Election Night

Calm before the storm. It's almost 11 pm here, one more hour until NH and VA close their polls and we start to see results trickle in. I've been watching Champions League and hanging out with Aleks and Nico, determining that all we had in common was that our reason for being was to be there at that moment. I'm stocked up on junk food and waiting for the slaughter to start. So, to pass the time, I'll put down some thoughts, and stop hoping, quietly, that Ralph Nader wins the election.

I was re-reading some notes before sending off 5 pages of writings/confessions/reflections and thinking about my future here in the Balkans, thinking about how my ideas of this corner have changed through experience. I have to admit, that I held some real prejudice against Balkans people since my youth. These feelings were impressed upon me through friends and the relative poverty these Eastern Europeans lived in when they were in Germany.

They were the marginal elements of our town, living in the worst houses, wearing the cheapest clothes and riding the oldest bikes, and to us young kids, that seemed to put them below us in someway. They also never participated in our football games, and never attended our school. We were, for all intents and purposes, living segregated. The aggressive, at times violent behaviour of the immigrants, I understand now, was more related to their living conditions than any inherent character flaw.

At the time, this behaviour was just irrational to me. Of course, I felt that way because I didn't understand anything about them. My opinion is now different, and has been changing over the last years as a result of exposure and experience with this community/culture/people. Now I live in this part of the world, and I doubt it's a coincidence. I have of course met people who seemed to confirm my racism, but I did meet these types in the US also. For every one who has confirmed this feeling, I have meet two or three who have proved me wrong. As a result of opening myself to this, I now feel quiet comfortable here, in this culture, in this part of the world.

It's no worse than any other part of the World I have seen, and in some ways more interesting and open.