Moved East

[adam562]

I thought I'd do as is commanded on the main page of this forum and introduce myself!

I'm Adam, I'm 23 and graduated from Nottingham University this year, having studied Serbian & Croatian language (and history, and literature, and cultural studies, and Russian history - which had nothing to do with my degree.)

I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and now reside in Belgrade, Serbia. I don't know why, but I like it here a lot and plan on staying for a long time. I'm working as a translator at a news agency at the moment, and attempting to hide from English teaching as much as is possible.

I've just created my own blog (it gives me something to do during the day - I work nights) and I hope Mark won't mind the cheeky plug!

http://balkanfile.blogspot.com

[markowe]

Ah... Nottingham... The Norrises... It's all coming back to me. Welcome to the forum and welcome to Serbia too!

The blog plug is fine, it's relevant, so link away! Good luck with the blog - blogs are a funny thing, you'll feel like you're writing for an audience of none a lot of the time, but keep it up. Post briefly but regularly, that's the trick, and link up to other people's blogs whenever you can.

By the way, I would suggest maybe changing the main blog post font from Arial to something else. It's quite hard to read - the general rule is use a serif font like Georgia for body text - it's easier to read because the eye connects the letters easier. Or something. But there are more readable sans-serif fonts than Arial about too...

[Laura9654]

Hey Adam, I'm from just over the road from Notts (Sheffield)...

I plan to be moving to Belgrade in late Feb - am about the same age as you, so do you have any top tips for finding an apartment share (I just want a room, in a reasonable place, that isn't overpriced and am happy to share with people who aren't too crazy),k and for meeting people?

[Laura9654]

oh - and your blog isn't too bad! I'm thinking of setting up one myself, just for while I'm over there - by the way of "modern methodology" for my thesis!

[adam562]

Hey Laura,

Welcome to the forum! You've made a great decision to come to Serbia! It's the sort of country that really surprises you and gets right under your skin if you stay long enough - you won't want to leave!

I doubt you'd be able to find a flat share among young people here in Belgrade, and all of Serbia for that matter. It's not the same situation for young people here, as it is in the UK. Young people generally live with their parents for a LOT longer in Serbia, as it's just not feasable to rent a flat and move out - wages aren't high enough (and that's if they have a job). It's not uncommon for 30 year olds to be still living in the family home.

Your best bet would be to simply rent a flat yourself. It's not particularly expensive from a British point of view and you can find decent enough flats in the centre, or even cheaper if you head out to the suburbs. No problems renting if you're a foreigner. Although, you can always go and live in the student halls, if you're brave enough

Any more questions, feel free to ask us!
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Balkan File
http://balkanfile.blogspot.com/

[Laura9654]

Hi Adam

Thanks for your tips! It's a shame the flatshares are not easy to come by - I rather suspected as much.

Thing is, as I'll be a lone researcher (not connected with the University), I will struggle to meet people as it is, so I was kinda hoping that a flatshare would help me in that respect.

So. How do you go about meeting people? Do you join clubs and so on? Quite tempted to try a rowing club - I row here, and Serbian Rowing Technique coudln't be more different from British Rowing Technique!

River is a bit dirty, if i were to ever fall in!!!!

How long have you been in Serbia?

Laura

[markowe]

Hi,

Because this discussion is basically Serbia-oriented I thought I'd move its continuation to http://forums.movedeast.com/meeting-people-in-serbia-t31.html

where I wax wise about meeting people in Serbia and swimming in the Danube.

M
_________________
Odista - professional English and Serbian translation services.
Odista - prevod na engleski prepustite Englezima!

[urbanbohemia]

hey!!!
Very nice to find a forum like this, so I salute that!
Im Anett, from Norway and I have also just moved to Beograd. I will work for as a trainee for an int. org for X months...
I do see that I have to enrol into Serbian course right away, so if anyone have some suggestions about where to start looking that would be highly appreciated:-)
Typical newbie question is also about places to live again, I can see my non existent serb language skills will prove a problem, but again any links or contacts, highly appreciated.I have moved 3 times previous thorughout last year through job, hence Im used to this inital chaos status though:-)
Just to maybe share that I have also lived in Prishtina briefly before I moved here and a stay in Beograd will add some more to my Balkan experience.

[markowe]

Hmm, strange, I posted a message but it's mysteriously disappeared! Well, these things happen.

Just to say welcome to the forum and welcome to Serbia!

For learning Serbian, I guess the Institute for Foreign Languages has been doing it the longest - check them out here: http://www.isj.co.yu/NASTAVA/serbianasforeignlang-e.htm

There are LOTS of foreign language schools and most of them claim to offer Serbian for foreigners too, but I am not sure how experienced they are in this, or whether this is just wishful thinking on their part.

Maybe some of the more experienced Serbian learners like Adam can give some suggestions?

Anyway, good to have you here and let us know if there is any way we might be able to help.

Cheers,

Mark
_________________
Odista - professional English and Serbian translation services.
Odista - prevod na engleski prepustite Englezima!