Three Coffees and One Early Client

At ten to ten, the three of us were sitting at the small table behind reception, doing the most sacred thing a Tirana morning allows: drinking coffee slowly.

Xiao had brought the macchiatos from downstairs. Wei had a paper bag of something sweet and was pretending it was for everyone. I held my cup in both hands with the rare feeling that the day could wait.

Then the phone buzzed. A new client, first visit, “arriving at ten”. Wei read it out loud. Then he read the time. Then nobody spoke.

Five minutes is not a lot of minutes

What followed was not elegant. Xiao stood up so fast that coffee landed on his sleeve, then on the counter. Wei tried to hide three cups and the pastry bag on the grey shelf, between the folded towels and the little hanfu dolls, where they sat looking guilty. I ran to straighten the bed runner, which was already straight, because that is what you do when your hands need a job.

At 9:56 the door opened. She was early. We stood in a line, smiling like a family photo, smelling strongly of espresso.

“Mirëmëngjes,” said Wei, with a perfect accent, and then ran out of Albanian completely. Xiao said “welcome” twice. I said something in a mix of three languages that I hope was a greeting.

The part where it turned out fine

She looked at us, sniffed the air and asked, quite seriously, “Is that coffee? Is there any left?”

She had never tried acupuncture and admitted she had nearly cancelled because of the needles. But laughing loosens shoulders faster than you would think. By the time the room was ready she had stopped gripping her bag, and the first-visit nerves had mostly gone with the steam.

I cannot promise anyone a perfectly elegant welcome. Our Albanian, English and Italian are all improving daily, and when words fail we use gestures, a phone translator and a lot of smiling. What I can promise is a spotless room, warm people, and that next time the coffee will be hidden somewhere better.

If you are curious about the needle side of the story, you can read about acupuncture here.

Yang Wang practises acupuncture and Tui Na at Chinese Massage – Tai Chi Tirana. The parlour is in central Tirana, a short walk from Bulevardi Myslym Shyri.