National Day at the Lake

Monday was National Day in Slovenia, the equivalent of our 4th of July. One of the IAESTE Slovenia students, Saša, invited us all to a lake with her and her friends for the day. The drive there took about an hour on these tiny, one lane (but 2 direction) roads through the mountains. It was marvelous.

The lake was small and there were a few other people there, but there were several benches on the lake's edge and even a float with benches in the lake. We swam, picnicked, canoed, got tipped in the canoe, played croquet (my team won, and that's always important in croquet), badminton, swam some more and lazed around a lot.

The canoeists interfering with the fishing.

The Mad Mex of Slovenia

Its called Takos. And it has great outdoor tables and chairs that cantilever off the stone wall running along the alley way its on which goes from the street level down to the river. Very clever.

But the place has the same type of rusted metal light fixtures and decorations, and a yummy looking menu, so I was really excited. I mean, this is Slovenia, so far from Mexico and I hadnt seen a Mexican, black or otherwise non-white person since I've been here, but I thought hey, white people can cook Mexican food too, right? Wrong.

I ordered a margarita and a burrito and when I got my drink, it was yellow. But hey, maybe their lime juice is just different or something. Actually, they make margaritas with pineapple juice, ice and a tiny little bit of tequila. Ok, fine, the margaritas are a bit different, but its tough to screw up a burrito. Another intern, Catherine, had ordered enchiladas and when our plates arrived, they were identical. Granted, both were good; cabbage, chicken and melted cheese inside a rolled tortilla with piles of refried beans, rice, corn and salsa on the plate, but no enchilada sauce on the enchilada and no rolled up and folded-ness of the burrito.

After talking with the other 4 interns from the UK, I was the only one who actually knew what Mexican food was supposed to be like since they dont really have any in Ireland or England. I had never really thought about that, but its true, almost all of the US has tons more diversity than most of Europe. Makes me appreciate our country a little bit more...

I'm sorry Stu... but I found someone else

Look at that plate of meat!

This guy cooked our dinner Saturday night at the festival, what a man.

Day Time Adventures

The Lent Festival kept us busy at night, but during the day we also kept busy. And by busy, I mean we slept every day this weekend until 11 and found something to occupy us in the afternoon. Saturday Moore and Harper (they're both named John, so we're trying to differentiate them) and I went to Pohorje Mountain which is the ski mountain 5 kilometers out of the city. They have all sorts of (expensive) summer activities like a driving range, ropes course and mountain bike park. They also have this thing called the Pohorjet. Its a rail that runs down part of the mountain going back and forth across the slope and into the trees sometimes. You ride up in a chairlift and then ride down in a little car thats somehow attached to this track down the mountain. It looked mildly dangerous and really fun so we had to try it.

This is Moore waiting for the green light about to go down.

It was amazing! I ended up going so much faster than I expected and the turns were quite sharp in some places but luckily i had a seat belt on so you cant fall out. It was really fun, and there was a great view of the city from the top of the chairlift.

Then we found 2 semi-professional football (soccer) teams practicing and watched them for a while. I think they were on summer training, one team was from Croatia and the other team was speaking 4 different languages but I think they were a Greek team. That was pretty fun too.

Festival Lent

Friday was the start of the Lent Festival. Lent is the name of the old city area down by the river, nothing to do with Easter or anything. For 2 and a half weeks Maribor is FULL of people and there are concerts and performances every night, its been a lot of fun so far. The street along the river is just full of people and little tents set up selling Slovene fair food which is basically tons of meat in any form possible. There's also cotton candy (which the British people call candy floss) and popcorn and crepes and lots of beer. The main stage is actually floating on the river and there's a huge seating area set up just on shore, its pretty amazing.
We saw a band called the Fool Cool Orchestra on Saturday night, it was a jazz orchestra playing very unique music that was a blend of new age, jazz, and rock using all sorts of different instruments. The featured soloists were an electric guitar and an accordionist.

I've never seen an accordionist jam out on a solo before.... quite interesting.

Sunday night we saw a French group called The World Upside Down...Feet on the Ground. They had a stage set up in the park that wasn't actually a stage at all but metal scaffolding on four corners that went up probably 60 feet. In between all the corners were vertical sheets of heavy duty clear plastic and the performance could be viewed from all sides. There were probably 12 people on trapeze swinging and dancing on both sides of these clear, vertical stages in various costumes and acts. It was really amazing to see a performance not limited to 2 dimensions on such an alternative stage area.

I think we'll go to see a jazz/flamenco group tonight perform in the 'judgement tower'. Its a little cafe/pub that looks like a former grain silo or something, but much wider. It looks really nice and cozy and the stage supposedly always has the best performances.

I need a Hero

To give a little background, there's a radio station here, Radio City, that is played EVERYWHERE. All the restaurants, bars, the bank and everyone in my office listens to it. Its all American pop music from the past 30 years, everything from Im too Sexy to the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys and Africa. The song Larger than Life from Footloose was just on and I was walking down the hall of the office and there's an older guy, who doesnt speak much english, singing 'I need a hero, I need a hero till the end of the night....' walking behind me.

Quality.

I have an address

Acadia Klain
Studentski Dom. 5
Gospesvetska C. 85
2000 Maribor
Slovenia

Observations

No exciting stories yet, just a few more interesting things I have noticed.
All the cafes here have great outdoor seating which is really nice. Dinner is eaten early, generally before 6, then everyone goes out for a drink and a walk at 6 or 7. Walking down the street in the evening, there will be the outdoor tabes and people sipping their cappucinos or wine and then there's a playskool slide and other kids games on the street... Most of the places here have kids toys outside. Going out after dinner becomes a family affair when you can get beer, wine, coffee and ice cream all at the same place.

If they also served pie, I would probably never leave.

Call me!

It may cost you your first born child, but its free for me to receive calls. My new cell phone number is 386.040.565.722. But if you want to call me from the US, then you would dial 011.386.40.565.722. Also, texting isn't free, but super cheap (for me).

Pictures!!!

Check it out...

http://picasaweb.google.com/acadiak

My first time...

Yesterday was my first day of work, my first taste of traditional Slovene cuisine and my first experience of not being able to understand ANYthing that people are saying around me. It gave me this odd paranoid feeling that they must be talking about me for some reason. Maybe thats why Americans have such a bad reputation overseas, because we can never understand anyone else and then we always act paranoid when other people are talking.
After I met everyone in the office (˝this is the American student, A-cah-dia˝...˝Aahhhh˝ was always the response with raised eyebrows) we talked about the project I would be working on, a gymnasium addition to a school. So to give me an idea of what I would be doing, we went to see a school addition that was under construction around the corner from the office. It was pretty cool seeing it halfway done, the shell was complete with a few interior finishes. Then we saw a giant hole in the ground where they were building foundation walls which will soon be Maribor's courthouse. And then Andrej (the guy in charge of me) showed me a 150 unit housing project that they did which was pretty nice. All of this was within a 2 minute walking radius from the office. While we were on the construction site, Andrej didn't stop smoking. at all. It was chain-smoking like I've never seen before, one would finish and he would use it to light the next for an hour straight. Another guy I was with asked incredulously why I didnt smoke and before I could answer, Andrej says, no one in America smokes. Obviously, we're not cool enough.
Andrej took me to lunch at a local restaurant where they serve lots of traditional, Slovene food. Every meal starts off with a beef soup, which is actually a beef flavored clear broth with noodles. Andrej had meatballs with tomato sauce and mashed potatoes and I had a turkey roulade (?) with pasta and vegetables. I guess there's lots of potatoes and meat and cheese in the diet here, pretty heavy, and I think parsley is their only spice.
I have a pretty nice office space on the 5th floor of a building, huge windows overlooking the city and the mountains (hills) and vineyards beyond. And its right in the city center, just a 20 minute walk from my dorm.
I still need to figure out centigrade temperatures because people keep on saying its going to be over 30 all week. Thats hot, hotter than I thought Slovenia got, but Im not really sure exactly what it means.
All in all things are really nice here. Nothing terribly exciting, which makes for kinda boring blog posts (sorry! I'll try to find or make up good juicy stories) but I cant complain.

Arrival

Saturday afternoon I was picked up at the airport by an IAESTE Slovenia student and dropped off at the dorm I will be living in on the University campus. She told me that food stores arent open on the weekend, so if I get hungry, I should go to the gas station across the street. Luckily, gelato shops are open on the weekend.

This is the view from my window after it rains

The dorm is exactly what I would think of when I think Eastern-bloc housing.

Mine is the one in the middle, I took the photo from the hill in the background of the other picture, so its a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Tall, square building with a tiny tiny elevator that brings you to the common area of each floor, then there are 4 (always closed) doors leading to dark hallways with 4 rooms in each hall. Apparently I have a roommate who's an actual Slovene student (not a fake one like me), since her bed is made and there's stuff in her closet. But I havent seen her yet and I think she's probably gone for the summer. But I dont actually know. My skinny room is fine for 1 person, but I cant imagine another person in there. I dont think we could actually stand and walk past each other shoulder to shoulder. One side of the room is the closets and desks, the other is the bench for the beds, so we sleep toe to toe, very cozy. And there's a giant east facing window with a wonderful view of the city and mountains, so its quite nice. I think the most popular nightclub for students is also outside my window, there was dance music going until 7am sunday morning. Awesome.

Things that there are a lot of in Maribor

bicycles
bike lanes
blue hydrangeas
rat-sized dogs (on leashes luckily)
large trees
large numbers on buildings
old people on bikes
families
vineyards
red tiled roofs
gelato
pastel colored toilet paper (I havent seen white yet, just eastery pink, blue and yellow)