2-23: Running With the Koshava

Today I looked out the window and saw that all the snow had melted. Cool!

Then the wind started up, and I realized that I would most likely be picked up and transplanted to Oz within the next five minutes. Oh hey there, koshava.

Pictured: YAAAAR!

I woke up with a slight headache, so I sat and spent twenty minutes meditating it away, which was kind of cool now that I think about it. I headed down and got grandma'd (which is, let's face it, really the only verb that fits when it comes to having breakfast in Serbia), then resolved to head out for a run today.

Now I think it's time I establish a perception here: the Serbs think I'm crazy. At the very least, my host family does, because I seem to deal with the cold a lot better than they do. And by that I mean I'm perfectly comfortable around the house in a t-shirt, while from what I can tell my host family is preparing to stock whale blubber in case the gods curse them with an especially cruel winter.

I'd thought my home-situation a peculiar one, but despite the fact that even with the koshava it segued into the balmy low 50s, when I left for my run today in a t-shirt, I received roughly 242,859 strange looks that broke down in roughly the following way:

• 40% thought I was homeless (I was on the #2)
• 30% thought I was crazy
• 17% didn't give a flying fuck
• 2.9% were runners/athletes and got the gist
• .1% were, by the smiles on their faces, intrigued, but also probably thought I was crazy

I arrived at Brankov Most (Branko's Bridge), ascended to the top, and began my run. Thankfully, I was doing much better this time around--cardio had improved, and the wall that I'd hit last time was nowhere to be found. On a whim, I pulled a right at the end of the bridge instead of a left, and started into Novi Beograd along a pleasant park trail. My goal was four miles; I made it two miles out, and turned around to start the two miles back.

Oh right, the koshava. Giving me a 30+ mph headwind. In the face.

So at the very least, I am happy to say that I didn't stop moving during my run. The quality of my pace is a different story. I'm also starting to realize just what a number my knee injury over the fall did to the conditioning of my feet. It's going to be an interesting few months.

Tonight wrapped up with a fantastic film at the 41st annual International Film Festival in Belgrade. The film, Circles (translation to be found below), centered around a number of families tied together by an incident of violence during the Bosnian War in 1993. I could ramble about it, but it's late, there's a lot to ramble about, and it wouldn't do the film justice anyway. Find a way to track it down and see it.

Observations:

1. The ride over Old Sava Bridge at night is really, really beautiful. It's much more beautiful if you can see through the crowd of 50+ people crammed in there like sardines, but I digress.
2. Speaking of which, Sava Centre is awesome. The part of the theater we were in seemed more suited for concerts than films; my language teacher says that the very hall we were in was the site of the very first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War.
3. "Running With the Koshava" will also be the name of the first album by the Serbian 80s style metal band I will inevitably form.
4. For that matter, "koshava" sounds like some kind of monster, the way it's used by the locals. Considering all the howling it's doing outside my window, maybe it is.

Reć srpski dnevni: Krugovi (кругови): Circles. Seriously, I can't stress that enough. See it.