Vote for us!

It would mean so much to Phil and I if all you readers/followers out there voted for us in this contest.  As you know, we love travelling and have a ton of fun exploring new places and trying new things.  The contest asks to submit a travel related picture and a caption of why are you intrepid.  Here is our entry and a link to it.

Vote here!

This picture was taken in July 2010, when Phil and I went to Macchu Pichu with our friends Sarah and Chris from NM.  Christ took this pic and it has been one of my faves ever since.  I think it's a good one for the contest and if we won, we could go to Africa or Australia, two of the continents we are missing in our map!

I will have a good post about life in Serbia soon.  Cherries and Strawberries are out, so I am a very happy camper...

7 months

Tuesday will mark our seven months in Belgrade!  It's weird, because on one hand, I feel like it's been a lot longer than that, and in other ways, I feel like we just got here.  Some quick thoughts.

1. I am sooo NOT fluent in Serbian
When we first learned about the pending move, I had the chance of taking Serbian lessons and/or AT LEAST practice with Phil at home while he studied for this Serbian language exam.  Then, when we moved, I definitely had plenty of time to either take lessons with the Serbian instructor at the Embassy, or to pay a private tutor.  But arrogantly enough, I figured I would just pick it up on my own.  After all, don't teenagers go abroad on these "immersion" programs all the time and come home fluent in German or whatever else?  Well, let me just say, I am clearly NOT a teenager, and I could not be farther from fluent or even beginner in Serbian if I wanted to.  A couple of weeks ago, I went to the market with my good friend, K, and she noticed that when people told me how much I owed them, I didn't really pay attention, I just gave them some money and accepted whatever change came back.  She said, exasperatedly, "you still don;t know your numbers?"  oops.  I was embarrassed to admit, that NO, unfortunately, I STILL DON'T KNOW MY NUMBERS!  Why?  Because somehow, I have not made it a priority.  Every time I go to the market I make a mental note of  next time I am at home with nothing to do, I should learn the numbers.  And what happens is that, the next time I am at home with nothing to do, I go online and find out who Ashley Simpson is dating or which is the slowest, crappiest airline in the world.  My priorities are NOT in the right place.  Plus, after seven months, my stupid arrogant self, still thinks I can become fluent without a single class or textbook.  I still have 17 months to make this happen.

2.  Never underestimate the power and importance of body language
I might not be fluent in Serbian, but I AM fluent in  knowing what people want from the expression on their faces.  I can't tell you how many "conversations" I have had with complete strangers in pure body language.  I don't need words.  Just a couple of nods, points, shrugs, and frowns will do the trick.  Just yesterday, I was literally driving IN a man's backyard, lost like a stray dog, and was finally able to my destination using just the street name and my fingers.  If this is not a story of triumph and success, I don't know what is. Now, this situation of me stranded in the middle of nowhere in the "burbs" of Belgrade would have never happened if it wasn't for #3.

3.  You can't trust the GPS in Belgrade
When we moved, we paid over 100 dollars, which is almost the price of the actual GPS, to buy the maps for Eastern Europe and the Balkans.  Well, to my great discontent, these maps are kind of old and are missing a ton of new construction including bridges, bypasses and exits.  Not to mention that one way streets are sometimes marked as two ways and vice versa.  Then, when we see if there were any updated versions, Garmin wants to charge us another 100...so now, the GPS is more for a general idea of the vicinity of the actual place, but you can't be alarmed if you end up in a cul-de-sac in the middle of nowhere while the robot voice of the lady with the British accent is still repeating "in 500 feet, turn left".

4.  The discovery of the butcher-to-go place
This has been my favorite discovery in Belgrade in the past few months.  I had noticed a bright pink place not far from my house that looked like a butcher shop.  I am always looking for new places to buy meat, because my old favorites, near the green produce market, close way before I get out of work. Also, since we moved, I stopped eating frozen/defrosted meat, so I needed a place that was close to my house and was open late. Pink house palace seemed to be the answer.  The first time I walked in there, they had the usual spread of meats at the counter, so I ordered my chicken breasts using the sign language method and the lady weighs them like usual, but instead of wrapping them, she takes them away to the back.  I immediately realize that they have a grill in there, actually multiple grills.  Apparently, you buy the meat at this place and then take it home already cooked!  They don't have any seating or offer any side dishes, so it's not a restaurant, but they don't sell the meat raw either,so it's a hybrid of the butcher shop and your typical take away cevapi place.  I don't think they have any other methods of cooking other than grilling, but the meat selection is pretty decent and the prices are the same as at the butcher.  Never again will I be cooking meat, unless it is in the slow cooker.  This place has changed my life and lengthened my evenings in ways I could have never imagined.

5.  Puerto Rico and Serbia are remarkably similar
From clapping when the plane lands, to telling people to their face when they've gained weight.  From older women dying their hair platinum blond and wearing high heels and nice clothes to go grocery shopping, to drinking coffee right before going to bed;  let it be "promaja" or "el sereno", the same cold draft that grandmas warn young people about even on hot summer nights, I have had a pretty easy time adjusting, mostly because I have seen/lived it all before.  This one might require a whole other post, though.

The Moose and the Jubilee

Before I start talking about the trip, I have to say that the Serbian Government is absolutely brilliant when it comes to official holidays.  Serbs celebrate most of their holidays for 2 days instead of one.  So for New Year's, State Day, May Day and Orthodox Easter we get two days off.  Genius!  This April was the best month ever with 2 long weekends almost back to back.  The first one, Orthdox Easter, went from Friday to Monday, and the one that just passed, May Day, went Tuesday-Wednesday, so Phil and I took Monday off and had a really nice 5 days off to go to Amsterdam.

My friend L, from high school, was planning to visit us in Serbia when we first planned this trip.  I thought that coming all the way from Puerto Rico, she had to see more than just Belgrade, so I suggested that we meet up during this awesome long holiday in a fun place in Western Europe,so we got our tickets without a second thought.  Fast forward three weeks before departure, and I am trying to find a place to stay and there was NOTHING.  Booked solid, outrageous prices, and I'm like WTF! So, I went online to figure out if there was a concert or a conference, or something, and there it was, plain as day, Queen Beatrix's Jubilee, also known as Queen's Day, also known as the biggest party of the year since the Love Parade stopped happening in Berlin circa 2004.

Phil channeling his inner moose

Now, I don't know anything about monarchies, but if you had seen us this weekend, you would think we were big fans.  Also, this trip went from a fun, mellow, me-and-L-bicycling-around-town-catching-up-good -time to a full blown, 5-people-in-one-room-partying-on-the-street-wearing-crazy-costumes extravaganza.   Phil, our mutual friend A, and L's friend from Paris (Van Gogh impersonator extraordinaire, B) decided to join us last minute, and the hotel was all sold out, there was no other way out than to pay for an extra cot to be wheeled into the room and to share twin beds.

I had been to Amsterdam once before, about 10 years ago, for about 1.5 days, so all I remembered was really wanting to go back, how pretty everything was, and how hard it was to get oriented.  10 years later,  it all still holds true.  After four days, I still didn't know my way around, not even to our hotel.  To me it all looked exactly the same; picture-perfect houses in narrow, cobblestone streets along the canals. I absolutely loved it.  Loved the bikes, loved the street food, loved the row houses and loved the people.  After this weekend, the Dutch have trumped the Australians in my book for friendliest, funnest people.  I don't know if it was the festivities or what, but everyone was incredibly cool and nice, their English was phenomenal and they just have everything you could want/need a short bike ride away.  Not to mention how liberal their politics are and how well they take care of the environment.  During the Queen's Day celebrations, they applied the reusable mug at the Christmas Market concept to beer glasses. So everywhere you went, if you got a beer, you paid a 1 Euro deposit on your cup and then you would return it after you used it and get your Euro back.  Amazing!

We did a good job of doing all sorts of activities.  Cultural: Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank House and the Rijksmuseum; Touristy: Canal tour, walking tour, churches; Fun: Queen's Day stages and beer stands; Nature: bike ride along the tulip farms; Immature; Phil scaring children with his moose hat at the park, walking around the Red Light District with french fries dipped in mayo in one hand and a beer in the other, probably only 30 minutes after having dinner.

The Queen's Day celebration surpassed my expectations.  The streets were packed to the max, and so were the canals.  Party boats full of people dressed in orange, blasting music and drinking beers passed by left and right, and on the streets, everyone was out of their front door, either chilling at the doorstep or on the street.  Restaurants and shops were either closed or were serving special Queen's Day fare.  Beer kiosks were set up at every park and every square.  There were stages with live music and folky bands and people were dancing, all wearing orange lays, t-shirts, hats, glasses, etc.  too cool.  We also got some orange goods so that we could fit in with the locals.  This is definitely a city I would move to in a heartbeat.

Going native

So beautiful even I can't believe I was actually there

Phil's Bday

I haven't written  in awhile because I've been pretty busy lately with a couple of different things.  The biggest one being Phil's surprise party last weekend.  It turned out that one of my new friends here (K) was talking about celebrating her husband's birthday, and coincidentally his birthday is the day after Phil's.  So we decided to have a joint SURPRISE party at her place the week before the birthdays so that there would be less suspicion.  Then we found out that two other of our friends' other halves also had bdays around that time, so we evolved the party into a four way birthday bash.  We created a secret invite on facebook and told everyone to come early, she recruited two good friends to set up and decorate the house, while she and I and the others went to a "birthday dinner" and then made our way back.  It was crazy how well it all worked out.  I was determined to not have Phil find out, so I had to be very careful with our stories to keep them straight. The hardest part was getting all the drinks for the party, because I was the only one in that little group with access to a car, but me, being Miss Daisy, still had not driven a single time since we moved. But my friend K offered to be my co-pilot and one night we told our husbands we were going for a baby shower planning meeting out in BB Land (a semi-suburb of Belgrade where most of the Embassy people live, the BB stands for Beogradskog Batalonja the street, or Banovo Bardo, the neighborhood).  K came to my house after work and I loaded the car with stuff I already had that I wanted to take to the party while doing a silent prayer that Phil didn't notice the disappearance of 3 bottles of Coke Zero or his precious Bacardi, or the 3 packs of cream cheese frosting that I had been hoarding since February.  Then we finally got in the car, and we were on our way. Immediately, I'm like, K, you need to set the GPS because I had no clue where we were going, but the store we needed was not showing up, so K says she knows the way, but in my head I want to slap her (sorry K :) ) and make her find that address because I am already sweating and super nervous and even though I repeatedly  tell her that I don't want to get to the highway, she took me straight there.  But the only Tempo (which is the closes thing to a Walmart/Sam's Club/Costco that we have here)  she knew about was all the way out by the airport  about 30 minutes from my house. But then K pointed out that if I started freaking out, I could just stop and put my hazards on like every other Yugo does, and take a rest.  I laughed at the joke, but  it was the most brilliant piece of advice she could have given me, and so true too.

After shopping for what probably appeared to others as a frat party, we had to sneak all the stuff at her house and semi organize it for the people who were gonna help us set up.   Good thing that K has a storage unit, so we easily took all the beer and non-fridge items there and then went upstairs with what seemed completely regular grocery items.

The night of the party we all went to dinner and it was really hard to not smirk at each other, and then say our well planned out and rehearsed lines of "what do you guys want to do after this"..."we could have some drinks at my place", "yeah, that'd be great, right, boys??"  But clearly our acting skills are pretty fabulous, cause when we got to K's place, this is the face that Phil made (photo courtesy of my friend C):

WTF!?

On another note, I have never baked or cooked as much as I do here. It seems that 90% of our social events and gatherings are done at people's places so I am always making stuff to bring.  Hence, I have now become obsessed with Pinterest.  If you're not pinning or at least looking at others' pins, then you're missing out.  I have found some really awesome recipes there that have now become legendary in my book.   For the surprise party I made a s'mores dip and a buffalo chicken dip (which is actually my friend Andrea's recipe and it is the wrongest, least healthy option you can find, but it is delicious!).  This weekend I am making the buffalo dip again and a 7 layer Greek dip that I also found on Pinterest.  It was Phil's actual birthday during the week, so I made him red velvet cupcakes from scratch, but those were a whole lot of work, and not really that good.  The Greek dip was easy except for the olives, because the olives I bought at the market still have the pit in them and prepping them was like doing open heart surgery in each olive.

One of my favorite things about living in Serbia is seeing the Serbs reaction to stuff that is 100% American.  For example, I was told that while the surprise party was being set up, the Serbs were totally into it, hiding really well and eagerly waiting for the signal so that when the birthday boys came in they could all yell "SURPRISE" in unison.Then later this week, I brought the red velvet cupcakes to work so Phil could share them with colleagues in the cafeteria and I took them in my cupcake carrier that I got at Target.   People in the office were like " what is that thing?, where did you get it!?, how ingenious!"    Then two days later, the Embassy Employee Association bought a Margarita machine and they had Margarita Friday at the cafeteria, and the Serbian employees were all in line and giddy waiting to get their frozen margaritas. Mostly because it's pretty crazy that 1. there is a whole humongous machine devoted solely for the purpose of making margaritas and 2. the fact that its only 2 steps to make the margaritas : open gallon of margarita mix imported directly from the US and pour in the machine along with the ice.  Done.  Then there's the whole buffalo dip thing,  I've taken it to so many parties now and it's a HUGE hit with the Americans but the Serbs are pretty skeptical, and why wouldn't they?  It's this neon orange sauce with smelly blue cheese dressing (pre-made salad dressings are not a common thing here) mixed with cream cheese (yet another inexplicable American staple) and chicken.  At least the chicken is free range and hormone free. All in all it's a fabulous dip.

Finally, I do have an update on my cilantro plants

They lived!

Ice Cream, Plazmas and Coriander

You know summer is coming when the 711 type stores take out their ice cream freezer to the curb!

I saw this about a block from my place and let out a little yelp of happiness

 If you know me well, you know that ice cream is my most favorite thing in the whole world.  I could have it any time, any day, any place, after any meal.  As long as it's hard ice cream NOT soft-serve and NOT coffee flavor, I am game for anything. I can't complain too much because the commissary at the Embassy carries Ben and Jerry's and because, before we moved, I made sure to purchase an ice cream maker at Costco to bring to Serbia.  Just in case.  So far, I have made peanut butter and Oreo ice cream, cookies and cream and Dulce de Leche.  Now that the strawberries are coming out, I am planning on making strawberry-graham cracker ice cream or actually, the Serbian version, strawberry-plazma.

Plazmas are these sort of vanilla wafers that are everywhere. I guess people here grow up eating them daily, kind of like animal crackers in the US. For example, if you get a coffee, usually, it will come accompanied with one or two regular plazmas.  They also have a specialty coffee at coffedream (a Starbucks-like chain) that is choco-cookie latte and has plazma crumbs in it; it's actually really good.  I have seen baby food "Baby Keks" with plazma, plazma shakes, and other plazma concoctions advertised at different places around town. I personally think they're tasty and a good go-to snack.  When I went to Jordan, I took my friend a sample of Serbian candy and got  her the "fancy" plazma, which are mini plazmas dipped in chocolate, but her dog ended up devouring the whole package while we were at dinner. A testament of the true diversity of the plazma.  Here is a commercial that I found on You Tube for a plazma cereal.

Obviously, I can't understand it either, but if you listen carefully, you will hear the word "banane" which I assume means banana. Therefore, as soon as I finish writing this, I will be at my local Maxi store asking for it by name and will have a full report on a later post.

Another thing I am excited about summer is getting my cilantro back.  As much as ice cream rocks my world, cilantro is one of my reasons for living.  I love, love, love it and once we moved, I had to pretty much give it up because it barely exists here.  For one thing, they use the British word for it, coriander. Then, it's practically impossible to find.  About 3 weeks after we moved, after having visited every green market in the city, including the infamous Chinese Market, I was able to get a sad little bunch from the lettuce lady at the Kalenic market.  One of my friends from the Embassy also buys it from this"coriander lady", and she describes the process of buying it as basically a drug deal.  First, you ask the other lettuce ladies to show you where the coriander lady is set up.  They look at you up and down to make sure you are worthy of the coriander and then consult with the others, finally pointing towards coriander lady. Once you get to her booth, you ask for the coriander in the most polite, patient, smiling way possible and the lady will go UNDER her table for what feels like forever and produces one little bunch of cilantro leaves.  Then you just keep cool and say thank you and pay a ridiculous amount, when what you really want to do is to jump up and down with excitement and kiss her and hug her.  Then you walk away, like you aren't really holding anything special, but your heart is beating twice as fast and you just can't keep the smile away from your face, like you are hiding a really good secret.

Secret or not, coriander lady went MIA during the cold and the snow, and now that it's nice out I still haven't been able to find her. Luckily, my mom sent me some seeds, and coincidentally, my friend found a real, live plant, that I have now transplanted to a bigger pot and am treating like a newborn baby.  This is my first time EVER planting or growing anything, so I am really nervous about over watering or putting my plants in places that are too sunny.

yes it looks sad, but it's all mine!

Very soon, I will have bunches and bunches of cilantro, so that I can make momos and burritos.  After all, they do have the rest of the ingredients easily available at every supermarket.  I have to laugh a little bit at the tortillas though. 1.  Why does the burrito look more like a gyro/schwarma?  and 2.  Why are my tortillas endorsed by MTV?

I also have beef with the sour cream here, even though the taste is the same as at home and it's perfectly fine, there is always one question in my mind: WHY IS THERE NO LID?

Working girl

This past Monday was my first day at work in almost 5 months.  It is really bizarre how humans eventually get used to everything.  Right before we left DC, my life was ultra hectic with preparations for the move, social events to say good-bye, last minute stuff for the condo, and tying loose ends at work.  If you’d peeked at my planner, there wasn’t space for absolutely anything else.  I literally worked until the day before we moved. I walked out of my office at 5pm on a Thursday and 24 hours later, I was sitting at the gate at Dulles Airport with 2 carry-ons and two lap cats, munching on my last real American treat, some yogurt pretzels and texting all my friends for the last time before turning off my American cell forever.

Fast forward the days I spent sleeping off the jetlag, and there I was, sitting in our temporary apartment, with my planner so wide open that that I could have started writing celebrity birthdays to fill it up, and with all the time in the world to do whatever I pleased.  The problem was that I didn’t have any friends, any knowledge of what I wanted to do or even the stuff to do anything with, since our stuff was not arriving in Belgrade till two months later.   But eventually, I got used to it.  I made my routine of nothingness and settled into a slooooow paced life, where I could take my sweet time getting dressed in the morning, if I was going to get dressed at all; where I could go grocery shopping every single day, carefully planning every meal.  I also got to be next to the fridge all day, so I could fix myself real breakfasts, lunches and dinners daily.  I eventually made friends which translated into lunches during the day, text messages at all hours and evening and afternoon plans.

So last Sunday, I felt THE DREAD, that sinking feeling that you have to be somewhere, soon, and looking somewhat presentable, awake and aware.  I was overwhelmed by the mere thought of having to be somewhere before 10 AM and having to pick out clothes and pack a bag with all the stuff I would need for an ENTIRE day.  But I survived.  I made it through this week unscarred and already settling into my old habits (hopefully just the good ones).  My commute is pretty short and because it's getting to be spring, it's definitely light out by the time I wake up, which makes it a whole lot easier to get out of bed.  There is nothing like having stuff to do to make you want to do nothing instead.  How ironic.

Spring is in the air!

Things I have been up to and/or have discovered in the past week:

1.  Framing art is really cheap in Serbia

Phil and I had 8 different prints that we had collected over the past couple of years, which we meant to get framed and just never got around to it or there were just no IKEA frames that would fit them.  So once we were here, our friend Jelena, who is Serbian, and also conveniently, the daughter of a painter, recommended a place to take them to .  We spent a good 2 hours thinking about each mount and discussing the frame colors and styles and all that in a mix of broken Serbian and English together with a lot of pointing.  We had thought that the whole thing would probably be about 500-600 dollars, considering that in DC it would be over a thousand. After we did all our selecting, they give us the total and it's only 140 Euros, which is roughly 185 dollars.  FOR EIGHT OF THEM!  and we didn't pick the cheapest or the simplest, and they are not little either.  I just couldn't believe it.  So,now  of course, Phil wants to re-frame everything we own, and basically buy every picture he sees.  They also can make any picture that you want into a giant canvass picture.  Which is usually creepy in my opinion.  But maybe a nice shot of a skyline would be good.  Definitely not the cheesy wedding touching the face kind.

2.  Dinner Parties are really stressful

Before coming here I hosted lots of parties at my place in DC, but these were usually meant for friends; close American friends who don't care about paper plates or messes or double dipping.  This week, I hosted a REAL dinner party that included appetizers, drinks, a large first course and desert.  I literally slaved in that kitchen for hours and hours on end making sure everything was perfect.  We bought a new set of plates, along with cloth napkins (which we had never owned before), a tablecloth and some nice trays for snacks..except now I don't know what to use them for.  Then two of my guests cancelled last minute, and I had to call another set of friends to fill in so I could have my "perfect" party of 6.  But overall, the it went well and 3 dishwasher loads later, the house looked like it had before the party.  I also discovered that I am really really bad at calculating portions and now have enough leftover rice to feed us till 2013.

3.  When the average temperature is in the 20s, the 50s become your summer

Last Friday the sun came out for the first time since October.  I went to take out the trash (buildings don't have trash chutes here, you literally have to venture out on the street to a small dumpster and throw it in there) and I realized that it was warm.  So warm that I decided not to wear my coat.  I felt as free as a bird,walking down the street with nothing but jeans and a sweater.  Now I really have spring fever.  Unfortunately, this only lasted 3 days and now it's cold again.  I am still not wearing my winter coat though.  After that day, I washed it and sealed it in a bag and put it in the back of the closet.  I wanted to burn it, but I thought that would be tempting fate, and it might just make it snow again out of spite.

4.  Angie IS the biggest cat in Serbia

We hired a nice lady to clean our house because I am just not good at it and we have become too lazy to really take care of the floors and the dust like we should.  Besides, since we no longer can feed our shopping addiction, we can definitely afford the extra help.  So last week, she came for her "interview" which was really more like me begging her to please please come and help us.

Then she looked at Angie, who was laying on the bed.

--"What's wrong with your cat?"
me:  nothing, why, what do you mean?
--"She's round"
me: umm, she likes to eat a lot, yeah, she's fat
--"but she's HUGE"  why so big?
me: she's from West Virginia?