#ryex

thankful for this tarot-reading, shearling-wearing, wise + smizin snuggle buddy ♥️ #ryex forever + thanks for the pic #outsidejeff @_jeffgross (at Angeles National Forest)

Theres something really special about Rovinj.

After having moved host families, I’ve really begun to notice how quickly time is passing by.  I never quite believed everything people were trying to tell me about how fast time flies by, but sure enough, I’ve basically come to the half way point of my exchange.  I can’t even begin to describe how strange it is to think about that now.  All the friendships I’ve developed and continue to build are with people I feel totally familiar with, almost like I’ve known them much longer than just these few months.  My Croatian is improving bit by bit each day, and funny enough my English seems to be getting worse!  I’ll catch myself making really simple grammatical errors while I’m speaking that I wouldn’t have made even as a child... luckily my writing abilities seem to be doing alright.  Along with the complete shock at the thought of my exchange being half done, came a strong desire to start getting up and doing more things.  I’ve noticed that no matter where you go, a large percent of the local people don’t go out and do things within their own cities because they always feel like these opportunities will always be there, waiting for them on any given day.  Having a time-line and realizing that my life in Europe is almost half up had me feeling a bit restless and anxious.  There’s so much that I want to do here and see here before I have to go back into the normal life of being a responsible student that has to set goals, and sacrifice social aspects of my life to attain academic results.  I’ve never really paid much attention to all the precious time flying by until I thought of the month we’re approaching.  New years resolution (starting now!!) will be to see as much of Zagreb as I can, especially during Advent.  Being a predominately Catholic country, Croatia gets super into decorations and such during Christmas celebrations!  Anyways, along with the goal of soaking up as many experiences as I can, I have to tell you guys about some of the cool things I’ve done as of recently.  Within the Balkan and several other European countries, it is traditional to buy your own pig from a butcher, and with the help of a butcher or simply by your self, prepare the pig to make sausages and salami!  More so now only a tradition in villages, several people still take part in this traditional aspect of their culture.  My host family had their own pig for this year so I got to see the whole process!  They cut up the pig in different ways aligning with the quality of the different cuts, and setting aside the large amounts of meat for various purposes!  This entire process can only be done in the winter because it’s cold enough to keep the meat from going bad.  Traditionally salami is made around this time so that they’re ready for Christmas!  Anyways, some of the meat was taken and put into a grinder and from there into a massive plastic pot.  Here we mixed the meat with salt to act as a preservative, and different herbs for flavoring.  After mixing it all up with a big spoon (and then later hands!), the mixture was left to sit overnight while we worked on preparing something else!  Any guesses? blood sausages!  My Belgium experience seems to be following me around all these months later...  We had to prepare the blood sausages that night because the blood goes bad more quickly than the meat!  Because the blood was cold we had to run it though a sieve to separate the gross little chunks (sorry for the gross visual!).  After we mixed everything all up and grabbed the outside coverings of the sausages.  After probably my entire childhood of wondering, I finally figured out whats really covering the outsides of meats and salamis.  People take out the intestines of pigs and cows, clean them, and then bam, you’re ready to create a feast of different meats!  Slightly morbid when you think about it.. I’m definitely going to be sure to take those off the next time I’m eating salmi or sausage. Nevertheless, it was a super cool experience!

As time has passed there have been a few changes.  I’m in a new host family now, and have easily adjusted here for just over a week!  I have two host brothers, the older, Mario, studying at a post secondary in America, and the younger, Dominik, who is in what we would consider to be elementary school back at home.  I have quickly discovered that Dominik loves football (soccer for you North Americans) and have started kicking around the ball together in our free time!  Currently he is learning English and so its really great to be able to practice my extremely broken Croatian with such a forgiving and encouraging little friend.  My host sister, Julija, is currently studying at an American university based in Zagreb, and commutes there every day that she has classes.  I get along super well with my new host family and feel just like I’m at home.  Julija has taught me a bit about her program and now I’m even more excited about starting up my studies as an international business student when I return!  My host parents names are Robert and Suzana, and interestingly enough, they remind me a lot of my parents back in Canada!  Musn’t we forget the host pets :)  Rocky, a little 9-month-lab, has likely one of the softest fur coats I’ve ever felt.  He’s super cuddly and affectionate, the best bud for any kind of adventure.  When I get back (fair warning maam and padre!) I’m going to need a little furry friend of my own asap!  Juraij is our cat, he’s also super cuddly and adorable however for what ever reason my skin doesn’t love the cat as much as I do, I often end up getting a rash after cuddling him for a while.  Okay and not to brag (well kind of), its currently 17 degrees in Velika Gorica in November!!!! Happy to say that I’m not fighting off the Canadian cold, at least this once.  Literally nicest november I’ve experienced of my life.  Recently I’ve been to Zagreb a few times, hung out a bit and have been recovering from a cold.  Other than that not a whole lot is new in my world except the new address.  I went to see a ballet at the Zagreb National Theater (HNK they call it) to watch the play Ana Karenjina.  Being very famous in Russia, the students in Croatia often find the plot of this ballet being a common material of study.  This was the first ballet I’ve ever been to and it was a really unique experience.  Only having been to theatrical performances in the past (with the exception of one opera, however that’s a different story..) this ballet seemed to be more interpretive and introspective in regards to following the story being told.  Other than that Ive gotten a lot of coffee, gone on maybe one run (man I gotta get back to the gym..) and have been improving my Croatian little by little every day!  Enjoy the pictures to follow.

After Umag, i’ve been taking a fair amount of time to relax after all the excitement of our competition.  We haven't had very many trainings since we got back, but I guess it’s good to take a break from everything once in a while! In the meantime I’ve gone for a few too many coffees (then again, there is no such thing as too much coffee in Croatia!) and had a lot more time to spend with friends.  I was going on a solo-adventure around Zagreb one Saturday morning and discovered a super cute traditional Croatian musical festival going on in the center!  They were handing out a variety of scrumptious pastries and juice!  I sat down there for about an hour just taking it all in; the people’s traditional dress, the music, the food.  It was a wonderful way to spend my saturday morning!  Apparently this is a weekly occurrence, so I’d like to try to make it my weekly habit.  The government has really started to promote tourism in Zagreb and they’ve done a wonderful job if I do say so myself.  There are so many museums down every little street that you’re able to discover when ever you please.  The information centers are extremely helpful and it’s amazing talking to some of the people that work inside of them!  One fellow I remember talking to while my family was still here with me spoke Polish, English, French, German, Croatian and a couple other languages too!  I wish there was more of an emphasis on language education in our school system back home.  I’m really beginning to adapt to the culture and lifestyle over here and feel like this was always something that I’d been longing for.  The culture seems to coincide super well with my personality, and I’m enjoying the Eastern-European ways of doing things.  That said, I’ve begun to notice that there are two types of people in Europe.  The first, more typical of people living in thriving cities like Zagreb, is the open-minded character that is still very European with their thinking.  This is the type of person who would be accepting of modern day social conventions and standards that are typically taken for granted back in North America.  They’re more radical thinkers, and want to progress as the world seems to be moving forward.  The other type is the more traditional-minded individual who rejects these modern-day social standards, and is dramatically more reactionary with their thoughts and values.  For me, coming into contact with the second type of person was a bit of a shock at first, especially coming from such an accepting country like Canada.  To be blunt, initially it really aggravated me that people would be so right-winged with their thinking.  After all, we’re in the 21st century, people need to take a step out of the past...I’m definitely a very radical type of person, heck I even went to a self-directed school.  When I was talking to my Croatian class about my old school they were staring at me like I was some sort of alien, what kind of school does Canada allow their students to get away with?! In a lot of aspects, life in Croatia is a few steps behind the rest of the world.  Wether it be gender roles, certain aspects of fashion, or social conventions, there’s a few things i’ve noticed that are a bit different than what I would have expected.  I try to surround myself with the the first type  of person, we usually have a lot more in common and topics of conversation are a lot more enticing.  That said, i’ve begun to develop more of a tolerance for more traditionally-minded people.  I think it’s important, especially in the business world, to be able to get along with who ever you come into contact with.  Polishing up these skills while I’m on exchange will be yet another thing that will add invaluable experiences to my year abroad.  I’ve begun to understand that a lot of politically incorrect things that are said from certain people are a result of not being fully educated about something, or simply having been brought up like that.  By no means am I trying to convince the world that I’m perfect or my way of thinking is “the best,” however I do think that tolerance for other people, equality of one another and acceptance of everyone is an essential part of life.  

So much has happened within the past few weeks, I don’t even know where to begin.  I’ve been through emotional ups and downs, and I’ve been keeping extremely busy.  Today I am heading off to Umag to compete in Euro Cup for AFL, tomorrow morning is our first game!  I’m nervous and excited and a little stressed out but I know that bottom line we’re going to have a great weekend as a team.  I haven’t written in the past little while because I didn’t want the negative aspects of what I’ve experienced influence my writing at all.  It’s difficult sometimes, and everyone has to realize that not everyday you’ll be seeing rainbows and butterflies.  That said, I’m thankful for the difficult things I’ve been experiencing because it has made me find true friends that I know I can trust, and has taught me about how to better handle tough situations.  A few days ago we were on live television with the AFL team!  A feminist group interviewed us, asking us questions and complimenting our strong will and eagerness to compete in what is perceived as a “male-sport.”  Gender inequality is still a bit of an issue in Croatia and being able to participate in this sport is another step in helping people realize that along with more modern thinking, equality of the genders is essential.  We spent a day down in Zagreb and for me it was probably one of my most exciting and difficult days of my exchange yet.  Financial problems along with technological issues made me extremely stressed out and a little down, however the excitement of what we were doing also made me feel overly happy.  It’s strange experiencing your best and your worst emotions all within the span of minutes, consistently fluctuating between the two.  Today I’m very excited, the anticipation of what is waiting ahead has me eager to get going and excited to hop on that bus.  Speaking of which, I really need to get going!  I’ll post updates of how everything is going after the tournament.  For those of you that want to view our interview, here is the link!  There should also be a live stream in which you can watch our games, I’m not 100% sure of what it is yet.  Happy watching, and cheer for Hrvatska!  

Over the weekend Rotary took us exchange students around some beautiful parts of Croatia!  Plitvice lakes (the second time was almost as great as the first!), Zagorje, a little Neanderthal museum on the side of a mountain, and an old castle called Tabor that has had a wide variety of uses within the past!  I enjoyed getting to meet the others as well as the members of the Croatian Rotary!  For dinner at Plitvice we were served a Croatian-prepared trout, with potatoes and steamed vegetables!  Although it was still almost staring at me from my plate (head and all) it was mouth-waveringly delicious, freshly caught that morning!  The Neanderthal museum was interesting, it explained the basic theories of evolution, mentioning Darwin amongst other radical-minded scientists and philosophers that helped shape modern science into what it is today!  It talked about the big bang, the prehistoric time periods, and also the production of DNA and Proteins (thanks bio 30!).  I wish we would have had more time to go through the museum, it was definitely one of my favorite stops.  As for the exchange students, there’s a bit of a gap between age differences within our group.  The baby of the group is 15 years old, and the oldest being 18.  It’s great to see younger students getting involved in programs like this!  I’m not exactly sure how I would have reacted to living abroad 3 years ago, however I admire their bravery and desire to find independence.  Although I’ve always been a very independent person, i’ve already been finding out how much I have yet to learn.  The most difficult aspect of my exchange so far has been of social origins.  I miss being able to keep up with my close friends, sharing goofy stories and good laughs over a cup of coffee or a day out.  I miss my family as well and know that as soon as holidays and birthdays start coming around it’ll probably get more difficult.  That said, it’s crazy to think about how quickly time goes by.  It seems like I arrived just recently, yet I’ve been here for a month as of today.  I’ve been involving myself in anything and everything that I can, trying to get the most out of my time here in Europe.  I guess that definitely contributes to the time flying by!  I went to choir the other day and was excited to get back into learning choral music and meeting more people.  Language lessons also started the other day and I’m super excited about learning more basics that’ll allow me to communicate with other people!

Finally, the first day of school.  Well, that’s an interesting one.  I went to meet some of my professors a couple days before classes started with my host family so I recognized a few familiar faces!  Even so, the school system here is really strange compared to what I’m used to at home... During high school I attended a self-directed school; this means that we had to teach our self all of our subjects, and were responsible to make our own work/test schedules.  This kind of flexibility was crazy weird at first, but I grew to love it once I got into the groove of things.  I got so used to doing things at my own pace, taking the much-needed Tim’s break every now and then, and determining how much time I felt I wanted to take for each individual subject.  It took a lot of self-discipline to be successful, but I managed to find what worked best for me personally and graduated before I left!  Here they take 16 subjects over the course of a year, with 8 classes per day.  They have a total of one 15 minute lunch break and are expected to attend every class; after a certain amount of un-excused absences, they can face expulsion.  I’m not very fond of this rigid structure, I feel like it doesn’t allow for students to perform their best academically.  That said, I think it’s a good experience to be thrown into something so different and have to adapt quickly.  Considering that I can barely grasp what’s going on in class, i’m really happy that this year isn’t counting academically for me.  It’s really weird at times because I don’t know what’s going on; I want to understand and I try to pay attention but I just don’t get it.  Lately I’ve been doing school Carroll style, bringing in my croatian/english dictionary to practice basic vocabulary and learn step-by-step.  That said, some of the teachers really do go out of their way to make sure I can involve myself in their classes!  The math teacher does her best to help me during breaks and the biology teacher even translated me a printout so that I could follow along!  While I find myself mingling within larger groups, sometimes the language barriers make it difficult to understand whats going on.  I’ve decided that the most accurate comparison to this is being left out of an inside joke.  Trying to figure out how to explain just exactly what’s going on can be fun though, and anyone that knows me also knows that I’m always up for a challenge!  This week I talked to the musical history teacher that also is the director for their school choir!  I’m going to try to get involved with choir once again so I can maintain and improve my musical abilities, while getting to know more people.  Keeping myself busy and on the go really helps keep me focused and my mind off of being homesick.  Establishing a routine and finding ways to make myself feel at home are helping me to really start loving it over here.  I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had much time to feed my coffee addiction!  Maybe that’s a good thing?  Probably not, the coffee over here is delicious!