Nazis, NATO, Jews and knowing your audience.

"So are you having a good day at work so far? You seem really upbeat."

Simone, my new South African friend I met at Exit -- and hopefully a friend I can stay with in Cape Town when the World Cup is held in her home country next summer -- wasn't winning any blue ribbons for that observation. She was sitting at the main table in the common room of the Three Black Catz, her back up against the Beograd map on the wall, as I came huffing and puffing into the hostel. The elevator in this old, gray, socialist block apartment has been broken for weeks, and the four flights of stairs are a nice little way to sweat out the vices of this city.

"Yes, I am stoked," I said exictedly, "because I convinced the people at work to publish something about the World Cup." We don't normally deal with sports-related issues at my job, since it's not a sports-related company, but this item had to do with a labor strike, so it was a little more relevant to what we do. But I love sports, more than I love labor issues, and so I was excited. "I'm still at work, though. I just had to leave that coffee shop because they were being complete Nazis about the Internet time."

The new guest sitting across the table from me, who I had not met yet, let out a laugh. The girl with him, who I'd just introduced myself to, was named Eva. They were a couple. He pointed to his t-shirt. It had the letters 'DE' emblazoned upon it.

Eva is a German name. 'DE' stands for Deutschland. Deutschland is German for Germany.

"Sorry dude..." I said, as if the dot-dot-dot's and averted eye contact would make it okay.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me, by the way.

Luckily, these people were better sports about it.

"It's okay," he said, in a precise, clear German accent. "We make such jokes as well."

And so do Serbs (though they can, as the Nazis weren't very nice to them during WWII)

"Did you see the no Nazi sign at Exit?" he asked.

I told him that I had.

And when he left, I apologized again.

"Sorry about that Nazi comment," I said.

"It's okay. Just don't make any jokes about the Jews."

I would never do such a thing, seeing as I look like one.

But the Serbs (who also weren't treated very well by NATO during the Bombing Spring of 1999), they sure would.

(TEPOPY is Cyrillic for Terrorism, by way.)