We have been in Durres for about four weeks, yet it seems like it has been much longer than that.  Learning the new city, learning the new jobs, arranging tutoring and getting a new routine makes each day feel so busy.  You really lose track of time.

The first week here was very warm but the second week was unbearable, upper 90s and no a/c.  While we used a fan and that helped a great deal, it was still a hard to be comfortable.  We don’t know how the host family slept 4 people in a 10×10 room without a fan.  After the first weekend of sitting inside because it was too hot to move, we headed to the beach the following weekend with the 2 other volunteers here in Durres.  It was quite refreshing to be in a cool breeze and under the shade of the umbrella.  Thankfully, the weather cooled after that and it has been very pleasant since the initial heat wave.

We are living about a 20-minute walk from Carol’s work and about a 40-minute walk from Criss’ work.  This is not too bad in the mornings when it is cool, but the hot afternoons have required some skillful planning to take advantage of the most shaded streets.  We have also found stopping in the air-conditioned internet café helps cool us down after the walk.

In the evenings, much of the town goes out on the Xhiro (gee-row) to walk the city streets and boardwalk from 7 – 11.  When world cup soccer playoffs were underway, all the coffee bars (locales as they are called) here were full.  Many of the locales have screen TV and several on the boardwalk have projectors outside.  The smaller locales just set the TV out on the sidewalk on the nights it is too hot to sit inside.  The only downside to the Xhiro is we are a 20-30 minute walk from downtown, so it takes some planning and commitment to go out.

But we are getting settled into a routine and hope to start writting a bit more reguarly.