Living life to the fullest! John 10:10: it's not all work...

Well “Spring has Sprung!” and we are so ready! It wasn’t until April that we turned our clocks ahead and began to enjoy longer days. Now it is light until 8:00! Just like predicted April was full of rain and of course power outages as a result. I even felt a few earthquakes, which was a new and unnerving experience for this “East Coast” girl. Now everything is in bloom and the grass needs to be mowed again. Our neighbors are planting their gardens. I am starting to take more walks up to the castle again but miss my typical outdoor hobbies. If I were home I would be finding time to get the kayak out on the lake.

At LAC the seniors are suffering from “senioritis” which as you may have expected is not unique to just American students. Graduation is June 13^th and they have many National Exams that they need take for Albania in addition to finishing their current classes. They have had to endure many lectures from their teachers to “stay focused” and “finish strong.” Several are hoping to find themselves in college in North America next year and more are planning to be in Lithuania at LCC International which is an excellent opportunity for our students as it is a North America style education at a price that can be afforded. The seniors are also looking forward to Prom which will be the last Sat. of May.

"appropriate attire" for visiting the Meteora Monasteries

So let me tell you what I have been doing for fun! I have had a few adventures this past month. I got to go paragliding with my friend Stela from Tirana. Though not quit the same rush as skydiving, I gotta say running off a mountain is still pretty fun! The location was Vlore a coastal town in the south so the view of the Sea and the mountains from the air was beautiful. We also went to a traditional Albanian restaurant for lunch afterwards which was great! The first weekend in May I also took a quick trip down to Southern Albania for two nights and spent one night in Greece.

This is the Monastery used in the Bond movie.
I did not have time to visit this one.

While in Greece I went to Meteora which is a very unique place where monasteries are built on the edge of cliffs like bird's nests. There are six that are open for visits. If you ever watched the old James Bond movie "For your eyes only" than you know the spot. We took a tour of one which was a cool experience and they had wrap-around skirts they had us ladies borrow to cover our "slacks".

View of distant Monastery from the one I got to tour.

Also, a really cool spot in Southern Albania that I enjoyed visiting is the archaeological city of Butrint. Some of the ruins date back to the Roman empire and it was a functioning city during the Venetian and Ottoman time periods as well. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a National Park. I have encountered this "recycling of ancient fortresses" over an over again. In Gjirokastra we visited another castle that was used as a prison as recently as the Nazi invasion in 1943. That particular city was very old and the architecture in the old city very unique.

This past weekend I went to Tirana and finally visited the National Museum of History which helped me understand the importance of some of the cities I had visited and some of the events that happened there. I also, went to see a movie in a very nice, modern theater. Spiderman in English and 3D so a very "American" experience!