Albanian is one of the coolest and hardest languages I’ve ever learned. One of my favorite parts of it is that the literal translations of words can be kind of intense! Let me show you an example. “Thank you” in English is "faleminderit" in Albanian. But, the literal translation means “I salute your honor.” Woah! Seems very intense and old-school to me.
This journal is supposed to be a farewell journal. If you try to translate “farewell” to Albanian, you get lamtumirë. Except, you only say lamtumirë if you are saying goodbye… forever! We definitely aren’t doing that! So, how else can we say goodbye? Another way to say goodbye is mirupafshim. Mirupafshim literally translates to “may we well see each other.” I think of this as "when we see each other again, I hope we are well." Hopefully one day, I can actually see you all!
To say goodbye in a more relaxed way, you can say tung (pronounced "toong"). Sometimes, people will say "tung tung," and I think that sounds really cute. It’s kind of like saying “bye” or “bye-bye” instead of “goodbye.”
It can feel kind of lonely living far away from home in an unfamiliar place. Even though I shared a lot of exciting parts, it isn't always easy living in a foreign country.
