Croatia: Day 28 and 29

Dubrovnik! It's the most visited place in Croatia and It also holds the record for the worlds biggest suicide record. As you can imagine the tourists are everywhere! And the pigeons are everywhere. I don't think I've ever seen so many pigeons that attack tourists fir their food like in Dubrovnik! Oh and the cats! They are everywhere! They look like stray cats, but they could belong to the houses that are jumbled into the mix of cafe's and restaurants.
Dubrovnik is definetely a unique place that you would not find in America! It's so old and very nice. It's more of a city then the other places wehave been on our ISV adventure tour. Which is kinda a positive and negative for me. There are way too many tourists, but there's more to do. We had two days here and i swear we have done miles of walking.
As our month long trip is coming to an end all I can do is think back to all of the great memories that I have collected over the past month. The first two weeks are filled with memories of wonderful kids and families that are still struggling with post war issues and just need a little bit of assistance to start a new life. While volunteering and providing a positive influence for the kids in Gvozd, I learned so much about the world and had a ton of fun while I was at it! I miss the kids and all of the memories that I have of Gvozd!
The second two weeks have been a blast also. Our leader, Borris, has been great! And the entire ISV group has been amazing. I don't think we could have asked for a better group! We have definetely explored Croatia and had alot of fun while doing it. We went hydrospeeding, paragliding, biking, caving, kayaking, rock climbing and touring around some wonderful cities throughout Croatia!
I got to spend my 19th birthday is Croatia on a boat at the coast! This entire month has been amazingly awesome! It's going to be hard to beat!
All I can think of at this moment is how tired I am going to be tommorow after all of the traveling that we are going to be doing. It's going to be a very very long day!

Croatia:Day 27

Today is known as the day of b'day celebration. It's June 23 and I really had no clue that the ISV group knew about my birthday. I mean, I knew people had been coming up to me the past couple of days asking if I was ready for my b'day. But, I just wondered how they'd found out about it. So when I woke up today and everyone was wishing me happy b'day I was still wondering how everybody knew. Then, at dinner they suprised me with a cake and I thought that that was going to be the suprise b'day present. But, boy was I wrong. After dinner they told me that I was going out with them and I had to get dressed up. Even though I was a little reluctant, I got ready and we went into town about 9. I still had no clue what was going on or where we were going. They took me to some sort of laser club that Borris had rented out for the night and paid for all of my drinks. And they had planned all of this without me knowing about it on a small boat where you can hear everything that's going on.
Afterwards they told me that there had been several close calls where they had almost ruined the suprise. And several times when I had walked in when they were planning it and they had to suddenly change subject. At one point Rick almost blurted it out without thinking, and apparently Borros was behind my back signalling for him to shut up.
Needless to say, it was a great 19th b'day spent in Croatia at some lazer bar.

Croatia: Day 26

Today we started sailing at 5am from Omis to Korcula. The huge storm apparently decided to let us pass, but we had to skip the island of Hvar. :(. It was a 5 hour sail to Korcula, so we all got to sleep in untill around noon. The one time that I woke up and actually made it to the window to look out, the rocking was so bad that I couldn't even stand up. It was looking like we were going down! But I just put my ear phones back in, turned on my iPod and went back to sleep.
When we got to Omis we had lunch on the boat and then we went out to explore Korcula. It is a neat little town. Marco Polo apparently lived here and everything is devoted to him here. We got to see his house and explore the churches and musuems that were named after him. Ummm...there are alot of souvenier shops and cafe's and bars just like at all of the other towns. It's definetely European. I got some candy from one of those old fashioned candy stands! That was def the highlight of my day!
I think tonight is going to be sn early bedtime night. Tommorow I have been told that I am staying out late:).

Croatia: Day 25

Well...today was rather dull and relaxing. The people that were soppused to go canyoning couldn't because of the rain. I have never seen so much rain on the coast in my life. It literally rained straight through the night last night and half way through today. And I guess I shouldn't refer to it as simply rain, it was pouring. So today we all had a free day which was a little boring considering Omis only has one street to explore. So we preety much walked up and down the sane street atleast 10 times today. Oh and one interesting thing that I got was a hot dog and fries. I was totally expecting a hot dog with French fries on the side. But, nope! They brought out a foot long hogi bun with two weenies on it and fries stuffed on top of the weenies with ketchup drizzled over. It was interesting, but it wasn't unedible!
After lunch there was really nothing to do. So I just took a nap and just woke up. We have dinner on the boat at 7 and then we have a free night...which will also be interesting.
Since the people didn't get to canton today, they are going at 7 am in the morning:/. As soon as they get back, around 2, we are leaving and the captain is going to try and make it to our next destination. But apparently there's another huge storm coming in and he doesn't expect us to make it there. So we might end up anchored on some random shore:). Fun times!

Croatia Day 24

Today we left Split and it's busy streets to sail to Omis and explore what it's streets had to offer. It was a two hour sail to Omis and it was really nice. It was 9 in the morning, so we all laid out on the top deck and read our books while we were sailing. The wind was amazing. And the sea sickness was alot better once you got sailing. When we arrived in Omis we went exploring for a little while. It is a very small town, but it's kinda cool and very European looking. They have tons of souveneir shops with really cheap stuff, which I am fairly sure is from China:/. But it's cool anyways. The souveneirs aren't great, but they will work!
After lunch, which was provided by the cook on our boat (I'm do tired of the traditional meal of bread and cheese and fricken soup), we went rock climbing. The rock climbing was about the end of my adventures here, it was really difficult(and I was on the easiest route).
After Rock climbing we went back down the one street that Omis has and ate pizza, which is the only thing we could find that looked half way familiar and appatizing.

Croatia: Day 23

Today is known as the day of major sea sickness. We started out this morning with unpacking our tents and kayaking down the river to where our ISV bus picked us up. Oh yea and this whole time I forgot to mention our nice little ISV bus driver Zoron, who drove us everywhere! So, we got on the bus and Zoron drove us about two hours to Split. Then in split we said our goodbyes to Zoron since we would no longer be needing his bus:(. And we said hello to our new driver, or sailor, who's name I don't exactly remember at the moment, and got all of our stuff onto a nice wooden yatch that we will call home for the next week. Now comes the part of the major sea sickness. We sat down at a little table on the boat to have our safety briefing and eat lunch. I don't think I have ever felt si sick in my life. I could literally feel myself turning white and spinning. I couldn't eat the lunch, had to get off the boat and sit on a bench and wait for the others to finish eating. Thank goodness I wasn't the only kne feeling that way so I had company on my bench.
After lunch we went exploring the ancient town of Split and saw it's beautiful beach and it's cool little street shops. We got to walk in a 17,000 year old castle and roam through the little stores and ice cream shops that were in it. Slodeled ( ice cream) is now my favorite thing in Croatia. It is sold around every corner and it's only 5 Kuna, which is like not even $1. I think I've had three scoops today. But whatever it's vacation and they sure don't have Slodeled at home. Then we had a small fast food type dinner and came back to the boat to relax a little. We played cards on the deck, which was really nice. I had to make myself sit back and think that I am in Croatia on the top of a boat overlooking all of Split and the beautiful beaches and mountains. It is truly do beautiful here!
My sea sickness is getting a little better. I still feel my head rocking bavk and forth and I am still a bit nausous, but it's getting better and tommorow once we start sailing it should be all good:)

Croatia: Day 22

It's Day 22 and we are camping tonight. We spent the entire day kayaking which was an adventure, but a calm and relaxing one! We preety much had to paddle the kayak all the way down. There were a few small rapids and one 5 foot waterfall that we went down! It was fun. It is 5 and we are at our campsite and all set up. The tents are tiny and we are soppused to fit 2 people in it. Well, atleast it's only one night. Tommorow we wake up at 7 and get back in the kayaked by 9. Then we paddle about one hour to our bus and then we drive about two hours to our yatch! Then we spend the the next week on the boat.
We still have a few more adventures left. But I guess I can say I've almost survived this adventure tour. The only thing that I'm worried about is canyoning and rock climbing! Those should be adventurous!

Croatia: Day 21

Well today is our 21st day in Croatia. The only name I can think of for today is giant waterfall day. We went to Plitvicka national park and hiked from the top of the mountain down to the base, which was 4 miles. It was a nice hike though, definetely not like our hike straight uphill to the monument. Plitvicka jezera is a UNESCO national park with tons of beautiful waterfalls and lakes that are as blue as the sky. It was amazing. Much nicer than Tannehill(:
Now we are back at our accomodation, which is Restoran Dejenia, a few rooms and a restaraunt in the middle of no where. It's really nice and relaxing. The only other plans for tonight are to get packed for tommorow when we are kayaking to our camp site and camping overnight, and eat dinner at 6. Then I am planning for a bright and early bed time to prepare for camping and kayaking tommorow!
I probably won't get signal tommorow while camping, but Saturday once we get on the boat I'm sure I'll be able to do something!

Croatia: Day 20

Today is none as the day of fear. We went caving in Bovec, Slovenia. It was the most intense thing that I have ever done. We literally heaved ourselves up clifes that were atleast 50 feet off of the ground without rope or any support. It was scary as hell. I thought ww were goners for sure on this one. But, just like always we somehow made it. We rappelled down some of the really high stuff, and that was really the most dangerous part. That's where we all fell and got beat up by the rocks. We were all scared to death! But we made it out with only scrapes, bruises and cuts! No broken things or severe injuries that required mote than a bandage! We were all very proud of our "climbing wounds".
So far this adventure tour has been way more intense than any of us expected! Some people are really cut up and bruised. I made it out of Slovenia with only 2 hip bruises, an elbow scrape and some very sore muscles!
We are now on the bus back to Croatia. It's about 7 hours and we should be at our new lodging around 8 tonight.

Croatia: Day 19

Today is none as the day if certain death. We left at 9 for hydrospeeding which was amazing! The best way I can describe it is floating down the river on a board with this tight as hell wet suit on, which was miserable, and you were trying your best to get away from the giant rocks that were coming at you very fast. It was soo scary! Several people ran into rocks, flipped, almost drowned and freaked out and decided to ride back on the raft. I only had one bad accident where I hit my hip bone on a huge rock. As soon as I got out if the water I immediately felt the pain from it. We are all bruised up a little but no severe injuries. It was definetely an experience that none of us will ever forget, mostly because of fear! The guide on the raft had my camera and was able to get lots of good pictures. You can def see the fear on all of our faces!
But we made it back alive and now we have a free afternoon to explore some more. We are right in the middle of the alps, so it is amazing here! Oh yea and the water that we hydrosped down today was soo blue! You could see straight through to the bottom, which was kinda scary because you could see all of the rocks that you were about to hit with your ankles or in my case my hip.
Tommorow morning we go caving and then have a six hour drive back to Croatia. I will update on that adventure tommorow!

Croatia : Day 18

Today is known as the day of "little Italy". We started out getting on the bus from Levenjia and riding about an hour to Bled. In Bled went biking around Bled lake for two hours, then we relaxed a little and then we hiked straight uphill to this castle that was over looking the whole place. It was an amazing veiw once we got up..but the hike up was not cool. It was the second time that I really thought I was going to die on this trip! After the biking and hike we got back on the bus and drove two hours to Bovec, Slovenia. On the way we passed through a little of Italy, which was really Nice! Once we got to Bovec we settled in and walked around the town a little. We are staying in a ski cottage with a living room and kitchen and tv that doesn't work. It has to be the nicest place that we have stayed so far.
That about sums up the day. Kinda chill but still fun and nice!

Croatia: Day 17

Okay, so I don't really have a name for today. So, I will just call it day 17. Today we woke up at 7 for breakfast, and then packed and loaded the bus at 8. We had a tour of Zagreb from 9-11, which was really cool. It told us all about the history of the very very old city. The streets remind me so much of Paris of Rome. they are all really preety. After the tour we had free time untill 3. My group got lunch, drinks, and then went to the local botanical gardens while we waited. The food here is amazing! At 3 we loaded the bus and took our 2 hour drive to Slovenia. I have now been to 2 foreign countries:) Once in Slovenia we got settled in and went to the city for dinner and drinks. It was an amazing city. I would rate it even higher then Zagreb for night life and FUN! Me and a few others made it back in by 11 and hit the deck so that we would be ready for our bright and early morning. It is now 7:15 of Monday and we are preparing to leave for our bike ride aroudn the lake. It is onla a one hour bus ride to the lake. I'm a little short on time, so I will update again tonight when I have more free time!

Croatia: Day 16

Well...I don't know what today is known as yet. It is 7 am and we have just finished breakfast at the Ravnice hostel. I decided to come use the last 30 minutes of my 1 hour free card. So far I just know the schedule for today. We are going to go on a sight seeing tour of Zagreb from 8:30-11. Then we have free time from 11-3 and then we drive to Slovenia, whcih is a 2 hour drive plus however long in takes to pass through borders, and get settles into our hostel there. The rest of the night is free time and we can go out and explore and get dinner.
Last night was interesting. There were six people staying in a room that was half the size of mine with alot of luggage! It was very hot all night. Most of the hostels in Croatia do not have air conditioning. But, I ahve come to expect that and just accept the fact that I will be covered in a constant layer of grimy sweat all night and day. But, with saying all that I should also add that it is sooo much fun! With a big group you can all group into smaller groups and go do what you each want to do. Last night me, Carissa and Sarah decided we didn't want to go back into town at 10 pm and deal with the shuttles and all. So, we ordered a pizza to come to the hostel and went exploring close to our hostel to find something to drink. It was definetely an adventure. It took us like an hour just to find the market that was open, which was only a five minute walk from our hostel. Adventures, Adventures!! So much fun!
But tonight they tell us that we are staying in a realy nice hotel which will be very different for us after 2 weeks of hostels. I don't know if it will be a good or bad thing.
Then, Monday we are going on a bike tour, swimming and paraglidding! It will be amazingly awesome!
I will update more later!

Croatia: Day 15

Today is known as the Day of Tears. We had to leave Gvozd and all of the kids that we had spent the last two weeks with, and our wonderful project leader Maja. I think everyone of us cried and are still crying. We are on the bus on the way to Zagreb for our adventure tour and we are all sobbing. I thought that I was going to hold everything together untill it was time to tell the kids bye. That's when things got really sad!
But anywho I won't even begin to describe all of the crying and goodbye. Cause that's just part of life. But now we are on the way to Zagreb to start our awsome adventure tour and have a blast!
I will update on the rest of today later!
-Okay so this is the update for later today! We have now arrived in Zagreb and have already got settled in to our hostel and been out exploring the streets. We had lunch out and got some traditional Croatian food. The streets look just like those movies of Paris and Rome where you see the streets that are sooo amazing. I can't really describe it, but it's awesome! We are all kinda tired from the first half of the day...all the crying did us in. When we walked into the hostel to meet our new ISV staff we were all red faced and still sobbing. They must have thought we were crazy. But, Maja had already talked to them and told them that the entire group was a wreck so they were expecting it. Maja was the worst though. She was a complete emotional wreck for about 3 days before we left. She told us that she has been working with ISV for 7 years and that we were the best group she had ever had by far. Which was amazing to hear. It was sooo hard to leave. And almost everyone is trying to plan a time that we can come back next year. We are all hoping to do it as a group again but not with ISV and not with the adventure tour. Just coming back to Suncokret to visit the kids again. Everyone is more than willing to plan a time to come back where we are all in a group again. And ofcourse Maja is more than willing to take us back. So, maybe next summer we can all return:/ Hopefully!!
Our new leader is a guy named Borris who is Russian and seems okay. Not near as cool as Maja who was the most amaying leader we could have ever asked for! But, Borris seems kinda chill and like a good tour guide. This is his first time with ISV so it will be intersting to see how he reacts. So far the only plans I know for the next 2 days are: Tonight at 8 we have orientation, then we have a free night to do whatever after 9:30. Tommorow we have to be up and ready by 7 for breakfast,then we have a city sights tour, then we pack and head for Slovenia where we will get settled in our new hostel for the night. Monday we will have 2 activities, I kinda forgot what they were. But I know that afternoon after the two ISV activities we can go paragliding with our own money. I will definetly be participating in that. I mean how many chances do you really got to paraglide off of the Alps?
It will be an awesome adventure tour. But right now I am still a little upset over leaving the kids and Maja behind. I keep thinking that I see the kids throughout town. It's really weird. I guess ince they are the only ones that I have seen for the past two weeks it's just kinda what I expect now!

Croatia: Day 14

Todsy is known as the sad happy party day!:) :(. It is our last day in Gvozd and our last day with the kids:(. So we decided to make it good.
But first I will tell about the first half if my day. We started out at 8:30 with the Red Cross going to see the outskirts of the towns around Gvozd. It was very interesting. The ride was soo frickin bumpy. We were pulled in the Toyota, 4 in the back and 3 in the front. We were driving on roads similar to our driveway and ofcouse we kept bumping heads and windows and whatever we were around! But the houses that we saw were very cool. I mean not cool in a good wsy, but in a never before seen way. It was in the middle of nowhere and the houses were so poor:(. Living in the houses were mostly old ladys who were Serb returnees and didnt feel safe in Gvozd eith the Croats. We only got out twice but once we talked to this little old Serbian lady wh was very interesting. She lived in a nicer house with her din they just visited her everyonce in a while to help chop wood. But she was telling us a story ( which was being translated through Predag) about how you couldn't eat the chocolate in Gvozd because it was sent from the UN who had poisened it so it would kill all the Serbs. Ridiculous story and she truly truly believed it was true. So this little old lady has decided to live a life without chocolate because she's do convinced that it's poisened!
Okay, so the second half of the day we planned a water gun attack against the kids. It was their "suprise":). That was epic! We totally drenched them and us:). We were totally soaked. Which turned out to lead to a problem that no one thought if before! How are we going to pack wet clothes tommorow? Oh well, it was def worth it. We have thevwhile thing on tape, so hopefully it CSM be emailed somehow do that everyone can see it:)
after the attack we just roasted hot dogs and had snacks, which were graciously bought by Maja and Predrag!
It was very sad to say goodbye to the kids after such a fun night and two weeks together! But some of them are going to come in the morning before we leave to say one last goodbye:(. Sad sad! But it's been a great two weeks that I will never forget and I have many new facebook friends!! Yay!!!
Tommorow starts our adventure tour! Can't wait to write about it in my blog:)

Croatia : DAy 13

Today is known as the killer jumunji bee in your hair day! Lol. We had all decided the night before that we were going to sleep in this morning. So the next morning when u wake up to one of those poisonous hornets buzzing on the ceiling right above me I decide to forget about it and go back to sleep. This was around 8. Then around 8:15 I wake up with movement in my ratty sweaty hair and u totally flip. I try my best not to scream because I don't wanna wake up everyone, so I throw the sleeping bag over my head hoping that would fo something. Well, I don't really know what I was thinking because then the killer bee was in there with me. So then I jump up and flung my hair and the bee comes out and lands directly on Lillian, the girl beside me. She then wakes up and jumps out if bed while still fully zipped in her sleeping bag and leaps or falls whichever it was onto my bed. Then we are both scrambling to get away from this thing. And so much for not waking people up because Lillian let's out an amazing scream which ofcourse didnt fail to wake up the whole room. We finally get the bee out of the window with eveyone still alive:). Thank God
The rest of the day was spent gardening, playing with the kids and then the bar b que at Maja's house! Which was amazing. Her house was awesome. It is a log cabin in the woods and we ate hotdogs and cookies outside. Simple but sweet. We also got a awesome Suncokret tee shirt that I will def wear home from the airport:). It was so sweet of them to do that for us. ISV did not pay for it and they have no donations right now, so she had to have paid for it out of her own pocket:)
well, it's Friday now and we are in for another final day:(. Which will be sad but extremely fun! YAY. I'll try to write on it tonight;)

Croatia: Day 12

Today is known as the "hot Croatian day". This morning we worked in the garden for about an hour. Oh and talk about the heat! It was soo hot!! But after we were done it was kinda nice to look at a garden and be able to tell which were plants! I wouldn't want to do that too much though:). The rest of the afternoon we chilled reading our books untill time to go to Suncokret at 3. At Subvokret we chilled with the kids. I colored, played kemps and built legos untill about 5:30 when my team had to go back and cook dinner. We attempted to cook pizza, but we used those slices of bread and it didn't work out so well. We screwed up the sauces too. We used some kind of pasta sauce rather than pizza sauce. But we all ate it anyways, even though it was kinda gross. After dinner we went to the film festival that Suncokret hosts every year at their center. It was showed by a ecologically friendly organzation and the films were about how humans harm the environment and global warnings effects. I didn't really peice all of this together untill afterwards when Maja explained it to us. But aparently that's what our next discussion is on:/. But anyways it's Thursday now and we only have two days left at Subcokret. The time has flown by. I don't really feel Ike I have been here that long, but at the same time, without reliable constant Internet use it's very difficult to keep track of time.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this blog. Sorry there's nothing too interesting to write in it. Those blogs will come along in the adventure tour:). I can't wait to paraglide off of the Apps!! It's gonna be AMAZING!

Croatia: Day 11

Today is known aa the "Croatia schools are nicer than ours!" day! We started the day off bright and early at 5am. We had to catch the 6:30 bus to cretia's school to give our America speech. The buses were soo nice! Much nicer than any of the Max buses in Bham! It was a 45 minute bus ride to the school. Very scenic and nice! We got to see alot of Gvozd and sorounding towns on the ride! When we got to the school I was really expecting to see some crappy run down school. But I was very shocked! It was actually very very nice and fairly new looking, even though it was really old! It out did most of the schools in the US! But anyways, we all broke up into groups depending on our areas. Me and Gracie( the ISV volunteer from last year) covered the south. And we just presented our states to, first Lucas class, then Cretias class. We were at the school until around 11. The kids were just like any other teenagers! Giggling and laughing at random stuff, whispering behind the teachers back and basically being kids. They can all speak English really well and communicated with us great. They got all of our facebook names so that they could ask us more questions later if they wanted to!
After we left the school we went to a local bakery which had huge bread for very very cheap. Like 5 kuna, which is $1. It was actual decent bread things too, except I'm extremely tired of bread at this point! Ohhh and I got a picture of a Croatian Macdonalds! It's just the sane as a regular Mcdonalds, just in croatian!
Ummm...well then we rode the bus back to Gvozd, ate lunch at the house and went to Suncokret in the afternoon! Pretty much typical afternoon! I got to play lots of jenga, kemps and legos! :)
Now it's about 9:30 and I am preparing to go to bed. It's been a long day! The others are about to get totally wasted downstairs! Lol. Yea, I decided to skip out on that considering we have early days ahead of us and I have blisters and sunburn to get over!
We have 3 full days left here in Gvozd! It's going to be sad when we have to leave the kids:(. But exciting to go on the adventure tour that we have heard so much about from Gracie!
I'm not exactly sure what we are planing for the next 3 days! But I'll update my blog later!!

Croatia: day 10

Today was known as the relax in legoland day. We worked the first half of day doing random activities around the house. I ended up cleaning the bathrooms with Demetree. It was definetely an epic clean. Alot of work went into it so now everyone has to take their shoes off before entering the bathroom/shower areas. The others either painted or worked the garden.
After lunch we went to the center and I hung out in Lego land with the little nuggets because my blisters were officially killing me. I think we all feel like little grandmas. We definetely couldn't handle the mega hike. It killed us!
And there's def ko complaining about the rain now. Instead it's the heat. While it's still not as humid as home, it's still really really hot!
There's more jumunji bugs in our room. One was on someone pillow last night. But we took it out before it got us:)
ummm...well that's about it for today. I'm actually writting this at 6 am on Tuesday. We are riding a city bus to some of the kids school to give a presentation about the US. I will update on it for today's blog!

Croatia: day 9

Today Is known as the "monster hike". It started at 10 this morning and the kids decided that they were going to take us up to the war monument! It sounded like alot of fun. It's 512 meyers high and we had to trek all the way up it. It was straight uphill and about halfway up I literally felt like I was going to die. It's one of those times when you don't think you can push yourself any further. I started seeing black spots and just needed water! Lots and lots of water! We finally made it! Thank God! It showed me exactly how far I could push myself! Everybody was ofcourse dripping in sweat and miserable. It took about two hours straight uphill to get there. But it was worth it I guess. The veiw was amazing and the monument itself was interesting. The hike back down wasn't as bad because it was down hill. But the blisters on my feet were starting to burn! When we got back it was around 4 and we decided to get icecream. So we got one of the kids to come translate for us. We then saw the lady making done kind of drink. Mixing something up. We were like...what? That's not ice cream? It turned out to be hot chocolate:(. And let me just tell you, hot chocolate when you are very hot and very sweaty doesn't hit the spot. But we ate it. We felt like stupid asses but we ate it! Then we found out that the actual ice cream shop we were looking for was around the other side of the market. But it was alright. Croatia dies have some of the absolute best hot chocolate! It's like hot pudding almost! Very thick and rich!
Well yesterday I had to invest in a real towel from the market. My miget towel just wasn't drying me. So me and Demetree got us a towel. We were the only ones stupid enough to bring a travel towel. Never get one. They suck!
So far I'm doing really good on money. Still have alot left!
Oh and we found out that the jumunji bug is actually a poisonous bee:/. Yikes! There's like 4 of them in our room! So far we are all still alive though! No near death experiences, just a few minor accidents!
Oh and did I mention that the kids are adorable and are going to be very difficult to leave!!

Croatia: Day 8

Today is known as the sunshine day. It's our free day and we are at the pool! It really exeeded my expectations. I was expecting some ratty little nasty pool that I'd be scared to get in. But, no it is big and has a lot of pools. Bigggg pools!! And a few water slides. And the sun is out for the first time in 7 days ! Yay!! It's perfect. Not too hot, not cold. Perfect! But a heat wave is scheduled to come in next week. So that's when we will all suffer! Right now we are all just laying by the pool. Do I have a chance to write this and check facebook!
Tommorow the kids are going to take us up to a memorial on top of the mountain with a really great veiw. The memorial is from the war, where they kept all of their weapons and stuff!
Then, Monday we will probably paint in the morning. We are still working on the mural on the floor if our building. Then we will go to the center in the afternoon. Tuesday we are getting up bright and early! Like 5 am. We are going to ride the bus to school eith some of the kids. They want us to fo a presentation about the US to their class. It's a 45 minute bus tide and they leave st 6:30 every morning. :/. Yikes!! It'll be fun to see their school though.
Well. I guess that's about it for the day! It should be fairly relaxing. We are here untill 5. Then the festival in Gvozd starts at 6:30. That'll be fun!

Croatia: day 7

Todsy is known as the Thank you day. (Friday June 5th) we had all day at the center again and the kids were definetely prepared for us. They were wild and crazy when we got there. I usually hang around the Lego table with the smaller kids. There's this one little boy named Raffal that I absolutely adore. He is around 5, but he's tiny! He can't really speak English but when I point to things and tell him their English name he usually either repeats or tells me their Croatian name. Sometimes I'll hear him saying English words under his breath. It makes me smile every time! But what really got me was towards the end of the day. Raffal was playing kick the ball with me while the bigger kids and other volunteers were learning to country swing. Raffal ran up to one of the older kids and they whispered something bavk and forth for a second. Then Raffal ran back to me and said "thanks". That just completely amazed me. He had asked the other kid what thank you was in English! That was enough to Make me want to take him home with me:). I don't know what Raffals home situation is like, but I know alot of them have it very bad. The men have no respect for the women and beat them and chain them to stoves. The kids also get beat to hell and the men stay at the bar all the time except to come home and beat the women and children. These poor kids go through so much and they are still happy children while at the center. It's sad to see the center close, because the kids hate to leave! It's the only place they can go to get away from all of the abuse. It's really a sad situation but they makes you feel even more helpful and in need here.
Today was a great day! Very rewarding! While the rain still hasn't stopped, we are all just getting used to it!
Ohh and j am now completely disgusted by the sight of bread and cheese! I never want to see it again in my life. Especially the thick loaf bread:/. Yukkk. It's so thick and gross. And the cheese! Damn God!!!

Croatia: day 6.

Today is known as the day of friendship bracelets. We got to spend the whole day at the center be ause today and tommorow are school holidays for the kids. So, the little girl named Andrea taught me how to make friendships bracelets. I made my own and everything:). Today we just kinda played and talked with all the kids. It's kinda just like we are getting to know them and giving them somebody to talk to. I still can't get over how easily pleased the kids are. They are still normal kids and fight and argue and call names and gossip( which is in another language so you really can't do anything about it) but they appreciate so much!
I got lots of good pics today of me and the kids:). It'll be fun for everyone to look at when I get back! Ohh and because of the nonstop rain there is now a sickness going around the volunteers:(. Hopefully I won't catch it:). So far so good!!

Croatia: Day 5

Today is known in my book as the day of jumunji bugs! ( remember I'm writting about Wednesday, because we got back so late last night that I didn't have time to do anything). So, today we started painting the floor of our "house" green so that we can make a sunflower mural on it. While we were painting the potential doners came to look at the building to make sure it was really worth a donation. Needless to say, they left thinking it def was. They walked up to our sleeping areas and I heard them say, " holy shit, they live here?". We laughed so hard. We were like, " heck yea we live there! It's us you should be proud of!". After they left, we went to Suncokret and played with the kids for the rest of the day. It was amazing! The kids are great and appreciate so much! Because of the rain we all just kinda spent the day indoors and theirs thirty kids, ten volunteers and 3 employees in one very small space! It's crowded but fun! We are all getting the hang of walking back and forth to the center every day in the rain. The rain is actually becoming my friend. But the freezing cold isn't:(. It needs to get warm. But for now we are thankful for the rain and cold. It means no gardening for us:)
well since today is really Thursday and I'm trying to remember back to yesterday I can't really rennet too much more!

Day 4:Its magic

Hey! Okay, so today we decided that Croatia was magic. This one girl in our group decided that Croatia was magic. Everything about it is magic. Stuff disspears and reappears like magic! It's crazy! But today we went back to Syuncokret and got to know the kids a little better. I got tons of good pics. The kids are adorable. I'm learning all kinds of new games. Octupus? Wow!! Never heard of that! The kids are soo different then American kids. They are not spoiled rotten and don't expect the world outbid everything. They are thrilled with tiny little things in life. Like legos! It makes you feel bad about having alot. It makes you so thankful for your way of life. I think when I get home, or even to the hotel at Newark I will be sooo thankful for a comfy bed and indoor shower and a room that isn't freezing ice at night! Then, I will feel bad about being thankful for that.
I still really really miss the computer. And the 50 text thing is killing me. But I can't keep my phone with me much anyway. When I get home, I'm going to leave my phone alone and forget about it just because I'm getting out of the routine of it now!
Hopefully we can all sleep tonight. It's freezing ice up here.
But anyways, tommorow will be a new and different day with totally different kids and all games!