Friends - people who come to see you even though they would rather travel somewhere else...

Living in a foreign country brings along all sorts of cultural shocks - food, climate, fashion (or the lack of it :)), mentality, values... I could go on for a while. Give it a year or seven (in my case) and you get accustomed to most of it. I make stampot for dinner and drink karnemelk; I cycle to work in the rain (yes, go ahead, throw back at me the statements from a few years ago); we had beschuit met muisjes when Una was born... One thing I can not (and will not) get used to is being far from my family and friends. Now, for family, it is kind of expected that they come and visit you, similar to - well, they have to love you even if you are not the most likeable person there is :). Friends on the other hand come if they miss you and want to spend time with you and the less likeable the place you live is the more certain you can be that they are really coming because of you :).

My friends from university Irena and Nebojsa and their 5.5 year old boy Milos who is by the way the most well mannered yet lively kid I've ever met (well done the two of you ;)!) visited us a couple of weeks ago. We all had a great time, Irena and I played yahtzee until our eyes got blood red (old days addiction, don't ask), Mark and Nebojsa occupied themselves with various engineering talks, even Milos who we feared would be bored turned out to be rather entertained by Una's toddler clumsiness and the two of them seemed to bond in a really cute way.

Yay for friends' visits, we hope to get many more in the future!

In front of the city hall


Misa seriously impressed with the giant clog

A walk in the park - the left half 2/3 of the Panjevac family, the right half 2/3 of the Gerbers

Misa (a.k.a patience) & Una (a.k.a impatience)

Now, who's next? Jasmina&Zoki&Velja? Maja&Milos&Ema? Martin&Santi&Nicola? Just give us a shout and we'll be waiting with fresh kibbeling and stroopwafels!

Until then, it is our turn to be visitors. The day after tomorrow we are off to sunny SA, collecting material for the second part of the post "Una goes back to her roots". Stay tuned!