Moj Rojstni Dan

Before I moved to Slovenia, I had anticipated that this would be a really sad birthday. All my friends and family being so far away. Fortunately, I was dead wrong!! I had a wonderful birthday!! In the morning, I arrived at school. My friends gave me a plant and some Croatian bread.

After school we went out to lunch at a really trendy place similar to a Panera. After lunch we went out to tea at my favorite tea house. I didn't bring my camera, but my friends took pictures that I can add later. It was turning out to be such a good birthday, how could it get any better??

My roommates threw me a party and I received a lot of presents! (Yes, that is a goldfish and no, I don't know what I will do with him).

Miljan bought a white t-shirt and had everyone write something special on it. How sweet!

He also bought a cake similar to tiramisu complete with trick sparkler candles. Needless to say, I didn't blow them out in one try.

Just a picture of some of my friends. From left to right: Matilde (France), Tamas (Hungary), Syman (Germany), Alenka (Montenegro), William (France), and Miljan (Serbia).

From left to right: Natasha (USA), Ivan (Macedonia), Marta (Poland), and Tamas (Hungary).

I just wanted to let everyone know I had a great birthday!! Thanks to my family and my new friends!!

Let's take a sit. .

On Friday afternoon around 4pm Miljan asked me if I would like to go to Venice with him and Mallica. Mallica was only in town for the weekend from Serbia. I agreed and we went to buy train tickets. Our train left Ljubljana at 2:30am. We arrived in Venice at 7am. This is what followed:

Miljan being really stupid on the coast.

I forgot to mention that our friend Syman from Germany went with us. Here we are at the docks at 8am.

Miljan's nickname for me is 'Butterfly' (long story). So this is us doing the 'butterfly.'

Just a random beautiful street in Venice.

Cars cannot get around in Old Town Venice. The streets are too narrow and there are way too may canals. If we were from Venice, Dad might be making my boat payments right now haha.

Gondola rides cost about 100EUR. This is during the off season though. They may be more during the summer. Mom, you should start saving now if you want to take one of these (we didn't).

Miljan and Syman pretending to make a plan about where were going.

The winged lion is the symbol of Venice. I thought it was cute.

After a long day of traveling and walking, we sat on some steps in a random alleyway and enjoyed Italian beer and cheese.

Taking an overnight train for a day trip is not advised. We arrived at 7am and our train left at 9pm. We were so tired!! We arrived in Venice and found somewhere to have breakfast. Then we walked around for like 2 hours. Then we sat somewhere else for like 30 min. Then we walked along the coastline and took pictures for another 2 hours. Then we purchased pizza from some little hole in the wall and sat on the coast for lunch. Our day pretty much went like this. Two hours of activity. . followed by someone suggesting "let's take a sit." haha. I started saying it too after a while. My English is slowly deteriorating.

On the train home, they stopped on the border. A Slovenian guard came on board and was checking passports. I didn't bring my passport because technically they don't need to check passports if you are traveling between two countries in the European Union. I woke up to a guard demanding my passport. I was able to tell him in Slovene "I'm studying Slovene at the University, I have a passport." but he just kept yelling "Illegal!" in my face. Serbian and Slovene are somewhat similar, so Miljan tried to talk to him. Finally he just got frustrated and left. A guy in our train car said that a Croatian man had tried to smuggle 3 grenades across the border to assassinate the Slovenian Prime Minister. As a result, border control had been tightened. We saw them drag some guy off the train. I guess they were looking for someone. . but it wasn't me so they let me go.

Slumber party

Ljubljana Castle

If you can see a strange, white, triangular shaped building in the top right of this picture. . that's right next to my very square, very normal building.

There were 4 weddings at the Castle last Saturday.

And a "boyscout" accordion band.

Kate, Michelle and Kerri - the three American girls discussed in blog. .

I APOLOGIZE that it has been 9 days since I last blogged. I did however, send out postcards. Some of you should be receiving them shortly.

Sooo I'm pretty sure that I'm officially homesick. Not in the sense that I want to come home, but in the sense that all I want to do is play on the Internet and sleeep. Ironically, the more free time I have the more I feel like I have no time. I might as well be working full time and going to school full time.

This past weekend some couch surfers stayed with us. Couch surfing is an online website where you can meet people from different cities and stay with them for free. My friend Sybil was supposed to host 3 girls from the US (studying in Prague) but she ended up having to go to Croatia, so I took them in. It was pretty much a weekend slumber party. Being with them allowed me to be a tourist in Ljubljana. I actually went to Ljubljana Castle, which I can see from my window every day but have never visited.

In Slovenia, they raise horses for food. Horse is a very popular meet. I haven't decided whether or not I will try a horse burger. A friend told me that they should only be eaten when drunk, because they are too disgusting to be eaten otherwise. For me, the next step after horse would be dog, and there's no way I'd ever eat a dog.

Morgan Kenney sent me a package with birthday and Halloween cards, mixed tapes (love it), Halloween decorations and Reese's chocolate. I tried to give some of the chocolate to my roommates. . but Miljan took one bite and said "this is why Americans are fat." Ohhh what nice boys I live with!

This is all I can think of right now. Ask interesting questions and you shall receive an interesting answer. <3>

Getting Settled

I apologize for the random order of the photos. The uploader on blogger.com has changed and is not user friendly.

Every Friday, my school has some kind of cultural activity/excursion. This past Friday, we learned a bit more about my beloved Ljubljana. Most of the pictures are from this trip with my classmates. After the field trip, we went back to my friend Sybil's flat and had coffee. The pictures of food and Miljan (my roommate) cooking are from a "family" dinner we had the other night. (Mom - I can officially say we've cooked and had a meal in our flat!)

School Days

My school building

My class (and classroom). Together we are 9 students.

My friend Adel. She like my Hungarian Kim Crispin!!

My teacher and I. I told her I wanted to take a picture to prove to my parents that I go to class. She said "this only proves you showed up one day." She's a smart lady.

My friends Alenka and Marta.

Sorry that I haven't blogged in so long. I had a bad cold, which I promptly gave to my roommates. Last night before dinner, we all took shots of Nyquil (My supply is dwindling).

Every morning, we start school at 9am. From 10:30-11:00 we have a coffee break. We usually go to a little cafe nearby and have bela kava (coffee with milk). None of the cafes nearby have good coffee. Only the cafes down by the river in old Ljubljana are very good. I miss Starbucks. :P We resume class at 11:00 and finish by 12:30.

School is going very well. I like the pace at which we study. I can say things like - my name is. . I am from. . my phone number is. . my address is. . my e-mail address is. . Today we started learning verb structures. It's an interesting class because we have people from all over the world. There are 3 Americans (me and a missionary couple), 2 Brazilians, 2 Hungarians, a Colombian and a Belgian. The class is taught mainly in Slovene, but they explain things in English. Some of the students don't speak English well, but it works because there is at least one other student who speaks their native language. For example, the Belgian girl speaks very little English, but one of the Brazilian girls also speaks French. So she can explain things to her in French.

I have several friends at school but also many friends that I met through my roommates. I am never really lonely, because if I feel like doing something I have a few different people I can call.

In other news, our washer machine is fixed!! Turns out we only needed to plug it in. We don't have a dryer though, so I still must hang my clothes to dry.

That's all I can think of right now. I was told that I take crappy pictures (which I'm finding out is pretty true), so I will post some pictures from the internet.

Post questions on my blog. This will help me think of things to write about!! Also, write your name on your comments so I know who wrote what. Hvala!! (Thank you)

I also have an address now. So if you would like to send me something, just ask!

In the center of Ljubljana. There are several bridges that come together to make a square. Right off the square is this pink church.

Cafes and restaraunts by the river. The pictures with Marta and Alenka were taken near here.

Dragon bridge. The symbol for Ljubljana is the dragon.