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.

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

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!!