Zdravo from Beograd, the massive 2 million strong capital of Serbia. It feels like it's 2 million strong too, because as a typical non-city type of girl, I feel crowded all the time. Everything seems to feel bigger and faster in Belgrade than in Zagreb- the buildings are taller, the roads are busier and wider, the buses are terrifyingly quick, and the city itself seems huge. Who knows, maybe I'll grow into it. Like every new city, it will take a while to get used to it.
Classes haven't started yet (tomorrow!) but I'm already bracing myself for the new alphabet- Cyrillic! As of now, I have yet to understand any street sign or bus stop sign but that's alright, my host dad (Vlada) explained it at least 10 times to me yesterday. "Number 26, not 36, not 46, 26. 6 stops, not 1, not 5, 6. You get lost, call. You get scared, call. You ok, ok." He's pretty hilarious. My host mom is a little more intense, which wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the fact that she knows hardly any English. We keep not understanding each other and then we exchange a very interesting array of inquisitive glances and eyebrow raises until finally one of us calls out- "Vlada! Pomoć!" (Vlada! Help!) and he comes to translate. Branka (host mom) and I will figure it out... guess I need to just give it time. For now, hourly games of charades will have to suffice.
So... my last week in Zagreb was quite uneventful... we had class, had another Croatian language test (this one didn't go quite as well as the first one), and I said an emotional goodbye (Visnja really didn't want me to go) to my host family. For going away gifts, I bought them liquor filled chocolates, mostly because they made sure I tried over 7 different types of alcohol while I was in their care. Hvala puno! Volim pivo! (Thanks a lot! I love beer!) Their gift to me... a going away cake. What I didn't know was that my host mom was fully planning on packing HALF of the cake in a bag for me to take to Serbia. I am still whittling away at this cake but needless to say, I have been (and am still being) taken care of :-) . Visnja sends me at least 1 e-mail per day and will probably be filled with so many forms of joy when I return for a week in April before my Independent Study Project. She said she is counting down the days. Silly Visnja :-)
Well... I am currently sitting in the only non-smoking cafe in Belgrade, drinking a coffee and compiling notes from my first interview so that I can write my first data collection paper. Yesterday, I had a city tour of Belgrade with the rest of the group and the most eventful part of the trip by far was visiting Tito's grave. In the United States, saying the name "Tito" warrants a negative response merely because Tito is almost synonymous with Communism. Myth. Tito had a lot going for him- charisma, international approval, anti-Stalin, and a very diplomatic and revered leader within his country. I always considered him a pretty bad guy when I was in high school, but I have been proven wrong- he's not so terrible. To tell you the truth, most Yugoslavs loved him (including my Croatian host fam) and from the way they described life in Tito's Yugoslavia, I probably would have loved him too. He did have one major flaw, though- he never prepared for his death. When Tito died, six mini-Tito's in each of the six Republics along with countless others were ready and intent on being the next Tito. This obviously can never end well... and it didn't. By 1991, two Republics jumped ship- Slovenia and Croatia. A terrifying dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, took power with an iron fist, and Yugoslavia plunged into violent warfare. Yikes.
Nonetheless- seeing Tito's grave and all the gifts he received from around the world while President of Yugoslavia was pretty fascinating. I'm glad we went, regardless of the fact that it was (and still is) FREEZING. I was definitely not expecting it to be this cold for so long. Ugh. Now I must return to my work, which is certainly calling my name, and leave soon so that I don't get lost in the dark in Belgrade. No repeats from Zagreb are desired.
Miss you all. Keep in touch <3
Ciao!
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