I attended Mass at the Church of Christ the King this morning, in English! It's about a 20 minute walk from my apartment, past the Parliament building. I left around 11, figuring that the church wouldn't be too full, since the service would be in English and I wouldn't have a problem getting a seat for the 11:30 service. Mistake.
I forgot that English is quite a common language - so every expat and foreigner (not to mention all the locals who found the 11:30 service convenient for them) was there. Before Mass began, I overheard Italian, French, German, Dutch, Indonesian - and those were just the languages I recognized. The people in the congregation represented the most diversity I've witnessed here - it was really neat. The celebrant welcomed what I think was the entire Italian diplomatic mission to Serbia and spoke to them in Italian in his opening (this church also has Masses in Italian). The family sitting next to me was Korean - they brought Korean Bibles for the kids to read!
It was a pretty normal Mass. After the service, the parish priest brought out a HUGE basket full of dyed eggs for all of the kids. There were a ton of toddlers there, they were really cute. They were all so happy and excited - I wonder if they were headed home to another big basket... full of chocolate...?
I came home and made a stratta with scallions and ham. Not an Easter feast, but it was a good brunch. I'm definitely missing what I'm sure will be a great Easter meal at home... especially mashed potatoes!! We've been watching Travel Channel specials on South Asia all day, so I think we're paying a visit to Wok to Walk, the one Asian take-out place in Belgrade tonight. A bit nontraditional, but then again, so is my life in general.
Happy Easter! Sretan Uskrs! Frohe Ostern! Joyeux Pâques! Buona Pasqua! Zalig Pasen! Selamat Paskah! May the Risen Christ fill our lives with his presence and peace!
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