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.

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.

"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!