The American in Velika Drenova

This post actually should have come before the Greece post, but oh well. Shelby Jo Long-Hammond, my dear friend from grad school at the University of Montana made her way out to Serbia July 16th. Bane, my oldest brother and I went to Belgrade to pick her up from the airport and then spent a few hours showing her the sights. Shelby was a bit tired from her long flights, but was a trooper and stuck it out through the heat and we were able to see quite a bit.

In the evening we made our way down to Velika Drenova (my mom's town where I am staying) and got settled in. Shelby, being the awesome gal she is, wanted to go out and grab a drink. So we walked down the hill and went to Cafe Domino. You would've thought that the people out that evening had never seen two girls out together before. But Shelby was new, and she was the true American in Velika Drenova. I don't count anymore. =) I had a few friends stop by to say hello (mostly guys) and it was actually quite an enjoyable evening. We too, got to check out some great people as they walked by.

The next 5 days of having Shelby in town were fun. We went out to neighboring towns, hung out at home, battled small roaches that had invaded my mom's house and sweated a lot. It was 106 on one of days that Shelby and I decided to go out and shop. DUMB!!! Anyways, we made it and had a great time. My family loves Shelby and are quite impressed with her already learning some Serbian words and are already asking if she is going to come back. I think her answer is yes. Now Shelby is in the town of Sarajevo in Bosnia doing her debate camp thing. We will meet back up again August 4th and then begin our Croatian adventure which includes a U2 concert August 9th. Then we'll come back to Velika Drenova to meet up with my mom, Misa, Bane, Jelena and other family. We'll go out for the town folks to see Shelby one more time (and visit our new hangout "Domino") and then Shelby flies out August 13th.Please feel free to talk to Shelby about her great visit and maybe she can convince you to come out here one day too!!