In 5 days, we'll be on a plane back to the United States, and at the moment, I'm quite sad to be leaving this place. For awhile now, Rijeka and Croatia more broadly have been my new normal, and there's much about life here that I've really come to like.
One of the things I appreciate most about life in Croatia is the pace. I remember that after we were here for perhaps a few weeks, my colleague Darko asked me how I cope with the pace of life in America. I literally didn't know what he was asking. Now I understand. The pace of life is so much slower here. There's less rushing around and less hectic scheduling. People take time with one another--in a whole variety of settings, but certainly the cafes are the best example of this. There's no need for a slow food movement in Croatia (though one may be here) because it seems that everyone here takes a slow, local approach to food. The dinners we've had in our new Croatian friends' homes have been wonderful--fresh, slow, delicious, designed to maximize the pleasure of getting together with friends and savoring the moment (not to mention the excellent food, brandy, and wine!).
The approach to work also seems very different from what I've experienced in the U.S. I suspect that my academic colleagues here would meet or exceed the expectations of the standards at the best universities in the States. They're intellectual, very well-published (for non-academics out there reading this, that's what often matters in a university setting), and devoted to their subject matter. But when they get together, especially in social settings, these professors like to talk about their lives outside of work. And they don't seem to do what I think many academics (and perhaps many professionals?) in the U.S. do: pretend that they're working all of the time. In fact, they seem to value actively, and talk about the fact that they value actively, having full lives--spending time with family, going to the beach, doing whatever it is they like to do and being with whomever they love.
I'm probably romanticizing a lot about life here. Certainly, I haven't experienced the pace in the way a Croatian professor would. I'm a guest, so I didn't have to serve on committees or get involved in the messiness of university life. (In fact, I had the luxury of finding some of the messiness to be interesting.) And I'm sure there's a lot I didn't understand about what was going on around me because of the language and cultural barriers. In general, the fact that I was here temporarily and predisposed to find the good in this place, both due to my temperament and short-term status, meant that I could avoid some of the bad.
I also realize that there are down sides to this pace. Based on my experience, some things here can be inefficient by American standards. Croatians also spend a lot more time waiting on line than Americans do. In addition, bureaucracy and a poor economy, which in my mind are connected with the pace of life here, seem to leave some Croatians resigned to the current state of affairs and their own inability to effect change. This seems in stark contrast to the American "can-do" attitude (which, I think, can sometimes lead Americans to assume that they can do more than they can).
I don't think I ever stopped noticing these things, and I certainly got frustrated with some of them. But on the whole, I came to accept the down sides because of the good that came with them.
Back in our hometown in the States, J.D. and I have tried very hard to lead balanced lives. With two full-time jobs/ careers, two kids, and extended family, friends, and a community we're devoted to (the things that a lot of people try to balance), we have chosen, and continue to actively choose, to live in a rural area that many see as far off the beaten path in America, in part because the pace of life has seemed more sane to us there than in many other places. But I've come to think of our rural village as life in the fast lane compared to Croatia. I like what I see as the human pace of Croatia living.
I hope that when I return to the States, I take some of Croatia with me.
Laura
