The BYOB Culture

Last night I was hanging out in the kitchen with a Serbian guy, Mila - though I don't know if that's the correct spelling - and the Russians. Erkal was cooking some pasta with one of his friends. He comes over and throws down some candy at the table where we're all sitting and says, "Please, take." We all laugh, say thanks, all of that. Mila tells us that it's a cultural thing. He says that the Turkish are culturally very generous and it's natural for them to do something like what Erkal just did. He then goes on to say that generosity like that isn't something to expect from, for example, me. He's right, too. I would never have thought to grab my own sweets and set them on the table like that. It's not that I'm not generous and wouldn't go out of my way like Erkal did, it's just that it wouldn't occur to me unless someone asks directly about wanting something to eat. I'm used to BYOB.

Another thing I learned, which I probably should have been able to figure out, is that the Syrillic alphabet - which I knew is used by the Bulgarians and the Russians - is also used for a few other languages including Serbian. The odd thing that Mila told me was that in Serbia it is legal to use either the Syrillic or the Latin alphabet. I wikipedia'd it later and found out that the Syrillic alphabet was invented by a Bulgarian, which I thought was cool.

We also talked about characterizations of people from different countries. For example, Mila said that people think Serbs are terrorists, a characterization of which I wasn't aware, and that Turks are dirty, a characterization of which I was aware. There is also the general belief that Americans (specifically in the US) are fat and stupid. I blame MTV for the stupid part. Fuck MTV. I've watched MTV over here and the people I watch it with ask me if that's the way Americans really are. That channel seems to be the standard for how the US portrays itself to the rest of the world (at least the younger generations). But the point of the matter, according to Mila - and he's right, is that you can't fall victim to these stereotypes. It's important to judge a person as an individual. This seems like a simple lesson - trivial, even - to learn and take to heart, but the past month I've spent in Vienna has shown me how easy it is to fall into these traps. I know that when Erkal moved in and I found out he is from Turkey, I was a little skeptical about how clean this place was going to be. The fact is, he's just as clean as I am. Plus, he's a great guy. I've gotten pretty lucky with random roommates. (Another example of falling into that trap manifests itself in how many times I'm asked if America really is that fat.)

We are fatter than Europe. The number of Really, Really fat folks over here is so small that seeing someone like that is a memorable occurence. I don't think that we're as fat as they think we are, though. Of course, I think a bit of conversation gets lost in translation.

Now, I probably have mentioned this before, but I'm so glad that I've done this program instead of Lux. I'm meeting all these people and getting exposed to so much mainstream European culture, like what I've describe here. In Lux, you don't get that. You get drunk. And you make friends with more people from Miami. Maybe they're people you ordinarily wouldn't have met, but you don't really learn anything about the country you're living in and the people who live there. It doesn't seem to really be that "international." Not like it is in Vienna.

Plus, hearing a Serbian say, "Hillary Clinton, That Bitch!" really makes the trip worth it. He meant it, too.