MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MORE MEETINGS, AND THE BEGINNING OF THE END (August 10, 2015)
I did my best to enjoy the free weekend we had because the first three days of the week were BUSY. So I had to make the free time count while I had it. On Saturday – our last Saturday :( – I went bike riding with a couple of other people along the Belgrade riverfront on the Sava all the way to Lake Ada. It was definitely too hot (though that wasn’t a surprise) but it was still a good time. It was a nice way to see more of the river and get further out than we normally get. Plus there was a large graffiti wall so of course we took the time to take really artsy pictures.
On Sunday we had two meetings, one with the former Serbian Ambassador to the United States and a leader in the Democratic Party in Serbia when Milosevic was overthrown, and one with the President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development. The latter had a lot of really good insights into the region and that meeting was definitely one of the better ones. The former ambassador was alright too.
Monday was the busiest day of the week. We started off by going to the Serbian Foreign Ministry office, later met with members of the EU delegation (one of whom specialized in Kosovo relations), and concluded with a meeting with the president of Serbia On The Move (an NGO that promotes and supports activist movements). Monday was also probably the best day educationally because all three of the meetings were excellent and all of the representatives gave good insights.
On Tuesday, we went to an air force base north of Belgrade and I got to sit in a fighter jet and a helicopter, so the trip out there was worth it. It didn’t do a ton to inform me more about the history of the region or the current political situation, but it was cool nevertheless. Then later we went to the Tesla museum, which was a bit of a flop but I got to touch lightning so again, worth it.
But once Tuesday was over, it essentially marked the beginning of the end of the trip. We had one more meeting scheduled for Wednesday (next blog post), but the rest of the activities were assignments and projects that we needed to prepare for. The end of Tuesday is when it really hit me that we’d have to be leaving the Balkans soon. :(
BYE BYE BELGRADE (August 11, 2015)
On Wednesday we wrapped up with our meetings by visiting the War Crimes Court and learned about the legal process behind trying war criminals from the war. Not too long after we wrapped up the history portion of our dialogue with a large group discussion, where we went over several key questions and points from all of the lectures, meetings, videos, and readings. Nothing really threw me for a loop here, but it sort of amazed me how much we’d managed to learn in five weeks. I looked over the questions and thought about my understanding of all of these issues beforethe dialogue, and yeah, my knowledge before this was nearly zero (I read the Bosnian War wikipedia page once!). So that was kind of incredible to reflect on. It made me feel pretty accomplished.
The next day we completely concluded the learning portion of this dialogue with the second simputation. My role wasn’t nearly as fun in this one, but it was still interesting. As China, I had an opinion but not a whole lot of actual influence. I wasn’t in the EU, and my one “check” on things, the UN Security Council veto power, was also held by Russia. I just subtly tried to influence people during the breaks. I heard later that I was one of the only people to actually approach some of the EU members to try to get some of what I wanted (France and I had a solid chat). I wanted Serbia in the EU because it would help China economically, but Kosovo could absolutely not be recognized because China deals with its own separatist problems. In the end I think I got what I wanted, but I don’t think I can really attribute much of it to me since people were just being stubbornly firm to their sides to the most part. I at least tried to show some flexibility where I could (tentatively giving my okay to the Serbia-Russia partnership had that gone through).
Then we visited the Tito Museum, which was more of a Yugoslav historical art museum and then the House of Flowers where Tito was buried. Seeing his grave was cool, and some of the art was pretty great.
Then we went and partied it up at the ambassador’s house and enjoyed all the food and drinks that we helped pay for with our tax dollars. I could live with having his job. Big fancy house in Belgrade with a swimming pool and tennis court and having a large staff to cook and throw parties for me… Yeah, definitely.
Friday, the FINAL day, I actually took pretty easy. Walked around a lot with other people for souvenir shopping but Thursday felt more like the final day honestly. Friday felt more like the day between the last day and us actually leaving. I feel like I should close this blog with some sentimental diatribe about how amazing this dialogue was but I actually really suck at being sentimental and going on and on about my feelings so you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that this experience was completely amazing. I feel like I’ve learned a ton in the Balkans and there’s no way I would have ever been able to visit these places and learn all that I’ve learned if not for Northeastern.
So yeah, then we left Belgrade, bye. :(
(But then I lived it up in Budapest for three days and now I’m living it up in Vienna so maybe it’s not so sad.)
