Београд, Србија!!!!!

                I will now share with you the events of one of the most amazing weekends of my life.  It took place in Belgrade, Serbia (Београд, Србија).  I just finished with the Rotaract European Meeting (REM) for 2011.  This meeting happens every year for Rotaracters in Europe, but it’s always in a different city.  Since I am living in Italy as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, I was given the opportunity to go, even though I only heard about it the week before the meeting.  Nothing too official actually took place, which was really nice in a way.  Countries sent representatives to be more official and go to meetings and discuss upcoming plans and things to do for the year, I assume, while the rest of us met others from all over the world and made amazing friends and toured the capital of Serbia.  And how many Americans really get a chance to come to Serbia??

               

                So anyway, when I first arrived in Belgrade, I was met by very friendly Rotaracters and natives of Belgrade.  Everyone was extremely friendly and helpful.  One of them, Lazar, gave me a ride with some “future” German friends to my hotel and then later that same night took us for a small tour of the city and also to an authentic Serbian dinner, which was fantastic. I say “future” friends because, as is often the case with the wonderful connections you make through Rotary or Rotaract, he did not know these two guys before they arrived, but knew someone from their club in Germany who had previously lived in Belgrade and been a friend of his, and thus the connection was made to give them a ride and also a tour around the city.  Quite amazing in my opinion.  Before the dinner I went downstairs because I was starving and wanted to get something from the café.  I began to sit by myself and noticed another guy by himself who had on the same name badge for REM as me.  So we started talking and I joined him.  We were both waiting for dinner basically, but still starving, so we split a pizza.  Thijs is from Amsterdam and after my recent travels through there I was very excited to talk about that.

                After my dinner with the Germans, Florian and Franz, and Lazar and lots of socializing we went to Serbian New Year’s because in Serbia they follow the Julian calendar due to the Orthodox church and their new year is later!  We were at a very loud club on a lake and it was a pretty fun first night.  Somehow though, I came all the way to Serbia, to a program with people from all over Europe, who all speak English, and I still spent most of my night with Italians and speaking in Italian.  But it was fun!  And of course this was just the start of me being introduced to people as being from the United States and getting responses such as, “What are you doing here?  This is the European meeting!” or “Wow!  What a long trip!” or “What…?”  I was acting as not just a representative of the United States but also for Florence because no one I knew from any of the clubs I attend was at the REM.  (Edit:  I met the one other person from Florence in the Florence airport when we got back.  Pretty funny!)

                For the second day we did some touring around the city.  I saw a big fortress famous around the city and took lots of pics, but eventually just sat around with my new Italian friends from Milan and Como and got to know each other, which was fantastic.  I’ve made several great new friends from the Milan area:  Fabio, Enea, and Francesca.  There were a lot of Italians who were all great as well, but I didn’t spend quite as much time with them and there are too many to name here!  When we went to lunch we met a guy, Selim,  and a girl, Vera, from Lebanon.  They ended up being great friends.  Throughout the whole REM one of the most fun things to do was sit at tables with mixed countries.  The Italians would talk in Italian and then I would speak with them, or translate for our new friends.  Or we would all speak in English.  Or our friends from Lebanon would speak in Lebanese together.

                After this lunch we went directly outside for a Bohemian Street Festival put on by the Serbian Rotaract clubs.  They all had projects and were trying to win a competition of our votes so that they could get all the money raised that day buy the rest of us buying tickets and then using them to essentially buy things from the clubs, usually different foods or a local alcohol.  After this I went back to the hotel with some friends and took a nap because we had another big party coming up!

                This was a “Red Hot Winter” party, so the majority of us wore red things.  The crazy thing this time was that though our buses had been showing up 30 or 40 minutes late, the one this night showed up and left 30 minutes early, so we had to take a cab.  So I was talking to Vera, who was talking to a friend of hers, Elyes from Tunisia, and then a guy from Germany (Munich to be exact), Florian (different from the other one I met), came over to tell us that we had to take cabs.  So the four of us hopped into a cab together, and THEN officially met.  So of course when we got to the restaurant we all sat together.  It was so much fun.  Florian and I were instant friends.  After we had finished our meal another friend of his from Munich, Heidi, came to join us.  Once we all finished our drinks we headed out to walk to the party for the night.  Along the way I would say random phrases or single word answers in German, which almost got me into trouble because they began thinking that I knew more German than I actually do!  Once again, an amazing time partying with new friends and meeting even more.  Of course the problem is that I would meet so many people at these parties, but it was too loud usually to hear someone’s name, especially if it’s a very foreign name.  But of course we always see each other at some point the next day and say hi again and get reacquainted.

                Thus concludes the second day.  My third and last full day and night was probably the most amazing, aside from being rained on without having an umbrella.  The day was spent walking around the center city of Belgrade, but the really fun thing was the people I spent it with.  I teamed up again with Selim and Vera, and met a new friend named Housni from Morocco.  Then we found Fabio and Enea and a few new Italian friends.  So I was hoping between these two groups of friends for the whole tour, spending more time talking than listening to our guide.  New friends!  More important!  Well, Housni’s English wasn’t great he said, so some things Vera would have to say in Arabic to him.  But I thought about the way his speech sounded and my knowledge of the Francophone world, and low and behold he speaks French!  So, he and I would speak in French, he and Vera in Arabic, Vera and I would speak in English, and when Selim showed up he just won because he spoke all of them.  And then Fabio joined our group and I had to translate between French and Italian a few times, which is always fun.

                The group then split up for lunch and I ate with two Italians, Fabio and Matteo, and a guy from the Serbian Rotaract.  So we were hopping between Italian and English.  After this there was a special event to plant Christmas trees for a Christmas tree forest in front of the former president’s building.  It’s to beautify and unify the city a bit, and to have people from all over the world planting these trees and donating money was really special.  I purchased a tree and planted it in the name of the Jonesboro Rotary Club.  Oh, and I also got to meet Miss Serbia and have my picture taken with her.  On my way to this project I began talking to a girl I had previously met on another bus ride who is from Slovenia.  I can’t remember her name right now, sadly.  But I sat on the bus with her and two of her friends from Slovenia and another from Croatia.  We had a good time talking about what I’m doing in Europe and being an opera singer.

                After planting the trees, it was a bus ride back to the hotel to get ready for the final gala dinner.  I sat with Fabio, Dunja (one of the Begrade Rotaracters who was organizing almost everything), and Maria, a wonderful Greek girl.  After getting back to the hotel I went to hang out with Maria and her Greek friends and they were some of the coolest people I’ve ever met!  I have never really met Greeks or even heard the language spoken.  It sounded nothing like I’d expected.   They were having a small dinner and shared some pizza and what not with me.  The more we talked the more fun we had and I decided that for my last night, instead of sitting with Italians, whom I love but live only about an hour away from me in Italy, I would hang out with the Greeks!  They were so much fun.  Though when they speak to each other, well, it’s all Greek to me.  But they were very hospitable and interested in what I was doing and open about their culture and lives.  We laughed and joked all night long.  I told them that I’d already looked up flights to Greece and it looks like it would average around 70 Euros round trip.  The last night was definitely the best party because we were at a big hotel with a huge ballroom and a live band, so you could actually move around, so of course I danced everywhere.  I was hopping between dancing with the Greeks, Italians, and Germans all night long.  If one group slowed down or wanted to get more drinks I’d just go find my other group and dance with them.  In the process I met people from Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Austria, and some others that I can’t even remember.

                It was an amazing night, and a truly amazing experience overall.  Now on my list of places to visit in Europe before I go home, and also where I’ve been offered a place to sleep for free, I have Munich, Milan, Greece, Lebanon, Serbia, Morocco, and Amsterdam.  Now, to start looking at some flights!  But really, an enormous thank you to Jonesboro Rotary Club and Dr. Bob Warner who helped make this weekend in Serbia possible for me.  I’ve acquired a few more banners and sent some out to other clubs.  I know that the club in Lebanon now has their first banner ever from the United States of America.  Rotary truly is an amazing thing.