By Virginia Bodyfelt

There is a busy street in my city where no cars can go. It’s only for walking. Many open air cafes run along the sides of this street where people sit and talk for hours while drinking tea and coffee, or čaj and kafa as we say in my language. My favorite café on this street is called The Russian Tsar and it is one of the most popular places for visitors to my country because of its amazing selection of cake, or torta. I go there every Sunday with my grandfather and order my favorite kind of cake, chocolate and blueberry. Sitting there in the spring or summer sun, I can see my city’s most famous statues of a hero on horseback built over 100 years ago. His name was Michael Obrenovich and he was a prince who freed my country from our enemies a long time ago.

My name is Miloš (pronounced Milosh) and I am from Serbia. I live in a small house in the suburbs of Belgrade, my country’s capital city. You’re probably wondering where Serbia is, just like I often wonder where Texas or California are. I can tell you that it is a small country of about 8 million people that is located east of Italy, north of Greece and south of Germany – a long way from both Texas and California! My grandmother and grandfather live with me, my mother, my father and my older sister. It is very common in my country for families to live with their grandparents. It can be crazy and crowded in our house sometimes, especially when my grandfather’s friends come for a visit, but my grandparents make me laugh and they often help me with my history homework. I am 10 years old and my older sister, Dragana, is 17. She is going to the university next year to study medicine. She wants to be a doctor, or lekar as we say in Serbian. When I grow up, I want to be an actor, or glumac, just like my favorite American actors Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler and Harrison Ford.

Just like most kids in the world, I have to go to school, or škola (shkola). I have 14 subjects, attending seven every other day. My least favorite subjects are math and biology, but I enjoy art and foreign languages. We don’t have as many P.E. classes in my school as I’m sure they do in America, but we do have to study two foreign languages, especially when we get to high school. I am learning English and Russian. Unlike America, we don’t have cafeterias in our schools. Instead, our parents give us some pocket change and we can buy sandwiches or rolls at bakeries near the school. For lunch, I always buy burek, a meat or cheese pie that is usually very oily. We drink it with plain, sour yogurt, which might sound disgusting but it is actually pretty tasty, I promise!

We don’t have to attend school in the summer. Like most families, we try to take a summer vacation, or odmor, at the end of July or some time in August. A lot of people in Serbia travel by train because it does not cost a lot of money, but my family drives an old car, or kola.  In the past, we spent many of our summer vacations in neighboring countries, like Croatia, Montenegro or Greece, where I would build sand castles on the beach or swim until my skin got completely wrinkled. This year, instead of heading to the sea, or mora, we will go to the mountains in the south of Serbia were it is much cooler. The mountains, or planine in my language, are extremely tall with many trees. We don’t have too many wild animals but sometimes you can see a jelen or a vuk, a deer or a wolf that is, if you’re lucky.

On the weekends, I like to play video and computer games with my friends. Dragana and I take our small dog to one of the city parks for a walk. The weather is normally very cold in the winter with some snow and often rain so I will stay home on the weekends and watch movies or read comic books. My mother and grandmother always cook lunch, which is the biggest meal in my country when we’re not busy at work or school.  We eat soup first and then have some kind of meat and a salad. One of our country’s most famous dishes is sarma, cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meat and rice. We eat it in the winter or for special holidays. You might think it’s unusual, but we celebrate Christmas on January 7th because our churches use a different calendar. Traditionally on Christmas Eve the oldest and youngest male members of the house go into the woods and cut down a small oak tree. The logs from the tree are burned outside of the house until the morning. Since we live in the city, we hang oak leaves in the house as a symbol. Christmas bread is very important in my country. It is a heavy, round bread baked with a coin or small treasure inside. Whoever finds the piece when eating the bread will have the most luck that year.

When visitors come to visit my country, they can go to one of our many hot springs where we could swim. My grandparents say that the mineral waters there are very healthy for the skin and will keep people young. Visitors can ride bikes along the Danube, a river or reka that crosses my city and happens to be one of the longest rivers in Europe. Visitors can also camp in one of my country’s national parks. Whether a traveler prefers the winter or summer, Serbia can offer him or her many outdoor activities. One thing is for sure, there is much more to discover about my country if you decide to visit. Until then, see you later or as we say in Serbian, vidimo se!