New Year’s Eve in the part of the world I grew up in was the biggest night of the year. Bigger than your birthday, bigger than Christmas, bigger than the Day of the Republic. It was the night when girls in jeans transformed into princesses and gawky boys became dapper gentlemen dressed in designer suits [...]
Before I left for college and departed my parents’ nest for good, unaware that the flight away would be final, my family moved three times, which would make us pretty nomadic in Serbian terms. Upon graduating from Medical school, Father started working in Novi Pazar, the city that paid his tuition and reserved his services [...]
In fifth grade, we had to choose if we were going to learn English or Russian. Under Mother’s tutelage, I had already started studying German, and I knew how to count to ten in a dozen languages, thanks to a wonderful children’s weekly magazine called Politikin Zabavnik. I picked English, even though my parents’ best [...]
My hometown in Serbia is nestled snugly at the foot of the hills, protected from the harsh winds that blow from the Alps, lulled into a false sense of security. And any road you take out will lead you to more hills and more horizons interrupted by gentle green curves or sharp peaks piercing the [...]
When I was a child in Serbia, if you wanted a cookie, you would have to go to the store and buy them in a factory wrapped box. There were crispy, square butter cookies, ring-shaped and not too sweet tea cookies, hazelnut and mocha flavored wafer cookies, thin cookies shaped like leaves and clovers with [...]
After almost four months in Serbia, coming home to the U.S. was not an easy feat. My roots took hold and in a way it felt as if I never left, even though I have been a guest in my native country for more than twenty years. I breathed in the crisp, evening air of [...]
| © 2010 Svetlana Watkins | Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha |
follow:
Recent Comments