halloween

Unfortunately Halloween isn't a holiday here. Not that I really celebrated it at home (although it was fun in college!), but it was kind of sad that there was no one here to do the usual activities with. The girls on my team knew about Halloween because they have seen it in american movies, on the disney channel etc. I was planning on just having a relaxing day for my day off, but then I got a message from Sandra (a girl on my team who speaks very good english) and she told me her mother wanted to prepare something for me. I WAS PUMPED! Her mom had driven me home a few times from the gym and always told me (but she speaks absolutely zero english she she really told Sandra, to tell me) that I am welcome in their home and she wants me to come spend time with their family. I never really thought too much of this because often times people offer things to make someone feel welcome but it's never acted upon. So needless to say, I was more than happy to accept the offer and come over.

I asked Sandra if she wanted me to bring pumpkins to carve. She agreed that this would be fun, so off I went to the farmers market to buy some pumpkins. Clearly they are not growing pumpkins to carve, so I had to make do with a pretty meager selection. I ended up buying three pumpkins: two were green, and one was so lopsided it could hardly stand on its own). I knew her younger sister would be there so I wanted to make sure she had one to carve too. Hauling these things home was not the most pleasant experience I've ever had (it was 28 pounds of pumpkins!) and since Sandra's house is about triple the distance from the farmers market to my apartment, I decided to take a taxi. This is the silliest thing ever because I swear I was only in the taxi for about 1 minute (including stoping at a light)...but SO worth it.

I met Sandra at the corner and she walked me to her house because I wouldn't be able to find it on my own. She explained to me that she is originally from Croatia, but was displaced because of the war when she was younger. Her house was in a little community of houses built for displaced Croatians. I thought this was really interesting When I got there her house was adorable! You could tell they really took pride in their house and everything was very neat and tidy. I received a warm welcome from her mom (in serbian of course) and she seemed very excited to see me and have me as a guest. She was making palačinke slani, which is different from the palačinke I always rave about which is slatka. The difference is that the former is salty instead of sweet. So follow me here: it was these thin crepe-like things rolled and filled with ham and cheese and then rolled in bread crumbs and cooked. They were delicious!

In the meantime of her cooking, Sandra showed me picture albums, her sister's drawings and some mementos from trips she's taken. Her and her sister (who is 12 and speaks excellent english thanks to the disney channel and it's lack of subtitles) took this time to ask me about the customs of Halloween. After her mom was done cooking she sat down and joined the conversation and we talked about various things  and she said I was invited to their house anytime I wanted to come! She also offered to do my laundry every week and other chores (such a nice gesture) as well as invited me to their family's Saint Day which is coming up on Nov. 12. It is a Serbian holiday that celebrates the family's patron saint with an all-day party and feast with friends and family. I will definitely be in attendance but I think I might be overwhelmed with the lack of english.

Next in the order of events was pumpkin carving. At first I wasn't too sure how they would like it. I mean it's kinda hard work if you don't know what you're doing (not to mention the pumpkins were difficult to cut because they were underripe). I explained to them how to cut off the top and when that mission was accomplished they were so excited. They had never seen pumpkins in Bar and were confused at where I had purchased them. They were also surprised that the inside was goopy and fleshy and that it had seeds. Montenegro has pumpkin seeds in the grocery store, but I guess they had a disconnect of where the seeds actually came from..it was pretty funny. Then I showed them some examples of typical jack-o-lantern faces but told them to be creative. We all drew our faces and started carving. I finished mine in literally two minutes as they were on their first eye so I decided to carve the other side to say "CRNA GORA", which is the local translation for Montenegro. They really liked that I carved this and their mom especially was impressed by my pumpkin carving skills (although its not fair...I've had plenty of years of practice)

Once we were finished Sandra and her sister were SO SO happy with their creations. They were beyond proud that they had successfully made something so "american". We didn't have any candles so we made do with birthday candles. Once they were lit, we turned off all of the lights and they were shrieking with delight. It was cute. Here are some pictures of the adventure:

Sandra after coring the pumpkin and moving on to the face drawing. She went with triangle eyes and a mouth that resembles stitches. 

 Maja is pumped! I gave them the two green pumpkins because I thought that was better than having a severely deformed one. She ended up also choosing triangle eyes and a jagged smile.

 HAHA check out the tilt on that pumpkin! Clearly not picked from a pumpkin patch, but it'll work

 Finished product: Sandra's on the left, Maja's in the middle and mine on the right. They both chose scary vibes while I clearly chose silly.

 They decided we weren't getting the full experience unless we put them in the front yard. Once again, there was lots of excitement

Maybe now they'll carve pumpkins every year? The Oluic family has now been officially initiated into an american tradition. Perhaps I'll continue something they expose me to