У Србија! (In Serbia!)

I wrote a really long post about my first impressions of Belgrade last night, but then I was disconnected from the internet and lost everything... here's to starting over!

We had a 7 hour bus trip from Zagreb on Thursday and got in mid-afternoon. Right away, I was struck by how different the two cities are. It's like comparing a less-interesting version of D.C. to a mid-town Manhattan that covers 140 square miles. There is a totally different beat/vibe/rhythm here. And it is HUGE. It's hard to navigate, because maps of the tram and bus systems don't exist. As in, the transit authorities have never published any. It's just something "you learn as a kid."

I managed to memorize the Cyrillic alphabet on the bus ride here, because Serbian is "officially" written with it. Seeing all the signs in Cyrillic make me feel like I am in someplace very, very foreign, but I'm getting much faster at decoding things. Last night, we played some Serbian board game called "Step by Step" that reminded me of Parcheesi. I managed to translate the box! Small triumphs.

I'm being hosted by Dragan and Jelena, a young couple originally from Niš, a city in south Serbia. He is 38 and she's 26. He is an electrical engineer who works for U.S. Steel - he speaks a lot of English on the job! Jelena is two months pregnant. She's sort of spazzy - she doesn't like living in the big city and gets flustered very easily. She loves astrology and reality TV. She thinks Belgrade is my city to connect with the universe in, because I am a Capricorn or something.

They are fantastic hosts and we've had some really interesting conversations. They were around my age during the wars of the '90s and Milošević's regime and have told me about some of their experiences. As much as I love exercising my language skills with my Croatian family, I really like talking to Dragan and Jelena.

Jelena and I went to the police station yesterday to register me. Yet again, bureaucracy ensued... Apparently, we needed the landlord and rental contract. Luckily, I ran into Gaby and her host dad, so I registered "the Serbian way" - that is, creatively. Jelena hid in the bathroom while Gaby's host dad pretended that the two of us were staying with him. Once we both had registered, I snuck Jelena out of the building and went on with our business.

She said that last summer, a friend was visiting from the UK, and on the day they went to register, it was the day Radovan Karadžić was arrested (he's in The Hague now). Apparently, our ward's police station is part of the Belgrade War Crimes Court, so they brought him in while she was there. She said there were cameras and security everywhere.

Also when we were there, I saw Ratko Mladić's Wanted poster (one million Euros, anyone? Maybe I can make that my independent study project?). It was all very intriguing... Karadžić's arrest happened right around the same time when I discovered the SIT Balkans program. I remember talking to KK about it when I told her I decided to go to ::gasp:: The Balkans. It all seems like such a long time ago!

Today, we went to Ada Ciganlija, the man-made lake and park in Belgrade. We met another Jelena, who is Dragan's best friend and our SIT coordinator in Belgrade, for a marathon coffee break in a little lodge on the edge of the lake. It was great to slow down for a bit and talk to some people other than my colleagues at SIT.

Well, it's actually getting late here, and I don't want to sleep all day tomorrow, so,
Ciao!
Лиз (Liz in Cyrillic!)