WAHHHHHHH this is crazy. I'm so excited. I just arrived, and I don't think it's quite sunk in yet that I am IN CROATIA. There were some histrionics on the plane from Frankfurt to Zagreb as I looked over at the very nice Croat sitting next me reading the Zagreb newspaper and I caught a glimpse of a word with 6 consonants in a row. For some reason this was the funniest thing so I laughed for about 5 minutes and then had to take some deep breaths. What the heck had I gotten myself into?
Other than that the trip went without a hitch; I managed not to dump pizza on an airline pilot like last time I traveled. My hosts (Majzec family, pronounced My-Zets) are just about the nicest people ever. My host mother Irena is lovely; she has shown me the village that I am in and plans to introduce me to everyone she knows. All the neighbors are curious about the American. My host dad is Zdravko. He doesn't speak English at all, so we take turns being the one who has no clue what the conversation is about. They run a woodshop business in the backyard, which gets exported to Italy. It's a big deal. My host sister Lea is also wonderful. She is a university student in Zagreb, studying architecture. She enjoys "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," dislikes all forms of prejudice, and plans on stealing my clothes, because her younger sister Mirna is on exchange in Florida right now and raided all the closets. There are 2 dogs in this house: Blackie, who is accurately named and smaller than a cat, and Oliver, who is huge, very friendly, and has thus far stolen 2 pairs of my socks and a bottle of nail polish. We're friends.
So on to an account of Day 1: I slept for about 24 hours.
Day 2: Woke up and had a great breakfast. Went walking around Bistra, the suburb that I'm in, with my host mother Irena and met some neighbors. Everyone waves at everyone else, and it feels very communal here. There are a lot of chickens. Families live in one place here for generations, so both sets of grandparents live down the road. Going away for college is rare. Irena and Lea took me to the mall to get a phone and coffee. Here's the most important sentence in Croatian: Idemo na kavu. We are going to get coffee. There have been 3 coffee breaks so far. THEY LOVE IT. Americans: we don't understand this level of coffee adoration. It is very thick, very strong, very delicious, and comes in very teenie cups. Tomorrow we will visit the school and the police station. Huzzah!
Guess What?
Shower curtains are not a thing.
Seatbelts are apparently for ninnies. I might just be a ninny because these roads are TWISTY.
They have French Toast but they eat it for lunch and would never put syrup on it.
The word for tomato is paradajs, pronounced "paradise". Lots consumed daily. With salt.
Goals: Unpack
Have a conversation with Zdravko sometime soon.
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