Bosnia | Teen Ink

Bosnia

December 11, 2014
By Anonymous

I’m around a different culture every day in my house. My family is of Bosnian origin, we speak the language and we even visit family in Bosnia. Our last visit there was the summer of 2013. One thing is for sure, it was very a very different and riveting experience.                                                                                                                     When we first arrived there, I could tell that this was going to be different than living in my house in Georgia. Around houses in Bosnia, there looked like an area for farming and planting things, which a lot of people do in the town where my parents were born. It’s weird to see that happening there, because no one does that where I live in Georgia. A major difference was how houses looked in Bosnia compared to the one here. Over there, there are many opening on houses, and sometimes you can find that the balcony can be even without a barrier. Some houses are very old and covered with many bullet holes, and shelling damage from a war that happened in Bosnia in the 90’s. You obviously don’t see that in Atlanta. Even if you did, it would be an old abandoned house that no one has lived in for a long time. Also, about half of the population in Bosnia is Muslim, so that’s different from Georgia, where there are a lot of Christians. There are a few big mosques in town where people go to pray, and there are a few churches as well.  On the mosque, the speaker - Imam - prays in the morning over a microphone so literally everyone in the town can hear it. You don’t hear that every day, especially since the town I visit in Bosnia is way smaller than my hometown here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Another thing I noticed in Bosnia was how the people there spent their free time. Everyone goes out to downtown to hang out with their friends and family. Every night there are a lot of people there randomly walking up and down the street, and there’s even more on the weekends. I found it funny how you can go to one of the restaurants, coffee shops, and just get something to drink and that would be normal. In fact, a lot of the places downtown are not really restaurants, just places to sit down, have a drink or coffee and a nice chat with your friends. I also think everyone there is really nice. I mean, they are very nice. They are so nice to the point where you don’t even believe it. It’s very inspiring to see so many people who look so happy, smiling and laughing, in a country that only 20 years ago was in the middle of a terrible war. Bosnia doesn’t have the same lifestyle as America. There are some people who smoke very freely around children and others in public places, when that is very dangerous. I had noticed that in Bosnia, when communicating, people are talking louder than what I’m used to hearing. That’s considered okay there because they are just expressing themselves. Children also can go to the store freely without any problem to buy something they want or that their parents want. Another point is that when I would be walking around with my cousin that lives there, people would figure out that I’m not from there. Maybe it was because I dressed differently, acted differently, and probably because I had an accent when I had spoken Bosnian to someone.  There are a lot of homeless people walking around and asking for money. The saddest part is that some of them are kids who look very young. People even turn them down and tell them to “Get lost, kid!”. I certainly don’t encounter a homeless person while I’m eating and spending time with my family in America.                                                                                                                                In conclusion, Bosnia’s culture is way different than the culture here in the U.S. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Bosnia, in my opinion, is equally as amazing as Georgia. Well, except for the no air conditioning part… 


The author's comments:

My family originated from Bosnia, and I'm the only one in my very very big family who was not born there. I love visiting Bosnia over the summer because I enjoy seeing my relatives and also seeing new things I don't see in America.


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