Ugly Americans

We are home for the holidays. After a scary last weekend in Sarajevo where it looked like the smog would prevent our departure, we escaped on a plane and (after a transfer in Vienna) made our way back home to Florida, for the holidays. We have been here since the beginning of the month, and enjoying every minute of it.

Have I mentioned we like to cook? We do. And when conditions allow for it, we like to invite as many of our friends at post over for food as we can. Sometimes, we can get away with it easily because we have the space, like when we were in Ashgabat. Sometimes, like here, not so much. There's a limit to how many people we can find room for, so all our events at the home have been smaller as a result. This past week was the embassy thanksgiving potluck / trivia night. As we won't really be celebrating Thanksgiving at post, we brought our Thanksgiving (minus our yams :( ) to the potluck. As it was not in our house, this made it even easier to make food for more than eight people. We ended up bringing a turkey, gravy, green bean casserole, corn, and last but not least, flan. For those of you who don't know what flan is- it is a custard dessert, made with sweetened condensed milk. You could say it is similar to  Crème brûlée (which I also like) , but you would be wrong beca...

Today is Halloween. Today is handshake day. We now (officially) know where we're going for our next tour. Home for the next few years is... (drum roll) SOON(ish) Mérida , Mexico! To say that we are happy about our next post would be an understatement. Honestly, when it came up on the list, I didn't think we'd get it because of reasons . But we did. For once, I will not have to worry about language (the bane of all spouses married to a specialist because they don't get language training), because I already have Spanish. The kids will get to learn it in school, and probably become way more fluent than me, which is awesome and terrifying at the same time. We will be a short plane trip to the US, so our PCS jet-lag with 2 kids won't be horrendous. There are tons of awesome things to see. All the Mayan ruins and visits to cenotes! Beaches you can drive to! For us, handshake day has definitely been a treat.

 October is my favorite month of the year, however, this month has been (so far) a very stressful month as it is also  BIDDING SEASON . Which is really not fun if you are (like me) a compulsive researcher  and  worrier. It is now the middle of the month, and next week is the last week of the season. In theory, you  should  have an inkling between next week and October 31 where you are going to go next but like everything else in the FSLife there are no guarantees, because as we all know the answer to almost every question is ...it depends.   Regardless, it is still bidding season even if it is late into it, and as such I offer you, dear reader, the opportunity to ask me about the FSLife here in Sarajevo, or any other post I have been at. As the Germans would say,  es tut mir leid  *(or not), I am no ray of sunshine. I will not sugar coat the answer to your question. If that's the kind of information on a post you want, i'm the person...

Last week while the kids were in school, I paid a visit to the History Museum of BiH with a friend. This is the museum directly across from our embassy in Sarajevo. We also paid a visit to Gallery 11/07/95 , which focuses mainly on the Srebenica massacre . The History Museum has temporary exhibits going on throughout the year, however it has three permanent exhibits, "Sarajevo Under Siege", "15 Years", and "Open Depot" (not accessible at the time of this writing). While these exhibits are not the happiest things to visit, I feel they are important to see because while BiH has tried to heal after the war, there is still conflict here . Most of my photos are from the first two permanent exhibits. It's good to see the exhibits- even if they are in need of better presentation and lighting. If you are old enough (like me) to remember the Bosnian war which took place between 1992-1995 you'll appreciate learning a bit more than what you saw on the n...

It is now officially bidding season for our household. Which means I will be busy looking up more information, and in general digging deeper about posts already on the list than I had previously. Some days, I wish that sussing out the facts about a post were easier. Alas, there is no FS hobo marking convention to go by. I suppose that if it were easy to get the information, it would make staffing some posts difficult.

We had been planning to go and see the pyramid for awhile now, but invariably someone in the house would be sick or get sick, and we'd put it off. This weekend we finally got around to it. The site is about a 40 minute drive from Sarajevo, most of it via highway. The pyramid(s) and Klisa are actually within Visoko. So if you find yourself in Sarajevo for a posting or vacation, putting in Visoko or Klisa will likely pop up in the results window for your gps. You can also go the google maps route, if you only have a smartphone and service. For those of you who have never heard of this place, or have never seen an episode of Ancient Aliens I give you two links to visit at your leisure. One, an article from Smithsonian magazine , the other a lovely YouTube video of the specific episode featuring the Bosnian Pyramids . Whether or not you are a skeptic or believer in the pyramid(s), the fact is that the hike up the path is nice (if a bit steep with little kids) and the view fr...

This weekend we decided to take a short trip out of town, to some local caves. Bijambare is a park about 50 minutes outside of Sarajevo. One of our neighbors had visited the park a few weeks ago, which is how we came to find out about its existence. Since it wasn't far outside of town, relatively child friendly (as child friendly as a park with caves can be), and we could take a shuttle masquerading as a 'train' to get back to the car, we decided to go.  Purple hills on the way to the caves. They were brighter in person. To be honest, it probably helped that the kids woke up at about 6:40 in the morning. I think that, had they not woken up early, we would have likely stayed home. But they woke up, so we went. Which is good, because no matter the destination, it is good to leave early when you are going somewhere in Bosnia, because people generally don't leave the house or begin their day till about 9-10 in the morning. So, if you wake up early and get out ...

June marked the midpoint in our tour, which means we have been here now for one year, one month of a two year tour. One year is enough time to find your footing at post, make friends, and ferret out what kind of a post you're at. If you came in during the summer, it also  means that Summer Transfer Season has begun. Most of the old people leave, and a lot of new people arrive.  It's kind of like a reset button.  If you were unlucky enough to have a social sponsor that dipped out on you not long after you arrived at post or did the bare minimum, you get a chance to sponsor someone else the right way, make friends, and build up your social base for the remainder of your tour. If you have kids but have lived nowhere near anyone with kids, your neighborhood dynamic may change at this time. Or, you might still be out of luck. Regardless, your disposition towards post is set by the end of the first year. As such, it shapes your remaining time at post.  That's wher...

We have had an eventful last two months. I have enough material for probably four or five entries, but writing them means I need to carve out the time to do so...which is sometimes easier said than done ... Yesterday, after dropping off my eldest at preschool (which she loves), I went grocery shopping with my youngest. Everything was going so well. Then, we got home. Since the kiddo had fallen asleep on the ride home, I decided to unload the groceries first, then remove him from the car.  Then I opened the back of the car, and our watermelon decided to make a break for it.  It rolled into the street, and was promptly run over by a car. Aside from the watermelon casualty, everything else made it into the house without complications, including the sleeping toddler.