Bosnia

I'm in Bosnia! I love it here! I really do- it feels so good to be in a non-english speaking country. People think Im being sarcastic when I say that but Im not! I love it! Im trying to learn some of the language but not being so successful. Seeing how Im only here for 5 days you cant really expect much. I found out that the language here is Slavic so I keep trying to say things in Russian hoping that people will understand... but they dont. Its very sad.

Not sure if many of you already know this but our ENTIRE group has been battling food poisening. I think only 4 people didnt get feel at all. I was one of the first to go down... a martyr if you will. (: We think we got sick from this fish that was served to us after we went rafting on... um... man the days fly by here and I have not idea what it was but sometime earlier this week. Haha. I wish I had the photo of me eating fish the day before we all got sick... they prepare it here with the scales, head and tail still on. And for some reason I wasn't grossed out! Im actually pretty proud of myself for that... I think eating crab with Jera before coming here helped me ease into the idea of being able to eat something that I could fully see what it looked like before it was dead. Haha.

I wish I could have had internet access before because I feel like to have to compress everything right now so that I can tell you all about what Ive been up to! Ok, well, lets see when we left London we were flying to Dubrovnik, Croatia which were were going to drive from there to tribuje (SP?) in Bosnia. On our way there we had sooo much traffic- it took 3 times longer than it should have to get to the airport! And then two people got motion sick so we had to stop a million times for them to throw up. Thats nota surprise since the same two people have been getting car sick every time we get on a bus but it didnt help that we were already late tot he airport. So we got to the airport with less than an hour for all 47 of us to check in and get to the gate. We got there at 11am and the flight left at 11:40am!! Thankfully I can say that we didnt miss the flight! PTL! THe flight was delayted and we got there just in time (: What a relief.

Croatia: so beautiful! It was so hot! I couldt believe how hot is was. But it was great. We were only there for 3 hours though.

Bosnia: love it!!! We went rafting on this river and it was so fun. But it was also extremely cold... someone even went into shock from the cold so that was scary... and our rafting guide was cute (: I kept trying to speak Russian to him but he kept giving me blank looks. haha. Finally at the end I got him to teach me some Bosnia. I just kept pointing and thing and he would say the word and then when I would try to say it he would crack up. Not like chuckle politlely to himself- like he was laughing so hard he almost fell out of the boat! I think the other Americans he met before didnt really want to speak the language so I think he just never heard an American accent on Bosnia words.

So yeah after rafting we are more fish and then almost died. We had to cancel a bunch of our lectures and outtings because people were practically in a coma from being so sick. But I am happy to say that we are doing much better! I still feel a little weak from not eating but Im doing good!

Im really sad that we are leaving tomorrow because I havent had time to enjpy the city here! Ive been cooped up in my hotel room sick. Haha- oh man I wish you all could see my hotel room. Its rediculous! It looks Turkish (: Ok, so you walk in and you see the futon couch and it has two sheep skin rug on it. Different but not too foerign. Then you look tot he right and you see this room with beads hanging from the top- kind of 60's style. And then on the inside is this carpeted room with nothing inside with bathroom tileso nt he wall and a single shower head sticking out. Why? I dont know. It doesnt work but hey- this is Bosnia. And then my bed room- ok it has this funky wood wall that doesnt reach the ceiling and has the beaded entry way but no door. Haha. We have a great view of the city tho- I feel bad because almost everyone else has a view of a brick wall. haha.

What else? Well today we are doign osmething that I was way stoked about! We are going to this isolated village in the mountains where everything is still traditional and very rural- im not sure if they even have electricity. Its going to be awesome. The other day we (all 10 of us who were not barfing every half hour) went on a short trip to this monarstary- it was cool. Sorry Im not being very good at describing things... still a little delusional and running out of time on the computer before we leave for our day trip.

Ill leave you with this- yesterday we went to this tunnel museum- the tunnel was bascially the only way anyone in Sarajevo survived the Serbian seige on the city between 92-95. It was the only was food and supplies got in and it was was long but very short and narrow under ground tunnel. We got to walk through a part of the tunnel- it was so small. It was 3 feet tall and 3 feel wide so you would have to bend over the entire walk through. We have two translator/guides who have been going everywhere with us so far and one of them- Mu'stafa was a soldier in the war and knew the tunnel very well because he guarded it and had to go throguh it to bring supplies to the city. It was kind of emotional toi think this new friend of our went through so much. And to talk to him now he is so up beat and always cracking jokes. You would never know about his past. Ive noticed that a lot of the people here are like that- retty up beat and like to joke a lot. Maybe its ac oping mechanism for that kind of post-traumatic experience. Oh, one more story about Mu'stafa. He is so funny! Ok, so he has this strong accent but he speaks English really well. But anyways my friends said this happened to them- they were the only people who hadnt gotten sick (at least not until after that day) so they went into town with Mustafa. So he directed them tot he ATM so they could get some money but then he runs back after them when they are on their way to the ATM and says with his strong accent "Oh, one more thing I think you should know. There is pick-pocketers here." And so the students were like "well, how do you know that? How could you recognize them? Do they all look the same?" and he responded, "Oh. I know him." Hahaha. So I guess he is friends with pick pocketers? haha. We were all confused about that- but i think since he lives in Sarajevo he knows who are the pick pocketers, but the way he said it it seemed like he was buddies with the guy. (: