I left on August 24th from Orlando Airport. My grandma drove my dad, brother and me. My dad and brother saw me off at security and I made a rule that they couldnt cry in front of me. They didnt and they hugged me a lot and told me how much they were going to miss me. This was my first time flying and I did it by myself. My flight from Orlando to Frankfurt was 9 hours, I was lucky to have a window seat. I sat next to this very nice and cute Polish couple that was from Ocala. They were very nice and the man helped me get my carry on in the overhead storage. I barely slept on the plane cause I couldn't get comfortable and was afraid I would hurt my neck. It was like a little kiddie roller coaster... that I was on for 9 hours... When I arrived in Frankfurt I was a little confused where I had to go, but I just followed the majority of the crowd to a screen that had all our connecting flights. I guess I was lucky, I didn't need to change terminals. The only thing that sucked about flying alone was that I needed to bring everything with me into the bathroom and stall when I went. In Frankfurt my hot glue gun in my carry-on got me stopped, and they proceeded to check my carry on for explosives. When they went searching through my carry on they emptied out the front pocket which just had a paint palette and my american flag. But my Dad and brother left me notes in there as well and I started tearing up in front of the security officer because they were very sweet notes. On my Frankfurt to Zagreb flight I started feeling very nauseous from the constant movement but I sat next to this very sweet little old lady from Canada named Nori. She thought I was an Olympian from my blue blazer and gave me an Olympian coca-cola pin. That flight was only 1 hour and 25 minutes. I finally slept on that flight cause I wasn't feeling well from the constant motion.
When we landed in Zagreb and I saw the 'Croatian Airlines' sign on the airport building it finally hit me what I was doing and I immediately felt very nervous. Once I got into the lobby area of the airport and saw my host family waving, I immediately felt better. My host mom is named Lidija and she started crying when she hugged me she gave me flowers and we took pictures with the 'Welcome to Croatia' sign. My host dads name is Ivica, he doesnt speak English, but he smiled at me a lot. Then we went to get something to eat at McDonalds in the closest Zagreb mall. I got my usual chicken wrap but it was so different than what I was used to. The wrap had chicken, spinach, hot sauce, ketchup, tomatoes, and mayo. It was so weird... I slept most of the time in the car, but when I was awake I saw fields and fields of corn and sunflowers. The sunflowers were almost ready for harvest so they were limp but still a very pretty car ride. I got home around 6 pm maybe later. Lidija helped me unpack while my host dad when over to a friends house to watch the football game. Her daughter Laura is on her exchange in Pittsburg and they skype every night. I gave my host mom most of her gifts then. I brought Saltwater taffy, a photo album, Junior mints and 18 boxes of Cracker Jacks. My father also packed all these little doodles on small squares of paper all of my luggage and carry on. I have a total of 4 journals now to write in, so I dont miss anything.
The next day I got up and went to the police station with Lidija to tell them that I am here and to fill out some paperwork. I dont really know what exactly it was because it was all in Croatian but it didnt take long.We have to go to the police station within 48 hours of my arrival.Then I have 90 days to get my Visa. After that Lidjia drove me around to show me the town. And I am so glad that one of the 4 D's is driving because, my god, it is chaotic. The traffic lights go from Green to yellow to red like ours does but it also does from Red to Yellow to Green. and not every intersection has a stop sign, only if it is close to a school. So they drive through intersections like its whatever. There are sidewalks everywhere but bikers have to bike on the sidewalk only if there is a yellow lane for the bikes, if not they go on the street with the cars. Bikes also need to be walked across the crosswalks then you can get back on once youve crossed the street. This is a rule but no one actually does it except this on this certain road that cars are always turning on but pedestrians go straight to the city center. You need to cross the street on the crosswalks (the call then Zebras) if not and you get caught you could get fined up to 300 kunas. They have paper and coin money. The exchange rate is every 0.15 $ is one kuna. Kuna is dollars and Lipa is cents. Ill post pictures of what they look like because they are cool. You have a lot of different options for transportation here. You can drive, walk, bike, take a tram or take the bus. Adults who work usually drive, all the cars here are manual btw, or bike. There is bike racks all over the city so you can park and lock your bike. I am in Osijek, which is the 4th largest city in Croatia. I live on the West side of town and the city is on the Drava, one of the three main rivers in Croatia.
I am so lucky that my host mom knows English so she can tell me what things are and we are very good communication wise. My host mom took me to a cafe on the river and we met my Rotary club president for 10 minutes he welcomed me and asked me questions about my first impressions and how do I like Osijek so far. He is a really busy man but we very nice and smiley. We got home and I asked Lidija if I could go for a walk and she let me. Of course I got lost and wandered all around town for 3 hours. But the side streets are so pretty that i didnt really mind getting so lost that i had to call my host mom to come pick me up. When I got home I told my host mom what I did then I ate then slept for like an hour. When I woke up Lidija drove me around the town to show me how to find me way back home and to help with my oritation. There was some sort of festival going on in the city center and in the park next to it. I asked if we could go and walk around, so she parked and we manuvered around people. There was three differnet types of music going on. Two in the park were DJs playing croatian music, one was folk and the other was popular music. In the city center they had a live band playing covers of Croatian music and some English music. They were selling cobs of corn on the street that ive never seen before so my host mom got a kick out of my reaction of that. Around 11pm we left and got ice cream at a popular shop. I couldnt read any of the flavors so I picked two at random. I got this croatian fruit flavored that is a mix between a blueberry and a blackberry so it was bittersweet (a lot of foods are sweet and sour) and I got cantelope flovered ice cream on top. I went home journaled and passed out. Today the other Inbounds to Osijek arrived. At 2pm Aza Morrison from Tennessee came. At 4pm Elliot Caruso from Canada arrived.
My first impression of my host family is that they are really sweet and smiley.
My first impression of Osijek was damn, im going to get so lost (and of course I did) but its okay if I do cause it is very pretty. The architecture is old crumbling buildings mixed with colorful new houses and lots of parks, flowers and graffiti.
