#mostar lift | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 6 years ago

Text

I accidentally joined one cult after leaving the Unification Church cult

I decided I needed to get out of this church immediately, before I became some stranger’s child bride.

by HANNAH November 21, 2014

When we opened our eyes, I could still feel the fleeting warmth from his hands placed on my head. We sat in a circle as he led us into a quiet chant known as the “moola mantra.”

“Moola? Like money?” I wondered. The incense smoke snaked throughout the room. I noticed a donation bowl being passed around. Yes. Like money.

“Sat chi ananda. Parabrahma. Purushathama. Paramatma. Sri Bhaghavathi Sametha. Sri Bhagavathe Namaha.”

I readily joined the others in chanting, not really knowing what they were saying. When I couldn’t remember the next phrase, I just Milli-Vanilli’d my way through it, letting the other voices fill in the gaps for me. I’ve had a lifetime of chanting in a language I didn’t understand to prepare myself for this.

In 1982, my parents, among many others, had an arranged mass marriage at Madison Square Garden (photo above), performed by the infamous Sun Myung Moon. With a simple hand gesture, Sun Myung Moon matched my parents together among a sea of brides and grooms, and five years later, I was born, the second of four children. It’s always troubling to think about how my very existence was decided by some Washington-Times-owning, money-laundering, homophobic, sushi tycoon/sexist cult leader, but I guess it makes things interesting.

Our childhood was…weird, in a word. Even as a kid I found myself thinking, “Why are we selling flowers at the side of highways?” “Why are we going door-to-door making strangers drink juice?” “Why are we sprinkling salt over our groceries?” “Why are we waking up at 5 a.m. to bow to a picture of a Korean man and a bowl of fruit?” “Why are we chanting right now, I mean, really? What language is this? I’m tired.”

Friends would come over and ask who the Korean people were in the photos around our house, referring to the Mr. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon.

“I…uh…they’re my grandparents.” I often found myself saying.

“But…you’re…not Asian,” they’d reply, stating the obvious.

I’ll never forget my birthday during the blizzard of ’96. My parents took us to one of Moon’s mansions in D.C. to meet some witch doctor of a woman. She claimed to embody the spirit of Sun Myung Moon’s dead mother. We stood in line behind a closed door in the foyer.

Before the door slammed shut, I caught a glimpse of a large group of people gathered around a woman and a boy. The woman had her eyes closed with the boy sprawled over her lap. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and seemed to be crying. Red marks were all over him. He tried to escape her grip, arms extended to what I assumed to be his mother, who sat silently in the circle. Then, the door shut. I’m haunted.

Finally, my turn came. I nervously sat myself next to the woman. She lifted my shirt, prepubescent chest exposed, as the captive audience watched as I was hit several times on my back. She prayed in Korean over me. And then, applause. It was over. Somewhere, there is a photo of my brother and I standing in front of the mansion after the woman hit us that day. We were smiling.

Beyond the ritual abuse, there was a certain strain of poverty that only a child of a cult could understand. You get used to communal living and sleeping on floors very quickly.

Before we eventually settled in the D.C. metropolitan area, we had traveled around the country, staying in attics, basements, and church-owned hotels and mansions. There’s a very real cognitive dissonance that occurs when you’re living in a mansion, sleeping in a tiny bedroom with all six members of your family. In that mansion, I befriended a young, Japanese opera singer who lived on the top floor. She’d French braid my hair and show me pictures of her fiancé, a man she had yet to meet.

I thought this was so strange, but I would later learn that being “matched,” or engaged to a stranger in another country was common. At 17, it happened to one of my best friends. I’ll never forget the look of misery on her face as she stood in her wedding dress, among the sea of brides and grooms, holding the picture of her future husband.

It was then that I decided I needed to get out of this church, immediately, before I became some stranger’s child bride.

Within days of that decision, I got a phone call from an old friend.

“Do you want to get your third-eye opened?” She asked.

“Do I…what?”

“You heard me. Get your third-eye…opened.”

When we arrived at the house, a blue-eyed man answered the door.

“David!” Joanna squealed. “It’s so good to see you!” He wrapped his arms around her, practically swallowing her tiny frame. “Hannah, this is David. We met at a commune conference. We couldn’t stop staring at each other from across the room. It was kismet.”

David laughed and put out his hand to shake mine. “Nice to meet you, Hannah.” He led us inside, where a bald-headed man was sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed deep in meditation.

He opened his eyes and spoke with a soft cadence. He introduced himself as Daniel. He told us that he had recently returned from a trip to India, where he received a special blessing known as “deeksha,” from a group called “The Oneness Movement.” By taking part in this expensive ceremony in India, he became empowered to pass this gift of enlightenment to us.

He instructed us to close our eyes as he guided us into meditation. He came around the room and gently placed his hands on our heads. I was struck by the similarities of this ritual with another my parents performed for my birthday. There is something spiritual about having someone caress the crown of your head while they speak in soft tones over you. I felt enlightened, or at least relaxed. Like Fox Mulder [The X-Files], I wanted to believe. But there was a Dana Scully in the back of my head that wouldn’t completely let me.

I began attending meetings regularly. Daniel and I developed a close friendship where we spoke on the phone daily. At one point, I was $300 short for my rent, and without blinking, he loaned me the money. Three months later, I found myself riding in a car with him to attend a Oneness Movement get-together in Pittsburg.

We pulled up to a row house in Pittsburg, where we were greeted warmly by a jolly man. He placed prayer beads over our heads, luau-style. “Namaste,” he bowed, and we did the same. He led us upstairs to his railroad apartment and gave us a tour.

“And this…is my Christmas room.” It was August.

There were two entirely decorated trees with trains circling around them. Presents galore. Reindeer, flashing lights, snowmen. It was Christmas hell. I took a seat, completely entranced and horrified by the mechanical Santa’s never-ending “ho-ho-ho” mantra. I kept thinking, “Where am I?”

Daniel called me into the next room where others had already gathered and were chanting in harmony.

“Sat chi ananda. Parabrahma. Purushathama. Paramatma. Sri Bhaghavathi Sametha. Sri Bhagavathe Namaha.”

I sat on my knees, and just as I was about to lower my head in a child’s pose bow, I noticed a familiar face from across the room. She looked a lot like Diane, a Moonie truck driver who would stop and make us oxtail soup when she passed through town. She loved talking about God with my parents. No. It couldn’t be. It was. Our eyes met. In a panic, I lowered my forehead to the ground to hide my face.

Finally, the chants subsided, and a faint voice spoke up. “Hi, I’m Anthony and I prepared a song for you all.” I slowly raised my body, trying to hide my face behind my hair. A mousy-looking teenager stood before us, boom box ready. The familiar sound of chimes and wind instruments filled the room. I knew this song.

“Olha eu vii lue mostar…” He sang. “Como é belo este mundo…”

He was singing “A Whole New World,” the Disney classic, in Portuguese. I noticed Diane was full-on staring at me. I panicked just as Anthony’s falsetto kicked in for Princess Jasmine’s part of the duet.

“Um mundo ideal…Um mundo que eu nunca vi…”

I looked around the room, scanning for any sign of acknowledgement from another human. Nothing. I noticed everyone in the room was in fact, crying. Was I that cynical? Should I feel something right now? Watching Anthony shimmy his way through the intense key change was definitely a spiritual experience, but I still didn’t want to give these people my money. I felt duped. This “whole new world” suddenly felt a lot like the old one.

I retreated to the Christmas room in an attempt to hide from Diane. On a table, I noticed a photograph of Sri Bhaghavan and his wife, the founders of the Oneness movement. They were sitting in chairs, like royalty. The photograph was nearly identical to ones my parents kept of my pseudo Korean “grandparents.” Horrified by the parallels, my inner Dana Scully finally broke through.

I spent the rest of my time at the retreat doing just that — retreating. I slithered along the walls, and managed to avoid a conversation with Diane other than, “funny meeting you here” and “please don’t tell my parents.”

When I left my respective cults, I was excited to be integrated into the real world, a place without cults, or so I thought. Not so. These days, I see cults everywhere: cults of influence, cults of institutions, cults of politics. You learn a lingo, you follow a set of rules, a code of ethics. Sometimes you wear a uniform and a name tag. Sometimes you are sleep-deprived and haven’t seen your family in weeks. In a world where CEO’s are more likely be to sociopaths, it’s harder to define what is a cult and what isn’t.

What’s important is listening to your inner Dana Scully, no matter how badly you want to believe. The truth is out there, sure, but it’s also inside you.

_______________________________________

Hannah

After selling flowers as a child with the Moonies, Hannah is now a part-time florist. Her life has hilariously come full circle. She is also a songwriter and musician. She is a student majoring in human services and hopes for a career in social justice advocacy.

_______________________________________

A few of the comments on Hannah’s story:

mrsdanger So interesting, would love to hear about your life now and your parents’ reaction to leaving.

Keith All religions are cults, some are more destructive than others. Thank you for sharing your story. Write another story for us later to let everyone know how you are doing on your new journey.

sara_ahoy I understood what she was trying to say here. A lot of successful people become that way because they refuse to follow the rules of society, some are more aggressive, and willing to throw other people under the bus in their bid for a promotion. Cult leaders tend to act similarly, acting charming but ultimately bullying their way into leadership positions and ruling through fear and ignorance.

We like to think that the societal rules that we all follow are there to benefit us, but I’ve found time and time again that I’m paying arbitrary fees of all kinds that go straight to a rich businessperson somewhere…

Lalaloki … they sure discourage people from ever taking a day off, even when sick. And then, when people do call out sick, there’s a sort of underlying guilt involved. People are being paid to be there, sure, but in a cult, people are being “paid” salvation.

tracy This is perfect! “What’s important is listening to your inner Dana Scully, no matter how badly you want to believe. The truth is out there, sure, but it’s also inside you.”

Huh Wow, you should write a memoir! I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church that was very cultish. We left in middle school and it was hard adjusting to the real world but my “inner Dana Scully” has been strong and made me skeptical of all things spiritual ever since. My advice: If a group (religious or otherwise) makes you isolated or relies heavily on secrets get the hell out!

FoxMulder She needs to know the truth is out there

breebree Moonies aren’t rich at all! The majority (my parents included) dropped out of school and donated ALL of their money to the church. And keep doing it. Ugh, so stupid.

berly I want to know why the cult did a ritual of hitting children? [ansu, a Korean shaman ritual to get rid of evil spirits]

_______________________________________

The FFWPU / Unification Church and Shamanism

Soon-ae Hong (the mother of Hak Ja Han) spent two years in Chuncheon Prison after Ansu beating an 18-year old boy to death.

Fear and Loathing at Cheongpyeong Lake

#shamanism #Hannah #2nd gen #moonies

3 notes · View notes

walkonwalkonwithhopeinyourheart · 6 years ago

Text

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the CL since 2011 via /r/LiverpoolFC

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the CL since 2011

Arsenal:

11/12 - Round of 16

12/13 - Round of 16

13/14 - Round of 16

14/15 - Round of 16

15/16 - Round of 16

16/17 - Round of 16

Liverpool:

17/18 - Final

18/19 - Final

Bit funny that, considering the amount of people who said this was a sideways move for him. It would be amazing if he closed the chapter of his horrific injury by lifting the big-ears, especially if he gets some game time in the final as well.

Submitted May 22, 2019 at 08:54AM by MostarRed via reddit http://bit.ly/2Hu8Pzc

#IFTTT #reddit #liverpoolfc #liverpool fc #lfc #ynwa

1 note · View note

travelers-delight · 6 years ago

Text

Mostarski Ikari

This weekend I visited Mostar for the second time. As we approached, familiar landmarks emerged and I excitedly ticked off all the things I remembered to Sabi about our last visit.

Central to the lore and the heartbeat of this vibrant city is the Stari Most Bridge - a 16th century rebuilt Ottomon era bridge that crosses the Neretva River. The Old (original) Bridge was destroyed in 1993 during the war period. It stood for over 400 years before conflict brought it down to later be resurrected. It was subsequently reconstructed in the early 2000’s and it is for this reason, and all the inherent symbolism about conflict processes the bridge evokes, that I am drawn to it.

If you’ve ever visited Mostar and the bridge, then you’ve likely witnessed the incredible and daring Ikari in action. The Mostari Ikari are a group of divers who take the plunge - literally - leaping and taking flight from the roughly 24 meter (that’s roughly 80ft!!) high bridge to the relatively frigid waters of the Neretva River below.

This leap of faith into the water below has been a tradition for 450 years now. The diving club formalized just post ceasefire in 1995 and continued to take flight in spite of the destruction of the Old Bridge. The UN installed a temporary suspension bridge and the diving club built a platform to keep the tradition alive.

Every July there is an annual competition and I had the pleasure and honor to observe the tradition in action. While I have witnessed the Icari in “work mode,” working the tourist crowds and taking the traditional legs first jump, today I witnessed headfirst dives and other trick leaps into the Neretva.

Before I share a bit more about the art of these dives, I feel compelled to share a bit about “doing (of) gender” inherent in this tradition. According to a recent Vice report on the Ikari, there is a record of 300 Ikari members in a book published in 2004. Of the 300, there was a chapter of only 6 women. At the time of the Vice report (2015) I reference, 20 men comprised the diving Ikari club.

When I watched a diver take the leap yesterday, I immediately thought that I wanted to do it and see if I could be trained to do so. I asked the diver collecting tips if there was training and his response was to let me know that I had a great view right where I was sitting on the bridge. Sort of a, “this is for the pros only” message. However, in my research on this unique group of physical artists, I was surprised to learn that the Ikari offer a 25 euro training and if they approve of a candidates progress, the leap from Stari Most can be taken. Notably, today’s competition was men only. When I inquired whether or not women would be competing, I was told that there is a competition for women only in September. After a fair amount of searching, I found an image of a woman diving from Stari Most, but it is clear that this remains a male dominated tradition. This symbolism is consistent with some of what is emerging with my current research about gender norms in the region, but it was interesting to experience it in this dimension.

In any case, I must highlight the awe I have for those that take flight and the parallels I see with my own physical asana practice. Attached to this blog are several videos. These videos do not capture all the nuance and concentration in a single dive. Note that in real time, a diver is falling at a rate of 53 miles per hour and in less than three seconds they plunge into 15 feet of cold river water.

I watched from the river’s edge as a mentor worked with a diver and cued him on a host of details. As I watched a diver take a feet first flight, I noticed all the things he was doing to prepare. His breath - taking in deep, purifying air - oxygenating his body to prepare for the shocking temperature change at the bottom of the flight. His posture and spinal alignment - chest lifted, shoulders back, everything drawing in to create a knife-like entrance into the water below. His drishti - the gaze looking to the horizon and then to the water below and back again. And then, with total presence, these Ikari fly, even if it is only for a few seconds. There is some real magic in those few moments. Perhaps one day this girl will fly with the best of them.

2 notes · View notes

brookstonalmanac · 4 years ago

Text

Events 2.14

748 – Abbasid Revolution: The Hashimi rebels under Abu Muslim Khorasani take Merv, capital of the Umayyad province Khorasan, marking the consolidation of the Abbasid revolt. 842 – Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages. 1014 – Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry of Bavaria, King of Germany and of Italy, as Holy Roman Emperor. 1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. 1130 – Pope Innocent II is elected. 1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg. 1530 – Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrow and execute Tangaxuan II, the last independent monarch of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico. 1556 – Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic. 1556 – Coronation of Akbar. 1655 – The Mapuches launch coordinated attacks against the Spanish in Chile beginning the Mapuche uprising of 1655. 1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones. 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Kettle Creek is fought in Georgia. 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii. 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent: John Jervis, (later 1st Earl of St Vincent) and Horatio Nelson (later 1st Viscount Nelson) lead the British Royal Navy to victory over a Spanish fleet in action near Gibraltar. 1804 – Karađorđe leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. 1831 – Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay. 1835 – The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the Latter Day Saint movement, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio. 1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London. 1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas. 1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. 1879 – The War of the Pacific breaks out when the Chilean Army occupies the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta. 1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections. 1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith. 1903 – The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor). 1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state. 1912 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines. 1919 – The Polish–Soviet War begins. 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago. 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). 1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago. 1942 – Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore. 1943 – World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated. 1943 – World War II: Tunisia Campaign: General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia. 1944 – World War II: In the Action of 14 February 1944, a Royal Navy submarine sinks a German-controlled Italian submarine in the Strait of Malacca. 1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden. 1945 – World War II: Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague, Czechoslovakia by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviet's Vistula–Oder Offensive. 1945 – World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans 1945 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations. 1946 – The Bank of England is nationalized. 1949 – The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time. 1949 – The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. 1961 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California. 1966 – Australian currency is decimalized. 1979 – In Kabul, Setami Milli militants kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police. 1983 – United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher, is later convicted of fraud. 1989 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. 1990 – Ninety-two people are killed when Indian Airlines Flight 605 crashes in Bangalore, India. 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot. 1998 – An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120. 2000 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. 2004 – In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others. 2005 – In Beirut, 23 people, including former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, are killed when the equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT is detonated while Hariri's motorcade drives through the city. 2005 – Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit Makati, Davao City, and General Santos City, all in the Philippines. 2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos. 2008 – Northern Illinois University shooting: A gunman opens fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb County, Illinois, resulting in six fatalities (including the gunman) and 21 injuries. 2011 – As a part of Arab Spring, the Bahraini uprising begins with a 'Day of Rage'. 2018 – Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa. 2018 – A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 15 injuries. 2019 – Pulwama attack takes place in Lethpora in Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and a suicide bomber were killed and 35 were injured.

#Events

0 notes

worldhotelvideo · 7 years ago

Video

youtube

Hotel Eden in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Europe). The best of Hotel Eden in Mostar Hotel. Welcome to Hotel Eden in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Europe). The best of Hotel Eden in Mostar. Subscribe in http://goo.gl/VQ4MLN The general services included will be: wifi available in all areas. In the section of restaurants you can enjoy: kid meals, restaurant, restaurant (à la carte), restaurant (buffet), breakfast in the room, special diet menus (on request), breakfast options, room service and bar. For health facilities include make up services, fitness, sun umbrellas, pool/beach towels, steam room, pool with view, hair cut, body scrub, spa and wellness centre, sun loungers or beach chairs, manicure, spa facilities, head massage, back massage, fitness/spa locker rooms, hot tub/jacuzzi, full body massage, massage, spa lounge/relaxation area, hair treatments, facial treatments, beauty services, foot massage, hammam, hair colouring, hand massage, heated pool, fitness classes, swimming pool, sauna, body treatments, massage chair, fitness centre, neck massage, spa/wellness packages, hair styling, pedicure and couples massage. With regard to transport, we have airport shuttle (additional charge), secured parking, car hire, shuttle service (additional charge), airport shuttle, parking garage and shuttle service. For reception services we can find express check-in/check-out, concierge service, tour desk, safety deposit box, private check-in/check-out, 24-hour front desk and luggage storage. Within the related areas we can enjoy outdoor furniture, terrace and sun terrace. The function of cleaning services include daily maid service, ironing service, laundry and dry cleaning. If you fly for business on the premises you have fax/photocopying and meeting/banquet facilities. We can highlight other services like bridal suite, wheelchair accessible, soundproof rooms, designated smoking area, air conditioning, toilet with grab rails, heating, non-smoking rooms, lower bathroom sink, family rooms, lift, facilities for disabled guests and higher level toilet [https://youtu.be/jGaKMBVXMqk] Book now cheaper in https://ift.tt/2J0GaQe You can find more info in https://ift.tt/2HDI3Tp We hope you have a pleasant stay in Hotel Eden Other hotels in Mostar City Hotel https://youtu.be/4jbojqOoeRQ Boutique Hotel Old Town Mostar https://youtu.be/Br-GD9roQMA Hotel Mostar https://youtu.be/4ucrS7sCpHw Hotel Hercegovina https://youtu.be/5ml5FcONe5c Hotel Almira https://youtu.be/qKNg7Fr6tLw Other hotels in this channel Maputo AFECC Gloria Hotel https://youtu.be/MZMu0i_elas Mirage Resort https://youtu.be/_oAMgyqhzGs Marambaia Hotel & Convenções https://youtu.be/Fz_7zGybDLQ Grand Hills, a Luxury Collection Hotel & Spa https://youtu.be/KXUuO0OU-vk Podiumberg https://youtu.be/fXIul39iDX4 Nanjing Central Hotel https://youtu.be/rh-RJglkTYc The Smallville Hotel https://youtu.be/xMuss9HQpDw Hotel Rural Los Jarales https://youtu.be/vtS_Ivz1gBk Astarte Suites https://youtu.be/qSniytPJf54 Sapodilla Ubud https://youtu.be/J_nnalfnoTY Dinastia https://youtu.be/HHhoUgE_ZZ4 Ashley London https://youtu.be/w4hIFRIgSlU Hotel Segles https://youtu.be/s0FPfTqOgDY Lumiere Hotel https://youtu.be/vsKaekNwRGI Hotel Club s'Estanyol https://youtu.be/N1Se9DlQMIw In Mostar we recommended to visit In the Bosnia and Herzegovina you can visit some of the most recommended places such as Puente de Mostar, Río Neretva, Muzej Hercegovine, Sniper Tower, Vrelo Bune, Biscevic House, Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque, Blagaj Tekke and Blagaj Fort. We also recommend that you do not miss Kajtaz House, Stari grad Blagaj (Stjepan grad), Neretva Hotel, Park Zrinjevac, Spanish Square, Aleksa Santic Monument, We hope you have a pleasant stay in Hotel Eden and we hope you enjoy our top 10 of the best hotels in Bosnia and Herzegovina All images used in this video are or have been provided by Booking. If you are the owner and do not want this video to appear, simply contact us. You can find us at https://ift.tt/2iPJ6Xr by World Hotel Video

#whv #YouTube

1 note · View note

the-firebird69 · 5 years ago

Text

the small Bohemoth are this size andhouse tons of your tanks. they are not of fully depleted UR no they ar and are thick and bulky and hit hard. tons are ther ad are like this have tons of armement and special but the treads are different are very thick and are one tread, wheeled, and tough like m1 but stronger metal and hte botome is special to distribute blasts upwards from under...huge designcontest to find the best. and it worked...too used it and itworks it doesnt lift or damage. when they gooff. not if. adn we scan too and diffuse mostare somedont...we up the amperage as he suggests they increase insulative casings...we see not hard to see it then. Olympus

0 notes

shevawalkingtours · 5 years ago

Text

Support Sheva Walking Tours!

Hello from Sheva Walking Tours!

Like many of you, the team at Sheva Walking Tours in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since our founding two years ago, we have strived to provide you a unique and meaningful experience during your time in Mostar. Just two months ago, we were busy preparing for what we expected to be a fantastic tourism season, welcoming visitors and making new friends from all over the world. Mostar had even been named as one of National Geographic’s Top 25 destinations for 2020! Instead, we find ourselves trying to survive the temporary collapse in the tourism industry, stay meaningfully connected with our global community, and support the local artisans and restaurants as much as we can.

After these long 6 weeks, we have launched a campaign of support. When the time comes, we want to be ready to welcome you back to Mostar. Take a moment to recall our time together: Sheva sharing his personal experiences of the Bosnian Wars of the 1990s and answering your questions about Mostar’s political situation, hearing the history and tradition of the Old Bridge while walking along the narrow cobblestone paths with Haris, or listening to the tap tap tap of the coppersmiths while exploring Kujundžiluk with Alina.

Can you support Sheva Walking Tours through these challenging times? (Venmo, Paypal) As a token of our deep appreciation, we will send you a short sleeved Sheva Walking Tours t-shirt for a contribution of 26 USD or more; contribute 36 USD or more and choose from a short or long-sleeved shirt. Short-sleeved t-shirts are available in white and red in both unisex and female sizing. Long-sleeved shirts are available in white with unisex sizing. Check out our pictures.

For the time being, we are only able to ship within the United States. (Our t-shirts our stuck there!). We will expand our shipping once restrictions are lifted.

In the meantime, we are creating and curating ways to share Mostar with you and new friends from afar. We look forward to welcoming you back to our beautiful hometown and country soon.

Paypal: paypal.me/shevatours

Venmo: @Andria-Wisler

If you would like a t-shirt, please provide your mailing address and contact information with t-shirt size and preferences through Paypal or Venmo.

As always, feel free to contact us directly by email, social media, or phone (Viber/WhatsApp).

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +387 63 866 498

Thank you so much for your support!

Hvala velika na podršci!

#sheva_walking_tours mostar mostarfreewalkingtours bih visitbih futuretravel

0 notes

alicescripts · 8 years ago

Text

Part 2, Chapter 3: Abandoned Places

Once, in a better life, Alice and I took a very different kind of roadtrip. From Dubrovnik in Croatia through the Serbian region of Bosnia to Mostar. We got to the rental place, and the man at the counter drove us in his personal car several miles to a residential neighborhood overlooking the sea. There, above a stunning panorama of water and sky, he showed us a beat-up sedan with bald and cracking tires.

“We’re driving over the mountains,” you said. “It’s supposed to rain later. This car will kill us.”

The man assured us that this was the only automatic transmission available in southern Croatia. Neither of us knew how to drive manual. Not yet. I looked to you to see your decision. You were always the driver then. I didn’t like driving. I do now. Or maybe I’ve just convinced myself I do.

Alice Isn’t Dead, by Joseph Fink. Performed by Jasika Nicole. Produced by Disparition.

Part 2, Chapter 3: Abandoned Places.

Every time I think of hiding somewhere, of giving up my search into Bay and Creek, I see a black boat sinking in the mouth of a river. And so, I went back to looking, and it wasn’t long before I again found the woman who led the Bay and Creek army that night in the Thistle Town. She works the same routes we all do. Once again, I followed. She’s the first and only and best lead I have, and this time I wasn’t about to lose her.

Following is difficult in a truck. While it is ubiquitous on our highways it’s also – well, pretty visible. So instead of following, I did my best to anticipate her. I cut across her likely route on a road that a truck should not drive on. Sprays of mud, clattering over gravel, and then out onto a narrow highway. There was a field of grass, and in the center of that field was a single tree, frothing over with white flowers. The sunlight hit the three just right, and it seemed to catch fire, every flower a frame. It was mesmerizing, a reminder that the miraculous can emerge suddenly from the happenstance, and in places you would never expect, like an overgrown field somewhere in Georgia.

I pulled over behind a windbreak, my leg bobbing restlessly against the bottom of the steering wheel, but she didn’t come by. It had been way too long for delays or stops. She took a different route, maybe, or I don’t know what. God damn it! Not again!

So the two of us, Alice and I in our other better life, got in our beat-up sedan with bald tires, a car that later in Mostar would be described to us as the nicest car in Bosnia, and we drove toward the border.

That stretch of coast is a thin skin of beach on the spine of mountains. Soon we entered Republica Srpska, the Serbian region of Bosnia. We drove across a gorgeous plane of canals and farms, bounded by the ever-present jag of the mountains, like the walls of a great room that’s ceiling was sky and that’s carpet was crops and Eastern Orthodox cemeteries. A room in a house where many murders had happened. A room haunted by its ghosts.

As we got further through the Serbian region, burning trash piles lined the highway. There was no infrastructure for managing trash, just mile after mile of squalor and smolder. Half-finished houses, not rebuilding from the war but slow construction as extra money comes up. A savings account made of bricks.

All along the road were stands offering honey. There didn’t seem to be a single house in the region that didn’t have a table with a few jars for sale. We didn’t buy any honey.

I went down the road looking for – what? I’m not a frontier tracker and highway isn’t signs and twigs, it’s a truck on a road. We don’t leave tracks. Or we don’t as long as we stay on the road. But about two miles down the highway, I saw the unmistakable gouges of big rig wheels in a muddy shoulder, and two wide ruts leading through the grass toward a collapsing farmhouse, slowly being swallowed by the fields it was built to oversee.

I parked the truck down the road a bit and then walked to the tracks, following them across the field. They arrived at the house and then stopped. I didn’t see any return tracks, I sure didn’t see a truck. Other than the tracks, I wouldn’t have guessed a human being had passed onto this property in months, maybe years. Not even squatters to bring life and light and language into these leaning walls.

All through Bosnia and Croatia, there had been abandoned farmhouses, but not like this. This is a house that naturally died. Those were victims of war. Families forced out by their neighbors because they were Croat, or because they were Bosniak or because they were Serbian. Imagine one day, all of your neighbors, maybe families that had been your family’s neighbors for hundreds of years, tell you that you are no longer their neighbor. Maybe they don’t tell you with words but with violence. And then, imagine being those neighbors or their children, now 20 years past the war, and still every day stepping out the door to go to work and passing the empty concrete eyes of a dead house, a reminder that you, or your parents, once performed a kind of horrible magic trick, disappearing members of your community. What do you feel, seeing the evidence of what you have done? Shame? Pride?

I picked through the abandoned farmhouse. Rubble and sagging walls, dust on everything. A few cans in the kitchen, corn and beans, a half-empty Yoohoo container. In the bedroom a mattress, mostly rotting away, leaning on a wall. I was afraid to climb the stairs, I wouldn’t have trusted them to hold. There were no disturbances in the dust. Back in the kitchen, I ran my finger along a filthy countertop, and it came back clean. I leaned in closer to the surface and felt the slow dawning. The dust was painted on. I checked other parts of the house: real dust. I went back to the kitchen: painted on, all of it.

So I started over, examining inch by inch every surface in the kitchen. Which is how I found, smudged on top of the painted-on dust, fingerprints on one of the dials on the stove. I turned it and the floor went. The entire kitchen was an elevator, and it carried me down into darkness, and then back into a bright even light. The dusty disused kitchen was now at one end of a clean steel corridor.

We descended from the Serbian region to a Bosniak town in a valley, following a truck. A policeman, standing in the road just before the border between the regions, waved the driver to a stop and we stopped behind him. The driver hopped out and started chatting with the officers. They lit up cigarettes. No one seemed to be in a hurry to move. We couldn’t go around them, and so we waited. Soon there was a long line of traffic behind us. Other people started to get out of their cars, chatting, peeing into bushes right by the road, smoking. All of them were men. We sat in our car, trying to make our gender, our nationality, our car that now seemed too nice, trying to make all of that as small as possible. As distant and irrelevant to all these men’s lives as the hawk I could see riding the thermals out over the valley. And then the driver nodded to the officers, hopped back into the truck and moved again. Everyone got back in their cars. That evening we reached Mostar, where the bullet holes still riddle building, because the buildings no longer have owners.

There is a hill overlooking town, where the Catholic snipers once spent months murdering their Muslim neighbors trapped against the river below. When the war was over, the Catholics built a several-story tall cross on that hill. A gesture that could only be taken as one last act of aggression. This is what we murdered you for, it said.

We observed this with our curious foreign gazes, and the next day we drove on to Split, back on the coast, and ate mediocre pizza looking at an extraordinary harbor sunset.

The steel corridor led to a security door. The door was open. Beyond that was a staircase set into the wall of a vast, man-made cavern, stretching out for maybe half a mile, teeming with equipment and people. The scale of it settled in my stomach as it churned. The woman I had been following was waiting at the stairs. “We have cameras all over the house, you know,” she said. “You weren’t going to be able to stumble into this without us noticing.”

“So what happens now?” I said. I didn’t waste time asking questions she wasn’t going to answer. “Keisha, why do you keep putting me in this position?” she said. She looked genuinely sad and frustrated. “I don’t want to do anything to you. I like you, Keisha. I like Alice too, and God knows that woman loves you.” “Don’t you fucking dare talk about Alice to me,” I said.

She tapped her fingers on the railing, nodded. “To answer your question, what should happen now is that I kill you. There can’t be any risk of this location being discovered, and we both know you’ll broadcast the story. You can’t help yourself.

“What is actually going to happen,” she said, “is I am going to let you go, and you are never going to come back here. You are going to respect that I am putting myself completely on the line by doing this. You’re gonna realize that I am not doing this to manipulate you, but because you seem like a good person, and there is just not enough of those.”

She guided me onto the elevator, stepped back, pressed a button on the wall. As the kitchen lifted me back toward the world, she said: “Drive your truck. Live your life. There’s no freedom in uncovering these secrets, I promise.” And I was back in an empty house, no sign that any other people had been here for a long, long time.

She may be right. Probably is. But as you know by now Alice, I’m not looking for freedom.

Bay and Creek have seemingly limitless resources. Not just to build that place, but to staff it and manage it and above all keep it secret. Who is funding this war against the Thistle Men, and by extension, against the US government that is allied somehow with Thistle? And if they have that place, then what else? What other secrets buried in places where no one looks, because they are places that tell a story about ourselves we don’t want to hear?

All over this world, abandoned places. Houses wasting away into the tall grass. Office buildings with shattered windows. Churches with empty pews. And this is leaving aside the places that have been buried or drowned or otherwise destroyed. Once a hundred years ago in Poland, there was a wooden synagogue in the countryside and the inside was painted in a dizzying profusion of color. It was truly a monumental work of art. That synagogue was burned.

What hides in the abandoned places? Some holed pain and regret, crimes forgotten and not forgotten. Others hold human beings, living there because they can’t live anywhere else, because they need to hide or because they just need a roof over their heads, even if that roof has holes and a slant to it.

Concrete farmhouses in the Balkans hold a story no one wants to tell anymore. And now, warrens and mazes, secret elevators. In the hollow places, in the abandoned places, there is movement and whispers.

As I returned to my truck, settled back into that familiar seat, put my hand on that familiar wheel, a shadow fell across me. Perhaps she had changed her mind about killing me, or had been overruled.

I did nothing. There was nothing I could do at that point.

“I’ve been following you for a while,” Sylvia said. It had only been a few months since we broke into a police station together, but it felt by years. I was surprised by her youth. She was more of a child than I had remembered. She hopped up from the back and grinned at me.

“Oh! You startled the shit out of me!” I told her. “Ah, I’m sorry about that.” She leaned her head on my shoulder for a moment, then sat back in her seat. “I need you to help me,” she said. “I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important.

She’s sleeping now. It’s late, and she isn’t the one who has to be awake in order for us both not to die in a horrible crash. I had no idea how much I missed the company until I had it. And besides, how could I resist her request? It’s not every day that you get to solve a murder mystery.

For now, from your loving wife, carrying a sleeping child safely through this unfriendly night, Goodbye Alice. Stay safe.

Knock knock.

[left speaker] Who’s there?

[right] Interrupting cow.

[left] Interrupting cow who? Hello?

[right] Pastures cut through by water and windbreaks, but otherwise it’s unbroken grass for a long time now. But who said different was important or good? Who said we needed things to be (untedious)? Who are we to expect better from a world that isn’t? Who are we? Does anyone know? Has anyone checked on that? [exhales] OK.

[left] Are you still the-

[right] Moo.

#alice isn't dead #alice isn't dead transcripts #chapter 2 #abandoned places

42 notes · View notes

mostar-lift · 11 days ago

Text

Upgrade Your Warehouse with Heavy-Duty Loading Dock Ramps

Are you looking for a reliable loading dock ramp? Mostar Lift offers top-quality loading dock ramps designed to ensure smooth, safe, and efficient loading and unloading of goods. Built to handle heavy-duty use in warehouses and industrial settings, our ramps are durable, easy to install, and customizable to fit your specific needs. Whether you need a stationary or portable solution, Mostar Lift has the perfect loading dock ramp to enhance your operational efficiency. Visit Mostar Lift for more details and find the right ramp for your business!

#lift #scissor lift #Loading Dock Ramps #Mostar lift #hydraulic scissor lift

0 notes

mostarlift · 4 months ago

Text

A Hydraulic Scissor Lift is necessary for industries or individuals needing an efficient, safe, and durable lifting solution. Whether for that versatile hydraulic scissor platform or a specialized lift, there appears to be a model designed to fit any application. Here at MOSTAR LIFT, we are here to walk you through the process of an investment in a reliable, high-capacity lift.

#Hydraulic Scissor Lift

0 notes

ajmaljsr-blog · 8 years ago

Video

Top 10 Hottest Fitness Models On Instagram

We as a whole realize that Instagram is crammed with pictures of flavorful sustenance that make you need to eat all the more, yet the same applies to wellness. Wellness is an undeniably prominent subject among Instagram pictures. All things considered, physical and mental wellness are keys to a more beneficial way of life. In this way, it's unquestionably an or more in case you're physically fit and solid. All individuals who are physically fit eat healthy, dispense with medications and liquor, and get adequate measures of rest each day. In case you're not a rec center kind of individual, you can take part in outside exercises, for example, bicycling, strolling, climbing, angling, and swimming. In any case, ending up noticeably more dynamic can give an extensive variety of positive advantages. Here's a rundown of the 10 most sultry wellness models that a huge number of individuals are following. On the off chance that you don't have a clue about their names, at the present time is a decent time to recall them. 10. Jenna Renee Webb Jenna Renee Webb is a wellness demonstrate from Ormond, Florida. Jenna attracted some thoughtfulness regarding herself when she was quickly hitched to UFC contender Travis Browne from 2015 to 2016. In July of 2015, Jenna took to Instagram to share photographs indicating wounds on her body supposedly caused by Browne.We question that there were any hard emotions amongst Jenna and her ex, however who knows? It's not time to guess about their own lives, however. Jenna is a hot young lady who is alright with demonstrating bunches of skin. She likely won't have an issue finding another man.

09. Michelle Lewin Michelle Lewin is a wellness display from Maracay, Venezuela. She bloomed from the young lady nearby who worked at a Venezuelan facility to one of the greatest stars in the wellness business. She is presently situated in Miami, Florida. Michelle might be on the petite side as she just stands at 5-foot-4 and weighs 125 lbs, yet she has the perfect body estimations of 36-25-35. She's faultless and she knows it. Online networking has hoisted her popularity. Michelle has been named as "Miss Worldwide" and for good reasons. Her fans comprise of both guys and females. Notwithstanding her expanded distinction as of late, despite everything she has that young lady nearby demeanor. She's stunning all around. She's a model, as well as a great good example for individuals to turn upward to.

08. Sendi Skopljak

Sendi Skopljak is a Swedish wellness display who additionally acts as a wellness, form, and travel blogger. She was initially conceived in Mostar, Bosnia. She has looks that slaughter, yet she additionally has brains, accomplishing decent evaluations. She learned at the University of Boras in Boras, Sweden. She has the from time to time mix of magnificence and brains, which is a positive thing. Sendi has a day by day routine of eating solid and preparing hard. She generally awakens feeling 100 percent inspired to bet everything for 30 days. It's misty where all that inspiration originated from, yet whatever she's doing is unquestionably helping her tidy up decent. Three of the best words to depict this Swedish shocker are lovely, canny, and fit.

07. Caitlin Rice

Caitlin Rice is an American-conceived wellness model and fitness coach who as of now lives in Canada. There's a significant story behind this amazingly wonderful lady. Caitlin grew up as an armed force minx who always moved from place to put. She started her demonstrating profession in Atlanta, Georgia at age 16. In any case, design displaying took an enthusiastic toll on her as she was very nearly building up a dietary problem and getting to be noticeably malnourished. Online networking has absolutely helped Caitlin get a great deal of consideration. Many individuals like her presents in connection on good dieting, serious exercises, and shake hard abs. She likewise has a truly charming face. She's completely shocking.

06. Sarah Stage

Sarah Stage is a Los Angeles-based model and wellness master. She is of Costa Rican and European plunge. She entered an Elite Models look in secondary school and completed as a runner-up. She at that point set out to Milan, Italy to seek after a vocation as a top of the line form show. Sarah is hitched to James Hunter. In 2015, she attracted thoughtfulness regarding herself by posting photographs and recordings of her working out while pregnant with her first tyke. She obviously overlooked all the frightful remarks pointed towards her via web-based networking media. She additionally began a blog called Stage Mama to share her awesome adventure of pregnancy and parenthood.

05. Jen Heward

jen Heward is a wellness model and swimming outfit contender from the United States. She's best known for her work out schedules, slim down aides, and magnificence and way of life recordings on YouTube. She's likewise a guaranteed health specialist, mark represetative for Stance Supplements, and co-proprietor of the Life Altering Fitness rec center close by her fiancee Zach Striplin. Jen is a blonde stunner, however not at all like a great many people in the wellness business, she's all the more a delayed prodigy than whatever else. She understood her energy for wellness at age 16 when she worked at low maintenance work almost a rec center, however didn't start investigating eating routine and nourishment until after her 21st birthday. 04. Jessica Arevalo

jessica Arevalo is a wellness demonstrate, proficient swimsuit competitor, fitness coach, and nourishing mentor from California. Today, she has more than 660,000 supporters on Instagram. Be that as it may, life hasn't generally been a simple for the 32-year-old. Before discovering accomplishment in the wellness business, she battled with wretchedness and knocked back the firewater to self-cure her uneasiness. Jessica got her begin in lifting weights utilizing the Arnold style of preparing that her dad showed her. She in the end hit the rec center five days a week and put accentuation on lifting weights to pack on the muscle to her petite edge (5-foot-1, 115 lbs). The thorough exercises helped her build up a solid attitude, which enabled her to achieve a tip top level of two-piece rivalry.

03. Tana Ashlee

Tana Ashlee is a wellness model and fitness coach hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada. She has done in her wellbeing and wellness profession by owning a web based preparing program, Train With Tana. You can browse three unique designs—a feast design, supper and wellness design, or an exercise design—for a month to month charge. she battled on attempting to discover inspiration. Presently, she's utilizing her own battles to help other people. She's absolutely genuine about making wellness more receptive for ladies with the goal that they can live more joyful, more advantageous lives. Tana is verification that on the off chance that you invested the energy, exertion, and diligent work in the exercise center and the kitchen, you can turn into an effective wellness show with 1.5 million Instagram supporters.

02. Paige Hathaway

Paige Hathaway is a wellness demonstrate from Minnesota. She went from being a residential area young lady to one of the greatest wellness symbols on the Internet. She grew up with a "harsh adolescence." She lived in a trailer with her alcoholic father who lived off of nourishment stamps. Paige maintained a few sources of income to help herself through school. She entered her initially appear, the Ronnie Coleman Classic, in the wake of being drawn nearer by a fitness coach at the rec center she worked out in. Her wellness profession took off from there.Paige fought through numerous issues as a tyke and turned into a wellness symbol with a hot swimming outfit body.

01. Alice Matos Alice Matos is a wellness model and swimsuit competitor from Florianopolis, Brazil. She's a Brazilian sensation who turned into an easily recognized name in the wellness business. She at present has 1.6 million Instagram devotees. As should be obvious, she has amassed a strong measure of supporters who are anxious to perceive what she does next. Beside wellness displaying, Alice fills in as an IFBB columnist and was included in the HardcoreLadies blog. She additionally propelled her own dress line Labellamafia. She plainly tries to be simply the best form.

#Hottest Fitness Models On Instagram #hottest fitness models

1 note · View note

thedailykrompeer-blog · 8 years ago

Text

What a break will do to you

Winter break. Or just break, considering many of us live in the southern hemisphere of this planet. Living at a college abroad can be stressful, and an official, month-long break can be a blessing after a term full of new experiences

and demanding coursework. It can also, however, coincide with the scary moment in which you realize you have to leave behind – even if for only a very short amount of time – people and places you learned to love, and have to go back to a world that you may not recognize or feel comfortable in anymore.

Going home after term 1 was traumatic, for me. Mostar had given me kinds of friendships that I had never imagined could exist and I was afraid to leave that all behind. I thought that leaving would mean certain change and really didn’t miss Italy; I did and still do feel bad when I admit this to myself, but I didn’t even miss my family. As the month passed though, I realized I was afraid to return for the same reason: I had spent a wonderful Christmas and New Year with my parents and sister (and who could forget Kenzie, my cute little Lhasa Apso dog!) and I didn’t want anything to be different, ever. I wanted to be cared for by my mom, to drive around and sing to U2 songs with my dad, I wanted to watch funny YouTube videos with my sis and cuddle Kenzie all day long.

That’s when I realized there was no going back. Ready or not, I had been launched, by choice, into the adult world, where I have to control my own eating, sleeping and exercising habits, do my own laundry, be responsible about dates, assignments and meetings, etc. And things back home were going to change, no doubt about it. The world would not stop as I lived in another bubble. Life would go on, as it should. We tend to think that when things change, it is an entirely external phenomenon; but our own, individual lives move on as well, just as everything else does. We become different people, and sometimes the outside world stays the same; yet we still feel as if it is the world that is changing, and not us.

This break for me has been an opportunity to spend time with my family according to our tradition. I don’t know how much time it will take for traditions to change; I know it will, and knowing that helped me savor every little moment without fearing times to come.

This will be a collection of short reflections by the Newspaper CAS’s core members on their respective breaks. Maybe you will find yourself in one of them.

- Melanie De Vincentiis, Editor in Chief at The Daily Krompeer

Before going back to Denmark I had a strange feeling. A feeling that was surprisingly painful. I realized that I had not been active when it came to my friends and family. I had lived my life in Mostar and put all my focus on it. All those thoughts came to me while sitting on the plane where I became quite nostalgic. That’s what being at 10000m above sea level does to me. I started thinking about the past year and particularly about the 4 months I had spent in Mostar, and that led my thoughts into a nervousness about my future weeks. Would things have changed with my friends? Maybe even with my close family? Would it change for the better or for the worse? I came out of the plane and had my family waiting with smiles and hugs. All good. We came home and we had family time. All good. We talked until we went to bed. All good. My family had not changed their view of me, and I had not changed mine. It was perfect. When I thought about the Christmas party my friends had invited me to, I got more nervous. The image of me sitting alone at the dinner, with 25 people that I had slipped away from came as a nightmare in my daydreaming.

I was welcomed by 25 faces smiling from ear to ear. I went through my experiences with my friends and realized that they just did not understand. They tried, but no. Slowly, throughout the night, I managed to talk to all of them and I realized that fortunately they were the same as I had left them. They were as good as before and so was I. What I learned from going back home is that you shouldn’t worry, because you will stick together with the people that truly matter.

- Peter Anton Borring Balle, ‘18

This winter break was one of the worst winter breaks of my entire life.

A few days before the end of the first term I broke my leg in the stupidest way ever. I was reckless and dumb; I guess that some people are just born clumsy and dull-witted. The injury was so bad that I had to undergo surgery to get it fixed and I left Mostar with a huge cast and a 15cm-long scar on my leg. Those 5 days spent at the hospital felt like a century, as if the hour-hand was going backwards. On top of that, the hospital food was way worse than the canteen food; in fact, I missed the canteen food.

When I was finally able to go back to Croatia, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my chest. After arriving home I was treated like a king. Every morning my mom would knock on my door and bring me breakfast in bed with a cup of coffee. I spent most of my days binge-watching TV series because I had to catch up with everything that I had missed. However, after a few days it felt so tedious and boring. I was stuck in my bed, unable to go anywhere because of my leg and most of my friends were either busy or were out of the country. My dog, Dita, was always there for me. When playing with her I didn’t thinking about anything, my brain was empty. She hates my crutches, though; every time I would try to go somewhere she would start barking because she probably thought that I would hit her with my crutches. Such a silly girl.

Because I was unable to go anywhere or do anything, and because most of my close friends were not in the city, I talked to my parents quite a bit. Also, I am quite sure that no one’s 18th birthday party was as lame as mine was! Because of the broken leg, I had to stay at home and I had to talk to old fashioned, not liberal guests and I had to put on a mask just to not have to explain myself to them. Why would I stress myself out and get pores because of some ignorant fools? Talking to them was quite interesting; however, I found out even more interesting and shocking things about my dad. One day he told me that he has nothing against homosexuals, how he likes our gay cousin and how gay people are completely normal to him; he did, however, mention that he believes that trans people are nothing like cisgender people and that no matter how hard they try, they will never be. I have tried to explain my views to him but he just wouldn’t listen. The very next day I found out that he supports the whole idea of the Holocaust and that he thinks that it was a good thing: I was speechless. I immediately quit the conversation and left the room. A million things were going through my head. What kind of person am I living with? Why is he so ignorant and stupid? Why could anyone with a normal, functioning brain believe that the Holocaust was a good thing?

After that day, I spent most of my time in my room and with my dog. I got quite mad at my stubborn father because no matter how hard I tried, he just would not listen to me. I started questioning the people in my life at home and even myself.

- Mihael Dasovic, ‘18

After an exhausting term marked by endless nights filled with so much work and many assignments, I could not wait to go back home. I want to be honest with you - I did not do much this winter break. But everything that happened was exactly what I needed: relaxing nights in my cozy, warm room, drinking tea with my friends, going out on the snow and fooling around like a little child. It seems to me that I just forgot how beautiful and how important those small things are, and how happy they actually make me.

Out of all those stunning experiences, I choose the New Year’s Eve to talk about, because it’s a night that I will truly remember. I welcomed 2017 with my best friend as we were freezing outside at a Christmas market in my city. The Christmas market was poorly organized: a big Christmas tree with almost no decorations, a few stands with mulled wine and tea, and a rock band playing. Yet, I would not change it for anything else in the world.

I assumed that it would be a bad night because it was not as luxurious as some other events, but I was wrong. Initially, I did not want to go because it was extremely cold outside, and I thought it would be boring. I saw all these people travelling and going to fancy parties, and I guess I was just not satisfied with the plan I had made with my friend. Maybe it was childish and immature to make such assumptions, but I unconsciously did. And I feel bad about it now, because this extraordinary New Year’s Eve proved me wrong. It turned out to be one of the most beautiful nights of my life and a perfect way to end last year.

It was the first time after a long period that we had a program for the NYE in my city and everyone was very excited. There were a lot of people and the atmosphere was truly great. We did not care about the poor decorations or about the cold anymore. With the amazing music, fireworks and the excitement of everyone present, this New Year’s Eve turned out to be more than special. After counting down loudly with my fellow citizens, looking at the joy on people’s faces, kids clapping and excitingly screaming once fireworks began, hugging my best friend and celebrating with her, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I realized that I do not need a fancy party, nor an expensive trip and that I would probably not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed this small, but memorable event. It made me realize that this is what counts. These surreal moments that I will remember forever and that will always remind me of home are what actually matter in life.

- Amina Basic, Co-Director at the Daily Krompeer

#melanie.devincentiis #amina.basic #peter.anton.borring.balle #mihael.dasovic #winterbreak #reflections #featured

0 notes

thewahookid · 5 years ago

Link

The Youth Festival will take place - August 1-6, 2020!! July 14, 2020, Dear Apostles of Our Lady of Medjugorje: When Cathy awoke, she immediately felt a lightening of her spirit. Something had been lifted. She felt a new joy! Later that day we saw the announcement: the Croatian Bishop of Hvar, Mons. Petar Palic (who was eight years old when Our Lady started appearing in Medjugorje) had just been named the new Bishop of Mostar! Cathy believes grace for conversion through Our Lady's presence is now going to explode... We have a lot of reasons to rejoice. The Permanent Papal Visitor just returned to Medjugorje and a great apostle of Our Lady of Medjugorje, Fr. Daniel Klimek was just ordained to the priesthood. Fr. Daniel's series "Living the Message" and his "Fruit of Medjugorje" episodes (# 009 and # 227) can still be viewed on Mary TV. Oxford University Press published Fr. Daniel's PhD dissertation on the medical studies conducted on the visionaries. His work brings empirical scientific evidence in support of the authenticity of Our Lady's apparitions in Medjugorje. (And the world's most prestigious academic publisher insisted the word "Medjugorje" be in the book's title.) Remembering a prophecy given by Fr. Michael Scanlan in 1976, that it appears is being fulfilled today, a Catholic evangelist recently asked: "What is it going to take to wake up souls? What is it going to take to shake us out of our complacency, our luke warmness, our indifference to the things of God, and our worldliness, and to re-center our lives on Jesus? ...What is it going to take?" It's going to take conversion! Conversion comes only by grace. Conversion is offered from Heaven! We've all been watching the devil play his hand. Now let's watch the "ace up the sleeve" of the Father for these times. "Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!" (St. Pope John Paul ll, November 24, 1990). Cathy wrote about it in today's reflection. Here is the link: https://marytv.tv/july-14-2020-reflection-the-grace-of-conversion/ Remember, you can now share all of Mary TV's videos with others through Facebook, twitter and email! Also, this year's youth festival will take place from August 1 to 6, in Medjugorje - And since the boarders are still closed only the young people from the local area will be able to attend. But the entire event will be live-streamed as usual through Mary TV! We will be very busy that week!! Thank you and God bless you! Denis Nolan Consider joining Mary TV's team by pledging a monthly donation: To become a supporter in the work of Mary TV through a donation, click on the "Donate" popup in the upper right hand corner of our home page to find the best way for you to donate to Mary TV. Thank you!!! www.marytv.tv

0 notes