A Hrvatske New Year - new people, new places, and a lot of history

My days can be summed up as so: 7:45 wake up, wash up, eat some bread with sunflower seed butter and jam, drink some coffee, and maybe a little yogurt with a side of broken English-Croatian with my host mom. I leave and walk 15 minutes (I have the shortest commute out of everyone in the group) to the center square, Trg Jelačića where the SIT office is. I climb up 5 flights of stairs and sit for Croatian language class for 2 hours. Then we get in between 1.5-2.5 hours for lunch, depending on the day. Then we get lectured by Dr. Saša Borić for 2 hours, a professor from some University in Western Croatia who has an English accent and too much ego. We have been learning about the history of the region for the past four days and it gets more complicated with each step. We are all, more or less, new to this region's history, and its really hard to grasp.

What has interested me most is the split with the USSR in the late 50's (Split from the Cominform)
and the "new" kind of communism -- Self-regulated socialism, where the working class has rights and power over all things produced. The federalized Yugoslavia (which was one entity with 6 republics and the two autonomous regions of Vojavodina and Kosovo in the south and north of present day Serbia) was completely liberalized, socially and economically, and in the 60's the Yugoslav passport was coveted.

After the 2 hours of lecturing, where we all basically feel bad about not knowing more, we get the rest of the day off. Usually for lunch I visit the big open market a few blocks from the office called Dolac. There I buy a lot of fresh fruit! Mainly fresh figs, which all of you know I LOVE. Today I bought a kilogram *2.2 lbs* of fresh figs for 4 dollars (I think something like 8 fresh figs at a health food store back home costs 6 or so dollars). The peaches are amazing. Right now, eggplant and red peppers are in season and they make this spread called Ivar, which consists of finely cut eggplant and red peppers, with garlic. Its the most delicious creation in the entire world. I am making fig spread when I get home.

At home, I feel completely comfortable. My family is really chill--the mother is really relaxed but busy and the daughters like to have fun. the other day I made pancakes with the New Hampshire maple syrup I bought and they made their Croatian pancakes (basically crepes with nutella) and we switched. They liked the pancakes a lot, the syrup was a bit strong for Petra (the 11 year old). But we dance, we sing, we played CROATIAN MONOPOLY the other day, and they are just really fun and warm. Exactly what I wanted from a family.

Have I told you there is a food not bombs group here in Zagreb? Well there is, and I went to the meeting the other day with another girl Lindsay (whose name is coincidentally Lindsay Weber, like my cousin, except not my cousin). We met a bunch of activists who we befriended. They cook every other Saturday, completely vegan (which is very hard to come by in this country). I cant go this Saturday because my family is going to a big family party/celebration in Cisak but I want to go soon. I think we will meet up with them on Saturday for some live Reggae music in Zagreb. They are all very nice people.

I wanted to tell you all about my phone here. I won a free cell phone (left from a previous student on the program). It is super expensive to call the States, but if YOU want to call ME (which will still be expensive, but you don't have to go out and buy phone cards all the time), you should! The number is 3850919531058. call anytime between 10 am and 6 pm your time (4 pm to 12 am my time).

Also, keep your skype accounts on!!! Thats the BEST way to hear my voice.

And lastly, I wish a happy and sweet new year to everyone celebrating. We ate apples and honey today but am very nostalgic of the New Year on the Mountain in Lyndeboro.

You are all in my heart. Pictures of the family to come soon.

Food Not Bombs in Zagreb

While in Zagreb for less than a week, I was starting to feel a little nostalgia of the activist community back home at school. It is a community where personal image disappears, when every day details such as homework and my personal academic future doesn’t matter as much, and when what matters most is the strength and cooperation of a group of people gathered together to attain a common goal. I missed it already. I needed to feel that support, comradeship, and solidarity with people and wondered if I could find it in such a foreign city.

While sipping strong espresso, a social commonplace in most Southeastern European countries, my friend Lindsay invited me to a Food Not Bombs meeting in Zagreb. Food Not Bombs is an international movement where people cook local food bought or donated to give out to those less fortunate, or anyone who wants some grub before continuing their days. In Worcester, where I go to school, there is an expansive population of poor people, a lot of unemployment, and because of this cultural richness is usually lost in the gloomy nature of the developing city streets. It was exciting to find a similar community of people thousands of miles away from my own home. I needed it.

We headed to the street where the activist webpage told us the meeting would be. Through a small opening between buildings we walked down the small alleyway to what we thought was the place and waited for a while. Nobody was around. On the buildings was graffiti, illustrating the kinds of stories these people were trying to show symbolically. What stood out most were the words “I am not his story”, showing possible feminist ideals and the subject of silencing the past these people had once experienced during the wars. Within the walls around me screamed experiences completely unimaginable to my mind but similar to my own people’s history. It was comforting.

Soon a young man peddled through the alleyway on his bike, with his head mostly shaved except for a spot on the top where long hair flowed out. He dressed in dark clothes, locking his bike up to a post and lighting up a cigarette. His clothes were symbolically universal to anarchism and activism in general—dark clothes, the interesting hair do, the cigarette, the bike, the patches found on his clothes. A taste of my familiar family of activists from home.

“Bog”, I said walking up to him. “Govorite li engleski?”

“Malo”, he replied, sitting down on the sidewalk looking up at me.

“Is there a meeting for Food Not Bombs?”

“Da, yes, at seven o’clock”.

I introduced myself, and he to I, and then Lindsay as well. He is from Rijeke, a small town southwest of Zagreb. He has been living in the city for a while, making tofu and volunteering. We chatted for a while as others biked in, all with the symbolical clothes and hair unique to this particular community found internationally. We introduced ourselves to everyone, and at quarter past 7 we started the meeting—completely in Croatian.

A woman sitting to the right of me, Dora, asked us where we were from and was surprised, assuming we were German from the way we spoke Croatian. We laughed, silently wishing that we were, in fact, not from America, a bit weary of our country’s appearance to the rest of the world. We sat, attempting to listen to the conversation as it unfolded. Alas, we got nothing, but my new friend Dora explained that they were setting a time to cook this Saturday and a place to hand out the food. We passed around a bottle of Macedonian liquor, similar to Greek Ouzo, our new friends urging us to drink because we came to their meeting!

Time went on and cigarettes were lit and devoured, the bottle of Ouzo slowly reaching its end. I realized that the meeting was long over and they were just sitting chatting with one another. Once they realized we hardly spoke any Croatian, they began weaving in their broken English into the conversation, asking where we were from and why we were there. They were happy to hear that Food Not Bombs was practicing in so many other places in the world. Certainly this would be a community I could go to in my free time, to socialize, to meet the local community around me and to get a better grasp of the stories behind the words and images plastered to each clean slab of stone. I walked away early, hoping to get home with enough time to chat with my family and finish my homework. Dora looked at me before I left and said, “Don’t get too drunk on Friday night; you must come help us help others”. She is from Belgrade, squatting here in Zagreb helping out to help others. I noticed here, similarly to what I was used to, was the combination of socializing, having fun, and doing good things all at the same time. We must be happy if we are to work happily. We must know each other personally and professionally. And of course, good people are everywhere, even if they are stuck behind an alleyway in Zagreb, Croatia far away from your usual stomping ground. They will always invite you into their circle as we are all part of the same tribe. It was good to be reminded of that.

Homestay and some pictures

I absolutely love my host family here in Zagreb. We live on Zelinski 2 (dva). Yesterday, after taking a 3 hour tour de grad and an afternoon of watching the Death of Yugoslavia, we all marched down the street and into an unknown restaurant to meet the people we would be living with for the next 2+ months. Goga (the program coordinator, responsible for the homestays), took us one by one to our families. Petra, Dora, i Irena waited patiently for me.

Petra is 11 years old and knows a ton of English, and a bit of Spanish (!) and German. She amazes me. Since Irena is single, she does a lot of things around the house to help her out. She loves volleyball and watching American TV and movies. She loves Shakira and geography and loves to TALK. This girl talks more than anyone else I know, and she’s funny, AND she’s very sneaky.

Dora is 6 and is the cutest girl in the world. Honestly, I have always wanted little sisters (Mom, it’s still not too late), and she is just what I would only imagine as the best lttle sister in the world. She loves purple! And she is a very perceptive young girl. She is very coy and smart. I felt immediately comfortable with them. They brought me home and showed me around the house. They have a much nicer house than I expected after Goga told me the mother was struggling. She might be struggling but the apartment is very nice and very close to the center of town. It only takes me 15 minutes to walk to the SIT office in the morning, which is incredible (some students have a 40 minute commute).

I got plenty of sleep and woke up to some bred (kruh), cold cuts (salami and turkey), kava smlijeko (coffee with milk) and dzem (jam). They were listening to Michael Jackson and eating, it was a beautiful thing. All the music here is, as it seems, turbo folk (underground Serb/Bosnian music that people don’t like), or American music. We hung out for a while and went over to Borica’s house (where Grace is living, Irena’s mother’s house) only a few blocks away. PetraKentucky. Her family owned an inn on a 1000 acre plot of land in the middle of Kentucky. showed Grace and I pictures for over an hour. They love grapes and the Dalmatian coast, which is what I got out of that time. And they love each other, they are a very tight knit family. We had some cheese strudel and juice. At around 2, we all left for Ksenia’s house (Borica’s other daughter, Irena’s sister). They live outside the sister and Becca lives with them (they have 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl who are all very nice). They live in such a beautiful area. We drank champagne and ate amazing food—Borica is a great cook. After some home made wine and kava, we went on a long walk along the mountains until it started to rain. Becca and I had a great conversation; she has a really interesting background from when she grew up in

We went back and said goodbye. The girls are already hugging and kissing me a lot. I feel very welcomed and very ready to have this as my home for a few months. I have a key and plenty of love—it is all I need. Now I must sleep, I am very tired.

st marko's church. the flag on the right is the flag of zagreb, with the moon and the sun representing welcome all day and night long. the flag on the left is a combination of the flag of croatia, dalmatia (the coast), and slavonia (NE croatia).



Street in zagreb, below is a toilet in the hostel we stayed in the beginning during orientation

view of main church in zagreb




























three students in the program (Lindsay weber closet to front)



















4 students - (left to right) - Julia, Matt, Garrett, and Ethan

Kako se koze?

September 7, 2007 | Breakdown #1

It might be because I’m really tired. It might be because the days start at 9 and don’t end until 6. It might be because it’s been raining here the entire time. It might be because I'm eating a lot of meat, a lot of which I don't know what it is. Whatever it is, I’m feeling out of control, overwhelmed, and very emotional.

It’s not coming out in tears. Its beating hard through my arteries and in my heart. It’s echoing in my lungs. It happened suddenly today somewhere in between walking from the office to the grocery store and back to the hostel.

The history of this region is really layered and confusing. It’s always hard to learn from someone who is so familiar with the subject and cannot relate to those who are just beginning. I haven’t taken many history classes and have always had a weak history with…history. I think I’m just going to have to work much harder than most people.

I also had this realization today that I still don’t know these people at all. It’s been 4 days and we haven’t even fully transitioned yet. We move into our homestays tomorrow, another possibility of why I’m mentally falling apart, and that’s a whole other transition that I have to fall into. And once that happens, I have ISP, not to mention all the excursions. I think I underestimated, or didn’t estimate at all, of how hard this program was going to be.

But I haven’t cried yet. A part of me wants to stay very busy so I don’t have those solitary moments of sudden and superfluous fear.

This morning we had our second drop off (where they give us a name of a place and tell us to find it, like ethnographic foreplay) and I had to get myself to the Dom Sportivo and a children’s theatre. It definitely wasn’t the most interesting of the locations I could have had, and it was quite easy to navigate compared to others, or maybe I’m just better at that sort of thing, but I felt a bit disappointed with what I saw. It was cool that I went to the Olympic dome of Croatia, but I couldn’t go inside and there weren’t that many people around to ask. I know I could have done more, asked people walking out, looking around more for other possibilities, but it was cold and raining and I didn’t know how long it would take me to get to the other places.

I think what is really bothering me is that I am forgetting what I’ve already learned about experiential learning. Nothing is going to turn out like you planned. You have to be super spontaneous, open to everything, and humble all at the same time.

I really do like Zagreb, but a part of me still feels like I’m in “Europe”. When things aren’t simple and are material, where people are caught up in the accessories of life that disappeared in Mexico.

Things I want to do with my homestay:

- play with the kids a lot, and learn a lot from them with Croatian

- talk to the mother, be each other’s companions

- cook pancakes

- have at least one dance party

- talk economics with the mom

- walk around the city, go to a playground

- visit museums

- visit their favorites in the city

- massage?

But I also want my independence. I want to be able to come home late after working at the public library or a café. I want to do things the way I want to do them too. I know it’s not going to be like that, it’s why I’m on this program.

Whatever the situation becomes I know that I’ll grow tremendously. I need to keep the same balance that I had before this summer: things happen for a reason, experiences don’t make themselves, smile, keep believing in yourself, be a good friend.

Family

I found out today who the mystery host family will be! I am living with a single mother and her two younger daughters. Irena Stojanovic (pronounced Stoyanovits) is separated from her husband and is working and a PhD student of Economics here in Zagreb. Her two girls, whose names escape me, are 6.5 years old and 12 years old. They have fish and live in a small apartment which I can walk to from the SIT office! (Which is excellent because that means I can sleep longer, get more exercise, and because I have to go there every day!). We meet with our host families at the potluck Saturday night and then go home with them. We have Sunday to adapt and then class Monday morning.

We started hrvatski jedik class today (Croatian Language class). Our teacher, Marija (Maria), is amazing and I'm so happy we have a great language teacher (I have always abhorred learning a language classroom style). But this obviously will be a lot more hands on than other language courses because we will be living in Croatian.

My host mom does not speak too much english, but the little girls do. I am going to try to really stick with Croatian. I'm excited to learn it, and so far it seems like it wont be that hard. I have the pronunciation down pretty well right now. There is only one form for all past, present, and future verbs. All pronunciation stays the same, no exceptions (like stupid engleski).

That's all for now. We're going out for drinks and hopefully some food and espresso.

Love,
Erica

govorite li engleski?

Do you speak english???
This morning, my first true morning waking up in Zagreb was sunny, chilly, and invigorating. Just being in a city, walking and taking the tram (like the T in Boston, except electrically run and all above ground), makes me feel good. I never thought I would like to live in a city where I commuted regularly, and I might not like it after a while, but the idea seems to be much more positive in my mind right now. Last night a few of us shared our first beer in a little cafe in the Trg (square) and spoke about academia and our like and dislike for it. We all are sharing some of the same sentiments, fears, and visions of the trip: what will our host family think of us? Will we be able to learn hrvatski (croatian), what the hell will our ISP (Independent Study Project) be? But what seems to be most shared, and ultimately the most important, is our communal desire to learn and immerse ourselves here, work and play hard. The people on the trip are all very different, but extremely interesting and nice (which terminates my biggest fear of being with unispiring, mean, and unsocial humanoids like what happened in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico last summer).

After letting the tram doors close too quickly on us a few times, were quickly learning the rules of the road here. Tram doors do close quite quickly. People dont talk too much on the trams. People are more touchy and dont understand our idea of bubble space, most young people know english, and the open market is the way to eat! I had fresh figs today, and I couldnt be happier.

Today we started with a -drop off- which sounds like what it is. They gave us a piece of paper with a name of a shop, location, etc and the street name and told us to find it. We had an hour to explore, ask for help from people, and do some ethnography while we were there. I was directed towards an internet cafe about 4 blocks from the SIT office (which is in the center Trg and is amazing and ill describe it more later). It was closed, but it was right across the street from a wonderful park where many people walked their dogs around lots of flowers, a big water fountain and a gazebo. There were some embassy's there also, i noticed brazil and france among others.

The city is really interesting, and ultimately the exercise today made us realize how much it has to offer. From cafes, to bars, to clubs, to salsa classes, aerobics, yoga, pilates, to music halls and cinemas, to parks and a lake and interest specific restaurants and clubs, you can find a lot. Two younger Croats came and spoke to us today, Marko and Barbara, about our upcoming host families, youth culture, and taboos to keep in mind. If we like this type of music, this political stance, this sport, etc, we should go to this club, this bar, etc. It was really interesting.

Croats go out in groups. If you decide to go off alone into a bar or cafe, you most likely wont find someone else who is looking to talk to you, because people are already socializing with a group. Also, coffee to go is a completely foreign idea. Coffee is an hour ordeal where you sit and relax with a group of people over good conversation. And coffee is espresso, none of that -white coffee- as they might call it here!

Tomorrow we start to shape our ISPs with Orli (program director). The reason why we haven't been placed with our host families yet is because tomorrow we get interviews with Goga (the project coordinator) so she can better understand our interests, dislikes, fears, etc so she can better place us with an appropriate host family. This idea = brilliant and very soothing for nerves.

I am about burnt out. But one more thing: old drunk Croatian men are very funny and like to comment on my hat. he said, -miss, you have a very...beautiful...hat-.

Love, Erica

on a rainy afternoon in zagreb

it is raining here, but the food is warm and the people are great and im excited to start this chapter in my life. i am feeling many things: tired for not sleeping in over 24 hours, overwhelmed for the days and months ahead, and a bit overcome by how big and different this world really is. No matter how many countries I have been to, it strikes me everytime.

I hope to post pictures soon, as soon as possible. I have to shower before I can think. A few of us are going to go to the center and sit down for a drink, unwind from our day. tomorrow we start at 9 am for orientation.

the train system is great, all electrically run and pretty clean. we have train passes. the doors close very quickly on you, we got stuck in that position twice. you have to move quick.

doviđeja,
erica