Procrastination at its finest

I don’t really feel like working on my paper right now, sorry Professor Sullivan (I already broke 1000 words!!!), so I think I’ll blog for a bit and fill everyone in on today.  I realize I’ve been neglecting my picture taking obligations but figured yesterday I should not get sand in my camera and today they took away our cameras at security, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Last night Professor Sullivan took us all out for a coffee to kick off the week and sort of check in with all of us.  Then, after a brief search for aloe (some people are quite red from our lake excursion) and snacks we headed back to the hotel.  We’d had only partial success, unfortunately there was no aloe to be found in the grocery store but there was the excellent find of bagel chips.  Unfortunately it closes down here on Sundays, like puts the US to shame in that manner.  It’s not just the banks and official buildings, the vast majority of retail stores are closed and this includes Lilly, the local pharmacy chain.  Reluctantly content with our snacks, everyone settled in for a chill night.  Some people worked on papers while relaxed inside until the 3 fans we had going we’re no longer enough.  Then, as Belgrade momentarily cooled slightly, and Sunday turned to Monday, we sat outside the hotel watching the city go by and doing what always seems to happen when you put enough IAF students in one place, talking world politics.  Quite a good night in my opinion. 

Unfortunately another sticky morning came all too soon, when we were rudely awoken by an alarm going off somewhere nearby in Belgrade for more than 2 hours.  It didn’t much matter if you didn’t want to get up at 7, you were awake regardless.  After breakfast we were off to the Special Prosecutors Office.  This is where Serbia deals with war and organized crime, since these areas are considered to be too complex and politically difficult to handle on the local level.  The office also has to work with other former Yugoslav countries, since many of the crimes they deal with cross borders multiple times.  For example a crime might be committed in county A by someone from country B against people from country C with the witnesses now living in D and the evidence in E.  It gets complicated real fast! There were a lot more logistical issues that I wouldn’t have even considered, like who handles witness protection?  It was also interesting to hear how different transitional justice techniques are being incorporated by the office.  Given that we’re studying a conflict fought theoretically along purely ethnic lines, one would expect transitional justice to have a necessary role in whatever came next but this was the first I’d heard of it.  After our meeting we braved the heat and bus back to the hotel where there was some down town before class.  My roommate and I grabbed our computers and headed out, intent on getting to Lady Belgrade (where the Open School is) and AC as quickly as possible.  A few quick stops for ‘lunch’ foods since it’s really too hot to eat, we eagerly headed up to the 16^th floor to get a little time on the internet and our papers before class.  During class Mladen had the task of finishing our primer on Balkans history, from Communism on – no easy task but 2 hours later we definitely had a much better grasp on it.  Somehow it seems like the more I learn about the history, the less clear everything becomes, especially when the same events are portrayed through alternating viewpoints.  

After class we were done for the day in the sense that there were no more planned activities.  So since then I’ve been typing away for the most part on my first paper.  It’s still too hot to work in the room for me so I headed outside with the laptop to a nice, surprisingly corner outside the hotel.  Spent most of the rest of the afternoon there except when a need for electricity drove my laptop in and left me reading a book outside.  Eventually a need to keep working made me abandon the breeze outside and work indoors.  That brings us to now essentially, all that’s missing is a sandwich and fries for dinner at what I’ve mentally dubbed ‘the blue place’ because both the outside and inside are painted all shades of blue.  The food is good and reasonably cheap though, so they can paint it whatever colors they want! Unfortunately there’s not much left to say and my computer’s rapidly approaching full battery.  These are my cues to sign off for today and return to ‘real’ work.  Until next time!