Author: klucrezi@rollins.edu

I left Belgrade on December 20th for Romania. It was after an amazing night where all of the students on the program, all of our professors and our homestay families and our friends got together one last time. That morning I packed my bags and hugged my homestay mother and cried. I was only gone…

My first week in Belgrade, Serbia is a blur. It’s been almost three months since I first landed, since I first walked the still warm streets and cautiously ordered food. I still eat more vegetables and meat in one meal than I would an entire week back home. I was half terrified, half excited each…

I’m back in Sarajevo. It’s ISP month which means its our four week period of independent research. We were given the option of studying in Bosnia, Kosovo or Serbia and I found myself pulled back to the city in the mountains. When I packed my bags to leave Belgrade I cried, torn at leaving my…

The road to Sarajevo curls through the mountains. It snakes into tunnels and cuts along the pale rock. I spent most of my journey with my face pressed against the glass of the bus. I was half afraid, half exhilarated, looking at the long drop from the road to the waiting river below. I felt…

I hear a lot of things about Kosovo, living in Serbia. I hear that it is the heart of Serbia, that Serbia is nothing without it. I hear that the people who live there have pushed the Serbs out, that America is to blame because of that. I knew that what once was a province…

Unlike several of the other Rollins Abroad programs, my program allows for only two independent travel opportunities. Our program coordinator approved only independent visits to countries of the former Yugoslavia and for my first trip I ended up in Skopje, Macedonia. I was originally planning to go to Slovenia with a friend but hours before…

I’ve never left the country, never been in an airplane over open water and I’ve definitely never been so far away from home. In one day I won’t be able to say that anymore. In twenty-four hours, I’m about to do something that I didn’t know I was brave enough to do. I know that…