Like Bringing Guests Into My Home for the First Time

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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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

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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!