a window full of green trees, and a big wooden desk

Another rainy morning, this time as i type the keys are clicking in that kind of highschool way, the sound of a full key board of plastic squares sinking a bit with the pressure of my fingertips. Can you guess where I am, typing away carefully on a desktop computer? Well, my office of course. I have a desk in the office of my adviser, who is very kind and tall, his glasses resting carefully on his nose which seems always to be wrinkled because he is often furrowing his eyebrows with his thoughts. I suppose its been a week now, hard to believe it went by so fast, but it feels good to be sitting at this desk, it feels like work, smells like productivity. We walked through the hallways together, young adults chattering in the narrow hallway, "it hasnt changed from when i went to school here," he brings his hands up to his nose and inhales deeply, "smells like socialism."

So far my research here has consisted of a collecting a long list of names and emails. People to be contacted, to keep track of, to write down in my calendar. For each contact and meeting is a cup a coffee, more names, more emails, its similar to traveling down the rabbit hole as more and more doors begin to open.

Ive also been looking at apartments, some re-done with minimalist furniture, others damp from the rain with blankets draped over sofas and only a pot for making turkish coffee sitting on an old yugoslav stove. I always go with someone is fluent and i try to follow the conversation, but its hard and more then ever I wish I would have stuck my nose in a Croatian language book in the last year, so I could at least pretend better. Hopefully it will come soon. My two soon-to-be roomates are also on fulbrights here but were both born somewhere in the former yugoslavia, meaning, theyre both relatively fluent. I start croatian classes on Oct. 4th, November 4th were instating a no-english rule...a, lets talk to emily like she is 5 rule. Well see.

Last night i went to the best of showing for the experimental film festival. It was great and filled me with excitement about the creative things happening here and also reminded me of all of my fabulous friends at home, making, and thinking, and brainstorming...so i dunno where this thought is going...

anyway, i must be off to enroll in croatian classes... dun dun dun,

cujemo se,

emily