Tell me about your country

[Pete > You]

A lot of your posting makes Serbia seem as realistically depressing as I assume it is. Would you mind talking a little more about it if that is the case and you don't mind?

Also, what do you mean by this?

- got fucked over by holidays in the process of getting new shoes

[xmoonxhowlerx]

A lot of your posting makes Serbia seem as realistically depressing as I assume it is. Would you mind talking a little more about it if that is the case and you don't mind?

No problems about talking about it, it's cool that you at least had an image of the country in your head. Most USA folk don't even know where Serbia is located, much less what is the situation like here.
Anyways, yes it is extremely depressing, but then again joyful at some points. People usually imagine a soviet-like redneck state, but it's far far from it. You can get some basic, top of the head answers about some stuff you might be interested in, in the Protestant interview on my blog (actually the "Protestant interviewed NWNP" post). Is there something specific you want to discuss?

- got fucked over by holidays in the process of getting new shoes

Hm, looking at that, I kinda wrote it in a confusing manner.
Some relatives from Italy are about to come over and I wanted to order new shoes through an Italian website with some rad discount,plus they would bring those so no shipping costs. But the fucking store won't ship orders due to holidays until it is far too late for the said relatives to bring them over.

[Pete > You]

During the 70s and 80s, where I lived in New Jersey was the big spot for Yugoslavian immigrants, overwhelmingly Croatians though. My two best friends are first generation Croatians. Plus being a first generation Italian in America, I know that back home in the mother country a lot of the Balkan people are starting to come over. I'm also a quarter Greek and Greece is right there. So I guess I have a somewhat better idea of what the region is like than the average American, and I don't think you're a bunch of Soviet-like rednecks.

One of my main areas of interest in my studies is Bill Clinton's rules of engagement during the Balkan wars where he specifically targeted the media and intellectual backing of the Serbs. I find the lack of thought in America over this to be insane.

I guess what I'd like to know is the same thing I asked the Filipino posters here; what's daily life like there? I realize that's a broad question, but just talk about whatever you'd like me to know.

As for the shoe thing, Italians will use any excuse they can to not do work. I suspect this is the case for most of Europe anyway though.

[xmoonxhowlerx]

Well, being that Bill Clinton meddled his fingers into the wars here contributed a lot to the American image of Serbia as a back-drop, communist, war riddled country. And yeah, 90's were like that here, we had a power hungry maniac for a president and I am pretty sure that even some future generations will definitely feel the ripples of his work. A good way to actually see and feel what was it like here (if you are that much interested in the topic) is to plunge into Serbian cinematography, quite a lot of movies portray the way of life in the 90's very well.

As for daily life...if you are a student (like me) you are bound to just hit the books and be dependent of your parents or whoever for cash, since both studying and having some shitty part-time job is nigh impossible, mainly because those kind of jobs suck here. I tried working one time in an internet cafe, it was nearly a 9-10 hours of rape work for a very low pay and to make matters worse, that low pay ends out to nothing since prices here are extremely high.
Hitting the books is also quite turbulent, since the education system here is brutal in terms of the sheer vastness of knowledge that you have to insert into your brain. Plus, the very system is not very well determined in the forms of education rules, so basically you don't know whether your marks are good enough to be on the faculty's budget or will you have to spend like a 1000 euros to enlist for the next year of studies. The sad thing is that once you actually brake your spine and finish college or university or whatever, there is literally no job waiting for you in the field in which you graduated. No wonder a lot of people actually run out of the country, since their knowledge and skills are much more praised in the rest of the world. If you end up here, you go and work some random job (if any), absolutely outside your expertise. I know a molecular biologist with an average mark of 10, who can't find a job and he has no money to go somewhere else. Pretty sad.
If you are a working man, it goes half way. Either you are a nine to five with an extremely good pay (extremely good is somewhere around 800 euros here) or you are working 8+ hours a day, but with some insane shifts for a shit pay (ranging from 200 to 300 euros). Sadly, the latter are 90% here.
The bills and prices are what actually make life hard here. On average you need somewhere around 170 euros a month to pay the bills. Do the math when you have a 300 euro pay check.
This is just all of the top of my head, don't know if that was what you wanted to hear. Ask away, I'm up for discussions.

[Pete > You]

Sounds like America but with less pay and more inflation.

[forzamadrid]

in one sentence: It sucks in here.


Still, I wouldn't leave my country for anything. Nothing changes the fact that everything I love I found on filthy Philippine, soil. Ergo I guess I still love my country.

[crowquill]

Sweden is cold as fuck, depressing as fuck, I don't know what more to say. The screamo scene sucks around here, no fun shows EVER, fuck life.

[xmoonxhowlerx]

Sweden is cold as fuck, depressing as fuck, I don't know what more to say. The screamo scene sucks around here, no fun shows EVER, fuck life.

I'd bitchslap you right now. Sweden has an amazing screamo scene dewd<3

[untitled6]

Depends on where in Sweden he lives. It's a pretty large country.

[Pete > You]

I really hope there is some other reason you consider your country depressing other than the lack of shows.