Family, Friends, Romans, Countrymen! Welcome back for another adventure abroad. :)
I started off at my favorite place: SFO. I studied the other travelers at my gate, trying to guess where everyone is going and what their stories are as I sipped my own overpriced smoothie. Because as my sister reminded me before she dropped me off, the journey doesn't start until you buy snacks at the airport! I boarded my first flight to Munich with ease, absolutely no lines at security and barely anyone on my plane. I had the emergency exit row, so lots of legroom and nobody in the middle seat next to me. I passed on the in-flight service because it always upsets my stomach when I eat airline meals. Luckily my sister Lil came through once again with a massive Little Lucca's sandwich that I brought on the plane with me! If you're a Bay Area native you might know about Little Lucca's Sandwich Shop, and if you don't - you should check them out!
I stayed up the whole flight, for better or for worse! Mostly occupying my time with playing Pokemon Sword on my Nintendo Switch (My Eevee named Victoria evolved into a Flareon and I caught an Onix and named him Oswald!) and watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I recently finished reading an unaffiliated-with-JKR spin off of Harry Potter that follows the journey of a young Remus Lupin throughout his years at Hogwarts and recounts his adventures with James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew as the Marauders so I was in the mood to see some of those characters again! Then I was in Munich for about an hour or so (ironically during that same hour my parents were also at the Munich airport coming home from Portugal! We face-timed but didn't run into each other). I was begging to drag on my flight to Belgrade, the time difference finally catching up with me but I was determined not to sleep until at least 9pm!
I met Ivan at the airport, he's the owner of my apartment that I am renting for these next few months and he was kind enough to offer me a ride from the airport to the apartment so he could show me how to get in and use the somewhat more temperamental appliances. Ivan is great and absolutely 100% Serbian. He pulled up in his silver Fiat wearing sweat pants and a tie-dye shirt, his goatee and sunglasses rounding out the outfit. He asked me to pick the music because he doesn't listed to the "local pop trash" and like American punk rock. So I picked Green Day, feeling it a safe option that everyone likes. Ivan is one of the most accommodating Airbnb hosts I've seen so far, he even let me roll the windows down in the car, in spite of the risk of Promaja (or in English - the deadly draft that kills).
The apartment is great - one has to walk through a locked gate before even entering the courtyard/parking lot in front of the building and I'm all the way on the top (6th) floor so I feel very safe. And thankfully there's a tiny elevator too. My apartment is small, but I've never lived all alone before, so it feels large! Two bedrooms, one living room, kitchen, and bathroom is really more than enough space for me! A two-top electric stove, an oven, dishwasher, fridge/freezer adorn the kitchen and Ivan was kind enough to leave me a few boxes of tea, a half bag of sugar and flour, two apples and two bananas, half a bottle of red wine (the first half drunk by whom? I do not know!), and a full bottle of Peach Rakija (the Serbian hard liquor that can get you through cold winters, hard times, and staves off the Promaja).
Needless to say I did a little grocery shopping myself on my first day. I didn't go far, there's a small store just down the street from me where I grabbed a bag of pasta, a box of cereal, a jar of peanut butter, and a box of milk. Delirious and jet-lagged while shopping, apparently these are my most important kitchen essentials. Luckily I stopped at the little bakery next door for a more well rounded dinner of some bread. I am proud to say though that I did make it to 9pm! Sleeping soundly for about 7 and a half hours only waking once briefly at 11pm to the sound of thunder and the flashes of lightning outside my window! I'm glad I packed my rain boots!
So now it's nearly 6:30am, I've been up for two hours and I have a lot to do today! Including unpacking and decorating, a more well rounded grocery trip, and checking into the local police station so they can give me a White Card, or a temporary ID card so they know that I'm allowed to be there. And tonight for dinner I am meeting up with my cousins who live here in Belgrade. This week's goals are to figure out the bus system and route my trip to my school and back so next week I know how to do it and maybe explore my local are a little bit more. Find the good bakeries, coffee shops, and restaurants. Check out the museums and malls and all that jazz. I'll keep you posted ;)