My newest lesson...

It is always best to sit next to the elderly man organizing the event when you go to a pub to participate in Quiz Night and don't know any of the answers because it centers around Irish and British history.  He has all of the answers and will kindly help you cheat out of pity for your silly Americanness.  

Thanksgiving

Thankfully, I have written another post.  I'm sure you are all wondering why this post isn't a completion of my most recent post covering some of the similarities between my former home and current one (Belgrade and Derry) as advertised, but you should probably just be thankful to be getting any type of post.  In honor of the upcoming great American holiday, which can said to be uniquely ours, I have switched topics.

I realize Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, but I must admit it has been a struggle to remember. Last Thursday I woke up and thought I, "Today is Thanksgiving and I basically missed it.  I completely forgot that I needed to be full of gratitude today."  Last year Thanksgiving Day was a prominent event that remained front and center in my mind.  I went to J and J's apartment (where I eventually lived) for a huge Thanksgiving feast with pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, faux cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, pecan pie and lots of other goodies.  It seemed easy to remember and easy to celebrate.  Perhaps, it was because I had only recently left the U.S.  Maybe it was because I was surrounded by a handful of other people hailing from the U.S.  Who knows? All I really know is this year is a different story.  

People started asking  me last week about Thanksgiving, but it has only added to my confusion. The questions were always put in the past tense -- "Did you celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend?" or "What did you do for Thanksgiving?"  Yesterday I went over to a friend's house for dinner and she said, "Oh, yes.  This can be your Thanksgiving dinner.  It is today (Monday) isn't?  Or is it tomorrow (Tuesday)?"  Today at the office I got asked if Thanksgiving was tomorrow (Wednesday).  Needless to say, this has left me quite confused.  I just cannot keep track of whether Thanksgiving is coming or going.  

Anyway, I actually have plans to celebrate Thanksgiving here.  This Sunday I will be traveling to Belfast to participate in the BVS Thanksgiving -- Northern Irish style.  I'm not exactly sure what that means at this point, but I am looking forward to finding out.  

Goodbye Belgrade, Hello Derry

I arrived in Northern Ireland a little over two weeks ago.  It was a journey and a half.  It started with my departure from my apartment in Belgrade via bus at 2 am.  I arrived in Derry/Londonderry around 9 pm.  I safely made it through UK immigration after presenting my prepared folder of documents explaining my presence.  My immigration experience did involve a short, friendly informal interview and a brief waiting period in which everyone else freely entered the country while the immigration officials checked the validity of my story, but I found a friendly smile made the process much smoother.  Or maybe it was the numerous documents proving I was a legitimate, financially supported volunteer?     

Even though my border crossing still involved a few minutes of nail biting, it has started to sink in that I am no longer in Serbia.  Things have certainly changed.  I have gone from the culture of coffee to the land of tea.  I no longer here the standard, "Do you want coffee?"  Instead, it is, "Do you want a cup of tea?" I now live with C. and C. instead of J. and J.  C. and C. are both law students.  

One of the first differences I noticed was the food.  The lack of ethnic food in the Balkans was always a sore point among us Balkan BVSers.  A good example of this is the weekend I met Tory and Katie (the BVSers in Sarajevo and Mostar) in Novi Sad.  One of the highlights of our weekend was the Chinese restaurant.  If you could have seen the excitement on our faces and heard the awe in our voices, you would understand the treasure we had found in the restaurant. Since my arrival, I have not faced the same dilemma.  In the London airport alone I was overwhelmed with the choices -- hummus, Thai dishes, Chinese food, Indonesian, Japanese, Ben & Jerry's (Okay, I admit it is not ethnic food but it is a delicacy).  The overwhelming food choices have continued in the supermarkets in Derry/Londonderry.  In the last two weeks, there have been several times I have stopped for a basic staple (milk, bread, etc.), but spent an hour just walking through the store looking at all the variety.  It is a fun way to pass my free evenings.  I'm sure to most of you this is odd since you probably don't spend your free evenings wondering through supermarkets, but I guess a year in Serbia has made me Hopefully this is a short term effect.  I did notice one difference between the supermarkets here and in the U.S. (or at least as I remember the supermarkets in the U.S. -- specifically small town Indiana and slightly larger Las Cruces)  -- there is a much larger market here for organic and free trade products.  Almost all products offer an organic version and many offer a free trade version.  

However, there are some similarities to my time in Belgrade.  For instance, I still have trouble understanding what people are saying.  I thought I would be fine on this front since English is the primary language.  I was wrong.  English might be the primary language, but I am still getting used to the accents and the "English" vocabulary rather "U.S." vocabulary.  There are still moments when I have no clue what someone has just said because of the accent or the 'English' words.  

I had several points I wanted to write at this point (about other similarities and differences) and I will add them on Monday.  However, I was just given the opportunity to head home for the weekend and this is an opportunity not to be missed.  It is 12:30 pm on a Friday.  I will work on writing up the rest of my thoughts on this matter to be posted on Monday.  Check back then for further information on this topic and my period of transition from being Balkanized to becoming Derry-ized.  I will also add one brief paragraph for your weekend enjoyment that I have already written up expanding on some of the adventures this week has brought:

This morning I woke up to find we had no electricity.  This was actually the second morning in a row this had happened.  We (like many houses here) have pre-pay electric.  You put a certain amount on your meter and when it gets low it starts beeping.  This lets you know you need to put more money on.  The first time I heard it I thought we had an unknown (to me) alarm system and I had set it off.   This system is a good way to monitor how much electric you are using; there are no surprisingly large bills at the end of the month.  This system is also a good way to make certain you will at least once (or twice and counting if you live where I do) wake up without warm water, lights, or heat.  Thankfully, my alarm clock is not dependent on the electricity.  I should mention that I have never been a morning person and it is extremely challenging for us morning-challenged individuals to be motivated to leave your warm, cozy bed if there are not any consolation prizes awaiting.  

 

     

The Blog Must Go On...

Since my decision to make more regular blog posts I have kept very busy. Not that I am trying to excuse myself or anything.  Last Wednesday I made the move (via 2 bus rides equalling 7.5 hours and 2 flights) to Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland.  As you can imagine, my last few weeks in Belgrade flew by in preparation for my move and wrapping up things in Belgrade.  I'm not in a new environment and new culture -- transition phase, you are my most welcome friend. My first few days here have been a flurry of activity as I try to find my way around town, unpack, meet new people, and celebrate Halloween.  Halloween is a huge holiday here; several of the people I met told me it is bigger than Christmas.  Lucky for me, I love Halloween.  Candy and costumes -- what is not to love?  There were fireworks (which a caught a glimpse of from the house) and a parade (which we did see).   Hopefully, I will be able to write another post soon about my new surroundings.  For now, I am attaching a previously written, never published post below.  

Anyway, some of my recent events (in Serbia) have included:

1. A trip to Vrnjacka banja for a retreat with WiB. Vrnjack banja is a known spot for their spring water which is supposed to have healing powers. I'm not sure if the water has healing powers, but I know it has that sweet sulphuric scent. The retreat proved to be an interesting experience from the very beginning. The fun began with the complete fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants travel arrangements. On Monday evening I was given no less than 4 different sets of instructions on how I would be getting to Vrnjacka banja. The final set of instructions was to be at the WiB office at 9:30 am.

Imagine my surprise when I received a call at 7:50 am (which was exactly 5 minutes after I woke up) asking if I could be there in 30 minutes. Of course, this conversation was in Serbian and my Serbian is always at my worst when I just rolled out of bed. I hadn't showered in a few days, hadn't packed, and had slept much less than the recommended 8 hours (Due to a long night of frustrating that consisted of my computer crashing and me attempting to fix it only to have it crash again -- issues still remain.). The smart thing would have been to say, "No, I cannot be there in 30 minutes. I was informed I needed to be there at 9:30 am." The thing that came out of my mouth was, "Well...umm...uhh...I can try...maybe 35 minutes?" So, at this point we can all imagine me trying to stuff everything within sight (that didn't need a date with the washer) into my backpack. I then raced as fast as possible to grab the tram (I usually walk but in a jam the tram is a few minutes faster). I arrived at the office out of breath at 8:34 am only to find that we really wouldn't be leaving until 9:30 am. This was a bit frustrating (probably more so to those who would be riding in the car with me since the smells eminating from my body and hair could have used a good dousing with shampoo and soap), but I repeated the day's mantra of "Katie, this is funny. Katie, this is funny. Katie, this is funny....."

When we arrived at the hotel where we would be staying (along with eating and meeting), we were split up into groups of three for our rooms. I was placed with F. and R., two of the older WiB members. After the first night, F. asked me, "Do you know that you snore?" (New Serbian of the day=to snore) I responded, "No." F.'s response was, "Yes, you do. And very loudly. I couldn't sleep last night because you were snoring." At which point R. said, "I didn't notice. It must not have been too bad. It's not a problem." F. then said, "At first I thought it was you, F. It is a problem because I couldn't sleep all night." I didn't say anything. I knew it wasn't me that had been snoring, but R. because I was also woken up several times during the night. However, once again I had just woken up (to those who are confused --I'm not a morning person) and decided it wasn't worth it. I repeated my new mantra of the day, "Katie, in the bigger scheme this is unimportant. Unimportant. Unimportant. Unimportant...."

The following night I stayed up a bit later than my 'roommates'. They had left the bathroom light on for me for when I finally came into sleep. I came in and went to the restroom to brush my teeth and prepare for bed. As I was in the bathroom, I heard snoring (as I had the previous night) and then every few minutes F. would yell out R's name to wake her so she would stop snoring. It was quite funny. Of course, I received an apology the next morning and R.  received  notice of her 'excessive' snoring.

2. A recent Saturday afternoon found my friends J, J, and I participating in a local community event. This is when I realized my Serbian vocabulary surrounding body parts needs some more work. We went to the monthly Women's Day. On one Saturday each month a local women's group plans an event for women to relax and have fun. This week's event was a massage session. J, J, and I packed up our blankets and exercise mats (as instructed) and caught a bus to the community center where the event was taking place.

We arrived a bit late, but luckily for us the event was on Balkan time. The session started with some self-massage techniques and some stretching. It seemed to be shaping up to an excellent 3 hours.  Then it turned into some partner massage involving one person lying on the floor mat and the other using their feet, elbows, arms, hands and fingers to massage the other.  This was not as great of a time since it our attention (J is also from Indiana and is not fluent in Serbian) that we did not know our Serbian body part vocabulary.  The instructor was very adamant that the massages were done correctly so as not to cause injury, but this proved difficult for us when the visual difference was miniscule.   

3. Another recent outing included a trip to the Student Cultural Center aka SKC (which is actually two blocks from my apartment -- making getting lost almost impossible) to listen to Horkestar. They are an alternative choir that sings Communist songs and wear interesting outfits. They actually used to be a part of a different choir that split into two (Horkestar being one of the resulting choirs). Sometimes WiB worked with the original choir and continues to work with the other resulting choir. They wrote and performed alternative activist songs. If you are a youtube person, I suggest looking at the following video link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENPaPnpDHxE&feature=related It is actually the song WiB has used at several actions I have participated in since my arrival last October.

Anyway, this performance required each member of the choir to wear a special hat. Several of us made sure to show up for the performance because our friend K had a solo. She did excellent, but it should be noted it was even more impressive since English rather than Serbian is her first language.

Keep your eyes out for a new post.  After all, the blog must go on...