Zagreb

I spent last weekend in Zagreb, which has now claimed its place among my favorite cities. It’s a bit sad that at this point sun and warmth (I didn’t have to wear tights under my pants), painted buildings (Belgrade’s are uniformly gray.) and Indian food (saag paneer! mango lassi!) makes a city outstanding.

The company was good too. I was there for the Southeastern Europe regional retreat for my program. There were six of us: volunteers in Bosnia and Slovakia, me, and the European coordinator based in Geneva. The other volunteers have all been in the region for a year longer than me. They were all happy with their work & thinking about staying in this neck of the woods beyond the two years they signed up for. They all spoke the language well enough to chat with shopkeepers, kids on the bus, etc. It gives me hope.

I went up a day early and stayed with J, an American expat. We stayed up late drinking tea, talking about politics and whether her son should take a year off of college to do volunteer work. She’s been in ex-Yu for 20 years and does really interesting work. It gives me hope.

I haven’t given tremendous thought to what happens after I have been here for 2 years. Grad school is the default answer. Thus far, I haven’t thought of myself as cut out for the long-term expat experience. I wonder if in a year I’ll be like my colleagues, trying to figure out how to stay in the region.