The Kindness of Strangers

You guys.  I am feeling seriously jubilant right now.  My day was full of success.  In fact, the last few days have been overwhelmingly successful.  Very exciting stuff and, you'll notice, a distinct change from my last post.

First, the source of my number 1, most exciting success: a mattress topper!  For fear of sounding whiny, I didn't blog about the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad mattress situation in my dorm room.  Although marginally better than my pillow (which was so bad I used a wadded up bundle of scarves my first night here, until I could by a more suitable pillow the next day.  In fact, that pillow ended up being dissatisfactory too, having a strange and unpleasant smell.  The lesson here: don't buy anything else from the discount shop I found my first day... more on that later.)

Back to my point: my mattress is very uncomfortable.  It's actually not bad support-wise, but the root of its flaws comes from the several coils right in the middle of the mattress that stick up sharply into my back.  Not nice.  I had seen an ad for a mattress store in Kragujevac, and made a note of the address, but my first quest searching for it was thwarted due to the lack of visible street numbers on the buildings here.  I accidentally went to another mattress shop, on the same street, that did not have what I was looking for.

Successes of the first shopping trip: luxuriously expensive towels, a yoga mat to serve as a temporary mattress pad, various office supplies, laundry detergent, clothespins, and The Little Prince in Serbian.

My loot.

But today, I set off with renewed hope, and walked down Save Kovačevića, determined to keep walking until I found the mattress shop or my legs gave way beneath me.  Luckily, I came rather quickly upon a big mall, and on the ground floor: Dormeo Sleep Shop!  Hallelujah!  

I went straight inside and inquired about the mattress topper.  Sure enough, it was in stock!  The saleslady then proceeded to talk about some card I could get for discounts, and of course I was totally lost.  That's where the kindness of strangers comes in- an old lady buying a kind of chiropractic back support thingie (it was a multi-purpose shop) started translating for me, and then a younger guy jumped in too.  Between the two of them, I had it all sorted out.  I got the membership card, which meant I got a "gift" of a pillow along with my mattress topper.  I also got a very warm and cozy-seeming blanket, which will blissfully replace the crappy red one that sheds red puffs of fleece EVERYWHERE.  Yes, I bought it at that same discount shop (although I don't want to knock them too much since they basically allowed me to steal a bunch of hangers from them, accidentally of course!).  

Nice and warm in my new blanket.

My English-speaking friend (who may or may not have been an employee there) escorted me outside and even called me a cab to lug my goodies home.  And now I sit, waiting the requisite hour for my memory foam pad to properly unfurl or whatever.  

Other things of note: 

• I taught my first three English classes yesterday, which went quite well, I daresay.  More on this later.
• I've made some new friends, including some of my very nice neighbors.
• Last Friday I went with the other ETAs to the embassy for an orientation of sorts.  We got to meet the brand-new ambassador, who has been here about as long as we have!  Again, more on this later. 
• Still struggling to figure out how I can access the cafeteria where I'm supposed to be eating my meals.  I tried today with partial success, but have a promising action plan for tomorrow. 
• I couldn't help but smile at two middle-school-aged boys walking down the street today, listening to "Gangnam Style" out loud on a cell phone, and air-guitaring/singing along.  
• Last but not least, I think I have found somewhere to take Serbian classes and/or procure a tutor.  Fingers crossed!  I have a name and a number to call tomorrow morning, so here's hoping for the best.