збогом

Title is Serbian for "Farewell." Bags are packed and weighed ready to go out the door at "the crack of smack"as Randi would call it! When that might be is at 04:30 when I head to the airport to make several flights back to the mighty Mississippi. I'll get to that more in a bit.

First I must describe my last week in Belgrade. Throughout this past week I went to the zoo, did an Underground Tour, had lots of chinese, words of Wisdom were spoken to me, met new national and African brothers and sisters at Danielle's picnic, and just enjoyed this city that I have lived in for the past 8 weeks. You might be thinking the zoo isn't unusual to ones back in the States. Let me tell you, you are wrong! Have you ever been to a zoo in the States were the only thing stopping tigers or lions from mauling your face off is an electric fence? Well that is what it is like at Belgrade's zoo. The tigers and leopards and you can be mere centimeters apart. It's pretty cool but exactly comforting! Since I can't put up pictures--check out Amy's pictures. The Underground Tour given solely in Serbian wasn't as undergroundy as I hoped or expected from the website. I thought we would be exploring extensive underground tunnels. My bad for assuming such. The one time we did go underground it was to see the bunker Tito hid out in during the second World War. What made everything better was the translations Danielle was giving me. It was hysterical--at one moment she translated "I think a ship hit the fortress" Who knows, it is after all Serbia.

This would only be acceptable in Serbia

Just a WWII bunker!

Beautiful view of the Sava and Danube Rivers

Aside from the slightly miserable heat wave and hormonal rain patterns, my final week in Belgrade was wonderful! I hate to leave this country but have every intention of never forgetting it. The things I've seen, experienced, and learned are countless and priceless memories that have filled my journal.

Here's my flight info if you would like to think of me as I travel back to Mississippi....for your sanity all the times given are in CT.

Belgrade to Frankfurt ----23:05 Sunday night to 01:15 Monday morning
Frankfurt to Houston-----03:10 to 13:50 -----Nearly 11 hour flight
Houston to Jackson------19:33 to 21:02

This is quite literal for tomorrow since I will leave when the sun is rising at 4:30 and land in Jackson well into the dark----"From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the L0rd is to be praised..." Psalm 113:3