Two Weeks To Go

It was 2 weeks prior to my departure date of June 21, 1981 and I finally got the information I had been waiting for! I was going to YUGOSLAVIA. Um, where's that? What do they speak there? It's communist, isn't it?

I quickly found some Serbo-Croat words and by the time I left, I had the extensive vocabulary of "Da" (yes), "Nij (No), and "Dobar dan" (good day). Hey, I was set! A friend of my moms loaned me a large dictionary to bring with me.

I remember going to my friend, Laura's, graduation party and walking in, thinking I was way cool and announcing, "Dobar dan!" Look at me, I speak a foreign language, I'm going to a country no one has ever heard of!

When I found out, I had to quickly mail off my passport to get a visa. We Americans have such a thing about passports. We don't trust them to be out of our hands for one second. I was all fretful, thinking that someone was going to steal my passport and try to become me. Now, as an aside, looking at the photo of me in my passport, all 17 years of age, short greasy hair, thick glasses and a mouth full of braces, oh, yeah, baby! Anyone would just die to look like that!

And I shopped. I got a Serbo-Croat phrase book. And I got presents for my host family. It appeared that I would have a brother. No name on the paperwork I got. And a sister, 13, named Suzann. The presents included a t-shirt and a Rubick's cube. Hey, it was 1981. What can I say? I also got a cheesy set of luggage that became my parent's graduation gift to me (the same gift they had given to my previous 6 siblings who had graduated.)

I packed up said suitcase and I was on my way!