Email from my new friend:

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...˝

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

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

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...

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

"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...

Will everyone just get a mountain bike?