Day 45

This day we experienced something so much in Balkan style - we went out of our office and saw that our neighbors are broiling a pig. And they asked to join us for eating it 17.00. It was so unbelievable! Reminded me about some movies about medieval times.
Of course it's not so long time ago when we could butcher our pigs at home and do whatever we want with them (oh, European Union, what have you done to us!), but we never done them like this - whole pig on the spit in the fireplace. I really like this :))

Sun is shining today and it's really not the right weather for working. I have almost solved all problems regarding our sexual education project (but I still have to get answers from partners and talk with Danijela about everything), but we still have Croatian with Luka today and presentation of our fabulous smoking research!

But now I have to go home for luch - pasta with zucchini. Great! :)

Day 43

Ok, people, I'm back from Contact Making Seminar! Actually two days has passed since it's over, but on Monday we were not working and yesterday I didn't felt very good and there was also our evaluation meeting. But ok, one by one.

Last Tuesday evening Ansis and Valda (my friends from my sending organization in Latvia) arrived. And I was almost late for their train :) Next day we went for a walk around the city with them, we went to AS, one of our favorite restaurants here in Osijek. I ordered some traditional sausages, and they were really, really spicy. That was awful. Now I know which dish I'm not going to order anymore.

On Wednesday all the other participants of CMS arrived, and we had to pick some up at the railway station. At the evening after the dinner (we had very big lunches and dinners all the time during the seminar, this is why now I'm having a fasting) we did one game to get acquainted to other participants better. We had a sheet of paper with questions like: who likes the red color, who is in love, who is born in March, etc. And we had to find 2 persons conformable to this statement. And that was such a pity when it turned out, that nobody's born in March! :D

On Thursday there was official opening with presentations from government. As I have worked as journalist and PR person it was interesting to see how media works here. For example the photographer guy who run in for two minutes, took some pictures and run away again as fast as possible. For my point of view he was not showing lot of respect to our work. But ok, ok, media rules the world.

At the afternoon we had World Caffee - exchanging views and knowledge about Youth in Action programme, and at the evening there was NGO and Country fair. Lots of traditional food, lots of drinks and lots of people and information. That was fun!

Next day we did idea market - we had to think about project idea and then make a poster to promote it. My group made a project idea about sexual and health education training for youth leaders and youth workers. Our idea was quite popular and we got totally 9 countries who would like to participate in this project. I was really happy about that! Next day we continued our work with projects.

On Saturday afternoon we went for the Treasure hunt - a guide tour around the city. Although I am here already for a month there was still things I didn't know - for example Peter Pen ice cream caffee with best ice cream in the town :) And we also went in the cathedral - I had not done it yet either.

And at the evening we went to Ruža for traditional dinner. I really like that place. Interior is really great there, so as food. And gypsies where playing some traditional music, and we were singing and trying to dance although there was almost no space for that. It was really great! After that we went to Bastion and danced a lot. That was also fun! But not so much fun was going home for Tvrđa, because I had high heels and my feet didn't feel very happy about that :)

Sunday was the last day of the Seminar. We continued work on our project ideas and at the afternoon presented them to others. Some really great project ideas arised in this Contact Making Seminar and it would be really great if all of them will be implemented!

At the evening we had a farewell party where all of us got our certificates. And after that there was karaoke party. That was a great! I even sang a song in Croatian together with Ivan: Volim piti, volim piti! :D And we sang lots of other songs and it was such a great fun! :))

Monday I spent together with Valda and Ansis. We went for lunch with Damjan and after that - to Peter Pen, where I had really great and really unhealthy meal (ice cream, hot chocolate and cake). And on Tuesday morning I accompanied them to early morning train 5.25. That was a first time in this country when I woke up so early. I even didn't know that it's possible! :D

And at the evening we had evaluation meeting about CMS. What can I say about that? Oh, these Croats are such a passionate people! Nothing more.

Day 35

This has been a pretty busy time. But the most busiest time is just going to come. Tomorrow the Contact Making Seminar starts, so probably there will be no posts in my blog till next week.

Independence of Kosovo is having some impact also on our lives. Number of participants is changing all the time, because people from Serbia, Poland and Austria are canceling their participation. Lots of stress for Damjan and Danijela.

We are also a little worried because of our on-arrival training which is taking place in Belgrade from 3d to 8th of March. I really hope that everything gonna be ok till that time.

We have happily survived the Austrian invasion. 9 people in our house - that was really an experience! But it was fun! I got a new nickname. Ivan is calling me all the time 'the evil soviet woman', Austrians started to call me 'Murderer' (because my name sounds familiar to this word). And I don't understand, what do I do to get such a mean nicknames? :D And I also learnt new word in German - rabenshaisse! Who knows what it mean? Yes, right, raven shit! :D

Today we are working on preparation to Contact Making Seminar. We have to prepare info-packages for all the participants.

Yesterday we were folding info leaflets about Youth Centre (those which I made, unfortunately something went wrong and they are a little skew. But I'm very proud anyway.)

And today we did the general cleaning at our house. I did lots of ironing again. I really love to do that! And for lunch I had some boiled potatoes with salt and sour cream. Very simply but what a great taste!

Day 30

Happy St.Valentine's day! :) I know, I know, very it's very commercialized and shallow thing, but who cares - more celebrations, more fun!

Anyway it seems that here in Croatia the Valentine's day craziness is not so crazy as somewhere else. I can bet that in Latvia every second shop window is red or pink and there are Valentine's day sales all over the country. Here I have seen only some red shop windows and some posters about events.

And this year I missed my University's Valentine's day Prom, I really like that event. And guys from 'Papardes Zieds', one of my organizations in Latvia is organizing a big informative event today. But you can't get everything at one time, right? :)

Today guys from the 'Posh Store' organized action for Dogs asylum. They are collecting money so they could help them. Magdalena also was there so we went to visit here. There was also TV, so the event has quite big publicity. I hope that it will help the poor dogs at least somehow. It's really cold today, only +1. (In Latvia it's snowing, but in Italy walks around only in their jackets. Lucky Italians!), so we took Magdalena and one of the dogs home for some warm tee. The dog was really nice - calm and wanting to be petted. I never had dog in my life so actually I don't really know what to do with a dog. But it was really interesting.

Today Magdalenas' friends arrive. We don't know yet what time, but late. That's gonna be fun - 8 people in our apartment. On Tuesday my friends Ansis and Valda comes. I have to get some sheets for them from Damjan. Also we have problems with forks and spoons - actually we can't invite anybody for lunch, because we have only 3 spoons and only 3 forks. But we have lots and lots of knives, I think around 15 :D

Ok, have to get to work. We have to finish our smoking research! :)

Day 29

Feel like I have done lots of things this morning. I went to the bank and got my PIN finally. This system in the bank is really strange. They didn't give me PIN when I get my VISA card, they said, that they'll send it to my home address by post. But then last week the guy from the bank called and said, that I can go and get my PIN (that guy already knows me, he always smiles and says 'Hi' when I go there). So now I finally have my VISA card and I can take my pocket money in ATM. One more strange thing is, that it's not possible to receive money from my family in Latvia, for example, in my Croatian bank account. If I want to do that, I have to open one more account. I don't think that we had so much bureaucracy in banks when we were not in EU yet. Only thing I really like about banks here is that you don't have to spend so much time in rows like it's in Latvia. In Latvia I usually spend about 15-20 minutes waiting in a row to get the service. Here I enter and I get the service almost immediately.

I also found a place where to buy postcards with pictures of Osijek. I didn't feel like trying to talk in Croatian this morning, so it was very nice that women in the post office spoke very good English.

Yesterday me and Federica went to Tvrđa to finish our survey about youth and smoking. We did very well - we surveyed 35 people, together with 15 I done last week in the Youth Center that makes all 50! Great! I have to work on my research part still and we have to summarize results. The presentation of the research is on Monday.

Yesterday we also had a meeting about Contact Making Seminar. I didn't think that it's gonna take soooo long. I felt quite hungry, so there was no big sense from me. Anyway one more time I got approval to my not very positive view to group work. It's fun and interesting to observe group processes (conflicts, communication problems, struggles for leaders' role), but it's not fun at all to try to work in the group in fast and efficient way if you have to deal with all these things. I know, I know, wrong attitude. Thank you, my dear, we don't need people

But finally I got my omelette with tuna-fish and I was happy. Today we have one more meeting about CMS. And I think that I have to keep some extra food in my bag. I have become really food-addicted lately. :)

Day 28

I had a bad dream last night. Something about killing, raping, suicides and homicides. I woke up around 7.00 o'clock because it seemed that somebody is ringing the door bell. But there was nobody, just my bad dream.

Then I started to think, why this dream. And I remembered yesterday's night talks about domestic violence. And I remembered a blog of the actor from theater of my town I read yesterday. About the church he can see from the window of his room in the theater, and the priest of this church who beats his wife to blood. And that awful feeling raised in me, when you know, that you know, and you know that everybody knows. But nobody does anything. Although we should. But what?

Today me and Federica we are going out in streets to catch people for our smoking research. We didn' t do it yesterday because it was too cold. I'm afraid that today it's not much warmer, but we can't postpone it anymore.

Day 27

And again it's Monday morning. My presence in other country doesn't make the Monday-morning syndrome more bearable. It seems that there are no cultural differences regarding to this.

I've done many things in this weekend. Friday was the big cleaning day - I was cleaning up, doing laundry and ironing. At the lunch time me and Magdalena went out to do one very important thing - finally see river Drava in daylight. And it was really great. I'm really looking forward to spring time, when the banks of the river have to be even more attractive place to spend our free time.

This Friday afternoon I also did one more thing I somehow missed during my time in here - to take picture of cathedral. I have lots of pictures with other places and objects of Osijek, but I have no clue how could I miss the cathedral. :) Only problem is, that it so big, that it's hard to get it in the picture properly. Eh, amateur photographs. :)

On Friday evening we had Italian night. Federica had prepared great presentation and great food. Pasta with olives and cherry tomatoes, filled eggs and chocolate sausage - mmm, everything was so tasty!

On Saturday we went to the swimming pool again. It was not so good as usually - too many people. So we decided to change our swimming days to Monday and Thursday (but not today yet).
And Saturday afternoon was the Croatian night. They had prepared some really interesting presentations about Croatia. And the food was great as always. :) Bread, bacon, sausages, pies, cakes and even rakija, made by Ivan's grandfather. So we ate, we danced and we took a lot of pictures. Great evening! :)

Next morning we were heroes - it really was a heroic thing from us to get up 8.00 on Sunday morning. Ivan took us to Auto market to buy some bikes (we were told that we can get really cheap bikes there). Unfortunately we did not found any cheap and good bikes (they cost three times more than we were ready to pay), but the Auto Market was a great experience. It's a place where you can buy everything - starting with hens, rabbits and pigeons, continuing with underwear, fruits and potatoes and concluding with spare parts of auto's and even autos. Ivan said that this is how a real Balkan market looks like. We have also something like this in Latvia, although markets are more specialized and not so big.
All in all - a great weekend! :)

Day 23

This was a nice and long morning in bed. Federica and Magdalena went with Damjan to buy things they need for Federica's Italian night and Magdalena' s work in dog asylum, so I was alone at home! At first I felt soooo happy! Yeee, finally alone! Because when you spend so much time together with other people and you are alone just when you're at sleep, you start to long for some loneliness. So I had breakfast in bed with some stupid movie on TV and women magazine, and a long, nice shower. Then, after an hour I started to think: I wonder where are the girls, what do they do? Will they be home soon? And I started to feel lonely and miserable and ate all my chocolate. :)

But then Federica came home and started to make a chocolate sausage for tomorrow's Italian night. It will be really, really tasty! She had some biscuits, butter, cacao, nuts and eggs in there, now it's in the fridge and I'm really, really looking forward to tomorrow night when I can taste it!

Then Magdalena came home with here new, dog-proof clothes. She looks really impressive in those green pants, jacket and rubber boots.


Today we also put some ideas on the paper how the info-material about the Youth Center could look. Now I will try to put into Photoshop. That's gonna be fun! :)

I had an inspiration for cooking today, so I made some biezpiena placeniši (cottage cheese pies, but that is not the totally right translation for it). And I suceed very well, they really tasted like they have to taste. So I think during my EVS I will gain some trust in my cooking skills. :)

Day 22

Today we were at the swimming pool again. It was great! We were swimming for 50 minutes totally, so I really feel like a champion now :) And weather is just great today - sun is shining, sky is blue and I'm walking around only in my sweater.

Yesterday I did some investigation for our smoking research and found some really unpleasant facts about situation in Latvia. I knew that it's bad, but I didn't know that it's so bad: International pupil smoking research, conducted in 2002, shows that in Latvia the percentage of the children who have tried smoking is very high - 79,9%. Smoking prevailance in Latvia is very high, especially among girls. Level of smoking for 13 – 15 year old girls is higher than level of smoking among adult women. More than one third of young smokers start smoking not reaching the age of 10. I wonder what is the situation here, in Croatia.

Lately I have thought a lot about my future, what I'm going to do, when I'll be back in Latvia. Although I have five more months to spend here in Croatia and things can change a lot during that time there are many things I have to think about. But I'm really looking forward to my new life after my EVS experience.

And one more thing I'm really looking forward to is our on-arrival training in Slovenia in March!
Next week Magdalenas' friends will arrive, so it's gonna a be something interesting and fun, and week after that is Contact making Seminar, were my friends from Latvia will come. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope that they will bring me some black bread (rupjmaize). I start to miss Latvian food.

Sometihing wrong with the fonts for this post. Sorry! :)

Day 20

Yesterday I saw my first dandelion. And my mom called me and said that it's snowing in Latvia.


My Latvian evening succeeded very well, everybody liked my speka piradzini (bacon pies), kimenu siers (cumin cheese) and dzervenu zefirs (cranberry zephyr). If anybody wants a recipe, please ask! :)

I also tried to teach the guys some Latvian folk songs and one quite popular party dance in Latvia called 'Pastum, pastum, pietupies'. In general - we had fun! :)

On Sunday Magdalena went to the dogs asylum. When she came home and told us, how it was, I was really shocked. 200 dogs are living in asylum which is built for 70 dogs. There is no medicaments for the dogs and not enough money to sterilize them, so they keep on breeding. Magdalena is very willing to continue to go there on Sundays and help the youngsters from the Youth Center who voluntary work there to help poor dogs. I really admire her about this, because although I would like to help, I think that I'm not able to overcome my fears from dogs. But everybody can help the world to become a better place differently. Maybe this is not my way.