In America, it's always so exciting to go out with your friends and family because you know that your dinner and drinks with be taken care of, why? Because it's your birthday. Well, in Albania, the tradition is 100% ass-backwards. The person who's birthday it is is responsible for taking everyone out for drinks and coffee. Today was my counterparts birthday. After the staff meeting, we all trekked through the 1.5 feet of snow to go to the nicest lokal in Bajram Curri for drinks.The women all ordered tea or coffee while the men ordered round after round of coffee/raki, red bull/vodka, coffee/Jack Daniels, etc. Now, typically at the end of coffees there is a huge fight about who is going to pay. It is not Albanian tradition for everyone to pay for their own, the idea is that someone pays this time and someone else will get it the next time, kind of like bar hopping where one person buys the rounds at one bar and the next person gets the next round, and so on..
Not this coffee. I counted, there were 27 people at 5 tables pushed together and guess who gets the tab? That's right, the birthday boy. I mean, I guess you could compare it to having a party and the person who has the party generally forks out the money, but this is the equivalent to going for drinks with 25 coworkers and being left with the bill because it's your birthday. I saw him later on through the day, it's a small town, having coffees with relatives and friends, all of which he was expected to pay for, and did. I made him a birthday card, one in English, one in Shqip, which everyone just got such a kick out of because 'why was I giving him something on his birthday.' There's a lot of things I accept or traditions I go along with, even if I don't understand them, but this one is by far the craziest to me.
It also makes me kinda glad my birthday is in August, 'pushim month' which is typically the vacation month and no one is around.
