Author: Jediah Plumley

So earlier this week we were broken into teams and then given our subject. We were given a teenage classical musician from Gjakova. I was immediately excited by this project! Musicians are usually a little different and fun to work with. I was immediately excited by the possible angles I could take to work on this project. The only issue that was made was that my partner decided that Gjakova is too far from Pristina.

He and I had to have a conversation about the possibilities that could be created by working with this particular subject. I was determined to follow this project through and had to convince my partner that this would be best for our project. We decided that we would go meet the subject and see if this was a story worth following up on.

The week started off with a nice orientation day. We had the experience to tour the college and some of the city. We had a nice lunch with the professors and we had a chance to talk with each of the different professors. It was nice to sit down and talk with professors I wouldn’t have.

Half of the reason that I went on this trip was to take the Developmental Economics class that was supposed to be offered but not enough students signed up. The staff was extremely helpful with helping me set up an independent study. I will be able to take the classes that will help me the most in my field of study. I am very happy that they were willing to do this for me.

The regional trip was a lot of fun but it was also very stressful. It felt like we spent a majority of the trip on the bus. We went to five countries in eight days. That is way too many places to go in such a short amount of time. There was never any time to relax or to absorb the culture. Wherever we went it felt rushed and slightly disorganized. Whenever a group of this size travels, there will always be issues but I felt like many could of been thwarted by visiting less countries.

I did enjoy myself but I felt like I only got to look at these places. I never felt like we had enough time to truly relax, and enjoy the cities were were in. Even with the constant racing, the trip was fun and I enjoyed the trip.

Whenever I have traveled in a group before, it seems like groups form as soon as the trip starts. I was surprised to see that the group seemed to stay fluid. I felt like I was able to move between groups and interact with everyone.

The only time that it seem to segregate was when it got later in the evening and people wanted to do different things. I was happy to see that people appeared to be comfortable doing their own thing.

Since I signed up for this trip, my friends and family have been asking me what this trip is going to be like. At this point, I really don’t know what to expect. Instead of imagining what my trip will be like, I have been focusing on planning and packing for the trip. Everyday, I have been packing, writing lists, researching, and spending time with my friends.

In the past when I have been planning for a trip, my imagination takes too many liberties and what I expect the place to be like is completely unrealistic. I have been trying to thwart this problem and I have been focusing all of my energy on the controllable aspects of the pre-trip.