Visas and politicians

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From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

I've been spending the last couple of days trying to finish off bits and pieces of my research, which has meant driving all over the country and a lot of coffees with lots of different people, talking about all sorts of things. It has been illuminating for me, a wonderful way to finish my time in Bosnia.Mostly we've been talking about the situation in Bosnia now. There are elections to be held in October. The politicians are getting ready for them, which means more and more nationalist... Read more

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Things I have said to my children: The snowtime edition

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

It's still snowing here. I hear that it is snowing in England too. With luck not too many of you will be having conversations like this....- Look at all that snow boys! Lets go outside and play!- Want to build a snowman'- Yes we can throw snowballs.- No, I prefer it if you don't put snow down my trousers.- Before we go out everyone has to do a wee.- Because once we have your waterproofs on it is very difficult to get them off. Much better to do a wee now and then we don't have to worry about... Read more

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A post in which it is obvious that I am English

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Guess what'(I'll have you know that these photos were taken at about 11am. It was snowing and really was that dark, has been like this for days. Continued snowing for quite a while as well. Above is the garden. Below, the view from the front door - when I say we live next to a mosque, you can see that we really do live right next door to a mosque... and have grown to love the call to prayer, even at 5am!)IT SNOWED! And not a light namby pamby dusting of snow either. There's a good foot and a... Read more

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A Dog's Life

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

During the war here many people couldn't manage to feed their dogs so had to set them free to fend for themselves. This combined with a patchy government strategy for dealing with dogs means that there are a lot of strays around here. Really a lot.For the past couple of months we've been sort of looking after one of them. Or, more accurately, she sort of attached herself to us, and we couldn't resist her. It's difficult to say what sort of dog she was, bit of German Shepherd certainly, but... Read more

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Kitchen Blues

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

There are many things that I will miss about Bosnia when we go, but one of the things that will not have me all dewy eyed with nostalgia will be our kitchen. Words cannot describe how much I hate our kitchen. Sometimes I go to bed cursing it.I am of course massively spoilt. The kitchen is actually pretty big. There is a fridge the size of a small bathroom (thinking about it, I will miss the fridge. It is nice to have a big fridge). But, in common with a lot of Bosnian kitchens, there is no... Read more

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Missing those Christmas tunes

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

I've had Christmases abroad but until we moved to Bosnia I had never spent a Christmas in a country which doesn't really celebrate Christmas*. Christmas Day is a normal working day here and I am finding it odd. I hadn't realised how ingrained into my psyche Christmas is and to be somewhere where Christmas doesn't really feature is unsettling. There aren't really any cheesy Christmas movies on TV. That special sort of Christmas smell, the gingery, cinammony, fir tree smell is lacking. I'm... Read more

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Christmas Cards

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

Last year I couldn't find any Christmas cards anywhere, so we made the lot. Or rather, given that my boys were more into throwing the paint, I made the lot pretending that they were helping, whilst they ran around demolishing the play room. I remember the afternoon well, it wasn't one of my most enjoyable.Anyway, I painstakingly crafted about 70 cards, wrote proper messages in them (not just a simple Dear x Happy Christmas Love Brit x but a proper message with news and everything) and spent a... Read more

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Dear So and So: Bosnian Version Part VII

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

It's Friday. Time for that moment to write some postcards to the people I have something to say to, and as it has been a while I have a lot to say. Right, who is first in the firing line'**************************Dear Jessie,Although the weather has been filthy these past few weeks, it has been a joy to take you for walks. This is mainly due to the fact that there are no picnickers or people enjoying a quiet lunch in the parks, which means that you can't disappear for hours on end only to be... Read more

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It's a small small world

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

So, it turns out that in the office next to Dave's works a guy that I once knew at University. Last time we had a conversation was probably somewhere around 1994. Bearing in mind that Bosnia is hardly the worlds most visited destination and Tuzla doesn't top the list of most visited towns in Bosnia, you can understand our surprise at seeing each other. Just goes to show the world can be a very small place indeed. Read more

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**@%%&&!

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

One of my least favourite things about some Bosnian parents is their propensity to think that teaching their children to swear is funny. Now, I'm no angel on the swearing front, I try to contain my expletives to 'oh blast' or 'ffffffffiddle dee dee!' and similar, but occasionally the ability to stop my mouth moving before the words come out goes missing. I do try hard not to swear in front of my children as I do not think children swearing is in the slightest way funny, cute or amusing.Most of... Read more

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Fame of a sort

From Brits in Bosnia, 2 year ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles

We are achieving a certain amount of notoriety here.A very dear friend of mine is an teacher at the English Department in the local University. She was talking to her relatively new students about native English speakers in Tuzla (there aren't many of us). She mentioned that there was an English family with two small boys and a dog in town and asked if anyone knew us.There was a silence. No one put there hand up. Then one girl ventured: 'we don't actually know them, but we have heard them quite... Read more

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