Ch, Ch, Changin'

The past year of my life has been full of changes. This was the year that something came over me and I decided that I had to buck the status quo. This is not something that I did lightly or easily, and I’m still struggling with the impact of the huge life changes that I made.

Lately, I have been thinking about why and how other people change their life.  It is interesting to think about why someone would want to dramatically change their life. Maybe someone changes out of desperation, maybe out of necessity, and maybe because they can finally see what the future holds if things remain constant. Whatever reason people decide to change, it is not easy. Getting up the momentum to make a life change is scary and difficult. But the real challenge comes with sustaining that change. However, often the change is so great, that we cannot go back.

I heard a physicist talk about why we are so obsessed with time travel. He said we are obsessed and fascinated with it because time is not reversible. You can’t make a whole egg out of a scrambled one. Once something has occurred, we can’t undo it. That is the problem with change. As you begin to live out your new life, you realize that you have irreversibly moved out of your old life. And just because you made a change, doesn’t necessarily mean that you wanted everything to change. But now you have to begin to live with your new reality, and as my good friend TV has shown us, reality isn’t always that glamorous. It then becomes easy to think about your old life and become nostalgic for it. At least for me, I tend to forget about the bad things and only remember the good. It makes you doubt the reason for making changes in the first place.

Now that I’m finishing another year of my life, I am pretty sure that everything I did last year was ok. It put me on the path I’m on now. And the path isn’t perfect, but at the end of the day, I like who I am and I like my life. Yes, I’m lonely sometimes. Yes I get scared about the future. But I chose to make some big changes, and instead of feeling bored and uninspired about the future, I’m looking forward to this adventure called life.

It’s time to move forward. Ziveli!

Belgrade Prison Blues

Many of you already know my story by now from Facebook, but for those of you that aren't on Facebook, I'll re-tell everything here.

As you know, last week I had to cancel a factory trial on Friday because my car was locked up since my landlord didn't pay the parking fees. That situation has been cleared up (at least until April 1) and I was heading back to the factory to run another trial this week. The drive is about 2 hours, and I left my apartment at 6:30am to get there by 8:15-8:30am. I have made this drive many times, and I had been warned that the beginning part of the drive was a speed trap. The road is good, but the limit is 60kph (37mph). Right before you get to the proper highway where the speed limit goes to 120kph (74.5mph), there was a new small construction zone (like 50 feet), and apparently the speed limit dropped to 40kph (25mph).

Needless to say, I didn't see this sign. There was a polija car and 2 cops on the side of the road with a radar gun. One cop held up a "stop" sign and motioned me to pull over. I pulled over, and he came and talked to me. This cop didn't speak English, so he motioned me over to the other guy that was sitting in the police car. So now I'm sitting in the cop car trying to have a discussion with the cop who speaks a little English to my very little Serbian. He shows me that I was going 39kph (25mph) over the speed limit (almost double), and that the fine is 6000-20000rsd ($90-$300). They can't write me a ticket now, and need me to go with them to Belgrade to the police station to take care of the situation. Also, they keep asking about my documentation, and I realize that I don't have the proper legal paperwork in my car and they aren't sure that the car actually belongs to me. Keep in mind that my car is branded, and I guess that it is suspicious that a foreigner was driving a Marbo branded car. Their course of action would be to impound the car.

Up to this point, I didn’t really believe that I would be in trouble. But it was starting to sink in that they want to take me downtown in the back of the cop car. The biggest concern I had is that I will miss my trial (again!). The police office is trying to explain to me what is happening, but I'm not really getting it. I keep asking “how can I resolve this?” I ask if he can just give me the ticket now and I can pay later or if I can pay the fine to him directly, but he says no. He asks if I have a Serbian friend I can call so that he can explain everything to her in Serbian. I call my co-worker (and new friend) that works in the factory. It is about 7:15am and she has a small child so I know that she will be up and I hope that she will answer her phone. She does and I tell her that I'm sitting in a police car and am not sure what is going on and ask if she can help me. I hand the phone over to the cop, and after about 3 minutes, he gives me the phone back. My friend explains to me that the police wanted to arrest me because I was driving very fast, but she told them that because we have a trial that is interrupting production, I HAVE to be in the factory by 8am.

So he lets me go. No fine, no jail, no beating. I thank him profusely (HVALA, HVALA, HVALA!) and drive away, s l o w l y.  I made it to the trial and back to Belgrade with no issues.  Now I have the proper documents in my car and I feel like I dodged a bullet.  It's good to have friends (just call out my name...).  WHEW!

Sprung

It's amazing how a little sunshine and some non-jacket temps will raise your spirits.  Now that we are officially into spring, the weather here in Belgrade has begun to improve greatly!  Over the weekend the temps were in the upper 60's and the sun was out.  I was able to go for a run/walk on Saturday and did an extremely difficult hash on Sunday (fun times had by all though!). 

But before I can gloat more about the great weather here (snow in Dallas - HA!), I want to let you know some of the fun and less fun things that have been happening to me here.

Generally, I think of myself as a pretty boring and stable person.  I'm the go-to-girl and I always have been.  I'm not prone to emotional outbursts, to doing crazy and impulsive things, and I try to follow my motto "don't be a jerk".  And generally this approach works for me.  But sometimes, even when you haven't done anything wrong, bad things happen.  And at times like this, it is important to KEEP AN OPEN MIND.  Yes, that advice is continuing to haunt me here.

My last post was on Wednesday, and I was feeling a little blue.  But, as I mentioned, the weather turned and that has improved my mental well-being tremendously.  I also got to talk to all of my family on skype last week, which was great.  On St. Patty's day, I met the Hashers out at an Irish Pub and we listened to a Serbian band playing Irish-ish music.  It was a lot of fun.  I stayed out a little too late, but it was an enjoyable evening. 

I should have realized that life was going along too smoothly.  On Friday, I was supposed to go to our factory to run a trial.  The factory is about a 2 hour drive from Belgrade, so I got up early and went out to my car which is in a garage about 3-4 blocks from my apartment.  Here is what I found:

The quality of the photos isn't the best because I took these on my iphone.  However, you can see that my car was blocked in by two other cars and a motorcycle was chained to the wheel.  There was a sign on my car written in English that said "call me" with a phone number.    I was furious.  So I called the sign-maker to see what the hell was going on with my car.  The owner of the garage said that my landlord had not paid him and the owner needed payment before he would let my car out.  I asked how much and said I could pay him immediately because I needed to be in Maglic by 8:30am.  His response was "we will deal with this at 8am".  It was clear that I had woken him up.  I then try to call the landlord, but he doesn't answer his phone.  I send him an SMS to let him know the situation.  He replies immediately that he will fix it at 8am.  So then I call work to tell them that I will not be at the factory by 8:30 because even if everything works perfectly and my car is unlocked at 8:01, I won't be there until 10.  And I now have enough experience here to know that this will not be resolved by 8:01, and that I will be lucky if this is resolved by noon.  I have to reschedule my factory trial.  I was so angry that my hands were shaking.  Finally, around 12:30, my car is sprung. 

Mundane

First of all, I want to thank everyone for reading my blog - it's been about 4 1/2 months and I hope you have enjoyed reading about my life and adventures!

Second of all, thank you for your comments!  I am still working on how to comment back a response, so don't think I'm ignoring you.  I just not smart enough to use this blog site!

I have been struggling a bit lately here.  As you have read, I ended my Spanish trip by getting really sick.  I'm no longer on the brink of blechh, but I still am not feeling that great.  I have a sinus infection and can't seem to kick this stomach bug.  The good news is that not being able to eat is a great way to lose weight.  The bad news is that if I can't eat, I'm not getting nutrients, which isn't really helping my immune system kick either bug.  Plus, I don't really feel like working out (I won't get graphic, but let's just say that this stomach bug is not conducive to jumping around and elevating my heart rate).  So I haven't really been feeling like myself.  Being sick when you don't have a local support system is much harder than I ever realized.  I'm a pretty independent person, and I hate to ask for help, especially when I don't have any friends closer than 1000 miles away. 

Also, the weather has been glum.  It has been cold with 3 days of snow last week and some crazy winds.  But today the sun is out and it is probably close to 50F!  Plus my stomach is feeling a little bit better, and I actually have a little bit of energy; things are looking up!

I think that the other big thing is that I realize that my time here is almost over, and I worry that I haven't taken full advantage of the opportunity.  I would really like to stay here at least through the summer so that I can experience Belgrade during better weather, finish up some of my projects, and continue to knock off the cool places I want to visit on my travel wish-list that are significantly closer to Belgrade than to Plano.

On the other hand, life must go on.  I know that many of you might be curious about my everyday life in Serbia, so I wanted to capture some of that here.  Plus, I figure that in a few months when I'm back in Texas, I will be feeling nostalgic for Belgrade, so I'm capturing this for myself too.

Here is my office BEFORE cleaning

And AFTER - much better!

Here is a picture of my garage.  It is about 4 blocks from my apartment and everyday I stuggle to park my car in this small space without hitting anything.  It is especially fun in the snow when the streets aren't plowed.

Here is the street that I walk down to get to my garage

Here is where I do most of my shopping.  You grab a basket and go.  The place is pretty small, but they have all of the basics.

Here is my favorite meal that I eat almost every night.  Bread with avjar, red pepper flakes, and kajmak heated in the oven at 235C for 4 min. 

And here is my favorite drink - breskva sok and mineral voda (peach juice diluted with sparkling water). The juice is very thick and pulpy (thicker than a milkshake), but has great flavor.  So I dilute it with water to a more juice-like consistency. 

Here is my kitchen.  It is small, but functional.  There is no microwave or toaster, so all of my cooking must be done with the stove and oven.

Here is my "dryer".  I agree it is much better on the clothes and saves a lot of energy.  However, I miss fabric softener, I hate the fact that my clothes are generally wrinkled and require ironing (hated chore!), and the lint isn't removed. 

And finally, here is my main room where I spend most of my time while I'm at home and not sleeping. 

So now I have let you into the mundane details of my daily life in Belgrade.  Thanks for listening:).

Things I won't miss about Serbia

And finally, since I'm a bit anal, and I like complete blocks, I had to have a final list.

Moving to another country is hard. Especially when it is a country that doesn't have a lot of foreigners. I often get the feeling that I'm the only non-Serb in all of Belgrade. It is a strange feeling indeed. But by muddling about, I have managed to survive happily for over 4 months and I would happily stay here for another year if I could. But of course, there are some things that I really don't like and won't miss them when I leave. So here is that list:

1. Smoking everywhere

2. Being alone at work - I know my team is a call away, but there is something to be said for interacting with people during the day in person!

3. Slavija - otherwise known as the Roundabout of Death

4. Rakija - it is supposed to be plum brandy, but tastes like I imagine lighter fluid would taste. I guess it's an acquired taste

5. The fact that shops close at 3pm on Sunday so if you happen to be getting back late from a weekend trip, you are out of luck!

6. The Gazella Bridge - it might fall into the Sava and the traffic is always backed up for no reason

7. Bureaucracy - though to be fair, I think it is much worse for people that are expats in the US

8. Not understanding what is going on most of the time - however, this isn't all bad!

9. Everything is hidden away - you have to know what you are looking for and have a local guide. I actually rather like this about Belgrade, but it is hard when you are a foreigner and don't have a local guide.

10. Little Roma kids begging and knocking on your car windows at stop lights and their parents digging through the trash - it is very upsetting to me, but I guess that is how they live their life.

Things I will miss about Serbia

To be fair...


1. How safe the city is - I can walk alone at night, street crime is virtually nonexistent

2. The trusting nature of locals - people leave their coats and suitcases outside of the bathroom in the airport and no one steals them! That is amazing!

3. Kajmak - a soft cheese made by open fermentation of milk.  It's creamy, a bit sour, a bit complex, and delicious

4. Making a difference at work - a small R&D team + many projects = lots of immediate impact

5. The view from my apartment

6. The hashers - a drinking club with a running problem!  They're rude, crude, and hilarious!  I'm glad I found them here. 

7. Adventure - everything is new and exciting

8. The feeling of accomplishment I get every time I park my car in a spot that was so small I thought I would scrape.  I have become very comfortable with reverse and having to pull in my rear view mirrors to be able to park.

9. My new friends

10. Being able to drive 2 hours and be in another country - country count = 9 in four months (Serbia, Turkey 4x, Hungary, UK, Thailand, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Germany plus Vienna and Rome airports)

11. Only having 1 factory that I have to coordinate trials

12. Ajvar - delicious red pepper, eggplant, and love from Serbian grandmothers

13. Getting all of these cools stamps in my passport!

14. Having my own office - since I'm the only R&D person permanently based in Belgrade

15. čevapi - looks like breakfast sausage, but you haven't lived until you fry up some čevap and then put a big mound of kajmak on a plate, put the hot čevap on top so the čevapi grease melts into the kajmak and then eat it with some soft (but crusty) bread and raw sweet onions.  It is a thing of beauty (and heartattacks)

From mid-February off my balcony

Typical High rise apartment

And I'm proud to be an American....

Ok, after the last post/rant/lecture, here is a more upbeat post! Believe it or not, I had actually written this one first, so don't hate on me too much! Also, you will notice that this list is pretty long. I got to 10, and then had more, so it expanded to 15. But then there were even more things I missed, so I made it an even score. (Yeah, I'm a nerd. But you should already know that!)


In no particular order:

1. Drive Thrus for those nights when you get back from the plant really late and no stores are open so you have to go without dinner because you don't want to eat out alone at 10:30pm on a Tuesday.

2. Stores that stay open all night, especially on Sunday - see above note

3. "American" refrigerators and pantries - it's ingrained in me to have a big supply of food around and that is just not possible here. There's no space, the food isn't genetically modified so it doesn't last as long, and there just isn't the supply of processed food like we have in the States. I guess that is why so few people are obese here. God Bless 'Merica.

4. My cat

5. Instant hot water (no need to turn on a boiler and wait 15 min, we just waste the energy to have hot water available all the time! It's great!)

6. Soft clothes without wrinkles. I miss my dryer and fabric softener sheets. See above comment about energy wasting; when I return, I'm getting a drying rack and vow to only use the dryer for things like towels and sheets and clothes that are super wrinkled or covered in cat hair.

7. English

8. Understanding how to do simple things like pay bills and go to the doctor without major drama

9. My friends and family

10. Easily receiving packages (both personal and business). Serbian customs has become the bane of my existence.

11. Fountain Pop with about 10% ice and a long straw.

12. On-line banking and the general use of plastic vs cash. I hate carrying cash!

13. My car - the Punta is good and I like its size. I just wish it had more power!

14. Chips and Salsa. With a Fountain Pop.

15. American MicroBrew. My favorite part of work road trips is trying new brews and trying to get to more breweries than my friend R (though he will win!).

16. Sharp cheese - oh Cabot, where are you?

17. The sound the phone makes when you call someone in the States. Here you get a BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. I miss the RING, RING, RING.

18. Being able to watch College Basketball without having to stay up all night.  Boiler Up!  You can do it without Hummel, I have faith!

19. Flying into airports that don't require you to disembark and get on a bus to get to the terminal.

20. The Frito-Lay Fitness Center - so nice, so cheap, and so convenient!

How could  you not miss this silliness?

Things I DON'T miss 'bout 'merica..and a small rant

I haven't been very controversial on this blog and haven't expressed too much of my own opinions about religion or politics.  However, living overseas really gives you a different perspective on the world and on how Americans are seen globally and I believe it is time to address how I feel after living outside of the States. I'm proud to be American. I'm glad that we can criticize the government. I'm glad that we are a rich country and can buy a lot of junk from China if we want to buy it. I'm glad that we are loud and proud. But that doesn't mean there are some things that I'm glad I haven't had to encounter in the past 4+ months.


And so here is what I don't miss about the States:

1. American Idol

2. American Idol commercials - Hearing about American Idol when I'm watching the morning news makes me want to shoot someone

3. Soccer moms and all they represent – pure evil

4. Suburbans, Excursions, Expeditions, etc - all the cars here are so tiny and it is great!

5. The North Dallas Tollway – giant cars, soccer moms, and cell phones…what’s not to love, I mean HATE?

6. Obese people on airplanes

7. Plastic Surgeried Plano/Dallas women

8. Kenny Chesney songs on the radio every 10 minutes

9. Wal-Mart - ok, I miss stores that buy sell everything cheaply and that are open very convenient hours with ample parking, but NOT Wal-Mart

10. People lecturing about their religion - God Bless...the language barrier!



And if you want to avoid the rant -- STOP READING! Otherwise, carry on...



11. Political BS and constant news about it (Tea Party, Obama, Senator in Play Girl, etc.) - Serbia experienced 100% inflation in 2000 and they thought this was pretty good considering the hyperinflation of the 1990's in which they experienced 10% inflation every day! Currently, inflation is around 7%. To paraphrase one of my co-workers "The current economic crisis in Serbia isn't perceived as being that bad by our consumers because during the 1990's it was much worse". Keep in mind unemployment is reported as being anywhere from 20-40% right now here. But in the 1990's, Serbia had hyperinflation, economic sanctions, bombings, war, and death. I think that as Americans, we can appreciate that when leaders do things we don't agree with, it is often the average person that suffers. So regardless of your point of view on the Balkan wars, the average person was the one that suffered the most during this time, whether you lived in Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, or Pristina or any of the villages in between.

This is something that we have not experienced as Americans. We have not had a ground war on our own soil since April 1865. Why do you think we emerged as a superpower after WWII? Because our factories stopped supporting the war and started making goods.  But we didn't have to rebuild our infrastructure like Europe had to do. Our roads were not bombed, so we could begin to build interstates to connect our big country. Our cities were not bombed, so we could spend our money building up the suburbs. We were lucky and I hope that people appreciate it. But this "luck" also means that Americans are isolated and have lost perspective globally.

As I said, I'm proud to be an American, but because so many Americans never look outside of the borders (except negatively), never travel, and never experience other cultures, we don't see that in some areas of the world things are so much worse and in some areas so much better; that "your way" isn't the only way. My birthday twin and I used to jokingly say "things would be so much easier if everyone was like us" and "everyone else is weird except us". Of course we were just joking (or maybe had just dealt with a particularly difficult student), but it is easy to fall into that trap. Experiencing new things, good and bad, is a good way to realize that your way isn't the only way, even if it is the way you prefer.

On that note, here are 2 photos I snapped one day driving to work. It puts things in perspective. The economy might be bad and you might believe that the president is ruining the country.  But our leaders aren't directly massacring US citizens and no one is bombing your city.  This is from the 1999 bombing of Belgrade and Serbia that started on March 24 and lasted for 76 days.

Bottom picture is from http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3008/3380727641_114c48f76b.jpg

Bar-the-lona!

I had heard many amazing things about Barcelona, and I knew that it was a must see on my Spanish itinerary.  So we took a night train from Sevilla to Barcelona.  It took 11 hours, but was the cheapest train of the trip.  Those high speed trains might be fast, but they are extremely expensive.

We landed in Barcelona at 7:30am, and it was just waking up.  We were near the Art Museum, Olympic Park, the Botanical Gardens, and Mont Juric and explored them all.

The art museum

Statue at Olympic Park or maybe a missile, who knows?

Tree and Flowers at the Botanical Gardens, very Mediterranean

View of town

The town and the Med...I love the sea

Is that Gabriela Bundchen?

We went to Güell Parc one day.  We got terribly lost off the Metro, and after about 60 minutes, finally found it.  Once there, I have to admit I was disappointed.  I enjoyed Mont Juric more.  It was less crowded, no hawkers, and no hippie kids (more on that later).  But I have to admit, that Gaudi is a crazy dude and I was glad to see his house and the lizard.

It's not a turtle, but it will do.  I wonder what this represents?  An acid trip?

And after Güell park, we stopped for a cappuccino and some flaky pasteries.  Have I mentioned my additction to puff pastry filled with dark chocolate?  I have to eat at least one per day while on vacation.  And then headed to Gaudi's Temple.  It was pricy to get in, and you had to pay to take the lift to the top, but it was totally worth it!  The Temple is still being built, but it is very impressive.  Again, I have to say, Gaudi was a crazy dude.  His designs are inspired by nature and science.  It reminded me of molecular gastronomy for architecture in the way he breaks down cell structure and then blows it up in a different form. 

This is to give you a perspective on how high we were in the spiers.

This is taken looking straight down.  I put my arm out and snapped.  There is no hand rail.  I gripped the outside edge and my heart rate was about 150bpm.  SCARY!

And finally, this picture.  We were several hundred feet in the sky and there are holes in the floor.  I was scared, but then put both feet down on the holes and jumped up.  The floor held, but my sunglasses fell out of my shirt and almost fell down the holes.  And as some of you know, that is one of my irrational fears!  I guess it isn't that irrational!

Another Gaudi house

One night we went out to the second best meal of the trip.  It was on a recommendation from my friend BV who visited Barcelona last year.  The tapas were great and the wine was delicious.  And the price was very reasonable.  I wish that we could have found that place and went every night!

The Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona

So now some of the gritty bits that I didn't enjoy.  One night we were heading out of our hotel for a nice dinner.  It was around 9pm (an early dinner by Spanish standards) and there was a group older teens/20's waiting by this market by the hotel.  The market closed at 9, and we saw the workers bring out the trash.  The kids were pawing through the trash and had bags and carts.  They were "shopping" from the discarded produce and meat.  It was both sad and disgusting.  There were a lot of homeless young people, and it appears like a lot of drug use in Barcelona.  I saw a few hard core drug users (based on the fact that they couldn't have weighed more than 90lbs and were 30 something men).   It was sad.  It made me realize the lack of drug use and street crime in Belgrade.  Belgrade is a remarkably safe city considering that it has 1.6M and is the capital of Serbia and former capital of Yugoslavia.  It's almost like a small town; I think I feel as safe in Belgrade as I do in Kendallville!

Also, on Thursday afternoon, my stomach began to feel unsettled.  I worked through it and thought it was just a little something.  Little did I know...

On Saturday morning, we headed back to Madrid on the high speed train.  We were back around 1:30 and found our hostel.  It was a little rickety, but mainly clean, except for an odd sulfury smell (not rotten eggs, more like old onions; I'm lexicon trained).  We went out for lunch at a brewery, and all was well.  After lunch, we went to the Madrid Botanical Gardens.  They were much less impressive than Barcelona, but it was nice to be outside and they had some interesting sculptures.

But on the walk home, I felt weaker and weaker and like I might have to vomit soon.  We didn't have a good map with us, but made it back.  I collapsed on the bed and slept for a little bit.  Then I woke up and was very sick.  Apparently I had food poisoning or something.  I stayed in bed until we had to leave for the airport the next morning.  I still felt terrible and don't really know how I made it home on Sunday.  But I did and I'm much better now.  But between lost luggage at the beginning of the trip and food poisoning at the end of the trip, it wasn't the best vacation ever.  It was still a lot of fun and I'm glad that I got to see my friend and get away from work for a while.

Hope you enjoyed my Spanish travelogue:)

Help me Ronda

In between strolling around Sevilla and climbing Catherdrals, we took a day trip to Ronda, which is one of the "White Towns" in Southern Spain.  So we got up at 5:30am (during vacation!) and boarded a smelly bus for a 2.5 hour bus ride to Ronda.  It was pouring down rain and extremely loud people kept getting on and off.  I think they were mostly drunk.

But, we made it and got off the bus.  After an unremarkable breakfast at a cafeteria across from the autobus estacion, we ambled around trying to find the gorge.  And boy was it gorgeous!

How do you raise small children in this town?  We figured that the average IQ must be quite high if you think about survival of the fittest.  The dumbest kids fall off the cliffs, and only the smart ones are left.  Or maybe the town is full of lucky people.  Is luck genetic?

Here are a few more photos of this breathtaking town.

The Arab Bridge

And a camo kitty

We walked around the town and had the best meal of the trip - Paella, wine, and bread. It was incredible.  After lunch, we walked a bit more and then headed to a coffee shop to get out of the rain.  I studied a Serbian lesson about cigarettes in a hat (cigarete u šeširu); I'm still trying to figure this one out!  (But go figure that Serbian would be about cigarettes, have I mentioned that everyone smokes in Serbia?)  We had a cappuccino and ate a cream caramel (flan) while watching the rain and even saw a rainbow.  It was a great day. 

The ride back to Sevilla was uneventful, and we made it back in time to see the religious parade (see previous blog).