Tying up Loose Ends

This is my last week of Serbian language classes at the University of Novi Sad, and next week is my last week working at NSHC, my NGO. This Tuesday I had a long final examination, which consisted of four parts: grammar, oral, listening and reading; it lasted around three hours. It was a culmination of everything that we've learned this semester, although we had one major test a few weeks ago (the A1 level examination). I obtained good makes in every category then, but I this last one (on Tuesday) was a little more difficult. Maybe it was the fact that it contained more difficult material that we had just learned, or that I was sick last week with a virus and was unable to attend class for two days. It doesn't really matter, though; regardless of my grades (which, by the way, were a little worse, but not by much), I feel like last week and this week I made a huge leap in my my ability to communicate in Serbian with others. Suddenly, it feels like many of the cases just clicked; now I can much more easily decline the adjectives and nouns in the necessary cases, conjugate the verbs, and vocalize my ideas in Serbian. I feel like I have now reached a benchmark in learning Serbian; I can only get better from here on out.

This week has been relatively busy with Christmas preparations and farewells. For those of you who don't know, this academic year-long program is broken up into two parts, or semesters. The first semester is soon ending; the following semester is to take place in Niš, a large city approximately three hours from Novi Sad, our current location. There, I will have a new host family and I will be working with a new organization, R-point. I don't know too much about this NGO, just that I will be working five days a week (at least) in a schoolhouse for Roma children. Currently, I only lead workshops on Saturdays, but in Niš I will be leading workshops several days a week...I am incredibly excited! However, I will deeply miss my coworkers and my NGO here in Novi Sad. Today, my boss Danijela and my other coworkers took me to a Salaš, which is pretty much a restaurant in the outskirts of Novi Sad set in an old, typical Vojvodinian house. We had kolači, or typical Serbian pastries. I had krempita, literally translated as "cream pie." It was delicious! My coworkers went around in a circle and said several kind words based on our last few months together. Then, Danijela gave me a gift on behalf of them all! It is an incredible warm and fuzzy multi-colored scarf with a matching hat. I wore them today to Charlotte's house, and they kept me warm and toasty in this cold, 35-degree weather. We had a great time at the restaurant; they made me feel special and appreciated--boy am I going to miss them!

This afternoon I took a nap, because for some reason I've been really tired lately. When I woke up, I had ćevapčići made by my host mom, Irena, on a grill. My burger was huge and I wasn't able to finish it. Our dog, Лоцо, loves eating our leftovers...this dog is an exact replica of Jari, my own dog back in the States, but a little bit bigger! After supper, I went to Charlottle's house, where the BYP Serbia group got together to celebrate Hanukkah with Charlotte, who is Jewish. She lit a small Menorah that her parents sent her and we played dreidel with white and blue jelly beans (Hanukkah colors!). I'm quite bad at dreidel, and by the end of it I was quite glad that we weren't playing with money!

This whole week has been pretty busy. My group celebrated Christmas on Wednesday in Цеца's apartment. Wednesday was her birthday and we gave each other gifts. We stood around a Christmas tree and listened to Christmas music...I really enjoyed spending time with my group. We have grown really close and I am so happy that I get to share my holidays with them! Tomorrow, we are all going to Belgrade for Цеца's big birthday party. We'll leave form Novi Sad at 6 in the evening and get there back at...well, that's to be decided later. It really just depends on how the party goes! :)

God bless all of you. Thank you for taking an interest in my happenings here in Serbia. I don't know what I'd do without all of this inspiring support! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)