I’m hot, so hot, Sticky sweet…

written 25 July 2006
Wow. You know how I complained earlier about the heat. I was such an amateur. Yesterday it was 100º in the shade. Yep, in the shade. Luckily, I didn’t know this. I did, however, not leave my house from noon till 8PM, with a fan blowing the entire time.
Sadly, this morning when I returned from my run, I turned on the fan but got nothing. I think the fan decided it was too hot and just gave up. Now I have to buy a new one. Booo. I could try to be tough and survive August without a fan but I’ve decided that being able to sleep at night is worth spending a decent chunk of my stipend on a fine piece of machinery that is a fan.
What a difference a day makes. Sunday the heat was a good thing. I suppose that’s because I was at the beach :) I finally made it down to Vlorë which has some nice beaches. We didn’t make it to the best parts but there’s always next weekend. I forget if I mentioned that the beaches here are very shallow. You can walk forever, no really forever, till it gets to chest height and there are no waves. Ok, maybe not forever, but at least to Italy.
As I have said before, this is a country of contradictions. Trash is a huge problem and I know of only three cities that have waste water treatment other than the local rivers. Can you say ewh (as in yuck, I am still looking for that dictionary that will give me the spelling of sound words). Even with these issues, the water was so clear, I thought I was at a pristine beachside paradise. Don’t worry on the bus ride home seeing the trash strew towns and smelling the noxious odors from the decrepit oil wells brought me back to reality.