Grace in Bosnia & Herzegovina 2019

With only three days left here in Sarajevo, I have begun to reflect on my time here: the places I've seen, the people I've met, the food I've tried, and the friends I've made. As was cheesily sang at a restaurant here, "Sweet Home Sarajevo, where the skies are so grey!" Sarajevo really is home despite the rainy days because there's always a warm and friendly coffee shop to duck into, or it's not that bad to stay in your house with the stunning views of the mosques, catholic churches, and cathedrals side by side. Though it is a small town, I've never grown bored, never run out of things to do because there is ALWAYS something happening. Events are organized into nice booklets, which are updated each month with music events, places to eat, and sites to see. The friends that I've made here, locals and foreigners, have shown me true friendship. I know it sounds cheesy, but being with my friends here have shown me the friends...

For the past three weeks, I have been taking an intensive Bosnian language course for 3 hours everyday. I decided to take this course so I could 1) speak more with my colleagues in their native language, 2) speak more with the beneficiaries at the organization, 3) and for general communication needs while in Bosnia. The first week, we started with an hour of watching Bosnian movies and practicing acting out some of the scenes. After the hour of "cultural class" we had 2 hours of Bosnian grammar and language with our beginner's teacher Amina. The first week was difficult at first because I knew nothing, but by the end of the first week it was incredible how much we had learned. One girl in our class was Czech and her language is very similar to that of Bosnian, thus she decided to move the advanced class, while a girl in the advanced class decided to move down. There was only this small fan in our room and it was HOT so Abby and Ayaho kindly offered to fan me :) This ...