Banja Luka

I want to introduce you to my hometown, Banja Luka. Most of you have probably never heard of this beautiful town in north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since I came to Graz, I've only went there once and then realised how much I’d actually missed it.

Banja Luka is is the largest and capital city of Republika Srpska * and second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina after Sarajevo. It lies on the Vrbas River and is surrounded by many hills. The weather is usually quite weird. For example, last week in Banja Luka was 25 degrees, which is certainly not typical weather for November. Anyway, there is either too much rain or it is too hot or too cold. The city is also famous for Fortress Kastel, ćevapi, rafting, the Orthodox Church of Jesus the Saviour, Banj Hill and many other sights.

* one of two political entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other entity is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Fortress Kastel was built by the Romans and then fortified again by the Ottomans. It is the oldest cultural monument in Banja Luka. The fortress lies on the banks of the Vrbas River, which makes it even more astonishing. It often hosts outdoor concerts, but it is usually very peaceful place.

Ćevapiii! Well, for those who don't know, there are few sorts of ćevapi. The most popular ones are Banjalučki ćevapi from Banja Luka and Sarajevski ćevapi from Sarajevo area.The main difference is in their appearance, but also in meat content. Banjalučki ćevapi are served in connected tuples of four, whereas Sarajevski ćevapi are served of 5-10 pieces. The dish is usually eaten with chopped onions, but also other vegetables and served in  flatbread called lepinje. Below are the pictures of both sorts.

                                                                             
Raaafting! Vrbas river is a mighty fast mountain river with a numerous wild parts, which makes it perfect for adventure water sport such as rafting. The water is veeeeeery cold, but in summer the temperature is ideal for refreshment.The Vrbas River was home to the 2005 European Whitewater Rafting Championships and World Championship 2009. However, I must admitted I have never went to rafting. It's really a shame, as this is certainly a Must Do in Banja Luka and I actually live there, but I'm definitely planning to try it next summer. Rafting is possible during the whole year, but I'm quite afraid of the cold water.

Gospodska street

The Fortress in winter

This clock is actually not working. Therefore, it is called "The wrong clock". It shows the exact time when there was a devastating earthquake in Banja Luka in 1969.

The song above is called "Good Evening, Banja Luka". I really love this song. You are probably not going to understand it, but there are some nice pictures in the video.

My Indian roommate

Currently, I am living in a double-bedded room in a dormitory called the Kolpinghaus. During my first week here, I was alone in my room wondering who will be my new roommate. I  was pretty excited and nervous to meet her, but luckily, I was positively surprised. I will now tell you about my dear friend Shruti.

Shruti is 28 years old and comes from India. Even though she is 9 years older than me, we get along really well. She is a warm-hearted, open-minded and quite interesting person. Namely, she has been a pilot for almost eight years. Shruti made her driving license in Canada, but came to Austria after her wedding. Her husband is also an Indian, but he grew up in Vienna. At the moment, she is working on her master in aviation. She also made me interested in airplanes and other huge machines, which were certainly not one of my interests. We even regularly watch together a serie called Air Crash Investigation.

I also wanted to write you about some interesting Indian customs Shruti thought me.

The first question I get when I tell people that I have an Indian roomate is: “ Does she has a red dot on her forehead?” Well no, she doesn’t. Anyway, she told me something interesting about it. The red dot is called Bindi and is actually worn by married women. The red colour itself represents energy and passion and brings good luck. Indian women like wearing red dresses or red nail lacquer in order to be positive and happy.

A traditional Indian wedding lasts an average of  three days. Shruti’s wedding also lasted for three days and  

she actually had three weddings. Italian, Indian and Austrian, but that’s a whole different story. Anyway, Indian wedding is pretty expensive for bride’s family. The both sides of family should receive presents and all guests have to be provided with food, drink and usually a place to sleep for few days. Guests are often wearing clothes in vibrant coloures and eye-catching jewelry. Both, the groom and the bride are wearing gorgeous clothes. Brides are additionally decorated with henna patterns all over their palms, hands, forearms, legs and feet. Everyone is supposed to dance traditional dances, especially members of bride’s family.

It is forbidden to kiss in public. On Valentines day, you can often see police looking on happy couples or even famillies.

I bet you’ve seen a symbol like this on the picture below before. As it looks pretty cool, I’ve always wondered what it was. Well, it is called Hamsa or as Indians call it Humsa Hand. It represents a sign of protection in many societies and is one of Indian’s most sacred symbols. Hamsa is believed to provide defense against the evil eye, but also represents the five elements of nature and the five energy centers of our body (chakra). It is often used in jewelry and decorations.

Foooooood! Indian food is really delicious. At least, what I’ve tried until now. Dishes are almost always combined with spicy sauces, which makes them quite tasty. Chicken, patatoes, onions and sauces such as turmeric, chilli or garam masala are often main ingredients in Indian kitchen.

Well, those were the most interesting ones. I hope I will get to now even more of them soon. :)

My favourite monolingual print dictionary

Having looked at a number of monolingual print dictionaries in class this week, I have decided to buy the Cambridge Advanced Learner´s Dictionary. Even though it was very hard to decide which one of them I liked the most, the Cambridge Advanced Learner´s Dictionary became my favourite. It has many colorful pictures, which makes studying easier and more fun. In the middle of the book is a short grammar section, which would certainly be very helpful in my education. The last chapter offers some extra information about writing and communication skills and also, a pronunciation table. The part that I especially liked was the CD-Rom, which includes the whole paper dictionary in a handy, searchable format. I have always been a fan of modern technology and a dictionary like this would be quite useful for fulfilling my needs. Since this dictionary is perfect for me, I have decided to buy it in order to improve my English.

    

Last week we got our second piece of homerwork back. The task was to write a paragraph about our favourite monolingual print dictionary. I chose to write about the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Luckily, my paragraph was not as bad as my previous essay. However, I made a really horrible mistake. I wrote my own topic sentence, instead of using the given one. I must pay more attention on our tasks!

A letter to Fiona

Dear Fiona,

I am writing to tell you about my passion for languages, including English, and my ways of learning them. Since I was a little child, I have always been interested in different cultures, people and their language. My love for languages developed when I started to learn English. I was only four years old and learning this language represented something fun, new and interesting. I used to listen to songs, watch films or series and read books in English. I was always interested in finding the meaning of lyrics or different texts, and eventually, I learned many new words. Studying English became a routine. My English improved after my trip to Canada. Even though I was visiting my relatives and often spoke my mother language, I was able to speak with native English speakers and listen to English on a daily basis. This helped me to improve my vocabulary, learn useful phrases and communicate better. Despite this, I am not very confident about my knowledge of English grammar. For instance, I can sometimes be quite insecure when choosing the right verb tense.
I hope I will continue developing my language skills in the future, but also wish to see more of the world and experience the culture of different nations.

With kind regards,
Vanja

This was the correction of my first English piece of homework. We were supposed to write a letter to our teacher about how we see ourselves as a language learners. I was quite satisfied with my essay until I saw the correction. After that, I felt totally disappointed. I made really stupid mistakes with the word since. Few times! However, I am here to learn, so I decided to take this course more seriously and try my best. I hope next time I will have better results.