Albania

We flew from Hungary to Portland about a week ago and we've settled back into the beautiful Pacific Northwest.  When we're away coming back it's always striking seeing the massive amount of green trees.  And it's nice that jetlag is never bad coming this direction.

Two weekends ago I visited a friend from UCLA named Roger and his wife Jennie in Tirana, Albania.  They just got married this past summer and were excellent hosts!  Roger and Jennie are helping grow a church and seminary in Tirana. Also, here's the link to a video that Roger narrated that details the horrible suffering Albanians experienced under their uniquely evil dictator Enver Hoxha entitled "Prison Nation" http://www.albanianhumanrights.org/albania-prison-nation.html

Albania has also provided some inspiration for an online language-learning and translation project.  In a year or so I'm hoping to launch a website that provides language teaching online and translation services to customers around the world.  In particular, the possibility of helping residents of poor countries improve their ability to compete in the global marketplace with better English is a very appealing endeavor.  And I've already acquired a cool domain name:  TurboLanguages.

It had been 14 years since I had first gone out to Albania with other good friends from UCLA. Tirana has developed dramatically and I was struck by all the big towers.  Roger and I both enjoyed cappuccinos from the top of a cafe/restaurant that slowly spins around for a nice view of the city. Here's some pictures from this awesome trip!

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