Croatia

At the age of 11, I moved to a new and unknown place –  Zagreb, Croatia. After having lived in a stable and constant environment for my entire life, this sudden change was certainly not an exciting prospect. The notion of leaving my childhood friends, my school, my home… everything… behind left me with fear and anger. Despite the relatively recent introduction of social media sites to help me maintain contact with friends, I knew that this move would slowly dissolve many of my friendships

My parents both worked as war-crimes prosecutors in the United Nations, so the moving/postings were simply part of the job. Their posting in Zagreb was in relation to the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s.

The city of Zagreb was an immediate contrast to The Hague. It was clear to me that Croatia was much less socially and economically developed than the Netherlands. I noticed the old and worn out architecture, the cars seemed to be much more outdated and people dressed in less expensive clothing.

Although my grandparents were born and raised in Croatia (and later emigrated to the US), I had no grasp at all on the Croatian language or culture whatsoever. This proved to me a major setback, especially since my mother enrolled me into a local Croatian-speaking school. Unlike the Netherlands where most people were surprisingly fluent in the English language, most people spoke little to none of the language. This made my first my first month or so of living here and attending school almost unbearable. Talking with my classmates, making friends and speaking to teachers were near-impossible tasks for me. However, I quickly grasped this new language and after several months was nearly fluent. Today I can appreciate how quickly you can grasp a new language or skill at such a young age when submerged in a culture.

I was soon able to make friends and engage in class. I distinctly remember how difficult French class was before I learned Croatian, since the lesson was teaching French through Croatian I learned almost nothing in the first few weeks of class.

Another distinction I made during my year living in Croatia was the contrast in many of the local people’s demeanor. While I remember them being similarly reserved as the Dutch, there was a more unpleasant side that some of the people gave off. I never felt that many of the locals were enthusiastic about pleasing others or showing public signs of kindness. However, I also noticed that they seemed to be much more hardworking and family-orientated and their nature was fairly simple.

During my time here, the experiences that I had were undoubtedly very significant to me. When I lived in Holland, my mom put me on the school bus every morning outside our house and let me in every day when I got home. However, I quickly became a lot more independent and self-reliant. I remember my long route down the long hill leading to our apartment and then taking the public bus to my school. This sudden change and gain in freedom was definitely exciting, but also helped me later on during my time at boarding school. I definitely think it helped me become more mature.

 

Although this year was the shortest of my travels, and had less adventures, I definitely learned valuable lessons from the experiences I had – from the hardships of my first month or so living there to my increase in personal responsibility – these have all shaped who I am today.