There was a party for the girls in the ballet program on Friday evening. Here are 5 of them, 3 from the US and 2 from Serbia. Eleanor is on the left.
Friday, July 27, 2007
This morning we got into a conversation with Svetlana, the director of the dorm, at breakfast. She and I share an interest in history and she is very knowledgeable about the area and its history. She asked if we had been in any of the churches and we said that we had only seen them from the outside. She offered to escort us to a couple of them this morning. We are just waiting on Brenda to finish getting ready....she takes a lot longer than my typical 30-40 minutes!This changes my plan for the day, but for the better. I will choose a church and a personal guided tour over a museum any day!
......What an amazing day! Svetlana spent several hours taking us around the city, gaining us access to places we would not have been able to go as tourists. One of those places was the library of the Matiska Serbska or the Order of the Serbs. This organization was formed about 200 years ago to preserve Serbian culture, learning and the arts. The library is undergoing restoration and she is not only a member of the organization, but knows the people in charge of the restoration. We had a chance meeting on the street and next thing I know we are headed into the building to look around. They were doing excellent work with superb craftsmanship. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I was not allowed.
From there we headed to the Orthodox Church. It was a modest building on the outside, but from the inside....not at all modest! There was lots of gold leafing, beautiful and ornate stained glass windows and murals and frescoes on the walls and ceiling. There were two in particular that took my interest and imagination. One was of a triangle with the all-seeing eye of God inside. The other mural was above the entrance to the Bishop's room--would be behind the altar in our churches--that mural depicted Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. I knew with certainty that it was God because the shape surrounding his head was a triangle like in the other mural, which the more typical circle indicating holiness surrounded Jesus' head. The Holy Spirit was also there as a dove ascending (or descending--I'm not really sure). On Jesus' knee rested the Bible which represented to me that the Word was eternal. It was very moving. I wish I could have taken pictures, but there were people entering almost continuously for prayer and I felt that would be disrespectful.
We then walked through the park and on to a cafe for refreshment and conversation. We talked a lot about Milosevic and how scary it was when he was in power. Her husband is a doctor and he was forcibly conscripted until they could find someone who could get him out. They then went into hiding until NATO removed Milosevic. Of course there was also great deprivation as a result of the bombing campaign and she outlined that for us as well. She has no children, at least in part because she is a pacifist and didn't feel that a country in war was the place to bring children. She then aged and lost that opportunity. I think she was at peace with that decision, but it made me sad for her.
She also took us to the "Strand" which is a public beach on the Danube. I saw entirely too many old, fat men in Speedos and older, fat women in string bikinis. I DID NOT take pictures!
After the beach outing it was time to buy some flowers for the dancers and head to the studio. Eleanor did very well. I received wonderful compliments on her progress. They said she may have gotten the most out of the experience because she was willing to try whatever they asked her to try, even if she wasn't really ready for it technically. She hopes to come back next year. We'll have to wait and see what the terms of the situation are and also look at the budget.
On the way back to the dorm, we popped into the cathedral to see it. While it is most impressive from the outside, it wasn't nearly as pretty inside as the Orthodox church. I'm glad I looked in--now I won't wonder what I missed!
After dinner, there was a party at the dorm for all the dancers. Then we packed to leave. Next stop London!
Ciao for now!
Kellye and Eleanor
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