Today, we handed over the keys to our apartment. We were also supposed to leave Karlsruhe and travel to Frankfurt. Stay there in a hotel and fly to New York tomorrow… Ada and Adrian were supposed to have a fare well party in the kindergarten today and get their gifts and say hi and bye. Instead Ada got sick and we had to go to the doctor. It turned out to be otitis so everything we planned was cancelled. Instead we landed in a hotel in Karlsruhe and now we are waiting for Ada to get well to continue our trip…

Danas smo predali ključeve od stana. Plan je bio da danas završimo sa Karlsruhe i odemo u Frankfurt. Tamo bi prespavali u hotelu i sutra bi krenuli avionom za New York…
Ada i Adrian su trebali da imaju oproštajno danas, da prime poklončiće i da kažu ćao…međutim to se sve promijenilo kad je Ada postala bolesna. Pokazalo se da je upala ušiju i sve što smo planirali je sad pomjereno.
A mi zaglavismo u hotelu u Karlsruhe dok čekamo da se Ada oporavi i da nastavimo naš put…

After a long day I went to the wellness center resting and “meditating ” …After sitting in the sauna I started wonder…why do people in Germany have the need to stay naked in the sauna? When they are finished they go to the shower room and have separated dressing cabines?
So it turns out it is ok for women to look at mens hanging things but when they shower they should cover themselves and keep away from the other women?? or how am I supposed to get it?’

Good night and over!

Nakon dugog dana otišla sam u wellness centar odmoriti i “meditirati”….Nakon nekog sjedenja u sauni upitala sam se zasto svi ljudi hodaju goli po saunama? I onda nakon toga se obicno tusiraju u tus sobi gdje su postoje posebne kabine za tuširanje i presvlačenje (barem kod žena). Šta to treba da znači?
Ispadne ok da gledamo golotinju po sauni a kad se treba tuširati onda treba da se sakrijemo jedna od druge…ili kako to drugačije da protumačim?
Pozdrav!

First of all happy 1.st of May. Wish you safe and well payed jobs 🙂 we were thinking of going to a demo bit decided that the kids are not in shape for that. Instead the kids wanted to barbecue. Ada is lately really fascinated by cake making so I agreed we’d make a cake together. So this morning she got up early to bake the cake. She had the honour to decorate the cake and she did:)

Next thing was going out for playing but after a while the kids where such a mess that we decided to go home for a rest.

In the mean time I continued my 100 days challenge of biking 30 min and until now I am keeping up the last two weeks. yes!!!

For the barbecue we had the perfect weather and the perfect barbecue master;)

After the barbecue we went again out to the playground. This time with happy kids….or not but at least the weather was perfect ?

Frühlingsfest or spring party is a nice happening in Karlsruhe when THE one and only ferris wheel comes in town and my kids pass it by every time we go to the kindergarten. I promised them we will go there…of course. At last we went three times and enjoyed the different carousels. I also noticed how different children’s perception is in comparison to grown ups. My daughter loved the duck fishing where you pick up ducks with a rod. Every duck symbolises some points and the more points the better “gift” you get. I found it complete waste of money and time…while she loved it.

Proljetni festival je jedan lijep događaj u Karlsruhe kada u grad stigne i ringispil i cak i onaj tocak. moja djeca svaki put kad idemo u vrtic prolaze ringispil i naravno da sam morala obecati da ćemo ići tamo … . Na kraj smo otišli tri puta i uživali u različitim vrtuljcima. Primijetila sam isto kako je različita percepcija djece u odnosu na odrasle. Za mene potpuni gubitak i novca i vremena a mojoj kcerci se najvise svidjelo pecanje pataka. Svaka patka vrijedi neki broj bodova i što više bodova upecate dobijate bolji poklon. Ali sta se sve ne radi za djeciji osmjeh 🙂

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I went to US for a house hunting trip. I have some prejudices about US so it was quite interesting to go there with the goal to find a place for living.

One thing I got surprised about was that the standard of the houses is so bad. Ok, the houses are huge in comparison to the German and Swedish houses BUT the standard of the building and especially the bathrooms is much lower. For me it is difficult to understand the need of a palace with 10 rooms, 5 bathrooms and kitchens that are perfect for a Michelin chef (except that the fridge and freezer is worn out) instead of keeping it smaller but with higher quality.

The food in restaurants is excellent however every where we ate it costed around 100(!!) dollars for 2 people. This was some dynamite shrimp. It was deeeelicious.

Environment and Sustainibility

The use of plastic is everywhere, even in places one could avoid it. The mentality I feel is that “no matter what we do there is no environmental problem with our garbage.”

The car…
The use of car is essential. Without one car per person you are completely cut off from the society. The whole way of living is around the car. There are no or hardly any pavements for a walk. To take a bike would probably be considered suicidal:/

Bad drivers!

What I saw the Americans are really bad drivers (or I had bad luck). They were very aggressive and egoistic drivers introducing tons of dangerous situations.

The highways are really bad…at least where we were driving. I find the ways in Bosnia are better than the highways in NY and CT (except in US the ways are broader). There are literally huge holes in the highway that are life threatening when driving faster.
Then the absolute culture chock…
At the high way they take over from both left and right side ending very often in very bad accidents. We were there 4 days and every day I saw one bad accident.

The flight

I was in US just for four days so the jet lag was an issue but I have to say that travelling business class made my days so much easier.

It was my first time flying business and it was an another dimension from my previous flights. All the space and the possibility to lay down and stretch out the legs…priceless (if you can afford the ticket) 🙂
The food was great in the business class, and one could watch movies and sleep. I am not a fan of flying so I took a beer to calm my nerves…

And the best thing is …we found a house 🙂

Kako otići u Bosnu a da ne sretnem ljude koje sve neuspjehe svaljuju na mitu i korupciji? Prosto je nemoguće.
Ne kažem da ne postoji, naravno da postoji. I to svugdje. U Bosni je rijedak slučaj da baš nikad nije proslijedio novčić da baš njemu/ njoj ne bude bolje, barem u tom momentu.
Za sutra je parola ko živ a ko mrtav!
Samim tim nemam visoko mišljenje o dostojanstvu i ponosu na Balkanu. Spašavaju ga jedino pojedinci koji se svaki dan bore na svoj način.
A da ne pričam o formiranju jedne države na takav mentalitet ljudi…

Ali… objektivno me zanima taj fenomen.
Zanimljivo mi je kad osoba kuka kako nema posla jer je sve mito i korupcija a sjedi 15h na dan igra igrice, “pije kafice” na socijalnim medijama i.t.d. a da ne napiše jedan normalno kvalitetan cv ili da se bar educira na neki način da svoje kvalifikacije povisi onda moram reći da u većini slučaja koje sam ja srela je mito i korupcija jedan savršen izgovor za vlastitu lijenost.
Nisam ni jednu nezaposlenu osobu vidjela da se nešto aktivno bavi politikom. Mislim ako je već toliko s-e, a nemaš posla pa najmanje što možeš uraditi je baviti se politikom, nevladine organizacije ili tako to. Na taj način barem nešto možeš promijeniti.

Mislim dalje (moje iskustvo) da u Bosni vlada prilično veliko neznanje o politici u drugim državama.
U Bosni a ma baš ništa ne valja i sve je bolje vani.
Vani ljudi imaju servirane poslove, plate basnonosne. Mogu da vozaju skupa auta i žive u kućama od 250 kvm.
U Bosni će šefici lajati kad im kaže da će dobiti otkaz ako još jednom dođe na posao dugih lakiranih noktiju…a da radi kao (medicinska) sestrica. U Njemačkoj (ili Švedskoj) joj ne bi palo na pamet da dođe na posao takva…a da šefici prolaje pa to ne postoji. I kažu sređena država…

Koliko ih u Bosni uopšte zna nešto o politici u Švedskoj, Njemačkoj ili drugim državama.
Imam osjećaj da ih većina pojma nema da se u zadnje vrijeme Švedska trese jer je glavna šefica od Svenska Kraftnät, institucija koja je glavna za švedske električne mreže, dalekovode itd. zaposlila “prijatelja” da radi kod nje…sigurno nije džabe radio.
Ili onaj skandal u divnoj Švedskoj gdje su preko veze dolazili do organa.
A od starog ministerpredsjednika Bayerna (Njemačka) -Stoiber je kćerci oduzeta doktorska titula jer je kopirala dijelove iz tuđih radova.
Pa da ne pričamo o tome što je Stoiber pola familije zaposlio da rade kod njega.
Ili onaj skandal gdje CDU zvijezda Guttenberg ostaje bez posla kao ministar odbrane Njemačke i bez doktorske titule jer kopirao čitav doktorski rad.
A da ne pišem koliko još ima skandala… ali ipak niko ne bi došao na ideju da kaže da vladaju mito i korupcija i da zbog toga ne mogu naći posao…