Concrete Thoughts

This has been a week of teaching here at my home institution in Rijeka, which has been enjoyable. The students are good as always, and last night a few stayed to talk to me after class about Croatia and what I should see here. Everywhere I go here people are always asking me how I like Croatia, how I like Rijeka, how I like each place I see. I think this interest in foreigners' responses comes from a deep pride in the country. And my response is always an enthusiastic and genuine, "I love it." Everywhere I've been has been appealing and interesting at the very least and sometimes quite breathtaking, from the little stone villages on islands to the capital of Zagreb. My students gave me enthusiastic recommendations of other places to visit places in Istria and the islands. I think I will go to a few places in Istria this weekend if the weather holds (sunny and warmer the last few days).

The building my department/faculty is housed in also houses an elementary school, and maybe even classes through middle school. So very often when I'm coming or going there will be children on recess in the courtyard in front of the building. Right now there are some kids skateboarding on the sidewalk just below my window. The noise is a distraction since I have the window open on this sunny, warm day. I rather suspect these particular kids (since there are only a few) are not on recess but playing hooky. Usually the kids in front of the school play ball games (like soccer) or sometimes just stand and talk to each other. The area in front of the building actually intrigues me, because it is just a big open space covered over in concrete, but also with rectangular blocks of concrete sticking up, which are painted green, a kind of chartreuse I'd say. There is a parking garage underneath, so perhaps the concrete blocks are part of the support for that. But the fact that the are painted green suggests that they are meant to be decorative.

This is a rather large open space in the middle of a very public section of town, with banks, businesses, apartment buildings, the police station next door, the city tower off one end of this square, and so on, busy all around. So it seems like it should be used in some way, perhaps as a park or square if nothing else, because of its prime location. It might be kind of public art display, given that these rectangular blocks sticking up are painted. And there is also a longer, lower diagonal block that cuts through at an angle that is painted red. Or perhaps it is designated as the square or playground for the children's recess from this school. But it strikes me as an odd playground, with no equipment, no grass or trees or plants, or a public art display that is primarily plain, ugly concrete. If it's meant for children it's poor planning because the blocks sticking up just hinder their ball games, or make them more challending.

Just today, during my folklore class, in which I was giving an exam, there was a kind of assembly of the grade school students. They were set up in this square, near the steps to the building (which served as a stage), in a little semi-circle, singing songs (with mics and amplifiers) and doing other little performances. It was sort of sweet and interesting, except that it was pretty disruptive for my poor students sitting for an exam. Well, I think it was a pretty easy exam, and the music and voices weren't too loud.

In regards to this concrete public space -- as I think about it, a lot of the public spaces here seem to involve significant amounts of concrete. The river that gives the town it's name (Rijeka means river in Croatian and the Italian name for the town, Fiume, also means river) flows between concrete banks, which must have been so changed within the last century. The whole waterfront is concretized, even in places designated as "beaches." And many public parks have as much or more concrete than grass. I wonder why this is -- perhaps concrete makes it seem more sanitized or easy to care for or something. Even in the tourist resort of Opatija, the main "beach" is a big area that is covered in a massive concrete slab, and this is where the tourists and locals sunbathe, lying on their towels on the concrete.