On Friday, we were picked up at 7:30 am for another field trip; this time we were on a four hour van drive to a city called Split which is the second largest city in Croatia after the capital, Zagreb. I was so tired that I slept for the first two hours in the van. I woke up just before the border check at Bosnia/Herzegovina. It was a lot more risky than when we went to Medjugorje because two of our kids are international students and their visas did not allow them to leave Croatia. We all held our breaths, hoping the guards would just wave us thru and not check out passports. We all were relieved when they didn't stop us.
Our student coordinator Zoran had made a "funny" joke saying if we were stopped, all the non-American and non-Canadian students should run for the bushes because the Bosnians would probably shoot them in the back. Ha ha. Weird sense of humor over here sometimes.
Anyhow, we finally arrived at Split and went to Diocletian's palace. He was a Roman governor and the building is still in pretty good shape. The lower level is full of gift shops! It is so strange to see counters full of souvenirs lined up along walls that are centuries old. That is the first picture, the kind of dark one. The girl in the orange shirt is our student Jackie.
The big statue in the picture is a Bishop: Gregory of Nin (Annette googled him). He introduced the Croatian language into religious services. The Croatian language nearly died out several times, but was recaptured before it became extinct. People rub the toe of the statue for good luck. Even though we are already the luckiest people in the world to be here, we rubbed anyways.
We all had free time to shop or eat lunch. Annette and I found a cool (temperature-wise) restaurant and had salads. Hers was good, mine not so much. Very vinegar-y. I soothed myself with a gelato (ice cream); coconut with chocolate chips! Yum. We shopped a little and bought coral necklaces. Annette had better keep an eye on hers or it will be going home in my suitcase. We keep checking to make sure stuff is made in Croatia, not China.
We stopped at a nice park for a rest stop on the way home. The kids were climbing the trees and Jackie surprised everyone by showing off her cheerleading/gymnastic skills; back handsprings and cartwheels. Everyone was very impressed.
In the van on the way home, Luisa and Tania started singing, so Annette and I responded by singing, too. We were surprised that no one requested an encore from us! It was really fun and we all laughed and talked and sang. Then everyone got quiet as it got darker. It had been a long day.
It was late when we got home, with lots of thunder and lightning, but no rain. We haven't had any rain since the first weekend we were here except for one five minute shower.
Saturday we just loafed around and went out for lunch. Sunday Annette came to the office and did some shopping; I stayed home and read and did laundry.
Monday was Culture class at 11:00 and Zoran lectured on Croatian music. He started with the traditional folk singing called klapa and then the introduction of rock and something called turbo-folk. He showed us a lot of video clips and the concerts looked and sounded like what we are used to in America. Since I never understand the lyrics (are they even called lyrics anymore?), it didn't matter that it was in Croatian.
Our Environmental Science class met for the first time in a week. Our professor was in Budapest at a conference all last week. He challenged the class to start brainstorming; their assignment is to think of an ecological disaster waiting to happen and then brainstorm solutions, no matter how crazy. His example was washing machines and how much water they use, how much power they consume, and then what do you do with it when it breaks? Tania kind of timidly suggested stainproof clothing as a solution and the professor was delighted! He had recently purchased a pair of pants made of fabric treated with a substance derived from the lotus plant. It sounds almost like Teflon. Annette and I love to caption this class because it is so interesting! Full of gloom and doom about the future, but interesting.
At 5:30, we met Professor Kate at the fountain in the old town to walk the walls. There is a huge wall around the entire area that was built in the 1400s to protect the city from invasion. It was a long hot walk, but the views were breathtaking. That shot of the red tiled roofs is so indicative of the brilliant colors and sites that we have become familiar with. Annette, God bless her, took along a spiral notebook and took notes for Jackie through the whole trip.
Finally, after a long day, Annette and I had a fashionably late supper at one of our former favorite cafes. We scratched them off our list when they served us a basket of stale bread one evening. Last night, everything was perfect. We had delicious cool chicken salads and ice water. After we paid our bill and were walking away, I looked down and saw a 20 Kuna bill on the street. I snatched it up and bought us each a gelato to eat on the way home. We have almost gotten to the point where we can make it up one flight of these horrendous stairs without stopping. Having a gelato in your stomach doesn't make the trip any easier.
That is it for today. Keep safe, keep cool, and we will see you soon.
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