On December 1st, fall officially departed and winter promptly arrived with a cold front in Kragujevac, followed by a lovely snowfall on the 3rd. I could get used to this kind of orderly seasonal schedule; winter starts on December 1, spring on March 1 (in my dreams, that is). After a rather yucky week of rainy gray skies, we had another big snowfall yesterday and it's still going strong. It's really put me into the holiday spirit and I've been listening exclusively to Christmas music, walking around with a goofy smile on my face, and pestering my students to acknowledge how beautiful it is (most of them seem to be of the grinch persuasion, unfortunately).
Sneg at the university.
I also have a new favorite Serbian word: sneg. It means snow, obviously. Doesn't it just sound like a great Dr. Seuss made-up word?
My sneg-covered street.
"All the Whos down in Whoville, asleep in their beds, with visions of lovely white sneg in their heads."
Sneg at the high school
Or something like that. Oh, and the downside of winter?
That's right, folks: a delightful 3:58 pm sunset. Ah well, all the more time to enjoy some beautiful sparkling sneg by night. Happy December, everyone!
So, walking home Friday afternoon after a long and fruitful day, it occurred to me that I've never written in any detail about my actual "teaching" "responsibilities"/"job". In other words, how I really earn my keep. And since you, my faithful readers*, are basically my employers (hey thanks, taxpayers!!!) I figure I owe you some explanation. Interested? Read on. Disgusted by the very notion of "work"? I feel you, but read on anyway. My work is kind of fun.
Despite my judicious use of quotation marks above, I do actually have a job. I am an English Teaching Assistant, known henceforth as an ETA. This means that although I am not a qualified professor, and in fact have virtually no teaching experience, my status as a Native Speaker qualifies me to teach a couple of classes in the English department of the University of Kragujevac. I do so in cooperation with/under the watchful eye of some actual, certified English professors. But for the most part I plan my own lessons, sticking to a pre-arranged syllabus.
Action shot, courtesy of Nicky Bell
I teach two groups of students: about 75 second-year students and 60 third year students, split up into several sections. With the second-year students, I focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and summarizing short texts. I begin each class with a short warm-up activity, designed to wake up my sleepy students at 9:30 a.m. on a Monday and get them started speaking English. This is also my primary outlet to get all the wacky speaking games and activities out of my system.
Then I separate the students into groups, often using the counting-off method, which I LOVE and my students HATE (Having all the power is pretty nice.) I get the impression this is not something their professors usually make them do, but I like it because a) it forces them to interact with people out of their group of close friends, which I find makes them more productive and more likely to speak English and focus on the task at hand and b) it forces them to physically get up and move, which, left to their own devices, they refuse to do. What can I say, I like to shake things up, and I like to have a high-energy class on a Monday morning (teachers get sleepy too!)
We usually devote about half the class to checking the answers to their homework, which they first do in their groups and then as a class. This always takes longer than I expect, but it's useful for them to have to justify their answers and get some practice for their exams. In the second half of the class, we do some kind of group activity, which varies from week to week. I try to strike a balance between covering all the material and preparing them adequately for the final, and making sure class isn't dullsville- which isn't productive for anyone. No one learns anything if they're just taking a nap.
And with that, each 45-minute class period flies by. I have been trying to incorporate some written responses at the end of class, as in "take five minutes and respond to this prompt." This, too, seems to be an activity they are not familiar with, but I find it valuable to have a chance to respond individually to students since we don't always have time in class. Trying to teach and instill these kinds of behaviors that seem second-nature to an American student is one of the trickiest parts of my job, but I think (hope) the benefits outweigh the difficulties.
I devote my free time to other scholarly pursuits, like grapefruit beer taste tests. (Yes, it tastes as weird as it sounds.) Actually, I just wanted to add more pictures to trick you into thinking this post isn't too long at all.
My third-year class is a lot more varied from week-to-week. It's technically accompanying a class on argumentation and debate (they'll be doing debates next semester) and, although I consider myself to be relatively proficient at writing and analyzing arguments (thanks, liberal arts education!), I certainly don't quite know how to teach it. Of course, their full professor is actually in charge of teaching it and I just have to help them practice. And occasionally, I get to design my own class on a "American culture" topic of my choice, which is awesome. For instance, when the great Nicky Bell came to visit me from Amsterdam, he helped me present a lecture on the American higher education system, which led to a great discussion on the similarities and differences between U.S. and Serbian higher ed.
Higher ed discussion with 3rd year students + Nicky
And on top of my grueling 6 hour a week workload, I've recently implemented some awesome new programs at the local American Corner. Namely, this week I started Ted Talks Tuesdays, with the inspiring talk "The Danger of a Single Story" by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie. And yesterday, I screened the amazingly awesome documentary Miss Representation. Although only three students came to the screening, it was crazy rewarding- we had a very thoughtful conversation afterwards, and clearly the documentary impacted them in a similar way that it did me. I highly recommend it. It was my second time watching it, but today, for some reason, I was moved almost to tears several times. Tears of empathy, frustration, and also appreciation- appreciation both for the inspiring words of the people in the film and the thoughtful reactions of my students. I can't recommend it highly enough- it's available on DVD through Netflix, and also on youtube here.
After the documentary discussion, I had coffee with a lovely gentlemen who's in the process of applying for a Fulbright research grant to the U.S.. He has an interview next week and wanted to practice conversation beforehand. See? I'm keeping busy, interacting with the community, forging ties of friendship and cooperation or something like that. You're welcome, boss.
And last, but not least, I started private Serbian lessons this week. I'll have two hours of proper instruction weekly with a super nice teacher. Although my Serbian has improved by leaps and bounds, and I can often (dare I say usually?) understand at least the gist of what people say to me, my lack of grammar instruction and difficulty with sentence-formation makes me uncomfortable and decidedly un-fluent when I try to speak. So it's high time I get my butt into gear!
Thanks for sticking to the end, folks (unless you skipped ahead, which I do all the time with too-long blog posts.) Hopefully you have a better idea of what I'm actually doing with my time, and maybe some aspiring Fulbrighter might one day stumble upon this post and find it useful. Have a great weekend!
*Excepting my non-U.S. readers, to whom I say: I owe you nothing!!!
This is the second year I've been away from home at Thanksgiving, and it totally sucks. Thanksgiving is my second-favorite holiday of the year, only behind Christmas, and I associate both holidays so strongly with home and family. So you can imagine how bummed I am to be missing not only Thanksgiving but also Christmas this year.
My make-shift measuring cups and delightful mini-pies fresh out of the oven.
But don't get too sad for me! In the spirit of making the best of things, I joined fellow Serbia Fulbrighter Andrea for an absolutely delightful Serbian Thanksgiving. (Serbian Thanksgiving, in case you are wondering, is celebrated the day after regular Thanksgiving). Andrea planned a kick-ass dinner party, going so far as to rent an apartment in Belgrade for one day and planning a complete Thanksgiving menu. I arrived only a couple of hours before the party got going, and imagine my delight to find that she had made (entirely from scratch!) scrumptious stuffing, delicious cranberry sauce, and an excellent green-bean casserole. Not to mention mashed potatoes and some delicious appetizers. The only things we were missing were turkey (we had chicken instead, for convenience's sake) and sweet potatoes. (In other news, I would kill for sweet potatoes. They're no where to be found.)
Andrea's handiwork!
For dessert Andrea made a yummy pumpkin souffle/pudding dish, and I brought (drumroll please....) two pies! An apple pie and a walnut/caramel tart. I must say I was rather pleased with myself for successfully making yummy pie crust by hand; that is to say, without the aid of a food processor or even real measuring cups and spoons. (I also made a bunch of adorable mini apple pies to test drive the crust and give to my land-family).
The party was a blast, as we introduced the Serbs in attendance to the traditional Thanksgiving foods and traditions. We played party games and drank, and the party stretched into the wee hours as more guests kept arriving. I subtly encouraged each new arrival to try the pies, and may or may not have hounded them for compliments.
Thanks, Andrea, for the photo! It's pie time!
So although it couldn't quite stack up to my family's exquisite yearly Thanksgiving meal, the party was a huge success and a lot of fun. Hopefully the same can be said for my next holiday-away-from-home... Christmas in Vienna!!!
"I had expected to be intrigued by Budapest, and to admire it; I had not expected to be awed."
View of Parliament from near our hostel.
Arriving in Budapest after a 7-hour minibus ride from Belgrade I remembered this passage from Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. The city is, indeed, awe-inspiring. Despite arriving after dark, my travelling companion and I oohed and aahed as we drove to our hostel in the center of Pest: "look at that building!" "oh, look over there! It's beautiful!" This feeling of awe only increased over the next week. Awe at the gorgeous architecture ranging from Art Nouveau to Ottoman-inspired and every imaginable combination, at the kindness of the people we encountered, at the great food and the ubiquitous forralt bor (mulled wine), at the exceedingly difficult-seeming Hungarian language, and not least at the great shopping available (so many H&Ms!).
Allow me to back up. I, along with about 15 other Fulbright ETAs from almost all the former Yugoslav states, were invited to Budapest to participate in an orientation set up by the Regional English Language Office. Over three days, we attended training sessions designed to better equip us for our teaching posts. Some of the sessions were very enlightening, others less so, but the experience of coming together for the second time (the first being our orientation in Washington, DC over the summer) and sharing our various successes, trials, and tribulations was invaluable. Not to mention a lot of fun. Of course, presented with the prospect of a paid trip to Budapest, most of us decided to stretch that trip as long as we could.
Highlights of my trip included:
Drinking buckets of forralt bor morning, noon, and night.
Great food, including plenty of Hungarian goulash and some great goose for St. Martin's Day.
The wine! Who knew? Hungarian wine is amazing.
The ceiling of beautiful Alexandra bookstore and cafe.
Seeing the ballet version of Eugene Onegin in the lovely, gilded Budapest Opera building.
The Budapest Opera house: a lavish interior and stately exterior.
Forgetting my winter coat in Kragujevac, and shopping in H&M for a new one the first morning (50% off!)
Rocking my new coat at the Matthias Church (left- thanks, Andrea, for the photo) and in Szentendre (right).
Taking the train to the village of Szentendre (pronounced like St. Andre), historically populated by Serbs (since the 16th century, apparently) and now an artist's colony/extremely picturesque tourist attraction.
Clockwise from top left: main street in Szentendre, the Serbian Orthodox church on the main square, ETAs to Serbia/Republika Srpska on Serbian St, another picturesque church
Checking out the night life of Budapest, including a ruin pub.
Having a "dessert for dinner" night, with yummy strudel followed by a delightful cream-filled pastry at a famous cake shop.
Delicious cream cake at Ruszwurm cafe
Visiting out the over-the-top, Disney-perfect beauty of the castle district in Buda.
View of Matthias Church and the castle district from below
Walking to the top of the citadel at night and having Irish coffee in a swanky restaurant featuring jaw-dropping 360 degree views of the Danube and the city.
Strolling down famous Andrassy Avenue all the way to Heroes' Square, pausing every two minutes to take pictures of the oodles of gorgeous mansions lining the boulevard.
In front of a museum at Heroes' Square (left- thanks to Amy for the photo!) and my fixer-upper mansion on Andrassy Ave.
Taking a public transportation adventure with fellow Serbia ETA Elizabeth to a hilariously low-profile shooting range for two hours of adrenaline-pumping Soviet-style shooting. (This will probably merit its own post.)
Exploring, goofing around, and getting to know a bunch of bright, fun, and adventurous people.
With just a few of those people, drinking- you guessed it!- forralt bor in Szentendre.
So, after over a month of being seriously remiss in my blogging duties, I'm back with a vengeance. After several months of no internet access in my dorm, followed by a phenomenal week-long trip to Budapest, I've moved into a new, 21st century place complete with wi-fi, cable, and a glorious kitchen. Details on all this and more to follow, of course. It's good to be back!
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.
disclaimer: This post is way longer than planned. It is a little bit of an emotional release. Feel free to skim.
In fact, I was having a pretty baller day today. I spent a lazy but pleasurable afternoon in my apartment, reading and studying Serbian, and then embarked on a very fruitful outing: finding the American Corner in Kragujevac and attending the Wednesday-evening English language conversation hour. I finally found the place, arriving only 5 minutes late (that's 10 minutes early for me!) and enjoying an hour of discussion about the topic of the day: Neighbors. The discussion group was composed of five women, including two high-schoolers, a couple of girls more or less my age, and a woman in her sixties. Their jolly leader is Jessie. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the willingness and ease with which they conversed, and the hour passed with funny stories about the best and worst types of neighbors and plenty of laughter.
Then Marija, one of the participants, and Jessie and I went out for coffee at the ever-popular Costa Coffee (the Starbucks-like chain across the street from my dorm). It was very, very nice to spend some informal chat time with two very proficient English speakers. It felt... normal. It felt like having friends feels, and it felt really good. Suddenly, the prospect of making friends in Kragujevac (which I had been diligently assuring myself would happen any day now) shifted from an abstract theory to a very real and immediate prospect. Jessie regaled me of stories of the Americans she has befriended here in Kragujevac (some basketball players and soccer players here on one-year contracts, apparently). She promised to introduce me to a Chinese teacher who is living in my dorm, and mentioned that apparently there is a student from England here. Marija suggested that I might enjoy an outing with her mountaineering club some weekend. In short, a very fun and relaxing evening.
And then it was time for me to go back to my dorm. I had big plans to check my e-mail, facebook, write a blog post, do some Serbian, maybe watch a tv show or read before bed.
And then... everything went wrong. Don't worry, not in a bleeding-out-the-eyeballs way, or a guess-what-mom-I-only-have-one-foot-now way. Just in a... electronics apocalypse way.
The internet, heretofore prompt and reliable, had been touch-and-go all day. But now... it just straight-up stopped working. The internet designated for my floor of the dorm didn't seem to be working at all. The 1st floor internet seemed to work sometimes, gradually decreasing down toward no times. I had no clue as to how much of this could be attributed to problems with the router or whatever and how much could be contributed to Macbooks' (apparently notorious!!!) wi-fi dropping problems.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm pretty plugged in, but under normal circumstances I would fiddle around for 20 or 30 minutes, then shrug, close the laptop and work on something else. But these are not normal circumstances, and tonight I wanted nothing more than to connect, however briefly, with my friends and family back home via e-mail and facebook. The prospect of not being able to do so was unappealing at best so I threw myself into the challenge of fixing my technology woes! Armed at first with my iphone's still-working wi-fi connection, I soon lost even that! Undeterred, I plunged elbow-deep into the wasteland of wireless connectivity, where I had never dared venture before. Manually enter IP address? Why, don't mind if I do! DNS? I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS BUT I WILL GLADLY ENTER SOME NEW NUMBERS AND SEE IF THAT WORKS. Maybe if I keep pressing "Renew DHCP Lease" over and over, my woes will end!
Dramatic reenactment.
As you can see, I became increasingly frenzied as I desperately tried everything and anything to get my wireless connection back. At one point, I became terrified that I had somewhow irreparably screwed up my macbook's network properties and began searching desperately for a way to restore it to factory settings (what??? thank goodness this is not an option. I was not in my right mind, folks). I tried to use Skype on my phone to call Greg, although what exactly I thought he might be able to do to help was unclear to me (explain what an IP address is?). Of course I couldn't because no internet, duh!
Why me, Ghost of Steve Jobs? Why me???
And here's the breaking point. Slumped on the floor next to my bed, I pulled myself back from the brink of tears. I shut my computer, thought for a moment, and realized it was around 10 p.m. and I hadn't eaten since noon. I gathered myself, grabbed a few dinars and went out in search of food.
In a stand across the street, I inquired about the existence of sandwiches. "Are there sandwiches?" "Why yes. [Incomprehensible]." "[shrugs] I don't understand.... what kind are there?" "[Incomprehensible]" "Um... is there ham?" "No. [Incomprehensible] ok? "Yes." And lo and behold, she handed me what appeared to be a plain hunk of bread that she had toasted for me. Whatever, I thought. Plain toasted bread is good enough.
This is what I call my "charmingly and apologetically baffled" look
And lo! What bread it was. I bit into it to discover gooey melted cheese and savory slices of ham. It was... cheesy ham bread? I have no idea but it was so incredibly delicious and filling. My only regret is that I don't know what it is called so I will have to reenact the same charade next time and hope for the same result.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, my night took a turn for the better. On my way up the stairs to my room, I pulled out my phone to halfheartedly check for internet access... and lo! There was connection. After I finished my heaven-bread in all of 2.5 seconds, I took my computer out to the stairway and connected successfully to the downstairs internet. Oh, how I rejoiced! And better yet, a couple of students walked past me and greeted me. I asked if the internet was working for them, and the boy says it was working poorly. And with that my new guardian angel leaned down and suggested I log onto another network entirely, sharing the password with me (oh how I love people who put 1234567890 as their password!). He explained that he is my next-door neighbor and that this network worked better on our side of the building. So in one fell swoop, I had my internet back and I had met my neighbor! That bread really worked some wonders.
And so here I am, writing an unintentionally long and probably completely insane-sounding blog post on a possibly-pirated internet connection. I've been reading a lot of my fellow Fulbrighters' blogs since I've been here, and lately I've been hearing variations on the same thing from a lot of them. Namely: this is hard. It's fun and exciting and exhilarating but at the end of the day, most of us are in the same boat: miles away from our families and friends, and spending 95% of our time alone in the first weeks of settling in. I've felt alternating moments of joy and desperation. Mornings where I sprung eagerly out of bed, ready to complete xy and z before noon, and mornings where I tossed and turned fitfully in bed all morning, accidentally sleeping past noon several times. It's incredibly reassuring to know that this is normal. It's not a feeling that I've really experienced before, at least not to this degree- Argentina had its highs and lows, but having built-in American friends and a pretty immediate Argentine social circle meant that the highs far outnumbered the lows. This time around, they're pretty evenly matched... so far. The resolution to my frenzied, almost-tear-filled night has left me convinced that things are looking up.
And in case anyone was wondering, the song that I suddenly wanted to listen to in the midst of my madness:
I've been listening to No Doubt all night. I'm planning to kick culture shock's ass, Gwen Stefani-style.
