These are me and my fellow classmates in Užice, Serbia
I have spent most of my childhood in a foreign country. I was born in Slovenia, which was still under Yugoslavia, to a Slovenian mother and a Serbian father. When I was about 4 years Slovenia wanted independence and tensions were huge so war broke out. It wasn’t much of a war, but in the later years with Milošević under power and with US sanctions, those were the rough years. My father 3 years or so after the independence moved to Serbia and my mother wanting to keep the family together went after him. So I had to learn another language and cyrillic writing, embrace a different culture and meet new friends. In stores you could only get basic supplies and in later years most of Serbia was heavily bombed but by then we have moved out of the country and back to Slovenia.
But to be honest I know all of this only because people told me about it, because I read it in books, I have no memories of the war, the trips, some are there but very vague. My only vivid earlier memory of my childhood is of a barbie doll I wanted to have really badly. Let me start this by saying I never owned many dolls, never played with much of them so to think I wanted this so badly is really odd, but I did. The barbie doll in question was a mermaid, it had a blue fin and when you put it in water it changed colors and turned purple, which apparently fascinated me. The memories that tend to stick in our heads are usually those of want and regret, and this one probably stuck with me because my parents never bought me that barbie doll, according to them the barbie doll was sold out.
Funny isn’t it all the things I saw, experienced, done, went out of my mind but that barbie doll stuck. Sure I have memories of school days, some random blips of my family and I do know where the candy was kept, but this is the memory that is most vivid and I still can see that barbie doll as absurd as it may sound.
Thank you for reading and do comment even to say how terrible the post was, I do encourage you to post whatever came into your mind when reading this, since with every comment you make 1$ is going to clean water charity! Thank you for commenting in advance! 
-Lili @ www.sprungl.com
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Very nice post:)
Omg, omg, omg! I REMEMBER THAT DOLL! It was SUCH a cool Barbie! Even *I* wanted it…and I don’t do Barbie
Sometimes Barbie can be ace 
We all had a Barbie phase, I believe. I wanted a Barbie horse more than anything. I remember getting one at some point, but by then I was too old to be *that* fascinated.
What a lovely post Lili
I remember that doll too, with all the different colours. Barbie was wowish back then, now its all the bratz and hsm and hannah Montana taking over.
Yes, I too succumbed to Barbie fever. Never got one… Closest I got was a Sindy doll.
I must admit I never went through a barbie stage…. I think my parents will be grateful of that
I have a nephew though, who to this day (and I think he is 15) is fascinated with dolls 
Worried about that kid!
Often it’s the “insignificant” things which stick in our minds, but they do because they were significant and important at that point in time; I guess that’s why we look back at those moments and smile.
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