and maybe my study of Serbian will prove useful in my next life after all...

Some surprising moments:

In an arboretum in LA, I overheard a woman speaking Serbian to what I presumed was her grandchild. Don't go over there, etc. I thought about striking up a conversation, but I didn't have anything to say.

Portland now has a burek food cart downtown. I didn't know it was there until too late. I would have enjoyed it. I also discovered a Serbian restaurant. I looked at the menu & realized that, although it is good to see the proja and čevap are available, I would rather go out for Thai.

I saw Children of Men last night. It's amazing & horrifying. The best movie I have seen this year. And it has some Serbian dialog. A refugee begs 'izvinite... izvinite... molim vas.' Later, when our hero makes a speech, one of the revolutionaries responds with a stream of curses, 'p---- m-----,' etc. I started laughing at it - the only one in the theater to do so, of course - and whispered my translation to my family.