I’ve returned to Philly and the trip was hard, literally and figuratively. I’m no good with goodbyes and I’m not a terribly talkative person, especially to folks I don’t know well. Each goodbye was very awkward for me. Although I knew I was going, I kept trying to tell my mind that I wasn’t. I will miss everyone and everything about my life in Zagreb. The entire experience has really changed me, and I hope for the better.

The first thing I realized when I stepped foot outside of the airport in Philly was the smell of the city. I’ve lived in the city for 10 years and it never dawned on me that the city really does have a distinct smell. It’s not a particularly pleasant smell, but it is a familiar one.
The second thing I noticed was the sound. The city is so loud, even in my house. I’ve been so used to only the sound of barking dogs and chirping birds. Now I hear planes, helicopters, sirens, people, buses, you name it. It’s no wonder people have trouble relaxing in the city :)
It won’t be long before I am back into my old routine. I just hope that the experience and the memories I have stay with me and keep me moving forward in a new and positive light.

I am getting ready to return to Philly and I have mixed feelings about it. I’ve been living in Zagreb, Croatia since January and although the transition was difficult at first I’ve really grown to like it here. Life here is far less stressful than in Philly, even when I have the same workload. It will take me some time after I return to Philly to really understand why.

People say the pace is fast in Zagreb. I can’t imagine it any slower. Folks really haven’t experience East Coast U.S. After that, they’ll love the “slow” pace in Zagreb again, hehehe.

Before I came here, I couldn’t imagine living outside of the U.S., although it was one of my life goals to do so. Now, I’m a little worried about returning to the fast-pace, stressful environment of Philly.

I’m very excited about returning to see my family and friends, work on my new house (that we left behind last year), and enjoy many of the American “conveniences” I’ve done without for the past 5 months. The first thing I think I will do when I return is buy a Starbuck’s grande non-fat latte, do a load of laundry to use the dryer, and watch some cable TV :)

While I’ve been in Zagreb, I’ve done without a lot of things…
- no clothes dryer
- no microwave
- no more than 4 channels via rabbit ears
- no to-go coffee
- minimal eating out (no one goes to restaurants here)
- no car to get up and go wherever, whenever I want
- no sushi (i love sushi)

But, this was a fantastic experience that can’t last forever. I’ve met a lot of great people, got to know my “extended family” better, visited a lot of exciting places, and experienced life in another country gaining a better understanding of its culture, language and all those great things that make up Dinko. I just hope I have time to see all the great folks I’ve met here that have really made my experience so great.

I have one more trip before a week of packing before I go. I will be spending a great long, Memorial Day weekend in beautiful Novi Vinodolski on the Adriatic sea.

In the meantime, you can check out all the pictures of the places we’ve been so far at www.dinko.net.

Well, that was quick. Needless to say I only lasted a few hours before I completely broke down by the inability to communicate effectively. So much for the 3 day experiment.

I am just not at a stage where I can nearly cut out all English. My vocabulary isn’t high enough and my ability to create more complicated sentences with the right cases and word order is just not there yet.

It is close to 3 months since I moved to Zagreb and I am still not doing as well as I (and others) would like with the language. Sure, I know more words now than when I started. And, I know more grammar, but holding conversations is where I need the most practice and what I do the least.

I realized this soon after I began my Croatian lessons. Five lessons in I asked my teacher to change her format so that we could hold more conversations instead of me doing homework, trying to memorize word combinations and reading my homework aloud. She agreed, and we hold more conversations, but they are very basic and poor.

A few weeks ago I was doing some research online around linguistics, origin and roots of languages, and learning languages (particularly Croatian). I found a lot of great stuff, but the one revelation was this…

“People will not speak a new language if they don’t HAVE to.”

People will always find the easiest way to converse because speaking in a new language is difficult. I’ve realized that I can get by pretty well with mostly just English here. My boyfriend and I, despite several attempts, always end up speaking only in English. Mostly because of habit, but also because speaking in Croatian is frustrating for both of us and why would anyone want to voluntarily and continuously put themselves in a frustrating situation?

Speaking Croatian requires a whole different way of thinking and constructing sentences (at least for the beginners). For example, take the following relatively common English sentence,

“It’s so good to see you.”

and translate the concept into Croatian…

“Tako mi je drago sto te vidim.”

The literal translation back to English is…

“So to me it is dear that you I see.”

Oh my goodness. Since I don’t think “in Croatian,” I somehow need to come up with these kinds of things if I want to say anything more than “where’s the bathroom?”

Well, at my friend’s request, I am spending the next 3 days without speaking any English beyond what I need for my job. I hope it’s not a total disaster and that I’m not completely miserable with the frustration :)

Nothing too exciting, but here’s an update anyway. Thanks to Dinko for the indirect idea of doing this kind of post :)

• Getting official permission to stay in Croatia. Well, it took me 3 days, over 450kn (about $75), a lot of waiting and running around to finally get everything in order with the Croatian government. Gotta love bureaucracy.
• Preparing for the 5K race in Velika Gorica, Croatia. This Sunday I have my first 5K running race in almost 10 years. I used to run a lot and I loved it. Now, I’m very out of shape and I don’t think I will do well. I hope to at least finish and not come in last.
• Playing lots of Bela. It grows on you. Tihana and I will be expert professional players by the time I return to Philly.
• Studying Croatian. I need to do this every day. I try to force myself to read ahead in my books, watch Croatian shows, and do exercises. Now I really need to get that conversational aspect down. I know more than I think I do.
• Visiting Samobor. Last weekend we went with some friends to visit Samobor, a neighboring town. It’s really pretty and not as small as I thought. I want to go back when the weather is nicer to see the old ruins ontop of the hill.

What’s coming up…

• Redoing my site. The age of my site and the ideas of fellow bloggers have inspired me to make some much needed and well overdue changes to my site. And I think I might experiment with free-tagging myself and my stuff :)
• Visiting Venice, Italy. Dinko and I have a trip to Venice in a few weeks. It will be great fun. It’s closer than we thought.
• Visiting Pula, Croatia. Idemo ca! Very exciting. Our friends have offered to take us to Pula for Easter weekend.