And so the story goes.

A couple weeks into the year, and already I feel like I have been here a fair amount of time. It was kind of nice to have a little time just to rest, unpack, apply for necessary papers, etc. But even with enjoying that time I am ready to see more familiar faces. In the last couple weeks, the team and tag-along John (I am glad he is here for a short time to "tag-along"), have gone to Krk, hung out, went to Zagreb, and enjoyed swimming in the sea. Already we have had some adventures, and I think my favorite involves the infamous car.

This thing is seriously on it's last lap, as it is in desperate need of a new radiator. To add to it's new all-time low, the lever to pop the hood is broken and only one side of the hood releases automatically. The other side requires one person to crawl under the left side and manually release the lever. This actually happens rather often because with our radiator leaking we often need to put water into the car to keep it from over-heating. Let's get a tally on this car...broken passenger door on one side, no dash lights, driver's door that has to be opened with finess, broken radiator, broken hood, and acceleration issues.

So my story for the day involves the car overheating...go figure. After a badly needed shopping trip, we decided that it would be better if we dropped off the guys so they could get their stuff. Not realizing the street they lived on dead ended three blocks down, I turned onto it only to find myself stuck in a narrow alley. I began the slow process of backing up down a alley that I barely made it into, when a Croatian man started to guide me through obstacles. I thought I was in the clear when I finally got back onto the road, only to remember that without power stearing it would be hard to make the tight turn. The man once again started to guide me so that I would get going again, but he quickly stopped me yelling "voda!". I turned off the car and noticed the puddle of water he was pointing to placed just where I had been stopped. I look at the guages and see that the car is just about to overheat on me.

The nightmare of the moment is that I had just learned about the hood difficulties the day before and still had not learned how to open it. The Croatian man in the process of wanting to help, figures out my Croatian is very limited and tries to assist me with the hood anyways. I call John to get vocal instructions on the hood and after Kali attempting to follow them we give up. The scene of a beat up car, two girls (one of which is acting as a "mechanic"), and a Croatian draws the attention of two more men, and none of us make any progress so we are stuck waiting for assistance as the sun begins to set. Well the story could go on but basically Jon and Pete come to our rescue and we thank the three very kind men, and go about our evening. I am so thankful for the kindness of that Croatian man, because otherwise our car may have not made it out of that alley.

The car will end it's journey with us next month, so now we just have to figure out what you do with a broken car in Croatia. Another day's adventure I guess. On a side note, I can't get the spell check to work so I apologize for any mis-spells'. To finish this off, I want to share my fun new discovery... Hiding with the candy bars and gum by the check-out at the store, was coffee to go. It turned out to be an espresso juice box, not so yummy but still my favorite discovery.