A Wonderful Field Trip... A Very Strange Tradition

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.