In Summary

Welp, my six weeks in Croatia are done. It went incredibly fast, I can barely believe that I've been in this city for over a month. For being my first time truly away from home contact for an extended period of time, it was a really enjoyable and surprisingly stress-less experience. I think I have the Mamić family to thank most for that. They were so nice, being very patient with me if I didn't understand what they were saying and giving me a great birthday away from home. My professors and them as a host family provided a better study abroad experience than I ever could have hoped for. I never was too busy, but I already found cool stuff to do. Here you can see some pictures of the gym that I got a month membership to go to while I was there.

Another really cool thing that I got to be a part of was the World Cup. I bought a jersey and some nationalistic white and red checkered shirts and was able to go to bars on Stari Grad to see the games. The first game Amber and I went to a smaller bar on the outside of Stari Grad. It wasn't super crowded but it was still a cool place to go. More importantly than seeing a game, I also got a really good calzone which may have been one of the best things I have eaten here, super cheesy and filling. (Also shown below is an great example of the excitement for the World Cup).

Game two was a little less exciting. It started at midnight here in Croatia, so I just watched it on the TV in the house. The good news is that Croatia crushed Cameroon that game 4-0. I almost wished that I had gone out to see how hyped everyone was getting in the streets.

Game three, despite it being the one that eliminated Croatia from the group, was the coolest of all three for me because this was the one that I got to see at a really cool and packed bar. Amber and I had scouted it out beforehand, and we made sure to get there super early to catch a seat. Even then we just barely made it and just barely got our seats. It was a really cool experience to be around all of that excitement and energy (and for some people eventual anger). We were super lucky to have gotten seats, most of the people were forced to stand.

To summarize, it was a really cool study abroad. I got to see a bunch of cool stuff, my language proficiency greatly improved, and I met a super nice Croatian family. It also showed me that I still have a long way to go, as native speakers speaking naturally is still almost always too fast for me and there is still an ridiculous of vocab that I don't know yet. Either way, it was an informative experience and I am very glad that I decided to do it. To close off I am going to show you some sweet pictures that I got my last weekend in Zadar atop the bell tower at the Church of St. Donat. I needed to suppress my fear of heights but it was well worth it, as it was a fantastic view from up there. After this blog post I will begin my vacation with my family in Croatia, and we plan to continue to post on the blog. I'm giving authorship to my family so as stuff happens on our vacation we will post and keep you updated.