In these last two weeks, I learned ~40 vocabulary words. These words included country names, common environmental features (road, steps, glass), words to describe the architecture or landscape I'm likely to see (peaceful, magnificent, trademark), and miscellaneous words I heard in songs or was just curious about (shame, power, addictive, things, busy, message, always).
I'm through about one half of Ivo Andrič's The Bridge on the Drina. I have been told that if I can understand this book, I can not only understand Bosnia, but the story of the Balkans. I'll write a review for an artifact at some point. Nevertheless, I'll go ahead and write my thoughts/what I've learned thus far. First, the bridge on the Drina river by the town of Višegrad is important. The author comes out and says that "the story of the foundation and destiny of the bridge is at the same time the story of the life of the town and of its people" (21). Second, the bridge was built on the command of the Ottoman Empire. It was extraordinarily costly and was in large part, built with the unpaid labor of Serbian Christian peasants and better treated Bosnian Muslims. Third, fear, cruelty and brute force are terrifyingly powerful weapons. Within the first one hundred pages, a man named Abidaga, the Turk responsible for completion of the bridge, quashes a small rebellion by private, and then public torture. There were nails torn from hands and feet, and a live impaling. The impaler was paid extra for avoiding major organs, so as to keep him alive for as long as possible. Fourth, and this is connected with the last comment on fear, is a theme of powerlessness in the face of misfortune or fate. It's heartbreaking. The ideal story is that of a the story of a young girl who kills herself, as what she sees the only option, rather than marry against her will (110). There are also heads of decapitated rebels and forced baptisms. It's quite irking. The final theme I've noticed is about the impermanence of sensation, memory, pain, all things essentially as a solemn, rather than embraced truth. The book has moments of intensity that sort of fade out-- the author makes a special point to emphasize impermanence, using the bridge as a sort of still anchor.... a sort of helpless feel to the story.... it's depressing.
As in the last meetings, Milica and I would talk about our days or weekends, and then jump into the flashcard game. This week, we reviewed commands, also called the imperative form. We'd have fun telling each other to listen, come over, write, read, etc... We've also started to discuss famous places in Bosnia. So this time I read about Sarajevo, and then we talked about it in Bosnian. I learned that Sarajevo, the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is famous for several reasons: the bridge on which Franz Ferdinand was killed (ignited WWI), an eternal fire commemorating the victims of WWII, famous religious landmarks, and a famous market that smells like Turkish food, according to Milica.
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