Photos: Top Left: The cemeteries near the Olympic Stadium. Top Center Left: The main market in Sarajevo, site of the famous bombing. Top Center Right: Prayer at Sarajevo's main mosque. Top Right: The "Sarajevo Roses" memorial to those who were killed by shelling while waiting in line for bread. Bottom Left: Reflection of hamam in the Bosnian Cultural Center's windows; Bottom Center:  The City Library, destroyed in the war; Bottom Center Right: The inside of the City Library.

It is hard to believe that I was happy on the day of the opening of the Winter Olympics; I had no idea that only ten years later, I would believe in nothing.

Perhaps the saddest part of my time with Zayid was our visit to the Olympic stadium. As you can see from the photo on the left, cemeteries of the war-dead cover the hills that surround the stadium. New cemeteries have been built all over the country for the estimated 102,000 dead. The majority of the dead were Bosnian Muslims.

The question of memorialization in Bosnia is quite interesting. In the Sarajevo market where the famous shelling took place, there is a simple memorial that lists the names of the victims. On the streets where people died after being shelled while waiting in breadlines, there are very inconspicuous memorials, known as the Sarajevo Roses.

But outside of the cemeteries, identified as memorials because of their still pristine whiteness, there is no memorial museum in Sarajevo, except for the very hard-to-find tunnel museum. In fact, the International Commission based in Sarajevo, has forbidden the teaching of the history of the war in order to minimize conflict. Currently, there is no agreed-upon figure for war-dead. As a result, politicians use figures which appease their constituents.

But Sarajevo is definitely a bustling city. It is markedly different from any other place in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The streets are alive at night with young people - although a significant number of young people are leaving the country to seek a better life abroad. Though the state has stated its commitment to secularism, it is very clear that a more traditional form of Islam is growing in Sarajevo.

As mentioned earlier, one of the greatest testaments to the war in Sarajevo is the library. It stands along the river, riddled with bullet holes. I was lucky enough to be able to sneak inside while a local television crew was filming the war damage. On the evening of August 25, 1992 the Serb military set the national library on fire; over two million books and original documents were destroyed in the flames. But since the war, there has been a lot of disagreement as to what will happen with the library. Also, it appears that corruption has swallowed up a lot of the funds that were allocated to its restoration. Now the plan is to relocate the library out by the newly restored national museum - and the library will most likely become a government ministry, denying the general public access to its incredible interior.