Moving Right Along...

So February has been a busy month. Busy but pretty productive as well. This past weekend I made the big move to my new place. I love it. No, no I reaaaaaally love it. Feels so good to here. Leaving work on Monday I actually was excited to go home, I didn't notice that I dreaded it a bit before, but the difference is amazing! Thank goodness February is a short month, I don't think I could've held out for much longer but now I feel like its home. Also, I have internet (!!!) and cable TV so I get a few English-speaking channels, most importantly CNN. Here are a few pics of the new place:

My bedroom. Kind of plain but as you can see lots of cabinets/closets. On the other side there is a door to the balcony and even a bike on there that my landlord said I can use. The doorway that you see leads to the bathroom with the shower and washing machine. I felt that out of respect for Harry (who is in a happy home, I assure you) I wouldn't include a picture of the bathroom. But, it is very nice (and clean!) and there is a separate small room/closet with the toilet. Mm, check out those green walls.

This is the kitchen from the view of the living room. Yes, I have a table to eat at! It's very exciting. Also the kitchen has a dishwasher and a microwave. Two luxuries that aren't very common in Bosnia (according to my experience). Probably don't need to use the dishwasher since it's just me, but good to have. The microwave will come in handy with leftovers.

Here is my living room. That couch is spectacular! Also, it folds out so if anyone wants to travel this way, there's a bed for you. The pink table isn't my favorite but it matches the one pink wall (which I will spare you) but really when you think about it all, it's no big deal. Did you notice the floors? That's right, no Communist-red "carpeting."

So I'm very happy. It's nice and warm (the heating is so much better) and it's cozy and comfortable. I am thinking about a little house-warming shindig in the next weeks. Also, it is about 10 minutes from work so my commute is amazing! It's also closer to the Pidros so I can go over to visit more (especially in the nicer weather).

I've had a lot to do at work this month, a lot of deadlines for grant applications, and it's been nice to be busy and even a little stressed. I've been given a lot of concept notes and proposals to write and even the opportunity to develop my own. I had to rush two over to the EU building (and got a cool visitor's pass to get through the security doors) to submit two concept notes. Of course like any application it's frustrating because then you just have to wait to hear back, but my work has been good and I've gotten good feedback from my co-workers, so that's nice. Last week we also had Gariwo's big Civil Courage Award Ceremony which is our big event for the year. I was focusing on my grant apps (they were due the day before the ceremony) so I wasn't very involved but it was nice to be there to see what we produce. I have my own thoughts of the production of the ceremony and also opinions on the Civil Courage Award in general, but it was considered a success so I'm happy for my co-workers.

Yesterday was Independence Day so we had the day off of work. First, I find an independence day to be very strange if it's not in the summer but second, no one celebrates. It's literally just a day off of work -- not that I'm complaining. Actually it makes sense. I mean it was only in '92 that they got their independence from Yugoslavia and we all know what happened right after, so it's not this happy we-beat-the-British mentality that I'm used to from home. Also a significant portion of the population doesn't want to be considered "Bosnian" so why would they celebrate the independence of Bosnia? It's a little sad, at least from my perspective where the 4th of July is a patriotic holiday that is celebrated by everyone, as a community...with fireworks. It would have been nice to see some fireworks yesterday.

The weather has been up and down. It got really warm, everything melted and was such a tease. Then it got cold again and snowed. Then warm, and now more snow. Basically Boston. But it's March, so it's the end of winter (although everyone has been saying what long winter Bosnia has but I'm maintaining my Boston comparison). Real spring should be a few months away, so I'm gonna take advantage of the snow while I can. It is nothing compared to what everyone got back home this winter, so I'll keep my complaints to myself.

I'm not sure if the news covers this back home, but Bosnia has yet to form a government from the October 2010 elections. This baffles me, I feel that if there is a system in place how can you just simply not form a government? Well, apparently you can. From what I understand they don't agree with the election results and are having trouble then deciding who gets what portion of the government. There's also a lot of contention because (ok, this might get confusing so bear with me) the Bosnian-Croats are complaining that they didn't get to vote for their third of the presidency because the Bosniaks voted for the Croatian president and their argument is that it's not a representative of their position but rather the Bosniak's. The idea, to me, of not having a formed federal government means that things stop functioning, but it's not so. Nothing has changed the day-to-day life and you wouldn't even know it if you didn't read the news. I'm sure there are some aspects that are affected but mostly, it's not, and definitely not to me. We'll see what will happen. I know the German government was having leadership from different parties come to negotiate and try to push the Bosnian officials to make progress, but I'm not sure how much good that did. At the end of the day, the EU is still in charge in Bosnia and I'm sure they want a government to form faster than the Bosnian political parties do.