The Czech Chick

In November 2015, about 40 students from our school took part in a student exchange with the Czech Republic. That was my first time in that country, and I have to add, I was amazed. Not only the places we’ve visited were breathtaking  but also I was sincerely stunned by the Czech culture and the hospitality of the locals.

Now, it was their turn to come to Serbia. 

On Monday morning, at 6.30 AM our school was wiggling from excitement. Some of the students were still sleepy  (I can’t blame them) but  most of them were already joking around and jumping across the classroom. Do I have to add that I was in the second group?

As the Czechs arrived the lisping turned into shouting. Furthermore, the shouting became just a hot mess with people pushing each other to find their guest/host. I, personally, could not find my Czech girl until the teachers have calmed everybody down and called us up. I was at the bottom of the list and I had been really nervous about seeing my exchange partner before they called our names. But then everything fell into place. We were so glad to see each other that the teachers had to ask us to stop hugging and get out of the way.
The afternoon had been organised for a group walk around the city. Our students were freed from school on one condition: that they would stick to the group until the end. I bet you can imagine the students strongly nodding with their heads in the sign of approval only to see them slowly drift away at every corner during the mentioned walk. Our group in particular ended up in a small café. We were  I the middle of an important discussion we got a message from the remaining (three!) Serbian  students that the teacher was angry and that he had uttered that all ditchers would be grounded. We had no other option but to run and try to blend in with the group like we’ve never left. As well as the others, we were caught but in the end we didn’t care.


In the evening Bara, my Czech exchange partner, asked me to take her to the Petrovaradin fortress. As a good host I felt obligated to do so, so we had a long, three hour walk to and back from the fortress, finishing our evening in a pub with the other exchange students.





I was so exhausted on the second day already, that as soon as I dropped off Bara at the school in the morning, from where they went to their trip, I went straight home and slept through the whole day. I must add, I realized that I was spoiled to its finest, because I was used to getting help from my parents making the lunch package for every exchange student who was staying at our house,  but this time our schedules didn't fit in, so I ended up making alone double portions, going to bed last and getting up first. That’s why it came as no surprise to me that I felt like I’ve come straight out of the dishwasher. The situation at my friends’ wasn’t much more different either. 

In the evening I found out that the Czechs had a couple of free seats in their bus and I asked a handful of students, both Serbian and Czech, if there was a possibility for me to join them the next day for their trip to Timisoara, but nobody could give me concrete information except the shortest comment that ‘I might get in’. With my adventurous spirit I took that as a high enough possibility for a yes and as soon as I got home I prepared my passport and some money for the trip with great excitement.

But with the morning came other problems. Since I was the only one who had known about the trip, I was the only one who had taken a passport. And there was no way that I was going alone with the Czechs. Until the last evening they seemed to me as if they were judging us. Fortunately, it was all a product of my imagination and I wish I knew that on that morning too.


At the last moment I came up with the idea that one of the seniors should go with me because she was there by car and she was the only one who could’ve made it to and back from home on time.

Our rush to her house is a story for itself, but I will just add that during the ride she was fast and that she was very, very furious.

On the other hand, Timisoara was a nice surprise. I truly enjoyed my first time in Romania, the buildings, the spirit of the city along with the egyptian (haha) food for lunch and the National museum (which had kicked us out because they were closing in twenty minutes). All that combined with the main square full of pigeons, the playing clock and the sunny day  gave us a complete look at the Romanian spirit.



That evening Bara and I didn’t have any energy left so we decided to stay home and have some sleep.




On the last day the Czechs visited Belgrade and the hosts either went to school or went home to sleep and since I cannot recall I believe it was the second option.

In the evening the weather was nice so we stayed at a square in the city center nearly until sunrise. We’ve connected with each other more during that night than we’ve had during the whole exchange. And that is why I was even more devastated when we had to say goodbye in the morning. I promised them, but mostly to Bara, that we’ll stay in touch and that hopefully we’ll see each other sometimes soon. I hope for once that we’ll all keep our promises.

(A post from the 10th of April)

The last escape

So this post was supposed to be up at the end of March, but I got stuck with a bunch of stuff to do, so with a little delay, here is my blog from the 25th of March.

Some people have a list in their minds what do they want to do before they die. I had something similar, but with a different deadline; until I turn 18.

Since I am not the type of person who likes to throw massive birthday parties, I thought that it would still be nice to make something memorable before I set foot in the (in my opinion) boring world of the adults.

The outcome was that my friend Annabella and I decided to make a jaunt to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

It was a beautiful spring day and I was so excited about the trip that I wasn’t paying enough attention what time it was so in the end I had to hurry up to make it on time. Naturally, I didn’t and Annabella was not happy. Given the circumstances, I don’t blame her. To make the situation  even worse, when we arrived to the station we bumped into an enormous crowd, with nervous people standing in the lines, all waiting to buy their tickets. That was 10 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. On top of that, we didn’t know how much money  to prepare so we lost two precious minutes on adding and recounting to pay for our tickets and ended up running like hell. In the end we managed to catch our train in the last thirty seconds before it was about to leave.

When we arrived to the capital we agreed to go to the Kalemegdan for a walk. We were even proud of ourselves that we managed to find a sterling way on Google maps that would lead us directly to the fortress.  We thought that from now on everything would go smoothly.  And of course we were wrong. 

During our forty minute walk we were lucky enough to go through some of the most suspicious parts of the city: a bunch of narrow streets with a lot of street art, with only trucks passing by, a Lebanese rugby team whose players were hard to get rid of and a gang whose members couldn’t stop looking at our phones. By the time we reached the quay we were traumatized for life.

  

After  finishing  our photo session at the fortress, we continued to the main street of Belgrade, Knez Mihailova. There we took a short break and drank some coffee/tea. Then we went to meet a friend of mine who showed us some hidden  parts of the city, including a photo gallery in a building that was in such bad shape that we’ve nearly mistaken it for an abandoned house.

Then came my favourite time of the day. Lunch! After saying goodbye to my friend we decided to go to a mexican restaurant and eat some burritos. This was my first time eating this kind of food and I must say that I was delighted! Except the part where I accidentally put some spicy toppings and spent the rest of the day drinking water like a camel, but at least  Annabella had fun laughing at my horrifying face expressions.

The next stop was meeting Ella, the girl whose parents are supercool yet, she is somehow always grounded. This time we was not different either. When we left the mexican restaurant she called us to  say that she will arrive to the center in half an hour, but fifteen minutes later she informed us that she had a fight with her parents and that she couldn’t cut loose for an hour at least. That left us with a major problem because is was getting colder and we were not up to walking around the block in the freezing sunset.

 

Just when we were about to give up on searching for a place to warm up, we bumped into  a girl on the street who was selling tickets to a Salvador Dali exhibition. The next thing I recall is that we were up in the gallery looking at Dali’s illustrations for Dante’s 'Divine Comedy'. Both Annabella and I were delighted and we were truly happy that things turned out this way.

We eventually managed to say hi to Ella, and while waiting for the train to a couple of friends of mine with who I have been hanging out in the summer for years now.

With this adventure I closed the official part of my childhood but at the end of the day I realized that years don’t define our maturity and that it impossible for me to  change anytime soon. I came to the conclusion that I will probably stay awkward for the rest of my life and I have made peace with that. And once for all I promised myself  never to join the (again, in my opinion) extremely boring, grey and, above all, complicated adult world.