A new beginning [Part 2] - yoga in Serbia

So my "new beginning" needed to address a major issue that I'd been struggling with: being happy to be alone.

Yoga is hugely popular in the West, and has been for a really long time, but to be honest, I never quite got it. I thought it was just stretching and chanting and that people did it either to improve flexibility (kind of like physio), or simply to hop the pop-culture bandwagon.

Having dealt with a lot of "hits" since my arrival, both my mom and a friend (from back home) had suggested yoga as not only something to occupy my time, but a healthy way to learn to deal with all the icky things in life. So I began reading more about the principles and ideas behind it, and figured: what-the-hey, it couldn't hurt.

To my surprise, yoga appears to be as popular here as it is in the West. Having concluded Serbs are far less openly emotional/sensitive than Canadians, I thought it would be difficult to embark on finding a suitable yoga studio - but I quickly became overwhelmed with the number of studios and amount of classes offered.

After a lot of google-ing and sending out a ton of emails requesting information on pricing and scheduling, true to Serbian-form, I only received replies from two yoga studios (which are only a short drive away) making it much easier to compare and make a decision.

So I had my first ever yoga class today, and of all places, in Serbia! And it was... interesting. Having no previous knowledge of yoga whatsoever, I really did my homework on what to expect, and I don't think anyone really captured the awkwardness you feel at first. Moreover, because the class is instructed in Serbian, I cheated and kept my eyes open to see what body parts she was referring to (like the part where your neck meets your head. Don't judge - I just proved that I don't really know how to describe it in English either). On a more positive note: the place I went to provided all necessary equipment/props. Also, as opposed to what I read, it was not frowned upon to ask some questions and clarifications while getting into poses - but this could be because there were only 6 people in the class (which the instructor mentioned is only typical of cold rainy days like today).

In terms of the yoga itself, it was more painful and strenuous than relaxing, that is, until we did the sort of relaxation/meditation/visualization/nap-time thing at the end - which ultimately made me decide to sign up and give it a real go. As cliché as it may sound, I did have some moment of clarity, and amid all the negative and painful thoughts creeping into my head, I really want to be "at peace" and to "release" all those thoughts - like the instructor said. I left feeling empowered or something... and decided to take myself out to dinner - and actually sit in a restaurant alone: another first.

If yoga can motivate me to do all that, I'm in!... And being able to flip my body into ridiculous shapes is just a bonus!

small step = small pasta for dinner

6-months later: a new beginning (take two) [Part 1]

So this is my first official post.

It has been 6 months, and a few days, since I landed in Serbia... and it hasn't been easy - to say the least.

I had never left home before (other than travel), and had never done anything else in Serbia than visit with relatives, eat, travel, and engage in Serbian nightlife; so tasks like finding a place, opening a bank account, getting a cellphone, and trying to figure out where I'm going to buy all my household items due to the non-existence of Walmart and Ikea was quite challenging.

However, those are the one-time things that you deal with and forget... what was most difficult was figuring out what to do with all my free time (reverting from a 9-5 job back to student life).

While I do have an abundance of family in Serbia - over the years, things (and people) have changed. It occurred to me that spending a week or two with this or that relative once every year in my childhood did not mean I really knew them at all, and it now takes a little more than ice cream to make me comfortable with establishing and maintaining any sort of relationship with people. In Canada I had my own "family" of friends and a well-established persona within my community, along with a multitude of responsibilities and familiar activities to pass the time - but in Serbia none of this mattered because it no longer existed.

So after an extremely difficult, but necessary process, I'm calling a do-over, choosing today to start my blog - to mark the real beginning of the new me.

A little intro

Hellooooo!

Being my first ever blog post on my first ever blog, I thought I'd provide some background:

I'm a first-generation Canadian-born Serb (what a mouthful!). Growing up in Canada, as the child of immigrants, I always felt a little different from my peers. We had a different language, different food, different set of traditions (two Christmases, two New Years', and two Easters, not to mention "slava") to top off my ridiculously difficult to pronounce (and spell) last name. But more than just balancing my Serbian heritage with my Canadian mentality, I had always felt deprived of the inclusion into a large, in-your-face family - missing out on occasions where the entire family came together - everyone but us (my brother and I). In order to alleviate some of this, like all other kids of the Serbian diaspora, my summers generally comprised of a trip to the homeland, usually planned 6 months ahead - that is if some political issue didn't make that impossible (literally: in March of 1999 I had reserved my flight for June to travel to Serbia alone for the first time,...).

And also like my fellow "diaspor-ians", based on our own travel experiences and the ideas put forth by our Serbian communities, Serbia was, in my mind, the BEST PLACE ON EARTH. Every departure was met with the Niagara Falls of waterworks and anger directed at parents: "Why do we have to go back?" and blues which lasted about a month upon return. After I had completed my University Degree, my summers in Serbia became a faded memory as I fell into the daily grind of the Western lifestyle (all work and no play) where summer break no longer existed, and my hard-earned $$$ needed to go towards less enjoyable things, like rent.

Fast forward to 2013 - in the midst of the chaos that had become my life, I came across an opportunity to do the impossible: further my education... in SERBIA. While relatives had always tried to convince me to do this before - studying in Serbian was slightly (read: extremely) beyond my capabilities, and when I found an English-language program in my field had recently been established in Belgrade - it seemed like a dream come true. After having navigated through some drastic changes in my life, I made this dream a reality, and in August of 2013, with a one-way ticket to Belgrade, I said goodbye to Canada... and hello to my Big Serbian adventure!