Crisper Days

     Fall is starting to end here. Now, you must be thinking that that's absurd. It's only part way through October, how is it almost over? Well, in case you forgot, I live in Sarajevo. And in Sarajevo last year, they received two meters of snow. I am expecting snow within the next month. The days are getting shorter, the nights and mornings colder, and with all this beautiful season changing comes some other equally fantastic things.

   Two weekends ago, after volunteering at an adorable orphanage (cutest kids EVER), Anna and I decided on an impromptu hipster photo shoot across Baščaršija. It was completely random, but it felt exciting to do something spontaneous. If you know me at all, I'm not the spontaneous type really. I like plans. But running across Sarajevo taking pictures and being completely silly made me feel like I knew the city well enough to navigate the confusing, winding streets with a friend being absolutely ridiculous.

So serious.

So hipster.

lol jk

It's a long way down to freezing water.

    Fast forward to the next weekend, and it's time to volunteer at the orphanage again. We were separated into two groups; one for the toddler group and one for the early primary school kids. Helena and I were ushered into the room with the primary school kids and instantly we began playing Barbies and building things with Lego (evil, painful Lego) while practicing our Bosnian and the kids practiced their English.

   After an hour of playing, we were lined up to go downstairs to be on TV because the orphanage was auctioning art to fundraise. They had kid dancers put on a performance and two tiny children sing a Bosnian song dressed in traditional wear. They were adorable! I'm sorry I have no pictures, but it's a legal issue; one I'd rather not interfere with :) When the TV filming was done, we were dismissed and took off for college apps (oh the joys of being a Senior in need of scholarships)!

    While I was upstairs, all of a sudden I hear, "KATIE. DOÐI! DOÐI KATIE!" I bolted down the stairs as I see Nizama in front of the TV smiling as she said, "Ti si na televiziji (you are on TV)." I look at the TV and see a commercial as I look back at Nizama. "At the orphanage! You were on TV." We waited for the commercial to pass, but it turned out that it was showing the auction part of the show, so Nizama told me to come outside and stand on the terrace with her. The sun blinded me as we walked out and we tried small talk, something and Nizama and I haven't really been able to do with my lack of language skills. Every sentence I was able to construct about the cat on the post or the inevitable snow that was bound to come soon (I was not actually able to say "the inevitable snow is bound to come soon), Nizama would congratulate me on that minor success, but to us, having a conversation was big. We both haven't been able to do it for so long and it was just nice. We then headed back inside where they showed the orphanage again, and sure enough, there we all were in the back with the kids. The only reason, I'm sure, that Nizama spotted me, was because that day I decided to wear hot pink. But that just lead to Nizama saying she loved that color on me and her telling me that when she noticed me it was like, "HELLO KATIE!" Not to mention my host mom is just plain awesome and she buys me scarves and tights for absolutely no reason other than she thinks I'd like it. 

Scarf from my host mom!

    Anyway, this upcoming week-end is Bajram and we're going to Tuzla which I am extremely excited for! Lots of pictures and a definite blog post will follow :)

   Until then,

-Katie