Ciao, Serbia

I am leaving Serbia tomorrow. It's kind of hard to believe that it has already been two months. There are so many things I have to do before I leave that's it's a bit crazy. All my laundry needs to be done and I need to pack up my bag, our apartment needs to be cleaned, I have to write some stupid paper that I thought I wouldn't have to worry about until I was back in Denver, we have to say goodbye to all our friends and coworkers here...and the list goes on. Thankfully the weather has cooled down considerably (I am currently wearing a thin sweater and pants - Gasp!) so we aren't wilting from the heat, but that means that my clothes will take significantly longer to dry. Crap.

Novi Sad has been a great place to live for the past two months and I've met some really cool people. I've had some unique experiences and gotten different perspectives on the conflicts that ripped this part of the world apart not too long ago. I haven't agreed with all of those perspectives, and some of them have been extremely uneducated ones, but I think it has been good to gain the few insights and look at things from different angles. I know that if I had been placed in Bosnia I never would have heard those differing perspectives, nor would I have been open to listening to them. It is truly interesting to hear how the past is (or isn't) viewed here and it has been interesting, as well, to listen to the disagreements that Serbians have over the same issues. Nevertheless, I am ready to move on. I am really ready to drink REAL coffee (that actually smells like coffee as well) and not instant, and I am ready to eat something besides pork and ground beef, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Pizza without ketchup is another thing I look forward to. :) These are all things I am sure I will be able to find once I leave Serbia...Italy will be wonderful.

Tomorrow night I will hop on a bus to Sarajevo for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of my classmates there as well as finally seeing Sarajevo. Getting in and out of Serbia is a bit of a pain, so our traveling has been limited. There is not a train to Sarajevo...not even from Beograd. Apparently, one needs to take a train to some other town or city (who knows where?) and then switch and get another train to go to Sarajevo. Ridiculous. (But the war has been over for so long and no one is affected by it...BS!) All this means that I have to take a bus through the lovely, winding, mountain roads for many hours...I wish I had some dramamine - ugh. Hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep and avoid motion sickness.

After Sarajevo I will head to Mostar and meet up with Amber and we'll trek up the coast of Croatia before she goes to meet Ryan and I travel on to Italy. That's the tentative plan, anyway. The next month is basically free and I'll be going where my wandering feet take me. It should be an adventure. I'm ready for an adventure.

Inferno

So I am finally able to post again. For some reason the computers I have been using have not let me write any new entries...very strange. Oh well, it's Serbia. I am in the last week here in Novi Sad and it is somewhat strange. While I am really excited to travel for an entire month, I will miss the friends I've made in Novi Sad and the cheap prices of Serbia. :)

The past week has been hellishly hot. Southeastern Europe was hit with a wicked heat wave and it was miserable. It was in the 40's all week long and didn't drop much at all at night (maybe high 30's). For those of you who, like me, are not familiar with Celcius, that means it was in the 100's and dropped to the 90's at night. 104 to 110 degrees F for a week sucks, especially with the humidity and no fans. That's right folks, Serbia doesn't believe in fans. Some people have AC (the stupid little units drip on ou as you walk down the street), but apparently fans have not caught on. I asked Dejan about fans and he said you could find one for about 50 Euro. I told him that was crazy. $65 for a fan! Sheesh. So Susie, Anhchi, and I just puddled. Sleeping was nearly impossible and when we woke up we were in a pool of sweat...good times. Thankfully, a cool front has come through Serbia and the weather today and yesterday has been beautiful. It's so nice to be able to sleep at night and not want to shower 20 times a day.

EXIT was fabulous. We all had a blast and of course I got sick afterwards from not sleeping. I'm too old for this stuff. :) We all were in the papers, which was funny. Being in the front row helped with that, as did having an asian girl in our crew. Since Serbia is SO white, they are fascinated by anyone who looks different. It is very different from what I'm used to in the U.S. The Beastie Boys concert was really good and we have some really good pics thanks to Anhchi's camera. Lauryn Hill and Snoop were alright too...Snoop puts on a really good show. My favorite, though, was Basement Jaxx. I had not even heard of them although I knew some of their songs, but they were great! I think that was by far the most fun of the performances we saw up front. I would have liked to see more of Groove Armada, but we had to get out of the crazy Prodigy crowd and take a breather, so we missed most of their performance. Those were all acts on the main stage. There were over 20 stages at EXIT. The dance arena was probably the wildest...people were packed into it until they forced everyone out of the fortress each day at 8am. I have some video footage and some pictures. I would definitely recommend EXIT to anyone who loves music and likes to party...you should check it out next year.

Work is winding down. At the same time, however, it is picking up in some ways. I had a workshop on Classroom Management for the volunteers at the Roma Children's Center on Tuesday evening and Susie and Anhchi are doing a Stress Management / Self-Care workshop on Friday. Nena has also asked me to give suggestions about what other workshops they should have for the volunteers before the Center reopens. I probably could have had four or five workshops with them if it had been planned earlier. Live and learn. Next week we hope to go visit a Roma NGO that is also working with the kids, helping to register them in school and prepare them to go to school if needed. It sounds like a great organization and is even cooler, in my opinion, because it is a Roma NGO (ie, Roma people run it and work there). It flies in the face of all the negative stereotypes that people in this region have about Roma. I love that!

If you ever happen to find yourself in Serbia and you find out there is a basketball game against the U.S., don't go. This happened to us this past weekend. Apparently, there is some championship tournament for "under 19" basketball teams. Countries send their "national" under 19 basketball teams to compete. It's like an international high school bball tournament. I wonder about other countries and how seriously they take their national teams...I think ours was some AAU team that just decided to do it. Serbia takes it VERY seriously. Good grief. I have never seen such a hostile crowd. I felt really bad for those kids on the court. They were booed consistently, including during the national anthem and when they went to shake hands with the Serbian team and after the game when they had lost and went to shake hands with the Serbian team again. Ridiculous. Talk about poor sportsmanship and disrespect. Now part of this is political, which I understand, but these are a bunch of high school kids that have nothing to do with our governmental policy. I was really proud of those boys though. They were very classy and were good representatives, never stooping to the level of the crowd. Susie, Anhchi, and I were the only U.S. citizens in the crowd and we were loud and cheered the whole time. I think if we had been men we may have had some trouble, but being women, we only got minimal crap from people around us. We ended up leaving before the medals were awarded because I couldn't handle the booing any longer. If they booed the boys after we lost and were going to shake hands, what would keep them from booing throughout the awards ceremony? I would have gotten too pissed off and something may have happened, so we left. Why the hell would you boo the team you just beat? Ugh.

My final note for today...any of you who are Harry Potter fans, go get the book and read it now. It is fantastic! I couldn't wait, so I got a copy here. It would have been awful if someone had given away the ending before I could read it, so being the nerd that I am, I got it and read it within two days (it would have taken less time if I hadn't had to go to work). :)

Proof

Much to our surprise, our picture with Snoop DID turn out. I guess when a 9 foot tall bouncer takes a picture at his belly, it gets most people's heads...who knows? Craziness.

EXIT Teaser

Since I am exhausted and not feeling well (I KNEW I shouldn't drink the water being passed around at the concerts!) I am only going to write a short little teaser about this weekend and will add details later. This weekend was a blast! My roommates and I (I have a new roommate) were in the papers and one of my roommates and I met Snoop Dog. No joke. We got a picture, but because the bouncer who took it wasn't the brightest crayon in the box we're not sure if it actually has all our heads in the picture. Anhchi's screen on her camera is broken so we were unable to check it. Once we download it I will post the picture...at least it will have Snoop's legs. :) We met a ton of people and had a lot of fun. That's all for now...I'll write more about it when I'm feeling better. Damn sick people.