Ko je moj oče delal doktorat, sta z mamo dve leti preživela v Sloveniji. Takrat sem bila stara okoli dve leti, mama pa me je v otroškem vozičku vozila na sprehode. Bilo je sončno in toplo, kljub temu da sem imela oblečeno jakno, pa mi mama ni nadela še naglavnega pokrivala. (Predstavljajte si me kot majhno, zaobljeno deklico – bila sem res ljubka.) Med sprehodi so k nama prihajale starejše gospe, ki so mi popravljale pokrivalo in zavezovale vezalke, nato pa odšle naprej (moji mami pa svetovale v slovenščini). Bile so resnično zaskrbljene, da bom zbolela. To je bilo pred okoli 18 leti, a glede na moje izkušnje v zadnjih nekaj tednih je večino tega vedenja še danes opaziti. In ne bom lagala: zame je to precej čudna stvar, saj pozimi rada nosim kratke hlače.
Prvič se naletela na tovrstno vedenje prvi teden, ko sem šla v telovadnico. Ko se v Ameriki vračam iz telovadnice, vedno nosim kratke hlače. Notri je toplo, zunaj pa sem tako in tako samo nekaj trenutkov, kolikor potrebujem do avtomobila. Tukaj je enako. Prvi teden sem torej nosila kratke hlače, ko sem šla v telovadnico. Ko sem se končala vadbo in sem bila že zunaj, mi je mimoidoči moški namenil precej nenavaden in zaskrbljen pogled. Bila sem zmedena, zato sem o tem povprašala očeta. Takrat mi je pojasnil, da Slovenci (in večina Evropejcev) pozimi ne nosijo kratkih hlač. Bila sem presenečena, v Ameriki namreč ves čas nosimo kratke hlače, ne glede na letni čas. Ko telovadimo na prostem, nosimo kratke hlače. Prav tako tudi v telovadnici. Imam celo prijatelje, ki jih oblečejo za predavanja. Vse to počnemo sredi decembra. Ne glede na vreme, kratke hlače pač radi nosimo. Seveda si pozimi nekateri med telovadbo na prostem nadenejo dolge hlače in puloverje, vsekakor pa nošenje kratkih hlač ni nenavadno. Kakor koli, tukaj očitno ni tako. Po izkušnji v telovadnici sem začela opazovati ljudi. Zagotovo lahko ugotovite, kaj sem spoznala: tukaj pozimi nihče ne nosi kratkih hlač. (Prejšnji teden sem v telovadnici celo videla žensko v kratkih hlačah in sem se razveselila, nato pa sem izvedela, da je Američanka. Sledilo je razočaranje).
Ne gre zgolj za to, da ne nosite kratkih hlač. Očitno pač moram investirati v nakup hlačnih nogavic. Kot verjetno veste, je bilo vreme v nedeljo sončno in prijetno, a kljub temu malce hladno. Ko sem šla v cerkev, sem imela oblečeno krilo do kolen, brez hlačnih nogavic. Ko sem prišla do cerkve, mi je starejša gospa rekla, da jo skrbi zame. Bila je prepričana, da se bom zaradi golih nog prehladila in zbolela. Nato sem pogledala okoli sebe in ugotovila, da sem edina brez hlačnih nogavic (seveda z izjemo nekaj Američank, ki so tudi bile tam). Ampak povem vam, nemogoče je bilo, da bi se prehladila v tisti cerkvi. Notri je bilo okoli tisoč stopinj – če bi zbolela, bi kvečjemu od vročinske kapi. Ko sem omenila, da bi lahko odprli okno, da se malce ohladi, so me opozorili, da Slovenci ne marajo, da so okna odprta. Očitno lahko tudi zaradi zraka zboliš.
Nikakor ne pravim, da je to napačno ravnanje, je samo precej drugačno od tistega, ki sem ga navajena. Nekaj dni preden sem zapustila Ameriko in prišla sem, se je skupina mojih prijateljev odločila, da gremo na kosilo. Bilo je konec januarja, torej je bilo precej hladno, začelo pa je tudi snežiti. Ko smo čakali še enega prijatelja, je ven prišel – ne lažem – v kratkih hlačah in sandalah. Bom iskrena: nihče ne bi smel nositi sandal, ko sneži (zato smo ga prepričali, da je obul prave čevlje). Vendar dejstvo, da je nosil kratke hlače, sploh ni bilo nič nenavadnega. V Ameriki pač nimamo tega strahu, da bi kdo zbolel zaradi mraza, kot ga imajo Evropejci. Namesto tega nas je strah stvari, za katere je precej manj možnosti, da zaradi njih zares zbolimo, kot je, recimo, rak zaradi uporabe mobilnega telefona.
Angleški izvirnik:
Shorts in the Winter: It Must Be an American Thing
When my dad was doing research for his PhD, he and my mom lived here in Slovenia for two years. I was about two years old at the time, and my mom would take me for walks in my stroller. The weather was sunny and warm, so although I would wear my little jacket, my mom wouldn’t put my hood up. (Please just imagine me as a little, pudgy baby—I was adorable.) While we were on our walks, older ladies would always come up and flip up my hood, tie the strings, and then walk away (lecturing my mom in Slovene the whole time, mind you). They were so worried that I would get sick or something. That was about 18 years ago, but based on what I’ve experienced over the past few weeks, much of the attitude about keeping bundled up and warm hasn’t changed here. And I won’t lie: for me, that’s pretty weird, because I like to wear shorts in the winter.
The first time I encountered this attitude about keeping warm was in the first week that I began going to the gym here. When I go to the gym back home, I always wear my shorts. I mean, it’s warm inside, and I’m only outside for a few moments while I make the short walk from my car to the building. Here, it’s the same thing. So one day in that first week, I wore my shorts to the gym. After I had finished and was walking out, a man who was walking past me gave me a really strange and concerned look. I was confused, so I asked my dad about it. That’s when he told me that Slovenes (and most Europeans, for that matter) don’t wear shorts in the winter. I was surprised, because in the U.S. we wear shorts all the time, no matter the season. We wear shorts while we jog outside. We wear shorts to the gym. Heck, I have friends who even wear shorts to class. And we do all of this in the middle of December. It doesn’t matter the weather—we just like shorts. Sure, in the winter a lot of people wear leggings and sweats when they exercise, but it’s certainly not uncommon to wear shorts. Here, however, that isn’t the case at all. After that experience at the gym, I started watching other people. I bet you can guess what I observed: no one here wears shorts this time of year. (I actually saw a lady wearing shorts at the gym last week, and I was kind of excited, but then I found out she is also an American. It was disappointing.)
It’s not just that you don’t wear shorts, though. I guess I need to invest in a pair of tights as well. As you probably know, on Sunday the weather was really nice. It was a little breezy, but sunny and warm. So when I went to church, I wore a skirt that went to my knees, but without tights. When I got there, an older lady told me that she was worried about me. She was sure that I would be cold and get sick with my bare legs. Then I looked around and noticed that I was the only one not wearing tights (except, of course, for the few Americans that were also there). But I’m telling you, there was no way I was getting cold in that chapel. It was somewhere around a thousand degrees in there—the only type of sick that I could get in that room would be heatstroke. In fact, when I mentioned the idea of opening the window to let in a breeze, I was reminded that Slovenes don’t like to keep the windows open. I guess the draft can make you sick.
Now, I’m certainly not saying that this is the wrong attitude to have. It’s just so different from anything that I’m used to. A couple of days before I left the States to come here, a group of my friends decided to go out to lunch. It was the end of January, so it was pretty cold outside, and it had also just started snowing. We were waiting for one of my friends to finish getting ready, and when he came out—I’m not lying—he was wearing shorts and sandals. I’ll be honest with you: no one should wear sandals when it’s snowing (and we made him put real shoes on). But the fact that he was wearing shorts wasn’t weird at all. In the States we just don’t have the same sort of fear of getting sick from the cold that Europeans do. Instead, we choose to be afraid of things that are a lot less likely to actually make us sick, like getting cancer from our cellphones.
