Back in Beograd

So we have all returned to Belgrade to begin our independent study projects. Actually, that's not true, because a few people have gone other places to do their ISPs. A few girls are in BiH and one in Zagreb, so I believe that there are 7 of us still in Belgrade.

Before coming back to Belgrade, we spent a week in Zagreb preparing for our ISP. It was nice to go back to our starting point for a bit, but I forgot about the long commute I had from my homestay into the city center! It was still a nice week though. We had our final language exam (ahhhhh!) which I had to study loooong and hard for, but I think that I did decently.

On the 14th we took a bus back to Belgrade, which means that we've been here for a little over a week (and me without a single blog post; whoops). It has been great so far. Our ISP allows us to make our own schedules, with time for researching, interviewing and writing. We each work with an advisor who is knowledgeable about what we've chosen to study. They help us make contacts with people to interview and, of course, advise us.

So far on my ISP, I have done a lot of reading and met with my advisor, and will hopefully be meeting up with some contacts in the upcoming week (before I leave for ROME!!!). A few of the girls here, Marisa and Julie, have rented an apartment in the area of town where all the embassies are and near the place where Tito is buried, called House of Flowers. It's a decently far trek by bus (around an hour from my place) but it is a good neighborhood, and a great apartment. I've spent quite a bit of time hanging out with them there, making dinner, watching TV and drinking wine. It is nice to have a place to go to relax with my friends that isn't necessarily a cafe all the time.

On Friday night, I went on a sort of impromptu "clubbing" adventure. A few girls and I went to a cafe called Insomnia (it is on my street) for drinks. It was a cool atmosphere, and the drinks were kind of expensive, but it was nice. Afterwards, we made our way to a well-known club called Tube, which really is very tube-like on the inside. We danced for a few hours, and it was a good time. I was kind of surprised that not a whole lot of people in the club were actually dancing, but maybe we just went on the wrong night? Regardless, the girls and I had fun.

I have been reading a few tourist guides of Belgrade online that talk about how Belgrade is not really a "pretty" or "tourist-y" city. But as this guide said, it's "a city for people who love cities." I would agree that Belgrade isn't really a tourist destination. There are museums, and beautiful buildings and parks, but I don't know that a tourist in Belgrade would really get the feeling of the city, and how amazing it is. The shops, the cafes, the restaurants, the people. It is a fun and interesting place to live, and I've only been here a few weeks! It is unfortunate that not everyone that comes here can stay here for that period of time, and really see things the way I've been able to. I feel like even the two-ish months I'll be staying here are not enough to see and explore everything that I want to, and I really look forward to coming back someday.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I'm really excited!!! We have some plans so far, but I will see how everything works about, and perhaps write about it afterwards!

Internet issues in Bosnia-Herzegovina

So, I have been in Bosnia for the past few weeks. Sorry I have not updated much, but I was having internet issues in Bosnia. But now we are back in Zagreb for a week, and I will hopefully have time to write about how amazing Bosnia is.

However, I will write about our experience yesterday, because it was amazing. We left early from Mostar to go to Dubrovnik, a city on the southern coast of Croatia.We got there around noon, after a few hour drive. The drive itself was so gorgeous. We went through mountains, by an amazing blue-green river and saw some of the coast. It was sunny and pretty warm so it was a perfect day to go.

When we arrived, I think we were all in awe to see the Adriatic. It is such an amazing color blue, it looks fake. The first thing we saw was... a ton of tourists, mostly old people speaking English. It was weird! We do not normally see many tourists. We took a quick tour around before we went for lunch. The city is surrounded by a big fortress-type wall which looks out over the sea. We walked around inside of it, where there are many gift shops and restaurants and coffee shops. We also saw a war memorial (we do not really go anywhere on this program without seeing one). Although there have been many wars in Croatia, Dubrovnik has historically been left alone, due to its beauty and history. However, in the most recent war, it was attacked. It was horrible to see the pictures of the town on fire and bridges being bombed. Really, most of the towns we have been in went through the same thing, but for Serbia to attack Dubrovnik was really sort of a slap in the face.

We went for lunch at a small cafe with amazing seafood (of course). Apparently, it is a good month for oysters, so we ordered some. I do not know if I have ever had oysters before, but I am sure that they were not as good as these. They were really delicious. We also ordered a huge plate of mussels, and mussels risotto and calamari risotto (it was black). And of course, white wine. There were a ton of cats all around the restaurant, begging for food like dogs! One of them even jumped up on my lap and took a nap! It was adorable. We ate A TON of food, and then went to finish sightseeing.

It is possible to take a walking tour around the top of the fortress wall, so we did that. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing it is. As soon as I post pictures, you can see for yourself, but even those do not really do it justice. Needless to say, it is a view I will never forget.

Of course, since most of us in the program are usually landlocked, we NEEDED to swim in the water. A few of the girls got a little more adventurous and went to find a rock to go climb and jump off of, but the rest of us just trespassed onto a local beach. I was content to stand with my jeans rolled up and let the waves wash over my feet, but two other girls stripped down and jumped in! It looked really fun and I wish we all would have been able to go swimming, but we were only on a day trip with nothing to change into for our hours of travelling back to Zagreb.

We finished the day watching the sunset at a cafe jutting out from one of the fortress walls and listening to the waves crash on the rocks below us.  We took a short flight back to Zagreb, and returned home (I think we all feel like our first host families are like "home" to us now).

We have the next week to work on our ISP proposal before returning to Belgrade (or whereever we choose to go), so hopefully I will find some time to update about my trip to Bosnia.

Blog Slacking...

I have not been updating too much. I prefer to write about what my days have been like in a backwards way since the last time I wrote (which was the 10th). 


Today: Had language class at 12:30. It was 2 hours long. We had a lecture about religion, a review of our time in Serbia, and went out for drinks and went to Bagel's Park (the ONLY and BEST bagel place in Belgrade!!) Tomorrow, we have a day off. 


Tuesday: We had language class at 12:30 (a super long one) and I walked to school on a new route, which was fun, and I felt really accomplished because I didn't get lost at all, and I totally know my way around. (Not.) We had drinks at a hotel bar down the street, and the bar is extremely cool. Then we had a lecture about Israel and Palestine. It was interesting, but slightly unrelated to Serbia. 


Monday: We had a day off, so I spent the day watching movies in bed and reading a few things that Orli gave me for research about Serbian media. In the evening, we visited an NGO called Women at Work, a feminist organization in Belgrade. She told us about a lesbian festival in Novi Sad this weekend which I think we are going to go to. Afterwards, we went to a really nice restaurant that had delicious pasta and other food, and I drank a lot of wine. 


Sunday: Watched movies in bed again. It was cold and rainy.


Saturday: Woke up at Marisa's house (we spent the night) and went somewhere for breakfast. This is when we discovered Bagel's Park. Everyone in there was speaking American. They have bagels, pasta and "Tex-Mex." Clearly targeted towards Americans. I walked home, and felt compelled to go into Zara. Then, I bought a leather jacket that I love. In the evening, we went to go see Stomp with Jess's host family. They work at the Sava Centar and got us into Stomp for only 200 dinars each (like, less than 4 dollars). Apparently tickets were normally like 2,000 dinars (40 bucks-ish), so we got a good deal. But I got ripped off by a cab, so that sucked. We went to a few bars afterwards, and saw Akademija, (academia) which is a famous club here. 


Friday: I'm starting to forget what happened... Probably had language class, and it was probably not fun, at all. Well, then we visited B-92, a radio and television station in Serbia. During Milosevic, it was a big political station and informed people of things happening, and was very against the regime. Now it is much more commercial, but it was cool to see. Then we went to visit an NGO focusing on migrants' rights in Serbia. Afterwards, we went to Marisa's house to make dinner and drink wine. Her host mom has two cats, and they just had a kitten, and it was adorable. 


Thursday: We had language and visited another NGO, and I totally forget what that one was. I guess not very important...


Wednesday: So this was the day we went to visit Novi Sad. Everyone has been telling us how amazing and beautiful and fun Novi Sad is, so we were all really excited. Of course, it was another windy, cold day, so it wasn’t exactly beautiful. I didn’t bring a coat, and everyone was just appalled. Even on days when it is 50 degrees and sunny here, everyone is bundled up in total winter gear, with coats, hats, scarves and gloves. I’m curious what it would be like if the weather was ever Iowa-like here. I imagine the streets would be empty because people would not have enough clothing to wear. Novi Sad is an hour bus ride from Belgrade, so it was only a day trip. When we arrived, we met with some Princeton students who are studying in Novi Sad. Princeton started a program just this year in which admitted freshman students can apply to do a “Bridge Year,” in which small groups are sent to different places around the world for the academic year to do work with local organizations. There is one group in Serbia, another somewhere in India, and I don’t remember where the rest of the groups are. We got to talk with their group and learn about some of the organizations with whom they work. One of the organizations does a film festival and art shows with anti-war materials. The girl who works with them from Princeton gets to watch all the submissions for the 2010 film festival, which will be in April. We then went to hear a lecture from a man who works with an organization that treats war veterans with PTSD. For a few hours, we had the opportunity to talk to the Princeton students about their work in Novi Sad, and how they got involved in the program.  Novi Sad was fun, but I think we all would have liked to have time to stay a bit longer and see more of the city. A lot of young people have told us how great it is, so we were looking forward to seeing that, and we weren’t able to.


Tuesday: We had language and lecture, and then went to go visit this activist theater called Dah Theatre. We did a bunch of theater-y exercises like making noises and dancing and following other people's elbows with our faces and stuff. Very "team building."


Monday: Ava and I decided to sniff out a sushi place, and we finally found Moon Sushi Bar in a strip mall sort of thing right near the square. The sushi was sub-par, I would not recommend, although the servers were nice. I had a meeting with our academic advisor, Orli, and she gave me a bunch of stuff to start researching my ISP. (ISP is an independent study project that we work on during the last four weeks of our semester. We do interviews and conduct research and then write a 30-40 page research paper based on what we've learned. It's very cool. I will probably be doing mine about the media in Serbia, and the way public perceptions have changed over time especially with publications that were controlled by the regime during the wars.) 
Ah, okay, so I think that is everything interesting that has happened since the last time I updated, more or less (mostly less). Sorry for the rambling but it is late here, and I just wanted to get this down quickly. 

I’m really starting to love Belgrade. It’s a great, fun city. In Zagreb, it seemed that everything happened around the main square, and the whole city spread out from there, with less and less important things the further away you got. But in Belgrade, everything is spread out and cool stuff is happening everywhere. I don’t know exactly what it is about Belgrade, but I think everyone in the group is really having fun here, and really felling it. I think most of us will end up staying here for our ISP. I am definitely going to stay here, and hopefully will be able to continue to live with my host mom. If I can’t do that, many people end up finding apartments to share with other people in the group and live together there. We get a 22 euro per day stipend during the month of our ISP, so we do have a lot of options.

More later. For now, I should get to bed.

Weekend excursion to Sandžak

So I just got home from our trip to a southern region of Serbia called Sandzak, where we stayed in a city called Novi Pazar. The region is in between Montenegro and Kosovo and the region is about 80% Muslim. While there is a mix of ethnicities in that other 20%, the main clash here is actually in between two divided sects of Muslims, who have taken sides in a political rivalry. Honestly, the issue is so complicated that I’m not sure if I can even properly explain it, but as one of the journalist from Radio 100 Plus told us today, “Our biggest export used to be cowboy jeans, now it is political scandal.”

So we arrived on Friday evening, and our first goal was to eat “the best cevapi in the world, even better than Sarajevo.” We had a big meal at a traditional restaurant with a whole lot of cevapi, and also ate with a few guys who work as journalists, photographers, or for NGO’s in the city. They told us about both their work, and the problems in the community. It was really interesting to hear about their work, and they were really eager to talk to us, because there are usually very few Americans that come to Sandzak, and I imagine even fewer who care about the political and social issues after the war.

On Saturday, we were showed around a few different places, the most interesting being a faculty for and Islamic school in the city. We had the opportunity to talk to a class of Muslim students, and talked a little bit about the region, their views on America, and our views on Islam. It was really a very interesting conversation, and I think we all wished that we would have had longer to discuss. We went out for lunch with them a little bit later to talk to them one on one. None of them spoke advanced English, so the conversation wasn’t as deep as when we had a translator, but with our tiny bit of Serbian and their English, we managed to communicate about other things.

Our group going to Novi Pazar is actually the first time this SIT program has gone, and it was something new and different. We went with this 28 year old guy from Belgrade who has spent the last year and a half studying, working and writing about Novi Paza. He was very funny and very knowledgeable about the area, so if future students are lucky, they will be able to make the same trip. Oh, and since this is southern Serbia, it was really mountainous and SO BEAUTIFUL. We had a great hotel room with an amazing view looking out over the village and the mountains, and I will try to post pictures later.

The trip was great, and I think we all learned a lot, but I’m also glad to be home and have tomorrow to myself. As much as I like everyone in the group, it is really hard to be with everyone for 12+ hours every day of the week. Especially when we’re traveling as a group of more than 12 people, it can be frustrating, embarrassing and overwhelming for me (and others, I’m sure). Definitely just need a little alone time to collect my thoughts and let everyone else do the same. This week will be regular old classes, and then for the weekend going to Novi Sad in Vojvodina for another excursion.

The trip is going so fast. Already we have finished with week 5, which means we are halfway through the first part of the program (classes), and a third of the way through the entire thing, including our ISP. It’s crazy!

I didn’t mean to worry anyone with the last post! I never have felt in any actual danger here, and it is a very safe city, especially in the center. It certainly can be overwhelming, and it’s easy to let the big, foreign city get the best of you. But really, I think I’m doing well so far in Belgrade!

By the way, during my time here, I will be periodically having posts on a website called GlobalPost, a new international news site that the NY Times calls "a mix of news and features that only a handful of other news organizations can rival.” The site will be launching on Monday with my and other students’ stories. I have sent in my first story, although I’m not sure it will be published quite yet. They are publishing a few stories between now and Monday, and will be unveiling more copy that day and on subsequent days. So the page is globalpost.com/home/study-abroad, and if my story is published, I will be sure to send out the link, which I would love if you sent on to other people! 

Nearing the end of our first week in Belgrade

This is about the end of our first week in Belgrade. We are actually traveling to an area of southern Serbia called Sandžak on Friday afternoon, and will be there for two days. This week has been really interesting so far, as we are trying to get used to being in a much bigger city. And it really is much bigger than Zagreb. In Zagreb, it is very easy to tell that everything important, everything interesting, everywhere you might want to go, is right in the center of the city and easy to get to. Here, there is a main center, but important things are everywhere, much more spread out. Honestly, it’s kind of scary for me. I am so not used to being in such a big city, and I am really struggling with that.

We are having our classes in a building of a school called FMK, which is Faculty for Media and Communications. We have language class every day, and lectures, but here we’ve been going to class later than in Zagreb, usually around noon or even later. The faculty is really nice and new, and there is a café in the lobby that we can go to between lectures. Another thing that is really cool is that every morning I go on a run through a park 2 minutes away from my house that is in what used to be the biggest fortress in Belgrade. Plus, people are always walking their awesome doggies in the morning. 

On Tuesday night, we met with a group of about 20 other college-aged students who were a part of a program that sent them to the United States to study for a year. The idea was to force us to make some friends our age who are familiar with Belgrade, who could take us out and show us around. We did a really awkward circle of forced talking (our academic director has experience doing peace discussing between people… I forget how it is called). Afterwards, we all went out for a drink at a really nice bar on this “touristy” street.

Today, (Wednesday) we had class again. We went through a frustrating (for me) lecture connecting philosophy and “the politics of difference/identity.” I don’t know very much about philosophy and so it was interesting, but I had trouble understanding the connection between the two.

After that frustrating lecture and discussion, my friends and I went to get a quick beer before heading home to eat dinner with our host families. We went in the opposite direction of where I live, which I thought would be okay, since I live so close to the main square. Of course, because I thought that, it clearly meant that I had to get lost on my walk home. When I am heading home, I go into the main square and take one of the pedestrian streets towards Kalemegdan (the huge fortress), and then turn right and go straight to my house. However, tonight, in the dark, I took the wrong pedestrian street. All of the streets have cafes with patios full of tables and umbrellas bleeding into each other. The street I took looked like it had more tables than usual, but I just attributed it to the fact that it was nighttime so more people are out having drinks. As I walked further down the street, it looked more and more unfamiliar. It was a sea of tables, and looked like and endless forest of umbrellas arching over shadowy figures. The street was loud and jam-packed. I stumbled through the pulsating crowd of people, small and alone with my huge, heavy backpack awkwardly swinging behind me, out of my control. I kept walking, hoping to reach the end, hoping for something to look familiar, hoping for the obscuring umbrellas to part, and Kalemegdan to appear. Instead, the patios just got denser with tables, the clubs I walked by more intimidating. Colored lights were flashing, and not a single word I could hear out of all the chatter around me was a familiar one. It was like a hellish nightmare. I just wanted to know where I was, to be headed in the right direction. I was tired, it was late and I was extremely irritated. All I wanted was to be at home, real home, and not be lost and confused and uncomfortable anymore.

Of course, I eventually got home. It really didn’t take that long because I don’t live that far away from anything, but I think that experience was the first time I really felt like I would give anything to be at home and to get out of this country. Most of the time, I’m happy with being here. Every once in awhile, I feel extremely happy to be here. This morning, I went on a run through the fortress. It was beautiful and empty, except for people walking their dogs, and I just felt so happy and lucky. I didn’t have class until noon, didn’t have any homework or papers to worry about yet, and was simply enjoying the scenery and the doggies. Other times, I just feel a twinge of missing home. Maybe I’m just sitting at a café with all of my friends, but I suddenly wish I could just be at home, in my room or on my couch, not having to worry about being uncomfortable or unhappy or confused any more. And tonight, I really felt for the first time that I would have given anything to be home immediately, and wanted to cry at the fact that I still have to be here for 10 more weeks. 

But anyway. Other than that, everything is going well, and I'm looking forward to our trip this weekend!

Welcome to Beograd!!

So, we have arrived in Belgrade (or as it is called here, Beograd meaning White City). We left early Friday morning on a bus. The bus ride is 5-6 hours ish, depending on how long stopping at the boarder takes. When we arrived, our program coordinator, Orli, met us at the bus station. We had time to check out the facility where we will be having classes while in Belgrade and walk around the city. We had some Chinese food (!!!) and coffee, and then went to meet our host families. This time, I am staying with a younger, single woman who lives in an apartment on one of the "coolest" streets in Belgrade, that they call Silicone Valley. (Due to the large amount of women "showing off their silicones" at all of the cool cafes and bars along the street.) I then registered with the police again, which was a funny comparison with Zagreb. Instead of waiting in line for 2 hours at the police station, we walked in, talked to one of the many groups of cops just standing around and talking. They took my passport, looked me up and down a few times, and then gave me a little white card I have to carry around all the time.

Yesterday (Saturday), we took a tour of Belgrade and saw a lot of really cool stuff. We saw the fortress that has been attacked/protected in the 40 times Belgrade has been attacked in its history. The fortress looks out over the place where the Danube and Sava rivers meet. This fortress is why Belgrade is called the white city; it is made out of white stone and is the first thing people would see of Belgrade when sailing down the Danube. We saw the grave of Tito and a bunch of buildings that were bombed during the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade. Afterwards, we went to a cafe to meet with some young Belgrade people to tell us about clubs and bars we should (and should NOT) go to in Belgrade, as well as point us in the direction of a Mexican restaurant (!!!). The whole turbofolk thing is a much bigger deal here.

So far, this is what I have learned about turbofolk. Basically, it is a Serbian phenomenon that started during the "civil" wars. It was deemed a very nationalistic type of music, and Serbian nationalism is basically the reason for the civil wars. One of the biggest turbofolk "divas" even married one of the biggest Serbian generals (aka rich war criminal). Now, the music and the scene is associated with rich dudes, a lot of whom made their money on the black market during the war, and also the young women (golddiggers) who want to get with them. A lot of people have told me it is kind of like "redneck, white trash" music that makes people act primitavely. Or something like that. It is really hard to explain, but it is just an aspect of the culture that is associated with money and gangs, and is especially volatile right now because of the political situation in Serbia.

This upcoming week we will have class, and then on Friday we take a trip to a town called Sandzak. I do not know what Sandzak is, but I am sure I will find out soon enough.

Preparing for Serbia

So we leave for Serbia on Friday. I have been doing laundry and dreading packing and carrying all my bags around with me. We are to meet at the train station early on Friday morning, so hopefully my host family will drive me!

This week has been interesting because we have really gotten deeper into our lectures and had a lot of guest speakers. Today, for example, we had one speaker talking about the feminist movement in Croatia, and another speaker who talked about LGBTIG rights and issues in Croatia, as well as sexual education in schools.

We have also been preparing for our independent study projects (ISPs), which we will do during our last month here. We get to choose where we want to go and what we want to research about. We have been talking about possible topics, as well as research methods for the projects. I am considering doing mine related to the media here and how it has changed over time with socialism and the war. Last night, we were assigned to do interviews with a young person in Zagreb to learn about interviewing. I talked to the host sister of another girl in the program about politics and education in Zagreb and how much young people are involved. That is all for now, but I will be sure to update as soon as I get to Serbia and meet with my host family.

Trip to Vukovar

Vukovar is about a three-hour bus ride from Zagreb. It is located right on the Danube River, which is also the Croatian-Serbian boarder. Even during the time of Yugoslavia, it was one of the most ethnically mixed cities, and had one of the highest rates of inter-ethnic marriages. In 1991 when it was attacked, the town was about 47% Croat and 32% Serbian. Vukovar was one of the first towns invaded by the Yugoslav People’s Army when Croatia announced its independence from Yugoslavia. The town was under siege from August 1991 until it fell (or was liberated, depending on your point of view) on November 18. During this time, the Yugoslav People’s Army (or JNA) shelled the city constantly, while its citizens hid in basements. Croatia, not yet even a recognized nation attempted to form an army to defend Vukovar, and were successful for a period of time. When the city fell, about 80% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. The citizens that had camped in basements for three months finally came above ground to see their city ripped apart by bullets, rockets, bombs and fires. Woman and children were sent away from the city in buses. Croat soldiers were sent to concentration camps, where most were killed.

As you can imagine, the city’s scars are still very visible. Some people say that Vukovar hasn’t been completely rebuilt or recovered in order to serve as a reminder of the war. However, the biggest reminders of this ethnic war aren’t the bullet hole-riddled buildings or prominent memorials and graveyards, but the segregation that still remains between the Croat and Serb population. Children go to either Croatian or Serbian schools; cafes are exclusively Croatian or Serbian; people ignore acquaintances of a different ethnicity. It is not a physically separated city, but there is a barrier there.

We left for Vukovar early on Thursday morning. My train was late, so I was late and I think the bus almost left without me. We arrived and checked in to our hotel, Hotel Dunav. My Frommer’s Guide to Croatia told me it was “built as a package hotel and despite several updates, it still is. Rooms and public spaces still have that dark, socialist aura.” The hotel was clean, had a restaurant and bar and rooms with views overlooking the Danube, but does NOT come recommended by our group (especially me). All of our rooms were crawling with, as our guide called them, “stink bugs.” Big, brown and buzzy, they smell like really bad B.O. when you stomp them, and apparently come in through the windows. Of course, the room I stayed in had the most, and although we spent some time catching them,  they still flew around our room and crawled all over everything all night. Along with the heat due to our closed windows, the situation did not allow for much sleep. I was not a happy camper. Okay, but I tried not to let the horrible rooming situation ruin my Vukovar experience.

 We had free time for lunch, and with few options around the hotel, we tried some “fast food,” aka, ćevapi. We’ve had ćevapi before; it is some sort of spiced sausage on a thing, buttery bun. This was definitely better than the ćevapiwe had in Zagreb, but I think we were all pretty nauseated by the whole situation. After lunch, we had a lecture with our “tour guide,” who was born in Vukovar, but left before the war and has done a lot of research concerning the war. We then took tours of Croatian and Serbian memorial cemeteries. The Croatian one is huge and beautiful (please see my other pictures on Shutterfly). However, the Serbian one is very small, and is actually in a courtyard of local Croat homes. You can see in the pictures how different they look and how much wear and disrepair the Serbian cemetery shows. Serbs have always been the minority in Vukovar, and since they were seen as the aggressors in the war, their fallen soldiers are not celebrated or honored by the locals.

We had dinner at a small restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, unfortunately, because we are apparently going to be pictured on their website! We had a great dinner with a variety of dishes, including crepes with chocolate for dessert. And then home to a horrible night’s sleep…

Today (Friday), we had a lecture with a man who works for an NGO which is working to create an integrated school in Vukovar, as well as improving other facets of Vukovar’s segregation. He also showed us a documentary his group made concerning inter-ethnic relationships made during the war to work towards peace, rather than against it. We then had some free time to explore the city.We made friends with an adorable puppy (as you can see in the pictures), ate lunch at a place where we had many troubles explaining what we wanted to eat and took in the scenery of Vukovar. 


There are a lot of things to process about this town, and all the things we saw.

To see photos...

Okay, I was told that people would like to see more photos, so I've created a Shutterfly account so everyone can see them. I would post more on here, but it takes a really long time to upload photos onto Blogger, and I don't want the page to take forever to load.

So please check out: lostinthebalkans.shutterfly.com

Turtles can be irritating pets

So, I havent been updating a lot lately, and Im very sorry, but at this point we are having a lot of normal days. The commute, language class, lunch break at Dolac and class in the afternoon. We usually go for a beer after class and then I go home for dinner.

However, last night was more exciting. Our second weekend in Zagreb, and the first night of Rujanfest, a big beer and music festival near Lake Bundek in Zagreb. Bundek is on the other side of the River Sava, in Novi Grad, or New Zagreb. It was a really interesting time, beer tents, vendors, sellers, and big carnival rides. I didnt take a whole lot of pictures, but imagine a state fair full of Croats. We listened to some music in one of the big tents, and decided to go home around midnight.

Here is where the unfortunate part comes in. After 1130, the trams going around the city are replaced by buses on a different time schedule. We knew this, but didnt think it would be as much of a problem as it was. After we waited for a tram for about a half hour, some boys told us we needed to wait for a bus on the other side of the street instead. So we waited some more. We stupidly continued to take the advice of the boys, and somehow ended up at a packed club on the exact opposite side of Zagreb, with little idea where we were, or what bus to take back. We waited again for a bus, which finally came and drove us all around again, with no idea where we were. Eventually, we made it to the main square, a place we were actually familiar with. With different destinations, a lot of nighttime construction, confusing bus schedules and a man from LA trying to get our phone numbers, the square was just as confusing as the rest of the city. But finding a bus did not help us much, because once we were in the right neighborhood, we wandered around in circles again for a few more hours.

FINALLY, we made it to Avas host parents house, where I decided to stay since my host parents are gone for the weekend, and I was not looking forward to a long, drunken, lonely walk in the dark back to an empty house. The night ended well, raiding the fridge and we finally went to sleep around 5 a.m. It was a rough experience, but it was a good bonding moment for all involved. I think we all got a little frustrated, but our map and some friendly (but maybe not so helpful) people made it easier.

Today I spent hanging out home alone and watching movies, until the electricity went off. This apparently causes turtles to go crazy, and they have been extremely annoying all afternoon. I had to feed them some gross little shrimp claws (or something, thats what they looked like) this morning, so maybe that got them all hopped up. I have been wanting to take them out of their aquarium all afternoon and let them wear their energy out on the floor and not scraping rocks all around and annoying me. Those crazy Croat turtles.

Zmija, Zaba

Okay, so this is a really popular Serbian "turbo folk" song called "A Snake and a Frog." The whole Serbian music thing is really interesting dynamic, because while it's really popular with people (think like top 40 hits, played in bars and on the radio and you can buy them for your ring tone via text), but there is another group of people who really hate it. Beyond just being polarizing between people, there's still some sort of cultural tension about it being Serbian and being really popular in Croatia. I don't know how to explain it; hopefully my host family will tell me more about why people hate it so much. Or like it so much. 


Here are the lyrics:

You're heat, you're steam, you're so hot
And when I look at you I want to eat honey and walnuts
I'd give everything I have for you to be mine
But when I want to grab you, you runaway anyways

And you easily turn all the guys on, then you cool them off
And you'll really make my brain go crazy
And when the others change their mind, because you made them sad
I know who you'll choose at the end, when you make your choice

Because I'm a snake, you're a frog, a frog
You can run, but it's worthless, worthless
And when you fall into my trap here in the underbrush
I'll swallow you in one bite

You're juice, you're powerfull, you're fatal
And I've always fallen for guys like that
I'd cry, if I'd surrender myself immediately to you
Because you'll think I'm easy for sure

So I run away, I growl a bit and you're chasing me
And you fight with other guys over me
I love you dear, but I'm just pretending
Because when you don't have me, I've got you

Because you're a snake and I'm a frog, a frog
You can threaten me, but it's worthless, worthless
And when I fall into your trap here in the underbrush
Exactly when you open your mouth, I'll vanish quickly with two jumps

"Normal" days

So, today was our first "normal" day of class. ("Normal" because since we travel so much we don't have a very defined schedule.) We are in Zagreb doing "normal" classes until the 23, and then we do a 2 day trip to Vukovar, and then we are back in Zagreb only until October 1. On October 2, we leave for Belgrade, and we are in Serbia (I think we do some traveling outside of Belgrade) until the 26th of October, and then on to Bosnia. After 10 days in Bosnia, back to Zagreb for a week, and then we start our ISP!!! Saying it all like that makes it sound like it will go so fast!! I already feel like the days are moving faster.

This morning was "normal;" woke up, got ready and Josipa drove me into the center of town because she had to go to work on the west side. I was a little early for class, but it was nice not to have to face the train again. I'm still kind of scared of it. We had two hours of language class this morning. I won't lie... I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the language right now. I'm not used to feeling confused or out of it during a class but this one, quite honestly I don't know what's going on a lot of times. I'm still trying to stay positive though. I'm making sticky notes of vocab words and putting them up right in front of my face at my desk at home so I'm forced to look at "Kako se kaze...?" "sir," and "samo malo." ("How do you say...?" "cheese," and "just a little bit," among others.) After language, we had two hour's break for lunch. A few other girls and I went to a small stand in the main square that sells food to go (fast food, but not American fast food). Afterwards, we walked down the street and got sucked into a few clothing stores... whoops.

The afternoon was our first class with Orli. It was just a beginning sort of thing; we discussed terms and "ideas" and some readings that were apparently assigned... again, whoops. I also feel a little bit behind in this class. Many of the girls are political science, international relations, anthropology or "peace building" majors, and therefore have a lot more experience then I do in foreign affairs and armed conflict. So, again, a little bit behind everyone else but, whatever, I guess someone has to be at the back of the learning curve. After class, we went to a cafe to get a beer before going home. The cafe we went to has old washing machines outside repurposed as tables with tall bar stools. Apparently, the cafe was mentioned in the New York Times' recent article about Zagreb. The inside is cool too, and the walls are covered in fake flowers. One of the table's legs are made from an old bicycle without the seat; another's is the legs of a mannequin. However, it is just a cafe; pretty standard on Tkalciceva. After, I took the crowded tram home and had dinner with Bernard.

Going into this trip with SIT, I was worried that the homestay part would be the hardest part for me (especially considering how I felt about my last homestay experience.) However, it has really turned out to be great (of course, I'm only a week into it, but still). It is SERIOUSLY nice to be able to come home to a room of my own, where I can unpack my things, I have a desk and a bed all of my own, PLUS I get homemade meals cooked for me every night. Bernard and Josipa are so sweet and fun to hang out with. Tomorrow is another "normal" day; hope to get ALL the readings (that I didn't do before) done tonight, go to bed early and be ready for whatever tomorrow has to offer!

Feeling like a tourist

So, as I wrote last night, today we had a guided tour scheduled to see parts of downtown Zagreb as a group, like true Americans. The tour was great, and I took a lot of interesting pictures, but it was definitely embarrassing to be in a big group of people, all with their cameras out, wandering around and staring. We got to see the main cathedral, that can be seen from all over the downtown. We also saw the square where all the hip people go hang out on Saturday mornings to "see and be seen." I'm working really hard to try and get a feel for where things are in the town, so that I can know where I'm going and get around more easily if I want to go somewhere, so the tour definitely helped.

For lunch, three of us went to a restaurant called Boban, which serves Croatian food. It is a nicer, sit-down type restaurant, really the first we've gone to since we've been here. We all got different types of pasta. I got a four cheese penne, and it was amazing. The dynamic of restaurants seems different here than in the U.S. Waiters don't work for tips, so they seem to be less attentive. Or perhaps that's just for three American college students, it's kind of hard to tell.

After lunch, we walked down the "shopping street," Ilica. The group of us has slowly been working on getting phones, so the three of us went into T-Mobile to find something for our needs. Luckily, it is pretty cheap to buy a phone and a sim card, and put a certain amount of kuna on the card to use, and then reload. This is a pretty perfect situation for us since we won't be here too long. My phone was 150 kuna ($30) and has (I think) 20 kuna loaded on the card. So now it will be much easier to communicate with all the other girls, who live in various places around the city.

Afterwards, of course, espresso at a cafe called Maraschino. The next task was getting home. Yesterday, I was driven by car into the main square, and this morning, my "host dad" showed me how to use the train and tram to get into town. The tram is easy, but I was confused about the train. Luckily, there is an alternate route that is just a longer tram ride and more walking, so I just did that for now. But I really want to man up and figure out how to use the train, because the commute is much shorter.

The group of us have been discussing whether or not we want to attempt to go to one of the bars or clubs we were told about the other night. We're all interested but I think a little intimidated, so we'll see what happens.

(Picture above taken in the pedestrian area, Tkalčićeva ulica, where many cafes and bars are. The statue in the picture is Marija Jurić Zagorka (1873-1957), who was Croatia's first female journalist. She was given a job on a local Zagreb paper, where she started on the editorial board and introduced the first Croatian publication exclusively for women. She also wrote a few popular novels that are still well-read today. Click to make bigger!)

Police, meat and booze

Ahh, Friday. Last night was my first night with my host family. It went well, not awkward like some of the girls said theirs was. I know I can be quiet when I first meet people, but they are both very outgoing and nice, and they are so adorable and funny. I really hope they like me and accept me into their lives well.

Today, we had to get registered at the police station. It took forever. We waited in line for almost two hours with a bunch of other people to get registered. Afterwards, my host parents had to go to work, so I had until 3:30 to wander the city by myself. I walked around for awhile and then it started to rain, so I got on a tram number that I'd never been on before. I just rode it until the end of the line, and rode it back into the town center. It didn't take very long, so then I just went for a walk around the main square by myself. I was going to try to find lunch somehwere and ran into a few other girls from the program.

I ate this meaty sandwich. I was nervous when ordering it from a stand on the walkway, and even more nervous when I watched the lady behind the counter shave off sheets of meat from a huge, rotating cylinder of sausage. The lettuce and tomato made the sandwich a lot easier to eat, and there was some sort of spicy sauce on the delicious bread that was awesome. After I got tired of the sandwich itself, I just ate the spicy saucy bread.

Anyway, the afternoon we spent on language classes and two younger people came in to talk to us about places to go in Zagreb. They told us about restaurants and bars and clubs and stuff. They told us about these "turbo folk" clubs, where models and football players and famous people go and they play Serbian and Bosnian and Albanian music. They made them sound really glamorous, but violent and said that there is "people dancing on tables and stomping on glasses and Italian mobsters watching girls walk around in short skirts. And then they told us we should go to them.

This evening my host parents took me over to their friends' house where we ate dinner and had drinks. They told them that because I can't drink in the US, with them I am only allowed to drink alcohol. We had mojitos (clearly a traditional Croatian beverage), and some sort of cherry liqueur from Dalmatia. Another lovely night in Zagreb.

My Host Family

Today was our fourth day in Zagreb (already going by so fast!!) and we had another language class. We are learning how to say simple things and how to pronounce the letters. Pronounciation of the words is phonetic, but there are 30 letters in the alphabet! Je sam Nicole is "I am Nicole" and right now, that's all I remember. We repeated after the language teacher, Marija, (Maria) so I know how to say things, but not to read or spell yet which it hard for me. We have a 2 hour break every day for lunch, so many of us will go across the street to the open air market to buy some fresh bread, cheese and veggies. Today, we bought a big loaf of bread (4 kuna, which is less than a dollar) and half a kilo of tomatoes (3 tomatoes for 2 kuna) and this sort of paste-like dip made out of eggplant and peppers, and some cheese. I also bought an ear of sweet corn from a vendor off the street for 10 kuna (2 dollars). So we cooked and ate a huge lunch for less than 10 dollars, and all we have to do is walk across the street from where our classroom is!

If you're interested in Google mapping to see where our classroom is, search for Dolac Market, Zagreb, or the name of the center square, Trg Bana Jelacica. That is basically the center of the city, where all the trams go to and where all the stores are. The SIT headquarters is just a big apartment that is in a building right off this square, so it's really easy to get to, but we have to climb 8 flights of stairs to get to this apartment and there's no elevator. This picture here was taken in Dolac. The four girls at the front of the picture are actually in my group: Lila, Marisa, Claire and Julie. You can see the town's cathedral in the background, and the red umbrellas of the market. This picture makes it look small, but it is really, really big.

After lunch we covered the syllabus for the semester, and talked about when and where we'll be traveling. Then we found out who our host families would be. We had a little party in the hostel yard with the host families, with drinks and snacks and live music. It was really nice. The people I'm staying with is a young couple, the man in his early 30s and his girlfriend in her late 20s. They speak English, and he speaks German and she speaks French and she said she was looking forward to practicing her French with me. She is a physical therapist and she travels around the area a lot, to countries around here for the people she works with. They said that he is working on his master's degree, but I didn't catch what exactly it is he's getting his master's in. They have a nice apartment fairly near to where the hostel is.

They said I'll have to take the train into town and then take tram into the center of town. But the train and the tram are free for students. They're really nice and really funny, I think they'll be great to live with. And hey, if not, we only have a few weeks here before we start traveling around the rest of the Balkans! Things are moving quickly!!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday: Slowly starting to get into the language, and our language class starts on Wednesday. So far i know hvala (thank you), pivo (beer), and pala (half) which we learned when we were trying to buy some cheese and the old woman who spoke no english tried to sell us a huge block. This was part of our little "first day experiment," during which we walked around the big market near the main square (trg), Dolac, a big open-air market with all different kinds of food. Each of us bought a little something and brought it back to SIT to put together as a meal. I had my first real meat. There's another girl who is normally vegetarian but is eating meat during the trip and we tried it at the same time. I had a bite of some kind of weird meat that looked like uncooked bacon that made me gag and i couldn't swallow. The other was some kind of spicy sausage on a big, buttery loaf of bread and it had a really weird texture.

Wednesday: We started language class which was fun and interesting. I'm kind of overwhelmed and frightened by the language, but I'm trying not to get too down on myself about it. I know I will learn slowly, but I want to stay positive, at least for now. It is clear that some of the girls are good at language and are also really motivated to learn it. I am neither. But I think that I will be okay (for now.)

Wednesday night was when Croatia played England at soccer in England, so we all went to a bar and watched the game. Croatia lost, 4-1, but it was still fun to watch. I was really hoping that they would win, and the streets would be a crazy party. But everyone watching was very quiet, except when Croatia scored that one goal. I really hope to see another match before I leave. Apparently the rivalry between Zagreb and Split (on the coast) is very heated, and games can get violent. Is it wrong that I would kind of love to see that?

That sign is right outside our hostel, and that building behind it is what we look at everyday. Apparently an old folks' home. The hostel is right next to a chocolate factory so it always smells like burnt chocolate around here. Tomorrow, we meet our host families. I'm pretty excited. they go really out of their way to match us well with host families so I think it will all work out well. So far, my favorite part of Zagreb is all of the dogs that people have. I see a ton of dogs every day, ranging from a huge, horse-sized, fluffy white one on my first day, to a lady sitting in a cafe with her tiny Chihuahua sleeping on her lap, to an adorable, yellow Lab puppy that a man was trying to train to sit and stay on the pedestrian street. Of course, I feel the need to point out every single one to the people I'm with, and I've been trying to take sneaky pictures of the cute ones. Perhaps that will be my ISP topic: "The Canine Population of Zagreb."

My first few days in Zagreb

Fortunately, all my flights went very well and had no problems whatsoever. My flight from Munich to Zagreb on a tiny place was amazing; we flew over the Alps and I had a window seat and I just stared out the window the whole time. I wanted to take a picture, but I felt tacky doing that next to the large, sweaty, European man sitting next to me. A girl in my program, Eva, was on that flight and as soon as we got into the Zagreb airport, we started talking. Zagreb's airport is tiny and old, and as soon as we arrived we were spotted by our program leader, Goga. We took a taxi to the hostel, Ravnice Youth Hostel, which is very, very nice (according to someone who has never been in a hostel before, but still.)

We meet as a group, 11 girls, at the hostel. We went to lunch at a restaurant called Agava Trattoria, and had our first view of the main square, Trg Jelacica, and Tkalciceva. Agava is set on a hill up on Tkalciceva, so as we sat on the terrace, we could watch everyone walking by on the street (just like everyone here does.) The girls are from all over; San Francisco, New York, Texas, St. Louis, Seattle. They all seem very independent, smart, interesting and well-traveled. Mostly anthropology, sociology and political science majors (plus me, the lone journalism major) we have a wide variety of interests. We also met at this time our language teacher, Marija, and our main professor, Orli. We had some great food and I had octopus for (maybe?) the first time. It was... chewy.

We had some time to walk around, and see the beautiful city. Of course, it's Europe, so the buildings are fairly old and beautiful. The main downtown of the city is very small, easy to walk everywhere and the trams run at all hours, and SIT supplied us with free passes. We also are given "lunch money" so they gave us about 80 bucks to get food for the rest of the week during orientation, while we're staying in the hostel. However, seven of us went out to some bars tonight and spent our lunch money on beer, which is really cheap. The city is really safe, everyone really friendly, most people speak English. These are my impressions so far.

2 DAYS TO GO!!

So pretty much going into the final stages at this point. It's Friday and I leave on Sunday. I'm kiiiiiiiinda freaking out. The packing is the worst part. My suitcase can only weigh 45 pounds and it currently weighs.... 70 pounds. And I don't know what else to take out. How does one pack for 4 months for 70 degree to 30 degree weather? In a suitcase less than 50 pounds? I just don't know how anyone can do it.

Finally got a list of all the people that will be on the trip, and have been Facebook stalking. It's a group of 11 people, all girls! That's kind of weird, but it's cool. They all seem really great so far, although most of them seem much more... worldly than I. I'm really looking forward to meeting them.

I just found out about a week ago that I've been accepted to be a student correspondent for Global Post, an online news source that covers global news via independent correspondents living in different countries all over the world. They've started a Study Abroad page for students to contribute and talk about their experiences abroad. Hopefully I can keep up with that blog, this one, and all my school work.

Regardless of how nervous I am, and how hard packing is, I'm excited. I can't wait to see Zagreb and meet all the people in the program and my host family. Mostly though, I can't wait until the 12+ hours of traveling are over!

The Packing Nightmare

10 days until I leave.

I've been waiting for SIT to send out a list of other people who will be going on the trip, but they haven't yet, so I'm getting kind of worried like, I don't want to go to a foreign country with a bunch of people that I literally know nothing about. Luckily, I made a group on Facebook that one other girl joined, and we've been corresponding via Facebook about travel plans and packing and whatnot.

Packing. Whew. I haven't really started yet, although I do have a big empty suitcase sitting in my room and an extremely long Excel worksheet of things to bring. I've bought a few things, plain t-shirts, a new bag, a skirt and cardigan and some leggings, but I still have a bunch of toiletries and crap to buy, as well as school supplies. Still working on that whole... getting rid of stuff in my room thing. It's stressful.

Most of my friends are back at school, so they're all dealing with classes and stuff, but I'm just sitting at home... hanging out... waiting...

Preparing to prepare

I decided at the beginning of the summer that before I left for Europe I wanted to totally clean out all the crap that is in my room. Like, everything. I remember being at school, packing for winter break and just throwing everything I owned in boxes. And boxes, and boxes and boxes. I lived in basically a 6x6 room with another person, and somehow I packed enough stuff in there to fill our living room up with boxes! And that was just stuff I wanted to take home with me for a month-long break!

How is that even possible? It really freaked me out. I ended up spending about a week during my winter break clearing out shoes and clothes and other stuff to get rid of. It felt good, but I still had a TON of stuff. A. TON. And so I feel like leaving to go on a trip is a good opportunity to (try) to purge myself of a bunch of crap.

But that is ridiculously hard. All I have to do is open one drawer and think about it and I start to freak out a little. It's so stupid, and I'm aware of that, but it's so much harder than it initially seems. Take something like an old t-shirt that I never wear because it's light pink. I hate light pink. I literally have worn this t-shirt once, plus I have at least 3 drawers full of other old t-shirts. But it's from some state swimming meet, and it feels wrong to get rid of something like that. And then there's stuff like my grandma's jewelry that I used to wear constantly, but I don't so much anymore, or older books, or presents, or photographs, or things I bought on trips. I just don't know how to feel about that stuff. It's the kind of thing that I put on a shelf and never look at or think about otherwise, but when I start doing this, I sit and hold it in my hand and think for 20 minutes about how much it really means to me.

I just don't know how to go about doing this. I feel like it will be so freeing to clear a bunch of stuff out, and going to Europe with only a bag and a half of crap and knowing that I don't even have that much more stuff at home, but I just don't know if I even have the time. So right now, I'm mentally preparing myself to go through with The Purge. I'm not going to be done with work until August 21, and after that I'll have only 2 weeks to get ready to leave.

I'm kind of having a panic attack thinking about this right now.