Blogs from Serbia, Europe - page 8

What an interesting day. The events that transpired included: -sleeping in until breakfast wasn't available anymore -getting stuck in the elevator when it ground to a halt between floors 5 and 6 (shortly to be followed by Dave also getting trapped in the elevator between floors 5 and 6) -getting lost on my run -visiting the Nikola Tesla museum and being (literally) shocked -Meeting the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who also happens to be a paratrooper -Riding on a boat on the Danube -Taking tequila shots for a friend's 21st birthday at midnight -trying to stay awake after staying up until 4 last night All in all, I would call it a successful day. The trapped in the elevator part was maybe not the coolest thing that's ever happened to me, but it's a ... read more

One down, one to go. Today's disputation was on the Office of the High Representative and was very well performed and received. The long and short of it is: there's no right answer (which is of course why we hold these debates; there'd be no point if there was a right answer). The team in support of removing OHR won out, but it could have gone either way. My team, for its own part, has been preparing for the debate tomorrow: writing questions, examining our own prepared points (which we did before knowing we'd be judges), and considering possible arguments we may have missed. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view -- we've had a lot of free time because of it), there's only so much we can do to prepare; much of it ... read more

A tip for anyone planning on traveling to the Balkans in summertime: plan for heat with random intermittent thunderstorms during the day and every night. Also, do your best to not need to wear pants or long sleeve shirts: it's that much worse, and odds are that your destination will not be air conditioned. Not that I'm referring to anything that may have happened today, when it was about 85-90 degrees and we visited the un-air conditioned Parliament building, of course dressed business casual. That was actually our second meeting of the day; we first visited the Zoran Djindjic Fund. The Fund is in memory of the first democratically elected prime minister in Serbia, who was assassinated in 2003. It exists to aid in international relations, student exchanges and internships abroad, and furthering Djindjic's vision. While ... read more

Every now and then, it's nice to have a day off. Like today. With nothing planned, it was perfect for relaxing, researching, preparing, and, of course, running. We woke up at 10:20 to say goodbye, unfortunately, to one of our Dialogue-mates who had to be sent home for health concerns (to the parents that this may worry: my professor has been taking Dialogues, usually 2 each year, for 20 years. This is the second person he's ever sent home for health reasons). After that and breakfast, we took time to relax. I started my research for our disputations today. The group of teams that I'm in is discussing whether the EU should mandate that Serbia recognize Kosovo's independence as a condition for Serbia's potential EU membership...a fascinating but very polarizing question. I will, of course, be ... read more

Apparently our reprieve from the heat and humidity is now over. I discovered this the hard way by thinking it was a brilliant idea to go for a run and do interval sprints. It was not a brilliant idea. On the flip side, I did get some pictures of the barges on the danube, for those of you who were curious as to the situation there. First, let me point out a few things about my post yesterday that may have provoked some confusion. Serbia has government-sponsored college education, but no jobs. Therefore, students stick around for (mostly) free (or cheap) education, then move to, say, Germany for jobs. Also, the drinking age is essentially non-existant; the last sentence of yesterday's post may have been poorly worded. Anyway, there are only 4 of us that can ... read more