Preparing for Serbia

So we leave for Serbia on Friday. I have been doing laundry and dreading packing and carrying all my bags around with me. We are to meet at the train station early on Friday morning, so hopefully my host family will drive me!

This week has been interesting because we have really gotten deeper into our lectures and had a lot of guest speakers. Today, for example, we had one speaker talking about the feminist movement in Croatia, and another speaker who talked about LGBTIG rights and issues in Croatia, as well as sexual education in schools.

We have also been preparing for our independent study projects (ISPs), which we will do during our last month here. We get to choose where we want to go and what we want to research about. We have been talking about possible topics, as well as research methods for the projects. I am considering doing mine related to the media here and how it has changed over time with socialism and the war. Last night, we were assigned to do interviews with a young person in Zagreb to learn about interviewing. I talked to the host sister of another girl in the program about politics and education in Zagreb and how much young people are involved. That is all for now, but I will be sure to update as soon as I get to Serbia and meet with my host family.

My Host Family

Today was our fourth day in Zagreb (already going by so fast!!) and we had another language class. We are learning how to say simple things and how to pronounce the letters. Pronounciation of the words is phonetic, but there are 30 letters in the alphabet! Je sam Nicole is "I am Nicole" and right now, that's all I remember. We repeated after the language teacher, Marija, (Maria) so I know how to say things, but not to read or spell yet which it hard for me. We have a 2 hour break every day for lunch, so many of us will go across the street to the open air market to buy some fresh bread, cheese and veggies. Today, we bought a big loaf of bread (4 kuna, which is less than a dollar) and half a kilo of tomatoes (3 tomatoes for 2 kuna) and this sort of paste-like dip made out of eggplant and peppers, and some cheese. I also bought an ear of sweet corn from a vendor off the street for 10 kuna (2 dollars). So we cooked and ate a huge lunch for less than 10 dollars, and all we have to do is walk across the street from where our classroom is!

If you're interested in Google mapping to see where our classroom is, search for Dolac Market, Zagreb, or the name of the center square, Trg Bana Jelacica. That is basically the center of the city, where all the trams go to and where all the stores are. The SIT headquarters is just a big apartment that is in a building right off this square, so it's really easy to get to, but we have to climb 8 flights of stairs to get to this apartment and there's no elevator. This picture here was taken in Dolac. The four girls at the front of the picture are actually in my group: Lila, Marisa, Claire and Julie. You can see the town's cathedral in the background, and the red umbrellas of the market. This picture makes it look small, but it is really, really big.

After lunch we covered the syllabus for the semester, and talked about when and where we'll be traveling. Then we found out who our host families would be. We had a little party in the hostel yard with the host families, with drinks and snacks and live music. It was really nice. The people I'm staying with is a young couple, the man in his early 30s and his girlfriend in her late 20s. They speak English, and he speaks German and she speaks French and she said she was looking forward to practicing her French with me. She is a physical therapist and she travels around the area a lot, to countries around here for the people she works with. They said that he is working on his master's degree, but I didn't catch what exactly it is he's getting his master's in. They have a nice apartment fairly near to where the hostel is.

They said I'll have to take the train into town and then take tram into the center of town. But the train and the tram are free for students. They're really nice and really funny, I think they'll be great to live with. And hey, if not, we only have a few weeks here before we start traveling around the rest of the Balkans! Things are moving quickly!!

2 DAYS TO GO!!

So pretty much going into the final stages at this point. It's Friday and I leave on Sunday. I'm kiiiiiiiinda freaking out. The packing is the worst part. My suitcase can only weigh 45 pounds and it currently weighs.... 70 pounds. And I don't know what else to take out. How does one pack for 4 months for 70 degree to 30 degree weather? In a suitcase less than 50 pounds? I just don't know how anyone can do it.

Finally got a list of all the people that will be on the trip, and have been Facebook stalking. It's a group of 11 people, all girls! That's kind of weird, but it's cool. They all seem really great so far, although most of them seem much more... worldly than I. I'm really looking forward to meeting them.

I just found out about a week ago that I've been accepted to be a student correspondent for Global Post, an online news source that covers global news via independent correspondents living in different countries all over the world. They've started a Study Abroad page for students to contribute and talk about their experiences abroad. Hopefully I can keep up with that blog, this one, and all my school work.

Regardless of how nervous I am, and how hard packing is, I'm excited. I can't wait to see Zagreb and meet all the people in the program and my host family. Mostly though, I can't wait until the 12+ hours of traveling are over!

The Packing Nightmare

10 days until I leave.

I've been waiting for SIT to send out a list of other people who will be going on the trip, but they haven't yet, so I'm getting kind of worried like, I don't want to go to a foreign country with a bunch of people that I literally know nothing about. Luckily, I made a group on Facebook that one other girl joined, and we've been corresponding via Facebook about travel plans and packing and whatnot.

Packing. Whew. I haven't really started yet, although I do have a big empty suitcase sitting in my room and an extremely long Excel worksheet of things to bring. I've bought a few things, plain t-shirts, a new bag, a skirt and cardigan and some leggings, but I still have a bunch of toiletries and crap to buy, as well as school supplies. Still working on that whole... getting rid of stuff in my room thing. It's stressful.

Most of my friends are back at school, so they're all dealing with classes and stuff, but I'm just sitting at home... hanging out... waiting...