Snow

I never run out of things to blog about.  I just had the “honor” of experiencing a record snowstorm for Sarajevo!  Over the past two days, we’ve gotten about 110 centimeters (4 feet) of snow.  In comparison, there was a huge snowstorm in Chicago last year that shut down the entire city for several days, fondly nicknamed “snowmageddon” and/or “the snowpacolypse”.  The “snowpacolypse” was about 50 centimeters, less than half the amount of snow we got here!

Ross in the Chicago storm in February 2011

Sarajevo storm in February 2012

The snow started falling Friday morning, but despite the heavy snow, everyone went about business as usual.  I had to go into the city for a concert on Friday night, and had quite the commute.  By the time I left, the bus from Otes to Ilidza was no longer running, so my roommate and I hiked over to the tram by foot.  We got to the tram, and I got a bit worried when I overheard people saying “ne radi”, which means, “not working”.  I guess that tram had to stop running for a bit, but it started as soon as we got there, lucky us.  So we boarded a tram and were on our way.

Departing toward Ilidza by foot

Everything was going smoothly until we got about half way to the city center.  Then, the tram stopped, and started moving in reverse.  There was a little bit of panic amongst the passengers, since no one knew what was going on.  However, we soon started moving full speed ahead again.  I think the driver was just trying to get a running start so we could make it across a very snowy intersection.  All in all, it took about one hour, but we made it to Bascarsija in time for our dress rehearsal.  After the concert, I was fortunate to get a ride home, so I didn’t have to try to commute by tram again.

Bascarsija on Friday afternoon

I spent yesterday inside, awestruck by the size of the storm and enjoying a relaxing day at home.  However, most of the people in my neighborhood still went out!  I did not see any snowplows or mechanical snow blowers.  Instead, all of the men, and even some women and children, went outside and shoveled the roads and sidewalks by hand.  I am very impressed by this pro-active attitude and willingness to help out the community.  There have been a couple of times when I’ve heard a rude stereotype that Bosnians are “lazy”, and this reaction to the storm clearly proves that stereotype to be wrong.  “Laid-back”, maybe, but “lazy”, no…

Before they're shoveled out, the cars are merely small bumps in the snow.

It will be interesting to see how we recover from the storm this week.  The snow has stopped falling for now, but we will probably get a few more inches over the next few days.  I think it might take some time for the transportation system to start running and for the grocery stores to get restocked (they’re completely wiped out right now).  I am hoping that our orchestra will still perform our concert next Thursday, but am not sure if it will happen if the city is shut down most of the week.  In the meantime, at least I have a lot of friends in Otes to keep me company.

View from my room yeserday