I'm Just Sayin'

Updates on what's happening in my life. Thoughts about current events, politics, books, and anything else that I find interesting. Intended for those who know and love me.

Name:
Location: Albany, New York

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Cloud to Every Silver Lining

If I were a survivor of the USAirways Hudson River crash, I would be happy to be alive. Period. End of story. Apparently, that's not enough for some people:

US Airways passengers get $5,000 each; is it enough?

If it turns out the airline was negligent in some way, then perhaps additional compensation would be reasonable; but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone who complains about their $5k should have to forfeit their money to the flight crew. Honestly, people!

Right Under My Nose

As I was searching for something distinctively Croatian during my trip, the day before I left I realized that it was right under my nose. Vegeta is a spice & dried vegetable mix, typically used in soups and other things in place of salt. I've been using it for years and I love the stuff. I've always bought it at the Polish market, so I assumed it was Polish only to find out that it is actually Croatian. In fact, the parent company is the largest manufacturer in Croatia.

I also remembered one of the rare moments in Croatia when I was actually quite surprised by something. The university cafeteria, which offered really good meals at very cheap prices, served squid one day. I didn't even recognize what it was. Luckily I asked before taking it since I am not a seafood lover. I don't think you'd ever see squid served in an American cafeteria.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Shits & Giggles

A new semester has begun. After a great winter break, I was looking forward to my old routine and to returning to the classroom. I was actually starting to miss my students. And then just to question my sentimental judgment, after the first day of class I got the first of many student emails that just make me say "huh."

A student was explaining to me that he might have to drop my class because it didn't meet the requirements that he thought he needed for graduation and, really, there was no point in just taking my class for "shits and giggles." Yup, his words exactly. I don't know when I'm ever going to get used to the casualness of students' interactions with professors. I'm not offended by the language, but I'm dismayed at the thought that a student was typing this message and had no filters whatsoever about the language that he should be using in professional communications. He took the time to send me a completely unnecessary email (since my class is an elective, students can drop/add at their will) but he didn't think for a second about the best way to communicate that message. [sigh] The dismay begins to creep in already ...

Sunday, January 11, 2009

It's Not Albania , But ...

My first blog post, over two years ago, was about my desire to return to Eastern Europe, particularly the Balkans. While it took me longer than expected, I have finally achieved that goal. I haven't made it to Albania yet, mostly because I would be unlikely to get any research done there for a variety of reasons, but I'm close (at least close from an American perspective). I've spent all of the new year so far in Zagreb, Croatia, formerly part of Yugoslavia.

I planned to stay here for three weeks, because I thought it would take me a while to navigate the city, communicate with people, establish research contacts, learn about Croatia, etc. What I found after two days here is that Croatia, or at least Zagreb, is a surprisingly easy place to visit. It's a compact city with great public transportation; a large number of the people of all ages speak at least some English; and it is unbelievably cosmopolitan. I expected it to be a tourist-friendly city, given that it is the country's capital, but it's much more ... European, Western, globalized than I anticipated. In fact, I am not only having a hard time describing the city, but the country as a whole.

When I've travel to other countries, I can usually get a sense of the society and culture fairly quickly. Each country -- whether Britian, Poland, Hungary, etc. -- has a certain flavor. After two weeks in Zagreb, I am struggling to define what that is for Croatia. I can't find examples of cultural things (clothes, food, architecture, customs, etc.) that seem distinctly Croatian. Yes, there is a European vibe here, but I can't identify the Croatian element. This might be easier to find if I weren't only in Zagreb and if I had deeper contacts with Croatians, but I've never had such a hard time identifying a culture as I am having now.

I wonder how much of this is due to globalization and how much is due to Croatia's efforts to be Western. The Balkans have historically had a reputation of being culturally and economically backwards from a Western perspective. Given Croatia's proximity to the West (just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy) and pending accession to the European Union, perhaps what I'm noticing is an attempt to shed it's war-torn past and fit in with Western Europe. And yet, it all seems so effortless. In Poland, for example, the attempts at Westernization in the 1990s were very blatant and self-conscious. Here, the feeling is not that people are trying to be European, but that they simply are. I wish I had been here a decade ago so I could tell how much of this feeling is new. I am now very curious to return to Poland to see if the same global vibe is there.