Grace in Bosnia & Herzegovina 2019

After hours of me talking about how much I miss Mexican food at work, my boss said, "Why don't you teach us how to make Mexican food some time?" Initially I thought, wow that would be fun; s econdly, I thought, do I know how to make Mexican food really ? Lastly, I thought - I wonder if Bosnia & Herzegovina has tortillas? Tonight, I had my five coworkers over for Mexican food, and they wanted to come and make the meal with me so that they could learn. Truly I did not think it would be as amazing as the evening was - I was stressed and nervous that the food would not turn out well. Before the meal itself, I went grocery shopping, which was quite a process. Thank God most things have pictures on them, but for items I needed to buy that did not have pictures and just their name in Bosnian, I was stuck. I found out that avocados are extremely expensive compared to other produce here, and of course I chose to make guacamole! While I say that I am good at asking for help...

I am still learning the best ways of traveling alone in a new place, and tonight I found an amazing tool: Couch Surfing, the app. While I originally thought it was just good for staying at locals' homes for free, there is a social feature in which you can meet up with people living or traveling in the area. Recently I saw an event on the app for someone's birthday party. A couch surfing member organized an event for her birthday at a local restaurant/ old cinema and opened it to any travelers or locals interested in attending. I decided to give it a try last night, so I brought a girlfriend that I actually met through the Facebook Sarajevo Young Ex-patriots Group with me. We found a table of 10 people from Couch Surfing that consisted of people from the following countries: Wales, Argentina, Chile, Spain, England, Turkey, Finland, America (only me), and Bosnia! What lively conversations we had. Not only did I get to check out this restaurant/ old cinema, Kino Bosna , but I ...

An important part of understanding the city of Sarajevo and more broadly, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is learning about the war in 1992-1995. Today, I visited the  War Childhood Museum  and the  Genocide Museum  to gain a better understanding of the context of the country. I could not more highly recommend the War Childhood Museum - the curation of the exhibit is exceptional. The creator's idea was to collect short stories or memories from now adults who were children during the war, but he ended up collecting one item that meant something to each individual and that further told their stories. I don't want to share the details because I genuinely feel it is something you have to fully experience. The Genocide Museum was disturbing, as it should be, in order to show the importance of remembering the war so that it will not happen again; however, I did not enjoy the curation of the museum. Perhaps it was intentional, but it was overwhelming. In my opinion there w...

I cannot believe that it has already been a week since I arrived in Sarajevo, to mark this anniversary, I decided to take myself on some adventures this weekend. This morning I went on a free walking tour by a local hostel, and while the tour itself was not great, I enjoyed the people that I met from it. Another wonderful thing is that I happen to go out when it rains, and when I'm inside at work or at home the weather is nice and sunny. When I went on the aforementioned walking tour, it was pouring rain, and poor me decided to wear leather sandals that morning . . . I have learned my lesson. We walked around Old Town Sarajevo looking at the artisan crafts and coffee sets since coffee-drinking is such a huge part of the culture here. One thing I did learn from the tour is the process by which you should drink Bosnian coffee - as a warning to my readers, this is just what the tour guide said, so it could all be a lie:  When drinking Bosnian coffee, you must do the following ...

Today was a big day because as a team we submitted our second grant proposal this week! I supported the team by translating some parts and proof-reading others. Who knew all that peer editing from high school would come in handy :) I'm growing to love the people in the office more and more. It's very nice to start the day sharing some cream and BREAD with my coworkers. Always so much bread . . . with every meal. After work my coworkers and I all piled into my boss' car and she drove us to her house for Iftar that she had prepared (Iftar is the meal at which Muslims break fast during the month of Ramadan)! What a beautiful home she had, and I was so grateful to be invited as a friend. Not only was the company and home fabulous, but wow the food was "ukusna" (delicious)! Seida, my boss, cooked dolma and Sara and it was amazing. Dolma is peppers stuffed with meat and other spices while sarma is meat and spices rolled in kale leaves - they look like the middle easte...