Our first Sabbath in Shkodër was full of many adventures but the one that will stick out to me the most will be the time me and the girls on my team crashed a 19-year-old’s birthday party. How did this happen? Well, let me explain.
We had been walking home at around 8:30 pm. We had just finished dinner (some nice 4-cheese ravioli) and ice cream together. We were headed back to the house to settle down and watch a movie. As we got to the street we are supposed to turn down, we hear music BLARING from a building across the street. Paula excitedly looks at us and says, “let’s go check it out,” the rest of us hesitantly look at each other and aren’t sure what to do. We debate on whether to go check it out or not for a few minutes before, finally, we go, “okay, let’s go,” and we start walking towards the music.
We head up some stairs and find a room that has 12 teenagers (around the ages of 18-19) that are just dancing in the middle of the room. We look at each other and we’re like “yeah, let’s leave.” We left not because anything inappropriate was happening but rather because it was a small group of teenagers and we felt a little awkward. So we start walking down the stairs. Paula and Elizabeth are ahead of Clara and me as we descend down. As we walk down, I look up at the window and make eye contact with the DJ, I wave at him and he waves me and my teammates up to the room. I am halfway down the stairs as I am trying to explain to everyone that the DJ is motioning us up but then I fall down the stairs (I’m fine, I just thought it was a great detail to add). As I fall, we all start laughing. Paula and I almost pee ourselves from laughter and Clara can’t breathe.
Once we finally recover from that little incident, we spend at least two minutes debating on whether or not we should go back up. Finally, we hear someone come down the stairs and so we start quickly walking away. We hear someone call after us and we turn around and it’s the DJ inviting us back up. And we are like are you sure? And he was like yes, please come up! So we head up with him, and as we enter everyone in the room throws their hands up in the air and cheers for us. They bring Paula into their dance circle as the rest of us take off our jackets. We spend about a song and a half dancing with these 12 teenagers. We don’t really know the music, everyone is 100% sober, there’s no alcohol or drugs in sight, the four of us girls are thoroughly confused about what is happening. But we continue dancing. Towards the end of the second song that started playing, one of the teens lean over to me and he’s asking me where we’re from, if all of us are from America, what we’re doing in Albania, if we like Albania, and then finally he goes “this is a birthday party.” Clara and I just look at each other and then I look back to the dude and I’m like “well happy birthday to whoever’s birthday it is.” He points out whose birthday it is and we wish him a happy birthday and then the music cuts. The lights turn on and the party is over. So we grab our stuff, say goodbye to the 12 teenagers ranging from 18-19 years old, and head back home, laughing the entire way.
I wish I had a picture from this night to show you. But this is a story I will never forget. 10/10 one of the highlights of my race thus far.
