you know you're an american when...

23 September

you know you’re an american when…

[or I guess I should say, I know I’m an American when…forgive the generalization.] But I know that is this is just the first of these aha moments. but shock me nonetheless it did. I was walking down the street in Skopje, just having crossed the bridge from the main central square (with a towering statue of Alexander the Great [the man on the horse], complete with colored lights, fountains (timed to the) classical music, which is oddly interspersed with the Star Wars theme, the Indiana Jones Theme and one other which escapes my mind right now. The statues—part of the Skopje 2014 project are also positioned in relation to each other. For example, Alexander is facing his father, who stands on the other side of the bridge, who in turn, has his back to someone else), into the older Albanian/Ottoman side of town. At night, when Jake (fellow Fulbrighter, kind and gracious host) and I walked around there, it felt like an integrated part of the city—people who actually live in Skopje spending a friday night out drinking (tea or beer depending on the establishment, probably with not a lot of cross-over). But by the light of day, complete with tour-groups of western europeans, people pedaling their wares on fold-out tables along the sides of the bridge, it felt much more like a tourist attraction. and thus, I felt much more like a tourist. One of the gentlemen I passed was a guy shining shoes who literally followed me four or five paces down the path to insist that I get my shoes shined because they were, in his eyes, embarrassingly scuffed up. After he shined the first shoe, he kept saying “see. like new.”

(symbolic salute?)
So while I’m standing there, in that awkward pose with one foot up on the little shoe-shining stand, I was reminded of my first night with my host family in Belgrade. When I woke up in the morning, Marica (my host mother) had polished my boots. And how the status of my boots was the last thing on my mind—and yet, was the first thing where I experienced Marica’s motherly instinct kicking in.
The status of my shoes aren’t really the first thing on my mind—and I feel like I can speak for many Americans in my age cohort. When I think of embarrassing myself in public, let’s just say, not shining my shoes isn’t high up on my list.  but now, I know it’s just a matter of time before I take his advice and by my own polish, and stop making a spectacle of myself.