This is an emergency swimming situation.

The View From Ajdna

2012-01-16T16:51:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I went for a hike with my friend Ana. We drove about 15 minutes to the base, and climbed for 2 hours. You're looking at Triglav straight ahead (the tallest mt. in Slovenia). All of the snowy peaks you can see are part of the Julian Alps. The emerald river is called Sava Dolinka- it joins a second to form the Sava.

I like this.

Some things you do for money, some you do for love love love

2012-01-15T20:44:00.002+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv3-vANWwcU

Yesterday I got up at 5:30- changed into my hiking clothes, drank some hot tea, packed a sandwich into my backpack and hit the road. I arrived 4 minutes late to the bus station, where I was the last person to board. It may seem amazing to you that I held up an entire bus by being 4 minutes late, but I should also clarify that I was the youngest person on the hiking expedition by about 30 years.

We rode the bus for 3 hours, stopping once for tea and toilets. I woke up a few times to see the sun rising over the hills, and eventually stayed awake as my friend Jože, the hiking instructor, told us the plan for the day.

Our plan? To go for a 4 hour hike through the snowy forests of Štajerska.

It took me a while to decide if I wanted to go on this hike or not- I really like the instructors, but I knew that I would be one of the youngest people, plus my health has not been the best lately (just a cold ma, nothing to worry about). However, when treading through the fluffy now in the company of 35 Slovene retirees, my mind got caught up on some lyrics to a song that I couldn't remember, but now know to have been 'Love love love' by the Mountain Goats.

Do you know this song? I personally give this song an A++, and as a teacher, that obviously holds a lot of weight (also, noted that as a teacher, there is a very fine line in between what I do for money, and what I do for love).

From the title of the post, you might assume the song to be adorable- that the things you do for love are cute and sweet and perfect. This is not the case... rather the song expresses a complex reality where some painful actions ultimately lead to love, often in ways that we do not understand.

In a way, this song seems to relate to my life here (although it's, thankfully, not so painful). I don't really understand why I feel such an intense calling to be here. My life is more... simple I suppose. I like my job in theory, but in actuality I am ''working'' with a woman who is constantly against me. I am far away from many people that I love, who also love me. But reality is not so simple, is it?

Yesterday I trudged through the snow for 4 hours with 35 people aged 55-80 (seriously). I had a cold. My Raynaud's hands were killing me. I had nobody to dance the polka with at the veselica that followed... but even as I was hiking, a piece of my brain picked up on something that the rest got later.

Some things you do for money, and some you do for love love love.

Cinderella and the Glass Copat

2012-01-09T15:25:00.003+01:00

In a splurge of something that might have been creativity (note: might also be called 'vanity', although I cannot speak for my co-writer and director who probably was always a bit more humble than I), JRog and I wrote and directed 2 fairytale spoofs in high school. The first was a lip-sync musical of 'Little Read Riding Hood' which made absolutely no sense anywhere except for in our heads. The second a comical rendition of Cinderella.

Last week I got the brilliant idea of tying to direct a play at school- in English. I cannot see how this could be anything short of amazing for the kids that participate: they would be memorizing lines (read: sentence structure) in English and also focusing on saying words, properly, aloud. Unfortunately, I don't know that I will get permission to carry this out.

Below is the, a-hem... MODIFIED version of Cinderella: A Story of Hope, which was written by Jessica Rogers and Nicole Schmidt 8 years ago, which was also, of course, modified by Disney from the Original- which was what, the Grimm Brothers? It is quite possible that it will not make any sense. Quite a lot of the humor depends on the acting and fluency of it all... but if you'd like to read and give me your feedback as to if I should fight for this, I'd be grateful.

Now... without further adieu, I give you: Cinderella and the Glass Copat (*Which, by the way, is a simple slipper in Slovene... basically a sole and flap of fabric over the front half of the foot).

CINDERELLA AND THE GLASS COPAT (Slipper in Slovene)

Narrator: Everyone has heard the nice fairytale of Cinderella. Some sweet, beautiful girl lives with her evil-step mother and step-sisters who try to make her life horrible. However, she is magically is saved by her fairy godmother, Prince Charming falls in love with her, loses her at midnight, but then finds her by her glass slipper, and everyone lives happily ever after. Blah blah blah blah. Now, I’m not saying that I don’t believe in magic fairytale endings, but maybe things don’t always turn out like the story you all know.

Now I’m here at Osnovna Šola Antone Tomaža Linharta to tell you the real story of what happened to Cinderella and Prince Charming, otherwise known as Greg. He really was the typical prince charming. Kind, talented, attractive. He could lift 500 kilos with one arm, tame wild beasts, dance with the grace and beauty of a swan. Every girl in the kingdom was in love with him. Every boy wanted to be like him. Every mother wanted their son to grow up just the same. Only he was so modest that he had no idea…

Prince Greg’s father was a good King, but was terribly old and would croak any day now. The time had come for Prince Greg to take over the throne, but he couldn’t do so without first finding a woman to be his bride. His best friend, Eric, has come to the rescue.

Scene 1 (The prince and Eric are playing Rock, paper, scissors. The prince loses)

Eric…………………………………Haha- What up, dude!!! Now you have to have a ball!
Narrator.........................Oh yeah, the prince's best friend is kind of... well, you'll see
Prince Greg.....................I can't, Eric. You cannot really make me go through with this! I'm not ready, my friend.
Eric..................................You HAVE to. Your dad's getting old and really, any day now he might just (makes sound and motions death)
Greg................................Eric!
Eric..................................But really, you're the prince of Slovenia. You have to find a bride. It's the law.
Greg................................. I know, I know, it's just (sigh). What girl would ever want me?
(Eric moves to open the window. Screaming girls shouting 'We love you!' are muffled from outside)
Greg................................Ok, look. I'll have a ball- a dance for all of the girls in the kingdom, but I cannot promise that I'll find a bride.

Narrator..........................So they got to work, planning the party. It was to be a real ball- where every woman in the kingdom would come and dance with the prince, at at the end, he would find someone to be his bride and become the Queen of Slovenia. Every woman who received an invitation immediately began to get ready for the party. They did their hair, their make-up, bought expensive dresses and fancy shoes. Well, almost everyone... everyone except...

Scene 2
Evil step-mother.............Cinderella! Where are you, you nasty little twerp?!
Cinderella........................(arrives, looking tired and dirty) I am here, step-mother. I was just outside, finishing the jobs that you gave me.
Evil step-mother.............All of them?
Cinderella........................Yes, this morning I painted the house, mowed the lawn, fed the animals, milked the cows, washed the car and did your taxes. I'm just finishing cooking lunch and the potica is in the oven. Now can I get ready for the ball?
Evil step-mother.............Why yes of course... There's just one more thing. (calls off-stage) Chloe, Jennifer! Will you bring the clothes for Cinderella to iron.
(Two girls enter in fancy, ball-clothes. They are arguing about silly things, like who looks prettier in pink and which girl the prince will like better).
Evil..................................Oh darlings! Look at you! The prince will never be able to choose between you! And did you finish the talents you prepared, to show him how wonderful you are?
Jennifer...........................Of course (Chloe plays the recorder while Jennifer dances- Chloe makes a mistake and Jennifer gets angry). Chloe! You are stupid, why would the prince ever want to marry a stupid girl like you???
Chloe..............................I'm not stupid. You are! ( They end up fighting and pulling each others hair)
Evil..................................Girls... GIRLS! Remember your manners for the prince! Now,where are the clothes for Cinderella?
Chloe..............................WHAT?! Cinderella gets clothes?? I thought you said you were going to give her so much laundry that she had to stay home and iron- (Evil step-mother coughs to interrupt)
Evil..................................Where are the clothes for Cinderella to iron?
Jennifer..........................We'll go get them (Step-sisters leave)
Evil..................................Yes, Cinderella- there are just a few (A enormous bag of clothes is pulled into the room by Chloe) items here, as you can see (From offstage, Jennifer throws in several more handfulls). Just as soon as you finish them (One more shirt is thrown in), you can get ready for the ball.
Cinderella.......................But stepmother! I will never finish this before the party!
Evil..................................No? Well you won't with that attitude, now will you? Come on girls, our car awaits!
(Step-mother and step-sisters leave. Cinderella sits sadly in the middle of the lanudry. She sees a little bird)
Cinderella........................Oh little bird- I wish I could go to the ball! I wish, oh I wish... (bursts into tears)

(music starts to play- music from The Godfather The fairy-Godfather enters)

Godfather.......................What is it?
Cinderella.......................(Looks up, startled) Who... who are you??
Godfather.......................Who do you think I am? Prince Charming? Naw- I'm your fairy Godfather. Now, you gotta ball to get to, or what?
Cinderella........................Yes, but- I have all of this laundry to do--- and nothing to wear!
Godfather........................Honey, let's just say your fairy godfather's gonna take care of everything... A-hem: Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo Put 'em together and what have you got bibbidi-bobbidi-boo (points a wand at his briefcase. Pulls out a stack of folded laundry and a bag for Cinderella. She eagerly looks inside)
Cinderella……………………...Oh Godfather (pulls out a dress). It’s beautiful! But what are these? (Pulls out a pair of copati) Aren’t I supposed to wear shoes?
Godfather……………………..Huh? Those are your glass slippers- wadda you want? High heels? They’re healthier!
Cinderella……………………..Ok- well. Thanks.
Godfather…………………….No problem. Now watta you waitin for? I’ve got a limo waiting out front. Get dressed- let’s go! (Cinderella leaves- godfather calls out to her) Oh! And before I forget- you’ve GOT to get back by midnight. Let’s just say the car’s got some places to go.

Scene 3

Narrator………………………..So Cinderella was able to go to the ball. She gave her fairy-godfather an awkward hug, put on her dress while her godfather ironed the rest of the laundry, and they left for the limo… which was not a limo. In fact, it was a hearse (one of those cars that dead people are driven around in)… but what else can you expect from a fairy-godfather?

At the prince’s house, the party was off to an interesting start. The prince declared that he would dance with each maiden one time and one time only. Girls arrived by the thousands… Each tried to get more than their fair share of time with the Prince. Some ladies were clearly too old. Some much too young. However, most of the girls were just not a good fit.

(The prince dances with Chloe)
Chloe…………………………….So what’s it like to be the prince of Slovakia?
(The prince trades Chloe for Jennifer)
Jennifer………………………..My sister and I have prepared our talent for you. I know you’re going to love it. But just know, I have so many other talents too… I can cook, I can shop for a really long time, I can-
Prince……………………………You know, I’m getting quite hungry- I think that I’m just going to go grab something to eat.
(Prince walks over to the food bar where Eric is attempting to catch grapes in his mouth)
Eric………………………………..DUDE!!!!! How great is this party? These girls are SMOKING HOT!
Prince……………………………These girls are (sighs) not for me. I’ll never find a bride- look around.
Eric.................................Come on, there must be someone you want to dance with!
(At that moment, one of the bored guests starts to tap on the table in a melodic rhythm. This spreads- people everywhere are making nose and it ends up in a miraculous STOMP. Cinderella walks in and everyone stops).
Greg................................OH DANG!
Prince..............................Her, her. I want to dance with her.
(Prince walks to Cinderella and sweeps her into a magical polka. The step-family looks really angry.)

Jennifer...........................What's SHE doing here?!
Chloe...............................Who? Oh, yeah! Well, the prince will never want someone like HER.
Jennifer...........................It LOOKS like the prince likes her just fine
Evil..................................Girls, we'll handle this if it's the last thing I do.

Narrator..........................And the party continued like this. The prince danced with Cinderella while the other girls were ignored. It seemed as though they were falling in love when...
(Clock strikes 12)
Cinderella........................Oh! Midnight already! Oh my, I have to go!
(She runs out)
Prince..............................Wait! But I don't even know your name!!!

(Silence. Eric comes over to consult the prince)
Eric..................................Dude- Great party man! Who was that chick?
Prince.............................I don't know. Surely I've never seen her before. And now I'll never see her again.
Eric.................................Naw- course you will. What's that?!
(One of Cinderella's slippers is thrown back onto stage)
Prince.............................Ah! Her shoe! It must have fallen off as she ran out. Eric! We will find her indeed!

Scene 4
Narrator.........................And thus began the search for Cinderella. The very next morning, the Prince and Eric began to visit every single house in the city in search for Cinderella. The prince took all of the houses on the West side, Eric on the East. House after house they visited, but no woman fit into the glass slipper. Meanwhile, Cinderella began her regular life again, doing all of the work for her awful step-other and evil step sisters.
Evil step-mother.............You really made a fool of yourself at the ball last night.
Chloe..............................Yeah!
Cinderella.......................What makes you say that?
Jennifer..........................Ug- everything. The way that you were dancing with the prince, that horrible dress you were wearing. Your face.
Cinderella.......................I thought I was fine.
(Cinderella resumes cleaning. There is a knock at the door.)
Evil..................................Who is it?
Voice of Eric....................It is Eric, the royal best friend. I am here by order of Prince Greg to have every girl in this kingdom try on the royal copat. The prince's bride lost it when she left the party last night.
Evil...................................Oh! I'll be right there. (More quietly- to Cinderella). Cinderella- get in the closet.
Cinderella........................But stepmother- I... (Cinderella is pushed into the closet. Chloe opens the door).
Eric..................................What up????
Jennifer...........................Oh, my slipper! You found it! Thanks, I'll just put it on- don't know where the other one went... oh- it fit last night it's so strange that it isn't fitting now...
Chloe...............................That's because it's mine. I'll take it and... boo. What happened? You must have shrunk it.
Evil step-mother.............Don't be silly dear- nobody could have done such a thing. After all, I think that it's mine-
Jennifer...........................Mom!
Evil step-mother.............Oh hush up, it's not like the prince is that young.
Eric..................................I think that the copat did not belong to any of you ladies, so I really need to be going-
(There is a noise from the closet that is hiding Cinderella)

Eric.................................What was that?
Evil-stepmother.............Oh nothing- it's just our pet!
(Even larger noise from the closet)
Eric.................................THAT is from a pet?
Evil-stepmother..............Well, it's a rather big pet- a Gorilla in fact...
Eric..................................I'll just open the-
(Evil step-mother jumps in front of the door)
Evil stepmother...............You can't it will--- (Eric opens the door. Cinderella jumps out)
Eric..................................Oh hey! Do you want to try on the slipper?
Cinderella........................Of course (Everyone gasps as the slipper fits perfectly. Eric bows)
Eric...................................Your highness- it fits perfectly!
Cinderella.........................Itak- it's my copat.
Eric...................................I must take you directly to the prince.

Scene 5
Narrator...........................And so he did. Eric and Cinderella walked together through the town all the way back to the castle. It was a long walk, but they found that they got along quite well. Perhaps better than any two people had ever gotten along before. Finally, they arrived to the room where the prince was nervously pacing around, waiting for Eric to return.
(Eric and Cinderella enter arm in arm, laughing at a joke Eric is telling)
Greg................................(gasp) Eric! You found her! Oh my beautiful, wonderful girl. I cannot believe that you are with me here again! (Turns to speak monologue to the audience. As he speaks, Eric and Cinderella get closer and closer in the background). Before I met you, my world was nothing special. Ok, yeah, I'm the prince of a country, I'm talented, funny, and smart- but days were just days. Last night, I felt like I lived for the very first time. And now, everywhere I go I see signs of you- It's like beauty is taking over the world world- seeping out of every corner... covering every empty space. And now- I ask you, wonderful girl. Will you marry me?
Cinderella.......................Oh! Wow- that is so... so sweet. Only- I don't think of you like that. I think of you more as a... a big brother!
Greg................................(In shock). Oh. So you won't marry me?
Cinderella.......................mmmm, yeah- not I don't think so.
Greg................................But- is there someone else?
Cinderella.......................Actually, yeah. (Turns to Eric). What do you say?
Eric..................................Let's go grab a pizza?
Cinderella........................Deal.

ENDING TO BE DETERMINED
(open to suggestions!)

Living in the Future

2011-12-26T18:48:00.002+01:00

Are you satisified with living in the 21st Century?

Seriously. Think about it. And then think about it with all of the things that the past thought we would have it the 21st Century. Flying space stations. Inflatable clothes. Flux capacitors powered by plutonium.

Still, we are not left empty-handed. What do we have? Google. And for the most part, it provides the simple, computer-ignorant human being with the newest technology that is appropriate for them. And I am SO THANKFUL. Because of google, I can talk to my family for free from Slovenia (note: A different country than Slovakia). And because of google, I can laugh forever when they call me back and I don't answer. Why? Because google voice transcribes messages. Sometimes they do a fine job... although, usually not. For example, this is the Christmas message that I got from my family:

Boulder Creek. Love, Chris and I, Thank you for the wonderful deals, on the waters. You were just that we've part. Thank you so much. Absolutely makers minutes without you being there we were sure thinking about Jeff to what to do it off. Well, I hope you're enjoying your stay day and thanks again for everything. You really need Christmas. So hope you're having a good 10. Love you, love you, and pie.

Boom boom boom. Love, your super-nova girl.

Once a Princess, Always a Princess

2011-12-14T18:51:00.002+01:00

There are days when I really should be focused on all of the things that I have to do, and I should absolutely not be writing blog posts.

There are days when I need to lighten up and focus more on what is actually important.

I'm pretty positive that today is one of the former days, but I'm going to pretend like writing this post is life-changing. If it changes your life, whoever you are, please tell me so I can justify all future entries.

______________________

Let me tell you where I am with school. To be honest, I've had a bit of a rough time lately. Some of the complications are derived by the fact that my job is a bit nebulous still- and it doesn't help that the FBI takes every bit of 8 weeks to process criminal record checks...

So I have been making it through the day just doing what I think that I should do. I'm not like the typical Slovene teachers. Obviously. I am an American- I was trained in a totally different system and was raised in the Heartland. I AM different, plus I am young and like to smile... a somewhat-difficult disposition to gain ultimate respect sometimes.

Additionally, there are times when I do not know the where to put the border between how I should act and how I want to act. Don't get the wrong idea- I understand the things that are really unacceptable, however there is a fairly large 'gray' in teaching. And then there is the small but NOT-insignificant fact that I'm teaching some really young kids this year in addition to the older ones. Now, I haven't had much experience babysitting in my adult life and don't really know all that there is to know about 5th graders. I've learned quickly, however, that they really like me. When they see me in the hall, they gasp, sometimes drop their folders, and wave with both hands. ''UČITELJICA!'' they call me. It's adorable. And anything that I tell them is pretty much considered gold. This is the reason that they start each class by chanting 'English, English, ENGLISH!' with fists in the air (hey, we were learning the parts of the body- what a better way than to teach them how to make a fist?). This is also the reason that they do the Michael Scott 'slow' run every time I ask them to slowly line up by the door. However, sometimes they start things with cues that I didn't even mean to give.

Last Friday, we were reading together. The Princess and The Pea. I made a big mistake:
I told them, just to make conversation, that we have this big dance at the end of high school in America, and the school decides that one person should be a queen, and one should be king, and they're crowned. Obviously, I thought that this would impress them, however, I didn't realize that they would change their excited-hallway-yells. Now, whenever I enter a hall for the lower grades, I will hear an excited gasp or a fake trumpet blow. ''Your Majesty!'' they call me. Though this is hilarious, it's not really doing good things for my somewhat-stressful relationship with my co-English teacher...

Because I don't think that they're ''ready'' for postering.

2011-12-07T21:20:00.004+01:00

I need a creative outlet- itak. In the past, that has taken many forms- in high school, it was theater. Writing and directing plays... being the reject understudy in just about every single play that MHS performed. And, of course, later my creativity took a spin for the better/worse (you decide) when I decided to perform my own comedy act.

The stranger creations of my creativity led to many adventures, a police-call (mum, don't worry, it was all a big misunderstanding), and skills to leave things secretly... like posters, muffins, or Rick Astley music videos.

I can't give up on my creativity here. In fact, it is being called on with even more vigor as I find myself in a place where I am not understood 100% of the time. However, my former methods are often lost. The Rick-roll becomes infinitely less funny when you have to explain who Rick Astley is, why it's funny, and how you aren't trying to imply anything with the song choice (and when Graham is not your victim).

So I've turned to my journal- it's a new one that I bought here. Dark green, gridlined paper. A little piece of elastic to hold my pen. I love it. It's something different than my former journals- it not only holds thoughts, ideas, prayers, reflection, Slovene notes and ticket-stubs, but holds the outbursts of creativity that come when I am sitting in the same class for the 4th hour in a row.
I've been writing a lot more, but not just journal entries- stories about characters that I've met or dream up- often that are completely fictional and hopefully capture something bigger. Some truth that is more real. I promised some kids from Perry that I'd write a book some day, so maybe I'll squeeze that in, somewhere in between teaching kids, playing sports, and tutoring.

Love you all. Miss you like whoa.

Hvalezni dan

2011-11-27T13:31:00.002+01:00

When I was little, homesickness manifested itself in me as a physical pain in my stomach. Whenever I would go places with new friends I would have to go back home to my mom, and only then would the pain subside and I would be able to enjoy again. This went on long enough to drive my mom insane: She told me next time my stomach hurt, I needed to remember that I was probably just homesick and try to push through it. Shortly after this conversation, I was invited to go to the pool with Lindsy Cusic. Promptly, I told Lindsy and her mom that I was ill and needed to go home. My mum was pretty frustrated (and legitimately so- I think that this went on for quite a while). She was in the middle of telling me how much I needed to get over this silly homesickness when I actually threw up all over my room.

I cannot say that I haven't had my fair share of being homesick since I have arrived here. Ok- maybe it doesn't look the same as it did when I was a child, but I have had those moments of longing for you people, and I am sure they are not over. Sometimes I even physically hurt. I suppose to a certain degree homesickness can also mean loneliness or boredom. I (probably more than most) have this incredible ability of remembering only nice, positive things, and thus looking back to my life in Lawrence seems full of excitement and activity. More and more I feel that homesickness has a bigger role in my life, as I meet more people that I do not want to let go of, and thus more people that I will miss in some way when something reminds me of them and space or time or death or life prevents us from being together. And of course I still feel the most basic form of homesickness- where I want my mum to hug me and tell me I am ok.

Homesickness is not a daily struggle here. No, as I grow up and continue to love traveling and meeting new people, this homesickness becomes more of a regular part of me. Not necessarily a pain, but a beautiful longing. And, of course, I have people here also that I would miss if I wasn't here. And yesterday, we had Thanksgiving together.

Sort of?
It was a mash-up Moving in, half-birthday, Pumpkin day, Thanksgiving. My amazing friend Sara and I went on a mission to find all of the pumpkins that we could on Friday. 2 weeks ago she suggested we 'just ask' the bars if we could have their pumpkins. They said no... 2 weeks ago. This Friday we walked back and forth through Radovljica, carrying 3 large pumpkins home (as in, they let us this week, not we stole 4 pumpkins). In the spirit of Pumpkin day, we had Pumpkin Rolls, Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Seeds, Roasted Pumpkin and Wasserman Squares. Pero brought Pumpkin Ham ('Really?!' 'no'). And we ate together.

It was lovely.
I realized about half-way through dinner that this was my first Thanksgiving. True, we didn't have turkey, we didn't have stuffing, but I did make sweet potato french fries and there were some mashed things... all in all, very successful. However, the thing that made it the most successful was that it was a table of people that I am thankful for. A table of people that I am a little homesick for when I am away.

Hey- maybe some day we can all do it together?

Pub Music

2011-11-19T08:33:00.003+01:00

Last night I went to the hip local pub here in Radovljica. I've been a few times, and I must say- I love it. Something about it reminds me more of home than the other bars... probably the fact that you can purchase beer that is not Union or Laško (the two National, sub-par beers... no offense sLOVEnia).

I went with my new and amazing friend Sara- a few weeks ago I got up the courage to ask the baker, Sara, if she wanted to hang out (Still working on the courage to ask the butcher, though I feel like we're not as close as we used to be... yes. I am also still working on locating a candlestick maker. Especially because I would really like to purchase a candle, but have no idea where to do so in this country). She said, in fact, that she had thought of me that morning and wanted to invite me to grab a drink. I am so so thankful for her. Last week was NOT the best week at work, but it was truly amazing to get done with work and have a friend to call, go for a walk with, and go eat cake.

Anyway, last night we went to see the super popular band who often plays at the pub. I was personally invited (a-hem, via facebook), because I know the guitarist. Sara also knows them because the accordion player is apparently a famous model.

I love this country where you can be a super popular, famous model, and wear shit like this at the same time.

I like high-fives, but this is almost out of control

2011-11-15T13:47:00.002+01:00

The last 2 weeks I have been playing volleyball with a group of teachers at my school and their sons. They might be old- I really have no ability to tell with these Slovenes:
'A sta tudi učetelja?' (Are you teachers too?)
'Eh, ne. Jaz sem devetnajst' (Eh, no. I'm 17 years old).

However, old or not, I certainly am not the most fit and agile person there. Miha, who is probably about 55 years older than me can still dive, plus he sets to that sweet spot every single time. Love playing with him- hate playing against him.

Yesterday was a pretty bad day- I have some conflicts with the staff that I am working with and I am struggling to find the balance between doing what I want to do, and being respectful/submissive. I definitely definitely understand that I am new and naive ... I also understand that I am a teacher too who is good with kids and can bring a new perspective. I will find the balance. I hope- otherwise, I am lovin' it here.

I think that there are many things in my character that really help me to 'fit' into the European life-style... I'm not really fashion consciousness (''Nicole, what are you wearing?'' -Lynn... almost everyday). I don't feel that it is important to shower everyday (or every other day). I like bread. However, some things that I love are taken to such extremes that I cannot handle it. Ok- yeah, I love pizza, but I don't want to eat an entire pizza at one sitting. Yes, I would do many things for high fives, but really?

I would say that our volleyball games here look like this:
65% volley
10% ball-retrieval/dead-time
25% high fives

Every. Single. Serve.

Don't get me wrong, I like being enthusiastic and positive- I enjoy congratulating my teammates, but there has got to be a limit. We have exceeded it. However, I suppose all of the high fives contributed to my lighter spirits. Though it could have been some of the other funny things that happened:

1. My coworker Boris (55 year old volleyball MACHINE) apparently always sweats into a perfect heart on his shirt.
2. There was a point when I didn't understand the new 'plan' for success that my huddled team was whispering about. Until Frenk motioned that I should flash the other team because ''še si mlada'' (Don't worry mom, dad, or minister- it was just a joke. Though one that will probably make me avert eye-contact with Frenk until Christmas).
3. I realized the irony of being on a really good team of ex-Yugoslavs which is not called 'Hammer and Sickle', and how they could destroy our young Lawrence Parks & Rec team.

Two Truths and A Lie

2011-11-12T08:58:00.003+01:00

Do you remember the game two truths and a lie? I feel like anyone who went to Church Youth Group or any sort of religious activity right after the turn of the century probably had to come up with 3 factoids about their self- two that were true, and one that was a lie. The group then guesses which is false, everyone knows a bit more about each other, and it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

This week in predura (voluntary pre-lesson), students are going to have to figure out which of the stories below are false:

1. SKI LIFT DANGER
Now, being a young girl from Kansas where things like hills do not exist (at least not in their true form... we have been known to take a grič and call it a mountain), I have not had years and years to refine my skiing abilities. However, that does not mean I haven't tried.

When I was in primary school, I went skiing with my family a few times. Silver Creek- a place where Kansas wives and children thrive. Not too big, cute. A good place to try a 'blue' hill without dying. I loved it. And our fairly regular trips there helped me to acquire some fairly decent (though still lacking) skills. I leaped at the opportunity to take a ski trip with my best friend at the time and her church youth group. We weren't going to my familiar Silver Creek, but to Winter Park. Jessica hadn't been skiing before, but I promised her that it would be ok. It had to be. Right?

Wrong. Jessica was 100% terrified. We spent the entire time on the Bunny Hill, often being passed by 6-year-olds skiing with their little sisters. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed myself very much. While Jessica was cautiously moving down the hill, I was swerving, jumping, singing, dancing... I did it all. And I had her wonderful company as we would meet at the bottom and ride the lift up together.

Now, if you haven't ridden a ski lift before, let me tell you what goes down. You cautiously wait for the people in front of you to be seated and moving on. Then you hurry to stand on the line where the chair will swing around and pick you up (and you must be careful to not fall, because it could end very badly for you. I.e. you could get knocked down from behind, then turn to see what hit you, and find that the chair is swinging back around, quickly heading toward your face. And the embarrassment might continue as you take off your broken sunglasses to see that adolescent heart-throb, Kyle Taylor, has witnessed the whole spectacle from behind). You then ride up to the mountain with your ski tips pointed up so that you don't get them stuck in the snow or else terrible things could happen.

As you might guess, I got stuck in the snow. But that's not the end of the story:

This slow moving bunny-slope lift was very big and had seats for 4 people on every chair. Therefore, often strangers rode up the lift with you. In our case, a young man (who was probably 3 or 4 years older than us at the time) joined our chair. Jess and I introduce ourselves and began chatting before the lift had begun to rise. Suddenly I lurch from my seat. Turns out, I wasn't paying attention to my ski tips and when they got lodged in the snow they began to pull me from my comfy seat in between Jessica and this stranger. In the moment, my ability to think clearly had vanished. I must do something! I must stop from falling off the chair!!

Impulsively, I clutch onto the nearest thing to me... the older boy to my left. One second he's sitting and not speaking to these two giggly girls on the ski lift, the next second I'm hugging him as hard as I can.

Something had to give- it was either going to be me or my ski. I clutched onto this surprised stranger and prayed that it would be my ski.
SNAP!

Relief.
I hoisted my unbalanced body back onto the seat. One ski down, but at least my person remained in tact.

All in all, I made it to the top. My ski too- they stopped the lift and the people in the next chair kindly carried it up for me. Getting off the lift played out much smoother in my mind than at the top of the hill. I leaned on Jessica to keep from falling over, but just ended up bringing her down with me. Again, they had to stop the lift because of me, but this time my new stranger escaped. I looked up from my cold spot on the ground to wave him goodbye, but saw that he was already skiing away as fast as humanly possible.
___________________________________________________________________________________

2. A VERY MAGICAL DAY
We all know that Disney World is the place where dreams come true. I mean, the theme park is called the Magic Kingdom, for crying out loud. The only place that could be more magical, of course, is Lawrence, Kansas.

Well, when I was in the 11th grade, I had the opportunity to return to Disney World, and truly, one of my dreams did come true: I rode on a float in the Magical Disney Parade THROUGH Cinderella's Castle, on a cushy seat near my Prince Aladdin.

Let me start from the beginning: My high school had a music group called Sugar 'n Spice. Girls that auditioned for and made this show-choir performed in sparkley blue dresses: Singing and dancing at the same time. I auditioned for and made this choir (NOT because I have a lovely singing voice or the ability to sing on tune. No, I made this choir because I was known for being especially smiley in high school and had a very cheerful stage presence). You've seen the show Glee? The choir was basically that- only with half the drama and a fourth of the talent.

Despite our lack-of-extreme-talent, we were invited to come and perform at Disney World's 'Magic Music Days' on Tomorrow World Stage (remember the BeWitched, 5 Concert of 1998? Yep. Same stage.). However, we didn't just fly to Disney World, perform, and fly home... no no no my friends. We spent 5 days together in the Magic Kingdom.

Of course every high school choir looked forward to this trip for the whole year. It's probably 50% of the reason most of us joined show choir in the first place. I had a countdown for the trip that started in August, 7 months before we flew. All of my friends that were going got together every Sunday to watch a Disney Movie, and since all of us girls loved Aladdin, we watched him at least once a month. We joked and giggled about how we would meet him at Disney World and he would ditch Princess Jasmine and fall in love with us.

Finally, mid-March, all of our practicing and Disney-movie-watching paid off and we boarded the plane for Florida. Now, I'd been to Disney World before, as a kid with my family, but trust me: Standing in front of Cinderella's Castle when you're 17 and with your closest friends is just as magical as when you're 5 and still think that Mickey Mouse is real. It was a sight to behold- but only for a second. We quickly scattered in every direction, running to the coolest rides with the plan to meet up at 4 pm to watch the Disney Parade as a group of Manhattan High School choirs.

It was an adventure-filled morning: Tower of Terror, Jurassic Park, Rockin' Roller-coaster... we were running so fast from line to line that we didn't even realize how hungry or tired we were. Before we even ate lunch it was time to meet for the parade. I had no idea that my idea was just about to get even more ridiculous and magical.

The Parade Horns began to sound before we found out place among our school mates, but we joined the choir group before Cinderella's Carriage went past. Then we heard 'Arabian Nights' from Aladdin and all of us girls began to giggle. When Aladdin's float came into view, the most amazing thing happened. It slowed and stopped before my school-mates. What was happening?! We were definitely not a part of the show, and the streets were packed with other people, not just our group. Why did Aladdin stop here?!

Well, we knew that we were at the theme park during 'Magic Music Days', but what we did not know was that we were also there during 'Become A Disney Princess' week. Each of the Disney heroes selected someone from the crowd to ride on the float and be a prince or princess. Guess who Aladdin chose?

Yep, yours truly.

The scene was not quite as magical as you might imagine. I was super confused as to what was going on that I jumped onto Chris Coffey's back for a better view. Aladdin happened to glance in my direction as I emerged above the crowd. He laughed, pointed at me, and beckoned for me to come closer. I think that I stopped breathing. He waved me toward him.

you're kidding- you want me to come closer?
He did.

I was selected to be a Disney Princess for a day. It didn't mean anything TOO exciting. I didn't really marry Aladdin, and I didn't have servants or anything, but I wore a tiara and rode on the float. I got to invite one friend to a 'royal' dinner and we got free fast-passes to cut in front of everyone waiting in line for the rides.

What was the best part of it all? Aladdin kissed my hand and signed my backpack with a note that said:
'Nicole- You will always be a princess to me. Follow your dreams' -Aladdin

I have the backpack hanging on the wall at my parent's house. As for the hand he kissed? Let's just say I haven't washed it since.

Ok, just kidding, but I'll never forget that moment for my entire life- of this I am sure.
__________________________________________________________________________________

3. IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER-ALL

I believe that most of you know I used to train taekwondo. It started as a bit of a joke- I wanted to secretly learn so that I could have someone from my class pretend to mug me in the city center sometime... then I would rip open my jacket to reveal my dobok and, of course, taekwondo the fool that tried to steal my bag. I had it all planned- my friends would think I was soooo cool, and let's be honest: I would be.

Well, there were 2 problems with my Master Plan:
1. I have a big mouth and ended up accidentally telling all of my friends that I was in taekwondo
2. I feel in love with the sport. I loved everything from learning diligence, to the hard-core people that lived & breathed taekwondo- it became my passion.

So for 2 years I trained taekwondo. I didn't have too many friends there- taekwondo was a part of my life, not my whole life like most of my peers there. However, I had one co-color belt who appeared to have the same taekwondo approach as me. We were always partners and always laughed togheter.

Still there were two minor... hickups with having a real friendship. First, I could NOT remember his name. I asked him so many times in the first few weeks that I just had to stop asking him... I was too embarrassed to continue. I tried to cover it up. You know how it is:
''Hey Nicole!''
''Ahhh, HEYY!''
Still, I felt like the worst person in the world each time he called me by name.

The second problem? Well, I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where everyone around you wears the same thing in the same color every day, but it renders it nearly impossible to recognize any of those people out in public. I imagine there are a few professions where this could be a problem: Construction, clowns. Those elves at Santa's Station in the mall. There were several times that I saw this guy after I got sick and had to leave taekwondo, but it always took me a long time to realize where I knew him from. He would honk at me or yell my name... once I even ran into him at the supermarket:
''Hey Nicole! How are you? I'd hug you, but I've got these sacks...''
''Ohhh, yeah. Nice to see you. So, um. How are you?''

Now, keep in mind, not only could I not place this guy, but I also couldn't remember his name. It seemed impossible to figure out BOTH where I knew him from and also what his name was WITHOUT making him feel bad that I didn't know him. You know, I think that it honestly was impossible... at least in Lawrence, KS.
Good thing I like to travel.

In 2007, my friend Jessica and I backpacked through Europe. In 5 weeks we went to 6 different countries, met tons of new people, and experienced a whole bunch of new things. However, not everyone that we met was new...

One sleepy Thursday evening in Vienna we were sitting at our hostel- resting and checking the internet.
''Hey Nicole!!''

I turned to look at Jessica. She was puzzled. It didn't sound like her voice anyway. I turned in the direction of the voice, and who do I see? The guy, whose name I don't remember that I know from something at some time.

''Nicole! It's Sean! From taekwondo!''

Ding ding ding.
Sean from taekwondo. 2 years of taekwondo and many more years of running into each other in the city of Lawrence, and finally the mystery is solved. In Vienna, Austria.

Now I know what to do when I cannot remember someone's name. Just purchase a plane ticket and assume that the unbelievable will happen again. After-all, crazier things have been known to occur in my life.

Hey, Looks Like I Contributed To The Greater Scientific Community!

2011-11-11T22:10:00.004+01:00

http://www.garlicmustard.org/populations.html

Check it out! This interactive map shows populations of Garlic Mustard which were collected between 2009 and 2011. If you look at the populations in Slovenia, you will see things like this:
NSCER1
Updated Apr 12
Name: NSCER1
Last sampled:6/24/2009
Coordinates
Lat Long Alt
45.78 14.39 561
Habitat
Roadside
Analysis

You know what NSCER1 stands for?
Collector: Nicole Schmidt
Location: Cerknica, Slovenia
Sample number: 1

I didn't spend the whole time in Slovenia riding my bike and hanging out with Slovenes after all.

The New Crib

2011-10-31T06:34:00.015+01:00

This, friends, is my new house.

I moved in with the help of 11 13-year-olds. My friends offered to help me, but I couldn't turn down the eager pleas that I let students from my predura. We discussed it last Monday before school. Here's what I got all day long:
Ms. Nicole, I am so sorry I wasn't there this morning, can I still-
You want to help me move?
Yes! Can I?

We ate American pancakes, hung out, and then I eventually had to ask them to leave so I could get settled... but it's kind of beautiful, eh? And I have PLENTY of places to sleep, so... please, please feel free to come and stay with me. I will take good care of you.

I think this is beautiful. Notice the picture of Graham... I didn't forget you! (Thanks, Nikki)

Living room + place for everyone that I know here (excluding my students, who are not invited) to sleep.

And finally, my kitchen, complete with some of the most wonderful people in the world, who came as my first visitors.

POČITNICE!!!

2011-10-30T10:09:00.000+01:00

Well kids, we did it- we made it to the first facation. I now have a whole week off to rest and read and enjoy my freedom. How did I kick it off? Well... let me tell you how we ALL kicked it off at school on Friday.

7:10, Voluntary Predura. Students are in no way required to come to this class. Do they? Absolutely. Out of their own free will... and if I try to cancel, what happens?
''Mrs. Nicole! Come on!''
Sometimes I would like to sleep in, but I'd hate to make them suffer the horrible injustice of not having school. Before school.

8:00, 7th grade English class. Nothing special. Read William Tell and fielded the amazing questions that my dear student Miss P asked me whenever the was a quiet moment in class.
''So tell me, in America, are all of the cops always like this?'' (She stands with her fingers out in front of her mimicking a gun).
They're just regular cops, dear.

''Do Americans really cry all of the time, over everything???''
Only my mother when she gets an emotional card on Christmas... love you ma!

''Is it hard to get jobs in America? As an actress??''
Hmm... there was that one time that I wrote a letter to Disney asking about auditions for the next Disney Channel Original Movie

''What's your favorite movie?''
''Book?''
''Band?''
''Superhero??''
''Character in Harry Potter??'' Ron, btw

And my personal favorite from yesterday:
''Miss Nicole, I have a question for you'' duh ...''I'm writing a book. It will be 800 pages, but I'm on page 5. When I finish, can I give it to you?''

8:45-9. Break- usual conversation club- Jaša.

9-9:45, Free period. Look up info on genetic engineering for the 9th graders. I'm, oddly enough, being distracted by the loud pop-music in the hall. Decide to get some peace in the teacher's room and have my snack, which is apparently where the principal and her staff meet for the principal's meeting:
''Uhhh, sorry. Um, oprosti! -Te! Oprostite!''
stares.
''So... zato to je... uh sestan- ja. Vredu. Jaz bom šla... uživajte'' (so... so this is... uh... meetin- OK. I'll just go... enjoy)

9:45-10:05, Snack. Half-sandwich with bologna and pickles, + watching my 8th graders climb up the stairs as slowly as possible. Jaša and Žana arrive to inform me that they spent math punching in the same key on Jaša's calculator 3000 times, Jaša at speeds of up to 700x per minute. Visited by Jernej and Miha who acted up in class yesterday...
JERNEJ: I'm sorry.
MIHA: Oprostite
Jernej hits Miha upside the head
JERNEJ: V angleščini! (In English!)
MIHA: Sorry.

10:05-10:55, 9th grade. Here I quickly realize that genetic engineering is wayy too advanced. Ah, what do we do? Think quickly, teacher. Ok- make them decide if we should or should not create clones. Explain what a clone is. How does it work? Show a video of Dolly the Sheep on the internet. What do you think? Where is the line?
Explain. good.
Comment on the strange music in the hall. check. Seriously, what is going on?
Tell them about genetically engineered food in America. no, we don't all eat McDonal's all of the time.
FOCUS! Ignore the bizarre music in the hall. no wait, don't. WHAT IS THAT?
Bell rings. dismissed.

11-11:45- 7th graders again. Oh, ok. Take them to the presentation of... musicians? (No, Miss P, not everyone in America
has a brother and a sister) These are not your typical musicians though- they are little kids wearing tight pants and high hells singing to songs about breaking up. Why doesn't ANYONE else think this is strange???
ME: That presentation today was... interesting. Was that typical?
GOSPA R: Yes, sometimes the music school gives a preview.
ME: Oh yeah, great. But do they always dress like that and sing such... mature songs?
GOSPA R: Ok, Nicole. I just listen to the music.

11:50-end, 5th Grade. They're crazy today. First of all, because they love me. One of them has left a glitter tattoo on my desk as a gift (it says 'Good' in blue rhinestones). Secondly, they are crazy because it's the last period before break. They need to move or we will have no concentration. Ok, no problem. New game.
Here's what we're going to do... The vocabulary that we just learned? I am going to call out what I want you to get, and you run to your backpacks and bring it to me! Ready??? (YEAH!!!) Ok, bring me your... Folder!

(25 folders and excited kids meet me at the front).
Good! Ok... bring me your... eraser!

(25 excited kids run to the front. 24 erasers run toward me and one pair of...)
Neja, those are scissors. Let's... let's play Simon Says instead.

A Wonderful Field Trip... A Very Strange Tradition

2011-10-17T16:48:00.006+02:00

One thing that is definitely, definitely true is that field trips are better in Slovenia. So far, I have been to hike Stol (2236 meters), a group of my students spent a week at the seaside, another spent a week at camp, and a third spent a week in London, in addition to traveling around Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. I've learned that when people say ''Miss Nicole, we were wondering if you'd like to go on --------'' to immediately say 'YES.'

Last Friday I was asked to go on an 8 hour field trip to visit some sights that were important to the Sočka fronta in WWI (Yugoslavia's Western Border). I said yes (because I'm not crazy) and had a great and interesting day. We visited some historical sights, a WWI museum, and went hiking in a canyon.

However, my favorite part of the day was eating lunch on the Soča River.

Because I'm the 'cool American', I was invited to eat with a group of 9th grade girls (and boys. I choose the girls). During the lunch, one of the girls asked another if she'd be getting married today. Ok- strange question (especially since people get married very late here).

I decided to just let it go. What I did not realize was that it is a tradition on fieldtrips for 2 of the students to get married. What? Yeah, I know. When I was in the 9th grade, I would have died if one of my teachers tried to marry me off to Tyler Warner. BUT, Ines and Denis took it well. Here's what happened...

We were eating lunch when the conductor of the boat stood up and told some jokes about men and women (which miggggght have been a little inappropriate for young ears I'M JUST SAYING. Then he asked Denis to come up and say some words, and then forced him to propose to Ines. Of course, she said yes (she didn't have a choice), then they had to kiss each other, everyone shook their hands, and we left the boat. They left the boat in each others arms as we threw leaves over them.

ME: Mrs. Resman, is this a normal custom here in Slovenia??

MRS. RESMAN: Of course not. We usually throw rice.

Still born to teach innercity kids...

2011-10-10T18:39:00.002+02:00

In the past year I have started to email correspond with a whole bunch of former students- it's kind of what I live for, so I don't mind if it takes a bit of time... nothing brightens my day like hearing from some long-lost kid :)

Anyway, the emails that are definitely the most entertaining come from Eisenhower Middle School-- here is a thread:

Hi Shantel! It's great! I'm starting a science club after school, so that is really exciting and going really well. How is everything going there?
Same I am in a play at school I am a back up dancer.
Oh that's great! What is the play?
I cant remember but I wish you could be there.

So much love... I might just feel like the queen of the world- she doesn't even remember the name of the show, but she wants to invite her former student teacher. Delighted.

I couldn't believe the size of her...

2011-09-28T20:53:00.002+02:00

Faithful readers-

First of all, I do apologize for the delay in updates- I have received several angry emails demanding new posts, so I am sacrificing a perfectly good Wednesday night to sit in bed and write.*

TEACHING IS GOING SO WELL. I love it. This has been a particularly fun week because I have gotten to spend more and more time interacting with the students. Additionally, I teach two lessons before school on Mondays and Fridays. It's practice for the 8th grade English competition and around 8 kids usually show up. I have a considerable amount of freedom in how I teach them, and I have been designing lessons based on how they have done on their practice exams. In last weeks' practice exam, students were given the following list to include in an essay:
1. What kind of a student you are
2. What kind of a student you'd like to be
3. What a typical student is like

In general, they failed miserably. 3 students turned in the assignment, and of those three, not a single one had answered all of the questions. The best response that I got was 'I-m a normal student, i-m kinda awesome. I'm in the 8th grade. Sometimes I get bured in school. I wud like to be a smart student.' (obviously, they got points for stating that they are awesome. Mostly because I have definitely given the same response at several times in my life).
Based on their lack-of-completion/fail, I decided to organize an activity where I gave students 7 partial sentences, and gave them the mission to write a creative story including at least 5 completed sentences. They thrived. Sentences included:
In rained for...
I couldn't believe the size of her...
It was a cold, dark, windy...
boys have cooties, at least that's what my
I heard, but I didn't believe

If ANYONE would be brave enough to write a story and email it to me, that would be awesome. I would love for my students to read what you have written! Here are some excerpts from my students' best:
#1It was a cold, dark, windz night. Ther ewas a fridge called Biffz. When I woke up, I came to the fridge and took some milk and started drinking. It was grey. Then I took some ham, it was also grez. I didn-t know what happened... there were too many things grey. (Story goes on to tell about a mysterious woman coming in, waving her arms over the fridge and putting everything back to its normal color).
#2...the girls couldn't believe the size of her cookie. They thought it was made of paper, but it was made of snow because it was winter. They went into the kitchen. It was cold, dark, and windy in the fridge. Girls thought the electricity was down, but no. That fridge had gone mad. The boys looked up ''Cookie Jar Goes Wrong'' on the internet...
#3- Starts out as a ghost story, like everything she has written thus far: ...Something creeked: We were scared. Very scared. And then in the next moment a woman appeared in front of us. She was very scary. We screamed. But not because we were so scared, but because we couldn't believe the size of her ears! She was like an elephant...

Maybe those segments do not make any sense to you. I could already be blinded by getting to know these kids and understanding what they mean. However, hopefully they provided some substance to better imagine my life over here.

In two weeks, we will finish with this particular before-school-lesson, but I think that I am going to ask the principal if I can continue to host a creative writing workshop. Thoughts? I think that I'm alright at creative writing... I guess it's between that or a tutorial on how to Rick Roll.

'Till next time, homies. With love, Nika

*Ok, truthfully, I just received one email about the blog. Thanks dad. Hope this suffices. And I have absolutely no energy to move from this very comfortable spot where I am eating garden fresh strawberries and chocolate and drinking piping hot mint tea.

Animal Keychains

2011-09-17T18:17:00.002+02:00

Today I went hiking (in the wonderfully beautiful Alps) with my new friends. Since I'm super hip and cool and mature, my friends are often older than me. In this case, my friends are 75 and 50.

They (Jože and Marjana) are members of the Radovljica hiking club (which, by the way, also has a new American member- jaz), so they were super prepared to go with all of the right gear: Those awesome shirts that sweat just magically disappears from, hiking pants that fit better than my new, super practical hiking-sort-pants (2 in one), hiking sticks, etc. However, things that I did not expect to see on on their professional hiking packs were animal keychains. I'm not kidding. They're huge here, and I do not really understand why. Young people, old people, college boys, everyone has these keychains. I went on a date (don't worry people, nothing serious... sort of just happened) with a 25 year old boy who had a tigger keychain on his keys. When I made fun of him about it, he did not get the joke. Then I realized it's not just him- it's everyone.

Basically, I am asking that you immediately send me keychains so I don't have to be left out. I mean, If you can't beat up, join em?

Observing Americans Observe Slovenia

2011-09-12T14:28:00.002+02:00

BACK AT SCHOOL- But Mondays are all the same, right?

Wrong.

Today our school was visited by 35 retired Americans, which apparently happens about once a month. These Americans are on a tour through Slovenia and Croatia, and they stop through a few schools as well. I would imagine that the tour company has chosen our school because of A. It's proximity to Bled (ridiculously beautiful place a 10 minute bikeride away) B. It's neat history (Radovljica was the home of actor and educator Anton Tomaž Linhard, an important player in Slovene history), and C. The wide variety of students that attend (i.e. it's before the decision of Grammar School or Technical School or some other high school). We were prepared for them.

I am not quite sure what the Americans did as soon as they arrived (you know, I have to teach every once and a while), but after a bit they were taken to the auditorium where the ridiculously talented kids showed them a bit of what they can do. There was a performance on a traditional Slovene harp-like instrument, a baton number with 3 Gold Medal Winners from some Central European competition, of course my student that was a finalist in Slovenia's Got Talent (oh yeah, and also the winner of the Euro Championship 3 years ago. When he was 11). Then there were a few song performances, and a group of 1st graders demonstrated traditional Slovene dances. What was the most well received by the Americans? The Slovenes did a play without words, they only said 'blablahblah' and those retirees ATE IT UP. It was sort of cute, but really? A 14 year old just replicated Michael Jackson with perfection. What did the Americans do after the performance? They stood up, linked arms, and sang 'Proud to be An American' together.

ok, just kidding. whew.

All in all, strange day. But I'm havin a blast.
Keep it real,
N

That punk student sure can dance

2011-09-11T22:06:00.003+02:00

Word plays.

Ahhh the joys of teaching in your second language. I had my first unfortunate encounter with a student last week. For the most part, the kids are adorable. They come up to me in the hall with these wide eyes and I know that they are contemplating if they should speak to me in English or in Slovene. I've gotten quite a few timid 'Hello's, and a couple of 'How are you?'s. I've also gotten my fair share of 'A bo?' Which literally means 'Will it?'.
'Ja, mislim, da bo'.

One little punk, however, decided to talk back to me. The teacher that I work with left the room during a pretest and the students immediately started talking. I, not wanting to reveal my growing knowledge of Slovene grammar, told the students that I expected them to be quiet during the test. In English. This kid looks right at me, and then repeats, also in English, exactly what I said. Then they continued talking.

After a few seconds of my death stare, I cleared my throat and said again, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthis time in Slovene: Students, listen up. It is necessary that everyone is quiet until the tests are finished. Do you understand?

Silence. It was beautiful. Thank you Marta Greenberg for being the best darn lektorica in the world. I will forever cherish that moment in my mind.

You may wonder what happened in the end: I had a conversation in the hall with the student (whom I actually like very much and think is very delightful), told my co-teacher about it, and then heard a little more about this student. Apparently he's famous... I guess Slovenia does have Talent, and I guess KCK is not the only place where I can pick up a few moves.

Another First Day of School…

2011-09-01T12:10:00.002+02:00

…Perhaps it could be safely said that was a little bit different than the others*. Not entirely- I had to keep in mind that I am back in an Elementary School (goes through Grade 9 here). However, some differences were slightly more bizarre than others. This was my experience:

8:00 Grades 2-9 go to their homeroom classes. Grade 1 watches the most ridiculous socialism-era-influenced teacher-performance of the first day of school that I have ever seen. I did not really have a place to go, so I wandered around the library and dreamed about the days where I could find Science Fiction/Fantasy books in English.

9:00ish Passing period. The kids, of course, are animals. It’s here, though, that I notice for the first time that students are not wearing shoes. They are wearing house slippers. Why, I ask another teacher? Because it’s healthier. Healthier than the alternative… of going barefoot?

9:15ish Resuming first period. I walk in with my co-teacher, Jana. Everyone immediately stands up when she walks into the room. Every single student looks suspicious, but they are silent and standing in respect. Yes, I will demand this for the rest of my life. But not just in school.

10:00 Snack. I like this in school snack time. I assume that the kiddos have brought granola bars or something. Not quite. The 3 “classroom helpers” for the week go down to the cafeteria to retrieve the snack. What’s on the menu today? Milk, rolls, tea and roasted red peppers. Huh? Oh right, I forgot- nothing helps you focus for the rest of the day like roasted red peppers in olive oil, eating for a snack during my class.

11:00 Dismissal. Where did the kids go? I don’t know, but they went real fast.
PUMPED for day 2.

*An important footnote: I am only including my public education days here in my opinion of “normal first days”. Clearly, I have had some very interesting first days in the KU Cadaver labs, where we begin on Day 1 to skin dean human beings. This is a bit…awkward. For example, a student or two will usually pass out while I try to maintain order and bring in a little sunshine at the same time. I would say that I’ve had many failed first days (Spring 2009 really wasn’t ready for the choreographed dance to “If You Want Blood”, nor the video that you can watch in the 2009 Blog post entitled "First Day of Class... who says I'm not intimidating?"), and also many successes (Spring 2010 ATE UP the cadaver-appropriate rendition of “It’s Rainin’ Men”, performed on the auto-harp).

25 meetings and I am no closer to understanding

2011-08-31T21:25:00.002+02:00

Today was a lovely day. I came back to Radovljica yesterday via Škoflja Loka where I made a friend and drank Czech beer on tap (!!!), because I had an important meeting to discuss how school will work tomorrow. What did we do at our meeting? EXACTLY WHAT WE'VE DONE AT EVERY OTHER MEETING. We drank coffee outside and chit-chatted. Huh? Tomorrow I start teaching the youth of Slovenia and I really do not even know when school starts.

Wish me luck? Ima need it.

Sometimes It's Just Nice To Start Your Day By Jumping Out of a Window

2011-08-28T14:51:00.002+02:00

Friends throughout the world:
Živjo! Hope that you're enjoying whatever you're doing right now... I can safely say that I am, though I've had a fair share of complications already- and it is just the beginning.

For those of you who do not yet know, I am living in Radovljica, Slovenia- 7 km from the gorgeous Lake Bled, 10 from Vintgar Canyon (a.k.a. 100 waterfalls...). Unfortunately, I could not afford a spot in the castle, but am living instead with a woman and her daughter near the center. We're communicating well- my Slovene has improved tremendously(!!) but still find myself needing a bit of time alone for sanity in general. HOWEVER, I am a bit bummed that she is gone at the moment- not because I do not have plenty to do, but because the key that she gave me for the front door was actually a copy of the key to our apartment, and therefore I can only come in and leave by climbing through the window that is a half story above the ground. The neighbors have noticed.

love love.

Bad idea

2011-08-27T20:50:00.001+02:00

Those giant Milka Bars? They are not good for people with little self-control around delicious chocoately things.

noted.

All's Well That Ends Well

2011-08-23T23:26:00.001+02:00

...let's just hope this ends well, eh?

Today has been quite a day.
(written Tuesday, Aug 23rd)

_________________________________________________

Oh my, had my first battle with bureaucracy on Tuesday... thought for a moment that I might be deported, but surely if they didn't kick out Sam Greenberg, they will not kick ME out...

So what happened, eh? I arrive to Slovenia 2 weeks ago. It's been a bit chaotic- afterall I have made a few friends in the past 2 years that I love very dearly and have been eager to visit in addition to the pseudo-family. Plus I had to relax on the seaside, make new friends, explore nature, and form a crush on a charming young Slovenec... these things take energy... (don't worry, potential suitors- the crush is dissipating)

In the midst of all of exhausting wonder, I received a phone call. This phone call, in fact, came at the perfect time to destroy my ecstasy at purchasing a bike (which, btw is BEAUTIFUL. I will attach a picture soon- it's a men's Hybrid, blue and silver... perhaps would prefer a woman's bike, but the price was unbeatable). I couldn't make out everything in the phone call, only things like:
''Your work permit was rejected''
''We have to get these things Apostilled''
''We can't pay you until October''
''You might have to go to Washington''

Huh? Are you serious? I sent all of the documents, along with multiple clarifying emails.

Luckily, I am the most blessed woman in the world and have people taking care of me at every corner. So thankful, dear parents- mom, thank you for your incredible organization that allows me to know exactly where documents are even from 7 time zones away, Oče- thank you for being a knight in shining armor and letting this Apostille issue eat up your morning at work (and then afternoon? Evening?) without a single complaint, for taking everything to the post office, and for making photocopies to send to me (remember! Do not unstaple!!!).

I think it's all going to be ok. At least, that is what people keep reminding me. Fighting against the typical-nicole-panic-state, trying to keep calm and carry on...

Love you all.
-Nika

ps. I promise- future posts will be more entertaining.

Why hello hour 39 of traveling.

2011-08-11T06:43:00.003+02:00

My watch says 7:47am. It's 11:47pm in Kansas. 6:47 in Slovenija. 1:47am in Nova Scotia. I am in Helsinki. Why? I don't know... I'm too tired to remember anything- I have not gotten a good night's sleep since Sunday. Is it Thursday? Thursday.

Apparently I can only sleep at really inconvenient times on this trip (while I am waiting in line for the bathrooms, while they're serving meals on flights, moments after my tea was delivered to my table in Manchester). Give me a solid chuck of time in a relatively-quiet airport after a full-energy fight just to stay awake on the airport shuttle bus, and I will defeat all odds and stay up throughout the night.

Still, I am safe. In 5 hours or so I will be at my somewhat-new home... and I cannot wait explore that place and figure out what that means. I'll probably let you know.

That Wasn't the Whole Point... Longing for Home, part II

2010-12-26T05:23:00.001+01:00

Frederick Buechner is wonderful- I used to want CS Lewis to be my grandfather (in addition to those that I already had, plus Mr. Wickman, my high school Calculus teacher), but now I think that the extra-grandfather-that-is-a-phenomenal-Christian-author spot is going to have to be filled with Mr. Buechner (ok, I'd take either).

The used copy of Longing For Home that I was given from Jon Birney a few years ago is now marked up with colored pen, pencils, and food smudges (the latter being unintentional). And it's a book wholly appropriate for me at the moment, for several reasons:
1. I have no idea where I will live next year
2. There are 3 places that have very much become home for me (Kansas, Slovenia, Nova Scotia), but those are not the places I want to teach for now.
3. Graham Ripple, who knows me (though not in the biblical sense) wrote me this question a few months ago: "Do you feel like you are supposed to find "home" or create "home" for people."

Both, Graham, both.
I want to be present where I am, and in order to live fully as myself, I have to be myself, and to do that, I have to feel at home.

It's strange to be home at the moment: Here in Kansas. It's wonderful- I love my family, and I love my friends, but of course home has changed. It's strange to sit around the table and feel the absence of grandpa, dedek, babica, and in a different circle: Brianna, Kevin.

Buechner, in a beautiful chapter entitled "The Journey Toward Wholeness" writes of visiting his grandmother in a nursing home- it turns out to be the last time they see each other, and everyone is aware of that from the get-go. Her name is Naya, and he describes how she is able to see them without being overcome with grief at possibly seeing each other for the last time. Frederick writes:

She did not lose sight of us by focusing on her own predicament, as I am quite sure that in her place I would have done. Instead it would be more accurate to say that she lost sight of her own predicament by focusing on us, and I believe that the capacity for doing that is another mark of her wholeness.
To be whole, I think, means among other things that you see the world whole. She wrote of the ignominy of having become an old woman in a nursing home instead of the Naya of legend, but because she was able not only to identify the ignominy but also not to be overwhelmed by it, she revealed herself as still the Naya of legend even so. At the same time she identified what she called the joy of seeing us without being overwhelmed by that either, overwhelmed, that is, in the sense of losing track of the joy in the realization that she was never going to experience it again. In other words, she was "all there," as the saying goes. She saw both the light and the dark of what the world was offering her and was not split in two by them. She was whole in herself and saw the world as whole.
-page 108-109

I wish that I had words that were equally beautiful as Buechner's to describe how this section makes me feel... However, Buechner never did become my grandfather, and I am simple folk :) Still, I want to live in this beautiful truth when I grieve death and change. To take grief at loss and joy in memories as a part of the same stride and still not feel lost in my emotions.

Longing for Home

2010-12-25T06:30:00.002+01:00

It's Christmas.

For those of you who know me well*, you probably understand that when I enjoy things, I'm a bit extreme about them. I might
be a little extreme in general. Christmas time = a lot of reminiscing (especially seeing as I am friends with Jessica Heath), and it's been nice to revisit those things that I used to be extreme about, and see how they've changed**.

Christmas was one of those things. I sincerely apologize to anyone that was once blinded sitting behind me in class with Christmas lights (battery powered) winding around my hair. My apologies also for the others with lockers on the second floor of MHS East Campus who had to endure the clogged hallway from visitors to the "Holiday" locker. I was a Christmas extremist, I'll admit it.- I listened to my Christmas cassette tape all through the year- I had a 3 digit Christmas countdown shirt- I marathoned every cartoon version of "A Christmas Carol". And somehow, I lost that extreme passion somewhere in between being super-emotional about the imminent high school graduation and finding new obsessions to replace the old.

I would like to say, my love for Christmas is back- but not for the same reasons... Gifts annoy me at times, I feel a little more guilty about eating 3 dozen sugar cookies, lights seem like an utter waste of electricity, I do not care about Scooby-Do being haunted by the ghost of Christmas past.
I do however love coming back here- To my wonderful family, to my beloved friends. To the soup Christmas dinner at my house, and to sitting at the kids table even though we now have a bottle of wine instead of a carafe of Kool-aid.

What's the point? I like Christmas, even though I no longer make a paper chain with 365 links, as in years past.

Schmidt/Orazem family Christmas quote of the Year:
2010: "Will you assholes stop sending me this shit? I don't even know what the hell we're talking about"
2009: "Hmmmm, maybe this explains some things (-Derek, while pulling 6 bottles of wine and an empty bottle of whiskey out of the recycling bin)

*which I realize is everyone that reads this blog...
**there are SOME things I prefer to not revisit, but inevitably will be brought up. So, Graham, let me jump ahead of you and mention Hollywood, "Amen", hyperhydrosis, and the variety show. I REGRET NOTHING!

Ms. Schmidt Goes Hard in the Paint

2010-11-01T01:51:00.004+01:00

As most of you know, I finished my first batch of student teaching 3 weeks ago.

"What? Ms. Schmidt? You finished and you only posted 3 times during the whole experience? And now it's been 3 weeks and you're just now getting to us???"

Forgive me. Teaching was a crazy whirlpool of not sleeping, learning Earth and Space science concepts days before teaching them, making lesson plans to meet the needs of 155 different learners, and teaching myself how to speak Slovene and dance the dougie in my free time.

But now enough time has passed that I can post stories as they come back to me... every day something will remind me of that time that De'von intimidated me, but then came in after school to practice his cursive, or that time we... deviated from the mandatory "Second Step BS*" curriculum and learned teamwork and sportsmanship by ripping apart that other homeroom.

But this story comes up several times each day, mostly after I do something embarrassing [or borderline detrimental], and need to redeem myself by showing how awesome I am.

Do you remember this?

*Note: Second Step teaching students important skills, in the most unhelpful manners possible. BS was my own addition.
The football players in high school would get each other to look at it, and then punch each other in the shoulder or stomach? (I know, I know; clearly not the typical football hand)

Well now, it's this:

Except, there's no punching. The whole goal is go get each other to look at your hand in this position, and then just make the "Oooooh dang!" sounds when you get people to look.

And I'm AWESOME at it.

We're talking, 100% legit. Ask me stories about all of my pure ownage, I've got tons... but this is the best one.

Ms. Schmidt learns how to discipline, Case #1: So there's a gentlemen named Reuben (note: I never give real names) in my class... a pretty odd kid, though also incredibly endearing. Well, Reuben gets picked on a lot for being a little out of the ordinary. One day, he says to me:
"Ms. Schmidt, someone stole my stuff"
I quickly look and see it under the table.
"No, Reuben, someone just moved it."
I look around- Tyree is sitting close... notorious for this sort of thing, but he's pretty nice to me.
"Tyree, did you move Reuben's stuff?"
"No! I didn't do it Ms. Schmidt, you didn't see me do it!"
"You're right, I didn't see you do that, but I did see this.

It was perfect. Reuben went crazy, winning, but without being beaten up after school. Tyree knew I didn't approve, but in a way that just showed Reuben how to positively dish it back.

Best part of all? Two rows back, Justin turns to Alexander:
"Dude, Alexander... Ms. Schmidt goes hard in the paint"

FACT.

Only My Students

2010-09-26T23:39:00.002+02:00

Sept 24th, SURVEY:

#15: If you could be any flavor of Jell-O, which would you be, and why?

-"I'd be pimp, cuz it's pimp"
Great answer, sir.

My Friends Don't Think I Match.

2010-08-28T02:42:00.002+02:00

Whoa, end of the first week: it was nuts- I am exhausted. My feet hurt. I don't want to do anything on this fine Friday night except eat the torte that I made (as an attempt at brownies...) and maybe go to sleep in 25 minutes. We'll see.

But it was incredible. I am going to be doing what I love... this much is apparent now, and I am teaching a content that I think is horribly boring (sorry, Paul)- rocks, weather, geography... I don't really care, but I do care about my 155 kids that spend 1/8 of their school day in my classroom.

______________________
"Ms. Schmidt"
"Yes, LaKitra"
"ooooooh- she knows your name!"
"I know your name too, MarQuan, so you better watch out."
(giggles)
"Ms. Schmidt, you crazy, thats TyJuan."
______________________

"Who dat?"
"Ohh, her? Dat's Smiles. Ms. Loeffler treating you ok, Smiles?"
______________________

And, my personal favorite of the week:

"Ms. Schmidt, I like your outfit today. Well, actually I liked your outfit yesterday, I just forgot to tell you."
______________________

Really? Does that transfer over until the next day? Either way, I'll take it. I'm not used to people complimenting my clothes. In fact, these are the usual clothing comments that I receive:

'Nicole, can I borrow some socks... but like, normal colors, nothing bright.'
"Do I usually wear bright socks?"
"Well, you're just like me, you just seem to pick things and put them on. Only, most of my things are neutral."
Who knew?

I compliment my kids too... they have a dress code (solid navy, khaki, or white tops and bottoms), but can wear whatever shoes they want. Which is why most of them have super colorful or bright shoes. One big personality wears multiple pairs of socks, all showing his Nike swoosh. I'm not cool enough to pull that off. In fact, they all think that I have "lame" shoes. But I'm cool, at least. Well, sort of cool. Today someone actually warned me to not "get all gangsta on him."

"Ms Schmidt!"

2010-08-25T00:18:00.002+02:00

"Ms. Schmidt, I didn't know you had a nose ring."

"You've known me for 14 minutes JaMal."

(Note: ma and pa... it's already helping me to build relationships with the kids.)

There's gotta be someway... yes, there's gotta be someway.

2010-07-23T19:13:00.004+02:00

Wow- it is ''prenora'' that it is already the 23rd of July... meaning I leave Slovenia in a few days... less than 2 weeks. I am pretty heart broken, but realize that I have chosen this way of life... knowing people deeply and well- allowing myself to be blessed by them and also, then, living away from them... feeling their absense. I find myself in this pattern that I am completely thankful for, and completely broken by.

I miss you. If you are reading my blog, I am assuming that is true, mostly because I do not think that I am such a stellar author (or storyteller, for that matter, as much as it pains me to say that) that people who do not care about me would read my writings.*

This has been a really unusual summer. I fought against allowing myself to form any expections- mostly becuase I have a wild and extremely optimistic outlook on life and tend to imagine perfect situations where everything always goes right. Therefore, I am glad that I tried to go without expectations... certainly I would not have expected this summer to go this way. Please understand, I am having an incredible time. I spend most of the school day in the company of 2 American men (Peter and Andy) and a Croatian woman (Petra). Along with most other relationships from this summer, I am the youngest (so be prepared for super mature nicole in a few weeks). After class, I continue to spend most of my time with the same people, plus the incredible Jure Tanko (And Petra Arko when she comes, or goes to the sea with us :) ). We eat, we drink, we sit by the Reka Ljubljanica, we get to know each other. And I am glad- I am incredibly thankful for these people that I have done life with for the past 3 weeks. I am thankful for the Slovene people that I get to spend weekends and short evenings with. I am thankful for my friend in Canada that I visited in May and may see again if I visit Dalhousie in 2 weeks (seriously- does anyone want to meet me there??? It will be really fun!), I am thankful for Tiljo and Špelica that return to me tomorrow. And in less than 2 weeks (or possibly 3 weeks), I will go back to another very significant part of my life- my home. Where I will finally be around people that I have missed deeply for the past 2 months, but will also feel the void from the people I am around now.

Anticipating this void makes me ask: Am I making the choice to always feel a slight yearing for relationships that cannot be a part of my life all of the time? Getting to know people is a cause for joy and, eventually, for grief. Letting your life be enriched with the company of others will inevitably cause great delight and great sorrow.

There is a song that I have fallen in love with called 'At the Hop' by Devendra Banhart:

Put me in your suitcase, let me help you pack
Cause you're never coming back, no you're never comin back
Cook me in your breakfast, put me on your plate
Cause you know I taste great, yes you know I taste great (note: does not apply really apply to this summer...)

And my favorite line:

Put me in your blue sky, or put me in your gray
Cause there's gotta be someway. Yes, there's gotta be some way.

I like this a lot. I think that this one line is why I did not realize that this song is really sad until Peter pointed it out to me.

I like knowing people, for selfish reasons, really. I like learning from you, and I like sharing with you, and I like seeing the things that you think are worth it in this world. I will miss you, sometimes so much that I physically hurt, but if you become even a fraction of my world, I will be thankful.

*If this is not the case, please... email me! Write to me! Let me know who you are! I'll take you out for coffee for being my first unknown reader!

Slika-me

2010-07-15T07:52:00.003+02:00

Don't have much time- only a preview:

Andy is one of my charming American friends here- with the lovely Petra. Andy kept making slightly off-color murder jokes, which were a lot creepier when we noticed this van.

Both of my American boys... after the hike to Sveta Ana.

DUNJA!

A nice view of Zagreb, only slightly less beautiful with the huge cranes in the middle and the settings on my camera that I forgot to change.

Sink or Swim: And I'm Gone

2010-07-12T18:25:00.002+02:00

'Allo folks:

Whoa- how is it July 12th? I feel like someone better make this crazy summer slow down fast.

Tečaj is already one week down- 3 to go. And already I am 'that girl' that complicates everyones life:

So last Monday we take a entrance exam... just testing us to see what level we should go to. I test into level 3. Ok, good, intermediate. Then I find out that there are 9 levels. What? I was a little crushed to only be level 3, but ok, no problem. I go to class prepared to learn. However, it's not so much of a challenge. I understand pretty well what is going on, which is very unusual for me in this lanugage, or Slovenia as a whole, really. So, being the nerd that I am, I ask them if I can move up to the next level. 'Wow, are you sure that you want to do that? There's a big change in between levels 3 and 4!'. Ok, true, but there are 9 levels right? It can't be that huge. So I move to level 4. It's great, I meet really cool people, my teacher is stellar, only one problem. I have NO IDEA what is going on. Every once and a while my friends give me looks like they don't know either, and I comfort them because I look completely dumbounded for the entire 3 hours. Do I quit? No, no. I am wayyy too stubborn. I continue to go, thinking that all of a sudden this Slavic vocabulary will 'click'.
Then I find out that there are not 9 levels for the summer students. There are 4.

I switched back today. I think that I will be happier, only my pride is a little wounded...

Blog about the wonders of Zagreb, to come! Dunja: You deserve a shout out- I miss you already. And I cannot make the coffee to taste nearly as wonderful as you did, btw.

One of these things is not like the others

2010-07-04T10:03:00.004+02:00

Best 4th of July Yet

2010-07-04T09:41:00.003+02:00

I realize that the day is just starting for most of you readers... or has already finished, maybe a couple of weeks ago :) However, my celebrations ended at 5 this morning when I finally crashed for complete lack of energy.

Like last year, I asked if people had special requests for American food... and ended up with a similar spread of 4th of Julyish foods: 7 layer dip (hold your comments, laird), chicken salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, cookies, and s'mores. And cranberries- why? Because when I asked my friend Jure what surprised him the most about America when he lived there over the summer his response was "I was mostly surprised by how much people like cranberry." This was not really what I was expecting, but I suppose we do love cranberries. Or maybe we don't- my perception is skewed from years of being friends with Chris Coffey. But if it is true, than our cranberries are their hazelnut and apricot:
(Tilen: That is not true, where do you find hazelnut and apricot?
Me: It's lunch and this is the second thing that I've eaten with apricot in it
Tilen: I am not convinced.
3 hours later we cycle to Blate, and are served juice: apricot).

Anyway, we kick off the party by hanging up this flag that Nejc's so carefully constructed, we eat, we drink, we roast marshmallows and play frisbee. Then we go to a veselica and dance, literally through the night. Partner dancing. Polka, swing, and reggae. I, Nicole, queen of dance (note: not implying that I have skill, but rather, endurance), literally had to stop because I was exhausted. And still am. And today I will rest. And then hike Sveta Ana.

Happy Independence Day, folks.

And I thought you coudn't get worse than Santa Claus

2010-07-04T09:38:00.001+02:00

wrong.

On Joy and Sorrow

2010-06-30T15:31:00.002+02:00

Sorry about the blog overload- I am near a computer and have lots of things I have been meaning to share. I've got a few more stories I am saving (i.e. cheese''burger'' misunderstanding, smashing my finger helping a woman carry her motorbike up the stairs at the train station), but I will not write them all now, becau0se I do not think that I can send more than 3 posts in a day without seeming desperate. Maybe I already passed the limit? Maybe.

However, this was neat and I wanted to share. I have made a wonderful friend here named Jani (short for Janez). We've had many a conversation about life... and I told him all about my favorite poem (On Joy and Sorrowby Kahlil Gibran) in English, before he realized that he had the same book in Slovene. Here it is, in Slovene:

O Veselju in Žalosti:
Nato mu poroče neka žena: Govori nam o Veselju in Žalosti.

In on je govoril:

Vaše veselje je vaša nezakrita žalost.
Isti vir, iz katerega se poraja vaš smeh, je bil mnogokrat napojen s solzami.
Je mar mogoče, da bi bilo drugače?
Kolikor globlje bo žalost presunila vaše bitje, toliko več veselja boste lahko zadržali.
Mar vašega vrča za vino ni žgal lončar v peči?
In lutnja, ki vam boža dušo, mar ni iz lesa, ki so ga izdolbli z noži?
Ko so veselite, poglejte globoko v svoje srce in spoznali boste, da vam prinaša veselje pravzaprav tisto, kar vam je zadalo bolest.
Ko se žalostite, si znova poglejte v srce in videli boste, da jočete za svojo slastjo.

Nekateri med vami pravijo: 'Veselje je večje od žalosti,' in drugi: 'Ne, žalost je večja.'
Jaz pa vam pravim, da sta neločjiva.
Skupaj prihajata in ko prvo samo prisede k vaši mizi, so spomnite, da druga spi v vaši postelji.

Kot tehtnica ste, razpeti med svojo žalost in svoje veselje.
Samo tedaj, ko sta vaši skodeli prazni, ste mirni in v ravnotežju.
Ko vas zakladničar vzdigne, da izmeri svoje zlato in srebro, bo vaša žalost ali vaše veselje poraslo ali padlo.

And I can sort of understand!
Well, 50%.

From One Who Knows Little About Music

2010-06-30T12:52:00.003+02:00

In case you're interested, these songs have been delightful:

(would like to give a shout out to Travis Lindeman, who gave me most of this music)

1. 'This Side' by Nickel Creek. Beautiful.
2. 'Everybody Come Outside' by The Pomegranates. good song, plus pomegranates are called grenade apples here, which is wildly appropriate. Slovenia, +1
3. 'Life is Grand' by Old Canes. true.
4. 'If You Want' by Brent Berry Band. I have no choice but to include him. Plus, this song seems really appropriate sometimes
5. 'There Will be No Divorce' by The Mountain Goats I see mountain goats every day.
6. 'Worry About it Later' by Brakes Brakes Brakes. Aside from being a really great, upbeat song that I love to cycle to, the title is very comforting for me, especially now when i want to stop thinking about things.
7. 'At the Hop' by Devendra Banhart. Put me in your suitcase, let me help you pack. Cause you're never comin' back, no you're never comin' back.
8. 'W' by the Cave Singers. I think that I got the title wrong, but my computer is about to die... no time to look this up. good song though.
9. 'Nothing Better' by The Postal Service. mostly just love that I am not the most dramatic person that lives.
10. 'Yoshima' by The Flaming Lips. It's nice to be here, in a simple place :)
11. 'I Wanna Have Your Babies' by Natasha Bedingfield. not really. this is just a tribute to my roommates. However, if you have not watched this music video, i highly recommend it.
12. 'Fastcar' by Tracy Chapman. this one's for you jeff. good song.
13. 'Wheat Kings' by The Tragically Hip. Canadian band. Great song.
14. 'Bye Bye' by BBB

Some Might Call This A Bad Mistake. I Say, ''Blue is a nice color''.

2010-06-30T10:34:00.004+02:00

So I turned all of the laundry blue today. This has never happened to me before, but now that I think about it, at my parent's house, I learned to separate everything into 16 loads (and let it be known, that my mother can remove ANY stain that ever has existed), and when I started throwing all of my laundry into the same washing machine (including cadaver clothes), it was at the Island house... where we cannot use the washing machine between 11pm and 8am, because it is impossible to sleep over the noise that it makes. The machine that we often sit on when it's empty, but cannot sit on while its working, because the risk of getting motion sickness is too great. The machine where even the "hot" water could be used to make ready-to-serve lemonade.

I figure, it's not such a big problem. Blue jeans are blue anyway... and it changed everything very consistently. There were a few striped shirts that are just darker... bandannas have more colors, white tanktops are a beautiful sky blue (side note: nothing was blue in the first place, making this a bit of an enigma).

If anything, I found a really cheap way to change your wardrobe. Just wash your clothes in Slovenia. If you have anything you would like altered, I would be happy to do everything in my power.

Katie, Tyler, Nick, You'd better start re-writing that song:

2010-06-27T08:13:00.003+02:00

It's hard to believe that I've been gone a month- it feels like maybe 3 or 4 have gone past... and still, full classes have yet to begin...

Even though I've quickly been caught up in life here, I have still gotten a lot of time to think and process lifey-life things (that is for you, Barry... where ever you are). I am not going to post most of them on this blog, because I know that, as much as I secretly hope for it to be, my life is just not the most important thing in the world to you.

However, there are some changes that I have realized are occuring within me- things that I have always thought or anticipated are shifting a bit (mostly regarding life and plans but also ideas- if you want to know more, make an expensive phone call :) Or email...). And some are more signifiant than others... but one may influence you all:

I love babies.

WHAT?! Yeah, I know. I had this moment in Canada that most of you have probably had at some time, where I was holding this sweet little infant (!!! i know, i know), and she put her whole hand around my pinky, and I melted a little bit. And I get really excited to see Eva and Blaž's baby Tija. She is beautiful. She giggles all of the time and tried to eat my necklace (I guess she already has good taste, ehhh???). I love her. I even offered to babysit.

So, mom, Rachel, don't get too excited. That still doesn't mean I will have them for a long time, especially considering my social ineptness that boys refuse to see as 'charm'. And this, in No Way, Shape, or Form means that I am ok with watching any baby video on youtube. I will forever hate 'Charlie bit my finger', and believe strongly that the would be a better place if that video was destroyed.

can't think of a good enough name.

2010-06-26T10:27:00.003+02:00

I am spent.

I have been going to "lektorat" for 2 weeks now... 3 hours a day, 3 or 4 days a week, just the instructor and I, speaking solely in Slovene. Doesn't sound too bad? Wrong. It's bad. My brain is mush afterward. After tutoring on Friday, I realized that I was just staring at intently at this insignificant sign (probably with my mouth open, and eyes partially closed), and I didn't know how long I'd been there. Then I looked at my watch, and class had ended 11 minutes ago. What?! 11 minutes of doing nothing but standing and watching a sign.

It is wonderful though, being able to semi-communicate with beloved people. It's also nice to be able to refuse food and have a slightly larger vocabulary (though even young people who can speak English give you the food pressure. For example, every time I eat with my roommates, Rok and Nejc and Jure, they too try to get me to continue eating. "Have more!" "Come on, eat, eat" "Nicole, there is plenty of food, have more!" They even did this on Thursday, "Nicole, please eat more." Why was this strange? I made lunch.).

I am trying to find energy- everyone is taking such great care of me. Jure is the most hospital roommate ever, and I have incredible friends here that never want me to be bored. The only problem is, I would not mind being bored for just a little while. :) Sometimes I go to the river to do my homework, and am truly relaxed. Maybe it's the gentle breeze brushing the hair against my shoulders, or the sun setting and bringing out the pink hues in the buildings, or the boats slowly moving past, or hearing the groups of people laugh, or smelling the cigarette smoke waft past (note: I have again been forced to take up second-hand smoking. jbh, maybe you should come and visit). Maybe it's just that I am sitting and can still feel the soreness in legs, or maybe it's the fact that I am not really doing my homework, but just thinking about these things and how nice they are as I listen to Brent Berry Band. As peaceful as it is here... Brent Berry makes me just a little homesick for Lawrence :)

Today too will be full. Full of eating and drinking (definitely), full of cycling (hopefully), full of studying (perhaps).

Would be happy for news of you... miss you all. love, n

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2010-06-23T18:36:00.002+02:00

I don't care if I am stabbing my country in the back. For the first time since the NCAA tournament, I watched a game and cared.

I weep with you, little Slovenija. You fought hard.

Germany!

2010-06-22T09:09:00.001+02:00

Slovene Friends

2010-06-22T09:07:00.000+02:00

http://cid-7f8379e464f319dc.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=7F8379E464F319DC!346&Bpub=SDX.Photos&Bsrc=GetSharingLink

+ Amanda, of course :)

Pictures from Nova Scotia- Germany and more from Slovenia to come:

2010-06-21T22:21:00.002+02:00

http://cid-7f8379e464f319dc.photos.live.com/play.aspx/Nova%20Scotia?Bsrc=EMSHGM&Bpub=SN.Notifications

copy and paste, in case you're interested.

love and miss you (probably?),
nicole

Some nice things

2010-06-20T18:00:00.003+02:00

Every day, fresh milk. This rubs me the wrong way...

Nova Stifta, my favorite church.

Thank goodness!
Let's see what the statue things about this...

Oh good, Genius!

A few more pictures:

2010-06-20T17:23:00.003+02:00

Of course. Why would I not be playing the guitar?

Back in Slovenia, Tadej's party in Kocevje. Tilen and Spela!

Beergarden in Stuttgart!

Why does Amanda hate Germany?

Beautiful place. Wonderful person. Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia with Donnie

Veselica #2- Some of my friends!

2010-06-20T17:13:00.002+02:00

From left to right:
a nice girl that I don't know, Palona- girlfriend of my roommate Nejc, the hilarious Nejc himself, Petra! My first wonderful friend who introduced me to all of these great people, Rok- my very sweet roommate, Jure- a very good friend/roommate, Jani- writer of the delightful-broken-English email and the one they're all trying to set me up with, Simon- the birthday boy, and Petra- his kind girlfriend.
Oh yeah, and me in the front, with my inability to smile like a normal human being.

Unusual Food Pressure

2010-06-18T23:13:00.003+02:00

I ate yeast today.
I still don't really understand why.

It was a beautiful evening, and I had plenty of energy after the game, so I rode my bike to visit my pseudo-great-aunt in Blate. She is a sweet and wonderful woman that always forces me to eat things. Though, usually along the line of cookies or something.

Today, she was eating a hotdog and mayo. If I understood correctly (and i think that I did) there was no food at the house and Darinka was at the store. So she was eating a hotdog. Ok- normal. No problem. She also kept mentioning the yeast on the counter. Ok, not unusual. We don't always have too much to talk about, seeing as we cannot speak each others languages, so I figured she was just pointing things out. But she kept bringing up this yeast (in Slovene: Kvas).

Ok- no problem, I can talk about yeast. I tried to explain that in the US, it's in powder form and not in the butter-like packaged solid as it is here. She then broke a bit of it off and gave it to me. Ok, no problem. It's the consistency of plato and smells exactly like the yeast after you've put it in the water, but before mixing it with flour. She keeps saying that it's healthy. Yeah, good, of course it's not unhealthy... but she wont let it go. Then I realize that she wants me to eat the yeast. She wants me to eat this plato-like clump of single celled organisms in my hand. She wont let it go.

So I eat the yeast.

I ate the yeast.

Not so bad, really, but should the situation arise... I still recommend that you fake it.

the present moment

2010-06-17T18:52:00.002+02:00

So I really love young adult science fiction or fantasy books- you probably know this about me already. And I love them shamelessly, because they are awesome, and I am therefore awesome for reading them without being able to set them down. They all look really cool too, sci-fi books. I think that it's a requirement that they have at least one person glowing on the cover.

A few months ago, I stumbled across a great book by Mr. Orson Scott Card, entitled Seventh Son. This book has my favorite literary character of all time, a man named "Taleswapper" whose role in life is to hear peoples stories and tell only those that are true. What a good life that would be...

I just finished the 2nd book of the series, which was slightly more lame, but equally addicting in the end. This was the last paragraph:
“At night in his own bed, Alvin listened to the distant greensong, still warm and beautiful, still bright and hopeful even though the forest was getting so sparse, even though the future was so dim. Cause there’s no fear of the future in the song of life, just the ever-joyful present moment. That’s all I want right now, though Alvin. The present moment, which is good enough.”
-Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card

I like this. All I want is the present moment... i like this a lot.
Right now, I am sitting in Ancka's living room: the window is open because it's cool due to the rain, and I can hear the people speaking at the bar across the street, laughing. I can hear polka music playing in the background (and I'd be willing to put good money on that accordion player being under the age of 30) and I can feel the mountain breeze on my shoulders. And I do feel really present here- I do feel like I am engaging in the life that I am living, but I don't think that life is isolated within Slovenia.

Living fully in the present- something that I want to do. To fully engage in life- holding nothing back... fully engaging in joy, fully engaging in sorrow (see: The Prophet). And yet, I recognize that I spend a lot of my time keeping in touch with people- refusing to let people leave my life even if they have moved on to different things... Does that take away from fully living in the present?

I don't think so... if you are someone that is in my life, it's probably because I cannot let you go. we are intertwined. I am attached to you because you have made me who I am somehow... so it seems natural to me that living fully in the present would also mean remaining attached with all of the people that I love. To be fully in the present, I need to be fully myself. Which means engaging with you people. That I love.

I'm really exhausted, so forgive me if none of that made sense. And if you'd prefer that I just keep the blog for reporting funny stories, i can do that.

Email from my new friend:

2010-06-16T22:32:00.004+02:00

This is an email that I just received from my sweet friend Jani with whom I carpool...
hangel.
of course.

Hojla Nicole,

I hope that cookies will hangel to wait me, I'd like to taste it. I was thinking that, if we go cycling, we can take it themselves to having a brunch, or mybe they are good with cofee, with this caotics words I fill like one year old... ;)

I promise you:

Japonski dresnovec (Polygonum cuspidatum)

Neustavljiv plevel, ki hitro zavzame ogromne površine. Edin način je sočasna uporaba glifosata in odstranjevanja poganjkov. Pri tem moramo postopek ponavljati in ponavljati in ponavljati...

and

Nonviolent Communication: Language of life

dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg
http://www.cnvc.org/

I love this book, one Jezuit gave it to me

See you!

J.

˝There were bells on a hill, but I didn't hear them Ringing...˝

2010-06-13T10:28:00.001+02:00

Clearly, this song is not referring to the Ribnica church bells. Because it would be impossible to not hear them ringing. At 7:00. At 8:00. At 9:00. For at least 5 minutes straight each time.

My joy and bugs consumed: A direct correlation

2010-06-13T01:38:00.001+02:00

So I have often been quibbled about my open-mouth-face in pictures. Truth is, I don’t even realize that I do it, it’s natural. I don’t know why- I do not think that it looks cool and I do have a properly working jaw, so my picture face is somewhat of an enigma.

However, as I return to this beautiful place, and ride again through the “hills” (see: mountains are hills by Slovene definition) I am continuously swallowing bugs. It’s not a huge problem… girl's gotta get protein, no?… but it does mean that I ride with my mouth open, which is maybe not preferable.

Looking back through pictures, it seems apparent that the degree to which I open my mouth correlates with what kind of a time I am having.
what's the point of this post?
there are 2
a. i love slovenia
b. bugs aren't so bad.

A Couple of Interesting Profiles

2010-06-13T01:24:00.005+02:00

I recently asked the question “Who are some of the most interesting people that you have ever met?” to one of my favorite people in the world. I was extremely complimented by being among the list, but I also realize that to be very interesting, you must have an element of crazy. Here are some people that I’ve met this summer that weigh heavily on crazy…

1. “Get that man some juice!”

(I am not actually in this video, but received a similar treatment)

John H. Pettipas, nice to meet you sir. When I think of you, words like “enthusiastic” and “nutso” come to mind. But you are very clearly an extremely successful business man.

This was my experience:

“Nicole, here’s 20 bucks, I am going to get gas, I’ll see you soon.”

Real cool, Donnie, real cool.

So I get dropped off at the most ridiculous looking souvenir shop of all time. There is something there to appeal to everyone… American flags, Cape Breton flags, cats made entirely of shells… tacky and beautiful. I walk in, and much to my surprise, nobody notices me at all. I peruse, contemplating whether sending the cat to Amanda and kate would be worth it or not… minding my own business when-

“WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DIDNTREALIZEANYONEWASINHERE! COMEWITHMEYOUNGLADY. STATEYOURNAMEANDYOURBUSINESS, WHOAREYOU? HERE, GRABTWOCUPSNOW, ONEFORYOU, ONEFORME, HAVESOMEJUICE!”

Ahhhh, so this is why Donnie wanted me to meet Mr. Pettipas… so I drink juice and tell him I’m from Kansas, to which he does not make the usual response (i.e. Oh… did you follow the yellow brick road to get here???), but instead started making phone calls around North America, trying to find some poor bloke that used to work for him (we’re talking multiple calls to the US)… we pretty much have this conversation when he finally reaches his old coworker:

HIM: “Hello?”

ME: “Hi. Uhhh, I hear you’re from Kansas.”

“Yeah…”

“I am also from Kansas.” (pause) “So where are you from?”

“Hays”

“Oh! Do you remember the house walnut street with all of the Christmas decorations?”

“Yeah, I think so, yes.”

“That was my grandmother’s house.” (Note on grandma, she too could get a profile here. In the back room of the house, she glued each one of her grandchildren’s faces on a wooden angel and suspended them from the ceiling).

“Oh wow, cool…. Yeah…”

“Ok, well… bye.”

Thanks John, I am glad that we had that conversation. However, the best part of the Pettipas experience, was when Donnie walked in… I’m in the back room with Pettipas, looking at the business card of the man that used to live in Kansas. Pettipas is on the phone with someone that may have known Kansas-man at some point in time.

Pettipas To Donnie: “Oj! Hey! Welcome Welcome!”

To me, before he knows Donnie is my friend: “You! Get that man some juice!” bah! I don’t know where the cups are! “Get ‘em some juice!”

Sorry Donnie. Someday, you’ll get your juice. Though I don’t think that you deserve it for dropping me off there.

__________________________

“Did you purchase anything?”

“I just gave him 5 dollars.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________-

2. “I’ll be a tyrant, but like… a good tyrant.”

The second profile earned is my “small cousin” (their name for 4^th cousin. Though really, he is my fake-4^th cousin. I don’t think that there is a name for that). His name is Joze… I had heard a lot about him but not yet met him.

I still don’t know too much about Joze, but I do know that A. He likes physics. A lot. And B. He dreams about ruling the world. Or at least, he does at the moment. He used to dream of setting up a settlement in another universe, but that was when he was 13. When he turned 14 and unlocked the ultimate wisdom of 8^th graders, he realized that of course he could not set up a space settlement, because even if you could somehow travel faster than the speed of light, you would have to communicate even faster, so that you could send messages between galaxies and then also get there in time to help.

Anyway, his plan for conquering the world looks like this…

a. Set up some sort of huge disaster

b. Come in and fix the problem, while being kind and gentle and powerful

But you ask… what is this staged disaster in the works?: Why of course, shutting down all methods of communication and power throughout the world.

Sound familiar? This is a fire sale.

Now, had he told me this plan a few months ago, perhaps I would have been worried, but not now:

Yippiekaye, mf.

Oh do feel free...

2010-06-11T11:57:00.002+02:00

Hi!

I will write soon... the lovely Amanda Dieker left yesterday, and today I will get caught up on things as much as possible... but in case you would like to write to me, here's my info:

Nicole Schmidt c/o Nosan
Kolodvorska 9
1310 Ribnica
Slovenia

Emails are lovely too... comments... basically I love communication.
Slovenia is beautiful and welcoming and wonderful, as expected. Love you all.

Back in the Water

2010-05-26T20:06:00.002+02:00

"There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only seek them with our eyes open."
-Jawaharial Nehru

So here we go again:
Yesterday morning my flight left for Halifax. If you don't know where it's located, you can ask Jeff Healy or Tyler Harnett- they know for sure and are super smart and wonderful for taking me to the airport :)

Basic agenda:
May 25-June 1: Halifax and Cape Breton
June 1st: Chillin again in Newark, the airport that has absolutely no readily available working electrical outlets.
June 2nd-June 5: Hanging with Amanda and Ronja in Stuttgart, Germany
June 5-August 5: V Slovenijo bom

I thought about renaming the blog, seeing as this situation no longer feels like an "Emergency". However, "This is a regular swimming situation" did not sound nearly as neat, and could potentially be misleading. "This is not a swimming situation" would not be true, and "Want to go swimming?" sounds like an offer that I am going to try to refuse, if strangers ask me (even though my father has a very specific set of skills).

But when it all comes down to it, I just really like the original name... plus it covers all bases (...and I don't really know how to change the name), even though it feels more like a snorkeling trip. I'm returning to places and people that I have already began to know, but want to see more clearly- learn again, explore...

In a lot of ways, this seems less risky, but in many ways is even more so. I'm trying to go without expectations... recognizing that things change in a year... like me, for example.
I guess we'll see, eh?

For The Greater Good...

2010-03-27T00:53:00.000+01:00

Will everyone just get a mountain bike?

An intimidating hello, a heartfelt goodbye

2009-12-14T20:55:00.002+01:00

Last day of class poetry... those anatomy dissection students will miss me more than they know:

Oh to look out on all of your faces that stare
9 pairs of eyes, plus more in tupperware

A future without you is bleak, forever drearier
I must pretend my sad heart is not dropping inferior

This semester has been wonderful, so important to me
We've become so many things in clinical anatomy

Each one of you can now say that you're a great dissector
If anatomy were a flower, you'd be the prized nectar

We've become friends, collegues, a team of stars,
We've even become blood siblings, though the blood was not ours

So lets give each other a very brave and courageous goodbye
And hope to do this again (like maybe, when we die!)

Now don't worry, I'll still promise to say hi downtown
Cuz' I'm never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down

I'm now accepting ideas for dramatic and creative ways to make my students feel comfortable (kind of...) on the first day of class next semester.

First Day of Class

2009-08-22T01:48:00.004+02:00

Who says I am not intimidating?

PS. Anyone want to start a Lawrence polka band?

2009-08-06T10:03:00.002+02:00

Whoa, I am a slacker...

2009-08-06T09:56:00.002+02:00

Hi! Ok... to all of my devoted followers... I am so sorry about the delay in writing. This has been a crazy full month, and things are not slowing down even though they must... my train out of Slovenia leaves in 3 days.

However, some things that were too good to not wait:
1. Pomegranite here is called "grenade apple" in a direct translation
2. I have a French friend who I just realized has saved my email address name not as Nicole, but as amerka
3. Speed bumps are called "lying policemen" and electric fences are "electric shephards" (which is an awesome image, if you picture it)
4. People think that I have a good voice here
5. The translation of breathing fire (which I know, because I learned it at pharm camp and will be doing at the next roommate talent show) is actually "puking fire".

...if only that was what puking really was... I would look forward to the stomach flu so much.

See you soon!

Which cone is more dangerous?!

2009-07-15T10:52:00.003+02:00

Votes, please.

Zakaj ne?

2009-07-15T10:08:00.005+02:00

My friend Jure looking in awe at the apple crisp Sarah made on "America Day"

Hands down, favorite picture of Tilen and myself, in front of a beautiful old mill. We, clearly, are straight up gangsta.
Wait... does Santa live in Ljubljana?!
Yes Rachel, it's happening.
?

Evo Friends...

2009-07-15T09:49:00.002+02:00

I had a dream a few weeks ago that it was the night before pharmacy camp (yes, I am going to an international pharmacy camp for 8 days... because, why not?) and I was really sad because everything was moving too fast. Much to my relief, I woke up, ate breakfast, and told Tilen about it. He responded (not too sensitivitely) that it would soon be a reality.

He was right. I feel time slipping out of my fingers again. On Friday morning I leave for a small village to the East, where I will be learning about allergies.

Kind of.

So I love microbiology... its certalinly no secret that I love learning, and that all of biology fascinates me, but micro is the top. Bacteria, viruses, the immune system... all of those microscopic treasure chests of information... ah, wonderful. The camp's topic is allergies- GREAT! I love learning about allergies! They sent us a schedule and every day seems so interesting.

Sunday:
Arrive
"Making the bitter" (don't know what this means... ah, when translations go wrong)
Dinner
Intro to allergies

Saturday:
Breakfast
"Drugs and allergies"
"Children allergies"
"Pollen"
Lunch
"Nutritive Allergies"
Dinner
Visiting the wine cellar... (for micro, of course)

Sunday and Monday look about the same, but then Tuesday things start to get a little strange...

Tuesday:
Breakfast
Fieldtrip to castle
Lunch
Beach Volleyball
Traditional Dinner
Party

And alas, the day that will make me a new woman...

Wednesday:
Breakfast
Workshop: options = archery, paintball, FIRETHROWING (guess what I will be doing...)
2nd Workshop: options = archery, paintball, FIRETHROWING
Lunch
3rd Workshop: options = archery, paintball, FIRETHROWING
Picnic
Party

I will be sure to bring everything I learn to the next roommate talent show.

Celebrating 4th of July, Slovene Style

2009-07-06T12:50:00.003+02:00

Ah... the Fourth of July... the day where we celebrate the birth of our own country by eating jell-o salad decorated like an American flag and watch children AND adults blow things up, safely. The day where only restaurant employees have to work, but nobody comes in because everyone is making sure their neighborhood does not burn down completely. The day where everyone damages their ear drums a little bit, and sings songs like "This land is our land".

For the second time now, I celebrated the 4th of July in Europe. First time, went to an army base, rode on rollercoasters, and ate corn on the cobb and candy apples... nothing could be more American!

This year, Sarah Murphy and I attempted to throw an "American Day" party. We sort of succeeded... with eating American dessert (improvised with homeade quasi-brown sugar) and singing the national anthem. We also listened to Elton John (realized that he may have not been the right choice, but it seemed to fit), drank bad beer (no offense, Slovenia), and ate 7 layer bean dip.

About 7 layer bean dip...
We thought nothing could get more 4th-of-July than this. In fact, it was Roman's special wish, as he remembered it from my dad's pigroast. However, this was no easy task. We had to begin with making refried beans, because you cannot buy them here (not really difficult, mash up some pintos, add oil and onions... fry). We then had to remember what the 7 layers were... beans, guac, salsa, lettuce, olives, tomatoes, onions, cheese (8 layer dip?), and then attempted, fruitlessly, to find yellow cheese. Everyone here thinks that they eat yellow cheese, but they don't. They eat white cheese, and they refuse to accept that it is not yellow. Tilen was there for the assembly process, to which I am sure he thought it was the most disgusting food ever, because 7 layer bean dip is really just taking all of the gross-looking foods and putting them together to make an incredible combination of flavors. After making it, transporting it to the cottage in the woods, and opening it, we then had to defend its name to everyone. Why is it called 7 layer bean dip?! Only one layer is beans!
-Well, the beans are the most important layer
Why not 7 layer cheese dip?!
-That would be something different. And this isn't even cheddar cheese... it should be yellow.
It is yellow cheese!
-No sir, that cheese is white.

Later in the evening, we took the leftover food home and invited some friends over for dessert and coffee. The best part was definitely Sarah burning the coffee. I was hoping we could light some things on fire, but she gave us the legit, home smell without having to sacrifice something that we might need later.

All in all, I would say that American Day was a success. We had all of the essentials:
1. Overeating
2. Burning
3. Red, White, and Blue (Sarah and I both wore handkerchiefs around our necks)
4. Drinking
5. Fun

Thanks Slovenia, for letting us bring a little bit of home here.

Seed pods!!!

2009-06-30T08:46:00.003+02:00

For those of you who know little about seed pods, let me just explain that often on plants, the fruits will turn into seed pods. Think about those giant brown things that fall off of Locust trees. Those are seed pods. In a way, fruits are also seed pods, but just seed pods that come with something delicious to entice animals to eat them and spread their seeds with special fertilizer (i.e. feces). Both of these pictures are seed pods lacking fruits... the top image spreads seeds because the pods dry, and the seeds fall out and are scattered onto the surrounding ground. I thought that these were exceptionally beautiful... their amazing jet black color is extraordinary!

This one was a real amazing surprise. I was picking a seed pod to show Tilen, and I accidentally touched the top part of this one here- to which the seeds were literally shot out as the pod coiled.

Oh nature.
I love you.

No Joke. Saw This Band Live.

2009-06-30T08:35:00.004+02:00

Posdraveljeni!
Hope all is well! A few nights ago, I went to a concert with my friends here. Many villages have parties put on as fundraisers for the village volunteer fire men. I went to one in Otavice.

Now, when I was told that I was going to this village, I was also told I would learn to dance the polka with my friend Rok. Ok... that sounds like a blast. Generally, I am an old woman and very much enjoy doing things where I am the only one under the age of 40. What I was not expecting was that everyone there would be under the age of 40, and that everyone would know how to sing and dance to polka. It was incredible. Nearly everyone that I danced with would sing along with the words as we flew around.

We literally polka-ed the night away. Sun down to sun up. This band did not know how to stop. They kept finishing sets, and everyone would yell for encores... and then they would deliver! But not just a simple few songs, they would play again for an hour. This lasted until 4:30 am! My feet were cold, my legs exhaused, my stomach hungry... but my heart was so content. Thank you, super young polka band. Thank you, Slovenia.

Faces...

2009-06-26T18:33:00.005+02:00

I think that you should know this face...

And this is a view from a research attempt in Maribor... about halfway up to the start of the downhill cup.

Anica! My "aunt". This is the wonderful woman that has taken me in as a guest and faux-daughter. This is the woman that rides her bike with me to Blate, and who has taken it as her personal responsibiltiy to find my plant, even if she doesn't really know what it looks like... this is also the woman who washes my underwear and then hangs it out to dry where lots of people can see it. This is different than America, where people hide their underwear... but you know... its ok. Needless to say, I love her.

These are the Cerknica people that I stayed with! The man on the right is my grandmothers little brother, and his wife Olga is on the left, with Tina next to me. Wonderful people.

And HERE is Tilen with Špela, his girlfriend. This is in front of a park and lake near their apartment. These are the wonderful people who have gone out of their way to make sure I am taken care of, even though they have an entire month of exams to work on. I could not have any more fun with them, they are incredible.

This is not everyone! I have no pictures of the people in Blate who are also so so wonderful... but I will take pictures soon.
Love from Slo.

If you can't beat em...

2009-06-26T10:22:00.005+02:00

Živijo homies,

I hope that life is going well there in the states! Things are good here... just spent the weekend in Cerknica with my grandmother's brother and his family. It was really fun to look at pictures- my favorite was definitely a beautiful one of Slava standing by all of her siblings while they were kids. It was in the bedroom I stayed in. I also spent several hours looking at the rest of the pictures they had. I did not know the people in them, but they were very excited to show them to me.

The weather really has been exceptional for a large part of my trip, though it rained the entire time I was in Cerknica. I still managed to study a population of garlic mustard, saw a castle, and accompanied Tine on his chores:

Tine loves his cows. They are his sons, they are his friends...
Now, I do like cows, but I don't really like milk. There are things that milk goes well with... brownies, chocolate chip cookies, cocoa powder, Austrian parties (for those of you with facebook access, feel free to view the album "I can't spell things in French" for more information on that reference). And there are things that milk does not go well with... mostly everything else, including Wetzel.

Still, I wanted to accompany Tine doing the things that he loved, so I learned how to milk the cows. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, becuase Tine and I could not really communicate so well, but you just have to believe me. I extracted about 3% of that milk from a cow.

In addition to joining the Slovenes in their farming hobbies, I stumbled upon this the other day: those of you who know your extreme mountain sports, will recognize this as the downhill mountain biking World Cup, taking place on the very mountain in which I was searching for my plant in Maribor, Slovenia. No plant, but I think that accidentally coming across the world cup (and getting in for free, mind you, since I just happened to be in the woods) was still a very good way to spent the afternoon.

So in short, I am all about joining the Slovenes... meeting them where they are.
This is why I have started smoking.

Even in Paradise There is Death.

2009-06-22T09:06:00.002+02:00

I have certainly been surprised at the number of dead animals I have seen while biking and hiking. Rats, mice, birds, cats, and then just regular 'ol roadkill. This was the first little guy that I found. Rest in peace, hun.

Then I came home and I drank tea out of this mug.

Too much.

?

2009-06-20T23:19:00.005+02:00

Hey folks,
I don't really know what happened with the alignment in the last post (not tech-savvy), but instead of spending my time fixing it, I decided to just add a couple more pictures.

Welcome to a short scrapbook of confusing things:

Ok, first of all: WHAT?! This is the ENERGIZER BUNNY! What the hell is going on? Does Energizer know?!!

Now this is a fine house in the woods, who could it belong to? Ah, but of course.

PICTURES!

2009-06-20T22:56:00.008+02:00

Just a few... more to come!

This is one of my favorite places to ride my bike. It is still inside of Ribnica, though almost at the base of Velika Gora. Beautiful? Why yes, I think so.

Kočevje

My chacos at the Croatian Coast

Alliaria petiolata (at the right)
NOT to be confused with wild garlic.
3 populations down, and I am comin' for more. I will find you.

Sveta Ana (left)... where one of my populations is. Look for the church on the mountain!

And this is Ribnica! My beautiful village, complete with my Canadian friend.

The Wave of the Wheat

2009-06-19T14:28:00.002+02:00

For the past three days I have traveled long and far on my bike... all the way to Kočevje (Marianne, I know that this is nothing for you... but to a mountain biker like myself...). First day, I went in hopes of finding my plant and bustin' outta there. However, I made it to Kočevje just in time to turn around and make it home to cook dinner for my aunt. Second day, went to Kočevje with plenty of time, looked all around without any sign of my plant whatsoever, and then went to visit my cousin 2 hours early. Thrid day, there was no intention of finding my plant, I just found that I am in love with the ride.

Why you ask? I wish that I could upload pictures, but this computer keeps rejecting my flash drive... sometime soon I will travel somewhere and bring my own computer. However, imagine this... the ride takes about an hour (give or take 10 minutes depending on the wind) from Ribnica to Kočevje... you pass through 7 or 8 small villages, all made of concrete houses that are simple, but covered in plants, and painted all sorts of bright colors. Between each village you ride on the side of the highway that is winding its way through green fields surrounded by mountains. Each town has a little church. Simple, but unique. Sometimes the fields are filled with grazing animals (goats... bears...), sometimes they are sectioned off into smaller gardens, always with bean stalks, sometimes you get close to the mountains and you are just riding right next to a giant forest. However, my favorite part is someway past the half way point (which is honestly a gas station that has a giant cage with a couple of bears inside), and I think that it was this point that made me decide to take the trip again today. There are giant, golden wheat fields... just like Kansas, except for the green mountains flanking either side. And the breeze is always blowing through in just the right way, so that the fields are just waving the wheat (just like KU, except way more like our friends' rendition than KU's wave of the wheat). I'm certainly no photographer, but hopefully my pictures will capture a fraction of the beauty, if I am ever able to upload them.

In other news...

ALDI's has a European branch called HOFER. Same logo. Today I brought my bikelock just so I could go in... pretty much the same thing, except all of the food is cool European brands...

My aunt is a really scary driver. Not that I expect much here... people whip around these little narrow roads like they are the same size as in the US. But they aren't. They are about half the size, and they do not care how close they get to you while you are on your bicycle. Several times I saw my life pass before my eyes, but I am just getting used to that here (only a joke, mom). Yesterday, Ančka did about a 36 point turn around, right next to other cars, so that she could get the wrong way on a one-way street. I did not say anything. Not because I didn't want to, but because I cannot translate under pressure.

I found my plant in Ljubljana on Monday! That is really good news. I collected 26 envelopes of seeds, and am still hoping for 4 more locations.

Today, I tried a drink called "multi-sola". I am assuming this means multi-vitamins, because it says that it has 100% of your daily Vitamin C, biocin, vitamin E, pantotenskakislina (don't know?), vitamin B6, vitamin A, tiamin, folna kislina, biotin, and vitamin B12. It was 25 cents AND it tasted good. Suck on that, airborne.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

2009-06-18T11:06:00.002+02:00

Yesterday evening and night I hung out with my new friends... really great people who have taken me in... who are my age, who love speaking English, and who laugh when I try to be funny. I like them a lot.

After watching a super sprint triathalon, we hung out by the river, and then went to their house where we had pizza, laško, and chocolate... and they translated Slovene jokes into English for me. They love jokes here... and for the second time, I was asked for some good American jokes... anyone have any? All that I have is the "interrupting starfish" knock knock joke, which was definitely not funny to them at all.

And of course there was a time when they taught me traditional Slovene folk songs, and they asked for American song requests and they looked up words in their English songbook... and people would shout out their favorites, and they would pass around the lyrics. Except for "Breakfast at Tiffany's"... that was the one song that everyone knew by heart. Because, why not?

Skoraj...

2009-06-16T22:42:00.002+02:00

Today was the first day I have wanted to cry for lack of communication. I hope for few days like this... oh how much I take knowning English for granted.

PS. Feel free to leave comments! You know, it makes it seem like people read my blog. Do people read my blog?

Some favorite conversations from this trip and last... I will continue to update

2009-06-16T10:56:00.004+02:00

Me: What did she ask?
Anica: What you krunk?
(The server actually asked what I wanted to drink, not if and why I was "crazy drunk")

Darinka: A man and his wife were hiking in the jungle, and a gorilla came and stole the woman, carried her to the top of the tree and waited. The woman was afraid and yelled to her husband, asking what to do. He said, "tell her you have a headache!".
(A joke she told me... I think that it got lost in the translation)

Blaž: Lahko noč
Blaž's American family: Loco nacho
(Trying to say goodnight)

Eva: Just make sure and check yourself for ticks
Me: Ok, I will
Blaž: Check yourself before you wreck yourself
(HOW is this what he knows of English?)

Darinka: Derek, if you are tired, you can rest in our restroom
(previous trip)

Essential Words... but know that they will probably be ignored

2009-06-15T21:54:00.003+02:00

"Jaz sem sita"

"I am full..." (Jaz sem sed, if you are male).
Believe me, learn these words if you are planning to come ever. Food is a major part of hospitality here. Every day during my first week here Ančka and I would visit her friends houses and they would bring out coffee and cookies or meat and cheese. No matter what time of day. Not hungry? Well that is too bad, because those Yugoslavian women slaved away in the hot kitchen preparing this for you (actually, that is not true. Most all of the sweets are bought, but they are still offended if you say no). And it is not enough to set the food in front of you, every time there is a breach in the conversation, someone will tell you to eat. My grandfather's sister Ana is the funniest about it. Even without breaks in the conversation, she tells me to eat. I went my aunt to pick her up and take her to an appointment yesterday, mid-morning, and she gave me a banana and a stick of gum, just because we were in a hurry. When I was there in 2007, she put something in my hand every night as we were leaving. These things ranged from chocolate bars, to the leftover cookies, to packets of gum. Usually, I saved them until a later time, but one night I decided to open the wrapped candy sitting in my hand, and pop it in my mouth. Bad decision, it appeared that night she was out of sweets, and decided to give me a cough drop instead.

Well, Sunday was a feast. I went to Blate, the village of my uncle Mirko, his wife Darink, kids Urban and Eva, and mama Ana as well (they all live togehter, though Eva also lives in Dolenja Vas with her boyfriend). We had a fish feast. Amazing fish... Mirko is a trout fisherman, and prepares the most amazing fish in the world. I was a little late (got lost on my bicycle), and so I had to eat after everyone else, which just meant that everyone at the table was keeping track of how much they ate, and that the all joined together to urge me to eat more, and to hand me the dishes of foods that I had not already piled onto my plate. This is what my first plate looked like when everyone finished scooping things onto it for me... a whole fish (complete with the head and all... learned how to eat fish properly), roasted potatotes, two slices of bread, tomato salad, fried zuchinni (they called it fried pumpkin... sometimes the translator just doesn't get things right), and cucumber and onions. There was no free space. In fact, my bread was on the table. So I finish everything with everyone's eyes on me. And then they ask me what I want next! There is a giant bowl of chicken and turkey, and my options for meat are either that, or more fish. I said that I was full, and nobody believed me. What?! How could nobody believe me... my bread was on the table because there was no room on my first plate! So I ate another fish. Ok, fine. Pretty full, but whatever.

After that my aunt promptly serves turkish coffee. Ok, that is fine. However, there is a giant basket of cookies on the table that they make you eat with the coffee. Cookies and coffee are really good together, so I eat more without complaining. Then what? THEN, after I am stuffed with cookies, mama Ana brings out dessert. Homeade. Layers of cake between layers of cream and fresh berries. Pretty amazing, but still. Nobody refuses dessert, because Ana is old and clearly this was a task. It is beautiful and delicious, but my stomach is pushing on my surrounding organs and hurting. Ok, cake done. We get a break from the food... all of this has taken about 2 hours.

For my food break, I go to watch my cousin's boyfriend play tug-of-war at a nearby festival. Amazing... their team loses the first match, but it is really fun to watch. My uncle is picking on me the whole time, telling me to find myself a "Slovensko fanta"... a Slovene boyfriend. I can understand because he keeps winking at me and pointing to their giant muscles. The bigger the better, he says. My uncle and Blaž's dad (the guy we are watching compete) keep trying to buy us beer, but Blaž's sister is as full as me, and she can explain in Slovene that we are about to explode (and the beer is not good here... two kinds only). The rest of the competition is amazing though. The next time that Blaž competed, the rope actually just split in two when each team began to pull on it. Everyone just fell over. It was like an episode of Saved by the Bell, only instead of Mr. Bellding rambling about getting a new rope, it was some really tan Slovene man. Amazing.

We went home because Eva called about bees. Mirko has over 40 colonies, and there was another in a tree in his backyard. Before we were allowed to sit down, Darinka gave us all ice cream cones, and would not take no for an answer. She then tried to give us seconds. Unbelievable. After Mirko caught the bees and added them to his collection, he began making čevapčeči, an amazing Serbian sausage. This was about 3 hours after we finished lunch.

While eating again, the bees decided that they wanted to join us. I cannot describe in words how funny this made dinner, but please just be creative.

And that was the end. No more food after that. I rode my bike home, and while it was a little difficult with my stomach more full than ever, it was still a beautiful ride, with the sun setting behind the mountains.
This was a typical weekend day. And week night, just squashed into a few hours.

Thank Goodness I Didn't Have to Injure My Pride...

2009-06-11T13:22:00.003+02:00

Never before have I been so happy to finish an incredibly beautiful bikeride. Why, you ask? Let me just tell you.

Today I decided to tackle "Velika gora" meaning "large mountain." I can hike up and down "small mountain" in less than two hours, so I did not think that it would be a problem. Plus, my cousin and his girlfriend have biked up there a couple of times.

Well, let me just tell you, biking up "large mountain" is about as difficult as it sounds. I struggled. Actully, struggling is an understatement. I worked my muscles way too hard, and I felt like I was going to throw up, but my pride told me to keep going, and my sense of adventure told me it would be worth it. So I persevered... for a while.

There came a point where I had the option of either turning, and going down for who-knows-how-long and maybe having to come back up, or continuing up the mountain. I was considering following the down path for as long as possible and then just going down the mountain. I did neigther. I decided soon that the down path was just going way too far down, and I did not want to have to hike back up forever, so I same back to the original fork in the road, turned to go up, and low and behold... something was in my path.

Yep- a freaking BABY BEAR.

Now, just about everyone here has tried to warn me about bears (which has been hilarious because I did not know the word for a while, but the international symbol for bear is to stick your arms above your head and dance around from side to side like Tyler Harnett used to do all the time about a year ago), but all of the English speakers have assured me that it really wont be a problem... keep bells with you... they will run away from the sound. When do you have to worry? Oh, you only need to worry when you see a mother with her cub.
Well, I was half way there, but there was no way in hell that I was going to sit around and wait to see if the mother was close. I booked it back down the mountain, and was super relieved whenever I passed cars (normall this was a problem, seeing as the road was very narrow, but I welcomed the pleasnt engine hum scaring away the roar I was dreading).

Don't worry, I am safe. And no, for all of you who are wondering, I did not get a picture. I was too concerned with not dying.

Otherwise, all is good in Slo! Cheers!

Eating Ice Cream with the Kid

2009-06-10T11:18:00.003+02:00

Yesterday my aunt informed me that she was on a diet. This was news, seeing as every night the week before we went somewhere to drink beer and eat fruit and cookies, she'd made strudel for us twice, and took the two of us out for ice cream just two nights ago. So I tired to ask if her diet included ice cream, and told her I wanted to take her out for ice cream after dinner. Well, she only partially understood, but said that I must eat ice cream, and she will drink coffee. Ok, no problem. I will take her out for coffee instead, right?
-Wrong.

We went to the grocery store... I have been trying to buy groceries for her about once a week, but she freaks out. We finally worked out a deal, I buy the groceries and make dinner for her on Wednesdays (tonight we are having American kebaps). However, last night she wanted to take me to get things for breakfast, and stuff for her meals. She then FORCED me to also get an ice cream bar. Ok, fine. I will eat an ice cream bar at the apartment while you drink coffee, right?
-Wrong.

We then take our groceries to the nearby cafe, where all of her friends are drinking coffee, and Anča makes me eat my ice cream bar right then and there. Don't worry, I was not the only one eating ice cream... one of the ladies was there with her 3 year old grandaughter who was drinking a smoothie (close enough). So the two of us sat there, in the cafe where everyone else was drinking coffee, looking like the little girls that we both were. At least it was FREAKING DELICIOUS. However, the embarrassment factor canceled out my love for things that are sweet and taste good.

Pictures to come soon!

A good word that I was able to understand

2009-06-08T22:42:00.004+02:00

Things are so good here. Today I hiked up the ol' mountain to do some research. If I were ever not happy to be a scientist, it would be times like these that would remind me how lucky I am to do what I love more than anything, and call it work. Tomorrow I think that I will ride my bike to the neighboring villages to look for my plant. Awesome.

I had one of the best weekends that I have ever had... enjoying nature and the company of strangers, one of whom I really believe will become a lifelong friend. It is so beautiful to find people in other places that understand who you are because they have similar experiences and take joy in the same things that you take joy in. It was a little difficult to come back into life where I cannot fully communicate what I am trying to say, and thus some of the emotions I want to convey are lost, and all of the stories I want to tell cannot reach their full potential. I do not mean that I am not enjoying myself here- and there are definitely numerous joys to learning a new language, and conveying love and emotion with phyical touch and laughter if not words. However, I cannot say that I did not feel a little twinge of saddness when my new friend left yesterday morning.

The rest of the day was beautiful and awesome. Rode bikes to see Mirko, Darinka, Ana, and Eva. It is so funny how all grandmothers are the same... I am going to be 3x my size when I return... everyone we visit here in Slovenia forces food down our throats. Yesterday I tried to refuse it, until everyone thought I was rude. What a battle.

On the way home, Anča and I stopped at her friends house (actually, so that we could drop off a corset for her friend's mother to help her back... it was very strange and hilarious watching three Slovene women trying to put a very small corset on a very large lady, speaking in a Russian-rooted language the whole time). I am picking up more and more bits and pieces of converstaions all of the time... however, this time they were all trying to cheer up my aunt, and I did not know why. Nada translated what she said for me:

It is stupid to be sad. Why not just be happy?

What a beautiful, rough translation of a good word. I definitely do not think that is exactly how she said it in Slovene, but the translation was awesome. Thanks, Nada. Today was great. I do think that it is vaild to be sad, but I think its more valid to enjoy being where I am, hiking to Sveta Ana, and calling it science.

Malo mistake, folks

2009-06-08T13:25:00.001+02:00

Just realized that the url is spelled incorrectly! It should be je tukaj varno plavati, not je tukay. There is no y in the Slovene alphabet. Oprostite!

America's Not Batting Zero...

2009-06-05T14:48:00.003+02:00

Živijo!

Today I spent the morning with Tilen and Špela in Ljubljana. Beautiful town... not too big... not too small... all in all, very nice. I am staying there tonight and tomorrow, and was learning my way around. Get off at the bus stop after the brewary... no complaints about the stop, but let's talk about the brewary.

There are two. For the entire country. You can have light beer, you can have dark beer. What? Tilen's favorite drink is beer, which I am using to convince him to come to the states.

Otherwise, this beautiful little country is not letting me down. Everything is as wonderful as I remember... tomorrow I am going kayaking, perhaps taking a few days to hit up the beach next week, while visiting a scientist in Koper...

Perhaps just one more thing* that I miss here. I know that I am not a music expert... I regularily just get CDs because of you kind people that hate my music and graciously burn something for me, but I am honestly getting tired of hearing old (bad) American pop. Some of it is ok (for example, the delightful voices of the Hansen brothers greeted me with "Mmmbop" as I stepped off of the train), or really funny (i.e. the Slovene rendition of "Ghetto Superstar"), but I have heard some music that makes me remember some of my worst moments in life... like LFO's "Summergirls" (still regretting asking for that Abercrombie t shirt for Christmas), and some song about a chickcherrycola...

Brent Berry is getting me through.
Sun here... must go outside...
Love from Slo.

*FYI, of course I miss family and friends... referring to things only

FYI

2009-06-03T22:32:00.000+02:00

I just explained to my 53 year old Slovene aunt what "krunk" means.

Stories of Success... and the Kindness of a Stranger

2009-06-03T15:15:00.000+02:00

Živijo prijateljiv,

I found my plants today! After four days of nothing, finally I found my plant while hiking here. That means that I get an excuse to take a nice hike almost every day for the rest of the week. Excited? Seveda. They call this mountain "mala gora" which means "small mountain". Kind of puts Mt. Oread to shame, no?

Also, I did not get mauled by a bear, so that was really exciting!

Other small achievements include:
1. Finding the ' on the keyboard
2. Being able to communicate with the lady at the grocery store and ask for directions
3. Going on a 3 hour hike after eating a milka bar for lunch

I was also touched by a stranger today (not inappropriately, do not worry, Tyler and Nick)... touched emotionally... he gave me directions on the way to Sveta Ana, and on the way back asked where I was from and told me to hold on... he then ran inside and brought me a gift. A souvineer from Ribnica. It's a little wooden trinket replica of the wood things that people carried on their backs (sorry, I know I should look up more information here, but I really want to take a shower). Ribnicia is known for their wooden objects, and men from Ribnicia used to travel and sell the bowls and things that they made. When my grantfather was separated from his family during WWII, he found his father again doing this!

Not all strangers have been so kind, unfortunately. It is obvious that I am new in town. EVERYONE stares at me when I walk past, and some little kids even said something in Slovene, and then in English yelled "Who the Fuck is that!" (Kind of rude, but still impressed with his English).

Shower time. Love from Slovenia.

"Druzini" and "Dežnik" are Very Different Words

2009-06-01T09:09:00.001+02:00

Živijo prijalteljevi! Hello friends!

I am safe and having a blast. Finally, I am here in Slovenija where I barely know the language and cannot use the keyboard, but I am having a blast. During the weekend, I was in Brussels visiting my cousin Nina and her husband Roman... they were amaying, and Brussels and Brugge are beautiful and awesome.

Highlights from the trip so far? Sevada:

5. Actually seeing all of the places that you hear about from WWII history... does this look familiar?
It should~ you have seen Hitler give many speeches there. Just imagine the swastikas... apparently, when they were filming for a movie about Hilter, they re'hung the swastikas, and then were hit with the biggest snow storm that Berlin had ever seen, making them unable to take down the giant swastikas! So, they built a large fence around the whole museum, with a little tiny sign that said, only in German, "dont worry, this is not real."

4. Getting off of the plane in Belgium and seeing
a) Weston Fox (he was supposed to meet me there, but it was great to see that he made it)
b) People eating Belgium waffles. Seriously? Yes.

3. Touring Belgim with my cousin Roman as my tourguide. That man really moves... we saw in a day and a half what most people cannot see in a week! We even took a day trip in 4 hours. Incredible.

2. Meeting a really cool Canadian in Berlin. The Brazilian turned out to not be as awesome as Id hoped, but I made a new friend, who introduced me to this phenemonen. Amazing. We exchanged prank ideas for hours. Too bad Ill never see him again (cant find the apostrophe on this keyboard, sorry).

1. Of course making it to Slovenia, seeing my aunt, uncle and cousin, and hanging out with them. Tilen and his girlfriend took me already to the fields, and promised me an amazing time. I am not worried.
However, I did realize how much of this language I must learn... Yesterday, I tried to ask my aunt if she would like to skype my family... however, instead of saying "druzini", I said "dežnik". I asked my cousin if I said it wrong, and he said, very kindly, that I just asked if she wanted to skype my umbrella.

I guess this really is an emergency swimming situation

2009-05-28T20:13:00.001+02:00

New country, new people, new foods, new money, new language... The moment I walked out of my terminal, I was engulfed by unfamiliar things. This is not really a bad thing- on the contrary, I love change and need dynamic surroundings. However, I was quite literally stripped of most of my familiar things- seeing as the airport lost my luggage (I have it now! And in fact, it was quite nice to not have to carry it to my hostel. Thanks, London Heathrow!), and so I embarked on my new adventure with only the clothes on my back.

Sink or swim?
I think that I'm swimming- though here are some instances when I barley kept above the water.

1. The ATM only gave me 50s! But I needed to purchase a 2.5 Euro bus ticket. I think that the bus driver was telling me that I had too large of bills, but one cannot be sure when they do not speak German. He made me get off of the bus! However, I broke it into smaller change, and eventually I made it to my hostel. Good thing I only had one bag to carry!

2. I wiped out three times in a very short time period. So much for looking cool to my new friends, and to the entire bar at the hostel. Was I drunk, you inquire? Nope. It was 1pm and I was running late. The bar was the short cut- or it would have been would I not have had a detour in the middle, on the ground.

Otherwise, I am doing ok. I made a friend, Alex something-I-cannot-remember (#3?), at the train station, and we have been brushing up on our WWII history together. Yeah, the steps that Hitler used to give speeches on? I was there. We also saw the Berlin wall, among other things. It made me think of Seth Childs Rd in Manhattan. 03 BABY!

Ok- computer dying and I cannot charge it until I get to Slovenia- love you all.