Elton John Concert!

Elton John has been one of my favorite singers for as long as I can remember so occasionally I checked his concert tour page. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out he would be having his first ever concert in Belgrade while I am here! Going to an Elton John concert while serving as a volunteer through a church doesn't exactly fit in with what is expected of a volunteer. I debated for a while whether or not to even asks my hosts if I could go because I wasn't sure how attending a concert in Belgrade would be viewed. But, I figured it never hurts to ask, so I did.

Luckily, they said they didn't mind. I had two ideas on how to attend the concert without being a burden two my hosts. #1 - Ask my adult students if any of them wanted to go. If they got me there and back, I would pay for their ticket. #2 - Contact the 2 Rotaract Clubs in Belgrade. If someone could pick me up at a train station and then get me on a bus back to Padina, I would pay for their ticket. I thought my options sounded pretty good. I asked my hosts a few times to ask the women in my classes because its just easier if they hear it in Slovak. Instead of asking any of my students, it was "arranged" for me to go to the concert with a family friend in Belgrade. Turns out, my hosts would have to drive down to Belgrade and pick me up because I can't stay at this person's house as originally planned. This person works until 7:00 the night of the concert and wouldn't even be able to get me to the arena in time to pick up the tickets, meaning I have to navigate the outskirts of Belgrade myself. Yet, since she was "promised" a ticket to the concert I am still expected to take her. It's just really frustrating because I was looking forward to the concert so much and had so many different options that would make this easy. The concert is this Thursday, and I'm still not even 100% sure I can go. I decided to email a in my class to see if she is interested in the concert because I want to make sure I can go incse this other person's plans change again. I am very impatiently awaiting her response as I type this post. Keep your fingers crossed she wants to go!

Of course they had the best intentions in mind when doing this, it's just not what I expected. I've learned that this is one of the biggest cultural differences here. People, with only the best intentions, will do what they think is best for you even if it's not what you ask for. They only do it because they care, so I have been trying to accept it as much as possible. Once at a person's house, they offered me water or blueberry juice (which doesn't sit well with my stomach.) I asked for water and was given the blueberry juice anyway. At a restaurant during one of the pastors meeting, the same thing happened. Someone asked me what I wanted so I said orange juice. She spoke to the waiter in Serbian and then said, "I got you something better." It was blueberry juice again. :)

PS. Here is one of the reasons my house is so creepy. This sucker was like 3 inches long!