Desperate Serbwife

First Impressions

So I've been in Belgrade for 72 hours and I have some first impressions to share:

My new apartment
HOLY CRAP - THIS PLACE IS HUGE!!!! Seriously, the pictures that I had emailed out to everyone really doesn't do this place justice (and as soon as I get my camera set up to download pictures, I'll send you better ones). This place was clearly designed by someone with an eye for good architecture. It's got vaulted ceilings and inset lighting placed just perfectly to provide the best amount of light. It's got three balconys; a covered one off the dining room/kitchen which is perfect for growing lots of plants; the second uncovered one up a little staircase, sorta on the roof and it perfect for laying out in the summer or bbq'ing; and the third off the guest room which overlooks a small walkway where we estimate 5 lively families live. The bedrooms are big and also have very high ceilings and we have a walk in closet with tons of shelves and drawers built in. Did I mention the hardwood floors in every room or the dormer windows in the front? Seriously, I feel a little overwhelmed trying to figure out how to fill all the space. We are totally going to get spoiled by this too and I'm not sure we'll ever be able to go back to living in a dinky space like our apt. in DC. I would estimate that this apt is 2-3 times as big as that space.

The neighborhood
We live a half block from a traditional open-air market. Imagine lots of stalls with short round women selling fruits, veggies, honey, nuts, cleaning supplies, meat, fish (well, only men sell meat and fish) and tons of trinkets. It's open every day until 3pm. Mike and I have already been their three times and I think that once we learn how to understand prices we'll be just like locals! There are also tons of cute resturants and stores all around and a small park just one block away. We are not living in the city center, but just outside of it - kinda like Woodley Park was not directly in the city center but it was definitely close enough. Mike walks to work most mornings (takes him about 45 mins) or he takes the bus if he's in a hurry. The bus is just like in DC - nothing fancy but totally modern and safe. Although it only costs 30 cents a ride!

The language
Yeah, we're screwed. This is my first impression of course and I'm sure it won't be as bad as I think, but this language is really hard. I was reading a language book last night (since I couldn't sleep since I'm still a bit jet-lagged) and did you know that you have to change the noun as well as the verbs depending on who you're talking to and what you're talking about? I think I'm just going to concentrate on learning small talk and how to understand the price of things first. Although it would be very handy to also learn the foods so Mike and I don't have to point to other people's food when we want to order something at a resturant (yeah, we were definitely looking dumb yesterday at a local resturant yesterday - although we did end up with what we wanted).

List of things I think I'm really going to miss
-garbage disposal (waaa, i'm too lazy to scrape the food off my plate first!)
-drinking water out of the tap (I'm still not sure if we should do this but I'm hoping we can because Mike drinks more water than a camel that has spent a month in the desert and we're going to end up spending all our money on bottled water if we don't figure out a way to drink out of the tap)
-Kleenex (the toliet paper is fine and plentiful, but they have not seemed to grasp the concept of putting kleenex in a box)
That's all I have come up with so far. I'm sure at a low point my list will be quite long, but at the moment I'm still excited.

List of things I think I'm really going to like
-did I mention how cool my apartment is?
-having a maid (she hasn't even come yet, but I am already feeling relieved because "cleaning" is no longer on my things to do list)
-a washer/dryer in my own apartment so I don't have to deal with roommates
-how cheap everything is from food to transportation
I'm also sure this list will grow, but it's only been 72 hours and the only real thing I've thought about is how much I like being with Mike again.

I plan to update this blog every few days so check back periodically to follow the ups and downs of living abroad in Belgrade.

Brooke

posted by Brooke @ 10:02 AM