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.  

life

sometimes as im walking down the street or sitting on a tram looking out the window at the gorgeous buildings, the people walking down the street, i stop myself and think “dude, you live in europe. this is for real. this is your life.” and remember how blessed i really am, for being here, for having this experience.

anyways, an update on my life.

this morning i woke up at 6:30, got ready for school and got on the bus. i met up with dora when i got off my bus and we went together on a tram to school. first period was english, i dont remember much being as it was so early and i was tired but i know we talked about sterotypes of different nationalities, kinda fun. second period was sociology, which i dont take, so i sat there and studied physics because i thought that those of us who failed the test were taking the retest today.. but we didnt. after sociology we had break, 20 minutes where we can go get food since there is no lunch period in school here. i got a sandwich. samo sir, salata i dalmatinski. delicious. 

third was gym. our gym teacher wasnt in school today so we didnt really have to do much. we hung out, played around with hoolahoops and were jumping on the big squisky foam mat that we use for the highjump. successful gym class if you ask me. 

the next two classes were german and biology, neither of which i take, so emma and i sat on the back steps, did our croatian homework then went and got on the computers. sixth period, physics. gross. and we didnt end up having the retake test, which was cool with me. i didnt know how to do anything that would be on the test anyways. i did however get yelled at for having a nice scientific calculator. the same one we are required to buy for school at home, is apparently not allowed in school here. so i guess they want me to go buy and abacus or something. figures.

mondays on morning school we dont have seventh period, so school was over. i went to the main square with emma, met up with another exchange student, danielle, got some ice cream then danielle and i went back to my house. we ate a huge lunch, hung out, and watched the new episode of desperate housewives :D around 5, emma came over my house too, and after a little we went into the city to get some kebab. omg, kebab <3

after we ate we headed to the main square to go to our croatian lessons. it was good, were working on the third case right now, the accusative case. im not even going to try to explain, sorry. 

then after class i went with some other exchangers to ‘vino grad’ or in english, wine city, and got kuhano vino, cooked wine, which is just hot wine and a kobasica sa sirom, or croatian sausage with cheese. vrlo dobro. very good. 

by that time it was almost 11, i got my bus and went home, got on facebook and went to bed. 

theres a typical day.

so now that ive bored you, ill tell you something exciting.

im going to france! yes! over christmas break, skiing for a whole week, in the alps, with just my friends. :D go ahead, be completely jealous, i promise i cant blame you.. [;

so thats that, life in hrvatska. 

what a sucky blog post. ill make up for it next time, i promise.

maybe.

LADY GAGA

yesterday, i went and saw lady gaga in zagreb.

yes, yes, i can see the jealously on all your beautiful faces. but really, i can not blame you. because yeah, it was perfect, she was perfect. and i fell even more in love.

i woke up yesterday morning at 8:30am, threw on some jeans and my leather jacket and was off to the train station to meet three of my friends, pick up some hair spray and head back to my house to start the process of getting ready for the night. we get back to my house, and immediately get out all the makeup, pick out all our clothes and turn on some music to get this party going. its 10:30 and we only have five more hours before we have to leave for the arena.. but of course, were hungry. so we get on google and find a pizza place who will deliver to my part of the city, call them up and order, are you ready for this, six cheese pizzas. yes, six. but okay, now before you go thinking all those ‘fat american’ things i know that are coming into your head, let me tell you these pizzas were not very big, probably half the size your thinking. and no, we did not eat them all, though they were delicious and we probably easily could have if we tried.  so we ate pizza and started doing makeup. intense, bright, obnoxious makeup. we put on our crazy outfits, teased our hair to four times its normal size, and took some pictures. one more girl came over, about 2:30, since she had went to school that day, then right around 3:00 we drove to the arena to make sure we could get as close to the stage as possible. 

now to you americans reading this, it sounds like pretty normal preparations for a lady gaga concert, right? 

yep, i thought so too.

but we are in croatia, and being as it was gagas first time in the country it turns out no one else figured it was a great idea to look as ridiculous as we did. 

we get to the arena and immediately start turning heads. everyone is looking at us, the ones who look like, well, little monsters. so mix the way we looked with the fact we tend to speak english very loudly and needless to say people were interested. we had kids coming up to us asking where we were from and getting excited when we told then were from america. we had kids come ask if they could take pictures with us. we had people simply taking pictures of just us. and well, really, i cant say i minded all the attention [; 

since there was still over 3 hours until the doors even opened i went with another exchange student to the new mall next to the arena which happened to be opening that very day, the new biggest and best mall in the country. we walked around there for a while, and i decided its my new favorite mall here. it reminds me of a big american mall a lot. 

so we went back to stand around waiting for them to open the doors and by that time more people had come and they were all crowded in front of the doors. we were pretty close to the front of the mob and we ended up being squished for about and hour and a half from people pushing trying to be closer to the door. luckily we were standing by these cool kids who we started talking to. then we all started singing lady gaga songs and got other people to join in. it was a lot of fun. so they finally opened the doors, we got through and ran like crazy down the hallway, down the stairs, through another hallway onto the floor and towards the stage, but there were already people all crowded around the catwalk and we ended up going to the far right of the stage. but i wasnt happy with that, we were not close enough. so after some pushing and squeezing we made it to the front and as close to the stage and catwalk as we could be. the most perfect place i had imagined. and it turns out the people standing around us were from germany, brazil and of course croatia and us americans. and the only common language we all had was english, so score one for us, we could actually understand all the conversations! 

so the opening band came on, which im not going to lie, i kinda of really liked them even though i had heard them before and hated it. 

after they played and we waiting for the stage to be set up for lady gaga the show finally started and there she was, right in front of me. 

i reallly wish i had the words to tell you what it was like. what she was like, but i just dont think there are any words for it. it was the most amazing concert ive been too, and trust me, ive been to quite a few. her voice, her stage presence, her outfits, her backup dancers, her dancing, her speaking to us, her attempting to say ‘little monsters’ in croatian, ‘mala čudovišta’ , her singing ‘hrvatska and i’, her true love for her fans, her motivation, her telling us we are all superstars, as tacky as that sounds. she is real. she is beautiful. 

so as you can kinda figure out, i thought she was more than fantastic. 
she did every song i wanted her too. we sang and danced along like it was it was our job. we screamed and yelled until our throats hurt. we were at the monster ball. 

after 18 perfect songs the concert ended and i dont think there was one person in that completely sold out arena without a smile on their face. 
she sure did deliver, now thats for sure.

lady gaga, moja ljubav. 
lady gaga, my love

škola.

im not a fan of school.

big surprise huh? i mean, seriously, what kid actually likes going to school, right?

well, lets just say, croatian school makes me miss school back in america. 

i think i would even go as far as saying that it makes me want to be in school back in america, actually want to go there. 

i think ive talking about school before, but lemme recap about what its like, okay?

kids here have 17 subjects a year. yes, 17. from things like math and history to sociology and ethics and logics and psychology. not to mention croatian, english, 2nd language and 3rd language.. which confuses me since that makes 4 languages. plus other seemingly random classes which i find, well honestly, kind of unnecessary.

not only do they have around 3 times as many classes as we do in the states, but the teaching style is very old fashioned. it is endless lecturing and note taking, no worksheets, no projects, no hands on learning or anything. you sit there while the teacher talks or writes on the board and write everything down. then you go home that night, read your notes and learn everything on them because they also have this fabulous and totally awesome things that i love called oral examinations. (and for those of you with no sense of sarcasm.. that was it.) yeah, by that i mean you better have studying and learned everything your teachers ‘taught’ you because they randomly pick people each day and ask them questions or make them do problems in front of the entire class, for a grade. oh, yeah, well thats not embarrassing at all. seriously? are they trying to make the teenagers hate their lives? because its succeeding very well. 

and you know what, i think i figured it out today why im having such troubles here in school. i dont think its so much the fact that its all lecturing and note taking, but the fact that we dont ever review anything. no lie, we ‘learn’ something (i use that word lightly, since the learning takes place at home by yourself) one day, then the next day its on to something new. if you didnt go home and learn it that day, oop, your screwed, moving on, next. now take that, multiply it by 17 classes and what do you get? kids who are excited if they get a D on the test because they didnt fail. kids who are so stressed with school they dont know what to do. kids who have 5 F’s, 9 F’s. 

at home im not happy with getting anything under a B. Theres no reason to be getting C’s or D’s and certainly not F’s, because our teachers TEACH us. they make sure we understand what they are saying. they teach in a way that we learn and remember it, not that we memorize it long enough to pass the test and oral examinations. okay sure, so we may not cover nearly as much material as they do here, we may not know about all the different things the kids learn here, but on the other hand, were happy, were not overwhelmed to the point where school and studying IS our life. life isnt all learning things from books, you need to learn by being social, taking part in activities, leading a real life, hell even getting a job, which teenagers cant even do here because of the amount of studying they must do. ridiculous. 

so, i mean, maybe im just being a lazy teenager and complaining because i dont want to spend my entire life studying and learning everything there is to know. i want to have a social life and i want to be happy, i want to spend my time doing other things. 

but really.. after hearing about croatian school.. can you blame me?

what a weekend.

would you like to hear all about my weekend? 

yeah?

so.

friday started up with me not waking up on time, which has been happening way to often lately. and not only did i not wake up in time to take the 6:35 bus which i was planning on taking, i only woke up 10 minutes before the last bus i can take to get to school on time was leaving. yes, great. 10 minutes to get ready for school. im a girl, i think thats almost impossible. 

anyways, your probably wondering why i needed to get on the earlier bus right? well, probably not but im just going to go ahead and tell you anyways. it was because friday was doras birthday and me, emma and tina were supposed to meet before school to buy cake and balloons to take to school, but well, clearly i didnt get there in time to do that. so they went and got it and came to school. 

so first period we had english, which our class is split into two and half is with one teacher while the other is with another, and it just so happened dora was in the other half from us. so during first period we blew up all the balloons and set the cake on her desk for when she came in for 2nd period. it was just like an american birthday! yes, were cute friends, i know. [:

so the rest of the school day was boring as usual. i took a physics test, or tried to is more like it. i did one problem, which will get me a 2, or a D, and im pretty okay with that. so after i finished my one problem i started tracing the little squares since it was on graph paper, then i got yelled at by the teacher because well, i guess its like illegal in croatia to draw anything on your tests. honestly, im getting really sick of the school system here really fast. i never thought id say this but, i cannot waittt to go back to school in america. i appreciate it so much now. i miss drawing on my tests. ugh. 

so friday night 8 of us went out for 'coffee' for doras birthday. it was really fun and i made some new friends. one of them has pigs and im going to go over to his house and pet them one day. kinda excited.

saturday i woke up around 1, chilled for a few hours, packed my bag and headed off to avenue mall to meet emma. i ended up going and buy a new sweater and some shirts because i have a shopping problem. then we went back to emma house to get ready to go out for the night. so we got all ready and went out and well, i wont bore you with the details of the night.. being as this is a rotary blog. (; 

so i slept at emmas house saturday night, for a few hours at least, because we had to be up early since emma had a soccer game at 10:30 on the other side of the city. 

sunday we wake up and head to the soccer game, we get there and not everyone showed up so they dont have enough players to play and are going to have to forfeit the game. except its a championship game for 3rd or 4th place and kinda a big deal. SO someone has the great idea that i can play for them. 
me. play soccer. in a real game. 
im not sure if you know this but, i. dont. play. soccer. 

yeah, wellll, apparently now i do. because i played the game..

hahahhahahahahha.

yeah. 

i played soccer.

and there were like people with microphones and legit video cameras filming.

and the best part? during halftime they came over and interviewed me and emma all about how we were from america and all that. 

im pretty famous now, for sure. 
so then i went home, ate lunch, and watched criminal minds.

really, i have to say is, what a weekend. 

if you only even knew. 


[:

ITALIJA!

last week i think i probably had the best weekend i have had in a long time. okay yeah, not probably, i did.

let me walk you through this. 

thursday i went to school. boring, boring and more boring.. imagine that. after school i went with the other exchanger student, okay i think by now i can just say emma and you’ll get it, right? right. so me and emma went back to her place, ate some beanutbutter and jelly sandwiches, attempted to talk with her house cleaner, all in croatian might i add, and waited for her host parents to come home from work. why did we do this one might ask? uh yes, because her fabulous, wonderful host parents were taking us to istria and italy for the weekend! :D 

so her parents got home, i helped emma pack her bag for the weekend, we got in the car, and started the 3 hour drive to the sea coast. we arrived in poreč, a seaside town on the peninsula in croatia called istria, around 7 or 8, went to the hotel where we got a little villa for the weekend, and went to get some dinner at the buffet in the hotel. so yeah, were thinking okay, a dinner buffet at a hotel, probably like some meat, a salad, bread, nothing big or special right? wrong. oh my god. we walk into the room and there is so much food there you dont even know what to do. they had everything from like pizza to 10 different kids of fish, and ham and chicken and turkey and like 5 different salads, so much bread, french fries, stuffed tomatoes, vegetables and even raw bacon! plus there was a huge selection of desert.  yeah, i know. im hungry now too. 

so anyways, after a amazing dinner we walked along the sea into the town then back and went to sleep.

friday. 6am my alarm goes off and the last thing i feel like doing is getting out of bed. so i lay back down, close my eyes and suddenly remember “omg dorothy, get up, get up your going to ITALY todaaaay !” so of course i instantly get up and get ready. we left poreč at 8:13am, okay yes, i remember the exact time, shush. anyways. it was to be about a half hour drive to the slovenian borer, than another 2 hours to venice. not to bad, huh? yeah, it wouldnt have been except for the people who work at the slovenian border were on strike. and not on strike like they werent working, they were working just very veryyy slow. so slow that it took us ohh, 2 and a half hours to get through. and we finally got to the place where they ask for your passports, so we hand them over, they stamp them then continue to look though the entire thing at every other stamp we have ever gotten, just to waste time of course, before they gave them back and let us go though. ridiculous. so after about 5 hours of being in the car, we finalllly get to venice! we park the car in a big parking garage outside the city because well, clearly we couldnt drive though the city, not without getting a little wet at least [: 

so let me just tell you straight out how venice was in just two words: absolutely magical. it was seriously everything i had imagined. it was so beautiful, and those italian boys, yes please. we took a boat thought the city then got out and walked around. and we ate pizza of course! so emma and i got our delicious looking pieces of pepperoni pizza, and we had to take some pictures of course. i mean, we were eating pizza in italy, how stereotypical is that? so as were taking pictures of eachother these two girls about our ago standing next to us ask up in perfect english if wed like them to take a picture of us together. so of course we say yes and start talking to them. they tell us they are from san diego and are studying abroad for the year here in italy, in florence! so we tell them were exchange students too, only in croatia! what a coincidence that we’d meet other exchangers ! so we spent a few more hours in venice and headed back to poreč that evening. we got back around 10, went out for dinner then fell asleep. 

saturday we got to sleep in until around nine, went and had some breakfast then drove into poreč for some sight seeing and shoppping! after a few hours we got back in the car and drove to this place practically on the slovenian border for some lunch at this restaurant on top of a mountain with the most amazing view. there they had two big black pigs that are used to hunt for truffles! they were so cute! so we had a huge lunch with amazing food and some good wine, then some weird truffle and chocolate thing for dessert. ive never had a mushroom for desert before, and im not going to lie, i dont really like truffles very much. i would definitely not pay all that money for them. after lunch we drove to this other seaside town named rovinj. it was absolutely gorgeous. this town looks like it has not been changed in hundreds of years. i was one of the prettiest places ive ever been. so after we left rovinj, on our way back to our villa in poreč we stopped at this fjord which is like only one in croatia i think. it was really cool! so we got back to the hotel and had that huge buffet for dinner again. and yes, it was just as amazing as the first time. [: 

sunday was the day we were coming back home to zagreb. we left around 11 and stopped in rijeka, for some coffee of course. im not sure if croatians can go more than about 3 hours without stopping for coffee. i find it hilarious. so anways, rijeka is the 3rd largest city in croatia and so beautiful. i would love to back sometimes for a little more than some coffee. i got home around 1:30 and honestly, it was so good to be home. its odd to me to think this is my home, but it really does feel that way. 

okay well, i think i have definitely bored you enough for one post. [;

proud to be an american.

i wanna rant a little on something, so just stay with me.

here we go.

i know all the different stereotypes of americans, how were all fat and lazy, how we are dumb, how we dont care about anything but ourselves, our guns, our religion, our money, our mcdonalds and burger king. how were narrow minded and think we are the best. and i mean, sure, i can see how if you were going on just those things that maybe you wouldnt be the biggest fan, right? but come on. do you reallly think that every person in america fits those stereotypes? is every chinese person smart? are all muslims terrorists? are all black people good at basketball? no.
i know that. i know not to judge someone to that extent. but being in a foreign country i have learned that not everyone sees america the way i do. even for how crazy it seems to me, people really do believe those stereotypes. they do think all americans are like that. since i have been here i have been yelled at for speaking english. i have been talked about and ignored. i have been judged and made fun of. and yes i have been discriminated against. even being in a country who is very accepting of americans, i have encountered this.
i got offended at first when this happened, i just couldnt see how someone who does not even know me can just decide they dont like me simply from where i come from. i clearly cannot be one of 'those' americans, look at me, here i am. ive left my country, ive left my entire life, ive come to live in your country, to learn your language, to learn your way of life. give me some credit for that, its no easy thing being an exchange student.
but then i realized, it will do nothing for me to get upset about this, to sit here and feel sad about someone not accepting me, and that what i need to do is to prove to those people that no, not all americans are like what you see on 'jersey shore'. were not all close minded and ignorant. i need to show them those stereotypes are not entirely true. i think i can handle that.. ill sure try at least.

im pretty sure that has been one of my biggest eye-openers since i have been here.

thanks for putting up with me, everyone.

[;

vikend.

not gonna lie, this past weekend deserves its own post.

lemme start with friday.
okay.

i met americans! :D yes, realllly! i was sitting on the bus coming home and i love sitting there listening to people speak croatian and see if i can pick up on words and figure out what theyre talking about. so i was just listing to everything and in my head i was like, "wait a minute, i understand something! omgg englishhhhh!" so i look and there they are, a group of five people standing up by the door speaking english. perfect, beautiful, not accented english. and so, if you havent figured this out by now, i neverrr hear other people speaking english. i had only heard it one other time. anyways, so after debating in my head whether to go ask them if they are from america or not, i got up, walked up to them and i go "hey! are you guys americans?!" hahhah. they told me that three of them were and so i told them i too was american and asked why theyre in croatia blah blah. turns out theyre from pennsylvania and delaware! and theyre here going to med school! it was just awesome. it easily made my day.

but, so. back to my actual weekend. saturday, i woke up a little before noon. it was supposed to be my big study day. i have a croatian test monday, and a big english and math test on wednesday that im not prepared for.
but, first things first, i had to get on to check my facebook. and well, lets just say, i ended up skyping with this aweome croatian boy who ive been talking to, bruno, for an entire seven hours! yes, really. how can you talk to someone for seven hours straight? i have no idea, i dont think i have ever done that before. but it was so much fun. i dont think ive ever laughed as much as i do with him. it was just crazy. apparently croatian boys really like to talk [:
so we finallly got offline and i went to the main square and met up with emma for mcdonalds. we ate some cool pie and people watched. the people watching there is absolutely intense. we saw one girl wearing skants and we almost died of laughter. its these crazy skirt pants things. they are just awful. so after we were done we decided to talk a walk up to uppertown in zagreb. the city looks so pretty at night from up there.
then i went home, and went to bed.

sunday.
i woke up around 9 and went with my host mom and sister to a town called samobor about 45 minutes away, just outside the city. we went to, i think was my host moms cousins house or something. family of some sort anyways. it was really fun talking to the two boys there. they were both in college and pretty good at english. they asked me all about the us and nyc of course. and we talked about how much we hate glen beck. that was funny. we had very similar viewpoints, thankfully. we had a delicious lunch, and then we left. my host mom, sister and i then went to the town center to this cafe bar where they serve this famous desert thing called kremšnite. it was delicious. i honeslty cant even describe it. google it if you really need to know. [;
so we came back home and i went to my room to study, cuz well, not like i got any done yet. i studied my croatian for a while, but i was having problems with my pronunciation. luckily for me though, bruno got online so we skyped and i would say a word, every word i knew pretty much, then he would correct me and sound it out so i would get it right. i bet we did that for over an hour. it was really funny. i just cannot make some of those sounds. finally we got though all the words and then some and we could just talk in english then. [:

so now, here i am, its almost 1 am and i have school in a few hours. but i just figured i needed to write about how awesome my weekend was.
thats all.

:D

this is now my life.

this week has been pretty normal, and honestly, im really excited about that.
it makes me feel more like this is my life, not that im on some awesome vacation, far away from home. i go to MY school every day. i hang out with MY friends, i come home to MY house, i sleep in MY bed. this is my real life, and everyday i get more comfortable. every day i fall more in love with this country, these people, this way of life.

my 'one month anniversary' has come and gone. ive never been away from home for this long. and im really proud to say ive made it. but really, i shouldnt take so much credit for my bravery and independence. this month was not hard. i was not sitting in room crying because i was homesick. actually, i havent even done that once. sure, sometimes ill be on facebook looking at pictures and wish i was in them. or ill talk to my friends and feel like im missing everything thats happening back at home. but i stop and remember, 'dude, dorothy, your in freaking CROATIA, its like what youve been dreaming about for the past year, stop being dumb and live it up!' [; and then im okay.

now i have to admit, im a little upset at how little of the language i feel that im learning. i think i set some unrealistic goals that im clearly not meeting. school is much harder than i would have thought. its harder than my school back at home. i feel like i spend my time studying physics, or math, or memorizing shakespear instead of trying to learn croatian. its not what i would choose to do, but school has to come first.. unfortunately.

as for my social life, its just as good as ever. [; ive come to love this whole going out for coffee thing, even though i never do actually order coffee. i meet new people every day, some become my friends, some just become people ive met. and one, has become someone i want to meet! hahah [;

but oh heeeey, looks like its time for another day of škola. yaaaay.
good thing i memorized my shakespear for today!

bok!


  

its been forever..

i never really realized before how hard it was to keep up on a blog. seriously.
so im officially on my third week of school. wow, three weeks. ive almost been here a month. thats crazy to me. on one hand i feel like i just got here and time is going way to fast. yet at the same time i feel as though ive always lived here. i already consider this to be my home. my life here is all i know. its like a dream when i think of living back in pennslvyania, its not a real life to me. and oddly enough, i dont really miss it either. not yet at least.

so where to begin? i dont even know.
im going to try to keep this kind of short so.
first week of school: was great. i feel like i made a lot of friends and that everything is going to be okay this year. emma and i have, what i consider to be, our best friends in our class. dora and tina. we went out with them after school most of the days that week. theyre great. actually, i think everyone in my class is great. theres not one person i dont like. id say i got pretty lucky :]
wow, that was corny. i really mean all of it though.
so back to my first week of school. i think i need to say a little something about gym class. uhhhh. lets just say, i didnt know i was going to boot camp. okay, maybe its not thaaat bad, but i feel like im seriously about to die after. we dont play games like back at home. no. we run. a lot. and do sittups, and pull ups, and jump over hurdles and do the high jump (which, god, i cannot do) oh and more running. yeah lots of running. that about sums it up. its just awful. the only thing i truely dont like about croatia.
so about my other classes. physics. hahahhaaha oh my, physics. if i even knew what we were doing in that class i could tell you how its going. i do not understand a thing. same with my math class. okay math isnt as bad, i get some of it. but well, lets face it, my teacher is not good at explaining thing. at all. and it doesnt help that well, for example, instead of saying ˝pi over 2˝ for the fraction π/2 she says ˝P halves˝ and  get all confuse like ˝uuhhh wtf is p halves?˝ and therefor miss the rest of what shes trying to say. she is super nice though. i feel bad.
english class. my english class is intense. its not like ˝ ´see spot run` said jane. ´come home, spot.` said dick. ´come, spot, come` ˝ as most people expect for an english class taught in a non english speaking country. (and yes, i am old enough that i did learn to read from those books.) no, right now in english we are doing hardcore shakespear. memorizing lines every night. learning all the plays and what happens in each. i think it honestly might be a harder class than my english class at home.
i have other classes like, phycology, religion, history, geography, and logic.but theyre nothing special. except maybe religion. but thats for another post.

second week of school: afternoon classes. this week was pretty boring. class from 2-8 every day, so we didnt go out after school since it was so late. the whole sleeping in part was just awesome though. but i feel like i waste my entire day when i have afternoon classes. my days go: sleep in, get up and get ready for school. go to school. come home and do homework, go to bed.
the only exciting part of last week was we had a few free periods one day so emma, and i went to the main square to meet up with another exchange student, also named emma, to buy lady gaga tickets for when she come to zagreb in november! :D
yeahh!
last thursday emma spent the night at my house because we had a rotary orientation friday.
orientation was really dumb. pretty much we just sat there and were told alll the rules that eventually will most likey be broken anyways.. juuuust kidding! ;]
saturday we went on our first rotary trip to the zagorje area in croatia, which is literally like on the border of slovenia. im not going to lie, i didnt have the best time. the bus trip and just being with the other exchangers was great and we had a lot of fun. but it was cold and raining alll day. the day consisted of a guided tour of this new caveman museum all about the creation of the earth and life. it was early in the morning and honestly, kind of boring. then we went to a beautiful castle, and again, had a guided tour. except this was worse because the tour was in croatian. awesome castle, not so awesome time because of the tour.
after that we drove to a town, varaždin, where three of the other exchangers live. we went to a nice hotel and had the most delicious lunch ever sponsored by the rotary club there. it was awesome. then once again, we had a guided tour through a cemetery which i think is considered one of the most beautiful in europe. and it was. it was so pretty with all the bush tree things and the big graves. but it was raining and we were wet and kept getting yelled at for stopping to admire the graves and not keeping up with the tour. ugh. so after that, guess what we did? OH YEAH another guided tour walking around the city. in the cold. and the rain. it was great. again, beautiful town, horrible conditions to see the town. now i dont know about any of you, but if i was going to take 11 teenagers on a day trip i would not fill the day with boring guided tours. oh welllll.

okay your almost caught up on my life now.
sorry this was so long haha. ill try to write less and more ofter now.
:]

first day of school!

so lets see. recap.

thursday night my host sister come home from her senior trip. [: she speaks pretty much perfect english, which makes communicating so much easier. friday we went out to see what bus and tram im taking to school then we went to the main square for a drink. saturday i went out clubbing my host sister, her best friend and some other friends. that was so much fun and well, what an experience. hahah

anyways, today i had my first day of school. 

last night i was so nervous that i couldnt fall asleep until about 2 am. now, i had set my alarm for 6:00 being as i was to leave at 7:10. but of course, if never went off and it wasnt until 6:45 when my host mother woke me that i got up. figures.

so i got ready as best as i could in that time and off we were, to my new school. i seriously wish you could have seen my face as we drove around the corner and i see this mass of kids on the stairs outside the school. im sure it was just hilarious and i think my mouth dropped, just like in the movies. but, this was it, there was no turning back. my host mother and i walked into the school to the headmasters office so we could be introduced to our homeroom teacher. he seems nice, but he talks bout WWll an awful lot. emma was there too, which calmed me down a little, at least were in this together. so when the bell rang we followed him up to the third story of the building, to the end of the hall. all the other kids were in the room already but he made us wait in the hall before going in. then he had us stand in the front of the classroom and introduce ourselves. so i go 'hi im dorothy schaadt and im from pennsylvania.' smoooth, right? right. so emma introduces herself and we take a seat in the back of the class. there arent desks like in the us, but tables with two chairs at each. and the classrooms are really like, i dont even have a good word to describe them. they are very plain and old looking. it definitely feels like a city high school to me. not that is bad, its just, very old. 

so after emma and i sat down everyone started coming over and introducing themselves. not that i remember like any names, or that i could even pronounce half of them, but still, i think everyone wanted to talk to us. 

so since it was the first day of school we were supposed to have just four classes. we were supposed to have physics, math, free period, then psychology. physics was awful. i didnt understand a thing. luckily though after class everyone else said they didnt understand it either, which made me feel better. then we had break. now normally we have seven classes a day, and since there is no lunch we have a 20 minute break inbetween 2nd and 3rd period where we can leave the school and go to a bakery or cafe near the school, which i must say, is pretty freaking awesome. so we went with some girls in our class to a bakery and i got a delicious chocolate croissant. then math class. math this year is trigonometry. so far its not to hard, but i have a feeling its going to get much harder because my teacher doesnt seem like shes good at explaining things. after math we had free period where a lot of people came up to us and were talking to us and asking us questions about the us and high school and if the things they see in movies are real. like “do the cheerleaders really rule the school?” i thought that was funny. so anyways after free period we were supposed to have psychology. but the teacher didnt show up and so after five minutes everyone got up and told us that if the teacher doesnt show up in the first five minutes that we dont have to stay for class. okay, cool. :] so we all left, and school was over. it lasted a whole three hours. 

after school emma and i got invited to go with some girls from school around the city to get something to eat and go buy school notebooks. we ended up hanging out for like 6 hours and having an awesome time. 

all in all, my first day of school was great. i have a feeling the next 174 days of school wont be so bad. [:

so some facts about my school:

• it has four stories, and all my classes so far seem to be either on the first, or fourth floor. of course.
• there are 17 subjects a year, about 5 are taught in english and the others in croatian. there are seven periods a day, with different classes everyday.
• since emma and i only take english classes we have two, or three free periods a day. but unlike in the us, we are allowed to just leave school and go to a cafe or walk around then come back for our next class. or if we dont take the class thats 1st oeriod that day we can sleep in and come into school later for out other classes. 
• your allowed to skip up to two classes a day without a written excuse. 
• my school building actually has two schools in it, one school has morning classes, then the other has afternoon. so my first week of school goes from 8am to 2pm and my second week goes from 2pm to 8pm and switches like that every week after.
• most of the time we stay n one classroom and the teachers switch, except for special classes like foreign language and art.
• my school used to be a mental hospital so there are bars on the windows

differences

i know that when i read blogs of other exchange students my favorite part is when they post a list of differences between where they are and where they are from. 
so. heres mine!

• the stop light go from green to yellow to red, then from red, to yellow, to green. 
• cars park on the sidewalks.
• there are no yellow lines on the roads. they are all white and i sometimes get confused what lane is supposed to go what direction. 
• people here drive fast, so there are random speed bumps on the roads that dont have tram tracks.
• there are no fat people. sure, they are a few people who are not sick thin, but no one is fat. not like america.
• they have one fast food place, mcdonalds.
• there is no tax when you buy things and you do not leave a tip.
• all the girls wear high heels. they would rather be pretty than comfortable. this ive been told.
• you kiss on the cheeks when you see your friends and when you say goodbye.
• everybody smokes. 
• man purses and fanny packs are very common.
• everyone dresses nice, no one wears sweatpants, hoodies, sporty clothes and, for the girls, tshirts.
• almost everyone is at least bilingual.

im sure there are more but thats all i can come up with in my one week here.

[:

first few days

ive been here for, what, four days now? this is bad, im already losing track of time.
anyways. i feel so welcome here. this country is just beautiful. im in love with it already.

at the airport my host mom had brought one of my host sisters friends, ana, and her little sister, paula, with her to pick me up. my host sister is in africa right now on her senior trip so, clearly, she couldnt come with. i get in the car to go back to my new house and guess whats playing? yeah, blink-182, only like my favorite band. i took it as  sign that everything is okay.
we drove though the city and they pointed out different things to me, not that i remember where anything was. back at my house i put my suitcases in my room and started to unpack while vesna finished preparing lunch. here lunch is the biggest meal of the day, not dinner. its weird to eat a big meal at 2 pm then not eat again until like 9 at night but im getting used to it. there is so much food here. i eat until im full, but ive been told i barely eat at all. my host mom told me i "eat like a little bird." i thought that was so cute, but really, im eating as much as i usually do!
so after lunch ana, paula and i went to my room. i told them about silly bands and gave them some. i also made them try reese cups because they dont have them here! i think i got them addicted. [:
then we went to their house to pick up their mom and we went to the top of the mountian overlooking zagreb to this beautiful old castle. we just walked around for a little and then went back to have a drink at anas house.
when i got back to my house i went straight to sleep as i was super tired.
on monday my host mother and i went into the city to go to the police department because i had to like register that i was staying in zagreb for the next year. then we went and got delicious ice cream. it didnt quite taste like ice cream back home, it was more rich. i really like it.
after that i went to anas house and her, her friend whos name i dont remember and i went to avenue mall. her friend speaks really good english so i loved talking to him. its weird not hearing english anymore.
after that we rented 'the proposal' and went back to her house to watch it. then i spent the night at her house.
tuesday ana, paula, one of paulas friends and i went into the city. they showed me upper town and the cathedral and some other things.
it was a lot of fun. then we went to mcdonalds for ice cream!
we went back to anas house, had lunch and hung out.

today i went to my new school to sign up for classes. i forget what im taking though. this is all a lot to take in in just a few days. tonight im going to the movies with ana and emma, the one i flew here with.

i feel like im writing every detail of my life so im gonna stop now. i promise things will be more summerized from now on, as this is to much to write.

travel travel travel

so here i am, sitting in an airplane somewhere over europe, listening to nevershoutnever and taking webcam pictures. i have a row to myself, im all spread out just enjoying the anticipation of being in croatia. im content right here.

but maybe i should start at the beginning. 

here we go:

i woke up saturday morning with no feelings, no nothing. i slept great the night before, and well, nothing seemed real. it was ‘the day’. the day ive been counting down to, the day i try to imagine every spare minute that i have. here it was, and but yet it didnt feel like it. i got out of bed, i finished my last minute packing, i got ready, and before i knew it, i was in the car headed to dubois. 

wait, dubois?

yes dubois. my luggage broke, remember? so my mom, my dad and i went to ross to pick up a new suitcase. i switched all my stuff into the new suitcase and off we went! when we arrived in state college i decided that i was going to have sheetz as my last meal in the us. i needed to have those wonderful delicious french fries one last time, and if you live somewhere with a sheetz you would understand.

so after we ate and i checked in at the airport my parents and i just kinda sat there for an hour saying goodbyes and whatnot. 

then it was time for me to go. i cried, yeah, i did. but i dont think it was a “im so sad to leave” kind of crying, more just of a “im so stressed and overwhelmed and have no control of my emotions” kind of crying. although i was sad, i was way more excited.

the flight to DC was fast and boring. it took 40 minutes but it seriously felt like it took ten.  when i got to DC i found out what gate my next flight was in and walked like seven miles to the other end of the airport to get there. after about an hour of waiting, the other exchange student who i was meeting there, emma, came! we sat there and waited for our flight to frankfurt. there was a “smoking room” at our gate, like a glass room where you can smoke. emma and i sat there and made fun of the people we saw go in. we went and bought some snacks then it was time to get in out flight. on my flight the seats went like window seat seat isle seat seat seat seat seat isle seat seat window. with my luck i figured id be sitting in the exact middle of the middle 5 seats. but! i got lucky and sat in an isle seat next to a window seat. however, unless im in a window seat i cannot sleep on planes. so there i was, miserable, tired, and oh yeah, my ipod was in the bag i put in the overhead bin so i didnt even have my music. it was going to be an awesome 8 hours flight, yeah?

so anyways i sat next to this man who didnt talk to me, didnt even acknowledge i was there unless he was asking to get out since he was in the window seat next to me. when he came back for the third time he finally said “i’m sorry. i asked my travel agent to get me a window seat.” to which i quickly said “OH! well do you wanna switch me, i like the window seat!” he hesitated and replied “yeah, i mean if you really dont mind”

trust me, i did not mind.

so we switched and i ended up sleeping for a few hours. it was wonderful. except my neck, yeah my neck was not to happy when i woke up.

hold on, were about to land in zagreb! ill finish this later!

oh hey.. IM HERE!

but back to where i left off..

so finally, finallllly we land in frankfurt. its 7:10 am there, but to me its only 1:10 am. emma and i walk into the airport from the plane and whats the first thing we see? gorgeous boys all with argentina soccer jerseys on. hellllo and welcome to europe. [: yes. 

now its early in the morning, we have jet lag, were in a foreign country alone, were hungry and we have five and a half hours of nothing but anticipation until we get on the flight to zagreb. so what do we do? we do what any american would do of course, go to mcdonalds. we both got bagels with cream cheese and sat down to see if we could get free internet. we couldnt. i barely remember the rest of the five hours, other than we took funny webcam pictures, laughed at dumb things because we were so tired and delirious and i spilled the gummiworms everywhere, but we ate them anyways. when we were sitting at our gate we saw this man get in a huge fight with someone who worked at the airport. they were arguing because the mans carry on was to big, so he was going to have to leave it behind or not get on his flight. it ended with the man telling the worker to f off and they worker try to ban him from the flight or something. they were grabbing at eachother and swearing and making a big old scene. it was pretty funny.  

then our flight was called! well, we thought so, but thankfully we asked a man standing in line to get on the plane and it was not going to zagreb. so we sat back down.

then our flight was called for real. and we were in the air on out way to croatia! :D (this is where i started this post, now i sitting on my bed.)

the view the whole way there was so beautiful. 

i was a little nervous when we landed because i dont have my visa yet. so as im standing in line for what i thought was immigration or whatever i had no idea what i was going to have to do. turns out i handed the lady my passport she looked at it for like a minute, stamped it and handed it back and that was all. no forms to fill out, no nothing. i was good to go.

so i walk out to baggage claim and i see a mass of people standing on the other side of a glass wall waiting for people to arrive. then i see this beautiful woman with a huge smile and she waves at me and blows me a kiss, my host mother! 

here we are.

todays the day!
and when i say that, i mean it very literally. as in, its currently 12:12 am on saturday.
i guess you could say im not ready. haaaaa, what am i talking about? no. i am absolutely not ready. my bags weigh 46 and 49 pounds. my room is a completeee disaster. i have more things to put in my carry on than can possibly fit. i feel sick to my stomach. OH yeah, and one of my suitcases broke. guess whos running out in the morning to by a new one? yes. me.

"rough start today, dorothy?" one might ask.
my reply would be "yes."

but hey, time keeps moving, the past is growing. and even with all these stressful things, i could not be more excited. sure, i may have burst into tears randomly at times for the past week. sure i have no idea what to expect. sure im going to miss my family, my friends. sure these goodbyes are the hardest. but these are normal.
i want adventure. i want culture. i want challenge. i want croatia.

lucky for me, in a few short hours, all those wants, they will be mine.

wish me luck? [: