Dobar Dan!

Dobar Dan!

This first blog entry is necessarily brief, because—being an old dog learning new tricks—I am not one hundred percent sure that when I push the button my entry will not be winging through some kind of ether space, far away from intended sources.

That said, I gather that the first blurb should state the basics that answer the immortal words of David Byrne, ‘well, how did I get here?’ To begin, I am a professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas, where I have been since 2004. That in itself doesn’t justify a blog, but being a Fulbright Scholar for the year in Zagreb, Croatia might. At least that’s what my friend Velvet says, and she took the time to do so during her sojourn in Slovenia; in essence, she has shamed me into trying. And Amela, one of my amazingly bright and interesting young Fulbright colleagues here in Croatia, has a nice blog, so why not let the old dog try? And, of course, my different-generation stories will likely have different emphases than those young pups.

The title of my blog says ‘Leo’, but as those of you who know me appreciate, I don’t go anywhere for very long without Lucia, so this is actually a collective tale for the most part. We arrived in Zagreb September 1 of this year after an eight day stopover in Prague and will be here until the summer of 2011. I am associated with American Studies in the Department of English at the University of Zagreb, or as most of you know it, ‘Odsjek za anglistiku , Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, there on Ivana Lučića. Uh, more on the language later.

We were most fortunate to land a very nice and spacious apartment before we arrived, which makes us the fourth generation Fulbrighter to be in this place. Our new friends in Austin, Ted and Christine Huston, were invaluably helpful in the process. If we were in the U.S., we’d be on the fourth floor, but in Zagreb, we are on the third. Regardless, it’s the top floor, gets plenty of sunlight when the stuff is around, has wi-fi, Jacuzzi, a nice guest room upstairs, and it’s only 86 steps to our door from the street, or so the Hustons and the Monetas of Durham claim.

I am attaching a couple of pics of our place less for information purposes than to see if this thing works.

Finally, I must give the perfunctory statement that the opinions of this blog are my own and not those of the Fulbright Commission or the State Department, and any and all errors belong to Lucia.

Dovidjenja!