week 8

Hello! It's been another great week. This week at work was not super eventful. I just worked really hard to finish one of my reports. The research is difficult because often times materials I need may be hidden in hard to find places or be in Albanian. I am being very careful to make sure I do not miss any of the legal authorities I need to include in this report. Hopefully it will be very useful for the colleague who will be conducting a project and paper on this matter later in the fall.

After a long week at work I boarded a bus headed to a small town called Prizren, Kosovo. I was invited by a fellow intern who joined D4D at the beginning of the week. He is from the United Kingdom. Once we got to Prizren we checked into our hostel then went out for a pint. We met a local resident at a pub and had a very nice evening conversing with him. This guy told me a very interesting story about this American agent he used to drive back and forth from Tirana. I have heard a lot of stories in my day and tend to be skeptical of things I hear in pubs, but this guy's story checked out. Either way I greatly enjoyed listening.

The next morning I woke up early and went on a long hike along the river heading south of town, towards a national park. The mountains were beautiful. Later in the day I returned to the hostel and my British friend was finally awake. We then went and climbed a steep hill to the castle at the top, then later had dinner in town.

That evening my friend and I went to a music festival that was happening in Prizren that evening. It was called Ngom Fest. It was actually supposed to be held in the castle, which would have been crazy, but because of rain it was held inside a massive gym. It was still very fun. We were joined by another American I met at the hostel as well as a couple of my friend's friends who came down that evening from Prishtine. The music was very European sounding electronic music. Not really something I normally listen to, but I had a nice time and it was a very cool experience.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. We just came back on a bus on Sunday, and I spent Sunday night doing laundry and stuff like that. That's all for now, but expect another update next week! Until then, Ciao!