Back in February, we wrote about the Richardson family, a family of five from Nashville, Tennessee, United States, who moved to Belgrade, Serbia. After 17 months in Serbia, the Richardson family is moving back home. Erin Richarson put up her final blog post listing some of the things that she will miss about Serbia and their life in Belgrade, and some of the things that she’s looking forward to in the U.S. Erin’s post is so good that I ended up including the whole thing, because it’s too good not to read — but check out the Richardson family’s blog called Our Serbian story directly.
Farewell
Well, I suppose that this will be my last post from Serbia. We leave tomorrow on a jet plane (actually three jet planes), and by tomorrow night, will be back in hot, humid Nashville. Then off to the beautiful and hopefully cool North Carolina mountains for a few days, before returning to Nashville to get the kids ready for school.
I do plan to keep the blog going, at least for a while. I’m interested to see how the re-entry process goes, and figure that keeping a journal related to the transition for all of us would be a wise thing to do. So, please keep reading.
In this final blog post, though, I wanted to list some of the things that I’ll miss about Serbia and our life here, and some of the things that I’m looking forward to in the U.S.
Things I’ll Miss:
Wonderful bakeries on every corner
Our beautiful house
Our incredible neighbors (the Paukovic family)
Walking the kids to school
The green markets
The outstanding and affordable restaurants in Belgrade
Being able to travel to so many amazing places
Spending more time with the kids
Have a slightly slower-paced lifestyle
Watching the kids develop friendships with kids from all over the world
Ada (my favorite place to run, walk and bike ride)
Knez Mihailova and Kalemegdan
The incredible disability advocates I’ve met here who are fighting such an uphill battle
All of the perks of being associated with an Embassy
The friends I’ve made here
Connie, our wonderful housekeeperThings I’m Looking Forward To:
Cold drinks with lots of ice
Full-service grocery stores
Running/walking without being worried about encountering stray dogs
Going to smoke-free restaurants
Driving on streets wide enough for at least two cars, and always having a place to park
Fast food restaurants (no drive-thrus here)
Mexican food!!
Having my family around
Central airconditioning (we only have window units here)
Getting the kids involved in theatre, dancing and music activities again
Vandy football (although it promises to be a depressing year for us Vandy fans)
Vandy basketballWell, that’s it for now. Thanks, Serbia, for making the last year and a half of our family’s life so wonderful. We are most grateful for the opportunity to have been guests in your country, and to have learned so much about your culture and customs. We hope to be back one day…
