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.