On 26th, at 8:40, the impossibly early morning, Tejka came to wake me up. "C'mon, get up, find your certificates and let's go enroll into the first gimnazija". I was actually thinking of getting into the second, because it was newer and yet not the lowered level as the third. The first was too old, over a century (and yes, we were the 125th generation or thereabouts), so I figured some of that tradition would reflect on the staff and they'd be too rigid and, well, traditionalist. But she explained that the 2nd was mostly liberal arts, while the 1st was maths and science, which is beside the point: everybody is going to first. Duca, Dragana, Bosa, Miljka, Sredljak, Oli Boj, Borko, Vladimira, Milica and Milica, Savka and a bunch of others. OK, she convinced me in two words. It's the same building anyway, the 1st and 2nd only work different shifts. So we got there, she was filling our applications, the rest of us just had fun, some breakfast, more fun.
Between 27th and 30th I spent hours and hours in the photo lab in Zmaj, doing all those photos. We didn't have proper tongs at all, the two that were there have long ago lost their rubber pads, so using them was worse than just fingers... so my fingers were yellow as if I was an old smoker. Don't know who kept me company, perhaps they changed shifts. Either way, I did most of it myself.
The republic level of maths competition. I was among the top 15, I'd say. Of course, there was stuff mentioned in there that I haven't even heard of, so I couldn't solve what I didn't understand. But at least I've been to some school in old Belgrade, on a weekend. I think dad drove me there. I've now seen Ivka as a private person, with no professional relationship anymore, and ouch, was she someone else now... Heard a bunch of anecdotes about Cink. He was crazier and dumber than we had the impression. Also heard a part of the story on why Dragana split with Gradivoj. The rest I heard a few evenings later: she wouldn't give, and he wouldn't do without (which I actually heard from him, when there was a discussion of the placement and hardness of the hymen, though his story had some details wrong).