High Tension

My job happens to keep me on the bus for many long minutes of the day.  In this time, I really don't have anything else to do but think.  Recently, I decided that I should use one of these here blogs as a place to put up some of my reviews.  On one hand, it gives me a chance to write down some of the ideas that I've had regarding critics, but also allows other people to engage in a discussion based on what I've written.  I'll start off with a review of the movie Huate Tension (Aja, 2003; High Tension, US Title; Switchblade Romance, UK Title).

I've decided to split the review into two sections, the first will be a spoiler free critic of the overall picture, talking about what technical issues I can remember (some of these reviews will be written weeks after seeing the film).  The second part, which will be after the cut, will be a more in depth analysis of the movie, full of spoilers.  I'll focus on a small bit of the film to analyze, something that really stands out to me, and then post a few thoughts about other areas to analyze.  Hopefully, this will stimulate conversation about the film, as I've found that there are few places on the web that encourage film analysis.  Instead, I've mostly read crappy critiques that managed to completely skip over any social relavence the film may have had.  Now: on with the review.

Aja set out to make a film about tension, and he succeeded on all levels.  From the opening of the film, we are graced with a quickly ramping up of tension in many different forms, up until the final, climactic release at the end.  Every element of this movie is used to build that sought after, visceral tightening of gut as the tension build.  Every scene was smartly lit, clearly showing what needed to be seen, but masterfully hiding what shouldn't be.  The color palette was stark and grainy, with harsh pale colors from the outset, moving to stark blues, grays and blacks.  The acting was stellar, especially from Cecile de France, who had to carry most of the film on her own. 

The film follows the story of two college girls, Marie (de France) and Alexia (Meiwenn), who head out into rural France to get away from the distractions of the city so they can study.  Alexia's family recently (?) acquired a small farm (though they don't appear to actually farm), and the girls choose this to be their place of isolation.  Their plans are brutally interrupted, however, as the very night they arrive, a strange man barges into the home and murders the family.  Marie, having heard the assailant enter the house, manages to hide well enough so that he doesn't suspect her presence.  After killing Alexia's family, the stranger kidnaps Alexia, and Marie manages to hide away in the stranger's truck.  From the point in which the stranger shows up, the film focuses almost exclusively on Marie.

De France plays this role perfectly.  She manages to convey the terror and fear that she feels without any hint of over exaggeration. The subtle changes in her breathing, the slight turn of her lips and the corners of her eyes, convey how twisted and terrified she feels far better than any bit of dialog.  This type of role is difficult to pull off, since the actor has nothing to hide behind.  She only had herself, no dialog to explain the situation, no other actors to distract focus.  De France manages to bring us along with her as she goes from the aloof college student, to the terrified girl in the woods, and finally to the woman pushed just far enough to fight back with untold fury.  The rest of the cast members have such small parts in the film that their performances are largely forgettable.  Their lack of depth adds to their forgettability.  Philippe Nahon plays the antagonist well, however the character is only ment to be creepy, brutal and gross.

The violence is minimal, though incredibly brutal when it happens.  There are some very disturbing visuals when the killer first appears, and then later in the film, a length of barbed wire is put to devious purposes.  For splatter fans, the film doesn't disappoint.  However, some of the kills distracted from the overall feel of the film, and could have been handled better.  This would be my strongest complaint about this film.  Everything else was there, and well thought out.  The splatter, however, seemed forced, and in two locations elicited a small laugh of absurdity rather than a gasp of terror.

This is a very good film to watch if you're into that hard emotional rush.  There is no character development, and there doesn't need to be.  The movie holds up on its own with the lack of growth in the main characters, save the horrible experience they've lived through.  Additionally, there is a twist ending that has left a sour taste in many people's mouths.  I detail that ending after the cut, and so won't make any of my own comments in my non-spoiler section. 

( Read the Analysis Below )

A lot has happened in the past forever.

Getting married was the big one.
pictures here

So much has happened, that it would be silly to try to go back and detail everything. If you know me,ask. If you don't know me, ask anyway.

my lovely bride to be (marshnly) just posted a little update, and it made me realize i haven't posted here in a looooooooooooooooooong time. guess now's a perfect opportunity.

as she said over in her blog, the wedding plans are moving forward at a pretty fast rate. it's odd not being there to help her with all the foot work. on my end, i've been designing a little book we're going to be giving out as gifts, and also working on other elements of graphic design. the place markers, the invitations, all that jazz. also, i've been working with the headache that it gathering up paperwork. while getting the birth certificate was easy, getting the apostille is being a bit more of a headache. largely because it has to come from salem. on friday, i tried to go down there to deal with it myself. figured it'd be nice to get it and send it to maruška in the same day. turns out, amtrak is woefully unable to control its schedule, and a union pacific train caused us to be 1.5 hours late. so, i arrived in salem at 5 pm, when the offices closed down. ...yay... no matter, i'll just mail it in on monday, it's just the day was a little dampened by how late the train was.

fast started recently, and it's being nice going through it again. these times of spiritual rejuvenation are really nice to experience. wish i could have a cup of coffee, though...

here's some more translation. yay!

V Mačjem mestu imajo same mačje stvari in predvsem nobenega psa. Če pa se že kakšen prikaže, mora imeti nagobčnik. Ker psi ne marajo nagobčnikov, ne hodijo v Mačje mesto. Zato se po Glavni ulici sprehajajo samo mački in mačke. Hodijo na Mačje trg, kjer pri brkatem Marku kupujejo ribe iz mačjega morja.

Sredi trga stoji mačja občina. Tam uraduje mačji župan, ki mu pravijo Veliki maček. Kadar stopi na balkon, ga vsi mački na trgu pozdravijo. Veliki maček jim zmeraj sporoči kakšno prijetno novico. Včasih jim reče:

>>V nedeljo popoldne bo v mačjem parku velika tombola. Glavni dobitek je maček v žaklju.<<

Ali pa pravi:

>>Danes ob treh bodo v Velikem drevoredu mišje motorne dirke. Občinstvo prosimo, naj ne poje temovalcev.<<

Tako so dnevi v Mačjem mestu zelo veseli in čisto po mačjem okusu.

Maček Muri stanuje v Vrtni ulici, v stari hiši na robu veselga mesta. Zdaj ga ni doma, ker koraka po Glavni ulici proti Mačjemu trgu. Hotel je kupiti ribe, vendar si je premislil in bo raje kosil v gostilni PRI ČRNEM MAČKU. Da mu ne bo dolgčas, je sklenil, da bo na kosilo povabil prijateljico muco Maco. Ker stanuje Maca na drugem koncu mesta, ji mora Muri telefonirati.

English:
In Cat city, they have only cat things, and absolutly no dogs at all. If a dog shows up, he must have a muzzle. Because dogs don't care for muzzles, they don't walk in cat city. Therefore, only cats go walking on Main street, or strolling on through Cat Market where they can buy fish from Marky Whiskers that comes from the cat sea.

In the middle of the market stands the cat municipality. There is the office of the cat Mayor, who they call Big Cat. When he steps on the balcony, all the cats in the market greet him. Big Cat always reports to them the good news. He tells them:

"On sunday afternoon will be a big game of bingo in car park. The main prize is a cat in a bag."

Or he would say:

"Today at three o'clock in the Big Tree will be a mouse on motorcycle race. The municipality asks, there shouldn't be any eating of the racers."

So, every day in Cat city there is much joy, and everything is done to cat's tastes.

Maček Muri lives on Garden street, in the old house on the edge of town. He isn't home now, because he is walking along Main street, towards Cat market. He wanted to buy fish, but changed his mind and decided he'd rather eat at the Inn of the Black Cat. He decided to invite his friend, Muca Maca to lunch, so he wouldn't be bored. But because Maca lives on the other side of town, Muri must call her on the telephone.

one of the metheods by which i'm trying to learn slovene is through translation. i've been working on a children's book called Maček Muri, which is about a cat. that's about as much as i know right now. as part of the fun, i've decided to post the bits that i translate. now, time to place with tables:

Ko zapoje zvonček v uri, prebudi se maček Muri. S taco si oči pomane, vzdigne rep in hitro vstane. Mačjo posteljo prezrači mačjo suknjo pokrtači in na zajtrk se odrpravi v krčmo PRI VESELI KRAVI. Tam ga čaka stalna miza in točajka muca Liza, ki prinese lonček mleka in še mačji kruh od peka. Ob jedači poglobi se Muri v mačje časopise, vse prebere brez razlike, rudi vejice in pike. Potlej plača in čez cesto gre na sprehod v Mačje mesto

When the little bell in the clock began to sing Maček Muri woke up. With his paws, he rubbed his eyes He liften his tail and quickly got up. He aired out his bed, He brushed off his jacket, and on to breakfast he set off, to the tavern AT THE JOYFUL COW. There his table waited for him and the barmaid Liza the Cat, who brought a glass of milk and cat's bread from the baker. While eating, Muri thuroughly read the cat's newspapers, He read through all without difference, even the commas and the periods. Then he paid and crossed the street, he went for a walk to Cat City.

the story of Maček Muri will continue as i translate more. a funny thing about the dictionary that i have: it doesn't include words such as 'taca' or 'rep'. which is odd, since these words are 'paw' and 'tail' respectively. a dictionary that doesn't include paw and tail? what a crazy dictionary...

yea, so, long time no post...

school has started, and i've entered the fine world of academics at marylhurst. it's one hell of a school, lemme tell you. the advisors really advize (spelling police, shuttup. i like my 'z's.) and the classes are really flexable around a human schedule. i'm taking largely online courses, which is a switch for me. i'm not entirely used to this concept, and it'll probably take this full emersion routine to really get me into the swing of it. i'm largely unsure about the time i spend on the course. since i don't have any time in a classroom, i feel like i'm not doing anything if i just read and write papers. so, i tend to over extend myself in areas such as the discussion forums. it's not that i'm more active in the forums, it's that i put more effort into what i post in them. it's as though i'm writing 'mini-essays' on the forums. while this is a valid form of discussion, it seems to be a bit daunting to many people. forums have become very casual in recent trends. blogs are a fantastic example of that. i'm doing no editing at all, and my grammar is atrocious (well, little editing... grammar police, you can just sit in the corner with the spelling police). not only that, but i tend to write in the stream of conciousness, which means my narrative thread gets a little tangled here and there. the point is, it's casual. and that's what people seem to want when it comes to a 'discussion'. they don't necissarily want me to find references to support a well structured and formally organized thesis.

granted, this doesn't mean i'm necissarily going to stop writing the big discussion posts. i'll just try to keep them to a manageble size.

in other news, i seem to be on someone's radar. not sure who's, but they sure think i'm something. something enough to be worthy of cockeyed.com's 'elite comment strike force'. this guy has gathered up 1000 pledges from commenters, and is auctioning off their services to bloggers the world over. you have the opprotunity to bid for these 1000 comments to appear on your blog. to assist with this, he has setup a 'targets of opprotunity' page, to which i am linked. i wanna give a shout out to tomas for pointing this out to me. tom, i expect that check with the rediculously large sum of money we agreed upon for me to advertize you on my site in the mail soon.

the only downside i see to all this is that i should post more...

another chunk of time has gone by without any updates from me.

this was pointed out to me by my lovely lady maruska.

i told her that i wasn't going to update until i stated school in a two weeks, but i ended up deciding to update now.

i realized that i had a lot to update in the two short weeks i've already been home, and it deserves a separate update than school.

what's really irritating is that so much has happened in the past two weeks. it hardly feels like two weeks have gone by. it feels more like two months.

the major shift, of course, was returning home. luckily, i returned home to a family that really seems to understand what it means to go from one culture to another, and back again. i was a different person when i left the states last year, and there needs to be changes in the way i interact with the people immediately around me. it's nice to see that my family understands this, and is working on not putting me back in the same place i was when i left. a year is a long time, and it's very easy to resume the same role you had so long ago when you're with people who haven't seen where you've changed in the past year.

now, that being said, my family has seen me change in the past year. keeping regular contact with them allowed them to hear the change in my voice. there hasn't been many butting of horns, so to speak. not only that, but the change of living space helps, too. i think i helps my family see that they've changed just as much as i have. we're not falling to the same old roles as we had while i was growing up, because those roles simply don't exist anymore.

this is the crux of what i've been learning over the past two weeks. that, and i've also seen that the friends that i have are friends of quality. they've all seen the change in me once i returned, and they all seem to support the changes i've made. i find a great deal of strength in that, and it gives me hope for the friends that i made in slovenia. i feel the same connection with them as i have with my friends here, and i know they're people of quality.

it's similar to the relationship i have with my family. i should say, the relationship that my family has with itself. i spent the weekend down at the 'homestead', which is the new property that my grandfather recently bought. i was watching the relationship between him, my grandmother, my aunt and my mother. it was exactly the kind of relationship that i have with my parents, and the kind of relationship that i try to build with my friends; one of quality.

my grandfather is from the midwest. he grew up in the midwest, and spent most of his life in the midwest. it was interesting to watch him as he showed me around his new oregon home. the areas that he has found that really intrigue him. he really enjoys the forests in the area around oakridge, about 40 miles from eugene. now, these are the forests that i've grown up in, forests that i'm used to seeing. it was really enjoyable to watch him find so much pleasure in something that i find so normal. he kept commenting on how normal i must find the forests and vistas and things that he was showing me, and while it was true, i hope i was able to convey how little that impacted on my enjoyment of seeing the sights. i enjoyed watching him show it off, and seeing the wonderment in his eyes and person. it's something that i hope to see in maruska next year, when she moves to the states with me. slovenia has forests, but they're not oregon forests. oregon forests are something else, similar, but something of their own. i also enjoyed talking about the forests with dedi charli (maruska's name for him. i like it, so i'm gonna try to help it stick.) from the perspective of new viewer and long time explorer. he pointed out things that i had never really noticed before, and i was able to point out things that only come from long experiences with the woods. it was, in all, a truly enjoyable weekend.

let's see if i can get back into more regular posts.

just a quick note:

Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities should be required readind material for all adult Baha'is. heck, all Baha'is should have it. it is one of the greatest research sources in any Baha'i library. right next to your copy of Lights of Guidance should be a copy of Developing Distinctive Baha'i Communities. also, just because i feel like praising things today, Ocean is the coolest digital research library out there. if you want to search through any of the Sacred Texts of any of the worlds major religious, Ocean is your best friend. and, best of all, it's free!

i'm starting the process of signing up for classes at marylhurst. while flipping through the pages of the catalouge (yay for adobe pdf! virtual flipping is here!) when i found a rather unusual entry to the languages section. irish (if you don't beleive me, look. scroll down to 'cultural and historical studies'). now, i may be wrong, but i'm pretty sure that the national language of ireland was english. granted, most non-irish have a hard time understanding their particular accent, but i wouldn't go so far as to say it's a completely different language, needing an entire class for it. that being said, if i wasn't so focused on learning slovene, i might just switch to trying to learn irish. just so i could speak with a univeristy quality irish lilt. 'top o tha mornin' gov'na. yu'l nevah get me lucky charms.' see, i'm sure the grammer structure was all wrong, and i probably missed some of the characters in that little sentance. i need this class. i need it or will explode. that happens to me sometimes.

picture trail went crazy rencently, which is why i didn't provide a link to my bosnia pics. however, i've gone and put up the rest, and organalized them.

Sarajevo
Tunel Museum
Piramids
Baščaršija
Gravesites

also, i've uploaded a big batch of new pics from ljubljana

the sun fought back.

i spent the last weekend in poreč. it's a pretty little seaside town in croatia, on the istria peninsula. maruška and her family treated me to 4 days of lazy sunny weather, and three nights of stormy, rainy weather. it was actually a nice trade-off, with the hot sun in the day, and the rain in the night to cool the place off for the next morning. by the time we were up and ready for the day, the sun was strong enough to warrent some bathing in its rays, and so we would trek off down to the 'beach' and lay for bit, playing cards or reading. after about an hour or so, we'd enter the water for a swim. well, maruška would. i'd enter the water and panic, too nervous to adaquitly swim. turns out i'm not much of a swimmer. well, i'm not trusting of the sea, is a better explination. as long as i was near a wall, and it wasn't too wavy, i was more or less okay. by the end of the week, though, i managed to swim a good 200 meters. i was impressed.

the reason i quoted 'beach' up there is because istria isn't known for its soft, cushy, gets-stuck-in-places-it-shouldn't-be-stuck sandy beaches. it's gotz rocks. lots of em. this sets up the shore for a really amazing display of rocky outcroppings, where all sorts of nifty shore creatures live and play. it also makes the water a little tretorous to walk in, what with rocks being all over the place. the good people at the beach camps, however, solve this problem by making stretches of flat surfaces, with pourus but not painful rocks where you can rest and lay in the sun upon. they also go to great lengths to clean the entry points into the water. you don't have to worry too terribly much about urchins or other hidden nasties getting at you as you plunge into the water. this didn't stop me from brushing my foot across an urchin, of course, but it wasn't so bad. and besides, what would a trip to the sea be with coming across any sea life?

all in all, it was a fantastic weekend. i have a large number of pictures, but don't have them for uploading just yet. i do, however, have some of my bosnia pictures up (i think i broke the servers trying to get them all loaded. ;). go and enjoy.

pirates of the carribean is the awesome. pirates of the caribbean is an even better movie. and davy jones is my hero.

story tellers have been telling stories for so long, it's difficult to come up with truely unique ideas. at no point in time are you going to be able to tell a story that is single and stands so above everything else that it is truely new. i think this has to do a lot with cultural icons. things that we latch onto in the world of fantasy. i'm not going to go into a long discussion on the topic, largely cause most of it would be coming out of the seat i'm sitting upon, but i just wanted to put out some ideas on the topic. people are too easy to ridicule something because it is not new. because it is so easy to say, 'but they did that in _____ movie.' of course such and such movie is similar to _____ movie. that's because ____ movie was based on blah blah book, which in turn was inspired by so-and-so's legend, which has roots in that-mythological-tradition over there. the story elements of our culture are going to be repeated over and over again. it's not the plot elements that are new. it's not even the characters that are new. it's the way they are woven together and told that are new and exciting.

with the release of 'dead man's chest' it is very easy to corralate pirates to star wars (we're talkin' the good trilogy here). the plot points, the characters, even some of the action sequences, connect very closely together. but to write off pirates (and there are people out there who will), simply because there are considerable similarities in plot and character development to movies that have come before is to deny the art of what pirates is. it's a story. stories are ment to be told and retold.

this goes even for the movies that are getting re-made. people complain about a movie's remake, because if a movie is already there, why retell the story? well, the reason to retell the story is exactly that. it's a STORY. stories are MENT TO BE RETOLD. we'll be retelling stories for a long, long time. that's what history is. as long as we keep the essencial facts (plot points) we can pretty much do what we want. micheal bay pretty much proved that... (curse you micheal bay!)

anyhow, after all that, i have one last command: go see pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest!

i went to global the other night.

backstory: maruska and i hadn't been out with the 'gang' in a while, and kiki and jj had recently gotten back from spain. so, we all went out. met up at cutty sark, just for a loud chat and a drink (yay for water!). kiki and jj, however, were planning a little dancing after the loud chat at cutty sark. it being august, and most of ljubljana being, well, not open due to holidays, the only club in town is global.

global is, well, your averadge club. nothing terribly special about, except you get to ride in a really cool glass elevator to get to it. feels real vip. once inside, you're greeted by the usual crowd of 'pop' discotechque visitors. the music is essencially what you'd find on any pop radio station, except there is a better dj. it was nice to dance for a bit, even though the music was largely not my scene. not that i'm much of a dancer anyhow, how has much of a 'scene'. i pretty much move the same way to what ever music is playing.

in other news, you should go check out zefrank. not because show has anything particularly amazing this week, but merely because he's making witty video headline commentary so i don't have to.

over at digg, just about any political post is launching a hateful debate between extreemests who just seem to want to aggrevate each other. they complain about the system, what ever system, and don't seem to offer any sort of solution. i can say this for i sit high above them upon my mighty throne of gilt and gold, from where i glare down my nose at them, blaming, but offering no foreseeble solution.

now go here

Sun, Sep 3: LUFTHANSA, LH 6331
Operated by AUSTRIAN
From: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (VIE) map Departs: 7:00am
Gate: Check for latest information
To: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (FRA) map Arrives: 8:35am
Arrival Terminal: TERMINAL 1
Class: Economy Seat: 26F
Status: Confirmed Confirmation: 2QOWRH
Meal: Refreshment - Complimentary , Food for Purchase Smoking: No
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A321 JET Mileage: 385
Flight Time: 1 hour(s) and 35 minute(s)
Please verify flight times prior to departure

Sun, Sep 3: LUFTHANSA, LH 0468
From: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (FRA) map Departs: 10:05am
Departure Terminal: TERMINAL 1 Gate: Check for latest information
To: PORTLAND OR, OR (PDX) map Arrives: 11:30am
Class: Economy Seat: 40A
Status: Confirmed Confirmation: 2QOWRH
Meal: Meals Smoking: No
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A340 JET Mileage: 5213
Flight Time: 10 hour(s) and 25 minute(s)

a little hard to read, yes, but i'll boil it down for you. essencially, it means that lufthansa knowns how to travel through time. how is it that a flight that is supposed to last 10 hours and 25 minutes will leave at 10:05 am and arrive at 11:30 am? hmm? hmm?? if they know time travel, what other secrets are they hiding from the populous? replicators? the flying car? (they SAY they use Bernoulli's principle, but can we really trust them in light of their time travelling?) magic ponies? and, if lufthansa has time travel, they should really start investing in teleportation. now there's a worthy way to travel. i bet that's what the magic ponies are for...

you start to think up strange things when sick...

i've been wandering around geekologie this evening, and found an interesting article. now, i have trouble even imagining putting contacts in. i don't much like things in my eyes. i can't possible think how this could be even remotely comfertable... it'd be like having a heavy hair hanging out your eye all the time. but then, who ever said fashion was ment to be comfertable?

also, am i the only one who sees the connection? Sure, it only plays tennis now, but the brain of a brain transplant surgeon and robotics engineering genius, and watch out!

i've arrived home from my bosnian trip. train rides are long, but easily the best way to travel. you have freedom to move about the train pretty much at your will. most trains in the balkans allow smoking, which isn't so much a plus for me, but a lot of poeple seem to like it. also, since your on the train for so long, you get to talk to many different people as either they come and go, or you wander up and down the train. trains also provide weary travellers with the chance to wait in the dark at middle of nowhere stations after missing a connection, hoping that something comes along soon that atleast gets you close to your destination.

i made the train in sarajevo early, however, it left late. 28 minutes late. the train from sarajevo was a direct line to budapest. i, however, wasn't headed to budapest, which meant that i needed to change trains early on in croatia. by the time i made it to croatia, my connecting train had left. this ment i had to sit in the station for about another hour before i could catch an intercity train headed for zagreb. when the intercity train made it into zagreb, i had the chance to wait another hour until the zagreb-munich train. being tired and having not been able to sleep much on the way, i stumbled onto the train and sat down with a heavy sigh. i looked around, and noticed that the cabin was really, really, nice. the seats were leather, there was fake wood paneling on the wall, and outlets for computers. i thought to myself, 'man, these germans sure know how to make trains.' that's about the time the ticket guy showed up. appearantly, i was in first class. a short, stumbling move later, and i was back in the fabric apolstered 2nd class cabin.

when we passed the first kozoc (a little spelling help, slovenes?) i knew that i was close to home again. at 10.10, an hour and a half after my original itenirary suggested, i pulled into ljbuljana. finally home, i headed for a shower, a nap, and nice relaxing day waiting for maruška to get home.

the call for prayer being raised among the 160 some odd mosques in the city of sarajevo set the stage for my return trip home to slovenia. i've spent the last week wandering through a city that marries two architectural styles and three religious ways of life together. sarajevo is home to not only bosnian muslims, but also orthodox serbs, and catholic croats. this city is also the site of the longest seige in the last century. for nearly four years, serbian forces occupied the hills around sarajevo, raining artilary and sniper fire down on its inhabitants. yesterday, i visited a privately owned war museum in the butmir neighborhood of sarajevo. this small, quite area of the city is the site of an 800 meter long tunnel dug underneath the airport. the bosnians dug this tunnel to assist in the escape of some 300,000 citizens of sarajevo during the seige. i'll post a few pics of the tunnel, as well as a plaque detailing its construction, and operation soon.

as i prepair for my journey home, i am reminded of the people that i met here in sarajevo. the bosnian muslim who become one of the first bosnian baha'is some 10 years ago. he showed me many of the sites in sarajevo, and has become a good friend. i remember the italian woman who has become more bosnian than her bosnian husband. and the shop owner who invited me to coffee every single time i passed his shop. these people mean a lot to me know, and have assisted in making this trip one of the most memorable weeks i've spent in one city.

and now, as i sew on the patch of the bosnian flag onto my bag, as trophy of my travel here, it becomes more to me. just as the slovenian patches signify my new home, this bosnian patch signifies a new kind of insight for me. it is not my place to comment on the war in bosnia. that's not why i came to sarajevo. but after seeing the shraple damaged buildings, the empty husks of cultural landmarks slowly being rebuilt, i see the world anew. i see how global ignorance on my part has left me as a naive child in the world. it's not fun, and it's not exciting to see war, to see the effects of war, its disturbing. and now, having seen what happened here a mere 11 years ago, war has taken on an entirely new sickening turn in my stomach.

but i don't want to leave you on a sour note. sarajevo is climbing its way out of the effects of the war. it's a city of regrowth and rebirth. there are many new and wonderful things being built, and many old things being restored. the people are amazing, and the hospitality and food are fantastic. there's an old legend in sarajevo, a warning to travellers. it says that the water in baščaršija is magical, and if you drink it, you will be forced to return to sarajevo. in my experience, your don't need to drink the water.

egad! pyramids!

that's right. there are three pyramids recently found in central bosnia. one pyramid would have been strange enough, but 3? that's just crazy! however, this is not some made up peice of fiction. i've been there. i've seen the pyramids with my own eyes. now, to be honest, there isn't much to see right now, as they've only been working for the past 3 months. however, there is a lot of stone un-earthed, and it all looks pretty convincing. they've managed to do some thermo-maping, and satallite stuff, that suggests there is an entire network of tunnels built beneath the little town of visoko. archeologists hope to have been able to uncover the ancient structure within the next 5 years. it's really pretty exciting to be so close to ancient history being uncovered. something else entirely.

randomly found this in an e-mail, thought i'd trough it up here.

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i boarded the train for bosnia yesterday at 5.45 pm. i disembarked from the train in sarajevo at 5.45 am. 12 hours. that's a long time. for about half of the journy i was cramned into a small cabin with 5 other men. 4 of these men were smokers, and from the balkans. one of these men was a japanese tourist on his way, ultamitely, to beograd. one of these men had brought along with him a bottle of wine.

for the first few hours, none of this really posed any problems. at the boarder, when everyone saw our documents pulled out, the japanese fellow and i started talking. then the croatians and bosnians joined in where they could. it was fine.

and the man with the wine drank some more.

i fell asleep a few times here and there, sometimes chatting with the japanese fellow, and sometimes just staring into the dark night outside the train window.

and the man with the wine drank a little more.

about half way through the last leg of our journey, the man with the wine got a drinking partner.

they were happy drunks, so it wasn't a terrible ride. it could have gone very, very bad at one point if the japanese fellow and i weren't quick to disarm the croatian with the wine. he started ranting a bit about bush and america, and how the americans were no good. he used the bombs in hiroshima and nagasaki as examples. he was getting loud. the japanese fellow quickly re-assured the drinking man that we were friends. that we were all friends now, and that it was governments who made dumb choices. this seemed to be okay to the drinking man, and he calmed down.

the closer we got to sarajevo, the quiter the man seemed to get, as it seemed the happy effects of the drink were starting to really wear off. we disembarked into the cold early hours, and all went our separate ways.

the japanese fellow and i stuck together for a bit, until he was picked up by someone offering him a bed for the night. i sat down, had some coffee, and began to prepair for my day.