Zdravo!

That means hello in Serbian. I am realizing that I am going to have to learn some quick Serbian if I am going to be able to comunitcate with the rest of my family. Only a handful of them speak english, and only a few of those are fluent. I took 3 years of Russin in highschool and college. Not that i remember much, but a few things are coming back. It doesn't help that while Serbian and Russian are similar, the things that I seem to remember in Russian don't translate into Serbian. Thankfully, I have a language book that my mom sent me with and I have been looking at that often.

My baka and I made it here just fine. Though, it was much harder to us both from Omaha to Belgrade that I had anticipated. I'm used to traveling solo and getting us and all of our things from plane to plane was a lot of effort. Luckily wheel chairs wheelchairs were at every gate for us and they took good care of her. I should also mention that baka and I flew business class. It was fabulous and I don't know how I am going to fly coach after this. From the service, to the food and wine, to the comfort of the chairs, it was awesome. I almost wish that they flight from Chicago to Munich was longer. I wanted to keep enjoying the leg room and all the tasty snacks.

Eating in Serbia is going to be intersting. As you know, I'm a vegetarian and don't eat much dairy. Serbians don't have the same eating habits. We were welcomed yesterday afternoon by cousin with a very nice lunch. There were a few salads to enjoy and there was also a LOT of meat. They served grass fed pork, lamb,and prischutto from a small island off the coast of croatia. I did try the prischutto but couldn't bring myself to eat the other meat. I have no problem eating meat while I am here. I don't want people to go out of the way for me and I understand it is a big part of their culture. I guess I will have to work on that in baby steps...or eat a lot of bread. Speaking of bread, I had real Kaimuck (Serbian Butter) yesterday. From what I understand, it's homemade from boiling fresh milk/cream and taking what comes off the top and cooling it. Maybe adding some salt? And it's tasty. I didn't think I liked it, but I guess I've never had the real stuff. I had a cousin, Bosko, that was eating it by the spoonful and a 2 year old cousin who eats butter the same way. Baby steps. Lunch is going to be Cauliflower, eggs, and butter. And I just learned that I am going have Slivo with lunch. I hear it's "good stuff." Some of you have been lucky enough to try it and don't seem to like it as much as me. I'm going to try and bring the "good stuff" home.  My two cousins, Bosko, and Bojan (the one we are staying with) are in a competition to get me the best slivo. So far, Bojan is winning.

I've been here a day and have spent time getting to know cousins and catching up on my sleep. I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll be on their schedule (7hrs ahead of us).

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So, that was before lunch. I had a chance to sample the "good stuff." It still tastes like slivo, but it is much easier to drink. I took a long nap after lunch and woke up to everyone drinking coffee and eating a homemade chocolate torte by Yovanna. mmm. I'm still watiting to try Turkish coffee, the cousins that we are staying with don't make it.

I flipped through their TV and noticed many american channels....in english. I guess if I can't speak it with anyone, at least I can watch it. I even heard the Sex & the City theme music before my nap as I was drifting off to sleep.

I think we are going to call it an early night tonight. Today was a lazy day of unpacking and resting. I'm hoping to get out of the apartment tomorrow and see a few sights.  I will also (hopefully) meet up with my cousin, Vukasin. He is one of the few relatives that is close in age to me and I plan on hanging out with him quite a bit.

Well, I'm off for now. My cousin bought me a guide book on Belgrade and I think I am going to read for a while.

Until the next post,
Anna