Change.

Yiannis started our busy day with his lecture on the European Union. Being a business major we had learned a little about the EU in one of my classes, but to hear it from a political view really intrigued me. Armed with only my prior knowledge, I would have said Serbia should definitely work quickly to join the EU, but now my feelings have changed.

After a quick lunch at a nearby café we headed to the Parliament building. After all that the US had done to Serbia, in regards to the NATO bombings, it felt a little bizarre to be there, as Professor Sullivan put it “We are like Japanese tourists visiting Pearl Harbor”.  We met with two Members of Parliament, both only in their early 30s.  The two talked about how their parliament was setup, and about their party, the Democratic Party. People here vote for the party they feel is most aligned with their views, and then based on amount of votes, they allot seats to each party. The party then selects members from the predetermined list to fill the seats. Therefore, instead of individual campaigning, they spend time focused on the main platforms of each party. Also, in Serbia they spend only one month campaigning, far different than the two years and billions of dollars candidates spend here.  The two Members of Parliament were quick to answer questions, and even quicker to compliment the United States.  We then took pictures and left for our last meeting of the day.

( Marissa and me in one of the rooms at Parliament) 

We returned to the Belgrade Lady, and met with CANVAS. They are a local NGO who used their methods of nonviolent revolt from the 90s, their group was OTPOR, to teach other groups ways to overthrow or challenge authority. It was really interesting to talk with them, because not only were they able to help overthrow Milosevic in the 90s, they also talked about how they helped work with the Egyptian Youth. The two women offered their services, if we were ever in need of overthrowing anyone (including professors, so they said).