Home is where the heart is
Living abroad for 6 months means that now I am the one that needs to integrate into a new society. This time I am the foreigner. The first things I noticed were the little differences and together they give you the feeling like you are in a whole new world, or at least for the first few weeks. For example, I was pleasantly surprised that a working day here starts with everyone having a cup of coffee together. Since drinking a coffee takes half an hour, up to an hour (yes, I learned to drink very slowly) I think this is a very relaxing way to start the day. And not only that: people already start talking about what they will be doing that day so colleagues make suggestions, help and support each other, so it is actually very motivational and efficient. In this way it's quite different from being an employee in Belgium, where you often work more in your own bubble and drinking coffee or water constitutes a welcome moment of relief between seas of stress or boredom.
Another thing I noticed is the way people deal with the weather. You have to know that Osijek has a continental climate, which means that it can go from -20 degrees in winter up until 40 degrees in summer. This difference is so extreme that people seem to have given up adapting to it: they wear long trousers, sleeves and jackets whenever it's below 30 degrees. So when it's 25 degrees on a sunny day this Belgian girl gets overexcited (again a day without rain!?) and wears shorts and sandals. I seem to be the only person in Osijek doing that, so people tend to stare at me. In the beginning I was still trying to fit in as much as possible and wore long trousers, although my body craved for fresh air. But when someone at work rightly told me that I will always be the foreigner, I gave up and just wore what every Belgian person would wear: shorts. People still stare, but I don't care that much anymore. I just enjoy the sunshine, for as long as it lasts.
Of course this list is inexhaustible and I could also tell you about the way Slavonian drivers don't care about snow, they just drive like it's not there (See? It's possible), or about the gigantic portions of food you get here in restaurants, or about the love for rakija (every untagged bottle in the market is rakija, bars advertise their coffees in combination with rakija and rakija seems to be the cure for everything), or about the national hobby: going for a coffee, which usually means drinking whatever you want and talking for hours.
But let's not dwell on these any longer and jump to the realisation I made about half way my EVS, when I got used to these funny facts. It was, quite unsurprisingly, that in general people here are not all that different than in Belgium. Complaining about the weather seems to be a universal hobby and no one really trusts their government (although this probably says more about European governments than about European citizens). Here, like in Belgium, people like to meet with friends and family over food and drinks, they want to meet someone to love and then worry about their future. So once you master the language (which I still don't, unfortunately) you can build your life anywhere, if that is what you want. For me personally, these 6 months were also an opportunity for self-exploration and one of the things I found out was that the people who make up my home are still in Belgium.
Another thing I noticed is the way people deal with the weather. You have to know that Osijek has a continental climate, which means that it can go from -20 degrees in winter up until 40 degrees in summer. This difference is so extreme that people seem to have given up adapting to it: they wear long trousers, sleeves and jackets whenever it's below 30 degrees. So when it's 25 degrees on a sunny day this Belgian girl gets overexcited (again a day without rain!?) and wears shorts and sandals. I seem to be the only person in Osijek doing that, so people tend to stare at me. In the beginning I was still trying to fit in as much as possible and wore long trousers, although my body craved for fresh air. But when someone at work rightly told me that I will always be the foreigner, I gave up and just wore what every Belgian person would wear: shorts. People still stare, but I don't care that much anymore. I just enjoy the sunshine, for as long as it lasts.
Of course this list is inexhaustible and I could also tell you about the way Slavonian drivers don't care about snow, they just drive like it's not there (See? It's possible), or about the gigantic portions of food you get here in restaurants, or about the love for rakija (every untagged bottle in the market is rakija, bars advertise their coffees in combination with rakija and rakija seems to be the cure for everything), or about the national hobby: going for a coffee, which usually means drinking whatever you want and talking for hours.
But let's not dwell on these any longer and jump to the realisation I made about half way my EVS, when I got used to these funny facts. It was, quite unsurprisingly, that in general people here are not all that different than in Belgium. Complaining about the weather seems to be a universal hobby and no one really trusts their government (although this probably says more about European governments than about European citizens). Here, like in Belgium, people like to meet with friends and family over food and drinks, they want to meet someone to love and then worry about their future. So once you master the language (which I still don't, unfortunately) you can build your life anywhere, if that is what you want. For me personally, these 6 months were also an opportunity for self-exploration and one of the things I found out was that the people who make up my home are still in Belgium.
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