By Alinesarajevo
I’ve started the school year at a small school in Sarajevo after spending ten months teaching teenagers in Southeast Asia. Teaching assertive Bosnian students takes some getting used to. Typically, half my class time in Bangkok last year would be spent coaxing trembling students to speak more loudly and loosen up. Many of the Thai children were anxious about embarrassing themselves, to the detriment of their language learning.
This article was submitted by a former English teacher in Sarajevo.
She was an old woman, seventy-five years old, she told me, holding up seven fingers and then five. The day I moved into the flat in the building her family owned, she came up the steps the first day with some homemade sirnica, cheese pie. Every week or so she would come up the stairs slowly, bearing some kind of food. If I ever knocked on her door, she would invite me in for coffee and warm up some food for me.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
Bosnia-Herzegovina must certainly be the world-champion in fitting several schools under one roof. A common phenomenon in this country is the so-called ‘two schools under one roof’ which means that there are two different ethnic groups enrolling in a different school curriculum in the same building. One group usually starts early in the morning until noon, and the other begins right after until dinner time.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Mostar, Herzegovina.
People in the Balkan love football, and Bosnia is no exception. They play, watch and support big clubs from the English Premier League and then fight about it. There have been several occasions when I was not allowed to leave my house in Mostar because the city’s rival teams were playing against each other resulting in riots after the game. Local people say that it has less to do with the match than the temperamental Balkans who need to burst.
This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Mostar, Herzegovina.
For a school assignment, I interviewed an ex-Dutch batter who served in Srebrenica during its fall. The interview was interesting, so I decided to translate and post it here. I encourage you all to read it; however, it’s best if you do a bit of research beforehand so you can understand it better.
Dr. Svetlana Broz, grand-daughter of Josip Broz Tito of the former Yugoslavia, will speak at San Jose State University, California. Topics include affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, recent developments in the European Union, as well as the future of the Balkans.
I am not the one who asks the above question. Apparently, a techie working on an SEO Black Hat project needs help from people who live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, he starts having some doubt about the existence of this country. And No! This isn’t a philosophical question, nor this clueless techie is a Serb.
Anyway, his blog post makes to the Digg site and receives passionate attention from some furious –probably—Bosnian.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
