Before I begin my blog
post, I would like to graciously thank quite a few people...
David Knobbe, director at Outdoor
Recreation Georgia Tech (ORGT), for his enormous contributions to the success
of our trip. When the unexpected stopped us in our tracks - from airlines
failing to deliver baggage to tragic floods demolishing bridges and our floating
river hostel – David served as an outstandingly calm and collected leader and planner as we re-organized to
adjust to circumstances. Thank you David!
Ahsan Khan, expedition leader at ORGT, for joining our trip voluntarily
and assisting David through every startling circumstance while also making sure
everyone was safe at all times. Thank
you Ahsan!
Chaffee Viets, director of the President's Scholarship Program, for giving me the amazing opportunity to lead what must have been the best group of students and professors to bring to the Balkans. ASK Balkans 2014, and hopefully for more years in the future!
Hugh Crawford and Loren Williams, professors at Georgia Tech in literature and biochemistry respectively, for being with us throughout the planning process not only providing insightful contributions to our intellectual conversations throughout the semester and in hostels late at night but also providing hilarious remarks at just the right moments in carpools and at the dinner table. You guys are great and we will not pretend to not know you in public!
And finally, the ASK Balkans scholars... all of you contributed to the trip and were not "tourists" but curious and thoughtful travelers! Also, you amazed our adults with your strength and minimal whining through every bump in the road. I really hope all of you see this trip as a highlight of the GT experience.
----
Much like the purpose of the ASK program, I’m currently
struggling with a question: how will you
experience ASK Balkans vicariously through this blog post?
Na žalost, you can’t.
There is, perhaps luckily, no possibility of squeezing ASK
Balkans in one blog post. To se razume.
But what you can
do is be inspired by what our group did: spend five months extensively studying
the rich social and cultural history of a unique region of the world to make
our travels an eye-opening and reflective experience, all while actively
planning through weekly meetings the day-to-day substantial itineraries for
twenty-five people, then allow the hard work to cultivate an awe-inspiring two
weeks for everyone.
A Three Year Effort
How it all began
Last fall, Chaffee, our director at the President’s
Scholarship Program whom we scholars fondly refer to by first name, approached
me asking if I would be interested in leading a group of students and
professors in a full-blown wilderness adventure and rich, academic study of
Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. It would be called: Academic Search for Knowledge
(ASK) Balkans.*dramatic
interpretation
Coming from a Serbian family, I had the ability to translate
the language fluently and connect Georgia Tech to the Balkans… so sure – why not?
The ASK program had been a work in progress for years due legislative
barriers, so I was a little scared that ASK Balkans would not come to fruition.
But as Georgia entered another snowless December Chaffee reminded me: over
winter break, are you going to start prepping materials and considering which professors
to nominate as faculty guides?
ASK Balkans became real. I exploded with joy. Then survived to
lead – and translate for – an amazing trip.
My New Pair of Eyes
The highlights of my
ASK Balkans experience
The wise David Knobbe reminded us throughout our trip:
“People do not learn
from experience, they learn from reflecting
on experience.”
The wise Billiee Pendleton-Parker also offered a piece of
wise advice that has become my new favorite travel quote (thanks Billiee!):
"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking
new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust
And with these wise words I am inspired to reflect on the
experiences that have transformed me, below.
--
Entering Croatia and
being surprised that it totally felt like home... red tiled roofs,
hatchbacks, cigarette smoke, and imperfectly trimmed grass. Communist-era cement
block apartments juxtaposed with intricate moldings in early modern period
Austro Hungarian private homes… a ubiquitous trait of the west Balkans! The
only difference being really, pointy Catholic steeples instead of Orthodox
domes.
Since I first came to Serbia in 1998, I have always come
back every few years. Due to the tension caused by war, I never visited Croatia
and thus it became a land of mystery. Upon arriving in Zagreb I expected a
culture shock, a weird sense of misbelonging… however, I experienced quite the
opposite.
BBC documentaries and PBS in-depth investigations of the
history of war painted for me the image of two countries on opposite sides of
the black-and-white cookie. It startled me to discover that these differences were
completely unknown to the naked eye
and the commonalities left me pondering how such serious bloodshed came between
related social cultures.
--
Totally redefining my
Americanized perspective of occupation and career... something that struck
me about our two weeks is that I can’t recall meeting a single person with what
we will call a “classic American” career path and vision for work. We met so many characters with arguably
interesting lives… from fireman who travel to mountain huts by weekend to
ex-NGO presidents looking to found organic farms.
To be fair, the Balkans unemployment situation is much more
difficult than that of the United States, but most characters did not seem
unhappy about their random career tragectories. In fact they became infinitely
more interesting and rewarding.
As an aspiring entrepreneur I was finding myself in Georgia
Tech’s hard hustle culture needing to hurry,
seeing the idea perpetuated that jumping in now
is the only way to have success later -
but there is no set path. What’s preventing me from taking a semester off to
research sustainable farming practices by living and working on a farm in
Bosnia?
--
Admitting I lied about
my origin because I feared rejection... as a warning from relatives that
made sense given recent history, I was told in Croatia to simply “white lie” and
explain my ability to speak Croatian by my Croatian parents from Zagreb who
later moved to America, hence my American accent.
This, of course, is not my parent’s actual history. However,
as we traveled through Croatia, it felt safer for me to say that my parents
were from Zagreb rather than their actual origins. I feared I would be rejected
in Croatia for being Serbian, though the war ended about twenty years prior.
Then suddenly: Murphy’s Law.
At a lovely three course dinner at a Skradin hotel after
rigorous hiking through Paklenica, Chaffee was practicing Croatian with Tin and
Filip, our Croatian kayaking guides for an adventure to begin the following
morning. When he ordered a bijela kafa,
Tin and Filip corrected him and said that in Croatia it’s called a kava.
Chaffee then pointed at me and said, “But that’s what she
taught me.”
The kayaking guides replied, “But that’s what Serbians say.”
*For the record, these are really funny and kind-hearted dudes
My cover was blown. But not really: “It’s just my American
accent!”
Later, Chaffee reminded me that there was no need to lie
about where I am from, but I insisted I just wanted to play it safe.
On the water the next day, our whole group grew to like and
trust our guides. By the time we came to Hotel Maestral on Prvic Luka, I had so
many good interactions with Croatians that I became completely lost and had to
ask myself: how could Croatians and Serbians possibly hate each other?
After a delicious pasta and rum ice cream our group split
into smaller groups for reflection. I had the luck of sitting with Tin, Filip,
Chaffee, and others from our group. Still dumbfounded by my earlier question, I
descended into a moment of utter vulnerability in which I feared Tin and Filip
would hate me forever: I revealed that I lied about being Croatian and was in
fact Serbian. I also revealed that I had been doing so my entire time in
Croatia out of fear of rejection and according to my parents, safety. But I could
not believe how such similar cultures could hate each other. I simply had to blow my cover.
Chaffee was proud. And Tin and Filip didn’t hate me – they actually
seemed to appreciate my utter honesty and a very personal account of the answer
to my question followed.
I seriously regret lying about my origins. I let go of the
opportunity to break cultural barriers due to my own insecurities. ASK Balkans
has taught me that bridging gaps between cultures the BBC illustrates as
enemies begins with just a little bravery and personal risk – which, if you
look more closely, isn’t that how all
social progress is made?
--
Seeing the ASK Balkans
group chow down on ham soup by David Knobbe… there was a moment at Hostel
City Center in Sarajevo where I felt infinitely happy. As I looked around and
saw everyone eating a delicious Knobbe creation after exploring Sarajevo in
cold and rain, I realized how much I appreciate the entire ASK Balkans group
and how much I would miss them when the trip was over.
Seeing and experiencing culture was amazing, but the
relationships I formed on the trip with my PS family, our professors Hugh
Crawford and Loren Williams, our ORGT staff David and Ahsan, and Chaffee were
even more outstanding. I am terrible at explaining these kinds of feelings in
words, but I will fondly remember – and can’t wait to see again – everyone on our trip.
For Fondly Recounting
at ASK Balkans Reunions
We had quite the trip, eh?
- climbed
a 13th century Croatian castle
- met Tom, Boris, and the fluffiest dog in the world aka Seka
- climbed
2km to the top of Paklenica, Buljma (or Team Summit)
- slept in
the Struge mountain hut that soldiers slept in
- stood
meters away from land mines from wars past
- kayaked
40 miles in the Adriatic, including through a sea storm
- got
featured in a local Croatian newspaper
- slept
across from Diocletian's palace
- played
with wild Bosnian horses
- lowered
a tent pole for an hour and a half in a Bosnian hotel
- invaded
Sarajevo coffee shops
- saw how
Bosnia’s 1984 Olympic grounds for celebration became haunting relics of war
- got 25 free
mini carpets for buying so many drug rugs from a craftsman in Sarajevo
-
witnessed 1st hand the effects of the worst flood in Balkans recorded history
-
(briefly) hiked a 6th century Serbian fortress, Kalegmegdan
- ate our
yearly allowance of bread, cheese, and salami
--
Needless to say, after hiking, roadtripping, kayaking, and
flying across Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia we came closer to answering how the
physical environment and both ancient and modern history accumulated to
cultural interactions in the former Yugoslavia. But have the wisdom to say we cannot
fully answer this question in six months – that will be determined and built
upon by ASK Balkans trips for years to come!