My View
MY LIFE IN SERBIA COMPARED TO LIFE ON NANTUCKET
Sequel 5
By Tijana Vucinic

Her name is Tijana and she is from Serbia. This is a story in sequels about her trip to Nantucket. Nobody knows how it is going to end, not even she. People ask me every day: "Where are you from?" That is probably the most common question I get around here. After I tell them that I am from Serbia they have a few different responses. For example - "Oh, Serbia, nice." (with a confused look on their faces). These people probably don't even know where Serbia is. Another reaction that I get is something like this, "Oh, your country went through a lot" (that usually refers to the war and bombing that we have been exposed to). My favorite answer is when people say "Oh, you have the three top tennis players in the world! You certainly must be so proud." I have met a few people who have been in the former Yugoslavia, when the famous dictator Tito was alive. They have memories of the Adriatic sea and the best drink from Serbia - 'rakija'. They also know a lot about a civil war and everything bad that happened in the past decade.

I miss Serbia - a lot. Luckily, Nantucket has a similar kind of energy as my hometown, so thanks to the people here and that famous "Island spirit" I don't have those terrible symptoms of homesickness. But certainly, there must be some kind of manifestation of my mixed feelings from being so far away from home. The worst thing is when I am not working, because I have enough time to think about my life at home. Now I miss all those little things that I didn't notice while I was at home. I replaced walks by the Danube with walks near the ocean. I am sending kisses into a computer screen every day. I miss the real ones! The smell of my mom's kitchen is gone. There is no warm hugs or jokes in Serbian. Serbian songs are hidden in my mini ipod. The food is the most difficult thing to handle here. I needed a lot of time to figure out what is "organic food"? At the very beginning I thought that that is some kind of bad, fake food, with some chemicals, and that the labels were intended to warn people. Now I know. In Serbia, we don't have labels that say "organic," because all our food is organic.

Lets see what are the basic differences that affect simple, everyday life. First, we haven't developed shopping online (that is something that I first noticed like a typical shopaholic woman). Then, this was the first time that I had ever eaten cranberries - and I still don't really know what they are. I had a lot of trouble dealing with the electricity, because we have different electric power, so some of my devices unfortunately couldn't survive American electricity. What is really evident is that Serbian society is much more patriarchal than American society.

Here, people have more equality in a man/woman relationship (men are cooking and watch the children as much as their better half ) and also more sexual freedoms (for example: gay parades and gay marriages - which are unthinkable in my country).

Then, one cute little detail - we don't prefer pet clothes, and here in the USA I saw more shops for animals than for people. That was so confusing for me. But later, I saw how people here treat their pets (with lots of love and respect) so now I am planning not just to buy a golden retriever or Boston terrier when I come home, but also to make special clothes for them.

The thing I am faced with every day is definitely the system of measurements. Meters, liters, Celsius and grams are replaced with some unfamiliar measurement for me like pounds, inches, Fahrenheit etc… I shouldn't mention shoe sizes (I am just about to return shoes I ordered online because of a confusion with the size number). Time difference is six hours, so I have trouble communicating with dear people from my country (when I am working, they are available to talk, when I finish with the work they are sleeping). All these things are just something that you learn how to live with. They are small things, but also important.

What is my life like in Serbia?

My life there is filled with love, lots of student obligations and fun. What kind of life did I leave when I came here? Let's see who is Tina in Serbia. At what point should I start explaining to people who I really am? I will try to keep it simple and reasonable as much as I can. I was born in 1985 in the beautiful city of Novi Sad, the second largest in my country. My parents are Jovanka (medical doctor, children's neurologist) and Branko (manager of production in a big newspaper company "Dnevnik" Daily.) All three of us are very busy, but we have a lots of quality time to spend together, at least much more than the American families. That is also a thing I have noticed. People here work a lot and it seems that they really appreciate every moment that they spend on vacation or a day off. In Serbia, we have equal doses of work and fun.

My second favorite place in Serbia besides my home is definitely my university, where I spend most of my time during a day. At my university, I am a scholar, i.e. I am holding a faculty scholarship, which is proof that I am one of the most hard-working students among my generation of classmates. I am a very active student of Journalism and Media management in the Faculty of management (F@M) and I am involved in numerous group projects, as well as conferences (concerning media and environment).

My average grade is 10,00, which is the highest you can get in the Serbian educational system. I am also an executive editor of a student magazine "F@Mtime" - a unique journal of events in the life of students. I was working on a regional TV station for a year where I had my own show, and I am still writing for a few magazines back home. I like basketball, photography, dining in restaurants, going to opera and theaters. I like to wear big hats and pearls, go shopping all day, visit beauty salons, drink coffee all day long with my friends, travel across Europe, read books. Now, after I wrote all this, I miss Serbia even more.

Maybe it seems like I am alone here. Yes, there are no Serbian people on the Island, but I am surrounded by many others who are there with me throughout my whole journey. Next time you will hear their voices.