An addendum to the trash talk:

Kyle is the most super awesome supervisor a girl could ask for. Which is why I don't feel bad making fun of him. There are probably some flaws in that logic, but I'm sure it evens out. (Jen can attest to my flaw filled logic.) I plan on doing some tribute posts to all of my teammates, but until that time comes here are three things you may not know about Kyle:
1. He loved the Hunger Games trilogy. In fact, he is haunted by the Taylor Swift/Civil Wars collaboration for the new film.
2. The other day he got to chill in the back of a police car. One of his first reactions: I should blog about this. And he did. In fact, the first three weeks I was in Serbia he claimed he was winning the imaginary blog war between the two of us. It should be noted that he didn't get me internet for those three weeks either.
3. Kyle runs. A lot. And for a long time/long distance. One day I saw him running while I was on a bus going somewhere in the city. I almost cheered for him, but you don't really talk much less cheer for people on buses here. The Serbs were pretending that he didn't exist.

Lest any of you be confused about how awesome and ridiculous my supervisor is, you should just take my word for it. Everything I speak is truth anyway.

Ginger Bread Domination

I've been slightly under the weather the last few days so I didn't get this up as quickly as I would've liked. My landlady says that I should inhale shark oil and my immune system will become horse like. I'm debating the pros and cons of this advice as we speak.

But on to more interesting things: Those of you that know me personally know that I love to win. The only thing better is thwarting my closest competition. The Israels have discovered this first hand and I have become a worthy opponent for every game they can think of. So what is an Israel to do? Team up with me of course.

My bestie, Connor, is a bit on the smart side. When it came time to work on our ginger bread creations he suggested we team up (he had been hanging around scouting the guests) and that we should build Sveti Sava. For those of you not in the know, that would be one of the biggest and most important Orthodox temples and it resides right here in Belgrade. His mother laughed. She laughed! She said that no way could we build it. And so we built it.

We did have a moment where she threatened to disqualify us because we had non edible parts, but we stepped it up and finished with an entirely edible construction. We weren't alone, in fact, we probably would've failed without our friend Val's help. So prepare to be amazed and just in case you were confused about how hard we dominated I also included the other building constructed by adults.


So first things first: This is Sveti Sava.

And this is our creation:

Its pretty close and was constructed out of entirely edible materials. Check out some other photos from that night:

Close up of our finished project.

Our competition. This team was Serb men led by none other than Kyle.

Perhaps you need some perspective. This building was suggested by an American and then built by Serbs...this is what it should've looked like:

Yes, they built it incorrectly.

We made a huge mess, but ours was pretty darn correct when compared to theirs.

Connor and Val hard at work.

The ugly underneath.

The two Belgrade landmarks side by side.

"Hey look how flimsy it is!"

Val is a design genius and our secret weapon.

We also made a gigantic mess. It should be said that we cleaned up the mess left by both adult teams, because we're good sports.

Team Awesome. Two Americans and a Macedonian building the Serbian Orthodox temple and landmark.

At the end of the night I looked over to see Connor munching on the Zepter building. He said it calmed his stomach ache.

We're already making plans for next year, rest assured that it will culminate in fantastic victory.

p.s. This post is dedicated to Kyle and his pitiful attempt to lead his Serbs to victory. 

We also had a Christmas Party...

This was pretty stinkin cool. We stole/borrowed the Israel family tradition of having a ginger bread house building contest. My team totally dominated, however, that is the next post. I didn't want to overload you with too many photos. So it was the Israels, the Stevens and one Marcellus along with a gazillion (slight exaggeration, but it felt like that many in our little office) Serb friends. We ate good food, watched a wonderful version of the Christmas story, and then my team dominated. Look at this:

This is what I always imagined Christmas looked like.

All of the amazing food that Jen and Randi prepared. They were incredible with their planning and cooking and decorating. It put Good Housekeeping to shame.

More food. You can tell we were excited.

The men hooking up the mac and projector in order to show the movie.

Personified cookies. Check out those melty snowmen in the back. They look awfully cute and familiar, huh?

The kids getting started in the bigger room.

So much excitement and random candy decorations!

This was a fort/zoo/something/something/something else. They had very little self control when it came to decorations and design.

The girls being so pretty and precise.

So excited about the castle and tree they had made.

It was a huge gigantic mess.

Like tiny toiling elves.

The parents stayed as far from the mess and as close to the food as possible.

He's on a level of cool that you can never hope to reach.

Him, not so much. Also, squirrel.

So we had a ton of food and building fun/fierce competition and creative genius and then we watched this film. Jen put this together, I take no credit whatsoever. I simply blog...usually late.

You really have to watch this. There are so many wonderful moments in it...also, its about Jesus. Win/Win.

And then this other time (in December)...

Kyleigh spent the night. It was a big night in the Marcellus household. Kyleigh came to make cookies for our Christmas party the next day and Cole got his boy parts removed. Quite the doozy for a friday night, check out some cute photos below. (Don't worry, no photos allowed during surgery.)

We saw Alvin and awkwardly chased him down for this photo op.

This is the mall food court, check out those Christmas decorations. Not pictured: the creepy man with his three beers that randomly sat at our table with us. We left very soon after.

Hanging Christmas trees, they really went all out.

This is the free roaming cat that was just chilling in the vet's office. When Cole realized it wasn't Lola he was distressed.

Side note: I bought myself this purple box of goodness for Christmas. That is indeed a Milka cow pillow pet. He also came with six chocolate bars, including the phenomenal Choco Swing.

Kyleigh decorating Melting Snowman cookies for the party.

So sad and melty.

Look at that guy in the middle with the smooshed face. Perfection.

Cole had to stay in the Box of Shame because he kept taking his collar off and falling into the water bowl. It took a few hours for the sedative to wear off.

Check out that marvelous handiwork.

Let it never be said that I don't bake. I just don't do it often, well, or without help.

Once upon (last) December...

I went to the Belgrade Zoo.

It is one of those strange places that is all at once awe inspiring and tragic. I am not ashamed to say I loved every second of it. I think it perfectly encapsulates both Belgrade and Serbia in a weird, philosophical way. Its an eclectic mix of state of the art zoo-ness and sad, probably abusive caging. Having said that, the charm lies in the perfection it reaches by allowing you dangerously close to the animals and showing off some of the most bizarre exhibits possible. I went with Brooke and Connor and we had an absolute blast. Check out some awesome photos below and then if you're interested (which I know you are) you can see all of them here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2405564140499.2107402.1293000428&type=3&l=8aef8c8fa6

And we were off to a roaring start...pun intended. I would also like to point out that I have trained Connor to take any picture that strikes my fancy. Brooke I'm still working on.

They had animals randomly wandering. They had a million Peacocks. We had to go a different direction because the Peacocks and their babies were taking up an entire walkway.

So, the animals are dangerous. No big deal.

Except when you can literally put your hand in the mountain lion's cage.

This was the sad tiger cage off the walls of the fortress. That was pretty much it...tigers and rocks. Ironically, the lions and bears had equally terrible cages. Lions, tigers and bears...   You know who had an awesome cage? The mountain goats.

This is an explanation of the Christmas story. That back there is a manger quite like we imagined Christ to have been born in. You can't see it well in this photo but that stinky sheep has incredibly twisty horns. Brooke said, "Those horns are like sin." Connor scoffed. I chimed in with, "They're twisty just like how sin gets in our life and twists it all around, making it unrecognizable". Connor was left speechless.

Then we saw this giraffe making out with the pole. Kind of awkward after the Jesus discussion.

Then I put my face next to this frighteningly large and angry cat.

And then Connor refused to put his face by this ostrich. To be fair the ostrich could reach about five feet past this retaining wall. Connor was afraid it would attack his face. Valid concern, but still wimpy.

Then we found a pick axe that was just laying around near the monkey exhibit. Apparently for when the monkeys get out of hand...then you use it like this.

So...this is sideways. Still, look at that guinea pig colony. One of the best parts of the zoo.

They also had lots of dogs, at times I felt like I was in a pet shop.

We also got crazy close to a hippo. Who was in a very small dirty place.

Then we were amazed by this ridiculously long snake. See "amazed faces" for confirmation.

Then Brooke pretended to be a wallaby...and he looked at her like she was dumb.

AND we saw flamingos. No zoo is complete without them. These were in exile with only their tiny turtle pools for entertainment. 

Last, but not least, this is a video of Brooke and Connor making a new friend. On an unrelated note, Connor was trying to name the smells of every part of the zoo. I think this area was "heat and broccoli".