Welcome to the world of work

My love has gotten a good "starter" job at a local nationwide discount chain. This will give him the opportunity to work on his English and get out amongst people. He is such a friendly, people person that it has been hard for him to wait for his Social Security and green cards so he could work.

That wait is finally over.

He is able to walk to work - it's only about a 10 minute walk from here. He has the type of job where he will be trained in what to do and will have possible advancement to other positions.

In the previous weeks we have been enjoying our apartment, cooking at home almost everyday and going to some of the local festivals. Here is a photo of him and a new friend he made from a local TV station at the Mudbug Madness festival which celebrates the crawfish.



So, life goes on....we are happy and just working and getting settled here in America.

Grape Picking in Karlovci

On Saturday, we went to the "Grape Picking in Karlovci" festival held in Sremski Karlovci. This annual event is also the first festival I went to when I first came to Serbia in 2006. As a matter of fact, Saturday was the one year anniversary of my arrival!

As is the normal practice at these festivals, booths were set up for wine & rakija tasting, and for selling food, T-shirts, souvenirs, etc. There was also an area set aside for a carnival with rides for kids. I found these leather Serbian-style shoes particularly interesting:

Dancers representing the many ethnic groups in the area were present and performed on a large stage with live music. I had my picture taken with many of them. These young people are very talented and represent their country very well. Here's a couple of the pictures:
These are Serbian costumes:

These are Hungarian costumes:

Here's a group of Macedonian dancers getting ready to go onstage:

This is a group of Serbian dancers onstage:

But, this was my favorite costume and this is my favorite picture from the event. I call him "The Herder". I don't know where the costume comes from or what it means. If any of you out there know, please leave a comment! My fiancé was born and raised in Novi Sad, but doesn't always know the answers to my unending questions.

Several of the food booths were selling fresh roasted suckling pig. I just had to share this image with all of you. (PS - I wasn't the only one taking a picture of this!)

I'll post more pictures on my Flickr site later today. You can go there by clicking HERE It may take me a couple of days to get all of the labels on the pictures because I will have to get with my fiancé to identify some of the costumes and things.

Pivo Festival in Čelarevo

On Saturday night we went to the opening of the Pivo (Beer) Festival in Čelarevo. Čelarevo is the home of LAV (Lion) Beer. It's pretty good beer. Kind of strong, but I am a light beer person. (I know, many people think light beer is an abomination, but Coors and Miller light are what I drank in Louisiana, although I prefer wine.)
Anyway, the free beer flowed and the young people partied. And those of us who are a little older had a good time,too. I met the sweetest old man and his grandson who spoke perfect english. The grandson told me his name, but there is no way I can pronounce it...he said his nickname is "Bottle"...that I can handle. Here's a picture of us:


He recently graduated from university with a degree in Computer Information Systems which is the same thing that my daughter is studying. He is 23 and she is 22...small world. He was working the festival, serving free beer.

There was music and dancing at the festival on a very large stage. There was also a beer drinking contest for the young men. Here's a picture of that:



There were also men roasting beef for the crowd to enjoy..free, so all in all the villagers were having a great time. There were rides and game booths for the kids and lots of laughter as villagers greeted each other and friends from other places. The buses that go between the towns and villages arrived frequently unloading even more people.

Here's a picture of my love with his sister and his nephew:


He really is the cutest thing....

Vojvodina Ethnic Festival of Food and Music

This Saturday we went to the Vojvodina Cultural Festival of Food and Music here in Novi Sad. There are about 40 different ethnic groups living peacefully together in Vojvodina. The festival was held down at the Strand beach on the Danube River. The Strand beach is very popular with the locals for swimming, sunning and hanging out.

This event had booths set up for people to sell wine, pivo, rakija, kobasica,kolač and other foods from this area. Others sold handcrafted items like embroidered table cloths and painted items. People walked around in swimsuits, shorts, capri pants...all kinds of summer clothes and everyone had a good time.

We walked around, tasting and sampling the food and had a pivo sitting at a table in the shade with a couple who were kind enough to share their table with us. While we were looking at everything, we met the president of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (President of the Vojvodina Government), Bojan Pajtič and he was kind enough to have his picture made with me.



There was a large stage where live music was performed by many ethnic groups. There were also dancers in colorful costumes:



It was a very hot day, but with the shady areas scattered throughout the festival site and the location of the beach just steps away, it turned out to be very comfortable.

One of the things I love about this place is these wonderful festivals that occur almost every couple of weeks!

Bean Festival in Temerin

This past weekend we attended the "Pasulj i Jada" in Temerin, Vojvodina. Over 100 cooks participated in this contest to cook the best beans. They worked in teams and represented various firms and groups. Most of the ones I saw were men and the women helped keep the food and drink flowing to the guests at each tent. The winning group were our friends from Novi Sad...BRAVO!

Naturally, there was music and dancing in the large grassy area in the middle of the festival site. Here's a picture of some kids who entertained the crowd:



Native crafts were sold as well, beautiful laces, embroidery, handmade jewelry (made from beans), paintings, cotton rugs and purses and delicious wines from Temerin.

There were red, white and rose wines, as well as a wine made from jabuka (apples).
I met lots of very friendly people who were happy to supply me with all of the food and wine I could possibly drink. I posed for pictures with vintners, cooks and locals dressed in costume. Here's a great picture of me with a local vintner who had some fabulous white wine: