We arrived in Serbia one week ago today. We just got internet at our house last night - this is a great relief, as I'm tired of watching the ticker on CNN World to find out if the Red Sox won. My husband Dan and I are here through a fellowship Dan has with the state department. He'll be teaching English at the local univeristy... I'll be, well, I'm not sure yet.
The strangest thing so far is definitely that we're The Americans. Everyone is very excited to have us, our welcome has been overwhelming, full of food and turkish coffee. We get small hints of what people assume about American culture. So far we've had coca-cola pushed on us at least three times. Our wonderful landlady, Milena, made sure there was some food in our fridge upon our arrival, including a two liter bottle of coke. When visiting the American cultural center, they brought us coke without even asking. And when Dan went to visit the faculty at the university, they appologized for not having coke and gave him whiskey instead (sljivovica - locally produced). All this soda pop in a country with award winning fruit juices. Please, no more coke, I'd just like to try the raspberry juice!
On our second or third day we were walking around the city center and I suggested that we might be the only Americans in the whole city. Ironically, less than ten minutes later we were doing our food shopping (the Maxi is the biggest store around, but maybe half the size of the bookstore I used to work at) and we met a man from Chicago. He's just on vacation, though. We're here for 10 months.
Favorite wrong English so far: A t-shirt proclaiming "I Love to Bee..."
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A picaresque account of a year in Kragujevac, Serbia.
Hello, my name is
"The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, 'Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure."
~Thornton Wilder
~Thornton Wilder
4 comments:
Greetings from New Jersey! I'm happy to hear that you & Dan are safe and somewhat settled into your new "home." Although, I'm not sure how healthy you will be if you drink all of the Coca-Cola that is thrown your way! Please keep us up-dated throughout your stay! How's the food? Have you been able to explore the city so far? Please take care!
holy crap. no word from you in how many years, and now you live in serbia!
consider me a reader!
chandra
The Sox are hanging in there against the onslaught of the barbarian bronx bombers. Meanwhile, the Phillies are doing their annual choke, although far later than usual, and the EAGLES and Pats are winning but very beat up.
Have fun exploring!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGHAN!
:)
Chandra
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