Beauty?

Just take a look...

Just don’t call me unprofessional

Have you ever been in a situation where someone tried to get themselves out of trouble and got you in trouble in the process?!

Well, that’s what happened to me today and I am mad, mad, MAD!!!

I found myself in a completely ‘out-of-the-blue’ situation, speechless and shocked being yelled at and insulted for no reason whatsoever!

Thank goodness I got myself out of it even though I was in a nerve wracking state in desperate need of some (85%+) alcohol and nicotine.

Very grateful to have a very understanding boss who figured out that the client was wrong and I was right (which happens usually in one in a million cases).

I have been working since I was 16, parallel to work I always did a zillion things are once. I always bragged about being hard working, thorough and loyal to my employers.

You can understand my anger when someone puts the blame on me for no reason!

I am not lazy, am not sloppy and I am definitely NOT unprofessional…

Grrrrrr!!!!

Just to make you smile..

It got cold very quickly and the wealthy old couple decided to travel away to a more exotic place for a while.

Because the wife had some tests to finish at the doctors, the husband went alone one day ahead of her.

When he got into the hotel room, he took out his laptop and sent his wife an e-mail instantly.

While he was typing the e-mail address, he left out one letter and by accident the mail went to a widow who just buried her husband.

The widow was just reading through her e-mails to read the condolences from her friends and family.

A few moments later the widow’s son came into the room to see his mother fainted on the floor.

He took a look at the monitor and saw the following:

For: My dear wife

From: The husband who took off early

Title: I am here!

Dearest, I just got here. I have already settled and I can see that everything is ready for your arrival tomorrow!

I wish you a safe trip and will be expecting you.

With love, your husband!

PS It is damn hot in here!

Oath to Sarajevo, oath to Bosnia and Herzegovina

The first time I came to Sarajevo was in 1992, to the famous Mt. Jahorina for skiing. I was 9 years old and my dad was teaching me how to ski.

A week after we arrived, the war started. We left that day.

Our holiday was turning into a nightmare.

The next time I came to Sarajevo was in 1996 for holidays. We had just moved from the UK to Turkey and came to Bosnia to visit some of my dad’s relatives.

We came 3 years in a row. Every summer; stayed for a week or two. It was nice, for holidays.

Since the 4-year war ended only in 1995 you can only imagine the state of the country in 1996.

The buildings were destroyed, there was still no water, electricity or sewage control in a lot of the buildings. The shells has caused so much damage to the pipe lines inside the houses that rats, cockroaches and other different creatures were very familiar for those who has not put new isolation material in their apartments.

Sarajevo had lost the charm it had in 1992. It looked very sad to me; very poor, vulnerable. It was crying.

I moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1999.

The transition was tough. Moving to a city which (at the time) had no shopping malls, still used Deutch Mark at national currency and was filled with cemeteries was torture.

It has been more than 7 years since then.

I was walking through the old Turkish quarter today. Everything is repaired. The wood has been changed, the red rooftops have been carefully replaced, the stones have been washed and polished, religious objects have all been reconstructed…

That part of the city is an official candidate to become an UNESCO protected site.

I walk past the Austro-Hungarian quarter, where all the buildings look like something from the 19^th century movie. Pink and yellow, blue and red, very fancy architectural designs, statues, high ceilings and beautiful doorways. Now that I look at it, it seems hard to believe what I had seen in 1996, as a result of 3.000 shells falling onto the city daily (in average).

Only here and there, you can see the red blots on the pavement. Holes in a shape of a rose, filled with red rubber, emphasizing spots where people were killed by shells thrown from enemy positions.

Here and there you see the never ending cemeteries of people who had been buried quickly, during the nights so the enemies wouldn’t shoot during burial rituals.

I look around and it hits me. Almost everything has been reconstructed. The buildings, the schools, the hospitals, bridges, roads, railways…

Almost 5,3 billion USD have been invested into B&H since 1995.

I can see where the money has gone. I have been watching international help being invested into infrastructure for the last 7 years.

Today I have officially picked my final university thesis and the topic is:

“Reconstruction of Infrastructure in Bosnia and Herzegovina

from 1996 to 2006 from The World Bank aspect”.

It will be fun to do research about tangible things and I feel as if I owe it to Bosnia to make a summary of what has been ‘healed’ in this beautiful country which cries no more.

My life, Chapter II

Yesterday, I think I was the happiest person on the planet. I had waited since Saturday, shaking, trembling before the exam, praying as I entered in that I would be asked reasonable questions…

Guess what?!

I took my last exam at my university yesterday, and I passed. :)))

I feel… as if my entire life is beginning, as if I had been on a ‘pause’ all this time, as if someone has lifted a million pounds of weights off my shoulders.

I was confident, very sure of myself when I entered the professor’s office.

He told me I had passed the written exam taken 2 days ago and that I would have to be asked questions from 3 books he has written, but not any questions… questions I would pull from a pile of papers.

Each paper had 6 questions (2 from each of the 3 books), I would have to write my concept and then later, by a half an hour monologue explain what the each answer to each question is…

… I call this the trauma of university. Over 100 taken exams, handed in papers, attended classes, held presentations, speeches…

The only thing I have left is my final Bachelor thesis which I will defend by the end of the year.

People: I don’t have any more exams!!!!

I can finally start living the life I want and plan the things I want.

Everything that was ‘on hold’ (love, fun, job, traveling) can finally start taking priority in my life.

I do feel like the luckiest person… it is a great feeling…