To Mostar!

 11/26: Bob and I had hoped to go on a walk before leaving Sarajevo this morning as the forecast for the air quality was supposed to be much improved, but it was not. Eww. On our travels I thought we might have to stay inside because of the weather, but I never thought it would be because of the air quality!

We walked to our favorite local fruit/vegetable stand around the corner and bought our last items from the friendly owner.

Goodbye lovely place and new friends next door!

 We had an uneventful two hour drive to Mostar and arrived to our place about 2pm. We were greeted by a guy that works for the management company, and he had super curly hair in a big afro that sprung to life when he removed his motorcycle helmet. Later in the day I was having a conversation with Simone, and she politely listened. When I finished what I was saying, she looked at me and said, "Mom, all I keep thinking is can you get your hair to look like that guy's?" HA!

When he learned that we had come from Sarajevo, we mentioned how bad the air was. He said the city was at such a high level this afternoon that it was the worst in the world (level 438 - well into the 'Hazardous' range). SO glad we are out of there and that air quality wasn't the case for our whole week in Sarajevo!

Yeah Mostar!

There were a few items missing from the place that he said he would return with, but the most pressing item that we realized after he left was that the heat was not turning on. Bob went back and forth with the management company, and we thought we might have time for our grocery run before someone came over to check it out. We were halfway there (in our car) when they said they were en route to our place. So Bob dropped me off at the grocery store while he went back to our place. I grabbed our usual items, stopping mid shop to chat with the kids' dentist who called in response to the email I had sent to them yesterday. Simone has been having some tooth pain, and I had sent our dentist a picture of the sore area after chatting with the receptionist. I explained my hesitancy to take her to a foreign dentist if I didn't absolutely have to, and of course she agreed with me. It was great to connect with her, and learn that she thinks the discomfort is just from the loose baby teeth. Great news!

While I was shopping, Bob was back at our place with the management company representative (not the afro guy from our arrival, but a young girl) telling him that we just need to turn up the thermostat more and more and our place should get warmer. Wow. Thanks a lot. Bob was not impressed with her. She left and Bob came to pick me up, and we returned to our still cold place. Afro man ended up coming back while we were cooking Daddy's yummy chicken dish and was super helpful. He communicated with the owner (who is in Sweden and Bob told him we were in Stockholm and Aland earlier this year!) who walked us through how to turn on the multiple systems to activate the heat (some seems to be radiant heating). In the meantime, we kept all of our layers on until another person came back with two space heaters. Thankfully the company and the owner were very responsive, and the space heaters worked very well!

We finished off the night with a few Wonder Years and answering Simone's question of if it's ok to live with someone before you're married (brought on by 18 year old Karen in the show living with her boyfriend in college).