Sunday, May 30, 2010

First Post From Bosnia.

First off, I love it here, and I think this summer is going to go by way too fast. Traveling went as smooth as possible, I had no problem finding my gate in Munich, and it was only a short flight from there to Sarajevo. The team of workers here are awesome and it has been fun getting to know everyone. Bosnia is beautiful, but you can see evidence of the war almost everywhere you look. Many of the buildings have been painted over or repaired but still a large majority are covered with bullet marks. Looking out the office window right now I see four homes/buildings that are marked with bullet holes. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to live here while the war was going on.
So far I have spent my days getting familiar with the city, it is an amazing place. Everything is within walking distance and I could not even guess at how many people I pass by each day, there is so much life here. Coffee bars everywhere you look, I have been hanging out there and meeting people. I have also been helping out my roommate, who is here teaching baseball. It has been a unique experience working with teenagers who have never even seen a baseball glove before. So far they seem to really like the sport though. I also have been learning, for example I watched Eurovision last night, it is a huge deal in Europe and I had never even heard of it. Each country sent one musical act to perform, and then after everyone goes, people call in and vote for who they thought did the best. But area codes retrict you from voting for your own country. Germany won, I liked how they did the whole competition in one night, there were no commercials either. Much different from American shows like American Idol where they find a way to drag it on for months.
I have really enjoyed the food so far, before leaving I thought I would lose weight while being here but now it might be the opposite. Haha the Bosnians really know how to make good desserts. I did get a membership to the local gym though, it is very small. Has one treadmill that I cannot even use because it is broken, and the heaviest dumbell is 45 pounds. You also have to bring an extra pair of shoes, I did not know this the first day and had to lift weights in my socks. I am still trying to get used to the metric system, nothing here is in feet, miles, pounds, etc. They also have "marks" instead of dollars or Euros. One mark is equal to 1.40$, which is good for me. They have "5 mark" coins though which is also different, I bought something with a "10 mark" bill expecting to get bills back and got a handful of change.
The health care system here is very expensive and not very good, that is why they take so much care in preventing sickness. For example you always have to take your shoes off before entering a home, haha or a gym. The city also pretty much shuts down when it rains, becuase they believe you can get sick if you are outside with wet hair.
Tuesday we are leaving for Croatia, we are spending the week there to get prepared for all the summer activitites that start when we get back. I am hoping the weather will be nice while we are there but right now they are calling for rain.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday, everything for the trip is all set. I printed out the plane tickets this week, and bought my health insurance. Plan on driving to Maryland monday night and flying out of D.C. tuesday night.