LOOK I'M BLOGGING!

Alright so I did one blog before i left, but then i got here and i figured i wouldn't have much time to blog. But then everyone back home is asking about a blog and yada yada yada. Sooo here i am blogging. Now everyone back home can stop worrying about what i'm doing. I'm blogging!

Sooo far i've been here for a little more than a month and of course i love it here.

The way i see it is that Croatia is a baby country, not just little, but new too. They have been an independent country for about 15 years now and they are trying to get the hang of it. All the adults love to talk politics so then they can talk about how corrupt the government is. Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. That is the main word to look for when it comes to Croatian politics. Apparently there are a  lot of government officials who have been taking bribes and stealing money and covering things up. So everyone thinks anyone basically working for the government with a high position is pretty much CORRUPT. The prime minister kicks butt though. She's been investigating and firing anyone who has been accepting bribes and all that stuff and she makes sure they go to jail for it. So she's pretty cool. And she looks fierce!

I've also learned a lot about the history. Croatia has never really been independent before. Someone is always fighting to take it over. And no one really knows why someone would want Croatia. Yeah, it's beautiful, but that's never been a reason to conquer a country. There are no resources here that anyone could make millions off of and Croatia isn't exactly a threat. So it's unknown. Well, apparently Croatia was independent for about a decade back in the 14 century or something, but it didn't last long. Croatia has been ruled by the Romans, Serbia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Hungary, etc. You name it. The last war they were in was against Serbia when they wanted to break free of Yugoslavia. My host parents love to tell me about this time. Apparently Serbia didn't want to lose Croatia. They'd already lost Slovenia without a fight too. So Serbian armys came into Croatia's civilian towns and killed everyone. It was a masacre. So Croatia fought back for about 4-5 years and finally won their independence. No one likes communism here. Everyone tells me that is a main reason they love the U.S. Because we are so anti communism. I find it so cool that I can talk to people who have actually lived through communism. I've never been able to that before and it's interesting to hear what they have to say.

Croatia is also working it's buttoff right now to get already for the EU. They've been basically rebuilding every law, rule, finanical statement just to please the EU. Which by hearing what the EU has been doing, has made me believe it isn't so great. It's sounds unprofessional. The EU makes me think of the popular crowd back in highschool. They do everything by their own rules and do whatever they like. You do one thing to upset them and you'll never be in with them. You suck up to them and you'll be their little play toy. It's difficult to be apart of their group of friends unless you were friends before the group started. And everyone who isn't part of their popular group are just the bugs under their precious designer shoes.

by the way this is a long blog since i haven't blogged much this past month.

Rotary took us on a trip to see some old castle, which was super cool. It takes back to the Austria- Hungary times. I want to live there. I had to pay $150 though. I mean we also were suppose to go to some national park but the weather sucked so they are rescheduling it. But i could have done all of that with my host family for way cheaper. And they kept saying that the trip was being sponsored by someone. But i don't understand because if my cost was sponsored, then what was i paying for? This would be me excersising my freedom of speech. Not sure if it stil applies seeing how i'm not in the U.S. but oh wells. I say what i want.

Things I miss:
Wisconsin Milk (the milk here is filled with preservatives so they dont have to fridgerate it. ew warm milk? no thanks. and it doesnt taste the same)
My family
My friends
My cats
Driving
No curfew
My bed
My Britney Spears posters
My library card
Perkins
The smell of cow manure everywhere i go

Ok so the last one was kind of a joke. but yeah i pretty much dont have any of that here. there's a library but i have no card. the bed i have here is nice but its smaller and just no the same. and britney spears isn't exactly popular. everyone says they liked her when they were 10. and i can't drive because of rotary. and no way do they ahve anything like perkins. on weekends everyone pretty much either goes out for coffee (big thing here, it's like saying i'm going to hangout with my friends at a cafe bar for 4 hours and only order one thing) or they go find a club to drink at and dance the night away. I've done both (minus the drinking part FOUR D'S!!!) But it's not the same of course

Whateves i'm moving on. Living in the here and now.
Schools ok. The only classes i understand are English and History. My school is a bilingal school so eveyrone speaks really good english. Meaning I'm not the best student in my English class, I know its sad. Half of the classes are suppose to be taught in English, but the teachers either forget, or suck at English so they stick to Croatian generally.
I love the highschools because they are so different then america's. They aren't all cliqy like in mean girls or real life i guess. Everyone is friends with everyone. There are popular crowds or nerds to separate everyone from hanging out with each other. I love it. I've been asked a few times if my highschool is like the one in mean girls. And sometimes mean girls exagerates some things, but its all mostly true. and they can't believe that.
theres  no lunch break at this school. I have 7 classes a day. each is 45 minutes. and theres 5 minutes between each class except after the 3rd class which is a 15 minute break where people eat and hang out and smoke. SMOKE! everyone here smokes! its like strange to see teens outside not smoking. its bad. not only does everyone smoke and drink, but its easy to be underage and to buy alcohol or cigs. no one cards! anyone can buy it. ive seen 10 year olds standing outside the avenue mall smoking. its unbelievable!

I love my host family. My mom and sister speak perfect english. my dad is okay with english but its broken usually. I can understand what he's trying to say though. They are so nice and try to help me with everything! They feed me, well actually overfeed me, well. They always accuse me of not eating and then feed me a meal that is 4x the average human meal. That is how i'll gain 20 pounds.
Oh and everyone says kilos instead of pounds. I find it funny but its normal for them i guess.

Also I'm attending my school and classes with another exchanger from mexico. Her name is laura. And at first her english wasn't so great but being stuck with me for the past month has really done a lot of improvement on her english. So she'll go back knowing english and croatian!

Which reminds me that i need to go study more croatian. The language is a bitch (pardon me) but its true. Its very hard. Its soo unlike english or french (only 2 languages i know). Even the peopoe here think i'm crazy for wanting to learn croatian.. They think i'm crazy for just choosing to come to croatia. The one question I hear all the time is "Why did you choose Croatia" and i honestly can't remember my exact reason. People don't like that answer though. So i usually say i saw pictures of the coast which was super pretty or that i was interested because it's sort of an unknown country and i thought itd be cool to explore it. But its still not enough. I'll keep trying new answers i guess and find one thats good.

Alrighty so theres a blog to please the world back home.
Ill blog again no worries!