Neither Big Foot Nor Me

It's true... I not...

Croatian Differences

I've now been here for more than a month, and I thought I'd share a few key differences I've noticed while being here:

• Going for coffee is by far the most typical pass time in Croatia. There are abundant amounts of coffee bars around that serve tiny tiny cups of coffee (200mL) which they can drink for like two hours. There are no Starbucks/Second Cups around, but there is one single coffee bar that does serve larger portions of iced coffee. It serves as my haven when trying to escape the heat and get something cool to drink.
• Smoking is much more abundant here. I would say around 45% of the population smokes and this is usually coupled with sitting around with their tiny coffees on the patios. They recently implemented the law of banning smoking indoors in public places, which has caused a huge impact on business in clubs/bars and also the general workplace, so there are talks that this law may even be reversed.
• Parking is quite a different concept here. There are very few public parking lots and parking available on the streets, so people pretty much park wherever the heck they can fit their cars; most often they pile them onto the sidewalks. I almost got clipped by a guy who was parking. I thought walking on the sidewalk was safe... silly...
• Fast food is neither like that of North America, nor what I experienced in Germany. Both McDonald's and places for donairs can be found here, but they are few and far between. What's most common is the food in their small bakeries. They have tons of pastries that serve as meals, and sandwiches ready to serve, so that's what is considered fast. It may be a slightly less deep fried option, but in terms of healthiness, I'm not too sure if the processed meat is all that much better. But hey, I guess that's the nature of fast food.
• Most people carry around 2-4 cell phones. The way their networks work is that calls to the same network is significantly cheaper than calls to different networks. And with prepaid plans not really that much better in terms of cost, most people choose to go with the "pay-as-you-go" and do it with several networks. Man, I can barely stand having carrying one cell and a wallet in my pockets, I can't imagine the weight of an extra three.
• If there is one thing that has caused an ounce of "homesickness", it would be the lack of variety in foods here. This has been one area that has emphasized the multiculturalism of Canada for me. Just being able to go to our local Superstore and buy anything under the sun, from Naan bread to soya sauce to habanero peppers, the ingredients for buying foods of the world are at our finger tips. Not so much here... I have like half an aisle of Nutella products, but cannot for the life of me find peanut butter. But I guess part of this reason is also the change in lifestyle of not having a car and being able to drive to a Superstore, but still, even my neighbourhood IGA had Bok Choy...
• On a similar food note, the one thing that really makes me sad is the lack of flavours in chips. If you know me, you know I love my deep-fried potatoes saturated with powdered flavouring. Here, I call them recession chips, due to both the lack of flavours and concentration of flavours. The most common flavour they have for chips is paprika (bell peppers), which frankly, doesn't taste like anything. Even just to find another flavour of chips is a luxury. Too bad when I did find flavours like chili or cheese, the little amount of powdered flavour they put on it really makes little difference in flavour from the paprika chips. It's like being trapped in Chip Hell where all you get is regular, 24-7.

Overall, I've been having a really great time here, meeting tons of great people and opening my eyes to the intricacies of this new society. It's hard to explain, but even these small differences have such an impact on the cultural experience here. If you have the chance this year, come to Croatia and I'll gladly show you what I mean.

Out of Office Reply: Gone Fishing

Sorry people who check this regularly... if there are any. I'll be heading off to two functional meetings (one which will be on the coast, WOOH!) and then a team retreat, so I won't be able to update for the next 10 days or so, but I'll have a ton of updates once I get back.

Thanks for checking!

MC Team, ASSEMBLE!

So I haven't been posting too much in the past week since our team went to Rijeka, the largest port in Croatia and third largest city. We went down to meet up with our fourth and final member of the MC team (Member Committee = National Leadership Team) to do our business and year planning. We took the bus down and it took about 3 hours. Another interesting note on transportation: Here, it costs less, but takes longer to take the train from city to city, as opposed to most European cities and train systems. An equivalent train ride would have taken us about 4-5 hours and saved us around 10% of the ticket cost (200 kuna round trip). Below, you see a beautiful view of the lovely Rijeka!

We strolled around the city and checked out the University area, a church and a nearby Castle. Croatia is a Catholic country, so by default, there are churches aplenty here. I have yet to find an English service somewhere in Zagreb. As for the castle, parts of it were closed off for renovations. Luckily, we were able to sneak in and take a look around. For me, the city wasn't all that astounding, but what was exciting was the people here. We went out to one of the guys from Rijeka's weekend home and had a sweet bbq party. There was about 25 people there throughout the evening, and it was great to meet so many people from Rijeka. The spirit in that group was quite overwhelming, so I'm really looking forward to working and partying it up with them in the coming year.

But the biggest highlight of Rijeka was definitely to finally be united as a full team (of 4...)! It felt really awesome! And here they are:
From left to right:

Ana Komadina - She's our only native Croatian on the team is taking up the role of MCVP Exchange. She's the most energetic and enthusiastic person of the team, with a strong sense of optimism, which I find more and more rare in AIESEC.

Olga Tsyganova - She comes from Chelyabinsk, Russia, and is our MCVP Communication. More of a passive type, but once she's engaged in something, she becomes very passionate and focussed on the topic on hand. She's also a super night owl, always up til 5 in the morning doing something or other.

Owen Chung - The beast from the east, but I guess now I'm really more of a beast from the West. As the only person from overseas and the only guy, it'll be an interesting dynamics working with these 3. I'm taking on the role of MCVP LC Development, Projects, Talent Management, and coaching for External Relations... mother... MCVPLCDPTMER... yeah, we'll call it that...

Jelena Dujak - She's from Zurich, Switzerland, but her parents are both from the region, so she is able to speak Croatian fluently, and is our Member Committee President. She's someone who knows how to work hard and play just as hard. In my limited time working with her, she seems very direct and blunt. I've always wanted to be surrounded by these people, but we'll have to wait to see the extent to which she is this way and if I right in assuming I would enjoy it.

A few more noteworthy things about our team:

• We have no LCPs in our MC Team! WOOH! Jelena's background is LCVPTM and NST TM in Switzerland, while the other two come from being LCVPs in their own areas.
• Jele and Ana can speak Croatian, while Olga and I cannot. But with her Russian, Olga is able to comprehend and pick up the language with a bit more ease. FML.
• This is the first AIESEC team where I'm the oldest person on the team, though just by a few months.
  

Lessons from Abroad

Lessons on currency exchange: 47 kuna
Understanding public transportation: 137 kuna
Learning something new everyday: Priceless

For me, traveling around different countries let's me see a lot cool and different sights, but living there really provides a different understanding and appreciation for the tiny intricacies about a people, culture, and country. Unfortunately, that knowledge often comes at a bit of a price, but everything worthwhile does...

I came over to Croatia with a few hundred dollars Canadian, and chose not to exchange it all at once. I exchanged it in three separate occasions, with three different costs associated. Now the exchange rate from CDN $ to kuna is about 1:4.5, but exchanging it in three different locations each gave me a different value for my dollar. I first exchanged it at a place near my house and got a 4.23 kuna for my dollar which was pretty good. The next time, I was near the main train station and used the currency exchange shop there and received a similar rate, but they had a service charge of about 17 kuna. The last time, I had planned on going back to the original exchange location, but found another store just down the road, so I just changed it there. Out of curiosity, I decided to check the rate at the original location and found there was a difference of about .20 kuna per dollar. I guess the two lessons here would be:

• Exchange your money in less touristy places for a better deal
• Shop around for currency exchange stores, the rates vary quite significantly

As for transportation, let's just say that in Croatia, a trams not always a tram, sometimes it's a bus down the road, and if you don't see it, tough cookies.

Zagreb, the Centre of the Universe

So for the first couple days, we were exploring around the city of Zagreb. "We" consisted of Olga (my fellow MC member from Russia, who arrived the same day as I did), Cata (last year's MCP of Croatia), and Cata's friend Marta who was visiting from Portugal. Our current MCP is also in town, but has been out of commission for the past couple days due to illness. Cata kindly gave us a nice tour of the city centre, showing us the different town squares, historical buildings and monuments. We also climbed a short tower, that gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the cityscape, seen below.

One set of sights that has caught my interest in Zagreb is a scaled model of our universe. They have the 6-ft diameter golden Sun near the centre of the city with the subsequent planets sized and distanced proportionally from the Sun. I have only seen the planet Mars in my tour of the city, but the search for the planets will definitely be one of my adventures this year... once I get a bike.


Zagreb as a city is quite a bit more spacious than I had expected. It has both an area and population similar to that of Edmonton. But a noticeable difference is the quality of public transportation found in the city. Here we have trams, busses, and trains that help us navigate through the city, which makes it very convenient to get around. I live a bit far from the city centre, but can take a train for 8 minutes and be there. Another positive aspect, being able to drink out in the open, a pleasure I haven't experienced since Freiberg.

Two nights ago, I went to an open air concert where they were playing "gypsy" music. Now I don't know about you, but I've always thought that "gypsy" was more of a taboo word, much like saying it was "jew" music or something, but it's perfectly acceptable around here. Before going to the concert, despite being explained numerous times what the music was like, I could not stop imagining a group of people dressed like Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame dancing around playing their tambourines. The actual concert was sweet and was very instrumental with trumpets and all. Hard to explain exactly what it sounded like, but I will somehow find some gypsy music to let you all listen in the future. Overall, a great first few days in Zagreb, and I'm sure I will grow to love the city even more in the year to come.

Arrival!

After a long 24-hour trek, I've finally arrived at my new home in Zagreb Croatia. Getting here was quite troublesome, as initially I wasn't able to board the plane because my return flight was scheduled more than three months from now, indicating that I required a temporary stay permit. This was a problem since I was actually coming to Croatia to pick that up and all of this was arranged verbally, so I had no documentation indicating that this was indeed the case. As a result, I had to rebook my return flight before they would let me on the plane. Luckily, I was able to complete this with 3 minutes still remaining before my boarding time! Thanks Jeff for coming to see me off, despite me not having a second to say a word to you due to this rushed incident.

My flight took me first to Vancouver airport for a quick stop. Then I had an 8-hour stopover in Frankfurt. Let me tell you...longest 8 hours of my life! What do you do for 8-hours in an airport?! I read a bit of a Brave New World, tried to catch a bit of shut-eye, and went to eat at the Mcdonald's below.

I have a great fondness of going to eat at Mcdonald's in different countries. Despite it's status as maker's of "100% All Beef" patties with Supersizing effects, it is nonetheless a strong image of each countries cultural identity. At this specific Mcdonald's, I enjoyed some sort of Senf (mustard) burger, and if you've ever been to Germany, you know they love their senf. That was about the only highlight in that airport though... and with that, I was off to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

When I arrived at the airport, I was a bit worried that I'd be stopped at customs with another inquiry about my permit. As such, I rushed hurriedly to get through there as soon as I could, so much so that I'd passed by the baggage claim area without even noticing. Now Zagreb airport is a different setup from the Edmonton one, where people who are picking you up can get to the baggage claim area. Here, there were one way doors that separated the two areas, and I recognized that seconds after I had passed through those doors without my baggage. I was able to quickly track down an airport staff to help me get back in, and then I took the bus to the city centre, where I was picked up by the amazing EB from Zagreb, who then drove me to our MC flat.