Goofing around

a sunny day in Sarajevo a few weeks ago

a bombed building that used to be part of our daily commute to school...just demolished today

another commute picture--demining the frontlines again

the sun is gone again and the snow is back for the 2nd day in a row

Must See

I usually fall asleep during movies, but these are 3 I recently watched that have really left an impact on me. The scenes and words and music keep replaying in my head, hours after the movie ends. I realize we aren't usually ahead of popular culture in Sarajevo, so please forgive me if these are "sooo last year" at home in America. I want the soundtrack for each of them:

• Darjeeling Limited (a colorful and musical feast for the senses. And Adrien Brody...)
• Into the Wild (gorgeous cinematography and a raw story full of love)
• Juno (a teen flick that redeemed itself with great music and a real, heartfelt story)
  

A Few Sarajevo Pics

My brother came to visit in early February. Here are a few more pictures of Sarajevo as I was out showing him around.Club Bill Gates

An original '84 Olympics parking pass on a Jugo!

For Sale: Open floor plan, light and airy. Great views.

The Buba and the Bobsled

The bridge that Austrian-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were driving over when they were shot by Gavrilo Princip, which led to the start of World War 1.

Vucko, the 1984 Winter Olympics mascot.

Where I shop for fruits and veg (and subsequently get ripped off!).

Hay truck in town

A Sarajevo rose--red clay filling in the spot where a civilian was killed.

Tokyo!

Decision made! We are going to be teaching at Seisen International School in Tokyo, Japan next year. The school is actually in a neighboring ward of Tokyo and we are told there are nice parks, cherry blossoms and easy bike routes to get to work. Sounds dreamy...

London

We've come to accept that flying from anywhere to Sarajevo will take us at least 12 hours. We were excited to have our first direct flight into Sarajevo on British Airways--only 2 1/2 hours flying time and we would be home with time to chill out. But, of course, something has to go wrong. 4 stops on the tube turned into an hour long train ride, which made us miss our Gatwick train. Thus, we missed our flight. 8 hours and $550 later (each!) we got a flight to Zagreb and then to Sarajevo. So long ease of travel...

The recruitment fair was an intense and exhausting whirlwind. After making connections with a number of schools, we scheduled 8 interviews for Friday starting at 9 and ending at 5. We interviewed with schools in Egypt, Japan, The Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany. It was a positive day and we felt like we had many job offers ahead of us. On Saturday, we were disappointed not to get our Holy Grail job, but we did walk away with 5 job offers--2 of which we are really interested in--one in The Netherlands and one in Tokyo. We are currently debating the pros and cons of each, but hopefully we'll have a decision soon.

The best thing that came out of this job fair was the exposure to different schools, administrations and curriculums. We learned a lot about what we want to see in a school and what we want to be as teachers. We even bumped into a few Oregonians--amazing how you can pick them out of a crowd in London!

We didn't get a lot of time to explore London, but we did find some time to eat curry, drink Strongbow Cider (for me) and Guinness (for James), enjoy the parks and spend double for everything we bought. London is painfully expensive.

A proposal no girl could resist

Only 4 days into February and love has sprung in the first grade!
I don't know about you, but I want to live with the squirrels. It's such a good thing.

Ski Week

The kids can hardly contain their excitement--skis on IN the parking lot!

Mr. Foss taking a break with a first grade kiddo.

We are in the midst of a 5 day ski trip to one of the local ski mountains, Igman. This sounds like a huge job perk! Skiing, fresh air, 5 days away from work. But, it's not so peachy. We spend the entire day picking 5 and 6 year olds up off the snow, carrying their skis, and then them, up the mountain, just to do it all over again.

I'm always amazed that Sarajevo could have hosted the Olympics, because while we have gotten some snow this year, there never seems to be enough to maintain a months worth of ski competitions. I guess it's another argument for global warming. The mountain desperately needs snow and a boost from tourist economy. There is 1 chair lift, a now defunct Olympic ski jump, and trash around the hill. Pazi--Mine! signs litter the drive up the mountain, posted on every 3rd tree. This area was heavily mined during the war. While it is a sharp contrast to the glitzy, shiny ski resorts of America, Igman has it's own charming quaintness. The kids have a great time and couldn't be more thrilled to be skiing over rocks on antiquated rental skis. The smiles on their faces are the true job perk that we enjoy.

Plastic Bags

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0721-04.htm

Sretan Nova Godina (Happy New Year)

Fireworks over the canal

James's rogaine is working!

Always on the hunt for a great cinnamon roll!

Brendan and Cory and Jesse at Katwijk on the North Sea

Brendan, Cory and James at Katwijk

After 10 plane rides in 3 weeks, it's nice to be home. Being home for the holidays was worth all the flying...food, family, food, friends, food. It was great.

We spent the last week of our break in The Netherlands. We were delighted to find out that the Dutch love their fireworks! They don't have a state sponsored New Year fireworks display, but every Dutch man, woman, and child has a least one US-deemed illegal, personal explosive ordinance. These they light off around midnight all around the canals. They seem to wait for their turn, more or less, so maybe one or two large ones will go off in opposite directions, while many single blasts happen 360 degrees around you. What we would call a "grand finale" went uninterrupted for thirty minutes while church bells rang for twenty minutes. The sound of the bells was hardly audible, but it was fun to know that someone was enthusiastically pounding on them---at least we like to believe in human-powered bell ringers. A few torpedo-like fireworks exploded in front of the bridge we shared with a hand full of Lieden residents. If you haven't already, and you get a chance, it is well worth it to go to any medium sized town in Holland for a New Years celebration!

Of course, you can't leave Bosnia without a bit of hassle. The fog has set in again and we haven't seen the sun since arriving back into the "heart shaped country" last Sunday. People say the fog has been here for 4 solid weeks. Our plane circled the Sarajevo for about 40 minutes before deciding that visibility was too low and we turned around to land in Zagreb instead. So, we spent another 8 hours on another bus from Croatia to Sarajevo. I've flown in/out of Sarajevo a total of 5 times and on 3 of those trips, I have had to bus to Zagreb.