Life in Bosnia: A Day in the Life of a Student in Mostar

Life in Bosnia: A Day in the Life of a Student in Mostar

This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.

I was abruptly woken up by the alarm clock. My head was heavy, and I could not properly open my eyes or get out of the bed. Why should I anyway when the bed was so warm? But you know what? It was not even my alarm clock. Shit! I could have slept for at least half an hour more.Situations like these await you every day living in a three-person dormitory room. But who complains? There are some sacrifices you have to accept when you want to experience the adventure of finishing your high school abroad, sharing a small territory with two incredibly interesting roommates from the United States and Russia in an incredibly interesting town called Mostar.

I am wide awake now, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to stay any longer in bed when a new day full of exciting activities is waiting for me. I get up from my bed, greet ‘good morning’ to my roommates and look out of the window from the 2nd floor to hail all the churches and mosques of Mostar. I get dressed, shove books into the backpack, step out of the house and off I go to school.
The short 7-minute walk is full of interesting encounters.Leading from my house is a very narrow street dotted with beautiful, colorful old houses and maneuvering competition among cars and pedestrians. On the pavement, a rare sight on Mostar streets, there is always an old woman, covered in a headscarf, begging on her knees. A little further down on the bridge over the deep-blue river Neretva, I often see a man playing the accordion. The beautiful music cracks a smile on my face; I am so ready to start my day. Wait not yet, not without the breakfast. I enter a small and cozy bakery, one of many you find everywhere in Mostar, to buy some rolls for breakfast. Eventually, I arrive on the square of my school building, freshly painted in orange, where I stop to enjoy my little moment alone and gather my thoughts before being surrounded by people for the rest of the day.I make my way through a bunch of other students, greet the guard and rush up to the top floor for my first class.Depending on how interesting the classes are, the morning goes by lightning fast or sluggishly slow. Between breaks, I frequent the common room looking out over Mostar, checking my email, talking to friends or doing some homework.
Lunch starts at 12 sharp in the school canteen, located in a different building which requires a short walk to get there. Lunch in Bosnia is the main meal of the day and usually served hot, contrary to what I am used to in the Netherlands where we only eat a sandwich for lunch. There is a lot of noise and chaos in the canteen: students talking, screaming, laughing and the sound of the cutlery on plates. After racking up pounds by the waistline (I mean having lunch), I squeeze in on one of the tables to join whichever conversation is going on. Sometimes I cannot ignore the screaming inner desire for some different food than what we are served every week. Why not? This isn’t a hospital you know. I make my way to the Pancake Bar of Mostar to indulge myself some more to sweetness or saltiness of Bosnian pancakes. I often spent the rest of my lunch break in the park when the weather is nice, getting tanned or continuing the discussions started at lunch with my friends. Then school continues for a few more hours and after that, I walk home with friends, sometimes stop at one of many coffee bars on the way, enduring the smoke inside just to have a deliciously strong espresso.
My life isn’t always that relaxing as I usually have a lot of homework and projects, so I either bury myself behind my desk or sit outside on the balcony studying and working. Dinner is served in the residential hall. There are many nationalities which mean there are many interesting dishes to be tried out. Thus we often cook for ourselves, trying to keep our diet as varied as possible. Eating a bowl of rice with Chinese sauce or any other national dish with many people from all over the world whom I call friends makes me realize how special and unique my situation is. We talk, discuss, sing, comfort and support each other, and I feel I have another family here while my family is far away! After food, we treat ourselves to a group movie date in a romantic setting using top-of-the-art technology. Yah only if you call put-together dorm beds is romantic, and the projector is top notch technology. I will never forget the faces of people who are popping in while I was bonding with eight other girls watching The Sound of Music’ and singing very loudly and cheerfully all the songs from the film. Sometimes, we go out for a drink in the city where the nightlife has just started. I have to admit that I often feel a little under-dressed compared to all these fancy-dressed local females. After a long and tiring day, I return to my room, put on my pajamas, brush my teeth, read a few pages from a book, bid my roommates ‘Laku Noc/Good night’ and hope that I am the one who has set her alarm clock the earliest tomorrow morning…