First, an epic shot of Kalemegdan, because I see absolutely no reason not to start off a blog post like so:
Okay, two awesome things today:
Firstly, I walked through the door today and sat down. Three seconds later, my host-father crashed through his studio door, came to stand in front of me, and asked "are you hungry?". I sort of stammered out an answer, and was fed instantaneously. I ate a metric-ton of pasta as he told me stories about the Yugoslav film industry.
The second thing was that I got a question right in Serbian Jeopardy. Know the frustrating/cool thing about Serbian Jeopardy? If you guessed "it's in Serbian", you should congratulate yourself on your firm grasp of adjectives.
I was doing my usual schtick of mouthing through the onscreen Cyrillic like a second-grader (as opposed to my standard English reading comprehension of a fourth-grader), when I saw "Мануел Антонио Норијега" and "земља". My keen vocabulary (currently consisting of literally dozens of words) knew that "земља" is Serbian for "country" and "Мануел Антонио Норијега" is Serbian for "Manuel Antonio Noriega".
However you cut it, I put two and two together in my head and blurted out "Panama", and was treated to the likewise correct answer on the screen. I was also treated to the immensely surprised looks of four host-family members (one of them being host-grandmom, who doesn't speak English, and the dog, who probably doesn't speak English). I, of course, shrugged it off like the "nbd" moment that it was.
Hah, that's total bullshit. I grinned like a lunatic and proceeded to get the next twenty-seven questions staggeringly wrong. But you know what? You've gotta start somewhere.
Observations:
The word of the day is relevant because I start running tomorrow! It's a river trail, taking me along the glorious banks (read--gray sloshy spillway path thing) of the Sava River. It also takes me over two beautiful bridges. Wish me luck, ya'll.
Also, my stats show that I have one view from Spain and several from Israel. Hi! Thanks for tri-continenting this!
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| Pictured: Minas-Beograd |
Firstly, I walked through the door today and sat down. Three seconds later, my host-father crashed through his studio door, came to stand in front of me, and asked "are you hungry?". I sort of stammered out an answer, and was fed instantaneously. I ate a metric-ton of pasta as he told me stories about the Yugoslav film industry.
The second thing was that I got a question right in Serbian Jeopardy. Know the frustrating/cool thing about Serbian Jeopardy? If you guessed "it's in Serbian", you should congratulate yourself on your firm grasp of adjectives.
 |
| Go ahead, take a bow. |
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| Pictured: Probably not a Serb. |
Hah, that's total bullshit. I grinned like a lunatic and proceeded to get the next twenty-seven questions staggeringly wrong. But you know what? You've gotta start somewhere.
Observations:
- The Yugoslav film industry is a fascinating subject that I literally had never even heard the first thing about. Do yourself a favor and check out the movie Cinema Komunisto. The Yugoslavs went balls-out when it came to film-making, and you wouldn't believe some of the high-rollers that got to rub elbows with Tito.
- One of whom was none other than Richard Burton, the drunkenness of whom I now have hilarious, anecdotal knowledge of.
- It's really kind of chilling to see the words "Radovan Srpski Junak" ("Radovan: Serbian Hero") spraypainted on an alley wall on your block. Radovan Karadzic is a war criminal currently on trial for, among other things, massacring 8,000 civilians during the war. But again, the entire point of study-abroad is to take the material from textbook facts to real-life reality, so I welcome the experience.
- I've been on a poetry kick ever since I found that so many classics are available for free on the Kindle. I've been captivated by Oscar Wilde lately, but if anybody has any suggestions, please feel free to throw 'em out. I can't wait until the weather's nice and I can read outside.
The word of the day is relevant because I start running tomorrow! It's a river trail, taking me along the glorious banks (read--gray sloshy spillway path thing) of the Sava River. It also takes me over two beautiful bridges. Wish me luck, ya'll.
Also, my stats show that I have one view from Spain and several from Israel. Hi! Thanks for tri-continenting this!
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