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.

"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!

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.