'Round the Table

Last night, I met up with some friends from school, and also made a few new friends.  We met at Česká, which is, along with the train station, the main convergence of public transportation in Brno.  There's a clock on the corner of Česká, so it's typical for people from Brno to say to each other, "Sejdem se na České pod hodinama?"  Let's meet a Česká under the clock.  We went out to a pub, where we sat chatting for a few hours.  It was a great time, but very odd.  Why was it so odd?

This was the outline of our table:

      Russia      Israel      Azerbaijan
Russia                                Macedonia
          Russia           USA

It's a strange feeling to be sitting with such diverse countries in the middle of the Czech Republic, chatting away in Czech.  Let me clarify a little bit, too.  All three Russians currently live in the heart of Siberia, not far from Kazakhstan.  Technically, they're from Asia.  One of them was even born in a city in Russia close to Mongolia, on a near equal longitude with Beijing.  Another was born in Yekaterinburg (where the last tsar of Russia was shot), then lived in Kazakhstan, and now lives in Siberia.  The Israeli was born in Russia, not too far from the Ukraine, then moved to Israel.  If you're not sure, Macedonia is a small country right above Greece, which has a fascinating history.  Alexander the Great, for example, was Macedonian, not Greek, which causes disputes between the countries to this day.  Azerbaijan, however, might be the one that's stumping you.  Some say it's Europe, others the Middle East.  It's a small country, sharing borders with Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran, with a coast on the Caspian Sea.  It was also once a Soviet Satellite State, and is predominantly a Muslim country.  Later, we were joined by two girls from Estonia, up in the north of Europe, across the Baltic Sea from Finland, sharing borders with Russia and Latvia.

We eventually headed out into the city, and went to a club.  There, we met up with a friend from the Ukraine, as well as several Poles, our resident Belgian, and some of the Slovenes (from Slovenia, the small country bordering Austria to the south).

It's been a very exciting, interesting, and eye-opening experience so far here in Brno.  When I was living in Graz, Austria, I spent time mostly with Europeans, but from the major countries of Europe, the ones you hear about most often in the news and in school.  Here in Brno, it's been very different.  I study with kids from the countries you don't hear about, the ones who come from places with very recent wars, if not ever present wars.  All in all, it's a very eye-opening experience, and teaches you as an American to sit down, shut up, and realize how much of a "normal" life you've really had.