Vares, Jajce, Kozarac and Sipovo

I'm so sorry that I haven't been writing in this blog since I've been in Bosnia! We are so busy or exhausted all of the time so its hard to keep up. Right now we are in Sipovo and have a camp tomorrow. I will try to write everything tmrw on the bus. The main gist of everything is that this is the most amazing thing that I have ever been apart of and I'm so happy that I'm here.

If you want to leave me a message, you can on www.servanttrips.org/guestbook.

Sarajevo

We finally made it to Sarajevo after 3 flights! The flights were pretty short and I slept for most of it. Our main host family and some of the interpreters met us at the airport. All of our luggage and all the bags made it here too! We loaded up the bus and came to the street that we're all living on while we're in Sarajevo. Our host mother speaks no english besides 'bathroom' and 'breakfast' but she is really nice. Me and my roomate are in kind of our own apartment that's across the hall from where our host lives. Its so cute! My room is covered in jesus and mary pictures.

Tonight we went out to dinner with everyone. The food was SO good! They eat a lot of meat here so I'm happy. The interpreters are all really cool too.

Tomorrow we're visiting a tunnel museum near the airport and the bus driving is going to point out some of the points where things happened during the war. Then we're off to Vares where we'll have our first mini-camp. It'll be interesting to see how that goes. After that we drive to Jajce and get ready for our first big camp!

This is all so exciting and I can't wait to see how everything goes!! Ill be able to update the blog everyday thanks to my wonderful blackberry.

Tomorrow

We're leaving tomorrow and my nerves are starting to ease. Whatever this trip has in store for me, I'm ready. I'm going to have my global blackberry so I'll get email and be able to post on the blog everyday so please email me! ksharpe88@gmail.com

I'll update tomorrow when we land!

Almost Ready

We're leaving on Saturday!!! I'm starting to get more nervous.. What if I don't like the food and eat granola bars for two weeks or even worse offend someone (my host mothers)? What are the towns going to look like? So many stupid worries going through my mind! I'm starting to pack and I'm pretty sure that I have every thing that I could possibly need.

I'll update on Saturday when we get there!!! I rented a blackberry so I can get emails and internet.

ksharpe88@gmail.com -->> email me!

Getting Ready for Bosnia..

So, the hype of Salerno is wearing off and I'm starting to get more excited/nervous about Bosnia. I know that it is the time for me to do this and I'm meant to go (as cheesy as that sounds). Saturday is our packing party then the next Saturday we leave! I'm doing the drama group for the camps which is slighly scary because I have never done anything with drama. I'm just so excited to go and meet this kids and see the country. Over the past couple weeks, I've been explaining to lots of people what I'm doing and why I'm doing it which is making me more anxious to just go! It's going to be physically and emotionally heavy and I'm preparing myself to really let go of what I've always done and just go with the flow of the trip. No air conditioning, 3 connecting flights, lots of walking and being on a bus are all things that I have never done. But, I think that I'm ready to just let go and enjoy it all.

Roma!

We got to Rome on Saturday morning! When we were driving to the hotel, we passed the street that I used to live on and it was soo creepy. I kind of forgot how much I love Rome and how that one month was the best of my entire life. Anyways, the hotel is really nice. We got the smallest room but everyone else got huge rooms. We walked around the first night and saw basically everything - the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona etc.

On Sunday, we did the Coloseum at 8am. It was sooo early but there was barely anyone there. As our tour guide said, there were no Japanese tourists there in the morning so its better to get there early. The whole time I was thinking about Benedetta and the history of Rome class that I dropped out of to sleep. It was still really interesting even though I had already been there.

Sunday night we did the Pub Crawl. Oh my gosh! It was called Blackout Sunday and they just herd you around to 4 bars. It was nuts!! We got shirts that say "I came I saw I crawled" - its my new favorite shirt.

Yesterday, we did the Vatican. We had a guide for the museum who talked SO much. It took us 3 hours to get through the museum then another hour for the Sistine Chapel. People are SO stupid - all of the tourists were taking flash pictures. The flash breaks down the color in the fabric/paint and basically ruins the quality. My professor was getting really mad because the guards can't say anything. It was interesting how they tourists had no idea what they were doing. After the Sistine Chapel (which was so incredibly beautiful), we went outside and saw the line for St. Peter's. It wrapped all around St. Peter's Square so we went home.

At night, we just hung out in the hotel and watched pictures. Today, everyone went to the Basicilica but I slept in until about 11. Today is the Day of the Republic so theres going to be a huge parade and people basically go crazy in the streets. It's crazy that it's our last day in Italy!! As ready as I am to go home, its so sad that this month went so fast.

By the way, for anyone who's actually been reading my blog - thank you!