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! 

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.

Trip to Vukovar

Vukovar is about a three-hour bus ride from Zagreb. It is located right on the Danube River, which is also the Croatian-Serbian boarder. Even during the time of Yugoslavia, it was one of the most ethnically mixed cities, and had one of the highest rates of inter-ethnic marriages. In 1991 when it was attacked, the town was about 47% Croat and 32% Serbian. Vukovar was one of the first towns invaded by the Yugoslav People’s Army when Croatia announced its independence from Yugoslavia. The town was under siege from August 1991 until it fell (or was liberated, depending on your point of view) on November 18. During this time, the Yugoslav People’s Army (or JNA) shelled the city constantly, while its citizens hid in basements. Croatia, not yet even a recognized nation attempted to form an army to defend Vukovar, and were successful for a period of time. When the city fell, about 80% of the buildings in the town were destroyed. The citizens that had camped in basements for three months finally came above ground to see their city ripped apart by bullets, rockets, bombs and fires. Woman and children were sent away from the city in buses. Croat soldiers were sent to concentration camps, where most were killed.

As you can imagine, the city’s scars are still very visible. Some people say that Vukovar hasn’t been completely rebuilt or recovered in order to serve as a reminder of the war. However, the biggest reminders of this ethnic war aren’t the bullet hole-riddled buildings or prominent memorials and graveyards, but the segregation that still remains between the Croat and Serb population. Children go to either Croatian or Serbian schools; cafes are exclusively Croatian or Serbian; people ignore acquaintances of a different ethnicity. It is not a physically separated city, but there is a barrier there.

We left for Vukovar early on Thursday morning. My train was late, so I was late and I think the bus almost left without me. We arrived and checked in to our hotel, Hotel Dunav. My Frommer’s Guide to Croatia told me it was “built as a package hotel and despite several updates, it still is. Rooms and public spaces still have that dark, socialist aura.” The hotel was clean, had a restaurant and bar and rooms with views overlooking the Danube, but does NOT come recommended by our group (especially me). All of our rooms were crawling with, as our guide called them, “stink bugs.” Big, brown and buzzy, they smell like really bad B.O. when you stomp them, and apparently come in through the windows. Of course, the room I stayed in had the most, and although we spent some time catching them,  they still flew around our room and crawled all over everything all night. Along with the heat due to our closed windows, the situation did not allow for much sleep. I was not a happy camper. Okay, but I tried not to let the horrible rooming situation ruin my Vukovar experience.

 We had free time for lunch, and with few options around the hotel, we tried some “fast food,” aka, ćevapi. We’ve had ćevapi before; it is some sort of spiced sausage on a thing, buttery bun. This was definitely better than the ćevapiwe had in Zagreb, but I think we were all pretty nauseated by the whole situation. After lunch, we had a lecture with our “tour guide,” who was born in Vukovar, but left before the war and has done a lot of research concerning the war. We then took tours of Croatian and Serbian memorial cemeteries. The Croatian one is huge and beautiful (please see my other pictures on Shutterfly). However, the Serbian one is very small, and is actually in a courtyard of local Croat homes. You can see in the pictures how different they look and how much wear and disrepair the Serbian cemetery shows. Serbs have always been the minority in Vukovar, and since they were seen as the aggressors in the war, their fallen soldiers are not celebrated or honored by the locals.

We had dinner at a small restaurant that I cannot remember the name of, unfortunately, because we are apparently going to be pictured on their website! We had a great dinner with a variety of dishes, including crepes with chocolate for dessert. And then home to a horrible night’s sleep…

Today (Friday), we had a lecture with a man who works for an NGO which is working to create an integrated school in Vukovar, as well as improving other facets of Vukovar’s segregation. He also showed us a documentary his group made concerning inter-ethnic relationships made during the war to work towards peace, rather than against it. We then had some free time to explore the city.We made friends with an adorable puppy (as you can see in the pictures), ate lunch at a place where we had many troubles explaining what we wanted to eat and took in the scenery of Vukovar. 


There are a lot of things to process about this town, and all the things we saw.

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.