Day 4: University of Belgrade and the Ballet

5/10/22

Today, we had our first lectures at the Faculty of Political Sciences at University of Belgrade. We met the Serbian students, and got to chat with them and ask them our cultural questions over lunch. The FPS (FPN/ФПН in Serbian!) gave us some gifts too. They are Clemson's sister school, and I feel this program is especially important because Serbia and America have been allies and friends until recent history, and nobody has ever heard of let alone visited this beautiful country with warm people. The tragedies and mistakes such as the NATO bombing of Serbia was not most US people's doing, and aggressive ethnocentrism was never the majority Serbian belief.

It's strange that most Americans don't remember the 1999 NATO bombings.

We seem to have forgotten about it completely, but the city chose to leave some ruins standing in memorial of the nearly 500 children and civilians that died because of it.

The lectures given today were fascinating, hearing from professors about the presidency and foreign policy of Wilson and FDR, Russia's security dilemma in relation to the Ukraine crisis and American Republican/conservative party's record of alienating black people and what today looks like in a post Trump GOP.

The students and professors alike were eager to discuss with us, and we them, and I truly felt surrounded by some great political intellectuals.

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Next, we got to see Don Quioxte at the National Theatre.

The ballet was beautiful and the dancers were very talented! The amount of muscle control it took to hold raised poses en pointe was truly impressive.

Sancho Panza was a goofy and hilarious character and somehow made ballet funny.

Until next time.

Ćao!