Month: May 2008

Well, we have been here in Serbia almost two weeks and wanted to write a short update that would kind of sumarize everything.

We left Dulles 27 April 2008. We had so so so so much stuff. We took up two of the Smarte Carte things they have at the airport. After I figured out how to manuver those through the airport, we were ok. God was watching over us even in a seemingly little thing: they had scales outside of the line! We were able to weigh and twek our bags before waiting in line! We ended up and had some extra weight (about 5 lbs) we could have used had we known. Oh well.

We arrived in Belgrade and were picked up by several teammates. They then took us to Cacak where we moved into our apartment. Cyndi (and I, but mostly Cyndi) began unpacking stuff and figuring out where to put stuff. I did things like take a picture of the sunset.

The next day we started walking around town, registering with the police, etc…. We have noticed many things the same, but many things different than when we were here two years ago. So far, we have settled into a routene where we spend a few hours walking around, come back for Lydia’s nap, eat lunch (around 3pm), then go walk around town for an hour or so more in the evening. We have also tried to meet our neighbors. In this process of going around town and meeting our neighbors I have already committed several cultural blunders. On the other hand, Cyndi was able to carry on a conversation in French Can you believe it…come 1/2 way around the world to Serbia, learn Serbian, and speak in French!?

While walking around town we decided to start a contest of sorts called “Where’s Lydia?” Every week, we’ll post a picture of Lydia and you guess on where she is. You “enter” by posting the correct location to the comment. If there is no winner, we may pick one based on the funniest or most off the wall answer. So, be creative!

We had an interesting time figuring out how to do laundry. Cyndi has finally caught up and settled into a routene with that. Along those lines (the being clean part) we had one night where we forgot to turn on the hot water tank (read more about our apartment to see why and how we do this).

Technology has allowed us to keep in touch with many people since we have been here. God has certainly made it easier for people to move around the world and keep in touch with others from “back home.” I know, it isn’t the same as being there in person; however, it is much better than 50 or 100 years ago when things took 3 to 6 months on a ship. If you ever want to call us, visit our vonage page to call us for totally free or simply dial 1.304.521.2416 and ring our phone for just a long distance phone call.

We took an evening and just relaxed at home a few days ago. We decided we were going to have something sweet. We decided to get Plazma Cakes and Eurocrem.

There are usually kids around the front of our apartment building riding (or as they say…driving) rolera (Roller Blades). A few days ago, I took my flash cards, went down, and began practicing my alphabet. They came up and wondered what I was doing. They ended up and were very patient while I went through the cards a few times. Of course, they laughed at me and my bad accent and how I couldn’t tell the difference between a ch and ch sound (honest…they sound the same). Anyway, I asked if I could take their picture.

Cyndi and I decided we would splurge tonight and buy us a sweet treat to have while we watched a bit of TV. We haven’t done either in the past two weeks, so this was a good treat. What did we settle on? Plazma Cakes and Eurocrem . Never heard of ’em? I’m not surprised! These two things are made in Serbia and I don’t know where else you can get them.

How can I describe it? Well, Plazma Cakes are kind of like Lady Fingers while Eurocrem is thins chocolatey vanily fruity stuff. If you want to try some, drop us a note and let us know. We can send some back to the states for anyone to try. Don’t worry…it isn’t like Vegimite. This stuff is good.

If you want a real treat, make Palachenka and fill them with Eurocrem and crushed up Plazma Cakes!

One difference Cyndi and I noted right away when we started walking around Cacak was the presence of all sorts of gambling houses. We didn’t remember seeing them here two years ago. I haven’t talked to anyone about it, but just as in the US people become addicted to gambling, I’m sure the problem is mostly the same anywhere it is present. Pray that people don’t get lured in by the tales of “easy” money.

Remeber the Yugo? if not, go have a look at the wikipedia page. I remember one of the guys in my high school class had one and drove the tar out of it. But, you don’t see them much in the US any more. Well, we see them all over the place here!