Belgrade

Vuk Stefanovic - reformer of the Serbian Language

"Death to Facism" in Kalemegdan

Back in December I was in Belgrade for a couple of days and had a chance to stroll around town. Belgrade is a beautiful, bustling metropolis offering tons of sights, sounds, smells and my personal favorite, tastes. I was equally impressed with the hospitality of the locals and their endless knowledge of English. I highly recommend visiting Belgrade if you ever have the chance.

The Eternal Flame of Sarajevo

Eternal Flame

The Eternal Flame in Sarajevo was lit in 1945 and dedicated to all Sarajevans who died in World War II.

Sunset in Bijela

Every other Friday I visit the village of Bijela to help out at the PRONI Youth Club. The village is surprisingly wealthy as many of its inhabitants are Croat and receive remittances or work part of the year abroad. How do I know this? I see many nice foreign cars with German and Austrian license plates. Also, many of the kids at the youth club know German. Being from Croatia or having a Croatian passport in this area is definitely an advantage as you can freely travel around Europe. I have often asked my Bosnian friends to take trips abroad only to find that they need visas to travel to most European countries.

Maoca

Nearly every Saturday I make a trip to Maoca to help with a sports workshop. Usually, I spend the first couple hours hanging out in the youth club (often playing table football or ping-pong) and then we head to the local high school for recreation or "chaos" as I like to call it. Soccer is the most popular sport but we try to mix in some basketball, volleyball and physical fitness when we get the chance. After "P.E." it is back for the youth club for another hour during which I usually get my butt kicked in foosball. I've yet to meet a Bosnian kid is not a good foosball player, or maybe I just really stink.

Emperor Mosque in Sarajevo

Emperor Mosque at Night

Back!

A photo from a recent trip to Sarejvo.

Sorry for not updating on a regular basis. My internet connection is sketchy and it seems that when I try to post something to the blog the connection drops. Things have been going well in Bosnia and I am into the “meat” of my research. I have also heard from a few schools regarding my Ph.D. applications. At this point, I’m 2/3 with funding from two places -- still waiting to hear from CA schools and from AU. I think I’m leaning toward the University of Maryland at this point as it is near DC and near my fiancé which makes life easier. More to come soon.

Photos of my flat

My kitchen

Bathroom

Living Room/Bedroom

Greetings from Bosnia

Brcko














Chainsaws ring out from the neighboring houses, a mosque calls indicating afternoon prayer, two men mill about below my flat window picking up leaves and discussing the match from last night, and horns blast from passing cars marking the wedding of another couple. This is Bosnia and Herzegovina in October.

My time here has been full of ups and downs. After a frustrating first two weeks, during which I spent most of my time occupying various administrative buildings trying to get registered as a foreigner, life has calmed to a somewhat predictable manner. Most of my days are spent at the local youth center where I am serving as an intern or "volunteer" as they like to call me here. In the evenings, I am usually strolling about town and occupying various cafes with my language tutor/colleague/friend Mujke.

I came to Bosnia to learn colloquial Bosnian and to research youth empowerment. My tutor has responded to my language objectives through a variety of pedagogical methods. To expand my knowledge of grammar I teach English classes twice a week. To understand slang, I read and translate popular comic strips, watch local movies, and listen to and translate famous Yugoslav punk music (mainly Azra). This has only been going on for two weeks but I am already noticing a difference as each day I catch more and more from conversations. While eight weeks of language study in the US provided me a sound foundation, nothing compares to living in a place where all you hear is Bosnian.

SWSEEL Ends

Yesterday was my last day of langauge class. After nearly eight weeks, meeting for 4 hours a day with an additional 3-4 hours of homework per day, my introduction to Bosnian-Serbian-Crotian has ended. It is sad to see everyone leave. I feel that I was just getting to know many of my classmates and starting get a feel for Bloomington. Things I will not miss about this summer include: the bathrooms (in which the roof collasped), the dorm food, and Indiana's heat and humidity, to name a few.

Below is a photo of my classmates. While the class was a little large for an intensive language program, it seems that we were a cohesive and supportive group and this made learning BCS much easier.

Bloomington - Update

I have reached the 7th week of my Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian language training and only have two weeks left. Things have been going well lately although I feel my brain is not absorbing as much information as it did during the first couple of weeks. Our teacher has introduced us to around 1,200 new words and we should hit 2,000 by the end of the program. As expected, I have experienced the ups and downs of learning a language. Some days you feel like you are really starting to grasp and understand the language and grammar and then other days things just fall apart. It is always frustrating to not be able to remember certain words. For example, the other I was stuck trying to remember the word for “to remember” and of course the work for “to forget” was not coming to my mind either. Eventually, something slipped out of my mouth similar to the word, but I know once I arrive in Bosnia there are going to be some frustrating days. And in case you are wondering how the dorms are, the ceiling in our shower collasped the other day (see photo), oh dorm life.

Sealand

The story of Sealand, amusing and ridiculous.

Columbus Indiana is Different by Design

I recently visited Columbus, Indiana, which in case you did not know, ranks sixth in the United States for architectural innovation and design (behind DC, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago). The trip was wonderful and after a tour of the city Liz and I visited the County Courthouse. Following the recent Surpeme Court ruling I decided to try to take the law into my own hands and remove the Ten Commandments from the lawn (also thereby ending any chance of a political career). As you can guess I did not succeed, but it did result in a nice photo.

Following the recent Supreme Court Ruling...

Thanks to massive deposits of limestone, Indiana has many caves. Over the Fourth of July weekend, while Liz was visiting, we decided to do a little cave rafting at Bluespring Caverns. Formed in the early 1940s, the cave at Bluesprings is over 23 miles long and within the Myst'ry River there are blind fish and crayfish that have evolved from a world of perpetual darkness. Below is a photo from the cave tour.

Bluespring Caverns

Language Training at IU

I made it safely to Indiana and will start intensive language training (5 hours daily) on Monday. The campus is beautiful (quite large) and the people in my program are fascinating. There are students from all over the US studying Georgian, Azeri, Kazakh, Pashto, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, BCS (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian), Polish, Romanian, Macedonian and of course Russian. I will try to get some photos of the campus here in the next couple of days. Below is a photo of my spacious, modern dorm room.


My new room at IU.

Below are photos from my June trip to Washington D.C.. I spent most of my time unpacking and re-packing for Indiana but I did manage to get out and take in a few sites and sounds of the city. Below are photos from the sculpture garden near the Mall, the World War II Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. DC is wonderful in the summer, as long as you are not out in the mid-day heat.

Sculpture Garden

FDR Quote

FDR Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

I added a few pictures from my trip through "central america."


The Secret Fishing Hole (somewhere in southeastern Nebraska)

Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area in Colorado 

The Blog

I am starting this blog to capture my experience as a Boren Fellow. I will be spending my summer in Indiana and then it's on to Bosnia and Herzegovina for eight months to conduct "research."