Adjusting to the Serbian lifestyle has been quite the battle when attempting to live life as a professional athlete in a foreign country. Especially when I don't know the language, the resources available, or the type of people I'm going to surround myself with. But, my experiences thus far in my young life have taught me the type of person that I want to be and I'm thankful for that. The facilities are lacking, the diets are absurd, and the Serbian way of life is great, but not exactly "healthy". Everything in the world has positives and negatives, it just takes time to learn how to sort them out.
I have noticed in my short time here that little sleep, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are a huge part of Serbian society. Good looking women usually smoke, obesity is not an issue, the dance floor is for standing on, not dancing on, and the combination of house music and "folk music" is like being at a rave and the worst country bar ever at the same time. Thankfully, they wait until late in the night to play Serbian folk music when everyone in the club thinks that every song is "their song".
Girls sing lyrics to songs in English, Serbian, and even Spanish. You can spot a cute one through the crowd to try and talk to and after they hear "hello" instead of "cao", most of the time they just start speaking in lyrics from LMFAO. Yea, LMFAO is still popular here so I have to endure a year of brainless beats and lines like "I'm sexy and I know it", "Everyday I'm shufflin'", "Wiggle, wiggle..." I refuse to finish the last one... "Yea!"
It's not that they don't know English; Serbian's start speaking and learning it as early as 3rd grade if not sooner. But when it comes to responding to Americans, many of them feel embarrassed to use their broken English in a nightlife setting when talking with a native English speaker. By the end of high school the average student here has been taught Serbian, English, Latin, and a 4th language of their choice. They take 10-15 courses a semester and have tests that would make the average American look like they've never attended a day of school in their life. Try a Serbian oral exam where the student has no idea what day the teacher will call on them to present a 30 minute lesson to the class reviewing a specific topic. We struggle with 5 minutes of pre-written presentations, notecards, and a given date ahead of time.
In Junior High I ate triple decker PB&J's and 3 cartons of milk for lunch, during high school the "daily meals" were the furthest thing from nutritious I have ever seen, in my Freshman year of college one of my best friends thought that a Raamen-only diet was a great idea. Ironically, he was the first Serbian I had ever been friends with. Needless to say, American society and myself personally have come a long way over the past few years.
The food here is all organic, no preservatives, with a large focus on meat throughout the meal. Peppers, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread can be expected as appetizers with meat being mixed in through a variety of dishes. The average Serbian meal will begin with a shot of Rakija (a traditional Serbian brandy that can be made with a variation of fruits and contains 40-60% alcohol), to "increase the appetite" as coach always says. I think it's just science in it's most simple form, drunk people love to eat. Period. As the entrees come, there are all types of meat like: chicken wrapped in bacon, sausage links, hamburgers, roasts, traditional mixed meat dishes, etc. Usually by the end of this dinner process 2-3 hours have passed and everyone at the table is ready for bed after enduring a lengthy, although beautiful, night of Rakija, mixed veggies and cheeses, piles of meat, and of course the most important component, great conversation between friends.
Serbians love to take their time when dining and enjoy every aspect of the process to the fullest. Even in conversation with the server about what they offer and the type of services available. They treat the server like an actual person, not just a brainless teenager who regurgitates food order numbers to a cook in the back like we tend to see in the states. Serbian servers never write anything down on paper, in comparison to our American waiters or waitresses who still manage to mess up a good portion of the time with their "trusty" pen and paper. I imagine their job skills build overtime just like a person who "works out" their brain to increase memory capacity and eventually after repetition after repetition with the menu, they are a seasoned veteran server with no need for pads of paper.
The food here is all organic, no preservatives, with a large focus on meat throughout the meal. Peppers, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread can be expected as appetizers with meat being mixed in through a variety of dishes. The average Serbian meal will begin with a shot of Rakija (a traditional Serbian brandy that can be made with a variation of fruits and contains 40-60% alcohol), to "increase the appetite" as coach always says. I think it's just science in it's most simple form, drunk people love to eat. Period. As the entrees come, there are all types of meat like: chicken wrapped in bacon, sausage links, hamburgers, roasts, traditional mixed meat dishes, etc. Usually by the end of this dinner process 2-3 hours have passed and everyone at the table is ready for bed after enduring a lengthy, although beautiful, night of Rakija, mixed veggies and cheeses, piles of meat, and of course the most important component, great conversation between friends.
Serbians love to take their time when dining and enjoy every aspect of the process to the fullest. Even in conversation with the server about what they offer and the type of services available. They treat the server like an actual person, not just a brainless teenager who regurgitates food order numbers to a cook in the back like we tend to see in the states. Serbian servers never write anything down on paper, in comparison to our American waiters or waitresses who still manage to mess up a good portion of the time with their "trusty" pen and paper. I imagine their job skills build overtime just like a person who "works out" their brain to increase memory capacity and eventually after repetition after repetition with the menu, they are a seasoned veteran server with no need for pads of paper.
I have noticed in my short time here that little sleep, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are a huge part of Serbian society. Good looking women usually smoke, obesity is not an issue, the dance floor is for standing on, not dancing on, and the combination of house music and "folk music" is like being at a rave and the worst country bar ever at the same time. Thankfully, they wait until late in the night to play Serbian folk music when everyone in the club thinks that every song is "their song".
Girls sing lyrics to songs in English, Serbian, and even Spanish. You can spot a cute one through the crowd to try and talk to and after they hear "hello" instead of "cao", most of the time they just start speaking in lyrics from LMFAO. Yea, LMFAO is still popular here so I have to endure a year of brainless beats and lines like "I'm sexy and I know it", "Everyday I'm shufflin'", "Wiggle, wiggle..." I refuse to finish the last one... "Yea!"
It's not that they don't know English; Serbian's start speaking and learning it as early as 3rd grade if not sooner. But when it comes to responding to Americans, many of them feel embarrassed to use their broken English in a nightlife setting when talking with a native English speaker. By the end of high school the average student here has been taught Serbian, English, Latin, and a 4th language of their choice. They take 10-15 courses a semester and have tests that would make the average American look like they've never attended a day of school in their life. Try a Serbian oral exam where the student has no idea what day the teacher will call on them to present a 30 minute lesson to the class reviewing a specific topic. We struggle with 5 minutes of pre-written presentations, notecards, and a given date ahead of time.
There are older buildings from the 60's when Serbia was an extremely poor country torn by a war stricken Eastern Europe. You can tell which ones these are just by the simplicity of the design; cement and metal. Now, when the country has had time to grow and prosper, new cars and buildings can be found throughout the city. Cafe's and malls mark the turn of the new times and one of my favorite places to represent the history of the city is the "Niš Fortress" which used to house the entire city of Niš at one time, now the interior of the fortress is a beautiful park with 4-5 cafes and an outdoor theater.
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| "The extant fortification is of Turkish origin, dating from the first decades of the 18th century (1719–1723). It is well-known as one of the most significant and best preserved monuments of this kind in the mid-Balkans. The Fortress was erected on the site of earlier fortifications - the Ancient Roman, Byzantine, and later yet Mediaeval forts." -Wiki
The river that runs through the city is called Nišava and has sidewalks on both sides for people to run along or enjoy a peaceful walk.
A photo I took from the fortress of an area along Nišava where my friend Julija says,
"Emo kids go to hangout or you can find 'rockers' playing guitar. It's pretty nice."
With scenery like this obviously people are going to feel obliged to show public displays of affection. But really, that has been one of the biggest social changes for me personally. People make out EVERYWHERE, and nobody cares. Not only a Serbian thing, but a European thing. "Love is in the air", or in European water. I'm going to research that.
Cafe's in Niš are a popular social setting for people just looking for something to do, especially on Saturdays from 1-5. This involves finding a seat indoors or out on the sidewalk, a small table and cushioned chairs are pretty standard. Most people smoke cigarettes and order coffee. I tried my first cup of coffee here and it's as bad as it smells, I plan on never trying a cigarette in my lifetime either, so I go the little kid route with a hot chocolate and whipped cream.
Men ride mopeds together, they kiss each other on the cheek, wear skinny jeans, and yet, there are a very low number of homosexual men in Serbia. Women don't go in public unless they have makeup on, and wearing pajamas to class or even sweats in public doesn't happen unless they're an athlete. Skinny jeans and hightop shoes are extremely popular and instead of 1 out of 20 women that are good looking, it's more like 1 in 5 are good looking here. Also, like I said before obesity is not ramped like it is in the US, so that's a bonus.
Gypsies. Oh, Gypsies. They have an interesting counterculture way of living life by pulling their young ones out of school around 4th grade after they've learned to read and write. After they've learned the "essentials" they see no need to pollute their brains by continuing their education. The occupations for the standard Gypsy involves: begging, washing windshields, singing, making you laugh and the only actual job I've witnessed them doing is working for the local garbage company. In such a city like Niš where there is a steady metropolitan feel throughout the city, every once in a while you'll see 3 Gypsies riding down the street, being honked at, in a horse drawn carriage with part of a hose, chicken wire, a flat tire, and a broken shelf. I presume that they just go to places where they can search through trash to find "useful" items and take them back to the "Gypsy camp". They speak in Serbian and "Gypsy language" and seem to be happy in the way that they go about life everyday.
We have seen one other black person besides Randy here in Niš and I'm surprised we did. Because most people that we meet here tell us that Randy is the first black person they've ever seen. I'm not talking about kids either, these are 20-somethings that have lived in Eastern Europe their whole lives, traveled to surrounding countries, and still have only seen black people on television. So different from what we're exposed to in the states. We've gone to public places and had people follow us for a block just to study us. Even had a middle aged woman ask us if Randy's dreads are how his hair actually grows out of his head. We laughed pretty hard at that one. "Yea, he's half predator. Those are tentacles, we're here for your skull."
A little over a month in and I'm trying to pick up the language, eat anything that they set in front of me, and hang with these professional partiers that have been training since they were 16. The age is 18 but we have yet to see anyone get carded so most people start raging pretty young. There are positives and negatives to this, yes they start earlier than what most people in the US would consider "ok" but on the other hand you rarely see people completely blacked out, puking, and sloppy. As we learn in the states, if you're not a college student or an alcoholic, you've been there, done that, and know what you can handle.
On a Friday or Saturday you can expect to make it home around 6 and the bars start to get really crowded about midnight. We got the opportunity to enjoy the "Naissus House Fest" a couple weeks back. We didn't know what to expect going into it, but once we woke up the next morning we were talking about how we'd do it a 100 more times.
Crowd shot from Naissus House Fest in Niš.
When we first came here, one of the more popular questions Serbians had for us was, "What did you think Serbia was like before you came? Dirt roads, poverty, guns, and crazy people?" When we nodded, they would laugh hysterically at how ignorant our American view was. I'm just happy to be in such a place where I can live and learn from people that are kind like the midwest, party like the coasts, and are educated beyond their borders.
In the coming month we have the opportunity of attending Metallica for free, thanks to Coach Simovich. Not a rock guy by any means, but I'm not missing the opportunity to see such a historic band in a venue that I'll never visit again at a time that I'll never... you know the drill.
-One Life
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