Culture Shock

I saw this one on a door near the piazza in Osijek the other day. Unlike most of the others in our series, this sign did come with a caption explaining its intent. I'll post it later if no one guesses correctly. Thinking outside the box may help.

Would you give up your citizenship? I've been going through the mandatory five year process of acquiring permanent residence in Croatia. Every year, I've renewed my visa. Last month I passed a language test. Turns out, my last obstacle will be passing a culture test I wasn't aware of until a few days ago. My knowledge of the Croatian constitution, amendments and laws will be the difference between attaining residence and having to go through the whole five year process again. Despite the bureaucratic inconvenience that would be, a phone call with a friend caused a bigger discomfort to situate itself in my psyche. See, attaining residence would allow me to apply for Croatian citizenship in a year. My wife and three kids already have dual citizenship. In my thinking, in another year I could become the bi-cultured individual I'd always dreamed of becoming. That's just a half joke. There's something about the idea of dual citizenship that nudges the ego up a no...

The retired gentleman sitting alone at the table next to me seemed suspiciously quiet. There's only one person who dares sit by himself in this cafe - me. So when a half hour passed before anyone else joined him, I was only half surprised when he turned to me and asked, "do you have internet on that computer?" "Yes" I responded. "Go ahead and look me up." "Excuse me?" I said, quite surprised. "Type my name in and see what comes up." "I'm sorry, where should I type your name?" "YouTube", he responded as if everyone born in the 1930s was on the video sharing site. "Oh..." I said, even more confused than before. Maybe it was the fact that his self-promotion wasn't dressed in twitter or facebook. Or perhaps it was because I couldn't simply block or unfriend him. In this case, "no" would require a verbal, face to face answer. I tried to recover. "...Ok, what is y...

In the first of the series of signs posts, I mentioned that one of the advantages of having signs without words is that people from various countries can understand the intent of the sign. But when two of my American friends and I came across this one by the Drava river in Osijek yesterday, we were stumped. Any ideas?

It's become a family tradition to go to Slovenia for the May 1st holiday. But seeing that I'm only 7 months old, it was my first time enjoying the scenery. And mommy made sure I enjoyed it.  Of course we did some of the standard things...saw some small pigs, and some big ones. We ate well. And my brother continued his tradition of making music on the farm. So what is it that I'll remember from my first trip to Slovenia outside the womb? Nothing. But let's just say prvi maj  2012 was all about tricks. Enoh balanced on a rope. Ian took the road less traveled.  There were plenty of handstands to go around. Mommy's s tric  showed how much fun farmers can have.  But my brothers sharing was perhaps the biggest trick of all.  Even though I didn't do a whole lot...  I had a great time getting to know my cousins.  It seems like every May...

If I had a kuna for every double take I receive in the cafe I frequent, I'd have enough to finance the opening of the first Starbucks in Croatia. I've been in this country for five years now, so I know that sitting by oneself at a table with only a computer is rare. Unheard of. At least in small town Croatia. Since I started working towards a master's degree in the fall, I've been coming to this cafe at least 3 times a week while our son is in preschool. Despite the music, and the conversations around me, I find it a pleasant place to study for a couple hours. But, there is no doubt I am a fish out of water. To my right, five elderly ladies order čaj and compare medical conditions and prescriptions. On the other side, two suits discuss local politics. And here am I, reading about Pannenberg's doctrine of Christ, frequently stopping to type notes on my laptop - with no one to talk to. I've had some sympathetic coffee drinkers try to help. One elderly gent...

His name is Slobodan, which means "free". You can tell, just by spending a half-hour with him that he is constrained by nothing. One day last fall, he and I had plans to take down the bunk-beds used for camp in order to begin making a nursery in our church.  But he had changed his mind by the time I arrived at his house. "The wind blew yesterday and we have to go get the chestnuts that have fallen in the woods" he explained in a hurry.  This was after he told me to come in, sit down and eat the mushrooms sizzling in the frying pan he picked from the forest floor in the morning. So rather than working in the church, we went to pick chestnuts. Pastor Slobodan is recently retired - from his job as an agriculturalist.  Most pastors of evangelical churches in Croatia have full-time jobs besides their responsibilities as a pastor.  Now that he is no longer working his main job, he'll be able to spend more of his time doing what full-time pastors do. But his...