August is the month of vacation here in Albania, except for Peace Corp volunteers.  This is the time vacationers (local and foreign) abandon the office and flock to the beach.  It is also the time the locals here in Durres take their vacations, 2 to 3 weeks.  And it is the time for all volunteers to settle into the grind.  The newness of the experience is wearing off, the routine of working sets in, and we have developed enough language to be very frustrated with the limited range of topics we can discuss.

Of course this is just part of the cycle of the first 9 months.  First you have the excitement of getting here to Albania and starting training.  Then when that begins to wear on you, it changes with your swearing and moving to a new assignment, new city and new host family.  This new phase becomes routine after about 2 months but you are only half way through this phase.  So the next step is to start looking for an apartment and enter into the independent housing and fill in the time while your office mates are on vacation. 

So how did we pass the time?  Initially, we spent time learning our new organizations.  Criss has been busy compiling documents for an international convention on Roman period ceramics and Carol has been busy teaching English in summer school and helping write proposals.  On the weekends and after work, we explored different parts of the city, finding the library, banks, cash machines (very important), grocery stores, supermarkets, hardware stores and the never-open-bookstore.  (The never-open-bookstore is probably the largest bookstore in Durres, but it has only been open one time over the summer.)  So, each weekend was filled with a different project and each day after work we would check out a different store.  Then there is the beach and we had to learn the drill to get to the beach and learn how the umbrella rental works.  So while busy, it really was not very exciting, but we keep getting asked how we spent the summer, so by popular demand, we will write about the mundane.