Erseka

So I arrived in Erseka (my students' pointed out that I have been spelling it wrong in class this morning so no more Ersake)  on Thursday afternoon around 5pm after driving down from Elbasan once my Swearing-In ceremony was finished. The ride itself wasn't horribly long (only one pilaf stop) but it was still a good 4 hours.
When we were changing furgons in Korce, Jason and I ran into my landlord so we rode with him to Erseka. It started raining on that leg of the trip and the driver was nice enough to drop us all off at my door.

My landlord showed me around the place and I started arranging stuff and asking him questions while Jason waited around for his counterpart to come and give him the key to his apartment. Unfortunately for Jason that didn't end up happening until around 9pm. We had decided to go grab a pizza for dinner around 8 and his counterpart snagged us right as we ordered so we waited til after dinner to go check the place out.

Compared to most cities, Erseka is very small and seems to get smaller every year. This is due to the fact that there's very little work here. From what I gather there used to be many more jobs here and since they have gone missing many people have gone in search for them in other places. I know there's a fairly decent amount of logging that goes on around here along with some farming and other smaller industries, but I get the feeling that if people find a opportunity to leave Erseka they jump on it.

Start slightly random almost stream of conscious stuff here:

So far things have been pretty relaxing here. My temporary apartment is pretty nice, and my landlord is pretty easy going. I've managed to cook a few meals without burning down the place. Fought off two scorpions Friday and Saturday. Taught a few classes today. Went with Jason for a long walk along the outskirts off the city. I accidently left my wallet at a supermarket today only to have it returned a few hours later by the store owner's son. I inherited a small library from Marie and chewed through Ender's Game over the weekend and am about half way through another book right now. Jason and I ran into the local missionaries on Saturday and discovered that they will be hosting a camp for blind students over the summer sometime. I created another facebook page and gmail account specifically for my students and friends here. Going to visit Leskovik and maybe help Jason and his counterpart with an anti-smoking lesson. Got invited to go on a field trip with the 11th grade students to Sarande over the weekend. Probably won't go but it was really nice to get the invitation.

I can tell I'm gonna have a lot of good times here.