Babaj Boks

I’m in my final week of my service and the past few weeks have been busy doing everything that I can before I leave Albania. Today, I got to experience a true traditional Albanian festival called Babaj Boks (or Babaj i Bokes) that happens only one a year on May 6th in a small, remote village in Kosovo near the Tropoje border crossing. I wasn’t able to do last year because I had work with my hypertension training, so I was so happy that I had a chance to go this year with the family.

We started preparing for the feast the night before by cooking byrek, French fries, fli, salad, and other snacks for UA to eat there. Mama Gjylle woke up at 6am to make sure the pumpkin byrek would be warm and fresh for the event. Also, to my surprise, while we were all sleeping, Mama Gjylle came around to each of our beds and sprinkled a small amount of flower water from the cup she was holding. I later learned that this was a traditional thing to do each year on May 6th and is known to ward away evil. This is just one of many superstitions that Albanians have (read more about Albanian superstitions that I’ve experienced by clicking here). The rest of the family woke up at 7am to get ready. The family’s aunt and uncle from the village T’Pla were already there, sitting in the living room waiting for us to get ready. After about an hour, we all headed out in the families mini SUV to meet two other uncles of theirs and their families at a gas station near the Kosovo border. When everyone arrived, we all drove together in a line to the event (our cell phones don’t work in Kosovo, they only work if someone puts extra money on their phone a which still ends up not being enough to talk for a good amount of time so we usually don’t do that).

As we drove up the long road to the field where the fest was being held, we passed by many carriages and trucks filled with sheep and chickens. There were people everywhere! Many people took buses or taxis just to the turnoff from the maim highway and were walking up the long, windy road. And at that time, it was already at least 85 degrees. I was happy to be comfortable in a nice, air-conditioned car, blocked by the heat. As we got to the place where we parked the car, I could see in the near distance old, rundown fair rides with children swing in the air. It reminded me a lot of the Renaissance Festival that we have in Colorado with the field parking and outdoor festivities, but just WAY more simple and rusty.

Before checking out all the rides and games, we followed a crowd of people walking further up the hill to a small mosque-like building (I really couldn’t tell what it was because it didn’t have the traditional mosque tower, but I do know that it was for Muslims). Gimi told me that it was traditional that everyone goes into this building before they start their festivities to get “blessed.”

I joined in on the traditions which included placing my hand on what looked like a long coffin box covered in handmade blankets and asking for blessings, getting a giant hoop made out of beads thrown over me as I tried to climb through it, and finally getting a blue piece of yarn to put around my wrist to wear throughout the day. They all knew that I was a foreigner and allowed me to take photos and videos of the traditions. See them in the videos below.

This next part is a bit gory so if you don’t like seeing or reading about the killing of animals I suggest skipping a head. Next, Gimi and I went behind the building to see the butchers with the sheep that they had slaughtered for the fest. Normally, I would not agree to see this as I’m a vegetarian and very against the slaughtering of animals for fun. But, today I felt very open-minded and interested in experiencing this tradition, knowing that I would probably never get a chance to experience something like this again.

There was blood everywhere! The sheep were lined up on two sides of a large tarp and the butchers went around cutting off the sheep’ tongues and handing them to people which is also a seen as a symbol of luck. Then, the butchers began to prepare the sheep for the food vendors to cook and sell down at the tents closer to the festival grounds.

When we got back to our cars, we found a tree close to the carnival rides and set up our blankets and pillows in the shade. I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement so Gimi, Joni, and I head towards the rides to get a better look at the festival.

The scene was exactly like a stereotypical Albanian country fair. There were multiple swing rides made out of chains and metal, throwing children in round-abouts as they tried to bump can tackle each others’ seats in the air. Small, homemade roulette tables and spinners were set up under umbrellas with teenage boys huddled around. Ring toss games over soda bottles cover in euros and cheap cellphones as prizes were spread out through the fairgrounds for people to test their depth perception and luck. On the opposite side of the fair, there was a small farmer’s markets-like setup of food and clothes vendors and eating areas under large tents for people to relax and enjoy their food. Two men with dressed up in traditional wear walked around the park pounding on drums the size of their stomachs while various people would stop and dance around them until they headed to their next destination.

After exploring the grounds we went back to the swings where Joni met up with his other friends and gave the ride a go a couple of times. After the second round, Gimi looked at me and said “Hajde” (come here) as he pulled me to the swings. Just like before, usually I would never partake in this, seeing that the ride was clearly very old and would never pass the regulations that we have for rides I’m America. But again, I was feeling open-minded and adventurous so I hopped on an open swing and handed my camera to Joni.

It was the craziest ride I’d ever been on. The people in front of me would randomly bang on my seat as they twisted and turned to make the ride more enjoyable for themselves. Gimi was sites behind me and at one point during the ride he grabbed my sit and twisted it until I was facing him and was flying in the backwards direction. The funny thing is that I wasn’t scared at all. Not even a bit. Even the fact that I was the only female on the ride didn’t bother me. I just enjoyed the moment and took it all in. It was simple amazing. And of course we went for a second time. But by the third time, Joni was getting to anxious so we let him and his friends continue their fun and let them take our seats.

Gimi and I then went to try the ringtoss game which we completely failed both times, then grabbed some ice cream and a hamburger (for Gimi of course) and then head back to the picnic area with the rest of the family.

The blanket was covered in foods made by each of the families. Everyone was either laying in the shade or playing soccer nearby. I sat down and ate some of Mama Gjylle’s pumpkin byrek which I had been thinking about since waking up to the smell of it baking that morning and watched as the kids tossed the soccer ball back and forth.

After an hour or so, I had to leave to catch a bus to Tirana (for my final End of Service meeting!!) so I said goodbye to everyone and headed to the main road with Gimi to meet the driver.

And that brings me to where I am now – sitting on a furgon (Albanian for “bus”) reflecting on the day I just had. It was definitely a much different experience than I’ve had during the my service. And it was so much fun. I loved how much I felt part of the family and how I truly got to experience something that foreigners probably never get to experience while traveling. I feel Albanian, yet I know that it’s only temporary. I could not think of a better way to end my experience, feeling like I’ve truly mastered a culture and feeling comfortable to live in that culture as if I am one of their own. It’s the perfect final experience before heading to Peace Corps office to end my service.

Now the tough part is coming…saying goodbye to everyone. It’s something that I’ve been trying to prepare myself for because I know it’s going to be one of the hardest goodbyes for me to say. But I’ll be sure to write about it in another blog post for you to see how I handle the situation. 🙂

Easter with the Kids

It’s kind of bittersweet that I’m writing about this because it’s probably the last holiday I was able to celebrate with the kids in my apartment building before heading back to the US. We’ve had so much fun in the past two years and it’s hard to believe that it’s ending so soon.

For Easter this year, I decided to surprise the kids with a egg coloring party at my house to show them how we celebrate Easter in the US. I went to the family’s shop and bought a dozen eggs and knock on their door with the see-through bag of eggs in my head. And you know what happened next….nothing. No one answered the door which is so out of character of them. Oh well I thought. So I went in my house, grabbed my phone and started to call them. I accidentally programed my phone with their dad’s number under the same name as them so I actually called him instead which made the situation a little awkward. But then finally I called the correct number and they came up the stairs to my house right away.

They were so excited to see how it worked since they’d only seen pictures on the internet of colored eggs.  I had already boiled the eggs but 1/4 of them had cracked in the pot. So the girls went and bought 20 more eggs! Let’s just say my house smelt interesting by the end of the party. Together we watched a Youtube video on how to make the eggs super vibrant and we followed the instructions to the T.

In the meantime, some of the girls were making holiday decorations or playing Easter games on the iPod touch that I brought from the US. Once everything was ready, they each took turns putting an egg in one of the bowls with dyed water. I was heart-warming to see their faces every time they took out the eggs and saw how vibrant the colors were. It was even more amazing to see them using their creativity to make the eggs even more unique. One girl suggested that we put some round stickers on the eggs before putting them in the dye and seeing what happens. She was very excited to see that those ares stay white, making a polka-dotted pattern. Another girl suggest that we write our names in crayon on the eggs before putting them in the dye to see if it would have an effect on the end result. She also was surprised to see that the wax prevented the color from absorbing in those areas so her name was clear to see even after she had put it in the dye. It was so much fun. Meanwhile, we also made sugar-covered marshmallows and chocolate covered marshmallows (I know, super healthy but hey it was Easter!)

It was so much fun! Definitely an easter I will remember forever.

Grapes are GOOD! Coca-Cola is BAD!

For the past two days, my counterpart and I have gone to the two preschool classrooms that were not included in my Dental Health Grant with the kindergarteners (and some preschoolers). It is so much fun seeing them interact in the lesson with this Happy Tooth Sad Tooth game I found on Etsy.com. “Grapes are GOOD!” and “Coca-Cola is BAD!”they would shout with every new food we would show them. It was just too cute!

Now we have taught every single kindergartner and preschooler (plus some older classes on the side) in my city about how to brush their teeth correctly and what foods are healthy for teeth. Now I can only hope that teaching dental hygiene to the kindergarteners and preschoolers continues after I’m gone. I can gladly say that what I have seen from my counterpart and the school teachers with their desire to add-on lessons and to do more with dental health, I’m pretty sure that dental health problems will decrease with the upcoming generations. It makes me so happy to know that one of my original goals my Peace Corps service has now been completed! 🙂

I am a traveling….HITCHHIKER?!?!

I just went on the most incredible, daring adventure of my life! My friend and fellow PCV, Miranda and I decided to change up the way we normally explore new countries by taking on a whole new way of traveling, one that is highly frowned upon in North America. That’s right, we went hitchhiking. Being completely honest, I use to look at hitchhikers and think “Uh, good luck buddy!” or “What kind of mental illness do you think this one has?” or even “Is that a prostitute?” Never in my wildest dreams could I think that one day I would be that person standing on the side of the road, looking for a free ride.

I’ve always been the proper, safe traveler. I always made sure that I had a good place to stay, in a safe city, and I tried to arrange the trips around having the least amount of risk possible. So, deciding to go this route was a little out of character for me. However, I have to admit,  when I reflect on my traveling experience, I can see with myself that I am taking more and more risk with every new trip I plan. First it was a high school-planned trip to Costa Rica and then a high school-planned trip to Europe where I flew alone to meet them since I was studying abroad in France at the time. Next it was backpacking through Europe with my boyfriend, with a basic itinerary and always staying in nice hostels with the least amount of people sharing a room as possible. Afterwards, I stepped it up a notch by biking through South America with a rough goal of my final destination (no itinerary), sleeping in hotel rooms with the occasional couch surfing experience here and there. But with each extra risk I took, I felt like I got more out of the experience than I would have gotten if I did it the normal touristy way. I mean, I got to meet more of the local people, see the places that weren’t full of tour guides and tour groups. That’s why when Miranda and I came up with the idea to hitchhike through Eastern Europe (which is almost too common here in Albania and not as uncommon here in Europe), I was pretty excited to get the chance to see these countries from a different perspective.

One of the many drivers that we had. Surprising all of them were so excited to take a selfie with us.

This trip truly opened my eyes to how generous and caring people are. We had over 40 drivers, all of which (expect for one idiot in Albania which we immediately told to pull over to get out) were incredibly hospitable! We had some amazing conversations with some of the drivers about their lives, families, and their travels. Even with the drivers that didn’t speak English or Albanian, some would offer snacks or drinks and some semi driver’s would even offer their bed. It was amazing how much we could learn for each one of them from the limited amount time we spent with them. Some of the time we had no idea what was going on, like when we took a semi from the border of Greece/Bulgaria to Sofia where the driver didn’t speak a lick of English and we traveled all around Bulgaria with him until he finished work and then ended up in the exact neighborhood of our coachsurfing host.

Taking a break with one of the semi-truck drivers to get some fresh water and to get a bite to eat.

Just one of the driver’s that were so unbelievably kind and generous.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we coach-surfed the entire time (minus one night in Belgrade because no coach-surfers were available), which is SO not my thing. But I can’t tell you how much coach surfing enriched my experience! It only further changed my outlook on the kindness of strangers. Each one of them would go out of their way to make sure we enjoyed their city and their house. I learned so much about each of the places we went just from talking to them, the locals. I couldn’t ask for a better way to travel!

Having a lovely dinner in Belgrade with a bunch of other couchsurfers

Miranda and I with our amazing host in Bucharest. He was one of the best hosts we had, taking us to the beach for the weekend and showing us around the city. Such a nice guy!

But I think my favorite part of the entire trip was when Miranda and I crossed the border into Serbia from Romania. Our driver wasn’t going to Serbia so he dropped us off at the border. As we walked up to leave Romania, the border policeman looked at us with our giant backpacks on and asked “Do you guys need a ride?” because it was forbidden to cross over the bridge to Serbia on foot. We replied, “Uh, I guess so.” He quickly replied “It’s alright, I already got you one.” We look just ahead of us and their was an old man standing next to his parked rusty car with his truck open and ready to pack our things. Oh, typical American girls! haha.

After we crossed the border, we had to part with the driver because he was heading in the opposite direction that we were. Unfortunately, the road that we were on was a country road with very, very little traffic. We decided to walk along the road until we found a ride but we weren’t having any luck. In a half hour’s time, we only had one car passby which picked us up and drove us about five minutes down the road until they had to head in another direction. We then continued to walk. Things weren’t looking promising, we kept walking and walking until we found a place for camping on a beach-like hangout that we debated about taking up. We probably would have done that but at the time Ian, another PCV was waiting to meet up with us in Belgrade and we both had no internet and no phone to call him to tell him we weren’t going to make it. So we kept walking.

Then something amazing happened! Within 5 minutes of walking, we spotted an old man in a swim suit relaxing in the warm weather underneath what looked like a grown-up’s tree house. Miranda and I looked at each other in shock of what we were seeing. All of a sudden he waves for us to come over. Miranda looks at me and say “Well, what can it hurt.”

The man didn’t speak any English but from his gestures we could tell that he wanted us to sit with him. We tried communicating with the charades skills we happily learned while learning Albanian but after a minute or two we kind of ran out of things to stay. Then, out of no where he jumps on his little ladder leading into his hut-thing. All we could hear was some scrabbling around until we saw his feet climbing back down the ladder. In his hands he held a giant piece of watermelon which he quickly cut up and gave us. While chowing down, we told him that we were going to Belgrade which he responded with a big smile and spoke really fast in Serbian and then he headed behind the house that was directed behind this tree-house. He came back with a younger man and women, and guess what….THEY SPOKE ENGLISH!! Woohoo!! They told us that they had a friend heading there in 3 hours and if we wanted we could hangout with them on their boat until their friend arrived. It was a miracle! Seriously, how crazy does the world work! So of course we accepted the offer!

The young couple took us out on their row boat which was attached to their bigger boat while waiting for their friend to come and give us a ride to the Belgrade.

So for the next three hours we hung out with them on their boat which was right across the street on the docks next to that beach-camp we found earlier. The couple and their dog had been living on the boat for almost a year to get a new perspective on life. As we sat with them, random people would come join us, one of which was a famous Serbian chef that gave us a signed copy of his cookbook from the 1980’s. We got to try some Serbian food and raki.

What was really interesting was how they responded to us living in Albania. For you that don’t know the history of Serbia, Albania, and Kosovo basically Kosovo use to be part of Serbia but was predominately populated with Albanians. Kosovo declared that they wanted their independence from Serbia and the Albanians supported them….in fact America, JFK in particular stood up for Kosovo as well which is arguably the reason why Kosovo won. But still today many countries including Serbia refuse to believe that Kosovo is it’s own country and now the relationship between Serbia, Albania, and America are not nice. So, you could imagine that they weren’t too happy to hear that we lived in Albania. They tried over and over to convince us that Albanians were horrible, corrupted people, even telling us some horrible stories about Albanian history. As much as I didn’t like hearing about these horrible thins about people that I like to consider my family, I really enjoyed learning about the war from the Serbian perspective. I could see how hurt their people were from the war, in fact Serbia lost in many wars and you could see the impact it had on it’s people (I saw this also in some of the people i take to later on the trip about the subject). It made me realize that information about history can be very bias depending on where and from who you learn that information. I never really thought about it before, but now this experience had me questioning history books and how we learn about our own history in school. It’s amazing how much of an impact those books have on our perspectives of the world.

After chatting for what seemed to be forever, their friend with the car finally showed up. And you’ll never guess what we found out…he was paralyzed from the waist down. Ummm….that was a little unexpected. But, hey it was a free ride! hahaha. Actually, his car was modified to work like a motorcycle with the breaks and gas controls being located on an extra handle coming out of the right-side of the handle bar. The driver was a little strange, but we made it to Belgrade safe and sound.

This is just one of the unique, unexpected experiences that we had on our trip. Below are some other highlights of the trip. I won’t tell you all of them because I could seriously go on forever with all the crazy things that happened. So here are just the summaries.

We met this incredible man while trying to find a ride at a gas station in Bosnia. He and his wife had lived in America for 12 years before moving back to Bosnia with their kids. They kindly welcomed us into their home for lunch. It was amazing to meet them. The wife is such a powerful woman! She came back to Bosnia hoping to improve the rights of women. Both of them were so inspirational to me!

One of our couch surfer host took us to the infamous Vama Veche beach in Romania. We had such an incredible time!

Camping in a public park in Mostar, Bosnia

And it just happened to be a park with a statue of Jack Chan

We met an amazing family that owned a hotel outside of Kotar, Montenegro who we got to enjoy a beer and take about or experience as PCVs in Albania.

Touring around Belgrade, Serbia

Climbing the castle on top of the mountain in Kotar, Montenegro.

Exploring Dubrovnik, Croatia

Exploring Dubrovnik, Croatia

Meeting my cousin Jillian who was working in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Meeting my cousin Jillian who was working in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

I can’t tell you how much this trip has changed my outlook on traveling, people, and life. I stepped way outside my comfort zone and I grew so much as a person. I’ll remind this trip for the rest of my life!

Miranda also posted a blog about this experience. You can read it here: Hitch-Hiking Eastern Europe.

We took selfies with each and every single one of our drivers and hosts along with an interesting fact about them. Check it out below: 🙂

1) Bilisht – Thessaloniki (Erion: Jewish Albanian!)
2) Thessaloniki outskirts to center (Jonis)
**Host-Nik**
3) Thessaloniki to Serres (Dimitris: horse back rider)
4) Serres to Bulgaria border (Olina and Gena) and (Numi–we couldn’t pronounce his name so we called him this)
5) Bulgaria border towards Sofia- (Miroslav)
**Host: Shenol 2 nights**
6) Sofia to Plovdiv- (Amiana: The only single woman to pick us up!)
7) Plovdiv to Istanbul exit- (Diakus)
8) Istanbul exit to Stara Zagora (Marian)
9) Stara Zagora to Bourgas (Valentin: president of BG ski federation, former politician, had a Beatles playlist)
10) Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo (Ivano: “Catastrophe and da” were his favorite words)
11) Veliko Tărnovo to Bucharest (Andre)
12) Host and driver to Bucharest, Vama Veche, Vadu, Mamaya
Bucharest: (Filip)
13) Bucharest to Pitesti (Tibi: A Romanian policeman)
14) Pitesti to Craiova (Andres/Andi: Dual citizen, okay with gay people because he thinks it’s a medical problem)
15) Craiova-Filliasi (Adi)
16) Filliasi to Drobeta Turnu Severin (Nikolai: Drove a pick up truck)
**The Serbian border cross police helped us to find our next car**
17) Severin to Serbia border(Draga)
18) Border to Tekija (Misha)
**Enjoyed Watermelon, berries and a nice convo with Bojana Serjan, Steven, and Bratislav (made a cook book) who live on a boat in Tekija**
19) Tekija to Belgrade (Predrag: paralyzed from waste down from falling off rocks when he was 25)
**Host: Daniel (beekeeper and massage therapist)**
20) Belgrade to outside city (Miki)
21) Outside city to Dobanovci (Dushk)
22) Dobanovci to Ruma (Zdravko)
23) Ruma to Nova Gradiska (Tomo: Was getting married in 3 days)
24) Nova Gradiska to Okucani (Mario: Works for Mazda, and his house was hit by lightening the day before)
25) Okucani to Banja Luka (Gorad: Owns chicken farms, daughter is on scholarship for swimming in England)
**Host: Marko**
26) Banja Luka to Jajce (Vlado)
27) Jajce to Bugojno (Oslo: Invited us to have lunch in his home with his family. Lived in US and has parked Oprah Winfrey’s car!)
28) Bugojno To Novi Tranik (Emir and Šulo)
29) Novi Tranik to Vitez (Jaravo)
30) Vitez to Sarajevo (Avdo)
31) Sarajevo to Pazaric (Sakib)
32) Pazaric to Tarcin (Odakle)
33) Tarcin to Mostar (Azer) –Ian got a bee sting in this vehicle!
34) Mostar to Buna (Ivica)
35) Buna to Dubrovnik (Eddie: Bosnian living in Germany– drives a nice Mercedes)
36) To Dubrovnik center (Bosco: had a dog named Osho in car)
37) Dubrovnik to Cilipi (Dario: has friend in Mountain View, California!)
38) Cilipi to Budva (Suzannah and Roman: A couple from from Slovakia and Bordeux)
39) Kotor to close to Budva (Philip: from Crimea)
40) Close to Budva To Budva (Lena and Sasha: from Moscow)
41) Budva to Bar (Mile: Very old guy who told us he had a water bottle full if vodka in his trunk)
42) Bar to Dobra Voda (Sead)
43) Dobra Voda to Ulcinj (Halil)
44) Ulcinj to Zogaj (Masi)
45) Zogaj to Supinë (Samen an Kamplen)
46) border to Shkoder(Çimi and Suela)

Write On! Albania

One of the projects that I’ve been most proud of during my service is the Write On! Albania Group that us volunteers started to help promote creative writing with students all over Albania. Basically, it’s a Creative Writing Competition that allows students to explore their imagination and to write as much as they can about a particular prompt for 1 hour. Afterwards, a panel of judges read all the essays and pick winners from each grade level. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning essays in each grade level are then sent to Georgia to compete internationally.

It originally started in 2003 by Peace Corps volunteers in Georgia but it wasn’t till recently that it really kicked off around Europe. Peace Corps Albania started hosting the event in 2010, but it wasn’t until this year with my group and past volunteer Joyce Wolf, that we took Write On! to a whole new level by adding a grant-funded Creative Writing Conference for all the high school winners across Albania!

The 2014 Write On! Albania Staff

I am the Media/PR Coordinator for the group. Since this was the first year that we decided to make Write On! a huge, public event, I’ve been working my butt off creating posters, flyers, creative writing booklets, designing the website, sending out monthly newsletters, contacting volunteers for photos and updates on their groups to put on our Facebook page, designing t-shirts and certificates….the list goes on!  In addition, Ian (the English Teaching Volunteer at my site who is also going to be the leader of Write On! next year) and I started our very own Write On! Groups in the high school and the elementary school in town. So, basically my schedule was jam-packed with Write On! Stuff, not to mention all the planning I was doing for my Hypertension Training.

Bajram Curri’s Write On! Group during one of their group workshops

Bajram Curri’s Write On! Group during one of their group workshops

Our goal was to get at least 250 students to participate in this years competition which would have been over a 150 more than they had in the previous year. To our surprise we had an outstanding 1,300 students participate in the national event! Who would have known that all of our handwork would pay off that much! What made me even more happy was that many of my students had placed, one even took 1st place in her grade level!

Some of the Bajram Curri participants and winners!

Most of the students came from Tirana, the capital city. We were lucky to have Marty there, a returning PCV who has been teaching at the university in Tirana as well as helping our in various high schools around the city. That being said, we decided to split the competition into two sections, one for the Tirana winners and one for the National winners (outside of Tirana). Because of that, we decided to have two conferences instead of just one. This meant double to work, but we didn’t mind. In fact, everyone involved was having a blast throughout the entire process!

Some of the judges discussing students’ essays.

Both the conferences were incredible! I couldn’t imagine them going any better. All the students and staff enjoyed themselves with all the workshops, games, and activities that we planned. It was amazing to see how incredibly creative the students were and how much they came together by the end of the conference, putting their ideas together and making some really nice presentations.

Elbasan – National Creative Writing Competition

Students showing off their creativity…literally @ The National Creative Writing Competition – Elbasan

My group took 1st place at the National Creative Writing Competition! Here’s my group and I as we sing a song with our wizard head cutouts for our final presentation.

Elbasan – National Creative Writing Competition

Me teaching at the Tirana – Writer’s of the Future Conference

Student’s having fun at the Tirana – Writers of the Future Conference

Tirana – Writer’s of the Future Conference

Students at the Tirana – Writers of the Future Conference!

I feel so honored to be apart of something this successful and to think that we made this out of nothing just blows my mind. I can’t wait to see what we come up with for next year’s conference. If it’s anything like this year’s event, it will be out of this world!