Before going to Belgrade, I had a warped perception of this city that definitely was not at all the way things actually were. My perception was affected by articles that I had read online about Serbia and the numerous alert emails from the U.S Embassy in Belgrade that I had received. I thought Belgrade was going to be very conservative, strict, and seemingly a little aggressive or sketchy. I thought I’d be getting judgmental looks from everyone—whether it was for wearing shorts, showing too much of my arms, or being a nonwhite woman as the way I had been judged elsewhere.
However, I was pleasantly surprised as I found Belgrade to be a lot friendlier and welcoming than I expected. To my surprise, I thought it seemed a little more liberal than Bucharest. I was surprised when I discovered the Bohemian District, an area that I would not have expected to exist in Belgrade. It seemed very hippy and this area of Belgrade reminded me of a city almost like a mini Austin, TX. I just expected it to be much more conservative and foreign to me than any other place I had visited. Obviously I spent only a few days in Belgrade and I’m not exactly sure how accurate my view of Belgrade is, but considering the stories about nationalism and right wing movements in Belgrade that we learned about, I did not expect Belgrade to be such a friendly place. Or at least to me it seemed that way. I saw many people wearing shorts, dresses, some people even smiled at me as I walked by. There were a lot of different types of restaurants and I was a big fan of Burrito Madre (the chain that’s similar to Chipotle). The culture and society in Belgrade had this really interesting dynamic that seemed a lot more familiar to me than other places we have visited on this program. I’m also not sure if it was because of the talks that we attended, like at the UN and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, but perhaps this also influenced my view of Belgrade as being more progressive than I had expected.
I had a similar misperception about Bucharest/Romania in general before coming here. However, once I actually spent time here, I told myself that I was no longer going to base my opinions of places solely off of what I heard or read in the news media. I was not successful at this, considering my thoughts before visiting Serbia. This theme of perception versus reality of other countries seems to be very common, especially traveling to Eastern Europe. The perceptions that we or at least I have had about Eastern Europe have not at all been an accurate view of the reality of this part of the world. When I was applying for this study abroad program, this was the main reason that I wanted to go on this program—to learn about a part of the world that I had not learned enough about in school. Although we still have another week and a half (wow!), I know that I have done exactly that. I am incredibly grateful to have been immersed in and educated on a beautiful part of the world that many people do not know much about. Going forward, I have no doubt that I’ll continue to have misperceptions of places that are influenced by what I hear in the media. In fact, I wonder how able we are to ignore the stories that we sometimes hear in the news about certain countries that may make us fearful of visiting but in reality are potentially even safer than the United States. However, I will be more conscience of this and think about Romania and Serbia, two countries that I once had been nervous about visiting.
Along with learning about Eastern Europe, another goal of mine on this program was to learn from non-Western academic sources. In class, I had a small group discussion about how we consistently tend to compare Romania/the rest of Eastern Europe, to Western Europe. I wondered, why can’t Romania just be Romania? Why do we continue to compare the East with the West? When my mom was in Romania, she would say things like “wow this reminds me of Italy!” or “I feel like I’m in Italy” However, I have definitely been guilty of doing this as well. It seems like I and everyone else who are experiencing Eastern Europe for the first time have all been surprised by the beauty, the diversity, the society, etc. We knew very little about Eastern Europe which is why we were so stunned when we first got here. Someone in my group brought up a good point that perhaps we knew so little and have been so surprised is because of the material that we were and still are taught in school. I remember when I took history courses in high school, like AP European history, we always focused on Western European history (especially England, France, and Italy). Additionally, throughout most of my education, I had only been exposed to Western authors, writers, and other sources. Throughout this program, I have been very appreciative of the unique educational experience that has given me the perspective that I had wanted for so long. Although 10 weeks is not enough to learn everything there is about Romania and Serbia, I feel informed and enlightened about this part of Europe that I severely misjudged. I am eager to continue being surprised by Eastern Europe along with other parts of the world that I hold misperceptions about.
Nice piece, Natalie!