(... 2 words...)
Passed the non-euclidean geometries exam, and I think I passed the algebra II in june, so with just analysis II (aka calculus II aka multivariable functions and complex calculus) left, I passed into third year. But it's october already and I had no room. This month I combined travel with sleeping at various friends.
One night I slept at Adža and Zaka, on a camping cot, but only after having drunk a few shot of the worst loza ever. I couldn't imagine such shit existed. I'll change my mind next year when one V.J. offers us some japanese rice brandy - that stank like the garbage that could be found in some wastewater ditches around kombinat.
One night I slept in the students' dorm, hosted by Jorge. Another one was a guy from Osijek, I think I saw him on chemistry a few times, or with the chemists on the classes we had together (like pedagogy or sociology). I remember seeing him in the canteen in the basement of Mašinski, having a sandwich with yogurt, which he drank from that plastic cup. He peeled the metal foil lid completely, so his droopy mustache dipped into yogurt and... well, I saw the problem and started thinking about it, being a guy with beard and mustache myself. My solution was to not peel the lid, but use the keys (there are always keys to something in my pocket) to poke two holes, one to suck the yogurt out, the other to let the air in. I'm sticking to that solution ever since.
I wasn't seeing her much, only on days when I had a place to stay and knew it a sufficient number of hours in advance, and at home on weekends.
On wednesdays and saturdays Ljuba and I were looking for a room. I'd either come by car, or we'd go to his city (some 25km away) to get his dad's car. He doesn't drive anymore, he had an accident when his friend died and he was driving. He veered to avoid someone suddenly appearing on a bicycle from the right, and then couldn't even prove the existence of that person. He got off on parole, so he just returned his driving license and that was it.
The local newspaper of Novi (allegedly for whole Vojvodina, but it was heavily into local news) would come out of print around 21:00 or a bit later, and we'd just sit around their lobby, to get a fresh copy with the ads. Once it came out after 22, because they were waiting for the photos for that day's first league football match, which was usually on sunday, except this time. We'd then scour the ads and look for a suitable room, and made many nightly appearances at various places around town. It was crazy, and we've seen some very interesting places, including the attic where Vanji and another guy from IV6.73 were roommates - the other side of the attic was available. The room was so cramped, that the cupboard was the wall and opened into the corridor. And the sink and toilet seat were in the unfinished part, under bare roof tiles. When the woman who was renting that lifted the shutters to see who's knocking, saw my face first and got scared. I had time to say "don't worry, I'm not so scary in daylight", which became the running joke for the next few months.
Eventually, just by the end of the month (30th was a sunday), we found a room, in some old lady's yard, another shed converted into a room.
Meanwhile, life at home went on normally. Dad made regular business trips, specially at this time of year, when there are cattle fairs in Šumadija, he was procuring pigs and cattle for the factory. He knew more or less all the saints by heart, because in that area they give very few fucks for the calendar, their coordinates are the nearest saints (days of), so „the second day after saint Stevan“ is the way, and the cattle fairs, of course, coincide with the days when the village has its slava, the date of which depends on the village's patron saint. Just in case, for reference, he kept an orthodox church calendar in his pocket, because there was a schedule of those fairs inside.
So it occurred that he was passing through Zajač at some insane hour, maybe four in the morning, far before dawn, and tossed a look on [his] uncle's house, and belatedly understood what was wrong with the picture - the lights were on. He wondered what could be the cause for that, why would lights be on at such a time... By the time he realized it must be that his uncle had died, they were already beyond the next village, too late to turn back now, they had a long trip south ahead of them, two fairs scheduled for the day. On the way back it was even less possible, the other fair was quite a way west, they had to take a different route and it was late in the evening.
Completely oblivious of who he was dealing with, dad recounted this story, now whether it was straight to čiča Rada, or he got it from somebody else, the result was the same: he took the fact that dad didn't drop by when he saw the lights as a deadly insult. Never spoke with him again, and we never saw him again.
17-IV-2017 - 17-XII-2025