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.
1 comment:
hi nicole! i believe the shoes in question are Marc jacobs, S/S 2008!
Post a Comment