Am I Here or There

To briefly introduce myself I have been living in NY for the last 5 years now and for the most part I lived among Serbians. I have lived in a primarily East European neighborhood a melting pot of Russian, Bosnian, Serbian and Romanian families all here to fight to the death to succeed in NY and bring back a decent life savings to their families and country. I really received first hand experiences witnessing and interacting with my fellow Serbian neighbors, roommates and roommates' friends. I tasted my first rakija in the cold winter of 05 in our apartment when my roommate's father was visiting from Kraguyavic and he brought us this highly intense, peach flavored alcohol. Now, I can tolerate a few more drinks than your average lightweight, but when it comes to this domestic brandy, I could have blown fire out of my mouth, nose and ears after one sip! Wow, what a party that night turned into. All I remember of that party is the endless rumbling of my roommate's father and brother debating (I think? or just talking...it's so hard to tell sometimes) going on in the background as a our small boom box in the living room was jumping off it's stand with a high pitched scweal of a gypsy orchestra ringing in my ears! I felt like if I closed my eyes and open them instantly, I would find myself sitting in the middle of a restaurant in Kraguyavic bustling with the warmth and passion...Serbian family love.

I also learned my first couple of Serbian words: zdravo, dobro utro, molim vas and hvala.

At the time, these words clumsily fell off my tongue as my hangover from the night before got the better of me. Damn that rakija....(In my blogs to come, you'll learn that I am now a devoted fan and quite a connoisseur of this brandy, in all it's flavors and from various regions.)

As I began to understand the culture and attended many apartment parties, which were a preferred favorite amongst my Serb friends, I really felt that I blended in nicely. At first glance Serbians that I met actually thought I was Serb, probably because my hair, skin and eyes and physical makeup are pretty similar to theirs, but I think I fit into their very cool, chic, politically-socially savvy apartment parties. It was great fun, and I also noticed how fashionably perfect both the guys and girls were. Wow, Americans need to learn from Serbs on how to make an outfit pop! I mean forget Gap and Banana Republic. The more perfectly tailored, the better.

Serb fashion comes just as close as French fashion, but it would be a shame to compare the 2 countries' fashion. I think French fashion is a bit more conservative and beautifully subtle, which really compliments the small hints of Parisian flare throughout the city, like the areas Le Marais, L'Avenue Montaigne, Les Halles. Serbian fashion is extreme with color, edginess and a confident indifference as to say, look at me now, look at me hard, cuz it will only last for a second before you can't look anymore. This purely reflects the zapping attitude of Belgrade, which I won't go into detail describing..I'll save for later blogs.