It's a raining and cold Sunday in Bajram Curri so I think I'm going to spend the day cleaning up my apartment and preparing for the PDM workshop this week in Tirane. I had coffee this morning to discuss some changes to the logo and what we needed to do for the workshop with a few colleagues. After we finished talking about work we started sharing stories from college and our families, and it's very fun to see what they think is weird from America. Like the fact that kids can't go to stores and buy alcohol for their parents. I explained that if that were the case, everyone would be 'buying alcohol for their parents,' but here it's normal to see kids who can barely see over the counter buying cigarettes or alcohol for their families. I also explained to them the idea of having to show your I.D. every time you get a drink or purchase alcohol. He thinks that this is very weird but a better system than what they have in Albania. He then told me a story about his father and how he was a driver during communism, there were very few drivers so it was a very prestigious job during that time period. One night he had too much to drink and wrecked his car. In order to get out of the jail time for punishment he took a small bottle of gasoline out from the back of his car and took a swig. This enabled him to pass the breathalyzer and convince the police officers he had not been drinking. Although this method was proven effective, I couldn't believe that he would go to such great lengths. He then explained to me that during communism they could jail you for anything they wanted to (although this would have been something understandable) and then it would ruin your families reputation for generations. So.. he literally drank gasoline to save the good name of his family.. he also never drank before he drove either.
Sunday
Get out of jail free drink..
It's a raining and cold Sunday in Bajram Curri so I think I'm going to spend the day cleaning up my apartment and preparing for the PDM workshop this week in Tirane. I had coffee this morning to discuss some changes to the logo and what we needed to do for the workshop with a few colleagues. After we finished talking about work we started sharing stories from college and our families, and it's very fun to see what they think is weird from America. Like the fact that kids can't go to stores and buy alcohol for their parents. I explained that if that were the case, everyone would be 'buying alcohol for their parents,' but here it's normal to see kids who can barely see over the counter buying cigarettes or alcohol for their families. I also explained to them the idea of having to show your I.D. every time you get a drink or purchase alcohol. He thinks that this is very weird but a better system than what they have in Albania. He then told me a story about his father and how he was a driver during communism, there were very few drivers so it was a very prestigious job during that time period. One night he had too much to drink and wrecked his car. In order to get out of the jail time for punishment he took a small bottle of gasoline out from the back of his car and took a swig. This enabled him to pass the breathalyzer and convince the police officers he had not been drinking. Although this method was proven effective, I couldn't believe that he would go to such great lengths. He then explained to me that during communism they could jail you for anything they wanted to (although this would have been something understandable) and then it would ruin your families reputation for generations. So.. he literally drank gasoline to save the good name of his family.. he also never drank before he drove either.