Gum

I don't particularly like gum. If it is offered to me, I will take a piece, but very rarely do I actually buy gum at the store. Somehow, however, here in Durres it seems to be impossible to leave the grocery store without buying a piece of gum.

First, you have to understand that Albania is a cash society. Check writing does not exist and places that accept credit cards are few and far between. Every purchase, every transaction here is purely cash. The odd thing is, though, that every store seems to be continually short on small change.

The lowest value coin here is the 5 leke coin, which equals about an American nickel. However, most stores never seem to have any 5 leke coins in their tills. Most solve this problem by keeping prices in multiples of 10, but not at my grocery store.

Each time I go to the store, I always seem to need some item that has a cost ending in 5. At that point, I have two choices. I can either look for another item that I might need ending in five, or I can take the chance that maybe that day they will have a 5 leke coin. Every time I take the risk, I get "gummed". After the girl rings up my purchases, she gives me the "Sorry no 5 leke coins today" smile and offers me a piece of gum instead. So, I end up buying gum.

I am not complaining though, cause if I am lucky, the gum has a temporary, stick-on tattoo inside. Now that is something worth 5 leke.

P.S. Somebody from N.Y. mentioned Jack Handy in the comments. My favorite Jack Handy quote goes something like "I really wish my name was Jared. Then when I walk down the street people would say, 'Hey there goes Jared Hammersmith.' Oh yeah, I also wish my last name was Hammersmith."