1 day to go

Specimen one (1): Clearly this man requires a break
as he is seen here wearing a chicken mask as
a coping mechanism

Specimen two (2): based on the crazed look in her
eyes and the slight foaming of the mouth we can
clearly observe she is heading for meltdown

As a teacher holidays and breaks become events of great importance. The countdown started about two weeks prior. Paul and I have been tallying the seconds and minutes and tomorrow at 2:15 pm we will be officially on spring break! This break seems essential for various reasons but here are just a fee.

* Hate ON: a term coined by James Foss, meaning to carry hate on your sleeve, or to be consumed by negative feelings pessimism, anger, discontent, and at times bewilderment. Paul and I have " had our hate on" as of late. It is difficult to take the hate on in fact.

* Spring time= burn time: As the weather warms everyone takes out their winter supply of plastic bottles, bags, and containers to burn them on the side of the road. Air quality= poor. Visibility= poor. This is a great metaphor since we are quite burned out ourselves.

* Inefficient poop slide: Korea had the squatter, Bosnia has the poorly designed toilettes wthat leave poo smears. You have to use a toilette brush each time you poop. I'm getting pretty tired of having to do this , and quite honestly I'm okay just leaving it there until it's gotten exceptionally gross. ( what have we become?)

* Aerobics: Paul and I have been nominated king and queen of our aerobics club because we are such frequent visitors.. Since we are cheap we try to get the most out of our 30 dollar a month membership and have been going up to 4 /5 times a week. For working out in large groups of 60 women ( plus 2-3 men) we deserve time off to eat Donair all week in Turkey.

Check it out on http://www.aerobic.co.ba/index.html and click on video ( atmosfera u nasu clubu) if you are patient maybe you can see us in action.

*Ant Infestation and radiator explosion: Maybe because we are slobs and leave crumbs around. Maybe because we closed off the heater and caused pressure build up leading to an explosion of water. Maybe because these kinds of things just happen to Paul and I.

*Time Change: As you get older the time change really hits you like a ton of bricks. Ever since we thought the time change was going to happen ( three weeks ago) to last weekend ( when the time change actually happened) our now highly regulated circadian rhythms have been messed up.

Having said all this Paul and I fully understand we don't quite know how to relax. I worry our week in Istanbul will be spent stressing about all the things we need to see when there, and do when we get back... but at least there will be Donair.

2 more days to take off.

Dinner with the Fortunes

Paul and I drive up and up and up the hill to Yuewn and Alistar's new home for a Saturday night dinner. Little do we know what we are in for. As we enter Yuwen is cooking what looks to be a feast of Chinese delights and the twins grab our hands and lead us upstairs to a puppet show complete with disco lights, sound effects and of course puppets. Pumped about their efforts they give us a double feature and perform twice, until finally their tire themselves out and go to bed.

We sit down, all 10 of us at a massive table as Yuwen keeps bringing dish after dish after dish of amazing Asian cuisines. My heart begins to beat faster as the smells make me feel as though I've had 8 rather than 2 glasses of wine. Sadly our camera sits at home in a dark corner and all I have is the camera inside my brain that keeps trying to take picture after picture of this feast worthy of Michelin stars. I think for a moment that perhaps we have entered an Asian restaurant where all of the food has model replica of plastic and wax and at any moment I will bite down and realise someone is playing a cruel joke. Luckily the food is not plastic!!!! It is full of rich flavour, spice and TASTE! I keep grinning like an idiot each time I take a bite and keep complimenting the hosts who by now are beginning to see that I am getting a bit rowdy as my wine glass magically remains full even though I am certain I keep taking large reckless sips.

I try to make conversation to slow down my pace but like a fat kid on candy I can't stop. At some point 5 hours of eating and drinking have passed. Everyone is laughing and talking. I have given everyone kisses, made dirty jokes and attempted to give Julie a piggy back ride. (Why do I feel like I want to carry people when I have had a lot to drink)


We are ten people at the table. We are from Canada, Poland, Scotland, the US, China, and Bosnia. We are sharing an Asian meal in Sarajevo. We are between the ages of 27 and 72. All at different points in our life span, in our trajectory. We have met and come together to share a meal and laugh. There is little more fantastic than that.

My eyes begin to blur. The buzz of the wine begins to wear into a dizzying sate of tiredness. We jump into a taxi and roll down the hill and back up another to our downtown apartment. It is late now and too dark to see anything but the blinking lights of town below. We crash soundly on our pillows not thinking of the exterior of our bedroom wall that faces the sky. Shot out bricks- remembrance scars of a time we were not a part of, are hauntingly behind our heads. I wonder the next day how people made it through the war without food and laughter for such a long time. I try not to dwell, even though the day is grey and I now face the shot out wall. There are some gyowza in the fridge we brought back last night to have for breakfast.