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Love and Lights

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U2labcoat1Life moves in mysterious ways. What started out as an acquaintance over mutual love for one of the biggest bands in the world quickly grew into collaboration on a very cool project, and one email after another, I can now say that I’m positively amazed by the light that is my friend James!
The band in question is U2. Those who know me personally also know that this is one of the first bands I started listening to (back in 1989), and that my first concert ever was the one U2 held on their PopMart tour in Sarajevo in 1997. Now on to something you might not have known before: after my musings on U2.com, James responded to my writing and upon him introducing me to his awesome project of a “lab coat around the world”, I was interested to know more and participate. Yes, it was actually a real lab coat signed and decorated by U2 fans across the globe (along with many gifts, DVDs and many other thingies)! Plenty of white surface to cover, but, by the time it reached me, it was already pleasantly colourful! U2labcoat2So, I do the “obligatory” photo session in the lab coat after putting my own touch on it, end up on a blog site of like-minded people and James’ friends – and then we started talking more and more, often about personal things as well. James then confessed to being a poetry lover like me, and even sent me a lovely book of poems from 1927! U2poems1Good thing the book reached me, because it said on the package that the post actually missent it to TaiPei (I still don’t know how TaiPei might sound like B&H, but nevermind). But that’s not all – about two weeks ago, he finally shared his own poetry with me – and the inspiration was none other than moi! I’m still amazed and still blushing from this incredible gift. In turn, I wanted to share his wonderful verses with you, dear readers, wishing for you to remember that there are extraordinary people out there, and friendships that are worth gold. Thank you, James, for this poem and your friendship! We’ll meet on a U2 concert soon for sure!

Love and Lights
(for Ilhana)

Daylight hours host the mundane and cliché
Quiet humdrum beat of the quest for pay
Lines of masses arranged in single file
Driving with glazed looks , mile after mind-numbing mile
Conforming
Resigning to boring
Comfortable and unbothered they seek to remain
Choosing feeling nothing over feeling any pain
Dreams of youth thus traded
For lukewarm nothing and mediocrity
Capalist façade of consumerism, slowly molding the insane

I met a girl in the darkness, born of star-filled night
Poetry and art flowing through her veins
Emitting the majesty of a raven in flight
Believes not in umbrellas, wants to feel the sensational rain
Wishing upon others “love and lights”
Light only needed where light doesn’t exist
She’s seen the most horrible evils man has to offer
She kept love alive on the precipice of war torn abyss
“dreaming out loud“ becomes her
She sculpts words into masterful form
Not interested in what others see as “normal “
She has darkness, peace, goodwill and love and lights to keep her warm
She has a name others might find ”hard to spell“
But its an honor to be able to see
A wordsmith of inspirational magnitude
Yet as sweet as a person can be
When shall I meet her?
I often wonder up in my mind
This lovely, starlit, intense child of the darkest night
Perhaps one day, perhaps never
The future might not get it right
But she will always be a brilliantly luminous inspiration
This dark girl full of love and full of light

The ELT Mini Conference in Bihać & Other News

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Last month my dear colleague Nizama and I had the honour of presenting our work to English teachers from the Una-Sana Canton at the “ELT Mini Conference: Linguistic Approach to Teaching” in Bihać. Organised by TETA and American Corner Bihać, this one-day seminar was the perfect opportunity to share the knowledge with fellow English teachers – and so much fun to do! The photo above shows us all against the wonderful Una backdrop, and I think the only one who’s missing is the lovely Mirela Midžić from the AC – thank you for everything, especially the “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” (she knew I love Stephen King because my students come to her to loan his books XD)! Also, big kudos to colleagues Elma and Edin, as well as everyone who came that day to our mini conference.

In case you were wondering, Nizama and I recently did a research on teaching phrasal verbs using conceptual domains – fascinating stuff!

Here’s us at the beginning of our presentation:

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This wasn’t the only such event in the past few months – there was also the amazing IATEFL Conference in Slovenia, then a couple of school seminars in Teslić and Sarajevo, and right now I’m preparing for the 4th International FLTAL Conference in Sarajevo next week (presenting a paper on metaphors in politics – wish me luck!)

Some visuals from Slovenia (with Nizama, Lisa, Elma, and Danka):

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Soon I will also have news on my second book. Until then:

maythe4th

World Animal Day Ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Dear readers,

some of you may know how much I 16.2.2008 8_00_13love animals. Ever since I was a baby, really, I’ve been enjoying their unconditional love and company and I’ve tried to return these wonderful gifts as much as I could (here’s me with a cat my mom saved from death when he was only six days old and left all alone).

I owe this love to my family, who’s been dedicated to helping animals for the better part of the 20th century. Even my great-grandfather, who was a Muslim priest, loved animals, especially cats, and paid extra attention to whom he would give kittens to – only people with cows and sheep, who could, therefore, provide milk and other food to the little ones (and that was about a hundred years ago at least). Looking back at the path I’ve taken in my life so far, it has been filled with animals and much effort to improve the state of their welfare here in my town and elsewhere.

with_Barky_01This was the reason why my colleague Mevlija, my uncle Hajrudin and I founded the Animal Protection Society “Warm Paw” in Velika Kladuša. Now, more than two year later, we can also look behind and marvel at what we’ve accomplished so far, with the help of like-minded people here: our colleagues, friends, volunteers. But this is just the beginning.

Yesterday I received news which brought me immense joy and now I am spreading it, proud and humbled at the same time by the honour bestowed upon me: I have become the World Animal Day Ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina! Here you can read the entry at the official website of the World Animal Day initiative at:

http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/ambassadors/bosnia-herzegovina/

Here’s the news on the official website of Warm Paw.

I will do everything in my power to fulfill my duties as a World Animal Day ambassador and strive further to raise awareness on animal rights. I’m so honoured by this title and happy to be a part of such extraordinary team of animal advocates around the world!