This last month or so has been exhausting, trying to settle into my new life here has been more difficult than I had anticipated. Having gotten through the bulk of red tape in the first 2 weeks, I had not anticipated more large obstacles in my path, but...
The translation of my degree into the the Croatian system proved to be impossible in the short amount of time available before classes started (2 weeks), so I have scrapped the idea of further study for the time being. This has turned out to be a good choice, because it has taken a lot of time and energy to get used to living in a country, energy that I am not sure I would have had had I chosen to jump right into studying again.
Another smaller problem I ran into was with the mail, if the name on the mailbox doesn't match the name on the mail the mailmen here wont deliver it because there aren't apartment numbers only names (not so in the US, I and I'm sure many of you can attest to getting other peoples mail). So after waiting for weeks to see if my Tram card, health insurance card, atm pin#, and so on were going to come, I finally asked my girlfriend what was going on and she realized that without my name on the mailbox I would never get any mail.
So, problems aside, I decided that I was going to try to get out and see the city as much as I could in my free time. Zagreb has a very casual feel to it for such a large city (total Pop. ~1,000,000), as with many big cities Zagreb has many large neighborhoods that are essentially their own cities with connections to other parts of town via tram or bus. One thing I have noticed about this town is that people here love their sidewalk cafes, rain or shine, hot or cold you will find people sitting in sidewalk cafes drinking coffee and talking animatedly about a great variety of subjects (most of which I cannot yet understand, but wound interesting). This cafe culture gives Zagreb a nice casual vibe, Croatians are generally pretty laid back folks who don't tend to live hectic lives like many of us do in the States, they also seem to be a very social bunch and going to the cafe (Kafić in Croatian) with friends is for many a daily ritual (think watercooler?).
On the subject of coffee (Kava), I'm told by many and can for my part attest to Croatia having some of the world's best coffee quality-wise and selection-wise. You can get Nescafe, any and all varieties of Italian coffee, American style coffee (not that you would want it...) and my personal favorite Turkish coffee (Turska kava in Croatian). The best part is that all of these great coffees are available for very little compared to coffee in the States, for example, you can get a shot of espresso typically for 5 Kuna (about 85 cents) or a latte (Bijela kava) for 7 kuna (about $1.15), these prices go up a bit when you're near the city center so be prepared to pay about 50% more downtown. Even so, the prices for coffee here are less than 50% of the coffee cost back home, and it's BETTER! :)
Well readers, that's what I've got to report for now stay tuned for my next update!
PS I'm not sure why this turned out so odd looking in the last half...sorry!
The translation of my degree into the the Croatian system proved to be impossible in the short amount of time available before classes started (2 weeks), so I have scrapped the idea of further study for the time being. This has turned out to be a good choice, because it has taken a lot of time and energy to get used to living in a country, energy that I am not sure I would have had had I chosen to jump right into studying again.
Another smaller problem I ran into was with the mail, if the name on the mailbox doesn't match the name on the mail the mailmen here wont deliver it because there aren't apartment numbers only names (not so in the US, I and I'm sure many of you can attest to getting other peoples mail). So after waiting for weeks to see if my Tram card, health insurance card, atm pin#, and so on were going to come, I finally asked my girlfriend what was going on and she realized that without my name on the mailbox I would never get any mail.
So, problems aside, I decided that I was going to try to get out and see the city as much as I could in my free time. Zagreb has a very casual feel to it for such a large city (total Pop. ~1,000,000), as with many big cities Zagreb has many large neighborhoods that are essentially their own cities with connections to other parts of town via tram or bus. One thing I have noticed about this town is that people here love their sidewalk cafes, rain or shine, hot or cold you will find people sitting in sidewalk cafes drinking coffee and talking animatedly about a great variety of subjects (most of which I cannot yet understand, but wound interesting). This cafe culture gives Zagreb a nice casual vibe, Croatians are generally pretty laid back folks who don't tend to live hectic lives like many of us do in the States, they also seem to be a very social bunch and going to the cafe (Kafić in Croatian) with friends is for many a daily ritual (think watercooler?).
On the subject of coffee (Kava), I'm told by many and can for my part attest to Croatia having some of the world's best coffee quality-wise and selection-wise. You can get Nescafe, any and all varieties of Italian coffee, American style coffee (not that you would want it...) and my personal favorite Turkish coffee (Turska kava in Croatian). The best part is that all of these great coffees are available for very little compared to coffee in the States, for example, you can get a shot of espresso typically for 5 Kuna (about 85 cents) or a latte (Bijela kava) for 7 kuna (about $1.15), these prices go up a bit when you're near the city center so be prepared to pay about 50% more downtown. Even so, the prices for coffee here are less than 50% of the coffee cost back home, and it's BETTER! :)
Well readers, that's what I've got to report for now stay tuned for my next update!
PS I'm not sure why this turned out so odd looking in the last half...sorry!
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