Day 97

Haven’t been writing in my blog for a very long time. And so much things has happened!

Firstly, we are not in Croatia right now. Because of the residence permit we had to go home and visit our embassies. That was quite crazy - all the planning and re-planning, how things will happen when we come back are while we are away.

We left Croatia on April 10^th. Magdalena and Federica went to their embassies on Friday, April 11^th. I had to make a new passport and buy tickets for the ferry, because my closest Croatian Embassy is in Stockholm so I left Riga on 15^th of April and arrived in Stockholm next day. People in Embassy were really nice and they said that it should not take too long for my residence permit, as I had all the documents needed and even too much – they were quite surprised that I had my birth certificate with me (and in three languages – Latvian, English and Croatian of course).

Now everything depends on how long will it take for people in Osijek police to look through all the papers and then give back the answer to Embassy. In Embassy they said that I don’t have to go to Stockholm one more time, that we can use post. Actually I’m quite happy about that. Ferry is not my favorite way of transportation. Probably I have seen too much “Titanic” and documentaries about ferry catastrophes, and as we were at the very first floor under the water, every time when there was a strange noise or the ship was staggering from the waves, I pictured us trying to get out of the ship, but all the gates are closed and water is coming closer and closer. Brrr! J

But of course, nothing happened and I am still alive J and Stockholm is a very nice city. And great sushi in Mongolian restaurant, by the way!

It is nice to be home. I have been quite busy meeting all the people - friends, family, colleagues, etc. And it does not seems at all that I have been away for three months. Spring is arriving also here. Although it was quite shocking to leave Croatia with blooming lilacs and arrive in Latvia getting better and better. This is one of my favorite seasons – to see how land is getting greener, how burgeons bloom, how birds start to make their nests. And it’s nice to wake up in my bed, see the maple near my window and hear the cranes screaming at the meadows.

Anyway – on 23d I am going to Albania for the training. And it’s going to be so great to meet my dear Federica and Magdalena again! J

Day 83

It's a Monday morning again, but I have my optimism back! Maybe because my colds are not so bad anymore, maybe because we spent totally lazy weekend - with lot of sleeping, eating and watching 'Friends'. We made some cream candy and some desert with cookies, whipped cream with cottage cheese, nuts and jelly - very, very good. :) (you can see some of it half-eaten in the picture). Sometimes I even impress myself with my cooking skills :)

I start to prepare myself to going to training in Fruska Gora, Serbia, next week. Information about the venue and the training sounds really great! I'm really looking forward to it! And there are going to be mountains! I love mountains! It's also going to bequite complicated, because after that we are going to one more training in Albania without coming back home. So we are going to be away for almost two weeks. That means a lot of luggage (imagine all the socks and underwear we have to take with us!). And I have to solve a problem with a bag - I have my big, huge suitcase and I have my backpack. The suitcase is definetely too huge and the backpack is definetely too small.

This week I have to finish writing my project because we planned to meet one of our partners in Albania, look through the project and put together their part with my part. Lot of work to do :)

Day 79

Back to work again. I don't care any more about my visa - what will happen, will happen. If I have to go back, I'll go, if not, I'll stay. Everything is destiny.

Yesterday I spent all day thinking about this f...... visa issue. Also we took Magdalena to doctor - poor girl has lost her voice and she has a terrible cough. Then it turned out that we have some problems with our insurance. Hopefully nothing serious won't happen to one of us, because if it will, it's gonna be a problem. And I also spent some time on our new task - choosing the next EVS volunteers. I read their e-mails, looked through their CV's and cover letters, wrote them answers. Write now I have found one guy I really like. But I still have quite a lot e-mails to look through.

Regarding to all the stuff happening last days I haven't had a time to work on my sexual education project and it's a real pity. I had planned to write the textual part during this week, but to do it, I'll have to work really hard.

By the way - I woke up today with herpe. Again. This is the fifth during my stay here. I usually don't get so many of them even during the whole year. It seems that my immunity really don't like something about this country.

Day 78

What a surprise, this is not my favorite day in my life! Just a minute ago I got to know that I can stay in Croatia only till 15th of April! And I have to go to Croatian Embassy in Latvia to get the permission to stay in Croatia till 15th of July. And guess what! There is no Croatian Embassy in Latvia, I have to go to Stockholm for that! And there is this law since 1st of January, but when we went to police to register, did anybody told us that? Of course they did not! Such a waste of time and money it's going to be.

I haven't had any crisis since I am in Croatia, but now I feel that I'm really close to one. Damjan is not very happy either.

Any other things seems quite small comparing to these news. Nor my cold, or Magdalena's illness, nor my passport problem. And no motivation to do anything. Why to do something if some stupid bureaucratic law ruins all your plans in one moment?