My Friday was great! First, I enjoy a dinner with all the girls from our group in high school - finally we managed to get all seven together! Then I met up with my partner in crime for a crazy hip hop night at Berns. Love it when spontaneous evenings turn out awesome. And I love to wake up in the morning with the camera roll on the phone full of blurry and ugly pictures. That, along with pain in my legs and feet, are signs of a good night.

This update-once-a-day-thing lasted a week, until I had to start waking up at six every morning to get to work. Me and early mornings do not work very well together. The last three days have just melted together into one very tired and stressed out blurr, especially yesterday when I spent the whole day making and receiving calls and messages about the one thing and the other, while trying to work at the same time. Felt like an assistant/organizer/event planner who goes around with a headset and talk to ten people at once, "No, not red flowers, pink! Yes, no. Yes. Not 200, 100! I SAID PINK FLOWERS FOR GODS SAKE". You know what I mean. However, looking at the bright side, the fact that there is so much to plan, book and fix means that many fun events are upcomming! And lets not forget about the sun.

You read that right - VICTORY!!! World Cup in Brazil, here we come! Okay, we should not make any presumptions but... time to learn samba? The evening of Victory started with me and Erna dressing the room in Bosnian flags, the word "exaggeration" didn't exist in our dictionary. If you can't be on the supporter section, you make a supporter section of your home. When the rest of the gang arrived it didn't take long before  the party started, again and again since we made three goals against the Greeks! Better than I dared to hope for! The most comical of the night must have been a while after the second goal when everyone jumped on each other in a explosion of happiness:
Me: Erna... You broke a little piece of my tooth!
Erna: SO WORTH IT!!!

Tonight the patriot, fanatic and football hooligan inside of me comes out, because tonight it's time for Bosnia to play what may be the most important match in this World Cup qualifier, so that we for once can qualify and not stumble over the finish line for the 238359th time (the game in Paris has left deep wounds). I tried to do meaningful things done today, but I'm too nervous and all bosnians are hyping this on social media and text messaging which makes it impossible for me to concentrate, so I gave up and started looking through pictures and videos from past games to get into the right mood instead. I have a category on this blog, Bosnians on tour , if you also want to take a look. Tonight we'll be cheering/praying/hoping as much as we can, for Sweden as well.Please, make this happen...

Mom also wanted to be on Instagram so we did a photo shoot a la Top Model during our coffee time. I love the days when both me and my mom are free or come home early from work. The coffee machine, aka. George Clooney, is a big favorite here at home. I wish I could sit with a coffee the whole day but unfortunately an awful lot of work is waiting for me. The project, a number of essays and work at the office upcomming two weeks when my classmates at the university will be going on field trips. I've done a good job of repressing it so far. Go me.

Photogene² - A mini Photoshop on your phone where you can crop, rotate, edit, add text, make collages, etc. Among the editing apps I have tested, I think Photogene has everything you need. It may take a while until you discover all the features, but once you learn them, it's very simple. 
VSCO Cam - This app also has some of the editing features I mentioned above, but not as good. I only use the app because of the filters that I now often choose instead of Instagram's filters. I mostly use filter 04 and 05.  
PicFrame - Although it's possible to do it in Photogene, PicFrame has many more options when it comes to making collages.
Pixlromatic - I use this one very rarely, only if I'm going to add some extra effects like sparkling lights and such. It can be fun to use at party pictures for example. Added some of these effects on my New Year's pictures.
Afterlight - Bought this one recently and have not had time to use it properly but from what I have seen, it has many nice filters and lighting effects. Could be a new favorite, it's very easy to use and I like that you can adjust the opacity of each filter and effect (0-100).
Instagram - No need to comment. 

Today we celebrate all the women who make the world a better place. As always, I celebrate my dear mother since she is my biggest role model and inspiration. I'm happy if I get to be half as a strong woman and wonderful mother to my children as she is to us. She has always made her best to raise me into a woman with good self-esteem and confidence. She has told me countless times to demand the best because I'm worth nothing less, to stand up for myself and never let anyone bring me down, to live my life and do what I want, and never ever be dependent on a man, or anyone else for that matter. It is important not to forget the origins of this day, because everything I just mentioned is still far from given to the majority of women in the world, who is still inferior to men. Even in today's modern Sweden. Stand up for yourself girls, fight for equal status and recognition in the male-dominated professions, throw a drink in the face of those who lay a hand on you at the club without your permission and most importantly - raise your children to have the view of gender equality that you want to see in the world.

1. It's still early but I can't help but go into bookstores and look at guidebooks to see which of them I should buy for the U.S. trip. They're waiting for me...
2. Jasmin's mom made a very appreciated breakfast for a very tired gang the day after partying in Uppsala.
3. It's much easier to go to our ugly architecture school when the sun shines, and for the first time this year I felt a little heat from it. 
4. My camera roll on the phone - when I'm too lazy to carry home books from the library.
5. Picture of Old Town taken from the train on my way home from school. I love seing a sunny Stockholm.
6 & 7. Haris and Benjo surprised us with a really good dinner and an even tastier desert, and then we made a toast to BiHs Independence day.
8. I've been forgetting to bring a pad to the lectures, which has resulted in my calendar looking like this. I need a new one.
9. One of my teachers talked about his seven years of working for Cultural Heritage without Borders in the postwar Balkans, where he worked with the reconstruction of historical and cultural buildings destroyed in the war. I'm really grateful to have so inspiring and talented teachers. One day when I gather enough knowledge and experience, I would like to do something similar, to use my competence and do something meaningful through the profession I have chosen. To be able to do that for my native country would be the most wonderful I can imagine. The quote at the bottom of the picture is worth reading: 
"Damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind, since each people makes its contribution to the culture of the world." 

Zeljko Joksimovics new song is on repeat, along with his other songs, mainly ballads (i'm in that mode right now). Some periods I only listen to for example Zeljko, Crvena Jabuka and Tose Proeski, music that always hits straight to the heart. What I have noticed though is that I become very emotional and thoughtful afterwards - not always the best for an overly analytical mind like mine. And when it becomes too much, I turn to mainstream music instead which makes you more stupid, but carefree and in a festive mood.
Anyway, I hope it is true that Zeljko is coming to Sweden in May, I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm trying to update more often, I don't want my blogging to end, even if it feels like the whole blog thing is slowly dying, probably because our generation has better things to do, or because we have found other social media that require less effort. Or is it just me? It's hard when 1. What I do and who I am with every day is not something I find interesting to write about, and what's potentially interesting in my daily life I post on Instagram. 2. I need pictures, but when you're at the university until it gets dark, there is not much to photograph. 3. I find it hard to write what's on my mind, like I used to. Every time I write a longer post, I just erase it or save it in the draft. Even right now I'm forcing myself to keep the upper part, because I really feel that it is unnecessary and would prefer to delete it. Don't know why I feel like this. And what's left then? Posts about architecture, about trips that rarely happen and about some fun events when I happen to have my camera with me. That's not much.

Freakin' awesome weekend. The whole weekend was spent in Uppsala and not only did I get to spend time with my favorite Svrakas for a few days, but for once we managed to gather 5/7 of our group of girls from high school at Karin's place who now lives in Uppsala. Besides from Karin, it was a long time ago I saw the girls and it has been difficult to gather the group since everybody is either studying, working, going away to other parts of the world or moving abroad. But regardless of what it feels like in high school when we meet! Since I obviously can't make a weekend without Erna, I brought her with me and afterwards we met up with Jasmin & co for the best night out in a long time. We really went for it! Who would have thought, before paycheck? My whole body still hurts after dancing on the hip hop floor and my abs hurts after all the laughter, especially at the evening's two great comedians, Jasmin and Adi. Oh, you feel so incredibly good (mentally) after having so much fun with people you love. I can live a long time on this weekend.  

November - February. A small selection of images from my Instagram during the winter months. Some studying, some partying, some illness, a lot of food, a couple of nice sunsets and much longing for what is to come. Instagram: lanakarat

February is not my favorite month. Actually, it's at the very bottom of my list. By now, the lack of vitamin D has really made its mark (I always get sick this month, my skin gets so pale that it starts to glow in the dark and I would rather burn my winter jacket) and summer still feels too far away. And I fool myself by thinking that warmer weather is on its way and then literally get a bitchslap by a new snowstorm. Just wait and see...

I felt spoiled with many wonderful trips the last year, and since travel is among the best there is, I always had a great highlight to look forward to that wasn't very far away. However, this year we plan a big USA trip(!) in August, which unfortunately not only feels distant but also means that I have to save and work every free moment I get from studies. My monthly budget prefers that I sit at home and do nothing that costs money, which is not the easiest since it's coffee with friends, partying, shopping and stuff like that which makes everyday life more enjoyable these cold and dark days. For that reason, I neither will go on the study trip in spring or to Bosnia and Croatia in the summer, which will be the first time since we started going there after the war. The thought of that is a bit painful to my heart (is it weird that the first thing that came to mind is all the food I'll miss?) But on the other hand, I look forward to the U.S. more than anything else right now. That experience and the fact that I even have the opportunity to plan such a trip makes it easier to sacrifice another. Yes, every trip makes me think of what a privilege I have for even being able to do it.

Must complete the post with pep talk: Firstly, February is almost over! Yey! And I must praise myself because I have become very good at harmonizing (not sure if it's the right choice of word, but you get the point) my life and to turn negative into positive in my mind. I get myself in a better mood by simple means. Even in boring February. But more about that in another feel-good post.