confessions and random thoughts

In my last mainly picture blog I posted a pic of the HOLLYWOOD sign here in my little town. It was not a very clear pic so I went back and got a better one. I think this is Classic Serbia. Striving for all the glam and modernity while keeping a foot or two in the past.

I love pretending to be a tourist, I just hate it when I have to try to speak. I must constantly remind myself of my favorite line in Eat Pray Love. You must be patient with yourself when you are learning something new.

Sometimes I look at stuff on Craig's list back home just to see what I am missing.
On a funny side note. Craig's list hasn't caught on here yet, but in a neighboring country, Croatia, I saw a listing under Garage sales. An entire garage was for sale. I don't think they got the concept... lol

I thought it was funny when I saw a dog's house with the name Lord on it. And, just so you know, Lord here is like Lord of the manor. Not God. The dog's owner was so nice, when I asked for a picture of his dog, he allowed me to come into his beautiful yard. Thank you kind sir.

I haven't started cooking here yet. I just hate trying to figure out the oven. Must get over that quickly. Ya right! hehehe

I love finding new friends here who speak English. Needless to say, my Serbski is not improving. Totally my fault!

I went home and cried in my bathroom when I found out the other foreigner in my town and I have nothing in common. I am O.K. now. Sometimes a good cry washes away high expectations.

My husband gave our sagging, aged bed new life with two layers of memory foam. I don't wake up in pain now. Thank God. For a while,I wanted to move home just to get back into my own bed.

I also replaced our wool filled pillows with soft new ones I found at the piatz for 300 dinars each. That is under $4 US dollars. Hallelujah!!  I am a new woman. He says we are sleeping like Americans now. I just think that sounds funny.

Some pets are allowed to run wild in the streets here. Today I scrounged around to find something to push a freshly killed black and white dog out of a kinda busy roadway.  Poor little doggy.  :(  People kept walking by him, and driving around. I couldn't just leave him there. Later that evening I was happy to see that he had been retrieved. RIP little dog. 

I must confess I find most European television lacking in quality. Large quantities of time on reality shows are spent in silence or monotonous conversation. It moves very slowly. Even Milan thinks they are stupid. They have versions of our television shows, it is amusing to see a another version, but I really have a hard time following along.  Some of the shows they have here are Idol, Dancing with the stars, and Survivor.

They do have some good comedies, I don't understand them, but the actors are so good sometimes I still get how funny they are.

I feel some shame that these television programs are coming from my and other western lands. I just read in another friends blog how sad it is that the stars our children are watching are on television and not in the sky. What a beautifully true statement. The old is being forgotten. Remembering where you came from is so important.   Here the past is not so far away as it is for us in the west. But it is slipping away fast in the current of the new and the modern.

Relaxation is something they know how to do very well. I, on the other hand need some practice. I used to think that this kind of relaxation was just pure laziness, but I have found I am quite wrong. Sometimes the people who are relaxing are also lazy, but I know that I am often lazy, even though I do not know how to really relax. Oh, the irony.

I find relaxation is even harder when accompanied with very strong Turkish Kafe. It makes me so jittery. How can you sit and relax while drinking such strong Coffee?

I am leaving you with pictures of my beautiful new little nephew, Jovan. I confess, I love this little cutey.