Washington D.C. to Belgrad

It was really hard to find a useful blog from somebody who left for Bosnia, Serbia or Croatia. The few that I could find were not really informative, but after all I found one. It is a closed blog because the writer went back to the US again, but still I liked it.

Well, the blog was written by Brooke, a woman who accompanied her husband (who is not Serbian but American too) to Belgrad, Serbia because he was offered a job there. When she moved there, she had no idea about what to expect. She and her friends didn't even know that there was a place called Serbia, all they knew was that there was the Bosnian War, because that was all she read and heard in the news.

She experienced two great years in Serbia and there's a lot she loves about the country.

Reading the blog gives you a very good understanding of the Serbian culture, and you can also learn a lot about the US because she does a lot of comparisons. Still she never says America is better, or Serbia is better, she loves both countries and in each country there are things that she's worried about.

There are many anti-Bush posts which shows that she is very worried about her homecountry. She encourages people to vote and puts bumper stickers saying "Blind faith in bad leadership is not patriotism" or "Pro America, Anti Bush" online.

Aditionally, she very well describes what life in Serbia is like. She talks about food and the Serbian obsession for fish soup, the attitude towards women (nobody could understand why the couple left Serbia because the woman got a job in the US, the problem with the streets (many bumpholes), the many smokers, how cheap everything (except gas), no drinkable tap water etc. I
n her eyes, people in Serbia are generally friendly but she says that basically people are the same everywhere. There are assholes and there are kind and helpful people, and you'll meet members of each breed everywhere.

What especially liked are her descriptions of the problems she had with the language since I have to struggle with the strange grammar of BKS every day. And there are many posts describing her problems with the cyrillic alphabet. She was not able to read a street sign nor could she read what groceries she actually bought.


What I liked about the blog is that her posts really vary a lot. Some of them are really funny while others are very philosophic. Sometimes she praises Serbia, sometimes she is really annoyed.

Actually, there is so much information in the blog that I can't tell you about it all. But if you're interested in the culture of Serbia or in the language, I can only recommend the blog.