Busy Busy Busy

It's been a while since my last post, and this time I have an excuse. I have had a busy rehearsal schedule for tonight's concert, and a little over a week ago, I took on a web development project for my friends. With the Sarajevo International Guitar Festival just a month away, minimal information on the website, and nobody with the time and expertise to work on it, I volunteered my help. Now, I'm the happiest I've been since I arrived in Sarajevo.

The brothers who are organizing the festival are quite fun to work with. It feels good to help them out and be rewarded with their incredible excitement and enthusiasm. In fact, the day after I uploaded the newest changes, I was pleased that my friend was in the best mood I've seen in the past month. I don't know of a job that would be better than this one. I am highly motivated to work on the website because my friends are so excited about it (and a bit anxious for it to be updated). That on top of my already high interest in web development means that I've been forcing myself to stop “fixing just one more thing” so that I can sleep at night.

During our meetings about the website's progress, I have been able to see a little more about how Bosnians work. We have intense business-related conversations that are punctuated with many jokes and teasing. We always make sure to “make pause” (take a break) with coffee, youtube videos, and a little education on Bosnian culture and history. Most importantly, we celebrate achievements. For example, on Monday I met with them so they could approve my work from the weekend, and I uploaded the changes right then and there. In my past experiences, the meeting would have ended at that point, and I would have just gone home. However, since we're in Bosnia, I stayed and had a few beers to celebrate. It was a good night.

In addition to the fun, working on this website is quite beneficial to me as a programmer. It is important to be able to communicate with clients about the technical aspects of your work. Here, I get to not only practice explaining web technology to non-techies, but I am forced to simplify things even more than usual because English isn't their first language. If you know me, then you know that I can make things a bit complicated at times. I find that I am slowly learning how to be more direct and concise.

This project is probably the best thing that has happened to me this year. I feel like in some ways, I came to Bosnia because I needed to run away from “real world” responsibilities like getting a full-time job that I may or may not like so that I can pay the bills. I was able to delay certain decisions that I wasn't ready to make yet. I've had a lot of time to think about things here, and I am finally confident saying that I know what I want to do with my life. Before last week, I had already made the decision to pursue a computer programming career when I return to the States and keep playing bassoon on the side. It is quite reassuring to know that I will be happy with my decision...and to know which area of programming I should pursue.