12 Days of Christmas: Day 3

So, Christmas Day was huuuuge feast! Roman cooked a 5 course meal for his family. Lots of eating, drinking, and learning Pongauerisch! Unfortunately, the photos are not uploading, so i will figure out how to post them later.

12 Days of Christmas: Day 2

Today we started the day with a hike up the mountain Hochgründeck. It only has a height of about 1800m, but gorgeous views of the main valleys in the Salzburg Bunesland. After, we went sledding down the mountain back home, showered and had lunch. Then waited for the Friedenslicht to arrive from Bethlehem; blessed the house with incense, prayers, and holy water; drank schnapps with the neighbors; ate dinner in the older farmhouse and opened present. I'm truly blessed to have spent Christmas with a loving family, and to have received gifts from them and from my mother through the post. Enjoy the photos :-)

The village of St. Johan im Pongau is in the valley.

The mountain peak in the background is actually Germany.

The old owner of this house was a master brewer for Stiegl.

Chapel on the mountain

12 Days of Christmas: Day 1

I know I have been terrible about updating my blog. I have been exploring the wonderful country of Bosnia-Herzegovina as can be seen here and here

Now, I am lucky enough to be spending the holidays with my SO in the Alps, and meeting his family! I'm also learning LOTS of Austrian dialect. Since I am staying here for 12 days, he has lots planned for us to do, and my mother is complaining that I don't update my blog enough I will be posting once everyday for the 12 days of the holidays!

We arrived yesterday in St. Johann im Pongau, which is located in the Salzburg Bundesland, abuot 45 minutes south of Salzburg. Today, he took me on a hike in Goldegg am See, which has a beautiful castle and is a nice little village.

I'm going to do my best to post once everyday for the next 12 days. You can also watch him throw rocks on the frozen lake here!

Sunrise from my SO's parent's house

Sarah-jevo

So, mother has been badgering me to update my blog. So here is my summer update. My last semester at Uni-Graz ended July 7th. From then I was fortunate enough to continue my employment at the Centre for South Eastern European Studies (who organizes my Master's program) at the University of Graz. I have been a research assistant for them, doing mostly revisions in English for articles and journals they are publishing. It can be difficult at times, but it is giving me great insight into the kinds of academic works that get published.

I didn't do anything special for my birthday this year, just went out for burgers and pool with some friends. Pretended I was home in America for a night (despite being the only American in the group). I also took a week-long trip to Sarajevo to find an apartment, as I will be moving there on the 7th or 8th of September to spend a semester studying abroad for my degree. I also hope to find some kind of internship with an NGO or other organization based in the city. I stayed with moja lijepa žena Ana and her mother. The first day we met up with some friends and took a bus 2 hours east towards the town of Foča in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. From there we took another bus about 20 minutes further to a small camp full of cabins. We went rafting down the river Tara, which is one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever seen! It creates the border between Bosnia and Montnegro and has created the 2nd deepest river canyon in the world, second only to the Grand Canyon! We spent the night in camp, then hitchhiked our way back to Sarajevo!

Once back in Sarajevo, I met with a real estate agent and found a really GREAT apartment. It's right in the center of town, fully furnished (even with towels, appliances, etc), and gorgeous view from the balcony! It's where I am now writing this post. We then spent the next few days running around this city that I now call home.

 

After Sarajevo, I returned to Graz and prepared for the arrival of the coolest person in the entire world! MY BEST FRIEND SARAH!!!! I had a bit of work to do while she was visiting, but I'm liking to have Roman, because he took her around town and on Schlossberg. The three of us walked all around Graz, and went to the Grape Festival in Slovakia with moja sestra Marianna. She took us around Bratislava on Sunday, and the next day Roman left for Thailand (lucky guy). Sarah and I spent the rest of her stay hanging out in Graz, before we had a tear-filled goodbye at the train station.

After Sarah left I began packing up my old dorm room in Graz, and got ready for my 10-day summer school on the Croatian island of Hvar. We had 50% rainy weather and 50% sunny weather, but the warmest days were the days we arrived and left (of course). The best, was one day we took a taxi boat to a beach on part of the island away from the hotels. We saw lots of fish and sea urchins in the water, and in the end we all had to present our theses proposals at summer school. It was an interesting combination. Regardless, I had a blast. Missing all of my old friends in Graz, new friends in Belgrade, and everyone back home. Hope everyone had a fantastic summer!!! It's now time to get back to work, it's raining outside so it's the perfect weather for computer work. Enjoy the photos, and hopefully I will post again sooner, rather than later.

If you'd like to read anything more about my trip to Hvar, my good friend Laura wrote a really cool entry about the hotel we were staying at, and what we were studying in our program. You can find it here: http://remotelybalkan.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/destination-europe-at-hotel-yugoslavia/