Desperate Serbwife

I met my downstairs neighbors!!!

As anyone that has lived in a foreign country will tell you - meeting friendly locals can brighten your day!!!

As I was coming in the big gate that divides the very nice upstairs apartments from the totally grungy entryway I met one of my downstairs neighbors (there are 2 apts. on the 2nd floor and only ours on the 3rd). His name is Michael and his wife is Leta (which means "pretty" in Serbian - kinda like Linda means "pretty" in Spanish) and they looked like they were probably around 70 years old. And the best part? They speak English!!!! He invited me in for tea (did someone say tea???) and so I went in to meet his wife and two daughters that were visiting from the UK.

He explained that he and his wife have lived in London (and continue to have a house there) for the last 50-or-so years. They were political refugees from when Tito came to power in Yugoslavia. 4 years ago they bought the apartment below and come back and live there for a few months every year - although their permanent residence is still the UK. Their children were all born and raised in London and therefore have perfect British accents. They served me tea (English Breakfast tea mind you!!) and gave me a pastry and talked to me for about an hour. They told me all about their lives and asked about mine. They told me that the little walkway in the back of the house is full of gypsys and their millions of children. They also told about some other shopping areas and such - and they did confirm my fears that there is no where in this whole city to buy English Breakfast tea - mom, put that on your list for a Christmas present!! They were just so nice and helpful. They definitely have given me motivation to get my living room put together enough to invite them up for wine and cheese.

Also, in other exciting news, I seem to have made a friend at the market. I went yesterday to one of the stalls to buy cherry tomatoes and there was a really friendly guy working there that was dying to figure out where I was from. Today I went back to his cart to buy more tomatoes (cause they were YUM!) and he was very happy to see me and even gave me an extra ginger root for being a good customer. He also talked to me in Serbian with lots of hand gestures and explained to me that all the diplomats buy from his cart cause he had the best stuff - and I did notice that his lettuce did look the best in the market. He was so friendly and was excited to learn that I was American. He has definitely won my business.

Yay!!! Making friends! Happy Brooke!

posted by Brooke @ 10:12 AM