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Searching for a dictionary

During my first week in Belgrade, I've been disappointed with how many of the words I look for don't show up in either of my two dictionaries. So on Saturday, I decided to go find a monolingual Serbian dictionary. This was not easy, but it was fun. Belgrade has lots and lots of small bookstores, each with its own specialized inventory. I walked past several bookstores that appeared to sell more art supplies than books, and I actually visited four others before I found what I was looking for. It was a challenge even describing it to the salespeople. Even with the some of the salespeople who spoke English.  The third bookstore I tried is right next to the hotel I was in during my first visit to Belgrade. I bought a pocket bilingual dictionary that visit. The same salesperson was there, and he remembered me. I told him what I was looking for, and he recommended a dictionary for me. They didn't have it in stock, but he checked the inventory of some of their other store
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Crossing the street

Crossing the street is one of those everyday activities that shows a lot about a culture. In the US, when we come to a "Don't Walk" sign, we stop and look around. If there are no cars in any direction, we will usually just start walking anyway. (No big deal.) In Denmark, I saw large groups of pedestrians wait for the walk signal on empty streets even at 4:00am. In Serbia, I've seen something in between these two. There's a traffic light on the way home from my office. This is one of those intersections that has a countdown until the light turns green. At first, when the countdown is at 70 seconds or so, everyone stands and waits. When the countdown gets to 40 seconds, people start getting restless and looking around. Finally, when it gets to 20 seconds, people stop waiting and start to cross. But even then, there are some people who insist on waiting until the light turns green. One night in particular, as I was part of the rule-breaking group, I saw a youn
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Belgrade Marathon

My plan for Saturday was to visit a Toastmasters meeting. There was one big problem: all the buses were shut down for the Belgrade Marathon. The finish line for the half marathon was right outside my door. So I started walking towards the place where Toastmasters.org says the meetings are held. I was hoping I would be able to get outside the marathon zone and find a bus or taxi to get me to the meeting on time. Unfortunately, the route of the marathon very closely followed the bus route to my destination. I walked across a bridge that was part of the marathon route. This would have been a good time for me to take photos. Saturday was by far the nicest weather since I've been here, sunny but still a bit chilly. The view of the river is striking, and the view on the bridge was unusually festive because of the marathon. There were lots of ordinary pedestrians walking across, and a steady stream of marathon runners. In the middle of the bridge was a tent with lots of water bott
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Welcome

This blog is a travelogue of my time living in Belgrade. It's an alternative to spamming my friends on Facebook. I will post photos and tell whatever stories I think would be fun to share. My first week in Belgrade has coincided with unseasonably cold weather, along with quite a bit of rain.
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