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?

Jordanian Adventure

Last week I was in Jordan (hence the lack of new posts), visiting a good friend of mine from DC.  It was great to leave the cold; dump the hat, scarf and gloves and just wear a light jacket.  Or so I thought, until my third day there, when I woke up and there was SNOW on the ground.  No joke.  It hadn't snowed in Amman in like 17 years, but it had to snow when I was there.  My friend K was an awesome hostess, she drove me basically all around the country in search of good sights and American food.  I thought it was really interesting how even though the local people are a lot more different from us (meaning less western, different customs, culture, religion, language, etc.) the country itself had more western offerings than Serbia.  For example, their grocery stores carried basically everything I would want from back home, soda, cake mixes, condiments, candy.  In Serbia there are tons of things that you can't find.  Because of that, she took me to this awesome Wings and Rings place, where we had REAL buffalo wings with blue cheese dip and a awesome battered onion rings.  You might be thinking, what a waste, to go eat that in Amman, BUT, we did have real Jordanian food plenty of other times, AND this is what I really miss.  We do get hummus, falafel and middle eastern stuff in Serbia.  Hot wings and mozzarella sticks? Not so much.

The first night, K and I went to Petra, which was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I would rank it right up there with Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China.  What makes it so great, it's not just the Treasury (which is the typical Indiana Jones building that you see in brochures and pictures) but that it's a whole humongous park where you can walk for hours and explore these rocks and caves and ruins.  Plus, the landscape is completely different and cool, unless you happen to live in the desert, which after being there a week, I have no desire to do.

K admiring the treasury

The next day, coincidentally the day that snowed, we went to the Dead Sea.   That was super cool too.  It was freezing cold and I was deathly afraid to get in the water, but I felt like I had to.  After all, who knows when/if I'll ever be there again.  I walked in and it was super salty, like everyone had said and YES, you do float.  You float even when you don't want to float, making swimming incredibly difficult.  They tell you not to put your head underwater, because the salt will get in your eyes and once that happens, it stings like crazy and you can't wipe it off because your hands and clothes are all salty too.  I was lucky not to get any water in my eyes, but K did and it wasn't pretty.  I did swallow some salt, because I was trying really hard to doggy paddle further out, but you just can't, like your legs just keep afloat and won't sink enough to kick right.  After about 20 freezing minutes playing around in the water, we decided to get out.  The Jordanian side of the Dead Sea has a ton of swanky spa hotels/resorts where you can get your mud baths and pamper yourself all day long on the beach.  If it had been nicer out and I had a higher balance in my bank account I would have definitely gone for it.

On Sunday, we spent ALL day watching old FRIENDS episodes, Seasons 4-6 and working on our Pinterest boards and just fooling around.  We also made these awesome Smores cookie bars and ordered authentic food from a local place.  It was rainy and foggy and gross and there weren't really many places to visit with that type of weather.  The next day, K had to work so I went around Amman by myself.  I went up to these Roman ruins called the Amman Citadel and then walked down the hill to the markets and the downtown area of the Old City.  It was really neat to see everything in Arabic and the people running around.  Most women in Jordan don't wear a burqa or niqab, but just cover their heads with a scarf; most of them will wear the robes in neutral colors, but once in a while you'll see them in jeans and a long sleeved shirt and the scarf.  There are also a ton of "westeners" out there, so I didn't really stick out for not having my head covered.  I was determined to talk to someone because I wanted to have a buddy to help me find places and take pictures for me, especially because I didn't have a map.  I finally sort of stalked this older lady that I had seen at 3 different places, and it worked out great, because she was from Atlanta, but was going to do most of the sites I had already seen with her husband, who was in Jordan for a conference.  She was up for lots of walking and sightseeing so we made a great pair.  We went to some more ruins, which at the end of this trip I'm like, once you've seen some, you've seen them all.  I have never been to Athens, but apparently, since I've been to Italy and seen the ruins in Rome and Pompeii and now I've seen the ones in Jordan, I can skip it, which is fine by me.  I'd rather sail around the islands than deal with the madness.  So my new friend Kate and I found the Ben's Chilli Bowl of Amman, basically the most tourist packed-mentioned on every guide book-must go to place in the city.  It was good and super cheap.  We shared hummus, falafels and some bean thing that was surprisingly similar to Mexican refried beans.  Then we started just walking around and went to the Blue Mosque, which is the only one that non-Muslims are allowed to go into.  We had to wear these robes that reminded me of the grim reaper, but I was so happy to be with her because I got my picture taken.

At the Citadel

Markets in Amman

Ready to go in!

Blue Mosque

I forgot to mention that all throughout my trip I got about 6 marriage proposals, hundreds of "you are breaking my heart" and more flattery than I've ever had in my life since I stopped going into the DC Jail. My milkshake was definitely bringing all the Jordanians to the yard.  Damn Right.  So one of them in particular, Waleed, a cab driver by the citadel, was especially friendly.  He was all charismatic, wanting to show me the city in his cab for a "very good price" and I was like, dude, leave me alone, I WANT to walk!  But then I remembered that I had wanted to do the day trip into another city the next day and I needed someone to take me...so we talked and negotiated and he did name a good price so the next day he picked me up and took me there.  He asked that I call him on the way back so that he could take me home, but I didn't feel like calling and waiting around, so I just took a random cab that was there.

My last day, I chilled at K's house in the morning, and in the afternoon she came to pick me up to take me to Jarash, which is 45 minutes north of Amman and has tons of ruins.  We had a pretty good time planning K's friend's upcoming wedding, which we decided should be held around the ruins, and guess who we saw there?  My new friend Kate and Waleed, the cab driver, together.  So I had mentioned him to her and she decided to call him up and ask him to take her around. So I took the opportunity to ask Waleed to take me to the airport the next morning, since my flight was at 6 AM.  We got it all planned out, K and I and her friends went back to Wings and Rings for my last meal and we watched some more FRIENDS before saying good bye and going to bed.

If I hadn't shown up on time, these columns would have fallen

The next morning, Waleed picked me up and he had a present for me.  OMG.  He said, "it's so that you never forget me".  I guess I won't be forgetting him any time soon.

Waleed's present.  My name-heart-his name.

No Reservations

Since I haven't really ventured out much in the snow and the cold, I don't have any new pictures or good stories to share. Instead, I thought I would write about some of my everyday observations and experiences on one of my favorite topics, food.  Just like at home, meeting friends at restaurants/bars or cafes is definitely a huge part of the Belgrade lifestyle.  There are zillions of places to eat and drink in this city, and even though there is not a ton of variety, the food overall is of high quality and affordable.

Authentic Serbian restaurants serve heaps of sausages, steaks, chicken, lamb, veal (which I think is little cruel, but nonetheless), and two really cool, authentic Serbian specialties: the Ćevapčići (ћевапчићи) and the Pljeskavica ( Пљескавица).  I am not exactly sure of their difference in terms of seasoning, but they are both basically made out of ground beef and pork, mixed together in the form of sausage links or a giant hamburger patty, respectively.  They are both really, really good and can be served either in a sandwich or a platter, with plain yogurt or tzatziki sauce, pickled cabbage, paprika (which is what they call the red pepper flakes), and tomato, and if you go to the right place, they'll put the french fries inside the pita.  They both cost less than 5 dollars and are conveniently sold everywhere in kiosk type establishments.  (See my second post: Walk up Window).  The fancier, sit-down restaurants usually serve either traditional Serbian cuisine (let me not forget ajvar, my favorite spread of roasted red peppers, eggplant, garlic and chilli) or your typical international fare.

They also have pizza everywhere; and it's good pizza, thin crust, plenty of sauce, all the toppings imaginable, including fried eggs!  Same goes for their pastas., all types of sauces, freshly made, delicious. Since the tomatoes here are just so freaking good, you can get the most generic pasta dish and it is guaranteed to be great.  One funny fact is that the Serbian word for tomato is paradajz, which is basically pronounced as paradise, which also incidentally, is EXACTLY what they taste like.  They also use prosciutto as the meat in a lot of their cream sauces, which is also an awesome thing.

I actually did find a picture of me eating some Ćevapčići

Now, eating out is one thing, but drinking is a whole other story.  Getting drinks at dinner is definitely cheaper than in the US.  You can get pretty good bottles of wine for 15-20 dollars at nice restaurants.  They carry lots of Spanish, Italian, South American and Australian wines, similar to those seen in the US.  They also have their own ones, which are really good, but not necessarily cheaper, not sure why.  Our favorite is the  Radovanović; Cabernet Sauvignon; Serbia – Krnjevo, so if anyone out there sees it in the US, definitely give it a try, you won't be disappointed.  On the other hand, rum is WAY more expensive than at home and about a thousand times more expensive than in Puerto Rico.  A Bacardi bottle goes for almost 30 bucks!  They also import more run from Cuba, which we obviously don't see at home, so that might add to the Bacardi high prices.

Most restaurants do feature full bars, but specialty drinks are not a "thing" the way they are in the US.  I have been to a few places where they do serve gimmicky and fun mixed drinks, but that is definitely not the norm.  So what do most Serbs drink?  At least the men, they drink their national liquor, a super potent concoction that can knock you out after just one shot, it's a sort of brandy made with mostly grapes or plums, Rakija. I've only had it once, ironically enough, at an embassy event when we first arrived.  I had one shot and it was intense.  The taste to me is just like pure alcohol, but it is the drink of choice and a source of pride for many Serbs and they sell it in this really neat shaped bottles, so they make nice gifts and pretty much guarantee a wild night if opened at a party.  In restaurants people will order a shot, which they don't really take as a shot, they actually sip it slowly, something I could never do, at the beginning or end of the meal. Sometimes both.  I guess it's one of those things you need to grow up with in order to really love it.   Not like my sopska salad, which I fell in love with at first bite (see old post about it here).

One thing about going out here that really frustrates me is that a lot of restaurants, even when they look empty, won't sit you without a reservation.  It seems like the hard core capitalistic mentality has not really reached restaurant owners.  For one thing, they are happy to let people sit for hours at a time just nursing a cup of coffee and a pack of cigarettes (which are conveniently sold at the restaurant/bar/coffee shop).  There is no kicking people out or quick turnaround of tables.  If you have a reservation at 8 PM, you can pretty much stay till they close, which here, is usually pretty late, like 2 in the morning.  Most Serbs will go out to eat at around 9-9:30 and even later on the weekends.  Sometimes I even feel like they don't eat at all; as it is not uncommon to see people just sipping drinks and smoking for hours and hours.  I, personally, am starving by 7, so I like going to dinner early.  Plus, that way you don't get all the smoke in your face.  You would think that this should create a win-win situation, but being the procrastinator that I am, I usually don't decide where I want to go and when until 2 hours before I want to get there.  So when I finally call or just show up to places, they are always "full", even though they're completely empty, because all tables have been reserved for later.  Many times the reservation won't be for another hour or more, but they're not used to people scarfing down food in just an hour.  So my new tactic is to outright ask for what time the tables reserved for and say, "hey, we are american, we eat super fast, we promise to leave by that time".  Which I am sure they consider weird and rude, but I definitely don't mind leaving if it means that I got to eat where I wanted.

SuperSNOW Sunday

So while everyone at home is getting ready to pig out and watch the Superbowl, we are homebound getting ready to pig out and watch movies instead.  If we were in Budapest, please KNOW that we would be attending this.

There's a bit of glare, so if you can't read it, it's UNLIMITED  food at TGI Fridays for about 40 bucks; but it starts at 10 pm, and we are 3.5 hours away.  Plus, the game won't end till like 3 AM our time.  Also, the roads are pretty dangerous right now to drive all the way there.

It snowed A LOT on Thursday night and the ground is pretty much frozen.  Phil and I were smart to follow a colleague's advice and buy ourselves some Yak Trax, which I highly recommend to anyone who goes out in the snow and ice.  So when we went out walking yesterday, we didn't fall down, which is amazing considering that when we were in Montreal 3 years ago, we each hit the floor at least twice in three days.

This is what Belgrade is looking like these days:

We made a pit stop at Phil's favorite place (take a wild guess!)

Let's just say this place is way classier than at home

and on the way back we found this near the market, a real Serbian snowman/woman!

Снешко белић