The World is a Village
Today in the morning the sun was shinning brightlly in Magdeburg and the temperature was relativelly warm. Since the exams period is approaching and I have to study, I decided to take my bike and drive to the library where I always study. However, as soon as I steped on my bike I realized that my tires were flat, my sattle broken and the backwheel was slowly braking apart, which meant either reparation or junkyard and buy a new one (better to say a second-hand).
So I had no other choice than to take the damn tram. As the tram came, I realized it was full (kids were going to the lake to bathe - little lucky buggers) but nevertheless I fund a spot to sit. At the next stop an older man entered who could barely walk or stand. As there was no free place for him to sit, me as a good product of my parents house, offered him my place for him to sit. He thanked me for which I replied the German "bitte" which means you're welcome. He realized from my slight foreign German accent that I'm not from these areas and asked me friendly from where I come from, "Serbia" replied and he asked me from which city, to which I told him Belgrade. Hearing Belgrade, he had a wide smile on his face and he told me "I was a soldier in Belgrade during the war". At that point I was in a dilemma on how to react, cause he was a part, maybe not on his own will, of the occupational machinery that caused many bads in Serbia. I couldn't be happy, but I couldn't be angry. So I gave a rather neutral answer, typicall for German indiferrence, "schön" (nice) and I stepped down from the tram. But the dilemma of how should I react still remains.
So I had no other choice than to take the damn tram. As the tram came, I realized it was full (kids were going to the lake to bathe - little lucky buggers) but nevertheless I fund a spot to sit. At the next stop an older man entered who could barely walk or stand. As there was no free place for him to sit, me as a good product of my parents house, offered him my place for him to sit. He thanked me for which I replied the German "bitte" which means you're welcome. He realized from my slight foreign German accent that I'm not from these areas and asked me friendly from where I come from, "Serbia" replied and he asked me from which city, to which I told him Belgrade. Hearing Belgrade, he had a wide smile on his face and he told me "I was a soldier in Belgrade during the war". At that point I was in a dilemma on how to react, cause he was a part, maybe not on his own will, of the occupational machinery that caused many bads in Serbia. I couldn't be happy, but I couldn't be angry. So I gave a rather neutral answer, typicall for German indiferrence, "schön" (nice) and I stepped down from the tram. But the dilemma of how should I react still remains.
posted by Cvijus011 at 7:36 AM
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