Croatia: A Cultural Learning Experience

I think you will soon understand why I chose to entitle this entry the way I did.

I’m sorry that this entry is so long, but there is so much that I have to write. I promise it will be worth it for you to read it all! Enjoy!

Why Croatia? Most Americans would be taken aback if you told them you spent your fall break in Croatia. They would question the reasoning behind this decision and say “you are in Europe and you chose to go to Croatia instead of flying to London or Paris or Rome! Are you crazy!” The Germans would say, “You went to Croatia and didn’t go to the coast?! What was the point of going?” Well, maybe I am crazy, but not for this reason. (I personally prefer to think of myself as someone who likes to be different, I’m not a big fan of following the crowd, I’ll stick to my path…it’s much better!) I would say to these people that my trip was worth every penny to me and I can’t wait to go back! The people who ask these kinds of questions, don’t see the worth in a cultural trip, a trip of learning about people and meeting people. It is in doing this that one can really experience a country to its fullest. The buildings in a country-made by the people-, the food of a country-also made by the people-, ah yes, and the people of a country, also made by the people! Maybe it is my love of people and interaction with people that made this trip so attractive to me. Perhaps it was also the reunion of friends after two years that also made the trip special. If it hadn’t been for them I may have never had the opportunity to have this unique and individual experience and I am glad that they made it possible. What I saw and experienced in Croatia was much more unforgettable and impressive than any coastline could be. The warmth with which I was welcomed, the generosity of everyone I met and the families of my friends, and simple yet touching moments such as a drawing given to me by a little Croatian girl. These are the things that count in life. These are the moments we remember most of all, they are moments that are shared and spent with other people.

Language: Bok! That means hello in Croatian. This is one of numerous words that I learned while in Croatia. The language is difficult for foreigners to actually learn because there are so many different cases, but it is possible to pick up on phrases, as I learned. I probably learned around 30 or so words and could understand more if I saw them written on the TV screen. In Croatia, TV isn’t synchronized like here in Germany and so all English, Spanish, and German stations are in these languages with subtitles and it is therefore very easy for children to learn languages. One of the boys in a class that I visited with my friend had learned German from watching TV. When I heard him speak I was completely stunned. This is definitely an advantage for these children.

My friends were quite impressed with the Croatian knowledge that I acquired, while there. Whenever I heard a word repeated a lot, I would ask what it meant. Some words are similar to English and some if heard are understood right away. Others have absolutely no connection and are completely foreign. From my observations, Croatians generally speak loudly and if one didn’t know this, one would probably assume that they argue a lot based on the intensity of the language. My host mom here in Germany found it interesting that my friends from Croatia and I conversed in German, although this is not the mother tongue of any of us. Usually there is one native speaker, when one speaks a language, but we have always spoken to each other in German, among us this is considered a third language. Unfortunately with their family’s it wasn’t as simple. My one friend’s family spoke Croatian and German to me and we understood each other through context. My other friend’s family spoke English, German, and Croatian with me. This was a totally interesting situation to be in. I don’t know that I have ever been in a situation, where I was with a person I could not communicate with at all. Even when my friend was gone and I was with her grandma during the day who only speaks Croatian, I still felt that we were able to communicate to each other even though I was speaking German and she was speaking Croatian! Body language conveys a lot of meaning to the receiver.

Country and Landscape: The flight was only an hour and a half from Germany. My friend Sara, one of the two friends from Croatia that I made in Heidelberg, and her father were at the airport to pick me up. I flew to Zagreb, which is the capital of Croatia, but one wouldn’t realize this from the size of the Airport. The only flights that come into this airport are with very small and cheap airline companies. I flew with German wings, because they fly from Hamburg. I would say this is the smallest airport I have ever been too but nothing tops the airport that Maike and I flew to in Venice to visit Andrea. I think there were only 2-4 gates there. Zagreb had 20. My first impression of Croatia was a bit blurred because I hadn’t seen my friend for 2 years and we spent the car ride catching up with each other, but I did manage to take in some of the scenery on our way to Varaždin. The countryside is absolutely beautiful and we drove through the mountains. Baroque churches and block houses adorn the countryside. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change and this added to the beauty. I recognized right away that Croatia is a country of farming and living off the land. Lots of corn and cabbage and vineyards were to be seen en route to Varaždin. This added to the patchwork quilt of fall colors of the land and made it even more attractive to me. Right outside of the city that my friends live in, many people gather their crops and sell them in front of their houses on the main road.

Food: Food is very important in Croatia. One of the most important things is that a guest be offered food so that they are not hungry. I of course never even had the chance to be hungry. Instead, I thought I might explode from eating too much. I was constantly offered some sort of food, cake, cookie, or chocolate or candy. Typical deserts are a type of cream puff, lots of pastries, and layered cakes. I’m not complaining; it was all absolutely delicious! I gained four pounds while being in Croatia!! Crazy, I know! Lunch. Lunch in Croatia is not at all like lunch in the U.S. It is more like dinner and then some. First a soup is served with bread. Usually this is a type of noodle soup or dumpling soup and then there is a large main course also served with a salad of some sort and then usually a desert. The first meal I had in Croatia, was typical of the northern region. We had some sort of fried dough served with baked chicken. Other traditional meals that I had while in Croatia were Sarma, this is a meat filled cabbage with broth that is served with mashed potatoes, all types of schnitzel, all sorts of potatoes, and eggs, scrambled and fried. Sara and I often went to a café called Sax. This is one of her favorite cafés and she goes there usually once a day for cappuccino. We were there approximately 10 times in 12 days while I was there. It has a nice atmosphere and of course the coffee is good. She knows all of the people who work there and most of the people who go there. Sometimes she even gets free drinks because she goes there so often.

School: Both of my Croatian friends studied Elementary Education with a concentration in German. They were the best in their class which is why they got to go to Germany. There are not as many exchange opportunities in Croatia to go abroad, which makes me appreciate the quality of study at Bethany and in the U.S. in general. This, however, does not mean that the quality of education in Croatia is lacking. Standards are very high for those wishing to attend a University and requirements must be met for every area of study. I had the opportunity to go to school with my friends and introduce myself to their students. I went to five schools total. My one friend, Sara, works at three different schools (the schools that she works at are mainly in the countryside and therefore do not have enough students to require a full time position for a German teacher), the other friend, Goga, has a constant position, and the fifth school was the school of a friend of their that I also went one day with. This was not only a very educational experience but also a very rewarding experience for both me and the students at these schools. The faculty and staff of all the schools welcomed me warmheartedly and attempted to speak what little bit of German or English that they could muster after long years of not speaking either. I wish I could have taken a picture of every child’s face as I told them that I was from America. They asked more than once if I really was from the U.S. Their jaws hit the floor and then as most children and younger students are, they became shy and chattered amongst each other. Their eyes, however, never strayed from me and if they did, they were likely to look back within a few seconds. I felt like the main attraction at a zoo, but it was adorable the way the children acted. I believe one of the teachers I met used the expression “you are something exotic to them. They don’t realize Americans are just normal people like us. To them you are something out of a TV.” Of course this is the truth for most Croatian children. America is and will probably remain to most of its inhabitants a foreign land that is unreachable. I am probably the closest interaction most of them will ever have in their lives with America. The older students were very shy when it came to asking questions. The most frequently asked questions were are you married and do you have kids! I had to laugh at these. But I also understand why they chose to ask these questions.

Family: Family and children are the most important things in Croatian culture. Dinner or our so-called lunch is held at home and the whole family is usually there to sit down and eat together. In the U.S. this hardly happens. I respect this from the Croatian culture. Although they don’t work tons of hours during the week like Americans and therefore don’t make as much money, it is a sacrifice they are willing to make in order to spend time with one another. Material possessions and money carry less worth than family and time together. It makes me question the American way of living. You work yourself to death trying to give your children everything you can yet you don’t have as much time with your family. Luckily for me, this wasn’t the case, but for many others it is. Sylvia, one of the teachers, at a school I went to explained to me why not very many Croatians move abroad, work abroad, or study abroad. They would simply become homesick she said.

Hosts. The Croatians from what I gathered while there are proud to be hosts and as hosts want to make sure that their guests are always satisfied. It’s not rude to leave food on your plate if you don’t like it or can’t eat it all. Tee, coffee, juice, and water are always offered. Even when I went to the schools, I was asked if I liked the school, if I felt comfortable, and was also offered food and drinks without cost. Throughout my stay, Sara bought me all different types of specialty chocolates and cookies for me to try. At the end of my stay, Goga and her family had gave me a bag full of gifts. I had not expected this at all. It was a complete surprise. Her grandmother hand stitches and she had made me a pillow case with an angel on it. I also received a small angel figurine from her mother. There was also a sort of hanging plaque made of wood with a print of the castle of Varazdin and an angel on it. These were not the only gifts. In addition, I received earrings and a t-shirt from Goga’s sister, a large box of specialty chocolates, and Kiki’s (a type of bon-bon similar to starburst) from Goga. The reason for the gifts involving angels is that they are a symbol of the city of Varazdin. This is because it is a baroque city.

Tradition. Sara dances in a Folk dance group in Varazdin. There is more than one in the city and there are many of these in the country. Each region has specific traditional clothing, music, songs and dances and the groups meet to practice these. They have numerous people ranging in age who play the traditional instruments, one example is the mandolin. The groups travel and perform all over Europe and don’t have to pay to do this because they make money from the performances and sell items pertaining to Croatia. The costumes they were are hand made and very intricate and they perform a variety of dances from regions all over Croatia, not just theirs. I got to attend their practices and tape a few clips there. And just by chance, Sara’s group happened to have a performance in the Varazdin Theater while I was there! We snuck in the back without paying and watched the first two performances. Her group was second and I taped the performance. They did an amazing job and the emotion that they put into this made the whole experience very powerful. I haven’t ever seen anything like it.

Nationalism & Pride. Croatians are very proud of their country. They support Croatian companies and products and take pride in this. My friends told me that the remnants of war are still present in southern parts of the country. Luckily, I was in the North and didn’t have to experience seeing that. For those reading this who don’t know much of the history of Croatia, it was formerly Yugoslavia and was split in the 90’s basically because of differences in language and ethnicity. I’m not sure it would have been something I would have wanted to see. The Croats are very hostile when it comes to Bosnia and Serbia and have all the reason to be so since their land was destroyed and their people killed by the Serbs. They told me that they would never travel through these countries and that they would rather drive a longer distance to get somewhere.

I hope you enjoyed my entry on Croatia and were able to learn something from it!