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!