super friends: background

adventures in somebody else's home #4.

i live with the stinshoff family, which consists of a mom, susanne, a father, dieter, and three daughters: sarah (18), freddy (27) and janine (30). dieter and susanne are separated but still great friends, and he jus tlives down the street, so he comes over and eats dinner and hangs out all the time. freddy (short for fredrica?) and janine live elsewhere, and i rarely see them (janine was there when i moved in because she was living at home due to a broken leg and the subsequent immobility). anyway, kooky things happen all the time.

i feel like this german family isn't the most representative of german families, due to a few extenuating circumstances. the mom is a "therapist," for example. she works out of the home. across from my room, which is downstairs while the rest of the house is upstairs, is a big 'group therapy' room. for the first few sunday mornings i was here, i'd wake up to about a dozen german crazies outside my room, all wearing t-shirts and yoga pants. i have a sinking suspicion the type of therapy my host mom does is sort of like "sex therapy." don't want to go into the reasons now, but trust me.

also, and this might just be normal european stuff, but on a couple of occasinos i've walked into a common room to see my host mom a) with no top on, or b) with no pants on. she's addicted to eBay and frequently monitors her auctions while chainsmoking in her underwear in front of the computer. some might say "that's the life!" i would say "gwoss."

i mean, they're all great. unfortunately i can't think of any interesting anecdotes about anyone else now. maybe later.

indeed, later.

-chris dewitt

Once Bitten, Twice Srpski (That means Serbian in hrvatskosrpski)

Did you know that the word "Vampire" is derived from a Serbian word? The term was used in reports by Austrian policemen between 1725 and 1732, regarding a Serb citizen rising from the dead to attack living villagers. This anecdote is emblematic of my whole perception of Eastern Europe, pre-departure: mysterious, archaic, 'old world.' And when we're talking about the Balkans (and when we do talk about the Balkans, I don't necessarily mean the Balkan peninsula, but the countries of the former Yugoslavia), all those perceptions of what "Eastern Europe" means are taken to soaring new levels. This is the site of the last war in Europe, a region not only in what is/was politically Eastern Europe (behind the Iron Curtain, and then further cloistered by Tito's break with Stalin), but with a cultural influence that can be traced back to the Ottoman Empire.

So no, I am not expecting to become a werewolf or be be dodging bullets. But when we talk about Western Europe, we can talk with more certainty. We can almost relate. We at least have an image of what things could be like in our minds. But all that we, or at least I, have about Eastern Europe is vague perceptions. Old wives tales, not facts. Vampires, not visuals.

With 3 days and counting before I leave, I'll have to settle for the gloom and presentiments. I could say I am nervous. I could say that my research project right now is vague enough to comprise volumes, the group size (10 students, including myself) is intimidating and makes me feel like I won't be able to keep up and the prospect of performing that research using 3 dialects of a language I can only speak a few phrases of is bone-chilling. I could say the joke around the house these days is that my host family will be Roma and that I'll fall in love with their daughter and never come back. I could say that it is 50 degrees in Zagreb right now compared to 11 degrees in New Hampshire and despite all my fears and worries I feel like it is Christmas Eve all the time. Let's just say I am excited. Nervous, but excited.

Global friends: my biggest fear is that the time will move quicker once I leave, that my four months will slip through my fingers. I guess the best I can hope for is just to absorb as much as I can and bring it all back with me. I hope that the Balkans will be bizarre and strange and stunning beyond all my expectations. I really just hope there aren't vampires. SCARY!

some poorly articulated thoughts

to respond, i think the whiny baby comment is interesting. calling yourself a baby is not really appropriate right now. studying abroad is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. that has been drilled into our heads and is true mostly. but there are certainly aspects of it that are not optimal. anything built up as the best experience of our lives is bound to make us feel weird and that we are not living up to expectations, no matter how much we do, how many people we meets, etc. the requirement to have the best time ever in just 4 months in a foreign city is a difficult one to meet. just because you're not completely comfortable doesn't make you ungrateful or whiny.

i'm going to take a cue from the ultimate study abroad film, Auberge Espagnol and think that perhaps not knowing what to expect will make me feel more comfortable, perhaps even gain an "education sentimentale" as they say. we shouldn't be doing anything because we feel like we have to. it doesn't make sense to force yourself into situations that you don't want to be apart of. leaving in three months should not stop us from digging into our respective environments. i think the experience will be day-to-day, it's hard to analyze right now, though.

i often lament during breaks that i put stuff off in dc all of the time (like recording an oral history). the urgency of the 4 months will hopefully help to make me really dig in and think less about what i'm missing in dc. i've certainly learned to live more in dc and think less about what i'm missing in relationships with folks at other schools. that was hard at first, but now it's second nature.

anyway, today i got a 50 euro bill (note?) in the mail from a family friend and thought, man i won't be using dollars for a long time and also that i'm leaving very soon. i expect that during this trip, i will feel more an adult. i sometimes worry that i will feel lonely, but hopefully i will relish time that i have by myself. i don't know how much better at french i will be. chris, do you feel that you're getting a lot better with german? i don't really know when i'll be meeting french people, but i do want to speak with more ease. i think that people expect that i will be able to be instantly fluent there...i think that may be a stretch. also, i fear that i'll feel down and thus not live in the moment of being in paris. hopefully i will be able to ftake any set-backs in stride.

these predeparture thoughts will be a good read later on.

-holly

this is a second (first) post

hey suckers:

listen, since i'm the only person in the global friend network who's not in the States currently, I think i've earned the distinction of being the first person to scratch his thoughts into this little cave wall we have here.

I'm not sure what we're going for here, but i have an idea. i had previously, like last fall, envisioned a group blog that would serve as a sort of forum for us three, where we'd joke around and comment on each other's stupid pictures. but lately i've been more in the mood to let fly longer form pieces about what's going on upstairs (not heaven but rather my brain). this is wierd, as i don't think i have to tell you, being in berlin, paris, zagreb or anywhere else i imagine.

it's wierd, for one, because i've been expecting what kind of things would effect me for a long time. i've been conscious of what would be hard, what would be uncomfortable, what i'd miss, how i'd change, etc. for years. older friends went abroad and i saw what happened when they came back, told about what it was like, how wierd it was to be back and why. no one could really put a finger on it, as i certainly can't now. but i think it's wierd, now, in the thick of it, having been here for almost exactly a month, how i can feel myself changing. i daresay it's not too unlike jeff goldblum turning into a fly.

i'm stuck between missing what i had before and totally letting go and digging into the city. they aren't really all or nothing choices, but i'm not sure if the latter option would be at the peril of losing the realtionships with places and people that i had before. and i also know that i'll be leaving this place, too, in just three short months. one's already down, man. shit flies, that's for sure. but now i'm trying to get to know the place as well as i can without getting attached? i dunno. i don't know what the hell i'm doing, and i don't have a strategy, that's for sure.

i should have come here with a strategy, probably. but here i am. trying to make the most of it, but it's damned near imossible for me to think concretely about anything (i need to do this, i need to go here, i need to meet people now, etc.) i just think, alright now i need to get to know the city! when i don't know what the hell that means. i just got to know DC. it just happened. i think, i need to meet germans! but i don't know how to meet americans, and we speak the same language. point is, i'm a whiny baby. comment.

i appeal to you other two global friends, write some preliminary hopes and fears for us. they'll be fun to read later on.

sincerely,
chris dewitt