Tuesday, June 12, 2007

First few days....


Well, I made it here safely and have now been in Bosnia for two full days. The flight(s) weren´t too bad and I made it with all my luggage, which is more than some of the students I am with. Our apartments are absolutely amaying, and are about 2 min walking distance from the Bascarcija, which is the Turkish market with tons of shops, restaurants, cafes. Think the Bosnian version of the 16th St. Mall. We have 3 apts total, and the one I´m staying in is huge, with two bedrooms, bath and a half, and tons of closets. There is only two full size beds, but there is also a pull out couch which I basically claimed. The picture to the left is three of the other students outside of our apartment door.
The first day we were here we went to a couple of sights around the city, then took a walking tour of our neighborhood. We visited the war tunnel museum where they snuck supplies into the city during the siege. The tunnel was so small, and I cannot even imaging crawling /walking half a mile through it carrying food, or weapons, or other supplies. After we left, we went to one of Bosnias national forests and saw the water source for the River Bosna, which flows through the city. Absolutely amazing. That is me on the right on a little bridge over the river. We then had a fabulous lunch, full of cheese, dried meat, stuffed peppers, goulash, and lots of bread. Good think our apartment is at the top of the hill, cause this place is super carb friendlz. Did lots more walking around in the city centre, and took a trip out to the Mercator, which is basically the Bosnian wal-mart. Had a lot of fun wandering around trying to interpret the labels and deciding what everything was. Also had my first (for this trip) Bosnian beer and wine last night!

Todaz (sorrz, but the z and y are interchanged on their kezboards and I am getting tired of fixing it) we took a bus tour up to Lukomir, which is the last European village still living in the old traditional wazs. Thez just got running water in 2002, and are shut off from the rest of the countrz during the winter since there is onlz one long, winding road into town. We went on a hike (zou read that right - I hiked todaz) to this beautiful waterfall. We had a tour guide, Demir (or as I like to call him, Bosnian Tom Bradz) who is currentlz in grad school at Harvard but organiyes hiking excursions of his home countrz in the summer. He was absolutelz fascinating, and made me feel like I had no education or sense of purpose. He just seemed to know everzthing. This is our group, including Demir (in the orange) standing on this cliff with the waterfall in the background. Then we ate in one of the little villagers house and bought these homemade goods from them. These little old ladies apparantlz spend 5 dazs knitting a pair of socks, which I then purchased for about 12 bucks. Not sure I could handle that waz of life.
Have figured out our schedule for the rest of the summer, and it looks like we´re spending a little more time than I had thought doing language classes and ˝reflection time˝ as a group. I personallz feel I will learn more and experience more bz being out and about in Sarajevo as opposed to sitting in the apartment with the other Americans, but for now I am just going with it. I feel verz fortunate to be here, and am really looking forward to traveling on the weekends, especially back to Dubrovnik (where I lived before.)
Hope everyone is doing well back in the states, and I hope to hear from all of you soon!
-Rachel

1 comment:

susan said...

wow sounds awesome!!!
how exciting, and your brady boy looks hunky. so are the knitting ladies far from you??? i might just need to have you buy us a few pairs!!! i hope you keep up the blog posts as i am living vicariously thru you, so i need to know where i am going everyday!!!
beautiful photos too, be sure and take lots
love you