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Thursday, October 15, 2015

At the Car Wash

Our apartment building.  We're on the 3rd Floor.
First of all, I really think I said "molim", which is like "you're welcome" in English to the clerk at the store when we checked out.  I did wonder why she snickered a little as I walked out the door.  Maybe I did say "volim".  Oh well!

We are enjoying this Eastern Europe City living.  Every time we go out into the town we find ourselves engaging in conversation with some stranger.  Many times asking "kako se kaze ...?" That means "how do you say...?"  Or "gdje je...?" which means "where is...?"  Most of the time people are very helpful even though they are probably thinking, "glup Amerinaci" (stupid Americans).  Slowly but surely we are picking up on the language.  By the time we finish our mission, we expect to be speaking like a 4-year-old!!


Normal looking car wash stall, right?
I washed the car on Monday.  There is a car wash right next door to the apartment.  I had tried it the week before and with some very vague instructions from the car parts store clerk up the street where I bought some wax/polish, I pretty well had it figured out.  I decided to vacuum first.  There were absolutely no understandable  instructions on the vacuum.  I asked a patron "Koliko Kuna?" which I think means "how much money".  He said "Dva Kuna".  Success!!  Someone understood me and I understood his response!



The vacuum.  2 Kuna for 5 min.
If in trouble, push bottom button.
Top button: soap. Second button: rinse.  Third button: wax.  Fourth button: demineralized voda rinse,  Bottom button: STOP.






Buildings on the river
 Went for a walk by one of the two rivers that run through town.  It is only a few blocks from our stan (apartment).  With all of the rain we have been getting the river is quite high.  We are impressed with the green space and parks in town.
Some of the local wildlife

It seriously rained for two straight days over the weekend.  What a beautiful rain.  One that a Kansas wheat farmer would really appreciate.  Ponedjeljak (Monday) was nice so we took advantage of it and got out for a couple of hours.

Mary and her camera
Our walk in the park
 We met L near the river when I asked "Kako se kaze" as I pointed to the swans.  She answered me "labudov" and broke into a very good conversation in English.  Must have been my accent that gave me away.  She was sweet and friendly.  That is typical of the people we are meeting once we get them engaged in a conversation.  It is easy to love the Hrvatski ljudi (Croatian People).

Entrance to Karlovac Branch Building
Tuesday night we had our first English Language Class over at the Church building.  We met another M.  Our friend M1 couldn't make it tonight. We sat in with the Sister Missionaries as they taught.  M was good and we learned a lot of Croatian by sitting with him.  He also had good information about the city.  He is native and loves his town.

The Church is renting about half a floor on the second level of a building a block from our apartment.  It is very adequate until the branch is large enough to apply for a building of its own.

That's it for now!!  Thanks for visiting our blog!


2 comments:

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  2. Oops, looks like I don't know how to comment :D
    Quite the adventure! I love the new theme you guys put on here too. Keep up the awesome work on here, seriously. I love these posts :)

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