Getting Started

After moving away from California and very sadly letting go of a great school and home community, I decided to take advantage of not having a job (and avoid looking for a new one) by doing some traveling, first on a bike across the country, and now by plane, train, bus and foot in Europe and then Mexico.

There are many reasons why I am very lucky to be able to travel to these places, one of which is that I have two very worldly sisters, who both have serious ties to foreign countries. My younger sister Lucy is currently in a Master's degree program that began in Italy and continues now in Belgrade, Serbia. Her significant other, Jean, is French. My older sister Elizabeth's main squeeze is located in Coyuca, Mexico, where I will be going to visit in a few weeks.

So the main goals of the trips (aside from avoiding work!) are to hang out with my amazing sisters, meet and see these people and places that are so important to them, and practice my language skills. I am also hoping to pursue some grand ideas like cross-cultural understanding, examining and eliminating stereotypes and sharing some of my new found insights through this blog. Since I'm actually starting this in the middle of the trip, I am going to start in the present and work backwards, filling in the past few weeks as I have time. Right now, on Friday, October 17th, I am sitting in the apartment in Belgrade. It is raining out today, though it has been beautiful, warm fall weather here since we got here the Wednesday before last. Lucy and I have been exploring the city each day, figuring out how to get from place to place on the tram, discovering beautiful parks and learning about the many times the city has been destroyed and rebuilt. People here have been incredibly kind to us- there are a limited amount of tourists, but lots of Serbians speak English. The lack of bitterness towards the USA also impresses us, as the bombing of this country by the American military happened less than ten years ago, and the US involvement in Kosovo is hardly history. There are still bomb craters visible in some buildings. It seems nearly everywhere we go people ask us first why we are here in Belgrade and then welcome us heartily and comment on how happy they are that Lucy speaks some Serbian! Here are some photos of the warm weeks in Belgrade. If you would like to see more, check out http://s425.photobucket.com/albums/pp338/asommo_album/, look on the left hand side for the latest albums.