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What's up everybody? Welcome to a new episode of the All Things Croatia podcast.
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I'm your host, Stanko Zovak. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I'm now living in Zagreb and studying the Croatian language.
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In this series, I'll be talking with people both in the homeland and around the globe who have connections to Croatia.
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We'll hear from business owners, returning the osbora, influencers, musicians and artists, athletes, and the biggest Croatian celebrities that will return my calls.
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But enough about me. Either Moldavia, and let's get started.
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Alright everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Today we got a special guest, Ema Rijic.
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Ema is a Croatian-American swimmer from Illinois. She attends the University of California, Berkeley, and recently competed in the Olympics in Tokyo at only 21 years old.
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Today we're going to be talking to her about her experience competing for Croatia as well as her American swimming career, and we're going to learn a little bit more about her.
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Ema, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thank you for letting me. This is really exciting.
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Yeah, of course. Glad to have you. So start us off. If you could just tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
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So as I understand, you were born in the US, in Illinois, to Croatian parents?
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Yes. My parents grew up in Croatia, school there, and then they entered over here.
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Around the early 1990s, my dad got his PhD from the University of Illinois.
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And so I was born there in Illinois. Started swimming there as well.
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When I was younger, we went to Croatia every other summer, like entire friends there. We have houses there as well, and we'd see family that spend a lot of time there.
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And then as I got older, it was harder to do just swimming, to cover the summer, but we so managed to have been touched with that quicker creation route and managed to go quite a couple of times in a row.
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So yeah, that's kind of the beginning of it.
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And where in Croatia are your parents from?
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So my mom is from very good grades, right outside of Zagreb. My dad is from Imoxki.
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So we do to those places quite a lot.
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And so growing up in the US, did you grow up around the Croatian culture there?
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Yeah, so my parents would speak Croatian at home. We had quite a nice Croatian group in Illinois where I grew up, and we always spent the holidays with them and obviously eat a lot of Croatian food.
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Just do little Croatian things like a Christmas tree with those little horse decorations and things like that.
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And so my parents really made a really big effort to keep that within a fair with my sister and I, which I'm grateful for, because I feel like I have quite dual citizenship now of the US Croatia.
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I really do feel like I am a citizen of Croatia. It was really nice growing up.
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What's the Croatian community like? Are you close to Chicago or where are you in Illinois?
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So we used to live like three hours away from Chicago at a really small town called Champaign-Ubrana.
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The Croatian community there wasn't really big, but we did find our people.
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And then when I graduated, we actually moved down to Austin, Texas, where my family lives right now.
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And we found a couple of Croatian people there that really made a really like our own community there just because we haven't been there for very long.
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I know Croatian somewhere in Austin, Texas as well, so that was pretty cool to find out.
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Okay, nice. Because I know that was for me, at least in Los Angeles, that was a big part of becoming close with my Croatian identity was the Croatian culture and the community there that I was around.
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So I know that's helpful. But one thing was I never learned the language growing up and I have to ask you because I'm actually, I'm in Zagreb right now taking like doing a language program for Croatian and I'm having a really hard time with it.
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I have to ask you how good is your Croatian?
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Well, I can understand and read and write a lot more than I can speak. I'm not super great at speaking, but I can definitely like hear the conversation and I've trained there, do everything in Croatian.
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And so I definitely am not best at speaking, but I can like manage. Like if I think if I lived in Croatia, I would fine.
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I feel like that's kind of how it is for a lot of people that's like, oh, you know, I can understand everything, but speaking, I don't know the exact, you know, grammar of everything and like all these this potagy and all this grammar that they're trying to teach me here is so tough and it's like so many different things to try and I feel like everything I'm saying is like terrible like hillbilly Croatian.
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Yeah, I definitely understand that was growing up, but I was being really embarrassed whenever we go to Croatia because I just I just get so nervous and then I mess up.
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But then you kind of realize as you go older, nobody really cares. Yeah, I think it's really cool that you can speak the language.
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That's kind of the biggest learning point. And I remember when I took line in high school, I was like, Holy crap, this is so fun. And I realize it's the same amount of toughness as couldn't and then that really opened my eyes.
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Hmm, it's true, though, people do really appreciate, you know, when you're speaking Croatian and even though I'm sure they can tell that like you're not speaking perfectly, they're all no, dobro, prečaš, you know, you're speaking so good. Like I know I'm not, but thank you.
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But yeah, they really do appreciate it. Let's get let's get into the swimming. When did you start swimming?
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So I'm swimming around 87 inch in Illinois. I'm a great like so from there really great community that I'm still in touch with. And I actually started because my sister was swimming.
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And my mom thought it would be like a good thing to do and actually really bad at swimming at first and I really hated it.
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And then as I started getting faster and faster than I started really liking it. Yeah, the beginning of this of my journey.
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And then how did it kind of evolve from there?
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So I think throughout middle school and high school I started getting good and high school I started getting like recruited on some schools.
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I'm at Indiana University, a D1 program. And so I kind of wanted to do the same.
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And so I was at the University of Texas, Harvard, Yale, Northeastern.
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And I knew I'd met her in school was Cal. And I really wanted to go there. But I knew that I had, I had no shot basically and then I remember one, one day I got pretty email from them and I screamed like I ran downstairs and my parents were like, Oh my God, this is crazy.
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And little did I know we went to Croatia that summer and I was so kept in touch with the coach from Cal and then she offered me a scholarship and I remember exactly where I was. We were in a mocker sky at a beach apartment.
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She offered me a scholarship and it took me no time at all just to be like, Yes, I want to do this.
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The best moments ever. It's committing to Cal and one of the most beautiful locations in the world. So awesome. Yeah, for real. It really is. I love mocker sky. Well, yeah, that's such a cool moment to have over there.
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And how do you like Cal now? I love it. I'm a senior now and I can't believe that you know I've been for four years.
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It's really tough demanding school and the swimming aspects. I mean, we've been in the top four NCA's for the past like 15 years, I believe.
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And so it's really like no joke when people say it's almost like you have two jobs.
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So it's been incredibly tough and demanding, but I'm it's been so moving and I've accomplished things that I never thought of.
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And then swimming aspect and also outside of the pool as well. And so I can honestly say like going to Cal was one of the best places I've ever made.
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And I wouldn't have traded like any experience for this. So yeah, definitely going to be graduating with like semi kind of feeling.
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Don't want to leave, but thank God I'm over. I'm so tired.
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Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Cal is a really good school. I've heard really good things about it. How did you get involved with the Croatian national team?
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Were they following you before Cal or was that something that happened at Cal? How did that work?
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Yeah, so funny. The years before I went to Cal, I would sometimes swim at a pool in Zagreb.
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And I'd see like teams there, but I never really thought much of it and I didn't really think it was a possibility. And then when my sister went to college, she wanted some for the Croatian national team, but it just never really worked out.
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And then I went to Cal, I still wanted to swim for the Croatian team, but I never went up doing it. And then it was very random. Like at the end of my freshman year, I had a really great freshman year swimming loss.
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And at the end of it, legend Dler Dravenla was there at practice and he kind of pulled me aside. He was like, hey, like, obviously your Croatian, I can play a cap and like, I know you can speak and all this.
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And he was like, you know what, it would be such a wasted opportunity if you could swim for Croatia.
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And I mean, this man has won like a silver medal from the Olympics. So I wasn't about to take him, you know, not honestly.
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And so he put me in contact with the club that he swims with in Zagreb, which is called Dubrová.
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And so I emailed a little bit back and forth with Dubrová, the coach, Glenn Kemen and Gbera Slavić just kind of walked me through the process of how I could potentially come here and train.
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And luckily my mom and Vjellica is a third-year driver there from the pools that they use. So was it too bad? And so that summer I went over.
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And I actually had to change my sport nationality because the year before I swam for the year.
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And so I had to apply for a change of sport nationality, which was pretty hard. It was kind of a hassle, not going to lie. But everything worked out pretty well.
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And so I was able to switch.
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They emailed me a couple of weeks before World Championships in 2019.
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And went to a couple of meets there, trained really well with Dubrová over there.
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And I'm making my first national team and my world, my first world's team.
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And so I got to go to Korea.
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Wow.
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There was other people there. It was so cool.
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And so now I do feel like I have such a community when I go back to Croatia and a lot of them do study here in the US.
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So sometimes I do see them on deck here. And I think that's, it's really awesome and fun, honestly.
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And so that's kind of how I started swimming for the Croatian team.
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And like my parents helped me a lot with my mom, but helped drive and have my driver rise over there.
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And I also can't drive big shifts.
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Ah, yeah.
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That's a problem over here.
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I couldn't really find a class section.
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But everyone at Dubrová was so kind and helping me transition.
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And I was really nervous, like social anxiety through the roof.
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So I didn't really speak at the first couple of weeks.
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You know, the coaches got to know me more, to know the team more.
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I started to open a lot more.
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And my creation obviously got a lot better.
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And it was just so much fun.
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Man, that's really cool.
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You talked about how the application process was difficult to switch to the Croatian national team.
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Was the decision itself to do that difficult?
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No, the decision was not difficult at all.
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I knew I was wanted to swim for Croatia.
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And when I was doing it, I was like, you know, it would be such a misopportunity to really do that.
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That kind of just sent to me even more.
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When I sent the email to FINA, which is like the World Organization, and I was like, hey, I want to switch to nationality.
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I drafted an email with all the reason why I wanted to basically, I still have the email, but the email was kind of just outlining, like, you know, I grew up in such heavy culture that I always visit.
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Tyra for the means from there.
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I can speak, I go over a lot.
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I'm like, kind of just saying how I felt a little more creation that I do for them.
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And then back to me a couple of weeks after and they're like, really say anything about it, but they're just like, about this form and we'll process it.
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So the process itself sometime.
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But like my reasoning behind it was very truthful and like cemented.
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And I honestly think I would have tried to send for the creation nationality effect.
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I didn't visit Croatia a lot.
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I know some people when they have dual citizenship will try to swim for the other country because it's smaller and easier to make teams.
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On there, but for me it was more about like, I want to represent my family and we're like a creation name like happen.
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Like it just felt natural to me it felt like and so that's kind of one of the main driving forces behind doing all that because it wasn't super easy just, you know, go to Croatia and train to make worlds.
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It was incredibly tough and grueling and there was a lot of moving parts that I have to figure out like how am I going to train like I'm going to a new coach, how are we going to finish my training.
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You know, they don't know me at all so they don't know how I'm going to respond like their weights program.
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All these tiny logistics was incredibly tough, but I mean the outcomes were worth it.
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Yeah, so that's not something that you can just, oh okay, you know, snap your fingers.
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All right, I guess I'll do this.
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Like, you know, no problem.
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Yeah, that's like a big process and you know, you definitely have to have, you know, like feelings before that of wanting to, you know, swim for Croatia.
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Yeah, of course.
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Yeah, it was emotionally to a lot because I was Cal for just one year and I've done so well here and I'm going to search to get another team sounds like the team at Illinois and then I was at the team in Austin, Sis.
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And I came to Cal with another team, and then having to go to another team emotional was very hard and I'm not expecting a very extroverted person and so having to make that fourth switch within like a year and a half was never a lot for me.
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But it's funny because it was actually one of the easier switches because everyone appreciate that their culture and their response and their humor was just so much more natural to me than going to another American team if that makes sense.
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So that was pretty cool.
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That was like the silver lining.
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Yeah, well at least if that was one of your easier switches, you know, you definitely there was something pulling you to do that. Yeah, it's really cool.
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And so you were in the Olympics with what last year right 2020. Oh, geez, I guess that's two years ago now.
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No 2021 2021.
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Yeah, I mean, tell me a little about that. What was that like, what was the build up to that were there like some events that you had to place coming into that that you were like you had to hit a certain time or come into a certain result.
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Yeah, so basically, I had to hit a certain time. And because you know, COVID hit and really messed up everyone's plans. Obviously the delay of another year was really hard and then having to figure out like a, I mean, I could go to to try to swim that time it had to be phenous ancient
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and that's hard find in the US as well. And at one point I thought I'd go I have to fly from Cal to someone you're to swim out of Phoenix to get that time, just because there were no meets in the US.
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But thankfully I found one in San Antonio and that's close to home so that was such a blessing.
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And that was very, very stressful. Thankfully, like, there are quite a number of people on my team at Cal who are also trying to make the Olympics or their respective countries and so I didn't feel alone in my struggles and I think we united and bonded more than anything.
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And so I'm hearing their struggles and me telling theirs like we just really, I got to know like so many different facets of everyone's process and so it really made it such a unique transition for me to, you know, to say like, hey, I am shooting for the Olympics like this has been a life dream of mine.
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I'm going to do it now. And then that summer I went to Croatia before to train and try those times and ended up breaking I think two national records and a real national record and an event that like I never swim and that was the best moments ever and I won Creation Nationals.
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Girls do creation nationals and I was really sick as well. And so while the whole process was really stressful and emotionally draining just so like I cried so much.
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It was so stressful. There were so many like little pockets of joy and just like pure like hope and we went to a training camp in Turkey. It was me and a couple of creation Paralympians just spending time with them and, you know, getting to really be grateful and appreciate that, you know, like my fully functional body, like I have a fully functional body and seeing them like, never complain about anything like
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anything they can and just swimming and how much dedication and grit and commitment they have was truly inspiring to me.
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Obviously the Olympics was, I mean, the dream that I never thought in one million years that I would ever do spending that training camp in Turkey with those Paralympians was one of the most rewarding like experiences in my lifetime. And so going into the Olympics, I felt like I had such a good like support system with me.
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I kind of traveled alone like none of my coaches were able to come because of COVID restrictions and just one other swimmer who actually swims at USC, Nikola Milenech also came with us and his coach came.
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So it was hard to just like not have a coach or not really knowing anyone on the creation Olympic team because our country is small and we don't have a lot of qualifiers. But that made it all the more special because you were like, wow, that was a small country but yet here I am like competing at the world biggest stage and I'm not only like myself but I'm
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I'm standing next to like the sync of each brothers who won gold at Rohing and yeah, like Tensobe who won silver and like gymnastics and Matayesh won gold and Taekwondo and I mean that was so humbling and so cool to be a part of.
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And like I remember watching Matayesh Taekwondo gold medal match and I mean she was going to settle for silver until like 10 seconds and everyone from the creation Olympic team was like crying in a room like with this tiny TV and we were going literally nuts.
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And then when she won we just exploded and like all the team managers were handing out like alcohol and like shots and I think I have a cake for her and it was honestly just so surreal.
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I think back to the Olympics and I didn't think about how I saw I think about those little moments or like even eating with like like my mom and she each tennis player and his partner. That was awesome. I like all about the family and his kids and oh man.
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Wow. Yeah, that's surreal. I mean that's, ah, it sounds incredible. I mean even even you just said you know not even the swimming is you know the first thing you think of or everything that you think of the whole experience as a whole, you know everything that all the people over there.
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It's such a cool experience that I mean almost what like 99% almost you know no one gets to experience except for you know the select few you and you know all the other top athletes.
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You know that's that's such a cool thing to experience.
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Yeah, there was, I'm only grateful for the rest of my life to everyone who got me here I like if I was in this alone there no shot me ever doing anything but with everyone from DeVau with my parents with my team here at Berkeley with all those like other creation
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Olympics that I could look up to and being so kind and like maybe like start a creation or didn't say something right just having them be so warm and welcoming.
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They really didn't have to be and yet they're.
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When you like when you tell your American friends you know your friends at Cal you know that aren't don't have Croatian roots or anything and you say like oh yeah I'm going to the Olympics I'm swimming in the Olympics like what what do they say like the non non swimmer friends you know someone from class or like is that crazy to them or
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they're like what yeah I'm a couple of my friends even like other sports like baseball or rolling they were just what the heck you know I want them like we could do it like I was rooting for you blah blah blah but they were just oh my god the amount of
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text and like these times I got when I announced that I made it was like it took me like three full days to get back to everyone.
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Jesus it was just it was insane that's all I have was for it's just insane.
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I'm sure I'm sure you're getting text you know like during while you're competing and people saying oh I see you on TV right now you're on channel two or whatever.
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I'm sure there are people who I'm sure there are people who didn't even know that like you were going but then recognize you on TV and we're just mind blown pictures.
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I'm like my dentist in Austin I came back and I had a dentist appointment she pulled up a picture on her phone she's like hey like I saw you in the opening ceremony is that Tokyo dentist chair and I was like what I just came here to get my teeth cleaned and you were telling me how you watched me on TV.
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That's when you know you made it when your dentist is impressed by you.
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Yeah so funny.
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Do you have people asking for autographs or no not yet.
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No autographs pictures.
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I'm sure it's coming I'm sure it's on the way.
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Is there one last thing about the Olympics.
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The opening ceremony the events and the closing ceremonies I mean what else is there like to the Olympics what else goes on that you know you wouldn't know about unless you were there that you can talk about.
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I think what I remember when I watched the Olympics on television really thought it's kind of every man for themselves like you know the swim team for themselves basketball team for themselves and I think people don't realize is regardless of what age what country race what
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ethnicity what event or sport you are at the Olympics.
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I think it's really hard because of restrictions but even with restrictions I mean you just kind of felt like the positive energy.
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I mean just overwhelming feeling of gratitude support and just random people being so kind and being like you can do this like I don't know you and I don't know a sport and what day you're competing but like you got it you're going to be great.
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That's definitely the most jaw dropping moment Olympics is just the community in that Olympic Village.
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Yeah that's something I didn't expect so even people from competing you know from other countries are still rooting for you know everyone still picking you up and you know saying you can do it and things like that.
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Yeah yeah it's super weird and all the volunteers around the Olympic Village they were so cute and they just kept asking all graphs or they made all signs around like the water polo stadium and they were like you can do it like be tough like let's do this.
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Just like small things like that that you wouldn't really expect was a really kind I mean I think I think Tokyo did just like an amazing job of putting on the Olympics.
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Even with COVID even with all that garbage and COVID wise.
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Yeah.
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Yeah that's really tough I mean you've got people coming from all over the world.
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You know the host the Olympics I'm sure you know that's a pain a whole bunch of logistical issues and all kinds of issues.
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So that's good to hear that you know it sounds like they did a great job and you know everyone had a great time there and there was no fans right there.
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No fans were allowed.
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Yeah no fans no outside spectators.
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Is that any different in in swimming I mean I'm sure it's hard to hear anything as you're swimming or is it I actually have no idea like with crowd noise versus no crowd noise.
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You can definitely hear the crowd noise when you're swimming.
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Really.
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Walking out in the yeah walking out in the arena and kind of like having cameras in your face but no one in the stands.
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No one yelling no one cheering.
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That was really but I went to therapy and before the Olympics and it was kind of the same way and so I kind of knew what to expect.
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Even so like I mean it was obviously a dream of mine to go to the Olympics and my parents supported me the most out of anyone to get me here and so much and yet they were unable to see my dream in real life.
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And so that was like a little like heart crushing in a way because they my mom was playing in like a hotel like tickets all these things beforehand before COVID hit and then all of that just kind of went away and they had to watch TV.
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I mean one to Makerska one hour in Tokyo so it's not like they had that crappy instinct I mean at the beach.
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Yeah true.
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Can't complain over there too but yeah still that's I mean that stuff definitely want your family to be there that's a huge moment for you and your family.
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But I mean like there's you know there's nothing you can do about that you know in that situation.
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Yeah.
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I wanted to get back to one thing you said when we were talking about how you had to hit this certain time in order to qualify.
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I was wondering what exactly like what's going through your head what's your what was your process like knowing this event you have to hit this time if you want to go to the Olympics like that's so much pressure.
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Yeah.
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What's like your coping method or how do you how do you deal with that and fuel yourself.
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I think as a person like on deck or as a swimmer I have to be like having fun and I have to be goofy in order to swim fast and that's challenging obviously when pressure is really hot and you know this is like the last competition to make this cut or things like that and it really did come down to the water at the end and I mean there were
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plenty of moments where I just burst out to tears on deck and my coach you know creations love to get tough luck.
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It was like so kind of moments and his name is what we call him better and better we're just kind of like shake me and be like dude like it's okay like you got it we put in so much training and just having those people around you.
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Put your head straight I think would kind of be my biggest coping mechanism if that makes sense.
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But even when they're not there connecting with them over the phone or just even telling myself like having that good positive self talk in my head as one of the biggest ways that I kind of cope with that.
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And just being like look you're being a little dramatic like relax you're gonna be fine like it's not life or death.
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It feels like that when you're trying to make the Olympics but yeah scheme of things you know if you mess up the turn or like your start was pretty bad it's it's really not the end of the world.
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So just putting things into perspective to was also another coping mechanism I use a lot.
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Yeah so putting things into perspective and it sounds like what was a common theme that you've been talking about you know your support system and having that community around you.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So what events are coming up next for you what's what's the plan for the future.
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So we are in the middle of kind of collegiate season right now.
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And so we have packed worlds and NCA's on late February and middle of March.
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So that's my biggest focus right now is NCA's.
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And then after that internationally I'll be I'm pretty sure I'll be going I'm already qualified for world championships in Japan.
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During the summer.
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So right now my plan is to attend.
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And I might ask something I'm going to Europeans as well just because it was so fun last time I went and I'm already qualified so why not you know.
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And then after that I don't really know what I'm going to be doing swimming lives.
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I'm applying to a couple of master's programs.
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And if I get into those I might be able to swim I might not.
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But it's looking right now like world championships will kind of be my last athletic.
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Hi, I guess or like performance.
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So that's kind of where I'm headed right now.
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Are you excited to go back to Japan.
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Is it very excited.
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I think it'll be so fun.
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Yeah, were you so it's how you probably weren't able to travel during the Olympics right around you were just there in Tokyo in the Olympic Village.
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Yeah, so they completely shut off everything. Yeah, I was just in the village.
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But the swimming the pool venue was a little bit away from the village and so I got to see parts of Tokyo like in a bus driving around.
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And I mean it wasn't much at all.
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But I actually went to Japan when I was a kid. So I do remember a couple things. And so I'm hoping that if worlds is like still going to happen this summer that we'll be able to go and travel a little bit.
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Because I really do love traveling.
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I'd say that's like one of my hobbies or one of the things I really want to do when I'm no longer an athlete.
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And so that would be really awesome if I could do that.
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Yeah, that'd be super cool. Japan Wow. And then where where would the euros be held or the European last year was in Budapest.
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I don't really know.
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So the Budapest was really cool. Actually, I was just there for New Year's for the first time and I thought it was such a cool city. I had a great time there.
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Yeah, I did too. But this is really awesome. I'd love to go again when I'm not like competing or having to be in bed at like eight o'clock.
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Yeah, I'm sure that's tough to party on that schedule.
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Yeah.
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Now, aside from swimming, what else do you do in your free time? What else are your interests or aside from I guess your career right now, your swimming career?
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Yeah, my hobbies. I love going to like kind of shallowish level. I love cooking.
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And my roommate and I cook extravagant meals like all the time. I love eating like I love food and I love coffee and like I'm a really big connoisseur in that area.
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And so I really like doing that. It works great because Croatia has amazing food. I'm sure you know. So yeah, that works out perfectly.
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You cook any other thing?
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That's not really.
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Oh, sorry, go ahead.
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Okay. Besides kind of eating and cooking, I guess, not that I have like a ton of time, but I really do love traveling and I love exploring different places.
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And so the times when I'd go to Croatia to train there, I would always make sure to like go to another country or go to a part of Croatia to been before.
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So like two years ago when I was in Croatia for my first Worlds, we went to Slovenia first for a meet and then we stayed like a little extra and you know, went to blood and everyone Slovenia is awesome.
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I would love to go there again.
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I've been to Amsterdam and Madrid and Barcelona and like I could just keep listening like countries that I've been to and I mean that I love doing that and I would love to go back to Madrid or Barça.
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So I'm no longer like swimming or you know, an athlete. I'm definitely going to be doing that.
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Yeah, sounds like you've been you've been to a lot of places. I mean, even while you're swimming, it sounds like you're getting to go to a lot of places. So that's really cool too that you can kind of, you know, combine those and to a certain extent, which is really cool about the cooking that you were talking about.
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What's your favorite thing to cook? You know, do you have any Croatian specialties or what do you stick to usually? What's your go to?
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Um, so I actually don't cook a lot of Croatian food at school just because my roommate is Finnish actually and also part Mexican and so we do like a lot of like tacos, regular tacos, but we make we like make our own tortillas or like tortilla chips.
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We make our own guac. We really like put in the effort to make everything handmade.
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Wow, you're making your own tortillas.
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Yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's really easy to and one of my specialties to make that my roommate always ask me to do is I make this like totally any soup with Carol and Italian sausage.
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And it's it is five. It's like flame. It's so good.
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And that's definitely it's really fun to cook to and it's pretty it has kale in it. So it works out.
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Yeah, that's true. You get that part too. Yeah, cooking is fun. But I mean, of course, the other part the cleaning. What's that like for you? Do you you and your roommate switch off or are you one of those crazy people that like cleaning?
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So it used to be more like whoever cooks where the other person would clean that we kind of have it I'm just cooking together and we'd clean together and it's really kind of honestly it's like whoever gets up from the dining table first is the one who
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who like says meaning and then gets to decide whether they want to do dishes or like other things.
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I honestly don't mind doing dishes because we don't have a dishwasher here so we have to do everything by hand, which sucks. But we also like blast music and like dance in the kitchen and so it's actually really fun.
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And I guess I kind of like cleaning like I like living in a clean space. And so I enjoy those parts as well.
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That's important. There's always got to be one roommate that likes to clean because then if not it's just a madhouse over there.
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Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
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That's cool. Yeah, as long as you can have fun with it. I mean, that's a good time. Well, I'm a I mean I really appreciate you coming on the podcast is really interesting hearing about you and hearing about your career and your swimming.
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I know everyone listening or everyone that's going to be listening, you know, is rooting for you.
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You know, we hope you can be well in Japan. That's this summer. What month is that?
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I believe end of May.
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Oh, Jesus, end of May. Okay. Yeah, well, we wish you luck in that and all your other events. That's coming up pretty soon actually now that I think about it.
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Yeah, very soon. Yep.
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All right, but yeah, thank you again, Emma and you know, wish you the best of luck.
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Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciated it. So thank you again.
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That's it for today's episode of the All Things Croatia podcast. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you all enjoyed it.
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You can subscribe to the Patreon and check out the All Things Croatia Instagram page to stay updated.
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Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, tips or ideas and make sure to tune back into the next episode.
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Thanks again and vide most it.