Life in Serbia

This is me visiting my on site director's house in Novi Sad. She has a picture of all the volunteers in Serbia.

My awesome on-site director Ceca and me. She often gives me a lot of delicious food for our weekly meeting.

My little host brothers really enjoy my company. Dusan (left) is 4 years old and Nikola (right) is 7. What I enjoy the most is when they speak in Serbian to me, often unaware of the fact that I'm nowhere near fluent in the language.

One of my lazy sunday afternoons. I really like the garden and the swing.

Another picture of my homestay. This highlights the fact that I deeply enjoy the outdoors.

Meda and me. I do admit he is a little scary, but more often than not I feel safe around him.

I was lucky that this was not a motor-vehicle or else I would have been in trouble with my on-site director.

Besides playing in the garden, I also like helping my host mom. Sandra is always really nice to me and makes some tremendously tasty food.

Some bonding time with Ivan, my host dad. He is fond of making me sandwiches and telling me all about american movies about which I do not know anything.

Meet "Monkey," one of my many friends in Serbia. He was paying me a lovely visit. We enjoyed ourselves drinking tea and feasting on Sandra's flavorful pies.

Exploring Novi Sad

This is the hotel in which I was staying. It had everything I needed, wi-fi include.

Going for a little hike. The mountain was really beautiful and relaxing

Doing it the Serbian way. This includes drinking my coffe slowly and enjoying every sip of it.

Novi Sad's skyline. This picture was taken from a really great fortress, "the" fortress.

Me crossing the Danube river. I'm amazed at how strikingly inspiring this place is.



The adventure begins!

My service experience started when I got to Princeton for orientation. I was really nervous and excited for this tremendous and important challege. There were tigers from all over the USA (including Hawaii) and even some tigers from overseas. I was really happy to find out that I have great teammates with whom to work. 

 

During my free time I decided to explore campus. The buildings and the atmosphere of the University are both very exciting and very intimidating. So is the prospect of leaving home for nine months. But I was happy to find out that I was not the only one with some fears. After all, this experience is completely new for most of us who are participating in this program.

This is me heading to the airport, thinking about my future experience. The sentence "challenge by choice" and the words "fexibility" and "open-mindness" really stuck from orientation. I realized that I had a lot of expectations and pre-conceived notions about the world that I have to leave behind in order to integrate better into the Serbian culture.

I imagine you could say that this is the very moment where my intercultural experience starts. The seven-hour plane ride was a bit tedious but fun nevertheless. I read a little about Serbian culture and I got to talk to a really nice Serbian guy. He started talking to the group once he heard us butcher his language. "Isbini" We apologized while his welcoming smile assured us that it was not a problem.

I'm finally in Serbia! Although I've only been here for a few hours, I already love this place. I'm not entirely sure what the building in the picture is, but it was so beautiful that I didn't want to miss the chance to post the picture. As I Start to explore the city and to learn more about Serbian culture and Language, and when I start my service placement, I will continue to share my adventure.