As a Jewish, American these were definitely the 4 most
interesting days of my semester.
Lets start from the beginning. My flight out of Dubrovnik
was scheduled for December 26th. About 2 months ago I was having coffee
with a fellow classmate and now my current roommate, Monika. This was the first
time Monika and I really had the chance to hangout and get to know each other.
We were chatting and I mentioned when I was leaving Dubrovnik and she asked me
what I was doing for the holidays. I never really thought about it. Monika
immediately asked me if I would be interested in joining her family in Bosnia
for Christmas. Of course I said yes, but I wasn’t sure if she was asking just
to be nice or if she was serious. The next day Monika told me she talked to her
mom and they are so excited for me to come to their house and that her mom
already told her entire family. I was very surprised, but also very excited and
a little nervous. Don’t get me wrong, I am very good at meeting parents, but
most of her extended family does not speak English and Novi Travnik (the city
she lives in) does not have many American visitors. I knew this was going to
be a very different experience.
Do not feel bad if you have never
heard of Bosnia & Herzegovina, I hadn’t either until I came to Croatia. It
is a country that lies directly east of Croatia. It has a very interesting and
complicated history. It is made up of Serbs (Protestants), Croatians
(Catholics), and Bosnians (Muslims). They each have separate communities and
schools. While they each technically have their own language, it was explained
to me that it is comparison to American English, British English, and
Australian. Even though they are all Bosnian citizens, the Croatians fly
Croatian flags and the Serbs fly Serbian flags.
I’m sure Monika and her sisters were tired of all my questions,
but it was hard for me to understand dynamics between the different groups and
the separation between them. Monika’s family lived in America for 5 years and
they recently moved back to Bosnia this year, so they’ve experienced both
worlds. I kept reminding myself that Bosnia was in the midst of war 20 years
ago and there is no way I would be able to relate to their mindset no matter
how much I tried to understand the current situation.
My 4 days in Bosnia can be described mostly by eating. I
already told my mom that I thought I lost weight in Dubrovnik, but after
leaving Bosnia that is not the case anymore. Our bus from Dubrovnik arrived in
Travnik at 2:00 AM andwe arrived home to warm soup, fresh bread, and delicious
chicken in white sauce on the table. Keep in mind this is the first home-cooked
meal I’ve eaten in 4 months. We woke up to a huge stack of pancakes and 3 hours
later we were eating homemade chicken-meatballs and mashed potatoes. Even
though we were constantly full we just kept eating.
Our first day was spent exploring the city in the freezing
cold. Monika and her sister Iva showed me their high school and again answered
all my questions about the different schools in Bosnia. Monika was the photographer
for the day mostly because everyone stared at us walking through the streets.
Since they are not used to tourists they are also not used to people walking
down the streets taking pictures and speaking English. We must have looked very
funny. We stumbled upon the house that the only Bosnian Nobel Peace Prize
winner used to live in. We ended our tour around the city at Hari, “the best
Ćevapi restaurant in town.” Not only was it warm, it was delicious! Ćevapi is a
grilled dish of minced meat that is traditionally found in southeastern Europe.
It is considered the national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Later that night I went to church with Monika, her mom,
and her 2 younger sisters. I have been to church a couple times before, but this
experience was much different. Since the entire mass in Croatian and I couldn’t
understand anything, it gave me time to sit and think about everything around
me. The major difference I noticed about the church in Bosnia compared to
churches I have been to in America was the people who attended it. In America
we always talk about the loss of religious beliefs amongst the younger
generations and how nowadays when we think of churchgoers we tend to think of
elderly people. It seemed to be the complete opposite in Bosnia. The church was
filled with young adults and children. I also noticed that religious beliefs
are an important aspect in their families. After church we went to a local pub
and sipped on kuhano vino, which is delicious cooked wine.
The next day was Christmas Eve, which meant a day without
eating meat. In Bosnia, and many other countries, it is a tradition to roast
pigs to eat on Christmas. Literally everywhere we drove we saw families outside
roasting their pigs; some roasted 1 some roasted 5. It kind of reminded me of
the pig I once saw at a luau in Hawaii. We spent the day trying to explore but
it was too cloudy to really see anything, we could barley see 10 feet in front
of us. Today was Monika’s Grandma’s birthday so we all took a trip to Grandma’s
house to wish her a happy birthday. She didn’t speak English, but words were
not necessary. We smiled at each other and hugged. She was the most curious out
of Monika’s family members as to why an American has come to Bosnia. After
visiting Grandma, the girls all went to midnight mass. We went to a different
church that was much warmer, but also much longer and way more crowded. We
stood in the back along with about 150 other people. Monika’s mom explained to
me that typically if people have to stand then the women stand on the right and
the men stand on the left. We happened to be standing on the left with all of
the men, because that’s where there was room. No one even noticed us. After
church we arrived home around 1:30 AM to a feast of roasted pig and fresh bread
on the table.
Christmas day was the day I was anticipating. It was the
day I got to meet the ENTIRE family. I’m not going to lie…I was a little
nervous. When we arrived the table was filled with food and we started eating
immediately. We all share the common bond of enjoying delicious food; so I
think eating is always a good way to start off when meeting new people. A
couple of Monika’s younger cousins were there whom I met a couple days previous
so that was nice already knowing them. 2 of her cousins spoke English but still
let Monika and her sisters translate for them. We taught them what an “awkward
situation” is so that was funny because basically our entire interaction was
awkward. Monika’s little cousin, who is 7 years old, just started learning
English so his parents tried to get him to talk to me but he was too nervous.
That’s okay because we were still friends whether we spoke each other’s
language or not.
In Bosnia it is a tradition that all the “young adults” go
out on Christmas Eve and Christmas night. I say “young adults” because they can
go out when they are 16 and not have to worry about having an ID. As I
mentioned in the beginning, all the Croatians go to Croatian bars, so once
again I was the only American in the bar and we were the only group of people
speaking English. We were sitting at a table speaking English and Monika’s sister
could hear the guys next to us speaking in Croatian about how there was an
American there and that they should all practice their English. It was kind of
like I was a celebrity. We had a lot of fun and we met Monika’s cousins out, so
at least I knew about 5 people. Oh, I forgot to mention Croatians are tall and
Monika and her 2 sisters are very tall, so picture a short American walking
into a bar and people trying to talk to her and she just shakes her head and
dances away. Yeah, that is exactly how I looked. We made it home in time for me
to go to the bus station at 2:00 AM to head back to Dubrovnik to catch my
flight to London.
Mom, if you are reading this, I am sorry I didn’t tell you
about this part of the adventure. You would have been mad at me for not
listening to you about going back to Dubrovnik earlier. Love you!
As you should know by now there is usually some adventure
that goes on, and while Bosnia was an adventure itself, so was my journey back
to Dubrovnik.
I bought a bus ticket back to Dubrovnik and it was
scheduled to leave Travnik at 2:00AM. We called the bus station to confirm the
bus was running on Christmas night, we checked online, and we even asked the
bus driver on our way to Bosnia. Everyone told us the bus would definitely be
running on December 26, 2013 at 2:00AM. Well guess what…they were all wrong.
Now I would have stayed in Bosnia a little longer, but I had to catch my flight
to London and it was not an option to miss another flight. Monika and her
father ended up driving me 3 hours to Mostar to catch the 7:00AM bus to
Dubrovnik. Luckily I made that bus and was able to catch my flight. Yes, mom I
should have listened to you and I learned that procrastination isn’t always
key.
From now on whenever someone asks me what my favorite/most
interesting part of my semester was my answer will always be spending Christmas
in Bosnia with one of my new best friends and her lovely family. Yes, at times
it was difficult to understand the current situation and it was difficult to
adjust to the language barrier, but it was a learning experience. The people
are so hospitable. I mean really there was never a time I felt uncomfortable.
They eat a lot of meat, so we definitely get along. They also, embraced me as
if I was their own family, which I couldn’t be more grateful for. I am so
excited to return this summer!
For all the Gator fans reading this post, you will
appreciate the fact that Monika’s dog in Bosnia is named Tebow! Yes he is
actually named after Tim Tebow.
