Reflections: Eastern/Central Europe

A Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!

I've decided to stay at home and celebrate with my friend, Mr. Air Conditioner. :)

I just got back from a 2-week tour of Eastern Europe last night and boy does it feel damn good to unwind at home. After coming back from a trip, people usually ask, "Did you have fun?" To sum up the last 14 days, I'd have to say that it was not a relaxing vacation, but it was certainly an enlightening and memorable journey in many respects.

Reflecting back upon the tour of Eastern Europe (or Central Europe since we didn't venture to the former Soviet territories), I feel like there is a lot of recent history that many people of my generation, including myself, lack awareness of. It's not any real fault of our own, but something that is attributed to our Western European and American-centric education, which renders us myopic towards other important dynamics in the world. Overshadowing Central Europe is the recent breakdown of Communism after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. These countries have only experienced democracy for ~20 years, and many of them have only had 2 or 3 presidents/prime ministers after this political turnover. In a sense, this is very much like political system in Taiwan -- a nascent democracy that is highly embraced but not highly refined.

Warsaw, Poland

Marking the old boundaries of the liquidated Jewish Ghetto.

A major theme of this trip was the devastation that the Nazi Germans wreaked during WWII and the deep psychological trauma the Soviets left after the region's "liberation". We read a lot of material about WWII ever since 7th grade Social Studies, but I can't emphasize how different it is actually visiting the sites where battles were waged, buildings were razed, and whole generations were annihilated. I am finally able to put some visual references to black and white print... and I feel like I finally get it. The spirit of the ancestors and survivors of Eastern Europe is immense, and I am incredibly impressed with their tenacity.

The countries that I visited (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic) have teeny tiny total populations of 10 million +. That's close to the population of New York CITY. Their capital cities have populations of ~1-2 million... that's like the borough of Queens! For some reason I always imagined that Europe would be densely populated, especially since they've had a head start in getting settled a thousand years ago (obviously WWI, WWII did a huge number on their head count though). Having essentially stayed in New York for 95% of my life, I haven't had a good sample pool of seeing other cities in the world, and being in Asia (Hong Kong, Tokyo) only reinforced my concept of what a city "should be". Well, after strolling through several capital cities (Warsaw, Budapest, Bratislava, and Prague) and its sleepy cobblestoned paths lined with 5-story max buildings, I can truly appreciate how busy and modern New York is, as well as its diversity. :)

But that's not to say that the counties that I visited in Central Europe can be just mushed into one category!! I also learned about the roots of the Germans, Slavs, Hungarians, Romas, and how they come from different settlers and have different languages. They are different ethnic groups, just like the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Thai... you get the picture!

Hello, bottomless wine glass! :)

Finally, it was a new record for me to hang out with my mother 24/7 for 14 days straight -- I don't think I've ever spent this much time with her continuously as an adult and it was a huge growing experience. I learned a lot about her, myself, and our relationship. Most mothers, despite it all, possess an enormous breadth of love for their children. They may not be able to express it in ways that our generation can accept or even decipher, but if we love them back (or even appreciate the effort they spent in raising us) then we should be able to open our hearts to take them as they are. It's been shocking to see my parents age at an accelerated pace these past years. My parents have always been semi-superhuman to me, and to observe fraility and even weakness is just plain weird... and sometimes I find myself unable to know how to react. It's time for us to become their caretakers, and I know that I must continue to cultivate more flexibility, compassion, and patience in order to be their emotional support for the upcoming years!!

More detailed entires about the trip to come... !

P.S. Forgot to mention, all photos on this trip were taken from a Canon Powershot G11 that I got my dad for Father's Day. I told him that since I bought it then I get to try it out first (you have to appreciate my logic here)! I absolutely LOVE the way it shoots beautifully and clearly without needing any flash, and how it's a DSLR for dummies. It's a powerful camera for amateurs and yet sophisticated enough for those who want to take more than the average point-and-shoot picture. Perhaps I will buy another one of these bad boys for myself before I go to China.