La Vie En Rose for 2006 March 3

In some ways, there is nothing I love better than to feel smarter than other people. "Oh, you want to visit Czechoslovakia? Good luck with that. You might want to drop by the USSR while you are in the area. That is, the area of DOESN'T EXSIST ANYMORE!! HAHAHA!" Or at least that is what I think in my head.

But the problem with all moots you find in your brother's eye is the beam in your own. Or something like that. I know I do it too. In my mind it will always be Constantinople. Discussing Petrograd in class, I timidly asked PH, "That's St Petersburg, right?" It was changed at the beginning of the war to not sound so "German" ie Freedom Fri-burg, then again to Leningrad, and back to St Petersburg... no wonder I'm confused! So many names of places are forever stuck in my head in their 1918/1919 incarnation. My research paper is on the Salonika campaign, not the First World War campaign in what is now known as Thessaloniki. In fact, I'm sure the reason I call a lot of things by their right and proper name is that they reverted to what they were in WWI era after being something else. So maybe I shouldn't feel so smug when people talk about "Yugoslavia."