Oh crap.

I bought a book that is supposed to help you teach yourself Serbian. I didn't even get past the alphabet page and was lost (and I am good at languages!). Conclusion: next year might be painful.

Also, this is really embarrassing, but because I have heard the same thing from several people my age, I will confess: as a child, I thought Bosnia was in the middle east. It's because when I was growing up I knew there was a war there, and I saw images of people running in terror out of burning buildings, buildings being bombed, tanks rolling through streets... and I just thought that all wars happened in the middle east. Certainly all the wars I heard about as a child happened in the middle east... I knew World Wars I and II involved Europe and Asia, of course, but I just assumed that all wars that happened during my lifetime happened in places that were really hot and sandy (which, to be fair, doesn't even describe most of the middle east). The truth, as anyone who reads this blog and ever had a decent history or geography class will no doubt know, is that since 1986 (the year I was born), plenty of wars, genocides, and other horrible things have happened all over the world. I am only now starting to learn about the things that tore apart former Yugoslavia, my future home, this little part of the world that BOTH my mother and I had to look on a map to find.

By the way, we had the same map, and on it Serbia was too small to have its name written in. Instead it was labeled "12", and you had to look at the number key on the side to see that 12 is Serbia and Montenegro. And while we're on the subject, I can't figure out if Montenegro is a separate country or part of Serbia. And don't even get me started on what Kosovo/a is.

Good thing I don't leave until August, because I have a LOT to learn.