isuse bože.

this past weekend us croatian exchange students went to salzburg, austria to the inbound conference for us and all the austrian exchangers. 

so wednesday night danielle and i made the 45 minute long trip from my side of the city to emmas place in new zagreb. we got there and ate some mouth watering croatian pancakes stuffed with way to much chocolate and whipped cream, did last minute checks to make sure we had everything, then it was off to bed to savor the few hours of sleep that was ahead of us. 

5:30am my alarm goes off, and as i roll over, completely annoyed that i am awake, i remember why on earth i am up at such an god forsaken hour and i smile. finally the day has come, its time to take the weekend trip up to salzburg and to have the time of my life.  

so we get up, half sleeping still and get ready to go to the train station to catch our 6:50am train. we all arrive on time, and after saying goodbyes we board our train and settle into our adorable compartments that make every single one of us secretly excited because it feels just as though we are about to head off to hogwarts. 

except we werent.

so anyways, there we are, sitting here on this train, way to tired to even make conversation at this point and then, luckily for me, someone figured out the our seats slide down. and when you do so to two seats across from eachother it connects and makes a beautiful bed just perfect to sleep on. so yeah. you know me, right away i was like, oh yes, this can so work, and next thing you know i am asleep. 

10:00 rolls around and by this time the sun is streaming through the windows hitting my face through the red scarf i had placed over my head. that mixed with the fact the other exchangers were now up and being very loud right outside my compartment made me wake up and i gave up all hope of even even another five minutes of blissful sleep. so i sat up. 

the rest of the seven hour train ride was perfect. it consisted of making the entire compartment a gigantic bed, blasting music, taking pictures, watching the beautiful mountains go past, and just bonding with the kids who have become my closest friends being here in croatia.

we got to salzburg, took a taxi to the hostel, and went to our rooms to chill out and have some free time for the afternoon. us croatians got there a day early, since the actual conference didnt start until friday evening and we were the only exchange students there. so i ended up showering and straightening my hair, then just hanging out the whole afternoon. then around 6 we all met downstairs to go for dinner. the 12 of us walked a few blocks to this italian restaurant called “pasta and vino.” but when we got there they were all booked and had no table for us. im not sure how the rest of this happened but they ended up setting up a big table for us in the kitchen of the restaurant! so there we were, our own private table right in the middle of all the action. it was pretty cool. and the food, oh god the food. so good. so as we were eating our delicious dinner, i glance over and this beautiful guy walks back in the kitchen. the entire meal we kept making eye contact, so finally when we had finished and were about to leave, me being overly confident and outgoing, went up to him and asked if he wanted to go for coffee with us tonight. he gave me his name and number, but i didnt end up calling him. 

that night the other exchangers and i went out and had a really good night. haha anyways.

saturday, we wake up around 9:30, get ready and eat some breakfast, then it was off to h&m to shop for the morning, of course. ;] and as always, my h&m addiction forced me to buy things. it really is a problem. thankfully we dont have one in croatia, huh? after our shopping excursion we headed back to the hostel to meet up with our chaperone, Gordana, to go for lunch. back at the hostel we ended up meeting this austrailian boy, dom, who is backpacking alone across europe, and ended up inviting him to come out to lunch with us. we went to a typical austrian restaurant which im not going to lie, i didnt like it at all. yeah. but anyways, after lunch we had more free time. the other exchangers from austria started to show up, so we spent the entire afternoon chilling in our rooms, meeting so many other kids, and god it was exhausting. i think i decided i much prefer small groups of people my age. when you get almost a hundred 16-18 year old teens in one place together, it gets a bit crazy. it made me realize how lucky we are to have such a great group of us in zagreb. yes it did. then we had dinner around 7 i think it was, and dinner was some delicious winner schnitzel and potatoes. after dinner, some of us croatians, a few south african girls, and dom walked into the center of salzburg to the christmas fair thing. we walked around, ate some great food then went out for the rest of the night. we all become good friends with dom, and even convinced him to change his path across europe, and come see us in zagreb for a few days so he can come to our christmas party! it should be pretty fun, for sure.

we all stayed up way to late, and got barely any sleep.

saturday we were to be up and ready to go by oh, 8:30am, if i remember correctly. something crazy an early like that none the less. we got all bundled up and walked a very long way to an overlook of the city, which i will admit was beautiful, then seriously climbed a mountain to the famous castle overlooking the city. and when i say we climbed a mountain, i literally mean we hiked up a steep, tall incline that made me want to die. then, yes then, we did not even get to go inside the castle. yeah, ha? we stood around in a little touristy market thing selling super overpriced souvenirs in the freezing cold for over an hour. it was so cold, everytime i opened my bottle of water, a layer of ice formed on top. yeah, damn. after that we walked back down the mountain, or slid down, depending how you look at it. walked back across town, and ate lunch at the hostel. we then had some more free time, which we took advantage of and took nice quiet naps in our room before we had to get up, walk back to the base of the mountain, and thankfully not up it again, to a restaurant where we were all eating, giving christmas presentations and saying goodbye to the kids who have been here a year and are leaving in january, since they come from mainly australia and the seasons are switched. it was nice, pretty boring, and i didnt understand much, being as i barely speak a wood of german. 

after dinner we were set free. and really, i wont bore you all with details of saturday night. we can just pretend we went back to the hostel and went to bed, thats the safest thing to do. [;

sunday we woke up, cleared out our rooms, and walked into the centre to attend church before we all left salzburg. except, for some reason we walked there and didnt end up going to church. so they set us free. me and two other exchangers decided to just go for some coffee at a little italian cafe. as we were sitting there drinking, guess who walks in? none other than the beautiful boy from the italian restaurant on thursday night. turns out he works there! what a coincidence. 

we walked back to the hostel, said our goodbyes, got a taxi to the train station and got on the train to go back to zagreb.

theres a great story that happened next, however im sick if typing, im sure your sick of reading, so we’ll just save it for another post, shall we? 

yes.

okay, enough now. that was salzburg, every little detail.. almost.

happy thanksgiving!

real thanksgiving: 

while everyone back at home was relaxing and getting ready for the most amazing meal of the whole year, here i was, it was just another normal day and i of course had to go to school. i woke up around 11 and got ready for school. ate some lunch consisting of turkey and mlinci (see at least i had some turkey!). then went to the main square to meet up with a friend for coffee before we had to go to class. we ended up losing track of time and she was going to be late to her only class of the day, so instead of going she just came with me to my school for that class. i dont think thats actually allowed, but luckily i had an awesome teacher that period.. plus we brought cookies as a bribe. ;] after that class she left and i went to physics to take a test. well, it was a retest. see here i guess you aren’t allowed to get an F on a test or you fail the whole class or something like that. so if you fail a test you must retake it to get a better grade, even though both grades are recorded. yeah, i dont get it either, i just go with it. so since i failed my physics test i had to retake it. and believe it or not, i was even prepared this time and im pretty sure i got 3 of the 4 questions correct, which would get me a B. SCORE, right? nope, wrong. i wrote in pencil, not in pen, automatic FAIL. if it wasnt so ridiculous i would have been mad about that, but honestly i could do nothing but laugh. especially because the other exchange student did the exact same thing. which, like, youd think our teacher would then realize we clearly both didnt know about that nice little rule, since at home we arent allowed to write in pen, and therefor let it slide this one time. buuuut no. so now i get to retake my test a third time. :D :D :D physics<3

after school our croatians lessons were cancelled so i went back home, and went to bed. 

our thanksgiving: 

so, since obviously my thanksgiving was well, lets just say, less than traditional, i had to make up for it some way. me, and two other exchange students, emma and danielle decided we needed to bring some american culture to croatia. and by that i mean, we were going to attempt to cook an entire thanksgiving dinner. one of danielles friends was nice enough to offer us her house to cook in and so we cooked for her family, us and another friend totaling 10 people. sunday morning we woke up way to early after only a few hours of sleep and got the bus, tram, bus to andreas house to start cooking. we spend the entire day, about 5 or 6 hours in her kitchen making everything. and by everything i really mean : a whole turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, a pearl onion dish, baked potatoes, biscuits, muffins, and salad. and yeah, every one of them turned out absolutely completely delicious. seriously. [: not to mention, the day before, andrea's housekeeperish type lady, im not sure exactly, baked us two real american apple pies, that were the best pies i have had in a long time. well, at least since last thanksgiving. [; so we all sat down to eat, just hoping that everything had gone as planed, and the food was as good as we had told them it would be. which of course, it was. we all ate way to much. surprise there. and guess what? the stuffing, which they had never had before, was the biggest hit. mm yeah, stuffing. after relaxing and cleaning up we all eventually headed home to go to sleep, since the next week: morning school. :l




so theres my thanksgiving(s). 
not quite the whole: 'watch football and eat the food your mom/wife prepared' kind of day thats so typicially american.
but really, it was probably the best one of my life.
and that, is what im thankful for.