A Hrvatske New Year - new people, new places, and a lot of history

My days can be summed up as so: 7:45 wake up, wash up, eat some bread with sunflower seed butter and jam, drink some coffee, and maybe a little yogurt with a side of broken English-Croatian with my host mom. I leave and walk 15 minutes (I have the shortest commute out of everyone in the group) to the center square, Trg Jelačića where the SIT office is. I climb up 5 flights of stairs and sit for Croatian language class for 2 hours. Then we get in between 1.5-2.5 hours for lunch, depending on the day. Then we get lectured by Dr. Saša Borić for 2 hours, a professor from some University in Western Croatia who has an English accent and too much ego. We have been learning about the history of the region for the past four days and it gets more complicated with each step. We are all, more or less, new to this region's history, and its really hard to grasp.

What has interested me most is the split with the USSR in the late 50's (Split from the Cominform)
and the "new" kind of communism -- Self-regulated socialism, where the working class has rights and power over all things produced. The federalized Yugoslavia (which was one entity with 6 republics and the two autonomous regions of Vojavodina and Kosovo in the south and north of present day Serbia) was completely liberalized, socially and economically, and in the 60's the Yugoslav passport was coveted.

After the 2 hours of lecturing, where we all basically feel bad about not knowing more, we get the rest of the day off. Usually for lunch I visit the big open market a few blocks from the office called Dolac. There I buy a lot of fresh fruit! Mainly fresh figs, which all of you know I LOVE. Today I bought a kilogram *2.2 lbs* of fresh figs for 4 dollars (I think something like 8 fresh figs at a health food store back home costs 6 or so dollars). The peaches are amazing. Right now, eggplant and red peppers are in season and they make this spread called Ivar, which consists of finely cut eggplant and red peppers, with garlic. Its the most delicious creation in the entire world. I am making fig spread when I get home.

At home, I feel completely comfortable. My family is really chill--the mother is really relaxed but busy and the daughters like to have fun. the other day I made pancakes with the New Hampshire maple syrup I bought and they made their Croatian pancakes (basically crepes with nutella) and we switched. They liked the pancakes a lot, the syrup was a bit strong for Petra (the 11 year old). But we dance, we sing, we played CROATIAN MONOPOLY the other day, and they are just really fun and warm. Exactly what I wanted from a family.

Have I told you there is a food not bombs group here in Zagreb? Well there is, and I went to the meeting the other day with another girl Lindsay (whose name is coincidentally Lindsay Weber, like my cousin, except not my cousin). We met a bunch of activists who we befriended. They cook every other Saturday, completely vegan (which is very hard to come by in this country). I cant go this Saturday because my family is going to a big family party/celebration in Cisak but I want to go soon. I think we will meet up with them on Saturday for some live Reggae music in Zagreb. They are all very nice people.

I wanted to tell you all about my phone here. I won a free cell phone (left from a previous student on the program). It is super expensive to call the States, but if YOU want to call ME (which will still be expensive, but you don't have to go out and buy phone cards all the time), you should! The number is 3850919531058. call anytime between 10 am and 6 pm your time (4 pm to 12 am my time).

Also, keep your skype accounts on!!! Thats the BEST way to hear my voice.

And lastly, I wish a happy and sweet new year to everyone celebrating. We ate apples and honey today but am very nostalgic of the New Year on the Mountain in Lyndeboro.

You are all in my heart. Pictures of the family to come soon.