Pausa: The Cause of and Solution to All of Life's Problems

Sometimes I get really frustrated with living here because it can take a long time to get things done.  However, paradoxically, the laid-back atmosphere is also one of my favorite things about Bosnia.

Last night I was pretty cranky for no good reason.  I was sad that Ross's visit was over, but all in all, life it pretty good right now.  So, before going to bed, I vowed that I would better attitude today, and not sweat the small stuff.

Little did I know that I would have a rather challenging day.  When I woke up, it felt quite cold in our apartment.  I decided to take a nice hot shower.  I turned the water on, and noticed that the water heater had broken.  We have steam heat, so when the water heater doesn't work, we also don't have any heat.  Blech.  So I nixed the shower, and decided it was okay to be a little smelly today. :)

When we got to rehearsal, the rehearsal room was quite cold.  The heat was broken in the theater too!  Some of the orchestra members were very upset.  I was willing to go on with the rehearsal  because it wasn't dangerously cold.  It was above 60 F and not too dry, so I didn't have to worry that my oboe would crack.  However, one of the orchestra members suggested that we refuse to play in protest of the conditions.  Disagreement ensued.  The ultimate solution was to take a 30-minute break ("pausa" in Bosnian) while space heaters were brought in to heat things up a bit.

Starting the day with a 30-minute coffee break was quite nice.  However, we needed the rehearsal time, so we had to make up the 30-minutes at the end of rehearsal.  Boo.

I told Alisa about our problems with the water heater in our apartment, and she tried in vain to get a plumber to come out and look at it.  I had done a good job staying calm and happy throughout the day, but I got very frustrated and anxious when I found out that we might have to go a night or two without heat.  Fortunately, Flobens, a friend from my building, managed to fix the heater after he fiddled with our water pressure. (I was afraid to do so, since I caused a flood last time I touched the water pressure knob.)  Things always seem to have a way of working out.

Tomorrow is a new day, and another chance to try to be more patient and optimistic.  My back, neck, and shoulders have been quite sore lately because I've been too tense.  Ross brought me my yoga DVD, so I intend to start the day with yoga.  Maybe the exercise will help me be both physically and emotionally prepared to do my best tomorrow.  If I can stay focused and positive, I will be very proud of myself, because tomorrow will be a very long day with two full-length rehearsals.  Wish me luck!

Ross in Sarajevo Part II

            Ross had a great stay in Sarajevo, and I was very sad to see him leave this morning.  I felt much more at home with him here, and now I need to adjust to being on my own again.  Fortunately, I will be flying to Los Angeles in only a few weeks to visit Ross’s family, and enjoy the festivities of the West-coast wedding reception they are planning for us.

            Since I haven’t updated for a while, I will give a brief* account of what Ross and I have been up to since last Tuesday.  I’m hoping that later, once he’s home and recovered from jet-lag, Ross will contribute a short post about Bosnia from his perspective.

            So, backing up to Tuesday…the philharmonic’s director and administration kindly gave Ross permission to ride on the orchestra’s bus to our concert in Zenica.  We had a short rehearsal upon our arrival, and unfortunately I was quite cranky.  We had a lot working against us: the theater is not properly heated, so it was extremely cold, the technicians kept playing with the lights, so we had to warm-up in the dark, we couldn’t really see the conductor or our music very well with the lighting that was chosen, and the winds were sitting very far back on stage, so it was hard to hear the strings.  Rather than sucking it up and dealing with the problems in a mature way, I regrettably got pretty sulky and played terribly in the rehearsal.  In the future, I hope that I will keep a more level head when things aren’t going as planned, since having a bad attitude only made me play and feel worse.

            Ross patiently waited in the hall until the concert began, and was subsequently joined by hundreds of children! (We were playing Peter and the Wolf/Peca I Vuk by Prokofiev.) As soon as we started performing, I instantly cheered up.  The narrator was great at getting the kids interested and excited about the music.  They were so cute that I couldn’t help but smile the whole time.  It was amazing how strongly the children reacted to the music and the story.  One poor little guy kept crying every time the wolf theme was played by the horn section, and had to leave.  I can relate—it is pretty scary!  Of course, being an oboist, I had to play the poor duck that gets eaten alive.  Sigh.  Probably the funniest moment was when the narrator introduced my roommate, a bassoonist, as a grandfather.  He asked the children, “it she a grandfather?” when she stood up, which left most of them scratching their heads, mouths agape.

Ross in Zenica

            Because the concert in Zenica was for children, it was earlier and shorter than usual, so we got home pretty early in the evening.  This gave me a chance to have all of my Sarajevo Philharmonic neighbors down for a drink so they could get to know Ross a little better.  I am happy that he likes my friends and colleagues just as much as I do, and we both had a lot of fun spending time with them this week.

            Wednesday was a free day for me, so I went with Ross to see an English professor at the University of Sarajevo, who is friends with Ross’s guitar student. (I think I’ve mentioned earlier that Ross teaches guitar to an older Sarajevo native who is an English professor in Chicago.)  Ross exchanged some papers and books with the professor (it is so expensive to mail things between the US and Bosnia) and we chatted with him over coffee.  He was a very interesting man, and kindly shared a few stories about his life.  I was especially intrigued that he had helped preserve the university’s books and valuables during the war by sneaking in past the snipers to hide them in the basement.  I know that the war is very difficult to talk about, but I think it is important to remember both how cruel and destructive, and how kind and courageous human beings can be.  So, I appreciate it when I meet people who are willing to share their stories.

            On Thanksgiving Day, the orchestra had two performances of Peter and the Wolf in Sarajevo, but fortunately, they were matinee shows and we were finished by 3pm.  After the shows, I rushed home to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for my friends, and neighbors.  (My roommate Sara has dubbed them our “Otes family”.)  We lined up three tables from the various apartments, and set the tables with colorful plastic-ware. We managed to find American football on TV, so naturally had it playing the background.  (I have no interest in football whatsoever, but it made Thanksgiving feel more authentic, haha.) 

I made mashed potatoes, peas, and stuffing, and put out cranberry sauce along with bottles of wine, beer, and water.  My roommate set out bread and made homemade apple pies.  Ross and Matt buttered, stuffed and basted two chickens. (I don’t think they have turkey here.)  Everyone else brought various side dishes, desserts, and drinks, so we had quite a feast.  Everything turned out delicious—in fact, we barely had any leftovers!  All in all, there were twelve people at our Thanksgiving meal: 5 Americans, 4 Albanians, 3 Bosnians, and an Italian.  There was lots to be thankful for, and we had a great time celebrating with our friends from all over the US and Europe. I think that our guest didn’t realize how much we would be eating, and everyone was pretty lethargic and full after we cleared away the meal.  We still hung out for a bit before calling it a night, but it was a pretty subdued party. J

I never thought that my first Thanksgiving with Ross would be so far from home!  We have always split up for Thanksgiving, each celebrating with our respective families.  It was nice to finally be together, and I look forward to many more to come.

I was lucky to have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.  I had many ideas and many plans for the weekend, but unfortunately the time flew by and we only got to do some of them.  At least now I already have ideas for places to see with Ross when he returns this spring.  We did not have clear weather for going to the top of the twist tower, or seeing Mostar.  But we did go back to Bascarsija on Friday and Saturday, and took a nice long walk in the park in Ilidza on Sunday.  Also, Ross got a chance to try traditional Bosnian coffee on Friday, and eat a bit more cevapi on Saturday.  Being an omnivore-herbivore couple, we are used to compromising, so Ross sat with me and had a couple falafel while I ate at Vegehana, and I sat with Ross and nibbled some French fries while he ate at the cevapi joint.

            It seems like Ross is very excited to return in late March or early April.  We had coffee with my colleague, Adi, and his brother, Djani, who happens to be a guitar teacher at the music academy.  Ross was able to talk to Djani about a guitar festival that he runs during the first week of April, and it sounds like Ross might be able to participate.  I’m all for an excuse for him to spend some extra time here!

*Okay, so maybe my account wasn’t so brief after all.  J

Ross's First Few Days in Bosnia

            Today is Ross’s fifth day in Bosnia, and so far so good. J  The trip here went well, and Ross arrived on time on Thursday night.  I feel much happier with him here, and he really likes Sarajevo.  Ross is pretty laid-back, and enjoys coffee and sausage, so he seems well suited for life here.

On Friday, it was a beautiful sunny day, so we walked around my neighborhood and ate at Pizzeria Ilidzis.  I was very proud of myself, because I was able to speak in Bosnian to our waiter throughout our meal, despite the fact that he probably speaks good English. Later, we headed to the Centar for the first performance of Giselle.  Ross was able to find a box seat in the balcony and watched the show.  Afterward, we went out with a group of my friends to the brewery, so Ross could taste Sarajevsko beer.  I avoided the “Pene Alfredo” this time and got a tasty caprese salad.

Ross meets the Otes gang at the Pivnica

Saturday was another sunny day.  Ross is quite lucky, since it is rarely sunny here for more than one day, and this weekend we had nice weather on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  We got a lot of exercise on Saturday, because we walked all the way down the path in Ilidza to the source of the Bosna River.  The scenery was quite dramatic, because as soon as we hit the shadow of the mountain, it dropped about 10-20 F and the ground was covered in a very thick layer of frost.  On the way home, we stopped by the supermarket, where Ross could ooh and ah over how much cheaper groceries are here.

Frost covered leaves in the park

After a short rest and a small dinner on Saturday evening, we headed back to the theater for a repeat performance of Giselle.  I felt happier with my solos on the second night, so I was glad that Ross watched both performances.  We went out to a bar afterward, and met up with our conductor, who was a young woman from Serbia.  Throughout the performances and rehearsals, I thought she looked a lot like a conductor I knew from Peabody.  When I was talking to her at the bar, she mentioned that she had studied in Baltimore!  It turns out she looked so familiar because she attended Peabody during the same years that Ross and I were there, and I had played for her before.  The classical music world is so small!!!

I had Sunday off, so we could sleep in and take our time getting ready in the morning.  Around noon, Ross and I headed out to catch the tram into town, so I could show him around Bascarsija.  (Ross had still only seen downtown Sarajevo after sunset.)  We wandered up and down the old cobblestone streets, and stopped to admire the books, fabrics, and silver being sold at all of the little shops.  Ross was super-happy to finally have cevapi for lunch.  The waiter always looks at me like I’m crazy when I order “samo kajmak”, or bread with “only cheese”, but I think it’s quite good.  I also took Ross to my favorite sweets shop, Egipat, so he could wash down the cevapi with dessert.

Ross in Bascarsija

I had to work yesterday, but I still had plenty of time to hang out with Ross and show him a bit more of the city.  He came downtown with me, and hung out at BBI while I had rehearsal for Peter and the Wolf.  We ate at my favorite restaurant, Metropolis, with Matt and Ivana after rehearsal got out.  Then, Ross and I went shopping for Thanksgiving supplies and headed back home.  It was great to have a relaxing evening at home with Ross around.  I really do feel more like myself with him here.  Now, we are looking forward to going to Zenica today for a Peter and the Wolf performance, and to hosting Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

In the News

Ross arrived on Thursday night.  It is so great to finally have him here!  However, I want to spend as much time as possible with him during the 10 days he's here, so I might not blog as much as usual.  Sorry readers!

In the meantime, enjoy this article about the American quartet that was just published online.  Ross had fairly good success understanding it by putting it into an English-Croatian online translator.  (There aren't really any good options for English-Bosnian, but Croatian and Bosnian are extremely similar languages.)

http://magazinmoderna.ba/index.php/stil/item/127-kad-je-muzika-život-amerikanci-u-sarajevu

The Daily Commute

           

I am going a bit crazy with the anticipation of Ross’s arrival tonight!  I knew it would be hard to be apart from him for two months, but I couldn’t even imagine how much I would miss him. I hope his travels go well.  Poor Ross had the final leg of his journey rescheduled, so it will take him 28 hours, and four layovers, to get here!  Right now, I am fluctuating between anxious, ecstatic, nervous, and relieved by his impending arrival.  So, in order to distract myself, I’m trying to stay busy cleaning, practicing, studying, and blogging.

            I have been meaning to write a post about my commute between Otes and Sarajevo.  It takes me about an hour each way every day, so it takes up a good 1/8 of my waking hours.  However, I really don’t mind it.  I’m used to long commutes after regularly schlepping from Evanston to the Chicago Loop for the last couple of years.

            My commute begins with either a bus ride or a walk from the front of my apartment building to the tram station in Ilidza. I think the bus takes about 10 minutes, whereas walking takes about 20.  However, taking the bus puts you at the mercy of the bus schedule. (The buses run about once an hour.)  I prefer to walk, especially because it sometimes is my only way of getting exercise during our more busy weeks.

            On the way to the tram, I first pass several blocks of small houses.  Despite the bullet holes and mortar scars left over from the war, the houses still look quite welcoming and cheerful.  There is always laundry hanging outside to dry, stray cats and dogs hunting for a meal, and people outside tending to their yards.  Everyone has a courtyard, garden, and fruit trees.  Cabbage patches and apple trees seem to be especially popular.

            After about 10 minutes, I cross the train tracks via a tunnel, and then the highway via a bridge.  I’m glad that there’s a pedestrian bridge, or the highway crossing would be a little scary.  Once I get past the bridge, there is a field with about a dozen small gardens and a basketball court.  I’m not sure who owns all the gardens (sometimes I see some old couples out harvesting).  At the end of the gardens, I turn left to head down the street that leads directly into Ilidza’s center.  

            After passing a few more houses and small shops, I have to cross the highway one more time.  (There is a crosswalk light.)  Entering the center of Ilidza can be a little overwhelming, since it is so crowded by an outdoor market.  Vendors sit on the sidewalk and hawk produce, handmade knitted woolen mittens, cheap plastic household goods, etc.  Well, they sit on the parts of the sidewalk where no one has parked.  You see, in Bosnia, people park on the sidewalk, forcing the pedestrians to walk in the street.  It seems a little backward to me.

            I pass about one block of vendors, as well as the downtown Ilidza shopping complex, called the Sara Centar. Right past the Sara Centar is the Ilidza tram station.  Starting October 1^st, I have been getting monthly passes, so I simply swipe my pass under a machine and can board the #3 tram toward Bascarsija.  Before I had my pass, I could go to a little kiosk next to the station entrance and buy a 1-ride or 10-ride ticket.  The kiosk also sells snacks, drinks, gum, and magazines, which is pretty convenient when I’m running late and forgot to pack a water bottle.

            A word of warning to anyone interested in visiting Sarajevo:  at most stops, you can board the tram without having to show your ticket.  So, once you board the tram, you have to run your ticket through a little machine to “validate” it.  You might be able to get away with a free ride if you board sans ticket.  However, there are guys who randomly come through the cars to check that you have one and that it’s validated.  If not, you have to pay a fine.  One time I was riding the tram with my friend Mattia, and his ticket had gone through the validation machine without actually getting stamped.  When the “tram cops” checked his ticket they pulled him off the tram and gave him the fine.  Poor Mattia.  So the moral of the story is to have a ticket, validate it, and then make sure that the validation was actually stamped.

            The tramcars themselves are quite old, and usually very crowded.  I have figured out where and when to board, so I can usually find a seat.  Standing isn’t so bad as long as I don’t have my heavy instrument case with me.  People in the tram are usually pretty considerate about giving their seats up to the elderly.  However, there seems to be no etiquette regarding personal space!  Sometime the train will be pretty empty, and someone will board and then come and stand with either their butt or their gut pressed right up against your face.  Yuck.  The best solution is to try to get a window seat so no one can stand next to you.

            I think that the trams are fairly safe, but sometimes the doors don’t close all the way and it makes me very nervous that someone is going to fall out.  So far, I have neither been in nor witnessed any accidents though.  (Matt was once on a car that derailed, but it was pretty minor and no one was injured.)  I think the biggest risk is getting pick-pocketed, so I always keep my purse zipped up with my arm wrapped over the top.

            The whole tram ride lasts about 30 minutes until I get off at a stop right in front of the National Theater.  I guess I could bring a book to read, but I like to pay attention and look out the window every day.  There is always something new going on.  We pass several landmarks, including a rebuilt Olympic swimming pool, the national TV station headquarters, the National Museum, the American embassy, and the ubiquitous yellow Holiday Inn.

            To return home, I pretty much make the same trip, but in reverse, although I do board a couple of blocks north of where I get off in the morning.  The tram makes a loop around the city center, so it is much fast to board the tram on its way back out of town.

The Otes Bunch

            Sometimes, I feel like my life in Otes would make a great sitcom.  I’ve got neighbors popping in for a drink, funny lost in translation moments, cute animals, friends with developing love interests….  What more do you need?

            Sunday was one of those days that especially felt like a sitcom episode.  The day began quietly and calmly, as Sara and I took a long walk in the park in Ilidza.  However, on the way home, Sara stopped by the market and arranged a date with the fruit vendor!  There is one stand in the market with a very nice, attractive young guy, who speaks excellent English.  (It turns out he is in law school.  A very educated fruit vendor.)  He always is talking to Sara and giving her free fruit, so she worked up the nerve to ask him out for coffee.  It sounds like the date was a little awkward (aren’t all first dates awkward?) but went pretty well.

            Meanwhile, (a good sitcom episode has to have multiple story lines) Matt and Tim have taken in an adorable puppy.  The little female mutt was so sweet!  She was very tired, and little bit clumsy, which made her extra cute.  Sadly, Matt and Tim cannot keep her, and there is nowhere to take her.  Matt tried in vain to find some sort of shelter for the poor thing, but alas!  So they fed her, gave her a bath and a warm place to sleep for a night, and then had to turn her back out onto the street.  She is so cute that I am hoping maybe someone else will find her and start taking care of her.

            On top of all of this, our crazy neighbor from the 7^th floor, Vaita, had a party, and convinced all of the Sarajevo Philharmonic people in our building to join him and his family.  You may remember me writing about this neighbor before—he is the same guy who crashed Ingrid’s birthday party in September.  He sure likes to drink, dance, and have a good time! Sara and I figure that we need as many friends as we can get in our building, after the whole mess with our other neighbor accusing us of throwing a bottle at his car.  So, I definitely wanted to meet Vaita’s family.  His wife was an excellent host, serving an odd combination of alcohol, Bosnian coffee, chips, and cookies.  She did not drink, but seemed quite tolerant of Vaita’s craziness…haha.  I had a beer, and then had to try a bit of Slivovic, which is liquor made out of plums.  It is powerful stuff, so just a little bit is plenty.  I switched over to coffee after that.  Bosnian coffee is really growing on me.   I realized that I still have not taken a picture of a traditional Bosnian coffee service!  Next time I have it, I will have to photograph the extravagant, handmade silver serving pieces and write an entry about the coffee-drinking culture of Sarajevo.

False Accusations: An Update

            On Thursday, Sara, Matt, Alisa and I went to the Ilidza police station so that we could give our side of the story.  Alisa did some research and found out that the police were legally required to provide Sara and I with a translator.  When she called the police station and asked for one, they said they were not obligated to provide one, so Sara and I privately hired an official translator to come with us.  Alisa reassured us that later the Sarajevo Philharmonic could sue the police for not providing a translator.

            Fortunately, when we got to the police station, they read Sara her rights, including the right to a translator.  So, the police made a phone call or two, and it was agreed that the police would pay for our translator after all.  It ended up working out to our benefit, since we wound up with the translator we chose (one recommended by the embassy) rather than one chosen for us.

            The policeman who interviewed us was pleasant and professional.  He had Sara, Matt, and I come into his office one at a time and give our accounts of what happened.  (There are no charges filed against Matt, but he chose to make a report as a witness, since he was watching TV with Sara and I last Saturday evening and knows we were quiet and went to bed early.)

It took forever.  Three hours, in fact.  First, the police had to read us our right and then have them translated to English.  After that, we had to give our report and have it translated to Bosnian.  The policeman typed very slowly, so it took Sara a good hour and a half to give her report.  Fortunately, Matt and I could simply confirm what Sara said, and add a couple additional details, so it didn’t take us quite as long.

While Sara was giving her report, Matt and I had to wait in the hallway of the police station, which was pretty entertaining.  Fortunately, a nice woman felt sorry for us, and brought us some chairs so we could sit.  While we were waiting, we saw a police officer escort a pretty skuzzy guy into his office, and much yelling ensued.  Hmmm.  Later, the guy (a suspect, I guess?) and his friends stood smoking in the hallway until the officer came out and chased them off.  Besides this, there wasn’t very much excitement.  It seems like the police spend a lot of time carrying paperwork from one room to another.  Oh, bureaucracy…

I felt reassured once our trip to the police station was over.  While Sara was being interviewed, I heard some laughter.  It sounds like the policeman who interviewed us thought that our accuser was wasting everyone’s time.  Which is so true!  There are so many “real” problems in our neighborhood, and it seems silly to be wasting government resources on investigating this case.  The policeman also told us, as we were leaving, that if our neighbor bothers us again, we can call the police in Ilidza and they will be there to protect us.  I was glad that we were treated kindly and professionally.  (Our accuser apparently works for the police himself, and I was worried that his colleagues would show bias against us.)  Alisa also seemed reassured that (hopefully!) nothing more would come of this, and that no prosecutor would take up this frivolous case against us.   So, now we just have to wait and see what happens…