Week 3 Recap

Well, it's been another busy week but I'll try and cover everything that's happened...

Think I left off on last Saturday, when the girls and I decided we should go to the hugest event in Sarajevo all summer - the Haris concert. It was.... interesting to say the least. Haris is one of the most popular Bosnian pop stars, and of about 35,000 people in the stadium, I think we were the only 4 that didn't know all the words to every song. It was in the old Olympic stadium, which was kind of cool to see, and quite the experience. Decided to leave early and hung out with some beer-drinking policija on the way out. Apparently they're members of the Bosnian SWAT team and do crowd control at concerts. Quite entertaining. This is my friend Officer Bajune (have no idea if that's the right spelling - it's pronounced Bah - yune- nuh.)

Went to the ˝black market˝ Sunday morning to get a cell phone - another interesting experience. It was really hot out, and I wasn't feeling so good by the time I got home. Ended up coming down with a fever, and then tummy problems, and spending the next 3 days on the couch. Not so fun. The heat wave has broken now though, which is sooooooo much nicer.

On Wednesday our other coordinator got here, and we got to go up to Vareš, which is where I'll be Sunday - Thursday for the next 3 weeks. It's this little mountain mining town about an hour outside of Sarajevo, and it's like a different world. The weather is beautiful, and I think I'll really to get to know the people and everything in this town inside and out. We went to the school and met our students on Thursday morning. I ended up with the classroom of the oldest students, so it looks like I'll be spending my mornings with 30 7th and 8th graders. They are quite the handful!! I'm a little nervous, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow...... The pic to the right is a waterfall in Vareš that we took a little walk to.

After our reflection Thursday night, myself and two other Vareš students, Hadley and Chico, decided to head back to the Croatian coast. We took an overnight bus to Split, which is about 4 hours north of Dubrovnik, where I lived before. It was absolutely gorgeous - beautiful weather, coastline, boys, and not nearly as many tourists as farther south. The city's most famous feature is an old palace in the center of city, which we walked around. This is the coast to the right. We took a mini boat cruise on Friday night (which only cost about $10) that was incredible, and had some really good food and wine.


Two other students joined us Saturday morning, and we decided to take a ferry to Brač, a local island. Also amazing. Got there around 2, and immediately hit the beach. This is me ˝swimming˝ in the Adriatic, again. The sun was a little hot for me, so after about an hour my friend Bethany and I decided to rent scooters to cruise around the island. So much fun, and just incredible views of all the little island towns, and fields and fields of olives and grapes. I'm starting to realize that I am much more into Croatian culture than Bosnian!!! Think I will try and make at least one or two more trips back to the coach. Even with all the tourists, everything is just so laid back, beautiful, and fun.

Time to go now so we can catch the bus up to Vareš for the next four days. Hope everyone has an amazing 4th of July, and wish me luck with the middle schoolers!!!!