Veljača

Spring has come to Zagreb, and with it, a new host family.

By now, most of you probably know I am living with the Mirić family, consisting of Mladen, (host father) Milica (host mother) and Mirela, (host sister) age 11. It was more difficult then I could have anticipated to leave the Tuškans, thought less difficult then I imagined to adapt to a new living situation. Being as I have lived in Zagreb for five months (and counting) and have a relative grasp on the language, nothing is as difficult as it was in September.

To come into a second family is not as daunting as a task the second time around. My new family is a very traditional Croatian family-both of my parents come from a tiny village called Gospić which is still very much a village.

The Mirić's have been wonderful about adapting to my non red-eating meat habits, my host mother jokes about being on a chicken and fish diet for the next five months. Both the Mirić's are great cooks (I am starting to see everyone in Croatia is a whiz in the kitchen) They are constantly concerned with the amount of food I have or have not consumed, in an endearing way of course. Luckily we just learned the past tense in my Croatian class so I can say, jela sam (I ate!)

Other new developments:

1. On April 18th my Dad and sister will be coming to Zagreb! It is impossible for me to convey the breadth of my excitement.

2. I was on Croatian National T.V.! It sounds much more thrilling then it was. The program was about school systems in comparison to Croatia's school systems-which were more challenging. Sort of a trick question, because one can absolutely not generalize about schools in America since they differ so dramatically from state to state and town to town. Basically I talked about how my high school put the emphasis on learning how to learn, as opposed to memorizing facts, which is the focus here. (Granted, I did my fair share of busy-work, but that is another story.)

3. My cousin Amy is in Rome studying, so I am planning a trip for the beginning of March.

The language is speeding up for me, partially since my host dad doesn't speak English, so I don't feel self conscious about completely botching a sentence. I called home the other afternoon and we spoke entirely in Croatia. Quite a nice feeling.

Hoping everyone in the U.S. is well-
Much love from the Balkans.