day? I’m not really sure. All I know is I don’t know the price until I get to the register- it’s always a surprise. Cash Registers and receipts are non-existent and credit/debit cards, what are those? A calculator is used to tally the prices and only cash is accepted.

If we don’t have enough money to purchase what we need, no problem. We can go back later that day or following week and pay off our debt (at the store we visit frequently.)

Men get served first. If you, a woman, are waiting in line and a man comes to the check out he gets priority. You wait.

Life is different, and I like it.

Nicole & Katie in Albania: Video Update 3

Live, or not so live, from Albania -Video Update 3.

Have questions that you would like addressed on one of our video updates, email me or send me a facebook message and we'll be sure to include them in a future video update!