In Zagreb

First experiences and impressions.

I am, indeed, housed in an apartment in a neighbourhood of massive apartment buildings. Mine is on the 15^th floor and is basically one room with a bathroom. I’ve stayed in bigger hotel rooms. Seriously. And I know for sure that whole families are living in this same amount of space in this ordinary apartment building. It really brings home the general bigness of North American life.

I was right about the sofa that will be my bed. I was right about the two-burner stove. No oven. I was right about the lack of any artwork of any kind on the walls.

Already caught myself missing a cat being around.

For those who want to know the details, the flight/s were fine; the five-hour layover in Frankfurt was boring; but everything went like clockwork. No delays, no problems. My luggage arrived with me. Gott sei dank! Passport control and customs were a wave-through.

V. is charming and she is going out of her way to make me feel welcome. I had been emailing her with all of my questions over the past few months, and she has been absolutely wonderful. There she was at the airport to pick me up and take me to the apartment. She had already bought me a phone and a transit pass!!!!!!! We instantly found the internet café which is steps away from my apartment and she pointed out the bakery, grocery store, drug store, etc. And then on the first day she did the right thing: leave me alone to shower, buy groceries, unpack, get my bearings. Think about being here in Zagreb.

Today we did a tour of the downtown. And ate a traditional Croatian lunch—don’t know what it’s called but a spicy ground meat mixture, grilled, served on a flat bread (something like pita but better) with raw onions and some sort of cross between butter and cheese. Greasy and delicious!

We also stopped by the university and I met some colleagues in the English department. V. showed me my office chair: she already shares an office with three others! Teaching starts next week.


So far so good. Dovidenja! (bye)