Another week and even more fun!

How is everyone doing? I know an update! I promise to try and squeeze in just the good stuff! It is hard to write everyday! I run out of ways to say how happy I am to be here! It got me thinking, if I had won student government president I would be back in the states and never traveled abroad. I would graduate next year and have started working a 9-5 until I decided to go pursue a masters. I really am very happy how things turned out. It is nice to be here and be able to gain new perspectives on life and really suck the marrow of life. I have spent many nights thinking about all the little choices that brought me to where I am now. From failed relationships to burning my self out from doing to much, everything just seemed to lead me here. 

But enough about my contemplative babble, more about the events that lead me to these thoughts. I started my week off at my favorite place, with my Croatian family. Now Kristina is one hell of a cook, I know I haven't said to much about her cooking (which she tells me) but really what can you say? I feel that it really is not fair of me to show you all the incredible food I have been getting spoiled with! But do not worry, I am going to anyway! She cooked a really good soup to start with, it is really hard not to fill up on soup before you eat the main part of the meal because the soup is so tasty! Luckily I did because Kristina made one mean lasagna! You can almost smell the cheese bubbling up in the photo! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring family! I know I would be dieing for my mothers cooking if it was not for them! So I only miss my moms cooking less! But after having lunch with Kristina I left her apartment and saw this stop sign. I know it is cliche idea but it still made me chuckle, I actually did do a little hammer time dance, but I made sure no one was looking. 

Later in the week I went to go meet a friend for coffee, but while waiting I went to the cathedral. I like to go there when I have free time, one because it really is one of the most awe inspiring things you can see, and two I find comfort in my religion. But while sitting in the pews passing some time away, a surplus of nuns and priest starting filling the pews, followed by regular citizens. I was assuming a regular mass was going to be held until a the mass started and a man in a red little had started to give the mass. That little red hat means he was a cardinal. I was enjoyed about half the mass before I stepped out to meet my friend. Another point of interest was how long the line was to the confessionals. I wonder if I went to confess in English does it matter? If the priest does not speak English. I will look into that later. But I had a wonderful time meeting my friend. My friend is American and it is nice to be able to relate some of the experiences with someone who is in the same boat. 

Later in the week I tagged along with a class that was going to a museum of arts and crafts. It was really cool. The museum was filled with Croatian artist's work. The have a collection from baroque to post modernism, it is a very expansive collection. We had a tour guide and it made all the difference, she pointed out how to tell the difference between the different time periods and what made each period unique. I uploaded some of my favorite pieces here. One is a clock that sits on the floor, it is of a hot air balloon, and it was made to commemorate the first hot air balloon ride, but it has angles all around it because that is the only way a hot air balloon gets off the ground. Even though we now know the science I would still like to imagine a group of angels lifting the hot air balloon.

Another of my favorite pieces was a glass chandelier, completely made by hand. I do not even fancy the style to much, but rather I really like to imagine the person who spent so much time, making all the delicate pieces and attaching them to the chandelier one by one. You can tell by just how elaborate the piece is that the artist really took pride in this piece. I think that is a problem today, it is hard for people to appreciate the process. We take for granted how everything is, cars, fancy advertisements, we are constantly being bombarded with images that we are only worried with the final product. We don't care if a machine made an intricate cabinet or if it took a year by a master carpenter. I think this is sad, more people should wonder, wonder why things the way they are, wonder who made the things around them, I think the world should wonder a little more that it has been. It lets you appreciate things even if they are not your favorite.

That is why I also added this picture of a clock, it is incredible to me to think that people made these clocks by hand also. That people have an exact ratio that must be followed to get all the clocks to have the same movements. I really liked this clock because you can look inside and see all the moving parts. It again demystifies how clocks work. instead of just looking at the hands of the clock and getting the time, it shows you all the work that is taking place to tell you the time.

After visiting the museum I had a pretty relaxed week. I did find  another chuckle at the end of my road. It is the Mc Kebab, talk about blatantly stealing an idea! The sign is a altered version of the Mc Donalds sign. I was chuckling the rest of the walk home after seeing it.  I am going to eat there on my way to school, I will let you all know if it has any good food, but really i'm sure it does because I really love kebabs!

Then it came to the end of the week so we of course partied. We found a really nice bar that had a cheap happy hour. So right before it ended we bought a whole bunch of beers, this was after drinking for a while already. It was a really fun night, and yes I do remember it. I posted this video because my mom is scared I might get a drinking problem. So this photo is just to freak her out. Love you Mom! Then we went out the next night also. We went to a dance club, we had to work off the beer from the night before. So we danced all night and well into the morning, we stayed out till 9 in the morning. It was one long long night, but it was really fun because we ended up at a little shack down by the river here. It was literally a boat that was just sitting in the flood plain that was turned into a club. It was clearly a place that was off the map. Luckily we have friends here that know all the more obscure places. It makes going out way more fun!

Then there was yesterday, where Kristina made a wonderful lunch, and having gotten home at 9 am I slept through my alarm and missed lunch by an hour. I felt completely horrible about missing her lunch! Luckily she still had me over and it was as tasty as every. I don't think I am going to stay out that late again. It messed up my entire sleep schedule. But the food was really good. Then later Zvanko and Nada came to visit. While they were here we decided to skype with my parents back home. It was fun, we all were passing the computer around and talking with them. And just like I started my week with my family here, I ended another wonderful week in Croatia with my family here. Man am I lucky how things turned out! Next time things do not work out the way I want them too, I will think twice before considering it bad luck!

Skyping with my parents and Zvanko!