“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”: “When he worked, he really worked. But when he played, he really PLAYED."- Dr. Suess

OHHHHH Bosnia you never give me a boring day! Honestly, if I was to say that I have had 1 boring day since I got here two months ago (and YES I have been here for TWO WHOLE MONTHS) I would be lying to you. Every day brings a new adventure, whether it is exploring a fortress that is older than my home country, trying a new food that I am scared to ask what it is ( though that doesn't happen too much unless I eat some strange body part like KIDNEYS), or trying to communicate with a taxi driver who doesn't understand that I don't want to marry his son who I haven't even met!!!!! hahaha I really never have a boring day!! My life is quite interesting!!!

These last few weeks have been busy, but I have noticed that I have never, not had a busy week, so I guess it is just the normal pace for me now! But I think these last few weeks have been abnormally busy! Last week was crazy!! My host family and I celebrated Bajram or also known as Eid! And let's just say it was crazy! I had a three day school break for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monday we spent at home and spent some time with Sanida's sister who had flown in from Germany for the other sister's, Lejla, wedding. Tuesday we had a huge meal prepared and spent the entire day with all the extended family, and then came home to watch the soccer match.... The match that was kinda of a do or die match for the Bosnia team to get into the World Cup. Let me start off by saying that 90 min. game was the most stressful 90 min. of my life!!!!!! We were playing Lithuania who , rumor has it, was told by a certain team that if they beat us, they would be paid 50,000,000 Euros each.... well, who knows if the rumor is true, but they sure played like it!!!!! Lithuania played their hearts out with the Bosnia team, holding us 0-0 after half time. Let me just remind you last time we played them, we beat them 4-0 or something like that! Bosnia FINALLY scored, but it was called off sides and we were back to the beginning, but only a few min. after this invalid goal Bosnia scored! The city went WILD! I was watching this game from my house, but down at the BBI center, which is a well known shopping center downtown, thousands of people had gathered to watch the game on big screen! BBI is pretty far from my house, but I heard the screams of the people from my house! All I could see from my window was a red glow from all the flares and the smoke that that was now covering the center! The game continued and Bosnia finally won with the score of 1-0!!! They finally qualified for the World Cup for the first time since becoming an independent nation! Let’s just say that the honking and fireworks could be heard through the night! :)

Wednesday I stayed at home and started feeling not so good, which was the start of my problems! Let’s just say I spent the next few days sick to stomach with fever and missed the wedding I had been planning for since I got here, I EVEN HAD A DRESS MADE FOR IT!!!!! UGGHHHH It was so annoying! But life happens and we just have to get over it, but I heard it was an AMAZING wedding! So my three day school break turned into an entire week because of this dumb virus. But I won’t complain!

The weekend before Bajram I went on a class trip to jajce! OHHHHH It was gorgeous!! Fall is already my favorite season, but fall in Bosnia is even better! The trees are such vibrant colors right now! On our trip we went a visited some catacombs, a fort that is OLDER than America, the place where the old Yugoslavia was put together, and then to this lovely park, where some old mills are!! AHH it was so nice and beautiful! The trip was great! After the trip I went to a concert of a famous Croatian singer named Severina… It was interesting! But we had so much fun!! All the Americans made up words to the songs, because none of us had a clue what she was singing about!

So I have definitely had a busy couple of weeks! These last two weeks at school have been filled with tests, SO MANY TESTS!!! I have never studied so much in my life!!! But I guess that is junior year for you! Ohhh the joys of high school ;) Well I am going to have to end this post! But I hope everyone is doing well from where ever you are reading this from!! Thanks for the emails that I get! They mean alot to me! Sorry I haven't replied to some, but I promise to get to it in this next week or so!

Until the next adventure,

Sarah Edgar

P.s. Here is a great post on the Soccer Match and its significance in Bosnia http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/europe/crazy-celebrations-bosnia-and-herzegovina