Enxhi Merpeza; Tirana, Albania; Second Week

The Second Week was quite an adventure at work, the first day that we were given actual tasks we were thrown right into meetings with two Harvard Masters Students from the Kennedy School and Directors of the Tourist Sector. Given that we had no prior knowledge of other students from America interning at the Ministry--let alone Harvard Masters students--I'd say I felt both intimidated and comforted by the fact that Americans would be involved in most all matters of the Tourist Sector since Harvard is their primary research team and has been for a good chunk of 2014. Although I will note, most all the Harvard Masters students are not native English speakers and come from all walks of life and from all over the world. Being that I speak Albanian, it's proven advantageous to be in other meetings with the Harvard students, as myself and my colleagues, Kledia and Ejona, have been been used for our English speaking skills to translate a line or two between the Harvard crew and the Directors of the Tourist Sector, even though most of the Directors also speak fluent English. Some things are literally "lost in translation" and that's where we are up for the job/ super helpful since emotions and logistics can be tricky when two non-native English speakers are discussing legal, urban development, and research matters in English.

Me reading up on some Tourist docs at Taiwan, which is really a tourist trap type restaurant, hence the name. But is a very frequented and popular coffee/food place due to it structure and attractive water fountain facade on the front side of the building...see below.

P.S. I don't always smile while working, but Kledia told me to smile because I looked like I was concentrating too hard while reading.

This is a photo I pulled from online from panaramio.com that features Taiwan during the night time...

We were each divided into three separate offices of the Tourist Sector, and I ended up in the Statistics division of Tourism which also led to additional meetings that week--really I spent my whole week reading up on stats of tourism in Albania and attending meeting with a freelance consultant that is affiliated with the UNWTO but works out of the UK. Given that he too was an English speaker and that he detected my American Accent right away we hit it off and delved into intense conversations about all the other places in the world that he has consulted for, which ranged from Buthan to a number of African Nations and recently the Balkan Area--which is why he was consulting with the Albanian stats division on how to further progress the accuracy, proficiency and coordination between agencies in Albania that deal with Touristic stats (i.e. immigration, Tirana International Airport, Ministry of Economics...etc.). Overall, I not only networked with a variety of people who have a lot of pull in the international domain, but also people who could be influential to not only my future career prospects but to the future of the Albanian sector with their innovative ideas and very strategic layouts/ plans for the government--naturally very academically structured strategies and explanations. Needless to say, I had a very full week of meetings and wrapping my head around how Government works in Albania.

Between work meetings and getting settled in our house, the girls and myself explored the city as well by frequenting all the little coffee shops and trying few local foods (mainly on the go type franchises)--but we hope to eat more traditional foods in local restaurants next week. It was a lot of coffee--I don't think I'm accustomed to this much caffeine regularly in the US--not even during finals soo...I have been cutting back since the second week.

My favorite cappucino I've had thus far--and that's saying something...but it was hazelnutty and SUPER good.