"You don't eat meat?!"

That was then followed by, "Well, we will order you fish, or would you prefer chicken?" The Serbians that I am spending time with are having a hard time wrapping their heads around me and my vegetarianism. Of course, I'm eating meat while I am here, but it's the last and smallest portion that I add to my plate.

Yesterday, my baka and I had lunch with Draga. Draga is a good family friend of ours and went to high school in Omaha with my mom. She is also the only person that was ever allowed to smoke in our house. She's important.

We had lunch across the street from her apartment. I was frustrated since it was the first time that I couldn't understand one thing on the menu and was really hungry. My baka wasn't really helping me, so instead of dining on pizza, I had a plate of grilled veggies and french fries. I'm not really complaing, as the veggies were awesome and you can't really screw up french fries, but I would have liked to try some traditional serbian food with out a big piece of meat. I guess I will have to wait until tonight.

We drove about 20 minutes to get to the Monastery yesterday morning. It was a very small church and it was so crowded. We got there mid service and people were fighting to get in and not wanting to wait 20 feet back in the crowd. Churches here don't have pews and as much as I wanted to go to a Serbian Church service in Serbia, I was happy that we were just there for a short while. We lit some candles that were made at the monastery out of wax from their bees, bought some honey (which i'm really looking forward to trying) and went to Draga's.

After lunch I met up with Vukasin. We are getting really good at walking around Kalamegdan and eating Palachinkes. I don't mind at all. We have fun together and I am bummed that he starts school on Thursday. He also had me listen to Italian music from the 1960s while he translated. First the movie and then music, I'm going to miss when I don't have him around to keep me informed.

Ana and I are going to spend the afternoon at Beograd's Chinatown. I was surprised to hear that this existed, but it's a large market and I'm excited to find some fun stuff for cheap. Ana will be with me and I'm hoping that if there is bartering to be done she will help me. It's so much work to haggle with people.

I'm pretty sure that we are all going out for dinner. I don't know the name of the place, but it is a very old restaurant that serves traditonal serbian food (meaning meat and potatoes and maybe peppers and tomatoes...and warm bread). I have also heard that it is where past Serbian King's used to eat. I'm looking forward to it.

The weather is still great, no rain and very few clouds. Perfect for laying on the porch with a book or coffee or my ipod. Speaking of coffee, I think it's time for a 2nd cup.

Ciao!