A Visit From Mirko

Our apartment this year is at the corner of Prijateljeva (meaning friend in Slovene) and Privoz (meaning connection).  When our favorite person from Belgrade came to visit last week, he was enamored with how fitting he thought this was.  “You have to be kidding!” he said (add a thick Slavic accent…think “You have to be pulling on my leg!” from Despicable Me).

Of course, with Mirko in town, we had four days with no down time, which is one reason we’ve gotten so behind on blogs.  Mirko has a giant heart, especially when it comes to kids, and is simply enthusiastic about life.  He brought games for the girls and Legos for Sy, and gifts for the two of us as well.  We can’t say that we did anything particularly exciting, but it was all of the little thing: playing Frisbee at the park, going to Neboticnik to see the Super Moon (which just happened to pop out right next to the castle from behind the clouds as we arrived…it must have known Mirko was with us),  buying balloons in Preseren Square, watching the World Cup, listening to Mirko’s excitement about Novak Djokovic winning Wimbledon, and, of course, plenty of ice cream cones.

One of the things I love about spending time with Mirko is that I always learn something…about interacting with others, about politics, about life.  Some of this is that I don’t often hear the perspective of a Serb, but a lot of it is just Mirko.  I have to admit that I had little interest in watching the World Cup final – in fact, I had to turn off the Brewer game to watch it (What? You have to be pulling on my leg!) – but I did just to experience it with Mirko.

It was great to see him, and tough to see him get on the bus to head home.  Even Sy, who gave up his bed and slept on the floor for three nights, was sad.

By they way, apparently it was the Tooth Mouse who visited us the other night.  And she leaves Euros.

Adijo,Mijo...Again!

The first time we drove to the Slovenian coast back in February of 2011 was the first time I drove here.  We had rented a three-ton mini-bus with a manual transmission to get the five of us and my parents there and back (yes, there was a better way…like buying seats on an actual bus).  With my lack of stick-shift skills and knowledge of where I was going along with Slovenian road rules, I spent the entire trip praying I wouldn’t kill us all and I didn’t enjoy a second of the trip.  Even worse was the possibility of getting stranded and missing Super Bowl XLV later that evening, which became a real possibility when I nearly burned out the clutch as we inched up the steep hill from the coast behind a long line of cars.  Only by the grace of God did the story end up with a much happier ending.

Our trip to Piran the past couple of days was much different.  We drove down to see our friend Mijo, who is one of our favorite people from our first stint in Ljubljana.  Mijo has since moved to Piran, then to Germany, and now back to Piran for better job opportunities.  More importantly for him, he has finally brought his family from Macedonia to join him after many years.  And they literally just arrived, a day before we got there.

We spent the entire day with them Thursday, and it was wonderful.  He has a beautiful family.  Sy got to hang out with two really cool older boys, and Celia and Rosetta got to play with an adorable little girl named Dora (yes, like the cartoon).  We did a lot of catching up, ate a lot of food, and then headed for the sea to play in the waves.  We even got an official invitation to Macedonia, which doesn’t happen to us everyday.  By the way, it wasn’t difficult to pick out the five-some on the beach from Minnesota…Mijo said they refer to folks like us as “Cheese” because of our semblance to blocks of white cheddar.  Funny local humor, I guess. 

The one glitch in our trip was that we decided to cram in a small hotel room with one king-sized bed, which meant that I slept at the foot of the bed below the three girls while Sy slept under the desk.  When I awoke at six this morning to a swift kick in the head after trying to get comfortable on a four-inch by four-inch decorative pillow all night, I realized I'm too old for that kind of thing now.  The saving graces of the hotel were its hammocks and its pool…the pool is where we spent all of Friday morning, and where Celia and Sy both found out they can actually swim and motored around the pool for two hours straight.  Pretty fun to watch.

When we finally left this afternoon, I managed to get us up that hill with no hiccups.  And besides the occasional snores, the drive home was completely silent.

Does the Tooth Fairy Come to Slovenia?

And if so, does she leave dollars or Euros?  We'll find out tonight!!!

Another Date Night

Trust is a beautiful thing.

When we are here in Ljubljana, I think back often to how this whole thing started with a random email I received about applying for Fulbright grants.  It was April of 2009, Rosetta had just turned two, and the twins were ten months old.  I knew nothing about the Fulbright Program, but I did some research and thought it might be a great opportunity.  So, I popped the question to Chantelle about applying for it.

I fully expected one of her patented eye-rolls, a lengthy explanation of why thinking she might agree to haul three toddlers to a country where we didn’t know anyone or speak the language was poor judgment on my part, a punch in the nose, or some combination of these.  But, without flinching, she responded, “Absolutely.  Let’s do it.”

That sort of trust is a recurring theme in our experience here.  Last night, Chantelle and I had our annual date in Ljubljana (for some reason, it seems like we have as many dates here as we do in St. Paul).  On our way home, the owner of a small wine shop invited us inside to share a glass of wine and some cheese with he and two of his friends.  Of course, we couldn’t leave without buying a bottle, but because it was after hours, he couldn’t sell it to us.  So, he handed us the bottle and sent us on our way, saying, “No worries.  Just come back tomorrow to pay.”  And, of course, we will.

Rainy Days

Last summer, the mercury pushed well into the 30's for most of July (that's 95+ for those playing at home).  Packing smarter this year, we left long sleeves and pants back in St. Paul.  So, when we woke up Thursday morning to a day that was filled with rain and never topped 14 degrees (58 for those at home)... well, let's just say it was a better day for hot chocolate than ice cream cones.  On the bright side, no one was complaining about the heat.

Poligon

Last night, the class I am teaching visited Poligon, the first co-working space for entrepreneurs in Slovenia.  Poligon is located in the old tobacco factory west of downtown, a huge complex that in the early 1900’s employed 90% of the working women in Ljubljana (when Slovenia was still part of Austria-Hungary).  Now, it houses mostly government offices, including the visa office we visited when we first arrived here in 2011.

In just over two years, Poligon has developed a community of about ninety entrepreneurs and helped them create Kickstarter campaigns that collectively have raised over two million dollars.  For the cyclist and photographer fanatics out there, two of the popular product lines that have come out of Poligon are rollable bike fenders by Musguard and pinhole cameras by Ondu.  Pretty impressive for an operation started on a budget of less than $1000 and no public funding.

Fourth Time Around

Yes, we’re back.

The craziness of our fourth stint in Ljubljana began with our own version of the show 24.  Instead of having to find and defuse a nuclear bomb in twenty-four hours, we simply needed to come home from five days at a cabin in northern Wisconsin, wash clothes, pack, and get things shored up around the house for a month away.  All between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening.  Jack Bauer had it easy.

Yet, with Chantelle’s laundry prowess, my ability to follow directions, and the kids’ amazing propensity to occupy themselves with the iPad and Netflix, we were packed and ready to go three hours before we needed to leave for the airport.  And all we know so far that we forgot was my toothbrush.  Boo ya*.

So, after an overnight flight to Frankfurt, a German investigation of Sy’s Hero Factory figures (apparently this is common…remember not to bring your Legos in your carry-on), and a short jump over the Alps, we are now safe and sound in the City of Dragons.  As you can see below, it didn’t take long to get re-acquainted with ice cream cones, cheese toast, and Lasko.

I never like setting the bar high, but this is going to be a great stay.  Our good friend, Mirko, is coming to visit this weekend from Belgrade, and another of our good friends, Mijo, is back on the Slovenian coast waiting for us to drive down; we weren’t able to see either of them last summer.  We are also living in a slightly different part of the city, so we’re getting to explore more of Ljubljana.  Oh yeah, and Celia and Rosetta already got haircuts at their favorite salon, which is always a highlight of our stay (no pun intended).

Stay tuned for the next few weeks and we’ll do our best to keep you entertained/make you jealous/make you feel sorry for us...  We're excited to be here again!

* Chantelle’s expression.