Tugging at My Heartstrings

Many of you know about my irrational love for Latvia developed by a semester attempting to follow its current events. I truly enjoyed learning about this tiny country and its rather complicated history, as well as its complex current political situation. No one knows anything about Latvia and it was fun learning about a different culture.

Now I have spent a week learning about postwar Poland from 1943-1956. Again, I feel an irrational respect and love for this country. Yesterday I almost convinced myself I need to learn Polish and translate Polish literature into English for my career.

This is interesting to me because few countries have the ability to capture my interest like this. I have found the history of Latin American fascinating and I liked learning about Italy last week, but Eastern Europe just has an ability to capture my attention.

I think its because it has the ability to tug on my heart. Each country in that region is considered a little backward by the rest of Europe, but they have a rich cultural history that few actually try to see. The affects of Soviet occupation and before that the Nazi invasions have left scars on each individual nation, but they still retain their identity in various ways. Whether its through preserving the language or through writing literature that captures the time, Eastern European nations are able to create a national culture that I admire.

Am I romanticizing? Yes. But that’s not completely all. I see problems of economic instability and hyper-nationalism that seem to plague much of the region, but still. I like learning about it, though I hardly have scratched the surface.