Hasta la Vista Croatia

Yesterday we had our final lunch with the faculty and students. We went to a traditional Croatian restaurant called Komin. The website is restaurant-komin.com if you would like to see it. Everyone was there but our student Jackie. She was probably en route to London by the time we ate.

The setting was so open and airy under the trees. We had drinks (no wine for me!!) and appetizer platters were served. We could choose from an array of huge whole broiled shrimp, squid ink risotto, cooked squid and onions or teensy white fish the size of a grain of rice. They are harvested to be eaten shortly after they are born. Our environmental professor say that is an ecological disaster, but heaped his plate. Next we had tossed salads and good chewy bread. The main course was a huge platter of meats and potatoes that had been cooked "under the bell". I say it was lamb and Annette says it was veal. Dessert was a light cool dish of chopped fresh fruit with ice cream and whipped cream on top. Delicious.

After lunch, our ACMT Coordinator stood up and gave a nice little talk and gave each of the students a bag with a t-shirt, a pen, a lanyard and a certificate from the college. Then she gave one to each of the faculty and...Yippee! Annette and I each received one also.

We all hugged and promised to keep in touch and jumped on the bus to go back to town. Some of the kids are going home, some are doing some traveling in Europe before they leave. It was a great group of people and we all learned so much from the professors and from each other.

Annette and I went home to the apartment and got comfy, because there were going to be fireworks at 11:00. We were on the balcony at 9:30 and spent our waiting time making each other laugh. We have had such a great time talking and laughing and sharing life experiences - I told Annette that I will always have such good memories of our time here. We never had a moment of friction; or if we did, Annette didn't tell me.

The fireworks started around 10:30 and they were spectacular. From our vantage point, it looked as if they were just for us. We have two huge trees in front of our apartment and they framed the fireworks beautifully. When they finished, Keti next store called over to us to see if we wanted to come for cake. Her whole family was there and her mom had put on a big spread. I was in my jammies and really tired, but Annette and Vincent went over and had a good time.

This morning, I got up early to take a picture of the old town. Annette always says it looks as though the sun is peeling back from the city.

We went down to the beach for a swim and back up to the apartment to start packing, but Annette fell asleep so we still have to finish. We are in the office for our final few hours. We will turn in our keys, shop our way back to the apartment and get ready to fly home tomorrow morning.

We will never be able to tell you every story or every experience we have had, but this has been five of the best weeks of our lives.

We both are looking forward to coming home, but we will be very sad to leave this place. Even Vincent is inquiring into coming back next summer. He says he will try to recruit a student that will require C-Print. That would be fantastic!

Thanks so much for all your affection and support. We have tried to help you see everything through our eyes because we felt so privileged to be here. We hope we made an impact and opened the door to new opportunities for everyone to get involved in the Study Abroad program.

We will see you soon. Lots of love from Cathy and Annette