Slavic Studies

On the third floor of the Slavic Studies building, I noticed the bare trees in the window, their naked branches stretched outward against the grey sky. They encircled the neighbouring redbrick building that was crowned with a weather vane, grasping fiercely.
The walls of the Slavic Studies department were covered with maps of Eastern Europe. "Warsawa", "Praha", and "Turkey in Europe", showing the Ottoman Emprie's 18th century European possessions, from Moldavia to Rum.
As I stood outside the Balkan literature professor's office, reading an advertsiement for a Croatian novelist recently translated into English, a beautiful dark haired girl smiled at me lazily, before passing me by.