Adventures in Belgrade Day 2

After an amazing concert, my Serbian friend and I headed back to her apartment. Both exhausted, we were asleep shortly after getting back. She was kind enough to feed me breakfast for the second time. We had the same Serbian specialty as the day before. I am so glad I was able to go with her instead of the other girl. The other girl only wanted to go to the concert. This girl feed me breakfast twice, dinner, and let me stay at her house. I cannot wait until she comes to Baltimore later this month. Hopefully many of you will be able to meet her!

We headed back into Belgrade together. She offered to spend the day with me again, but I felt bad taking up more of her time so we parted ways at a bus stop. She gave me another big hug and sent me off in the direction of the Cathedral of St. Sava. This is one of Belgrade's most famous sites as well as one of the largest domes in Europe. The cathedral was very impressive from the outside and was surrounded by a nice park filled with school children on a field trip.

After visiting the Cathedral, I intended to try to find the bus stop where I was to meet my student to go back to Belgrade. I walked past some of the buildings that were bombed by NATO years ago. I was surprised that the bombed remains of the buildings are still standing there today as if they are frozen in time. I wonder what it must be like to live in Belgrade and pass those buildings every day. Are they immune to seeing such destruction? Or, is it a constant reminder of their country's violent past? Or maybe it is a reminder that the tensions with Kosovo still haven't settled?

After I graduated college, I was offered a position with a government intelligence agency. (I didn't receive actual placement information until almost 1.5 years later). I was recruited by a self-serving recruiter who only wanted to rack up enough well qualifying college recruits to get a promotion. At first I was told I would get to work on geospatial mapping issues with West Africa. I was told there would even be a chance to do mapping for humanitarian aid issues. With the thought of combining GIS technology with humanitarian aid, I accepted. As I learned more, I began to question my decision. There was maybe a 1% chance I could do what I wanted. Most likely, I would have ended up monitoring nuclear warfare or doing other military support.

The part I could not handle was the potential of being part of a team that decided which locations to bomb in other countries. I understand that sometimes drastic measures must be taken to stop violence such as the violence experienced here, but I didn't want to be a part of something like that. If I want the world to be a better place, why would I fight violence with violence and fuel the fire? I certainly don't know the solution for world peace, but I am pretty sure resorting to violence is not the answer.

Also, it is impossible to just bomb a government and punish those who are guilty of the violence. When you bomb a city, you bomb the CITY. Yes, terrible things happened here but now the people in Belgrade have to live with a daily reminder. Children who were born after the war are reminded every day of what happened before their time. These building are on a main street so there are not easy to miss on your daily commute. I would not want to be part of a team that causes a lasting impact on a city like this. So for those reasons, and some others, I turned down the position when they were finally ready to have me start. The building to the right is the American Embassy. After the US publicy announced its support for Kosovo, there were riots in the streets and all the windows had to be permanently boarded up for security reasons.

I hopped on a tram and headed to where I saw a cross on the map. I was hoping to see a nice church and I was not disappointed. This post is getting long so to sum up the rest of my day, I was eventually able to find my student with the help of a very nice bank manager who was willing to call her. We picked an impossible place to meet - people and bus stops everywhere! Luckily the bank manager was the perfect example of the generous Serbian personality who said he was happy to help.