July 4th...Just another Bosnian Day

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July 4th. American Independence Day. Also known as: The Day the Bosnians Couldn't Care Less About or The Day Chris, Dave, Ian, Hana, Nick, and Karis Had the Coolest Server Ever. We went to a Jazz Bar called Monument (apparently in the "posh" area of town. If a 4KM bottle of beer is posh, I'm moving to Sarajevo). Our server not only spoke English, but spoke it well and had been to the States. He taught us new drink names (like a Tom Collins...apparently called a Gimeš here), and we in turn taught him new drinks (a Jägerbomb is apparently very American. I shouldn't be surprised). We talked with him, watched the soccer (sorry, football) game, ate Burek (remember that food I didn't know the name of the first day? That's it!), and just bonded with each other. As Independence Days go, I've certainly had more exciting, but having it abroad is a different experience because every American you run into is super important automatically.

The morning was relatively slow. I stayed up late the night before, calling my parents on spotty wifi and trying to post pictures and blogs. However, we had an interesting (albeit exceedingly long) lecture and discussion on K143 (www.K143.org). Simply put: they want to overhaul the broken political system. After an extended lunch, we also had a short lecture on teamwork and team building as we start to get into our group projects. That was followed by a nap, more attempts at posting (the wifi here really is questionable at best, unless you get it between midnight and 8 when no one else is on it), and heading out to watch the game and celebrate.



To everyone back in America, since it's still early evening, if not earlier (it's technically the 5th here now), Happy Independence Day! Enjoy the fireworks! There were none here, sadly...but on the flip side, our beer is cheaper!

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