An American in Bosnia! (not Paris for all you Gershwin-ites!)

As facebook so wonderfully publicized, I turned 25 again this week! (I'll leave you to wonder how many times I've done that! ha!)

I wasn't sure what to expect for my first birthday away from home, but it turned out to be one of my favorite birthdays yet! The day was mixed with usual American traditions and new Bosnian ones, relaxation balanced out by tiring sports activity.

As I'm sure you've probably figured out by now, I'm big into taking pictures, and I definitely made sure to document this day. So.. here you are! Here's how I celebrated my birthday, Bosnian and American style!

After sleeping in a bit, my team treated me to a fantastic breakfast at one of their apartments. Yum, yum!

It was complete with one of my favorites- coffee cake!

Me trying to blow out all the candles without spitting all over the cake. 

Jacque=the hostest with the mostest!

 During the early afternoon, I took some time to digest the food, relax, enjoy some bible reading, and be surprised by amount of facebook and email messages I was receiving! (Gotta love facebook!)

An American friend asked what I wanted most for my birthday, and I said I wanted nothing more than to play some sort of game- ultimate frisbee, tag football, basketball, etc. They worked it out perfectly! Plus, as prayed for, the rain stopped just enough for us to enjoy it. It was GREAT! 

Testing to see if the -ole football-throwing arm is still in working condition.

Liz and Andrew talking a little bit of smack before we start our game of Ultimate. 

Us wrapping things up after a satisfying afternoon of ultimate frisbee and basketball.

After playing, I reconnected with my good friend, Alex through a way-to-quick Skype call. I MISS YOU Alex!!!

As usual when talking with her, I completely lost track of time! So, I hurried to get cleaned up and get to the Bosnian part of my birthday...

 The festivities continued at the ESL class. Per Bosnian custom, the birthday girl (or boy) brings cake for everyone to eat to celebrate their big day. 

Adela surprised me (and everyone else) with a thoughtful toast while we were enjoying the birthday cake!

(P.S. This room is a work in progress! We moved in last week!)

We went to a coffee bar later that night, but I (uncharacteristically) forgot to take a picture. So.. here's a fun picture I found online of a Sarajevo coffee bar. :-)

It was raining on the way home, and I saw a car broken down near apartment building. Near it was a mom with her daughter. I decided to see if there was anything I could do to help. Wouldn't you know it? I know just as much about cars in Europe as I did in the states (uhh.. close to nothing!). So, I wasn't able to help that much, but I was grateful to know enough language to talk with her for a little bit, offer my phone, umbrella, etc. 

The end of the great day- these are a few of my birthday goodies!  The OREOs and Celestial Seasonings  were gifts given by teammates that originate from the states, and the cookies behind are coconut flavored treats from Sarajevo that a Sarajevo buddy gave to me. Yum, yum!

This is me kissing the OREOs goodbye. I don't imagine they'll last too long in my apartment. :-)

(You can also see check out some of my language learning methods behind me.)

Thanks to everyone for making this such a special day!!! In addition to all the fun I had here, I was once again reminded of all the support I have at home. I can't thank you enough for all of it- thanks to everyone contributing to what turned into a great day!

Till next time-

Kat

Winter "Shorts"

One of my bigger fears about starting this blog was that I would run out of things to write about. Well, guess what? Nothing has been further from the truth (at least, not yet!). My problem for the last month or so has been that I've had TOO many things to talk about, and I couldn't focus well enough to publish a concise post.

This has been my "creative process" the last month:

1. Think of an idea for a post.
2. Start writing the post.
3. Log in the next day to edit, but think of another topic.
4. Start writing a different post than the one before it. 
5. Repeat steps 1-5.

So today, instead of writing a blog on just one subject, I've decided to give my perfectionistic tendencies a rest and give a few snap-shots ("shorts") of some experiences I've had over the last month or so, with the most impactful one for me being the last one. 

Super Bowl Highlights

Throughout the month of January, I was writing essays entitled "Peyton Manning je moj momak," which translates directly to "Peyton Manning is my boyfriend." In these essays, I explained what the Super Bowl is (my language teacher had NO idea), how American football is indeed NOT rugby, and who Peyton Manning is. 

To my surprise and delight, they DID air the Super Bowl live on a local channel. Some "minor" differences: kick-off was at 12:30 A.M., there were NO commercials, there were NO Doritos to be found, and the broadcasters spoke only German.

Watching the athletes guzzle water every 10 minutes during what would be the commercial breaks reminded me of how normal of a game it really is. In a way, I enjoyed it more because of that. 

A New Sporting Love Unveiled!

The Winter Olympics started this week, and guess how I kicked them off ? By skiing (albeit, slowly!) on  authentic Olympic Slopes! (Pretty sweet for a southern girl, huh?) As you know, the Winter Olympics were held in Sarajevo in 1984.  These beautiful ski slopes are only a 40 minute drive from my apartment and are incredibly cheap to take advantage of!

 Here are a few more pictures from the mountain (Jahorina):

 Look at all that snow!

Icicles? or Weapons? I'm not so sure... 

Michelle, Dejan and I waiting for our awesome (only Bosnian speaking) ski instructor.

Njegomir was a FANTASTIC coach! He had all of us (including nervous, inexperienced little me) skiing from the top of the mountain by the time his time with us was up! 

We did our first couple of hours of ski lessons in this area.

Look at that clear blue sky!

Is the grinch hiding somewhere in there? 

P.S. Bunny hills are only allowed if you are like 12 and under... For some reason, I couldn't convince them I was in that age group. It was my height, right?

A celebratory picture after surviving the first part of the trip down the mountain, all limbs still intact.

Till next time-
Kat

The Shades of Wisdom...

The last few of my blog posts have been a bit abstract, so this time I decided to give a more tangible idea of what its like to walk through the streets of Sarajevo through my eyes. You'll get the reason for the pictures above soon enough. (I miss you Stef!)

As I thought through a good way to describe Sarajevo through pictures, there was one idea that stuck out to me more than any other. An idea, really a fact, that does, in fact, give another glimpse to the awesomeness that is Sarajevo. A fact that does, in fact, shed light on yet another reason why its one of the coolest, smartest, hip-est cities ever.

What's that fact? The fact is: they completely agree with the title of this blog! Red heads are, indeed, the very best heads! Female Sarajevans have this thing with red hair-especially the older and, I might add, wiser generation. While it is rare to see a natural redhead (unless you hang out with a certain "oklatexan"), it is very common to see ALL sorts of red on the streets.

After I was struck with this observation, I started taking tons and tons of pictures. Everytime I saw a redhead, I would try to snap a picture of it, thinking I would eventually use it for a blog post. But instead showing you my slightly-stalkerish-and-slightly-creepy picture collection, I decided to give ya'll a clearer glimpse of how common it really is! Except for the first two, all of the pictures below were taken during one 30 minute afternoon walk.

The first two were taken at an international Christmas bazaar for the embassies (one that the USA wasn't a part of, but thats a whole other story....).

The color and tail? I'm impressed! Not sure of many more people could pull that off!

I'd say this one was pretty normal, but we're just getting warmed up!

The following pictures were all taken during a span of about 30 minutes as I walked through the center of town...

I love this one!

"Look mom! Its like the sunrise!"

I saw this lady seconds after seeing the previous picture. Does this remind anyone else of OU/Texas, or is that just me?

Not as bright, but loving how it fits in with the red coat next to her.

This one almost looks like a natural color...

"Yeah.. I'm thinking of getting rid of the brown and going with more of an orange/red color..."

If you notice, all three of these ladies have at least a tint of red in their hair..

Pretty sure the man on the far left was thinking about dying his next.

We might be related somehow...

Again, not as bold of a red, but we young ones can tend to be more timid. :)

I'm not sure why this lady looks so unhappy. Your hair looks fab!

Loving the contrast from the plaid jacket to the hair...

Last but certainly not least!

And to close up this quasi-random post, here's another picture for any of you that have ever doubted whether or not I'm supposed to be here...

Now THAT'S deluxe view! Haha... ha..... egh. Nevermind. :)

I hope that even in the midst of all of my random sillyness, you will somehow gain more of an appreciation of what the city of Sarajevo is like! 

Till next time,

Kat

A Bosnian Merry Christmas!

Up to this year, all of my holiday seasons have looked like what most of yours will probably look like this year: being serenaded by Christmas music ALL the time, expressing disgust at how Walmart puts Christmas trees out earlier every year, playing Sleigh Ride by heart for multiple Christmas concerts (for all you musicians), promising yourself you'll never wait till the last second to buy gifts again, and enjoying more than enough egg nog, pumpkin bread, fudge, pumpkin spice lattes, and gingerbread cookies to last me for the rest of the year. Yumm.

It probably goes without saying that this Christmas is VASTLY different than any I’ve had before! Not only is this Christmas being spent away from family, it is being spent in a city that’s 95% Muslim, which means a city that doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

(disclaimer: There is a small population of those of the orthodox faith here, but they don’t celebrate Christmas until January. More information on their customs, beliefs, etc. can be found in various references.)

Here are some tangible differences: just like all government offices, the post office will be open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (I’m grateful since I’m anticipating a few packages!! Woo hoo!). The only way to make anything pumpkin related is to smash and bake the pumpkin yourself. (There's also no semi-sweet chocolate chips!) There’s just ONE public place that’s been airing Christmas music: the most expensive café in town and even THEY don’t do it all the time. You CAN actually find a few places with Christmas decorations, but they are the exception, not the rule. (5 years ago, you wouldn’t have found ANYTHING!) When you see them, you feel compelled to shamelessly take awkward-look-at-me-I’m-a-foreigner pictures in the middle of supermarkets. Like… this one:

I really wish I could have also taken a picture of the look the woman gave me after I took that picture, but I was too slow with the draw. (A lot of Bosnians have this thing about hating to have their picture taken! I guess I wouldn't be happy about it either is some foreigner starting taking random pictures of me.)

You can also play the game where you pretend that all the New Years decorations are for Christmas. Like… this one!

Did you know that Happy New Year actually means Merry Christmas in English? At least, I'm pretty sure it does.

And of course, the weather is vastly different. While I had gotten used to checking for school closings at the first sign of one measly snowflake, it snowed 8 days straight here with 8 inches falling on just the first night! You can get a taste of that from my picture below. This was in Budapest last weekend.

I'd like to point out the weather was -16 (F) by the time we got back to the hostel. We were troopers! J

I wasn’t sure how this Christmas season was going to be for me. I’ve heard horror stories from others living overseas at how hard it is during the holidays. I knew I was going to miss my family and friends- but how bad was it going to be?

To answer your question, yes, of course, I miss my family and friends, and I anticipate missing them even more over the next few days. I miss being surrounded by the Christmas atmosphere. (Part of the reason we chose to go specifically to Budapest was because they celebrate Christmas) I also specifically have missed being a part of a Christmas concert- whether that be conducting or performing.

But, even with all of that, I’m thankful to be spending my Christmas here in Sarajevo! I have some major hesitations in writing that statement because I don’t want to minimize how much I miss my family. But really, I've already learned so much from celebrating here and am grateful to be here (and grateful for Skype!)! Here the biggest changes/observations from me:

1. Making a conscious choice to celebrate Christmas, instead of doing it just because you are supposed to and are surrounded by it, carries incredible significance.

2. All of a sudden, I’m not celebrating Jesus’ birth because its Christmas time. I’m celebrating Christmas because now is specifically a time to celebrate Jesus’ birth. (Even though, really, we could do this all year!)

3. Seeing the lack of understanding about Christmas has been yet another encouragement to live a life of intentionality.

4. Christmas carols I've heard a million times have taken new meaning as I intentionally focus and reflect on the words. Who knew things I've sang since elementary school had so much depth???

O Holy Night and O Come All Ye Faithful have become my new favorite Christmas carols: the former because it beautifully tells the impact of Jesus' birth and the latter because it tells us what we should be actively doing during this season.

I'll post a FEW verses from each that have been particularly meaningful to me. I'd encourage you to read the words without trying to sing along- at least the first time!

O Holy Night

Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn...

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger.

Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother.

And in his name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

With all our hearts we praise HIs holy name.

(check out this fantastic blog for more background on this and other carols: http://wildwoodmark.wordpress.com/)

O Come All Ye Faithful

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Sretan Božić!!! (Merry Christmas!)

Visa Application

This picture is my attempt to give an excuse for my blogging absence over the past few weeks. Now that all the paperwork for my visa is ready (woo hoo!), I hope to post more thoughts to blogging world shortly! Till then, I'm leaving you with a fantastic quote I stumbled upon:  

We do NOT need the grace of God to withstand crises- human nature

and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently.

But it DOES require the supernatural grace of God to

live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, 

going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed,

and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.

It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God-

but we do not.

We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life,

and holy on the ordinary streets,

among ordinary people- and this is not learned in five minutes."

-Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest" -Oct 21 entry

By the way, if you don't have this book, GET IT!!! Right now, for under $5!!! Go, Go, Go! 

Merry Christmas!

Kat