Monday, September 16, 2013

Cultural Differences-Restaurant Edition

We went out to eat last week and Steve ordered a cheeseburger and fries while I ordered a pizza. The waitress brought ketchup to our table and put it in front of me :-) .
When you order a drink, it hardly ever comes from the tap, usually you get a small bottle or can and a glass, which only rarely comes with ice. They collect the bottles and cans for recycling.
We have been to only one restaurant, and one hotel dinning room that had a highchair available, and then only one or two. We have yet to see a children's menu.
Almost every restaurant has cloth tablecloths and napkins.
In some places you pay an extra fee for silverware.
Almost everything, including utensils, comes on its own napkin covered plate.
There are ashtrays on each table.
You often receive a separate bill for drinks and food, and each time you add something to your order you get another one.

I hope you enjoyed this little cultural tour of Montenegro's restaurants. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the girls in this.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Crazy Spicy People

I am a person who enjoys puns. In English there are words like "right", "old", and "lost" that have multiple meanings and opposites. In Serbian/Montenegrin there are some of those but during my learning, I am having more fun with the words that sound the same (at least to me). One example is ludi, ljuti, ljudi- to a foreign ear the difference is almost imperceptible, but the difference in meaning is significant-ludi means crazy or angry, ljuti means spicy and ljudi means people. Boli means sick, bolji means better. Izvor is source or spring (like spring water), izbor means choice. Odbichno means usually, odlichno means excellent. Ja sam means I am, samo means only or alone so if a person named Sam wanted to introduce himself he could say "ja sam samo Sam" and I suppose a Serbian copy of Green Eggs and Ham (no doubt entitled "Zelene Jaje I Shunka") would have the line "Ja sam Sam, Sam ja sam!"
Please note that there are letters in the Serbian language which my computer won't make, so I typed it more or less phonetically.

And since a blog post isn't really complete without a few shots of the girls, I threw in one of Ruth and Steve playing a game on the tablet, and Esther gazing out the window.