Dubrovnik!

Dubrovnik is an absolutely beautiful city. You all should be jealous that you could not go there. I lounged on a Mediterranean Beach near palm trees, I hiked through botanical gardens with cacti and massive aloe plants. I walked on the walls of a Medieval city, and ate fresh delicious bread as the sun set. I stayed in a guesthaus and walked 320 steps to get there, through cobblestone alleyways and massive stone staircases. It was one of the best trips I have ever taken.

I will have some photos and a greater description of the trip tomorrow, you can see some footage here. For now, it is getting dark, and I am due home for some dinner, coffee and sleep, Dobro višj

EuroVision

Europe has a big musical competition called Eurovison. This is a big thing in Bosnia, the BiH singer came third this year. What that means is that of all the singers in the final round (24 singers) all the countries of Europe voted BiH the third best, after Finland and Russia. The Finnish band was a faux-Heavy metal band with goulish costumes and everything, the blasphemous title of thier song was 'Hard Rock Halleluja'. Everyone hated it, except for the voters who didn't like all the pop acts. Because Finland was the only thing close to rock, it got all those votes while the pop vote got split 23 ways. The Russian song and singer were absolute trash, the latter was trashy. Somehow everyone loved him, including kids here. Maybe everyone but me is crazy.

The BiH song was incredibly beautiful, I really like it. If you have speakers you can listen to it here. It get's played a lot around here, and I'm betting that the singer will become a national hero for a little while. The Croatian song is catchy and fun to dance too, but it was terribly performed, and the lyrics were incredibly awful.

The crazy thing about this contest is who countries give votes to (they can't vote for themselves). Citizens vote with their cell phones, and the votes almost always go to their neighbors. For instance, Serbia & Montenegro gave their top three votes to Bosnia, Croatia and Macedonia. So much for ethnic hatred. Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia all voted for each other, with the Macedonian TV host going so far as to say 'this is for you brothers' in Bosnian as he announced bosnia got thier top vote. The whole telecast was in English, so the change in language really stood out. As you can imagine, eastern block countries voted for their former comrades, you can read it all here (the higher the points the better).

I wondered. If Canada could send a musician or band, who would we send? Maybe leave a comment with your choice.

My three favourite songs were from BiH, Latvia and Germany.

Mike the Teacher

We have been teaching these last few days. It's been the first time we've been without the english teacher or any other teacher for that matter. We have English, Music, Drama and Dance, and internet/computer classes here. The kids are often lovely and occasionally terrible. Just like kids in Canada...except that I cannot understand them here; a blessing almost. No kids have shown up to the last two classes, the 11 and the 12 classes. We don't know why, it's really strange, they normally crowd inside here whenever they can.

Teaching english is alright. It's frustrating because the subject is so big, and comprehension so small. None of us have ever taught english before, so we hardly know where to start. It's really great when you figuer out a good method and the kids catch on. Some of the kids know quite a bit of english here, and others don't. You never really know if you're going above their heads or speaking about stuff they did years ago. I'm betting it's both of those things at the same time.

My family and I watched Matilda on TV last night. It's a kids movie, but I liked it because it was in English. They keep trying to feed me too much, it's all I can do to finish the last piece of food, and it's often good. They tried to give me a dish of Leeks (Though they could have been the stems of Onions...the same thing?) and Feta cheese. I said no thanks and they were quite surprised. I wondered if they eat onions as candy here, I don't know how else someone could surprised that I didn't want to eat that dish. I feel bad about saying no to food, but they told me to if I didn't like something, I didn't want to let them down.

The girls and I have a weekend trip to Dubrovnik planned out, we leave friday morning and return monday afternoon. It should be lovely weather, a great city and lots of fun. I knew that I wanted to see Dubrovnik before I left Canada and now is my chance. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures.

Neighborhood Gornji Vakuf (Power Out)

Some won't get the Arcade Fire reference in the title, that's okay, it was the cleverest I could be. The power has been out for large stretches recently. Everyone here is pretty well prepared, which makes me think that this is not uncommon. I'm not sure if it was a brownout yesterday, or a down hydro line, could be anything, and there are no problems today

Food update: We're spending today baking lots of canadian food, or at least food from home that we miss. Chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, Poutine, aka the standards.

Computer update: I've been asked to install MIRC on all the computers, I also plan to covertly install Firefox and increase the display res.

Music update: I would die without Myspace, oh the endless available indie music possessed here. I'm listening to Feist right now, sweet!

Medical update: Amanda has some random disease, which isn't good, cause she was already kinda gross. The doctors gave her calcium...the magical cure-all?

Bar Scene update: uggg...I hardly like Canadian bars (unless there's a good Blues band) so the Caffe Bar we went to last night, Charlies, was quite the adventure. It was a nice place in and of itself, but the music was way too loud, there was too much smoke and it was just not great overall. It seems that the people are at the mercy of the DJ, as they don't have much the following day to wake up for. I think there's a heavy amount of bordem here, so people stay late at the bar becuase, well it's something to do.

We're going to go make our cinnamon buns now, so as always, leave a comment or two.

The Tick!

When does a harmless soccar (futbol) game turn into a dangerous game of life or death? When a deadly Bosnian Tick attacks my leg almost forcing a dangerous amputation. The doctors here have both eyes, have both arms, are sane; choose two. The prognosis is that I'll live, though without an awesome scar to show off when I get back home.

The reality is that yes I got a tick attempt an invasion of my inner knee. It did not get far. I picked it off thinking that it was a piece of lint or a smushed mosquito. Mirela, the person in charge of us here, decided it was best if I went to the Ambulatory ward. The doctors saw me very quickly, took a look, cleaned up the wound, took the leftover pieces away and joked with me in broken english. About the only after-effects was a massive oversized bandage soaked with disinfectant and some wierd looks from the kids at the centre.

I hope for a cool scar or something, so I can say that I got attacked by a vicious Bosnian bear or child. If I indeed was bitten by a radioactive tick, and turn into a gigantic insect, I will make sure to go on a rampage througout eastern Europe

Life Here

These goofy girls are the fine people in Intercordia with me, (left to right) Lindsey, Amanda and Vanessa. We are taking in some of the life here at a cafe in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje.

Life here is fairly different than Canada. Let's forget for a sec that there was no war here and the town wasn't destroyed, we have that luxury, we don't live here.

I might have said this before, the biggest industries here are cafes and construction. Cafes are busy all day, it is impossible to tell when people get off work, because there's no surge at 9:00am, or 5:00pm. I don't know what people do for jobs here, I don't think half the town works, and they just lounge around in cafes which look as if they outnumber the people.

As for construction, there are plenty of people putting up walls and houses, pouring concrete and hauling bricks. Houses are constructed differently here, they are made of a brick frame, with occasional wooden joists and spacers. They all have a certain slavic style, for some reason they haven't adopted a Canadian suburban housing style, from my count we have 5 different suburban housing layouts in Canada. Everything is deep gray brick with clay tile roofs. The bricks will later be plastered I assume, in order to match the architecture of the town, also of all towns I could see from Prague to here, as I saw from the plane.

Sadly, now we have to remember that there was a war, it's not hard, if you haven't been here...

People sit in cafes because they always have, also because they like talking to people. Young people don't have jobs, so they just sit in cafes all day, also old people don't have jobs, so they sit in cafes all day as well. Remember, there was a war here, wars only benifit the economies of the winner(s). As for the construction, this town was destroyed. I sat with a local guy yesterday and he was going through pictures of the town before the war. He didn't recognize a lot of buildings, likely cause they are all gone. A lot of the built houses are sitting and waiting for someone to add windows, doors, floors and plaster, they are simply brick skeletons, like I said before. Why brick? I think that Bosnians would see our wooden-framed, vinyl-sided houses and worry about their safety. Plaster and brick stop bullets, wood and insulation do not. Remember, there was a war here.
I said cafes outnumbered people, the same could be true for houses, it seems that every house has an empty apartment, an empty floor, or is just empty. There doesn't seem to be enough people for all the houses here, let alone the new ones. The Bosniak side of town (Gornji Vakuf) has all the apartments, and if all those rooms were full, there would be endless crowding on the streets. So there are two options, either half the town never leaves their homes, or that half the town doesn't exist and their rooms lie empty. I don't know what the answer is, maybe I'm poor at guessing population sizes. Maybe that population is gone, either they left town when the war started, or they were buried here.

Remember, there was a war here, you might have to try hard, but I know that here, everything is a reminder.

Some of the kids

The kids here are cool, some beside me are looking at big vans, or semis, or whatever. Most just look at us and giggle, whisper to each other and act like shy kids. others want to prove their english and say hi, how are you, where do you live? Some want to play futbol, or show you how good they are at counter-strike.

One girl asked us through a translator if there were any hungry children in Canada, we told her that yes, there were. She said that she would like to give us some money to give to them so that they could buy food. We were quiet in our shame, and the English teacher told her that she didn't have any Canadian money. She was quiet and someone changed the subject. I think I asked her what her favourite vegtable was. I forget what she said.

I love the night life

Last night we went out for a night on the town, which of course, was rediculous. The whole thing started off in the computer center were I'm working (at the Omladinski Centar) and where i spend a lot of time (there are only three rooms here). A group of girls asked me if i wanted to join them at night, walk around the town, go to a cafe. I told them I would let them know while i wondered to myself if they were just asking me or asking the intercordia group. I told the other canadian girls, who destroyed themselves laughing at me (mostly cause my horoscope said i would find love that day). As it turned out, all the intercordia people were invited, and awkwardness prevailed!

We met the girls at the Centar, watched some people dance on the stage here (really cool but crazy Bosnian dance) then went to a cafe. After we went to the cafe, we headed down to the diskotek, which was quite amazing. it was in the basement of this billiard hall, surrounded by these 1960 era apartment buildings (which incidently, were painted with bullet holes). the disko has one disco ball, and a strip of green lights. The crowd was made up of sketchy guys sitting at tables and 15 yr old girls dancing on the floor. the music was a mix of random bosnian electronic and american hip-hop. the coolest song was like a punk rock song with an anthemic Bon Jovi chorus all the while led by a sweet accordian. My ears couldn't hear much after we left, i think in self defense.

Pictures from Gornji

Here are some pictures from Gornji Vakuf. When I feel more comfortable taking pictures of bombed out buildings and such, I'll get on it. I just don't like the weird looks I get from the locals, as if I'm reminding them of that which they want to forget, or at least, not be made trival.














This stop sign leads to a lane made exclusivly of little cafes. Not sure what makes these holes, they are really small. They could be .22 cal, but I'm not sure.




This is the view from my window, maybe you can see the bullet holes. There seems to be some shack to the left of the building, and of course a garden in the backyard.

Pictures from Sarajevo

I finally got this computer to upload pictures for me! There are two here from Sarajevo, I have lots more, but you'll have to wait till I get back, or you can check my facebook profile for more pictures.


The fisherman is sitting on one of the main streets in Sarajevo. I don't think he caught anything, it seems like the kind of situation where he never catches anything, and nevertheless returns every day.









This magnificant building is the Art Academy at the University of Sarajevo. As you can see its architecture comes from the Austria-Hungarian occupation. It is likely the loveliest building I saw in Sarajevo, I hope to return and walk around a bit more.

It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood

I'm sitting at a computer (Athelon 2200+!1!) at the Omledinski Centar in lovely downtown Gornji-Vakuf/Uskopija. The centar is an old building, with a massive facade, and i think we only use the third floor. This town looks like it has been doubly scouraged by the war, first it was hit hard, there are still more than a couple of destroyed buildings, then they haven't had the money to repair everything. We heard that an NGO reparied and resurfaced a number of buildings, certainly not all though. There are a lot of buildings that are freshly framed and bricked, but there is nothing inside, they are just brick skeletons.

There's a lightpost in front of the centar (which is the centre of town, the town is split between the croatian side and the muslim side) which is completely shot through with bullet holes. I'm pretty sure a lot of the bullet holes were just target practice, though from some pictures of the war's aftermath, some weren't.

We took a walk around town yesterday, some parts are sketchy, more sketchy then Cambridge (McNaughton and Spruce...). We stayed away from those areas. Everyone in the town must know each other, for better or worse, as we got a lot of strange looks. I don't know how non-slav I look, but it must be enough to warrent those looks. I'm glad we have something to do all week (work at the centar) as it's really tough to fill time when all I can do is read or watch Bosnia TV. As a side note, i hope driving ms Daisy won no awards, we watched it Saturday night(with bosnian subtitles). Also, I'm not sure how the message of tolerance over prejudice was recieved by my family, as in, I don't think they got it. We watched a movie about the partisans and Tito (who fought the German and Croatian Nazis) last night. I didn't understand anything, but my family said "Ustaša" a number of times, I don't think they are fans. I don't know enough to say who hates who, or what the social dynamics are, but I'm sure they'll become apparent.

(PS for Dan, go to google.com, type Canada and hit i'm feeling luckey (osjećam se sretnim). it took me 20 seconds to load the page, that's how fast we have it. This computer has a hacked version of CS 1.6, but I'd worry about teams too much to play. I think Bosnia needs less Counter-Strike and more Sim City. I'll have more about social and physical infrastructure latter.)

It's Bosnia Time!

So i'm in an internet cafe at the centre of town, its saturday afternoon and there isnt much to do. the town is nice, full of non-english speakers and smoky. In Canada you never really appreciate how few bullet holes we have in buildings. everyone here seems to be employed building and rebuilding. Sadly non of them speak english, which isnt a surprise. a real surprise is that my bank card works here, i was ultra pumped about that.

we are surrounded by mountains, big green minefields we've been told. it's cold and raining, about 10C outside. I live on the muslim side of town (i'm told) and living with Raza and Mohamda. They are really nice and to make up for not speaking english, they feed me. When i figure out how, i'll put my pictures up here, I got my camera on the way to the airport from my dad who waited for the Purelator truck.

If you guys have questions about what Bosnia is like, let me know and I'll answer them, talk to you later.

Tomorrow

I can't wait for tomorrow, I'm nervous and everything. In 24 hours I'll be in the air.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will board a flight at Pearson. As you can see on the tickets, I will fly to Prague then Sarajevo. I wanted to take a picture of the departure and everything, but my camera won't arive before I leave. I recommend ordering stuff well in advance if you're shopping online, sometimes people get burned...

At any rate, It's a beautiful day in Southwestern Ontario, I've said good bye to a lot of people today, and I think I'm ready to go. I'm pretty nervous about leaving, not cause I worry about what's going to happen, I just want everything to work out right, before we go. As in, i want my camera, i want to have everything packed with my tickets and passport and everything where it should go, and ready to go. As long as I know that everything is ready, I can be ready.

Waiting is tough, in 24 hours I'll likely be sitting on the plane. There is so little time left...for better or worse