A Note on Cultural Sensitivity.

I like everyone... Ever.

A great deal of the history of the Balkans is unsettled. I remember, as a child seeing Kosovo on the news*. I remember it as I remember most stories in the news from those times. There were bad things happening in the world, but they weren't where I was. When you realize how many detestable things have happened in the world that you weren't around for, you realize how lucky you are.

I knew little to nothing about the Balkans before living here.

All of that being said, whilst traveling, the best one can do is to assume that all people are doing the best they can and be sensitive to the trials and tribulations of their country's unsettled past. I hope that I am always judged off of who I am and not where I'm from... Like Tupac... and Jay-Z... and Tom Stoppard...

I can only extend the same respect to anyone I meet.

While I have\will have negative and positive experiences any where I go these are not necessarily indicative of the country as a whole**. Every place that I have been to I have run into someone that has said, word for word, the exact same thing:

"There are good people and bad people everywhere"

As a die-hard American optimist I assume that there are good people everywhere, and other people who have just had a really lame day before I met them.

I was talking with a Serbian waiter one night and the first thing he said to me was, "You bombed me." Which, propelled by liberal Californian ideology and latent Catholic guilt, lead me to immediately apologize my face off for something that happened while I was learning long division... with the remainder.

I still felt really bad for bombing him.

I was also talking with a Serbian poet who lived through the bombing of Belgrade, that just wanted to discuss the proper method of serving a shot of espresso***.

We all have to navigate a difficult past and an uncertain future. In this blog I will always do my best to take people at their absolute best. The world is full of amazing people that we simply don't know yet, if you give them a chance they will prove that to you time and time again****.

Before leaving for Albania my uncle Ante, a Croatian immigrant told me:

"Listen, you try and meet everyone half way. If you even try to meet them half way, that will mean the world to them. And they'll take care of you."

This is true. This is so true.


*I was embarrassed to be seen watching children's programming as a child and so turned on CNN whenever an adult walked into the room. To this day I have no idea why I did this, because I can't imagine that my parents bought the fact that I really wanted to be watching "Wall Street Week in Review... God rest Louis Rukeyser's soul. Though I can now confess that I was almost always watching "Eureka's Castle" or "Doug" before said adult walked into the room.

**Unless they're French cyclists.

*** On a cool looking saucer, with a glass of water, a lemon wedge, and a cookie of some sort. Cookies make it classy.

**** Unless they're snooty French cyclists*****.
*****No that's mean. They're fine too.