East Side Story

Slovakia is in the geographical center of Europe, and Slovak web sites refer to its location as "Central Europe." But I am struck at how frequently Americans still refer to it as an "Eastern European" nation. Here's a map of Europe, showing Slovakia in red, squarely in the center of Europe:

Rick Steeves' 2007 Best of Eastern Europe covers Slovakia, along with the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Austria, countries which are all in Central Europe. Fodor's most recent (2003) Eastern and Central Europe includes all of those countries, along with Bulgaria and Romania, which are farther east. The Lonely Planet Phrasebook for Central Europe (2007) covers Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene. Rail Europe, the North American distributor of many popular train passes, has a "European East Pass" for Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, and the Czech Republic, all in central Europe.

I suspect that many of us still remember references to the "Eastern bloc" satellite states of the Soviet Union, East Berlin, and East Germany, before the fall of Communism and the Berlin Wall in 1989. So we came to think of "eastern" as a political designation, even though it is not accurate as a geographic one. And part of the interest in recent years in visiting these countries comes from our interest in seeing how they have made the transition to democracy in the 17 years since the fall of the Soviet Union. I wonder how long it will take for us to modify our language to reflect geography.

On a side note, I wonder if Rick Steeves had a bad experience in Bratislava and how long ago. In his guidebook, he says "I've listed no hotels in Bratislava; beds are better in nearby Vienna and Budapest." (p. 177) In his DVD collection, his disk for "Eastern Europe" includes segments on Prague, Poland, Budapest, Slovenia, Croatia, and even Bulgaria -- but not a word about Slovakia or Bratislava. I'll have to write to him after I see for myself!

On another side note, I suspect most Americans could not name all the countries on that map, above. But then, I wonder how many Europeans (or Americans!) could identify all 50 U.S. states on a map without help.

Slovakia, Slovenia, Slavonia...

I am mildly amused at the continuing confusion among friends about where I will be going for the Fulbright. Even our esteemed President Bush once mixed up Slovakia and Slovenia, as the Slovaks themselves wryly note on a helpful and good-humored web site: http://www.slovakia.org/sk-faq.htm

I will be going to Slovakia, now an independent nation-state and part of the former Czechoslovakia. I suggest that as a memory cue. The fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989 is called the "Velvet Revolution." The Czech Republic and Slovak Republic split into two separate nation-states in 1993 in what they call the "Velvet Divorce."

Slovenia is an independent nation-state in the Balkans, the first of the break-away republics from the former Yugoslavia. Slavonia is a province of Croatia, also part of the former Yugoslavia.

There will be a pop quiz later.

Lost in Translation

As a former newspaper editor in high school and college, I am sympathetic to the difficulties reporting details with precision, and I take responsibility for not always being as clear as I might be when talking with reporters. However, I do want to correct some misimpressions that might have been left in some of the news reports about my Fulbright.

One news story says I have a long-standing interest in "freedom of expansion." That, of course, should be "freedom of expression." I did not mean to suggest that I support American colonialism or occupation!

Another misleading impression is the suggestion that there is no University library. Comenius does not have a single centralized library, although many of the individual faculties and departments have built admirable collections. In Bratislava, there is in fact a "University Library" used by students from several universities in the city. It has a collection of over two million books and is an impressive resource I hope to explore myself. Here is the web site:
http://www.ulib.sk/index/index.php?lang=en

This is Michalska Street in the historic Old Town, where the University Library is located.

University students typically do not buy the textbook/anthologies familiar to American students, but they do acquire monographs and other materials for their classes. Another news story noted that my host University does not have a final exam week. They do have a final exam period that extends over several weeks and faculty have flexibility in scheduling those finals. American campuses typically have one week devoted to final exams and (at least at campuses with which I'm familiar) the University administration dictates when faculty must administer those final exams.

I hope that clarifies some points about which I've been asked!