Belgrade!!

OK! Now for pictures of where I am staying.

Here is the sign Sonja, Christian, Marija, and Danielo used at the airport so I would see them. Sweet, no?








Here is my bedroom. Don't freak out. I just made the bed for the picture. For those who know me, it won't stay like that for long.







There is a balcony off of the bedroom and the kitchen/dining room. So cool!















This is my view from my flat. So beautiful!
































Here is where I will write the great expat american novel... or just blog.







Imelda Marcos would not be proud of my shoe collection but she would be happy with the closet space. This closet takes up almost the entire wall!







The dining room with balcony. Sonja, NGO Atina, set this up with curtains and everything so I would be comfy. Thank you Sonja!






The kitchen is attached to the dining room. Has hot plate and mini oven.







This is the hot water heater for the kitchen sink. I plug it in when I am ready to do dishes. Cool idea for saving money










The cutest little bathroom.








This is the separate water heater for the shower. Just have to be sure and not hit my head on it. Don't let the shower head and the window fool you. The window ledge hits me right at the clavicle.










So that is my place! Not too bad for my budget. I think they pulled some strings since the director of the NGO, Maja, and her sister Ivana own the flat. :) Totally worked this out for me and I am so grateful. My mom was worried that I was not staying with a host family but this is really good. I mean, I am 34 years old and really like having my own space. Especially since I have been so barfy the last couple of days. :(

Will blog more tomorrow with pics of the town.

Cheers to you all and thanks for reading and for your support of the project!


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On to London!

Here is Paddington in London. I thought this looked very typical London picturesque, street lined with houses and flats.










This is the entrance to one of the basement flats. Thought they had done a great job in a daylight basement flat, no?







This is where I stayed the night. So small and so cute. The bathroom was 2 floors down and in a labyrinth. I decided to bring a snack the second time in case I got lost.





















Fortunately, the telly was in English. Yay Britain! Your own language can become a creature comfort, ya know? Learned lots about Viagra on a tv special. "Viagra: 10 years on the rise." Quite informative and funny. How many times can you have the thermo image of a guy getting an erection? Apparently, a lot!







The view from my flat.








Stunning, no? Do you think that plant basket was indigenous to those parts?








Now on to Serbia!


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Dobar dan iz Sbija!

Well Hello from Serbia!

Sorry I have not written in a long while. Have had crazy amounts of stuff to get done before traveling and then super jetlagged over here. Kind of sick actually. Blech.

So.... this will have a lot of pics! First is my trip to the Oregon coast with Dakota and Ecco.


Okay the one picture of me close up and I look like a crazy person. Fitting, no? Look at Ecco's face. She is like, "whatever. That's my mom."











This is the view from Ecola Park, not E. coli, in the Cannon Beach area. Super beautiful, no?






Here is Ecco and Dakota running on Manzanita Beach. This is just outside of the place that we stayed in Manzanita. So windy but nice.





Here is Ecco trying to figure out why I have made her walk so far. Here she is saying, "uhhhhh, Mom! I am done!"











And she was...









These are some awesome starfish from Cannon Beach. Dakota and I were walking all over these huge rocks and we were wondering whether we would see sea life. Ask and you shall receive! There were hundreds if not thousands of star fish, anemones, sea cucumbers, mussels, etc. Totally cool.





Here is where Dakota conquered Mt Everest... wait! Just a big rock on the beach. We climbed all over these rocks with converse on no less! Kind of scary at times. I kept wondering if I would have to go to the dentist before my flight. SMACK! Nothing happened but you know how the mind works.




This was our last night in Manzanita. I wanted to roast hotdogs and marshmellows and make smores on a real campfire. The first nights were too windy so we roasted on the hotels bbq. Lame! The last night was perfect and we found this cool fortress built by someone on the beach. Dakota made some additions and we brought some blankets and had roasted wieners and smores! Great way to end the trip. This is me and Ecco passed out on a log with blankets. We were funned out at midnight.


So now I am going to do another couple of posts so you can see my trip to London and now in Belgrade.

Stay Tuned!

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YAY! The Auction was a success!

A Big Thank you going out to everyone who supported my project by either donating an item for auction, attending the auction or by bidding at the auction! After expenses, I raised almost $1200! Woohoo!!

The food was rockin', thank you Rocky! The mood was just right as people reviewed the items for bid and made their monetary case for winning the items.

People got amazing deals! My friend Amy K got 4 hours of tattoo time from Lucky Devil for $180 total! Ellen got a Citizen Ladies Eco Watch for $90! McKenna got one hour of tattoo time and a $100 gift certificate for Seattle Sun Tan for... wait for it... $70!! OMG! I am super happy that my friends got great deals and were able to splurge a bit in this really tight economy. Just goes to show how community prevails. George W is a weiner!

After all was said and done, only a few items did not go at the auction but I am working on getting those sold too! So here is the list of things to be sold!

1. Silk Velvet Hand-painted Scarves: We have 3 left in blue, pink, and green. They have polka dots on them and they are machine washable. These sell for $35 each retail.
   
2. One 1.5 hour self-defense basics course for 2-6 women at Strategic Living. This class goes for $175 retail.
3. Wine basket: 6 crystal wine glasses, 2 bottles of wine, and a wine journal. This retails for $65.
4. Case of 2006 Viu Manent Cabernet Sauvignon. This is AWESOME wine. This retails for $150 a case. Would prefer not to sell for less than $85 for the case of 12 bottles as that is what I paid.
   
5. Case of 2007Viu Manent Chardonnay. Also AWESOME!! This retails for $150 a case. Would prefer not to sell for less than $85 for the case of 12 bottles as that is what I paid.

Please let me know if you would like to make an offer on any of these. Make your best offer and they are yours!

Well, thank you again everyone! I will be blogging again soon before I leave for Serbia.... in 8 DAYS!

PS. As you have probably noticed, my project tracker goal has changed. I am changing my plans from 3 months to 2 months as staying longer will be cost prohibitive. But hey! Now that I am only staying for 2 months I am closer to my goal! :)

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