(no subject)
hello hello. this is my first time to look at this site in months. i have been on the ship for a while but am spending a few days on dry land now, first in a few months. i'm at a conference in belgrade. the city's combination of amazingly stylish coffee shops and still bombed out buildings is astounding me. my hotel is a 1920s socialist style building with crazy concrete and even crazier bellhops. i open my window to find a heartwrenching old woman watering her plants then open the front door to an over cosmeticked glamour girl from silicon valley (a 'chic' street in belgrade, named less for its technological advances and more for its surgical ones). my legs can't seem to get used to being in a place that is not rocking all the time and sleeping on dry land is a new and somewhat challenging experience. the city is loud with the uproar coming from the jailing of the srebrenica death squad this week. you have to look at the walls of each cafe you go to to check whether they are pro the war criminals or pro their prosecution. the hague is either a word of admiration or of detest, and the city is much more split than i had imagined. there are still tanks on the street and craters in the ground and yet everyone walks around eating ice cream with huge smiles on their faces, filling their arms with european brand names and shiny things. and to think that i thought japan was full of contradictions...