America...

So today I drank Diet Pepsi "Jazz" Strawberries and Cream soda... It wasn't bad, I just can't figure out how they come up with these flavors. They also had cherry/vanilla flavor.

And the blog news of the day - I got my hair whacked off. Ok, not really, but I did get 8 inches cut-off and it's still below my shoulders. That's awesome. All the yucky dead hair-colored ends are gone, and so now it looks like I colored my hair dark brown, but it's actually (and finally) my natural hair color. I love it, all bouncy and fun.

I talked to Magdalena a few minutes ago. Everything seems to be going well with Skoobi - yeah! She's doing well on her walks and is eating and is back to her cheery disposition after the trauma of me leaving :) Magdalena has 3 younger brothers, so I was glad to hear she is enjoying the solace of my apartment.

I always forget how much I love American commercials. When my dad wants to flip the channel during the break, I'm always saying "Nononononono! I want to watch the funny commercial." They crack me up more than the shows.

We leave to go to Orlando in an hour or two and fly off to Oregon in the morning. It's going to be odd, actually flying with a group of people. I'm so used to just traveling by myself, so it will be interesting being with my mom, dad, aunt and cousin... fun fun. :)

Now while I know gas prices are much higher in Europe, it was really painful pumping $3.13 a gallon gas into the rental. Uugh. One gallon of gas is 3.78 liters... so that equals 82 cents a liter. One liter of gas in Croatia was about 8.3 kuna when I left. That equals $1.53 a liter, which equals $5.78 a gallon. I guess $3.13 isn't so bad... and makes me very thankful that I don't have a car in Croatia.

Well there you have it - an update and math lesson all in one :)

Update on my life...

I finally made it to my parents' house today. The last few days have been a mixture of fun and productivity. I've done some shopping, and in God's grace, hit many good sales and saved a lot of money on some clothes and shoes I needed. I went swimming and got some sun. Church on Sunday was great. I miss my church very much. It was very fun to meet two new babies - Charlotte and Lilia are just adorable. It always amazes me how quickly my friends' children grow up. There were some people I didn't recognize at the beginning of the service and realized half way through "Oh good grief - those adults are Dan and Dru's kids!" And of course, most of my friends' children are now taller than me... and they never seem to tire of pointing that out. "Miss LeAnne, Miss LeAnne - I can look you in the eye now..." "Miss LeAnne I can see the top of your head!"

Worship was wonderful - the entire service just meant so much. The longer I'm away, the more I appreciate my church and the people that for all these years have loved and cared for me. I've been affiliated with Covenant for 17 years, and a member for almost twelve. I'm truly blessed to be a part of the church. I had lunch with my pastors, their wives, two of my good friends and their families after church on Sunday. It's been good to catch up with people face to face instead of email and phone. Jay and Penni are always gracious hosts, and Lydia and Riley the beagle are always just enthralled with me... ok, not so much Riley, but Lydia and I have fun :)

Sunday I drove to the Sterns home... my dear friend Rachel and I have been incredibly close friends since freshman year of college. I love her and her family dearly, and I know they love me as well. I always have a blast there. Her husband, Pete, is just one of my favorite people. He's pretty high up in rank in the air force and is currently working at the Cape. I thought Pete was pretty cool when he worked at the Pentagon (remember my lunch there last furlough), but get this - he's one of the three people who has the power and authority to scrub a shuttle launch. How awesome is that?? Of course you never want to be the one to have to scrub a launch, but I mean seriously, that's power. :) Unfortunately I won't be able to go, but if I was, for this next shuttle launch Pete could have gotten me into a building with lots of buttons that make the shuttle "do things" (he said I couldn't touch any buttons though...) and I could wear head phones and listen to things, and then run to the roof and watch it blast off. I was drooling at the thought - I love that kind of stuff. The timing just won't work unfortunately... I really wanted to try and lunge for a button :) And I just love the Stern children, Abigail and Andrew. I could just throw them in my suitcase and haul them back to Croatia with me.

It's good to be with my folks tonight, and then tomorrow I get a haircut and drive back to Orlando with the folks to stay in a hotel to fly to Oregon early Wednesday morning. Uugh. The last thing I want to do is to get on a plane and head three more time zones to the west. BUT, I am looking forward very much to seeing my brother and sister, and my new sister in law and the nephews. It should be fun - if I can stay awake and be hungry at the appropriate times. My folks did make me one of my favorite meals tonight - speedies... Oh my gosh, they are fantastic... marinated meat skewered and grilled, then put on italian bread with ketchup - YUM!

OK, well, I will update again soon... thanks for stopping by! :)

Hi from Florida...

Well, I made it here in one piece. The flights went pretty well, but the airports just were insane. I will never fly through Frankfurt and Charlotte again. Things were just so disorganized and chaotic. I almost missed my flight in Charlotte because the flight from Frankfurt took off an hour late because we had to wait for these 20 German children going on a field trip to America. I'm pretty sure the entire flight crew wished we had left without them. I sure did. But I made it and my luggage made it, and so there really isn't much to complain about.

It is pretty warm, but not painfully hot for which I am thankful. I bought some awesome and much needed clothes today, plus some really cool new ear phones - background noise reduction ear phones. I didn't know I needed them until the 20 German children got on the plane. I wanted new ones anyway, and so I'm really happy with these ones I bought.

I also picked up my rental car today... sigh. All I wanted was a nice, unnoticeable little nova or something... Oh but no... of all the cars, I got the one that I absolutely hate. I walked out of the airport and to the little parking spot where the car was waiting. I got to spot L-32, looked up, and there sat my PT Cruiser. Uugh. Now while it is a beautiful blue color, I just hate those cars. Oh well. As long as I get from point a to point b, life's good.

And in an amazing show of brilliance today, I erased every last phone number off my cell phone. Don't ask me how. It's a long story that could have been prevented at many levels and yet I proceeded through each and every level even while the voice in my head was screaming - "No, really, don't do that..." Thankfully, I am not a person who solely relies on technology, and so I have all the phone numbers except for the last 4-5 I put in written down in Croatia in a notebook, and I also have most of them on my computer. I basically just reset the entire phone in one fell swoop. I haven't been that mad at myself in a while. It's just so freaking frustrating.

Well, I just wanted to say hi... I'll be updating during the trip, so check back when you can. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement :)

When worlds collide... (and apparently earth plates shifting as well)

(Oh my gosh, I'm editing this after the fact because as I hit the "publish to blog" button, we just had an earthquake!!! It's only the second one I ever felt, the first one being on the 14th floor of the office building in Sarajevo. This was a bit stronger, and freaked Skoobi out - she jumped out of a dead sleep and ran around the house. The house shook pretty good, and I have to straighten my pictures. I called my friend on the other side of town and she felt it too, up on the hill, so yeah. That's so weird... OK, on to the real point of my blog...)


This is seriously the oddest post I've ever, well, posted. Donata spent a long weekend in Orlando with many of my good friends, staying with my dear friends, Jay, Penni, and Lydia Holt,meeting my parents, and speaking at my church. Oh, these pictures are so weird to me... I have many more, but these are some of my favorites... I'll caption them for you:



Donata at my favorite restaurant, just down the street from where I went to college




Karen, my dear friend from Deland, made a wonderful lunch for Lydia (pictured), Penni, and Donata




Her first visit to the Atlantic... and her first visit to a "real" beach. Yes, Donata, that's the way back to Bosnia, but I just don't think you can make it wading - that and you're afraid of sharks...




Ok, I'm in cold, gloomy, rainy Bosnia, and Donata's on the beach in Florida. I have serious issues with this...




Jay, Penni, Lydia, Donata, my mom and dad... This is way too weird to me...




Same people as above, with my pastor in the background... Kathleen should have been praying instead of snapping pictures in church, but I'm glad she snapped it :)




Dad, Donata, and Mom





My pastors, Mike and Jim, with Donata



Mom, dad, Donata, my pastor Jim and his wife Carol at the lunch for Donata after church

Ok, well, I guess that's enough pictures for now... I have a lot more, but I'll spare you. I'll have some more fun stories shortly.

Donata's thoughts on America...

I have had the funniest conversations on the phone lately with Donata... I can't remember everything she has said about her visit to America, but here are some of my favorites:

On eggs and other food: "Oooooooh... American eggs are sooooooo much better than Bosnian eggs..." (This blew me away because if you ask any American in Bosnia, we now really don't like American eggs because the ones here are so much better!!). She went on... "I like your milk and your sour cream, I know what we have in Bosnian is good, and I don't know why, but I like American better." "Everything is fast to make here... i bought brocolli with two cheeses at the store and it's done. Preparing food is so fast here. I don't even have to cook and I can eat. i cooked for my family yesterday and it took only 15 minutes, and they thought it was a long time... everything is so fast..."

On coffee: "i dont' understand... i go to satrbucks and get a coffe for like $5 - do you know what that will buy in Bosnia?? $5!! And then I sit at the table, and then when i go, I leave my cup there... and my aunt tells me I have to throw the cup away! Me! In Bosnian I pay 50 cents for coffee and I am a queen. I don't clean off my own table, i am a customer, i don't clean my table... what is that? $5 and I have to clean off my table, I do not understand."

On neighborhoods: "America is boring... no one goes outside. No one walks. Why don't people go outside and talk to each other? No one goes outside and talk to neighbors. What am I supposed to do here all day? People in America are boring.I am boring... no, I am not boring, I am bored"

On dogs: "My aunt, she has two dogs... they are stupid. They don't bark. They like talk. i dont' understand why they don't bark. How is Skoobi? Tell Skoobi hi, can she hear me?? Oh Skoobi I love you I miss you! Skoobi is a good dog. I miss Skoobi"

On living in a foreign country: "Now I understand you more, LeAnne... now I understand." WOOHOO! Thank you God!!!

And my favorite:

On Church (funny how she hasn't been to one yet): "I talked to the neighbor about going to chuch. There are so many, and some are so big. And some are only for the black people, you know..."

I wish you could actually hear the conversations. They are so funny. I know most of these sound really negative, but she does say them with a light heart. She makes me bust a gut everytime I talk to her. And yes, we will be working on American and church history when she comes back... I'm so glad I go to a multi-racial church!