Pastaj

So what to say about Durres? The hotel was pretty nice. I managed to squeeze in a short walk on the beach before things got started in the conference rooms. I met Ardi, one of my future counterparts, briefly before we headed off to dinner with everyone else. Our meeting was a little awkward because he didn't want to come across as stepping on the toes of my primary counterpart, Niko, who was unable to make it to the conference. We did manage to talk a fair amount over dinner, although I was trying to get over a cold at that time so I kept coughing and being slightly disgusting which didn't help the flow of conversation. Ardi and I went our separate ways after dinner and, after a short xhiro around the hotel grounds, I found my way into a card game.

The next morning brought promises of warm breakfast and I'll I can say is that the staff at the hotel did not disappoint me at all (I did hear that the milk for cereal was pretty awful but I've yet to find any milk that I've enjoyed here and being that I'm not a huge fan of cereal it wasn't any hair off my back). After breakfast, we split into our sectors and went through a few sessions with our counterparts about working together.

Because our trip south was going to be a long one, Ardi talked with the rest of the counterparts heading close to our region and decided that the best course of action was to head out before the closing speech. Jason ( the HE volunteer who's going to Ersake with me), Laurie (a COD going to Korce), and I thought that this was a pretty good idea. Our counterparts had even been talking to a furgon driver who said he would pick us up pretty quick. So we dragged all our bags to a nearby cafe and waited for the furgon to arrive. Being that time is a more fluid concept here, our ride showed up about an hour later. Before we left we even got chat with some the people who had attended the closing speech, apparently we didn't miss much.

The ride to Ersake was a long one and required us to switch furgons two times. We switched from our original van in Elbasan and after Laurie and her counterparts got off in Korce, the group of us heading to Ersake managed to grab the final furgon of the night that was heading to Ersake. The trip was like visiting a museum dedicated to the different landscapes, living areas, and road conditions in Albania. The trip took us through lush hills and flat plains, through one horse towns and modern cities where every cafe had a plasma tv. We traveled on both some of the best kept and worst kept road. While most of the roads were fairly straight cut, however once we got past Korce, most of the last leg of the journey was switchbacks leading us up to snow capped mountains.

Right before we got to Ersake, Ardi had the furgon stop on the edge of town near his house. We said short goodbyes and departed with Jason's counterpart, Mondi, leading the way. The next stop was my future apartment, which was where the TEFL I am replacing was currently living. Marie, Katie (the COD who still has a year left in her tour) and Meredith (the TELF in Humarra who had come to work on a project with Marie)  helped us take our stuff upstairs and into the apartment.

After Mondi left, the four of us grabbed some drinks and talked while Katie got to preparing dinner. The rest of the night was basically a continuous conversation ranging from stuff about Ersake to the differences between the volunteers in groups 12 (Marie's) ,13 (Katie's) , and 14 (Jason and I's) and just just about everything in between. We all got along really well which is hopefully a sign of things to come.

The next few days are kind of a blur. The next day I went to a few classes with Ardi and then joined Jason and Mondi for a tour of the city. We met with the mayor, the director of the local hospital, the directors of both schools, and the minister of education. After awhile Mondi had to go back to work and Jason and I went back to Marie's place and chilled with Meredith while waiting for Marie to get back. After she returned we went to an awesome pizza joint where we met Katie for lunch. Afterward, Jason and I did some more tooling around Ersake while the girls got some work done. We eventually met back up with them at a really swanky cafe that looked like something you'd find back in the states.

That night Katie again lived up to her rep as one of the best cooks in PC Albania by making a herb crusted chicken dish.

The next day I went back to school with Marie and sat in on some more of Ardi's classes. I also finally meet Niko and participated in two of his classes. After class, the five of us muched on leftovers before Meredith caught the bus back. After that we took a walk to a neighboring village and narrowly missed getting rained on. Later than night, Jason and I headed off to grab a coffee with Mondi. We walked around the same  few blocks for almost an hour and just as we decided to head back we finally saw him walk into a store with a friend of his. We followed him in and the group of us headed out to the swanky cafe again. Of course when we got there it was closed for a private party being held for an Albanian popstar who was from the region. So Mondi invited us to have a coffee at his house instead. We talked with his family and drank some raki and tea for about an hour. They are pretty nice people and it was fun talking with them. I imagine it might happen fairly often.  After all that was over we headed back to Marie's place and had a Mexican themed dinner with her and Katie.

I think I'll save the next bit for tomorrow. I'm not a fan of writing such long posts when I'm sick and my allergies kicked in hard today.