Thanksgiving Take 2

I know that the real Thanksgiving was on Thursday, but I didn't have any time then to celebrate it with my host family so we postponed our plans to today. The dinner went very well! My host mom helped me make chicken drumsticks and a turkey leg along with some green beans and roasted potatoes. Needless to say, it was delicious!

Sretan Dan Zahvalnosti!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here in Bosnia it was just your run of the mill Thursday, but a few of my friends at school wished me a Happy Thanksgiving and it really made my day. Despite a long day at school, a math test, and some English tutoring the atmosphere still felt quite celebratory, which is good because I have plenty to be thankful for. I won't list all of that below because, honestly, you'd be here reading all day, but since its my 3rd month here I'll try and pick just three things I'm thankful for. Here we go

1. My family, both my biological one and my adoptive host one, all of you have a special place in my heart
2. My friends, at home and abroad
3. American Councils, YES Abroad, and the US State Department for giving me the fabulous opportunity that is my year in Sarajevo

Sretan Dan Zahvalnosti everyone, I hope it's a good one.

My 100th Day in Bosnia!

Today is officially my 100th day in Bosnia and it was incredible! The snow continued falling throughout last night so by the time I left for school there was at least 6 inches on the ground and its still snowing late into the evening today. After we finished our classes for the day, Riley, Luke, Sarah and I went up to my house and played in the snow like little kids.

I just love my neighborhood!

Riley fell in the snow

Happy 100th!

Pada Snijeg!

It snowed for the first time in Sarajevo today and we didn't have school because it's Bosnia's Statehood Day so I had all the time in the world to enjoy it.

It was really just a light dusting. but I was still pumped

Stretan Dan Drzavnosti! (Happy Statehood Day)

Initiation

I've been initiated into Bosnia's public transportation community today, its official. I caught some jagweed trying to pick pocket me on the tram, but despite my rage I didn't stress because I knew the only things I had in my bag were my math notebook and some delicious treats from the grocery store. So even if he had succeeded the only thing he would've come away with was a deeper understanding of logarithmic equations and maybe a twix.

So ha.

An update on my pumpkin...

We ate it.

Halloween Abroad

So to be perfectly honest, when October 31st rolled around this year, I didn't expect to do anything special for Halloween, thankfully though, some of my YES Abroad family members had other ideas. 

After school on Halloween, Riley, Luke, Sarah and I made a spur of the moment decision to go and look for pumpkins. We had seen a girl carrying one through school earlier that week and had been determined to find one of our own ever since. Thankfully one of the large supermarkets in Sarajevo had a few pumpkins and we cleaned them out and made our way back to Riley's house to carve them. I would be lying if I said we didn't get a few odd looks from passersby, four Americans carting pumpkins around isn't a normal sight in Sarajevo.

Buying our pumpkins

Then we got to Riley's house and realized that we were going to make a terrible mess and we needed some newspaper so we made an impromptu trip down the street.

As soon as we set the newspaper down we commenced the carving. It was slow going at first.

But in the end we got the hang of it and had some beautiful Jack-o-Lanterns to show for it! After our little party I headed back to my house by taxi. Let me tell you, there are few things that will earn you more strange looks from people on the street than standing on the corner holding a jack-o-lantern in a city that doesn't trick-or-treat. It was ok though, I had a fantastic Halloween!

My masterpiece

Happy (belated) Halloween!