Culture Shock

"The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen" G.K. Chesterton

I'm not one of those people who love learning languages.  If you do, more power to you.  For me, it's honestly been the toughest thing about moving to Croatia.  There are, however, little nuggets of fun at times.  Like when you discover that you can say something in Croatian that English doesn't have a word for.  Or when you can do funny little word plays that most people wouldn't appreciate. Or when you find phrases you would never use in English when translated literally.  Here are three examples: 3. Moja Žena (My woman).  I just couldn't use this phrase to refer to my wife for the first two years I lived here.  ("Hi! Would you like to meet my woman?)  Instead I would say m oja supruga - which is formal and awkward and means "my spouse who is female".  All the married men I know refer to their wife as moja žena and now I do too.  By the way, doesn't it seem a little strange that if a husband says "my wom...

I just turned 3 months old.  And I know you probably think I'm too young to blog.  But Daddy's posts are getting way too long.  And my brother?  There's nothing he likes more than playing outside these days.  Yesterday he rolled himself down the hill and fell face-first into a mud puddle.  I loved watching the various reactions: As for me?  I'm happy to just sit here.   Ian - the content younger brother

After thinking about it, Croatian isn't the first second language I've tried to learn.  And I'm not referring to the German course I took in college.  No, it was in the summer of 1998 - the same year 2 phonies brought baseball back to the fore and I was stuck in U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island South Carolina .  Four men with Smokey Bear "covers" began pounding new values into my life.  One was the importance of a rifle.  Short of sleeping with it, I learned that it was my best friend .  (We've since parted ways.)  Another was physical toughness and endurance.  I never won any of the pugil stick fights, but at least I could run.  The third was learning a new language.  Every sentence began and ended with "sir".  I had been reduced to a "recruit" at best, while the people in charge of me had at least 4 words that came before their name: "Drill Instructor Staff Sargeant so and so". Beds were "racks".  ...

This was taken on Easter as I was trying out the timer setting on my new camera.  The camera has an auto focus, but it doesn't necessarily focus on what you want it to...automatically. I've been digesting a "must read" for Christians who are concerned about ministry and church leadership called Let My People Grow .  In it, Michael Harper has this to say about clearer thinking: The story of Peter walking on water is familiar to us. In Matthew 14:31 Jesus said to Peter 'Oh man of little faith, why did you doubt?'  The Greek word for doubt ( distazo ) is an interesting one. The commonly held view of this story is that Peter looked away from Jesus and saw the waves.  But the use of this verb suggests something different.  The word literally means 'standing and looking where two ways come together'.  The truth is that Peter looked first at Jesus, then at Jesus and the waves simultaneously. Peter was looking at two opposite things at the same ti...

Like many of the other potential driving hazards I've experienced in Croatia, this was one that was never covered in my American drivers education class:      Let me reiterate: On Croatian roads, the drivers of normal everyday cars are at the bottom of the totem pole.  As we approached this scene, there was no sense of urgency on the part of the shepherds to get their sheep off the street.  In fact, the road was probably the only place for them.  The cars had to go around the sheep, just like they have to go around tractors, wheelchairs, bicyclists, kids, horses, carriages, parked cars or anything else in the middle of the road.  Of course, in America, drivers would try to avoid hitting any of these things too.  But the difference is that here the road is for everyone.  Anyone and anything is welcome on Croatian byways, whether it's moving (sheep), or not moving (parked cars).  Our job as drivers is to accomodate ever...