Category: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Foreign Service, U.S.

Bosnian (LSC100) Weeks 3-4: Training Wheels

by pennypostcard • October 3, 2026 • 1 Comment

The autumn equinox passed during week 3 of Bosnian and almost immediately, there was a marked change in the weather. The sunny days where I could get away with wearing the tank tops and summer dresses that comprised the majority of my year-round Rangoon wardrobe suddenly left me shivering in the classroom.

We had entered the transitional period before fall where the thermostats in office buildings were still set for Virginia’s humid, hot summer despite evidence the leaves are already starting to change. One day I’d be grabbing an umbrella and a jacket and the next day wearing a short-sleeved top.

We made a similar jump in Bosnian; almost out of nowhere we went from talking about our phone numbers and family compositions to learning how to discuss signing agreements, promoting economic development, and hosting diplomatic receptions.

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Foreign Service, U.S.

Bosnian (LSC100) Weeks 1-2: Wild Enthusiasm

by pennypostcard • September 20, 2026 • 0 Comments

Two weeks ago, the day after the Labor Day holiday, more than 600 language students arrived at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) for orientation ahead of language training for their upcoming assignments.

I arrived early with a big grin on my face. I was nothing short of elated to be there. After 12 years in the Foreign Service, five tours, and three periods of long-term language study at NFATC—28 weeks of Russian in 2014–2015, 24 weeks of Spanish in 2019–2020, and 44 weeks of Burmese in 2024–2025—I was finally embarking on another 44 weeks of study in what would likely become my favorite language of all.

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Foreign Service, U.S.

A Fresh Start

by pennypostcard • September 19, 2026 • 0 Comments

I arrived in Virginia on September 2 and joined V at the Airbnb where he’d been staying since we parted ways in Seoul—he’d continued on to the D.C. area to get back to work, while I’d headed to the west coast to see family on Congressionally mandated home leave.

As much as I wanted to rest once reaching Virginia after driving across the United States alone, I jumped actively into my to-do list. I stayed up late that first night to help V address an unexpected health issue, then arrived early in DC the next morning for my own 8:00 a.m. doctor’s visit. That launched a full Thursday and Friday of medical appointments, phone calls, and errands. My time during the business day was limited; after the Labor Day weekend, I would begin studying Bosnian, my fourth language course at FSI in 12 years.

Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burma, Foreign Service

Sixth Tour Bidding: Postscript

by pennypostcard • May 29, 2026 • 2 Comments

In January, while V and I were on R&R in Vietnam, I received the excellent news that my assignment following the end of my tour in Rangoon would be as consular chief in Sarajevo. I could not have been happier, as Sarajevo had been my top choice during bidding the previous fall.

After receiving the handshake, I wrote here on the blog that I would tell the story of how it went down; four months on, I am finally getting around to that.

Balkans, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Foreign Service, Leadership & Work Culture, Travel

Flag Day Announcement… VI

by pennypostcard • January 27, 2026 • 5 Comments

Last week, I received the exciting news I had been anticipating since last September when sixth tour bidding opened for me: the title, location, and timing of my next diplomatic assignment.

Balkans, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Travel

Balkan Summer 2022 Trip, Part VII: Sarajevo to Skopje via Kruševac

by pennypostcard • January 10, 2023 • 3 Comments

The sunny August morning we left Sarajevo, it was harder than I thought it would be to find our way out of town. I don’t remember exactly why; some combination of narrow streets and Google Maps trying to lead me onto a pedestrian footpath might have had something to do with the smell of burning clutch and frayed nerves in the morning.

V, A and I worked together and managed to make a series of navigational decisions that – while not winning any efficiency awards – also didn’t result in any fender benders. Thankfully at least, when hearing how early we wanted to get on the road, our AirBnB host decided he didn’t need to do our checkout in-person after all and allowed us to lock the apartment and hide the key in an agreed-upon location. We eventually hit the highway east and later, due south for the last few hundred miles of our road trip.

Balkans, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Travel

Balkan Summer 2022 Trip, Part VI: Dubrovnik to Sarajevo via Mostar

by pennypostcard • January 7, 2023 • 2 Comments

The morning we departed Croatia, we said thank you to the beach house for the wonderful memories. We were sad to leave the coast, and drove alongside it until we began to ascend into the mountains. We had taken the road to Dubrovnik’s north rather than to the south, in order to stop for lunch in Mostar – a city none of us had visited – on our way to Sarajevo. The total distance would be around 165 miles; however, drive time minus stops would be close to 4.5 hours given the mountain roads.

Not long into our journey, before we had even crossed the Croatia-Bosnia border, we saw smoke off in the distance. Initially we didn’t think much of it. But as we continued, it became darker and more ominous, and soon after we ran into a forest-fire related roadblock and detour. The detour wasn’t well-explained by the gruff policeman, and took us a fair distance off the Google Maps path we had launched before leaving beach house wifi – slightly alarming since we were navigating without live internet. However, A saved the day with an offline Snapchat map, something I hadn’t even known existed since I haven’t opened my Snapchat app for eight years. (I know.)

After we jumped that hurdle, we then had a slightly not-so-hilarious situation with one of us, who shall remain unnamed, needing a bathroom where none existed within binocular range of the Bosnian border. After idling in the weeds and hoping inquisitive soldiers wouldn’t appear at any moment and ask us what the hell we were up to, we made it across afterwards without further incident.

Balkans, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Foreign Service, Travel, Uzbekistan

My Blue Passport Hits the Road, Part II

by pennypostcard • December 23, 2015 • 6 Comments

This post is the second of two in my travelogue about my November trip to Prague, Sarajevo and Istanbul. If you would like to read the first post, you can find it here.

Sunday, November 8 was the first night that I was in Prague, and I slept deeply in my white, fluffy hotel bed underneath the vaulted wood ceiling. On Friday night, I’d been awake for most of the night, coughing and congested, and on Saturday night I’d never gone to bed at all, instead attending the Marine Corps Ball and then catching a 02:00 motor pool ride on Sunday morning to the international departures terminal in Tashkent. It was going to be my first trip outside of Uzbekistan since my arrival six months earlier, and I was thrilled.

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