Ep.5: Interview with a Canadian Girl in Serbia

We are Ivana and Maki, your hosts.

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hello swan no hello do you know swan in

serbia love the book yeah the book with p

there you go i like that's nice i like it do you want to

introduce we are ivana and of the Yamaki.

I don't want to change that.

Yeah, that's true.

We're so bad at intros.

I think you just, yeah, we'll get there.

Maybe season 10.

Who knows?

But we have a great guest today.

She is an artist, a comedian to me, celebrity in Serbia.

and we have a lot of questions to ask you okay so first of

all we would like to know

like who you are like okay did you end up in Serbia okay well

I'm a Canadian girl who is living in Canada all my life and I've

stayed in North America my entire life and so my partner at the time

we were trying to leave Canada

so I could go explore Europe for the first time ever.

So we came to, I'm gonna make this

a long story short, but we came to Europe.

He wanted to give me the greatest experience of a lifetime.

So we started north and we're going to make our way down.

And so we went every month, went to a new country.

And then we were in Budapest at the time

and realized our Schengen zone days were up.

So we either had to go back to Canada

or go to a non-EU country.

So we did a little research and Serbia was the the best option so

we said we're going to Serbia and I was like where where's

what's Serbia like I was I admit my ignorance like I was one of

those like stupid American people who

didn't even know what Serbia was and then so we came to Serbia and

I was like what is this place

it's so different than any place I had ever been like the outside you

know it's the infrastructure

is not the most you know glamorous as like say other countries in Switzerland

and things like that but there was something so different about Serbia like that

I could feel the moment that I

had got here and so I first planned to stay a year and then

a year turned into two years and then

two years and three years and now I'm almost like on my fifth year

going into my fifth year here and

I'm and I can't believe it I was here this long and like thinking

back of all my experience I can see how much I've grown because of

Serbia like I can't imagine my life now without Serbia

being like the main segment of my like growth from a child to an

adult woman that's true yeah

sorry yeah like I came to Serbia as like an immature girl who didn't

even know with like

anything of the Balkans or where it was and now I feel like I've

matured into a woman thank you to I guess, you know, Serbia,

because I think that the women in Serbia are

are so fascinating.

And I, ever since I came here, I've always observed, like, there's something about

the Serbian women.

Like, I don't, what is that thing about them?

I just didn't know what it was.

And I don't know,

I just, the more observed, and I just saw this such a special country

and like the people so, so full of like soul.

And I just loved it.

So I love staying here.

And, but for the first of a while I was very insecure you know

being almost like an alien and like not like anyone else and

didn't know the language but in the last year I started to feel more

comfortable which is why I

started to really start uh I wanted to make these videos to express my

experience here and what I

learned and observed and so okay I need to say something this is super

shocking for me because I always thought as you all speak Serbian from time

to time in your videos I thought you have

some relative here like yeah like your baka is Serbian or I was expecting

a family connection

actually I was like a lot of people probably half Serbian I was saying

to myself I mean I

I'm so surprised right now about this story yeah no I have no Serbian

anywhere in my family at all like none and so and I grew up

I didn't know any other languages besides English so for me

learning Serbian is quite difficult so my videos I I like I write the

script I have some of my

followers help me with the words and I like practice them and then I

create the video and

sometimes it takes like 100 takes till I get it right yeah but it's

so impressive honestly because

I thought literally you had as you said like the grandma who's telling you

like or you you like you spend hours listening to these phrases,

like very spontaneous, and then you know how to act them out.

And I

I just thought okay

you're a Serbian just a bit rusty but like you basically experienced that and

like had this

your whole life and ended up being like yeah quite impressive but I think

um yeah I wanted to say

that it's really you being in Serbia like you being anywhere living outside of

for a while not for like just a month I think this is the

your country

best thing you can do for yourself I think so too because that's really

how you grow right I mean yeah that's yeah because yeah yeah

oh and I was gonna say when I went back to Canada once for

a visit and I could really tell like how

much I've changed by going back to my hometown and how everybody there was

basically the same

but like me coming now after I've I've like become a Serbian I felt

like different not in the not in a better way towards them but like

myself I love who I became like I really needed it it's

like I came I was ended up in Serbia for a reason yeah so

beautiful story you've got yeah wherever

you go you this is gonna if you even if you decide to stay

or go this is gonna be a place where you

like matured right yeah I got to know who you are so it's always

gonna be your home in a way yeah and even like when I do

like go traveling to other countries I do you know I miss Serbia like

there's just some thing here that other countries don't have yeah it's a really

special country yeah and so I like I know with my videos like I've

made over 100 videos now and I and I still

have so many ideas still to get out into like short 30 second videos

like there's endless ideas year because this country is so colorful and rich with

so much you know jokes and history

oh no caring this is so much

So you lagged a bit.

Sorry, I think I skipped like the last part.

But you said it was like such a rich country, so many topics to

like, like go through and so many ideas, right?

That's what you're saying.

Yeah. Yeah. Like the, like the endless ideas here for video content.

I'm curious to learn when actually this idea popped up in your mind,

like to create these Canada versus Serbia videos.

How did you come up with the idea and how long did you think

about it first

and then you started doing it?

Well, I was working in marketing for a long time for a supplement company

was in charge of creating their content.

and I

so I kind of got in this flow of making being a content creator

and then I realized like I want

to do this for myself instead of for another company so I decided to

quit my job and thought

I would I'll just you know I'll take some time off and just play

and make some content so I tried

some things that didn't really work so I decided to pivot and I thought

since I'm in Serbia I'll

make some Serbian content and because the rest of the world is so misinformed

really of what is what Serbia is like and I thought I'm going to

start making some videos you know about Serbia that I didn't I actually didn't

even intend for them to be funny I didn't think I was

funny at all like I'm not really a funny person so I decided to

make one video the first video

that I made it just it took off the first video I was like

wow like these people really love like

love this this video I better make another one so the more I got

into that I'm going to make videos every time I got an idea or

walk down the street and see something I'll just write it down and

my list just kept getting bigger and bigger and then when I would come

to create the video

I didn't intend for it to be funny but as I started acting the

characters and you know put

on the role as a Serbian girl it just started becoming funny

yeah maybe it's like the serbian you know the serbs like bring out that

in me maybe

and you know we had a a one of our last episodes was um

i think it was like about guys in serbia

and everyone's like slavic guys they're so serious they're so funny like i don't

i don't know i like it's it's the one of the most important things

you need to have is like they're always joking

with you you know obviously if you're part of the circle and so on

it's like it would be so

boring to be serious right so like everything is just like a you know

fun should be fun and I guess

also having that conversation or even meeting someone like in the first second you

to make people laugh so I guess that that's one of the reasons why just want

we it kind of can be like a bit comical like the way we

act you know but yeah yeah like the people yeah that would actually be

skin idea about the dating here and or like you know what the men

a good

are like here I can I have to

bring some new characters in so maybe I should bring a Serbian man or

something exactly we need

to find like a very typical like stereotypical Serbian name but I think you

really bring out

like a very different perspective because we do have I'm following some of like

the Serbian actors that are doing like stand-up comedy something like that I love

it but the thing is that they

have one way of looking at it but you have a totally different way

and I mean Serbia is not

really like a popular touristy destination so anytime I see someone who

is visiting Serbia or

like staying in Serbia for a bit longer or doing videos like these or

just talking about it I'm every time I'm just so fascinated.

So to hear your side of the story, how you see it,

is just, I think it's just really interesting for us.

Yeah.

And by the way, I tested on Kurushawat's people, like how they react to

your videos. I showed all my friends some of your videos and they laughed

a lot. So it is applying to the South as

well. Okay.

So you, apart from these skits, you also draw beautiful animals.

Thank you. So was it something that you already, you know, have been doing

for years or there,

or did it start at the same time?

Tell us about that part as well.

Well, just ever since I was a little kid, I've always been drawing and,

you know, just always

practicing the skill of like trying to get it as realistic as possible and

developing a skill

and realism. But so since I came to Europe, I stopped and kind of

put it away for a while and thought no this is silly I don't

need to do this and then just recently I started again and just

for fun because I was at in the mall and I saw some colored

pencils and I was like oh my gosh I

want to I want to draw again for fun and then I started drawing

and then I for me I was really shy

to share that my drawings on Instagram but I thought okay I'll just do

so and see what people

think and then just really loved it so I started doing more and more

and then and it was fun to get see people's reaction get their feedback

and well I love them thank you because I have like

so the first time I heard about you was actually when we did an

episode on I think it was something man I can't really remember something it

was something about animals I don't know I have

this one t-shirt that has a links on it yeah oh really yes and

it's it's kind of like a very

similar way that you're drawing and I bought it in in Germany because I

just love cats so I was like Yeah, okay.

Yeah, so it's like a visited place

where have like

have links and they're out in the wild and so on so I had

to buy it and then I thought when I saw

that like you you mentioned us in the story that you inspired us I

thought oh my god she's drawing

she must she must be drawing my links exactly that was oh my god

but it was uh but it's exactly like the style that I love and

and it is like people like uh artists actually drawing and then

I'm guessing like like I don't know it's some sort of company from I

don't know if it's Canada or the

US or something like that but it's like supporting artists um so I love

I love that way of drawing

and I love animals so it's like the two things I love I'll have

to send you a print of the links me too I wanted to because

it was it was the mascot of my rugby team so I was like

I was

planning to ask you if you have sold it or if you I can

buy it I haven't put the originals up for

sale yet but I will okay I'll let you know first thanks a lot

so you're creative before we continue

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Yes I'd love to be creative.

I mean and and like I mean I why the reason why

I started doing YouTube videos because I was really like I'm happy at work

and I really just

want to just do something recreative and and that was like oh let me

just edit videos like

film myself like do some whatever random stuff.

So I it started as a creative thing so and that's how I see

you doing what you're doing obviously there has to be some structure and so

on but like

in essence it is creative it is how you put it together right yeah

yeah it's very fun because

you know I get to be creative with writing the script you know putting

together the characters acting the characters and then and then editing the videos after

and then when you put them up

and you know it's like all it's like a whole process and it's so

fun you know and it's a lot of work yeah it is I think

people don't understand but it's just really a lot of work but yeah okay

what's your favorite part about oh sorry go ahead I mean I can keep

I want to ask you a million

questions okay as I was gonna say like as you're already showing like what

you see as a very

different point like in this culture but what was the biggest shock for you

when you came into Serbia yeah cultural shock um I think it was that

there was there wasn't so many rules around you know

like you know you have to eat at a certain time you have to

dress a certain way you can't walk

down the street here or you have to I don't know there's just like

less rules like there's

everywhere I've been even in Europe all the countries I've been in Europe there's

there are countries that's more you know with rules Canada like you can't say

certain things do certain things.

We're here. Like it's a lot more free, you know, like if you are

under the age and you want to have a drink,

it's not a big deal.

You know, your papa probably gives you rakia when you're five or something,

you know, and in Canada, it's illegal and dangerous.

And, and because of some rules,

I think people like disobey those rules.

I don't know.

But here just people actually, they seem very like respectful of the non-rules.

I don't know how to explain it.

So that was the biggest song for me.

Do you know about the word inat?

No. this has to be your topic for the next video.

One of the videos.

I'm writing this down.

Inat. I-N-A-T. enough is doing something um

is it not how do you say it in spite of no how would

you how would it

would be so do something contradictory so someone tells you you cannot drink and

they're like now

i'm going to show you that i can drink right so like you do

it we say yeah so that's enough so

don't tell me what i can do because i'll show you that i can't

do that right so like it's a very very omnipresent in our culture so

i guess that like if we were young like for example no one's

gonna like the policemen are not gonna catch us if we're drinking they don't