Improving My Balance

I have always been a bit of a nerd (a shocking revelation I know) and part of that means I take school very seriously. I may not always enjoy sitting through class, but I will always try to complete an assignment to the best of my ability, even if it doesn't count for much. Thankfully my status as a nerd has come with a lot of benefits, one of which was acceptance into the YES Abroad program. Other times though, it can get in the way.

Take this week for example, this week was the week of giant assignments in school. Everyday after school I had so much school and or college applications related work that I barely had time to go downstairs and chat with my lovely host family! I was so obsessed with my schoolwork that I neglected my host family,an action that goes against the core tenets of being a good exchange student.

Then came today, Saturday; I had planned to spend the day going to morning Bosnian class and then locking myself in my room to finish up a few big assignments, but when I got up this morning my host mother told me that the family was going to the countryside to visit her sister-in-law . She said that they were leaving in half an hour and they would return in the evening and I could come if I wasn't too busy. I hesitated, I was, as always, busy and my upcoming due dates loomed over my head, but I told her I'd be happy to go anyway. I knew that the academic in me wanted to stay home and trudge through the pile of work on my desk, but thankfully my inner exchange student won in the end. I wasn't, after all, sent to Bosnia to practice logarithms and study Bismarck, I was sent here to experience a culture.

Now this is not me giving you an excuse to blow off school. Don't do that, but maybe you should look up from your textbook every once in a while and experience something substantial. I know that tomorrow my pile of work will still be there, and I will have to work double time to get it all done, but I don't regret my decision to travel with my host family today one bit. I've learned so much about the culture during my visit to the countryside; for example, we are currently in Republika Srpska (a different state in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the demographics here are very different than the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Federation has Sarajevo, a densely populated city which is ethnically diverse, but has a large Muslim presence. The Republika Srpska is mostly hills and forests with a few tiny towns and its fairly homogenous with the majority of people being of Serbian descent. My host mother even calls it Republika Šumska, the Republic of Forests, after its immense amount of woodlands. 

So to all of the future exchange students out there (hint hint wink wink the YES Abroad 2014-2015 application is out) remember to balance your school life during your year with your at home life. School is important, it always will be, but don't let it interfere with your education. (Yes I am paraphrasing something Mark Twain once said.) Every once in awhile put down your pencils for a bit and go experience whatever fabulous culture you were lucky enough to get invited to participate in, you never know where you'll end up. 

You could be like me and get to take a photo in front of an awesome pile of hay!

Vidimo se u Brazilu

"We'll see you in Brazil!"

Bosnia and Herzegovina is going to the World Cup in 2014! The game was last night and they beat Lithuania 1-0. It will surely be a night I'll never forget, you could hear the celebration from even up where I live.

Busy busy busy

This past weekend was probably the busiest one I've ever had. I'll give you the day by day breakdown.

Thursday - I'm starting with Thursday because we did something out of the ordinary after school. The American Councils staff occasionally sets up activities for the YES Abroad kids to do to enrich our cultural understanding of Bosnia during our year here. Our activity this time was to go to the Gazi Husrev-bey's Medresa in Old Town which is an Islamic High School in Sarajevo and learn about the upcoming islamic holiday of Eid, or as its called in Bosnian, Bajram. One of the classes at the Medresa gave us a presentation about the religous significance of Bajram and how it is celebrated in Bosnian. Afterwards, they gave us a tour of the school and we all went out for coffee and tea. It was a very fun evening.

Friday - This was the real start to my fun, but busy weekend. My school schedule was pretty strange. I had one 8:50 class and then nothing until 3:10 so I went home and hung out with my family. Then once I got back to school the Ministry of Education in Sarajevo had decided to start the Bajram holiday early and shorten the rest of our classes on Friday and give us the coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off from school! At around 7 o'clock on Friday I went out to dinner with some friends and then at 8 I went to a cafe to watch the Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Lichtenstein game. It was really fun, even for someone like me who doesn't consider themselves an avid soccer fan because as soon as Bosnia scored a goal the whole cafe would erupt in cheers and I would shout a long with everyone else even if I didn't totally understand what was happening. Then I went back to Sarah's house to sleepover because we had to get up super early for another full day the next morning!

Saturday Part 1 - My Saturday started bright and early at 6:00 in the morning so that Sarah and I could be in front of our school by 6:45. We made the mistake, however, of trying to call a cab at that hour. Let me be the first to tell you, they're ALL full. Sarah and I hadn't prepared enough time to get all the way down her hill, then take a tram, then walk so we sprinted down her gigantic hill all the way to the taxi stand where thankfully there was one taxi free. Once we were at school and on the bus we were on our way. My geography teacher had been kind enough to invite all of the Americans to join her homeroom's trip to Jajce, a historic city about 3 hours away from Sarajevo. The ride up there was beautiful there were all of these wonderful fall colors on the mountains. I took way to many photos.

Saturday Part 2 - Once we got to Jajce we had a lot of sightseeing to do. We went to a museum or two, climbed into some catacombs, and walked around a fortress I'm about 90% sure is hundreds of years older than the United States of America. After the sightseeing we got back on the bus and went to lunch on this restaurant by the lake and had about two hours to just chill out. The YES Abroad kids walked around and eventually found this really cool area where all of these little mill houses rest on a river. It was exciting because it was a scene from one of the first photos each of us had seen when we decided to go to Bosnia with YES in the first place! Needless to say, it was a pretty crazy field trip and not at all comparable to anything I've done with my American schools. 

Look what I found!

Saturday Part 3 - The bus from Jajce pulled back into Sarajevo around 8 o'clock. Sarah and I were at her house by 8:15 and were in a taxi headed towards Zetra Stadium to go to the concert of a Croatian singer named Severina by 8:30. I had a great time and the concert even though I didn't know any of her songs, but it was fun because a ton of people from my school were there.

Sunday - There's not much point in posting about my Sunday but I figure it would round out my weekend nicely. I mostly sat around Sarah's house and relaxed. (my host family was out of town for the weekend so I stayed her for almost 72 hours straight) Later in the evening the YES Abroad crew (minus Emma Fencl who was in Serbia with her family) went out for a slice of cake to celebrate Etienne's birthday. It was a nice,  relaxing ending to a busy weekend. 

This could be you!

The YES Abroad application for the 2014-2015 year is out now! Get writing!

http://www.yes-abroad.org/