Narona

Yesterday we went on our first art history field trip to Archeoloski Muzej in Narona, Croatia. We past through Bosnia to get here, it was about an hour and a half away in the middle of no where! The museum was built upon an archeological find - a Roman temple found in 2004. Complete with 14 statues and all kinds of artifacts so it was a packed little museum. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take any pictures in there so here are the only good ones I have!

Culture Class

One of the classes I look forward to the most here is one that is only an hour long, once a week, and not mandatory. Our (the study abroad students) Culture Class is taught by the sociology professor Vanda Bazdan. She is an extremely brilliant and totally down to earth woman who takes the time out of her week to show us around the city and tell us all the legends, myths, history and secrets that live exist here. She even shows us where to shop and where not to shop! She knows all the ins and outs of tourists getting ripped off with souvenirs made in China instead of in the country. I had some free time yesterday and decided to sit in on her Sociology class and loved it! Such fascinating stuff, especially in a new culture that I live within.

My professor Vanda!

Croatian women on the steps of the church.

The harbor.

Fast Food

In America when we think of fast food we automatically think of mcdonalds, burger king, wendys even five guys! Not only is the food nasty looking but it tastes pretty nasty too, god knows where that meat comes from. I heard the meat comes out of a tube and on to the tacos at taco bell! Anyways, here in Croatia their version of "fast food" are these awesome kebobs. A kebob is basically a gyro but in a big big bun. They have a slab of meat that cooks rotisserie style and they shave off some for your kebob then put something like feta (well they call it salty cheese) on it with lettuce (which they refer to as salad) tomatoes and tziki sauce! It is so good its unbelievable. And the best part is their logo looks like this! Talk about copyright infringement! Whatever, I love Croatian fast food!

"I don't know what she's saying?!"

Adding another first to the list: attending a concert that is not in english! The singer's name was Colonia (although online they refer to her as a dance group because she has two backup dancers?) and she was basically a Croatian Madonna. Well, she looked like Madonna but sang more techno. It's actually really fun going to a concert where you don't speak the language, the beat is really all that matters. Although you do feel a little out of place in a crowd where everyone is screaming the words. But it was super fun! Today is St. Patricks day so we're all heading to one of the irish pubs in a few hours. I've only been out and about for groceries today but no one is wearing green .. which just makes us look even more American! Also first week of classes were great, no homework yet. But I'll be gone every weekend on a different field trip for one of my four classes! A different town or city or country from here on out :) can't wait!

Laundry

Sunday was my first laundry day! After translating all the words on the laundry machine I put a few pairs of jeans in there as a test and they turned out fine. So today I washed my shirts and hung them out to dry on the clothesline - I'm really hoping they don't fall off because its so windy here. My roommate and I decided that were too embarrassed to hang our underwear outside for everyone to see so were going to make our own personal clothesline in the window of our room! I never realized how much I appreciated dryers. 

Power Naps

Exploring a new city > sleep. We have been going to bed really late and getting up early for meetings with our peer mentors at the school; so right around 3 in the afternoon we all fall asleep and wake up for dinner. Everyone is finally here! We have students in sketchbook, film and hospitality/hotel management. We all went to the police station to fill out paperwork on Thursday then went shopping in old town. We laid in the sun on the "beach" behind old town (which is really just lots of big rocks) and ate sandwiches. We asked our peer mentors Ana, Mariana, and Hanan about Dubrovnik's culture and history. They knew their stuff I was impressed! Afterwards we got some amazing gelato, I tried hazelnut. Then on Friday we had orientation at 9 in the morning at the school with Irena who is in charge of all the study abroad students. ACMT is only one building with around 400 students! We got a tour of it - its very nice but so small compared to what we are used to. Then we all slept most of the day after that because the last few days of drinking and jet lag really caught up to us. Last night I went to my first casino! Not really my thing but watching was still fun. On to the next day!

 I took a picture of the sandwich menu because my parents and I eat a lot of mortadella and that particular sandwich was called family! 

Exploring

My second day here me and the girls were met by our ACMT peer mentor early in the morning and walked all the way to the opposite side of Dubrovnik to the school. It took about 40 minutes to walk there but it was a straight shot and beautiful all the way through. Since the war was so recent (91-95) they are still rebuilding much of the city so we passed a lot of construction. We got o see a bit of "the walls" and old town where we will be going back to today for some shopping! Being right on the water is truly amazing - especially because its warm and not too windy being on the bay. Eight of the other study abroad students arrived late afternoon so today were going to the police station anad ACMT to fill out paperwork for my visa and getting a croatian ID. These pictures were taken with my iphone but I"ll post more tomorrow from my actual camera! 

First

Wow, it has been a crazy two days. Traveling to Dubrovnik went pretty smooth, it just took a while! My first flight to Germany was a little over seven hours, with a two and a half layover there, then on and hour and a half flight here! I met up with two girls who live in the apartment above me and are hotel management majors. Our apartment is right on the water and is so cute! We got here around 2 in the afternoon I think. We were picked up at the airport by an ACMT student - he brought us to our apartment then showed us a little bit of town. The important places: grocery store, the bank, the bus stop, and a restaurant. Afterwards me and the girls  took a much needed shower, bought some groceries (aka a three bottles of wine and shampoo&conditioner) and headed out for dinner. We got back from dinner around 6 and I was ready for bed. Ended up going to sleep around 9 and just woke up now at 7:30 and feeling pretty good. I titled this post "first" because I had a few firsts in my 24ish hours here in Croatia:
 - flew to european country

 - ordered (and finished) a bottle of wine at dinner

 - and saw my first sunrise