Home, sweet home

Well, I've been staying in my little dorm room for five nights now.  The first two were... difficult, as jetlag and adjusting to a new environment majorly messed with my head.  I didn't get much sleep those nights.  But never fear!  All is well, and a vigorous regimen of sleeping and eating at roughly the correct times has me firmly on Serbian time by now.

Here are a few photos of my room.  It's in a student dorm run by the university, and it's a very new, clean and rather pretty building.  It is in a wonderful location, about 1/2 a block from the main street of downtown Kragujevac.  It is next to a giant red church and across the street from a happening cafe and, beyond that, the first grammar school in Serbia.  Very illustrious, indeed.

My room is rather plain and soulless at the moment, I'm afraid.  In my shopping expeditions I have yet to encounter tape and tacks, two items that I am relying on for some modest decor.  So excuse the bare walls; hopefully within a few days or weeks I will have it feeling more like home.

View from the hallway.

Teensy bathroom- shower behind the open door to the right.

View from the balcony area

View to the left of the perpetually busy cafe across the street

View to the right of the back end of a big red church

View from above of a family's back patio

Close-up stalker pic of their cute puppy

 Obviously it's hard to convey the feeling of a room with a few photos, but I'll say this: the location and view of my room can't be beat.  It's central, but because it looks onto the back parking lot of an apartment building and the back patio of a family home, it's not too noisy.  The church occasionally punctuates the day with pleasant bell-ringing (and, considerately, never at night!).  The coffee shop across the street couldn't be closer and is always bustling.  I like being able to creepily look down on my neighbors' pretty patio and dog and birds and pretend we're best friends.  Additionally, this gives me a pretty great chance of solving a murder like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window.  I love my windows- they let it so much light and air in this beautiful weather, without blinding me in the morning.  And although it's tiny, it's neat and clean and new with plenty of built-in storage space.

Basically, it's a pretty great set-up... especially for the low-low price of free!  That's right, in an extremely welcome surprise upon arrival, I was informed I do not, in fact, have to pay rent.  Can't beat that!

A note for those unfamiliar with blogspot blogs: enlarge any of the photos by clicking on them.