4.22.2008
Not so many spare winter hours after all
Between our work, travels at the end of March and our post-travel malaise (Italy was glorious but we happened to run afoul of some suspect pizza in Rome), we haven't been posting much. We're trying to get our work and school obligations done, while enjoying our last six weeks in Slovenia. The time has flown by and I'm living in denial about how short our remaining days are here. I can't speak for Jay, but I've got some posts in the works.
4.10.2008
Gogol Bordello tickets
Does anyone happen to have an extra ticket or two that they are selling for Friday's show at Mediapark? I was waiting until I had a little pocket money to buy the tickets, not expecting GB to be so wildly popular here as to sell out. Looks like I was wrong.
4.02.2008
You know it's Spring in Ljubljana...
...when thunderstorms and hail roll in around 1pm.
We're back in our snug apartment after two weeks on the road. The train from Venice seemed to take ages to get here and the policist shining his light in my eyes during a "random" 1am document check (no more borders in Schengen my eye!) didn't speed things along much, but we made it at about 2am this morning. The church on Roznik glowing like an orange beacon in the dark from the window of the sleeping train was a welcome sight.
It's a long trip from Rome (we left at 14:50), but one can hardly complain about traveling through the Italian countryside on a fast train! The Eurostar stopped in Firenze and Bologna but those beautiful cities will have to be explored another time, as we were ready for a bit of time at home.
The train to Ljubljana didn't leave until 21:30, so we had time for a couple of "sprizze" in our favourite little hole in the wall in Venice. It's only a short walk from Santa Lucia, but as there are no "sights" on that particular street, it's only frequented by locals. "Due sprizze, per favore" earns a smile from the waiter, and we are always sure of a comfortable seat beside the canal, sipping the amber or ruby drinks that are a Venetian specialty. After a walk up the nearby tourist thoroughfare, where sour-faced waiters in white jackets tout expensive menus in six languages and sunburned couples eat 20 euro salads and bicker in German and English, it's refreshing to sip the mixture of Campari (ruby and bitter) or Aperol (amber and slightly sweet), Proseco and soda, and listen to the sound of waves and the conversations of Venetians as they end their work day or begin a night on the town.
Today's rain is a bit of a relief, as everything from the Macedonia/Albania border onwards was sunny and hot (poor us!). It also gives us a reason to spend the day at home, resting and preparing pasta with sundried tomatoes from the market at the Campo dei Fiori. Contentment!
We're back in our snug apartment after two weeks on the road. The train from Venice seemed to take ages to get here and the policist shining his light in my eyes during a "random" 1am document check (no more borders in Schengen my eye!) didn't speed things along much, but we made it at about 2am this morning. The church on Roznik glowing like an orange beacon in the dark from the window of the sleeping train was a welcome sight.
It's a long trip from Rome (we left at 14:50), but one can hardly complain about traveling through the Italian countryside on a fast train! The Eurostar stopped in Firenze and Bologna but those beautiful cities will have to be explored another time, as we were ready for a bit of time at home.
The train to Ljubljana didn't leave until 21:30, so we had time for a couple of "sprizze" in our favourite little hole in the wall in Venice. It's only a short walk from Santa Lucia, but as there are no "sights" on that particular street, it's only frequented by locals. "Due sprizze, per favore" earns a smile from the waiter, and we are always sure of a comfortable seat beside the canal, sipping the amber or ruby drinks that are a Venetian specialty. After a walk up the nearby tourist thoroughfare, where sour-faced waiters in white jackets tout expensive menus in six languages and sunburned couples eat 20 euro salads and bicker in German and English, it's refreshing to sip the mixture of Campari (ruby and bitter) or Aperol (amber and slightly sweet), Proseco and soda, and listen to the sound of waves and the conversations of Venetians as they end their work day or begin a night on the town.
Today's rain is a bit of a relief, as everything from the Macedonia/Albania border onwards was sunny and hot (poor us!). It also gives us a reason to spend the day at home, resting and preparing pasta with sundried tomatoes from the market at the Campo dei Fiori. Contentment!
3.26.2008
Update
We are on the road right now, traveling around the Balkans and haven't much been in the vicinity of computers. We're hoping a bus for Ohrid, Macedonia in an hour and a half, so I must run to grab some burek and see something of Skopje's Turkish quarter. More soon!
3.09.2008
The diary of a lost international student.
I should warn you, gentle readers: this will be a rather long post.
When I first arrived in Slovenia, I felt like a tourist. Each building needed to be photographed and poured over as though I was the first person to discover them. I watched people exchange pleasantries like a dispassionate anthropologist. I counted cobblestones. I savoured each bite of food and every sip of wine, trying to identify a particular nuance in flavour that differed from my indigenous staples.
I've been living and studying here for about a year and with some difficulty, like wedging a square peg into a slightly smaller square hole, I managed to ease myself into the rhythms of Slovenian life. What does that entail exactly?
Going to school, shopping at the outdoor market, wandering the city and meeting with friends. I have settled into a quiet life and I'm fond of being a little reclusive.
I've been writing essays for school. In fact, that eats up most of my time. I have few lectures, so I invest my energies into reading, research and writing. At the moment I have to four essays for FDV and two essays for UBC. At the end of the semester, around the end of April, I have to write six exams. Luckily, three of them are oral exams. Lately I've taken to working at the FDV library, a small sleek space with an arboretum attached to its exterior. The library is held aloft, above the faculty. The symbolism is not entirely succinct, but welcome nonetheless.
"Wait, only a few lectures?" you ask.
In Slovenia, post-secondary students have the constitutional right to be taught in their native language. Naturally, this is understandable. When I take classes in Canada, I expect the lectures to be in English. However, professors in my host faculty don't receive any compensation for holding extra lectures in English. This means Slovenian and international students are lumped together, which is wonderful. Unfortunately, some Slovenian students have trouble understanding lectures in English and request (some would say demand) to be taught in Slovene. The professor must abide. I have no problem with this, really.
Consequently, I was asked, along with the other international students, to leave the classroom on two occasions this semester. Not because we were unwelcome but because the lecture would be in Slovene and hence, useless to non-native speakers. Despite the professor's stalwart reassurances that all is well, I quickly vacated the classroom to conceal my embarrassment.
I have heard another anecdote to illustrate the tension between local and international students; however, since it's unsubstantiated I'll refrain from mentioning the incident. I assure you the atmosphere is laden with misgivings, as though a fog had seeped into the faculty and clung to the walls and desks.
The students are not to blame, nor the professors. The university's administration, which advertises classes in English without including a clause, needs to be held accountable for causing such a bureaucratic debacle.
The professor for those two classes I mentioned, including a third that is two semesters long, agreed to hold personal consultations and lectures for international students at his own expense. A respected poet and theorist (not to mention any names), I'm fortunate enough to have him as a mentor of sorts for one semester. I owe him thirty-five pages before I return to Canada.
Lisa and I want to ride bikes through the city. Although we never got around to seeing more of Slovenia in February, due to illness and school, we will be taking advantage of the upcoming warm weather to explore this lovely alpine nation.
More to come, I'm sure.
When I first arrived in Slovenia, I felt like a tourist. Each building needed to be photographed and poured over as though I was the first person to discover them. I watched people exchange pleasantries like a dispassionate anthropologist. I counted cobblestones. I savoured each bite of food and every sip of wine, trying to identify a particular nuance in flavour that differed from my indigenous staples.
I've been living and studying here for about a year and with some difficulty, like wedging a square peg into a slightly smaller square hole, I managed to ease myself into the rhythms of Slovenian life. What does that entail exactly?
Going to school, shopping at the outdoor market, wandering the city and meeting with friends. I have settled into a quiet life and I'm fond of being a little reclusive.
I've been writing essays for school. In fact, that eats up most of my time. I have few lectures, so I invest my energies into reading, research and writing. At the moment I have to four essays for FDV and two essays for UBC. At the end of the semester, around the end of April, I have to write six exams. Luckily, three of them are oral exams. Lately I've taken to working at the FDV library, a small sleek space with an arboretum attached to its exterior. The library is held aloft, above the faculty. The symbolism is not entirely succinct, but welcome nonetheless.
"Wait, only a few lectures?" you ask.
In Slovenia, post-secondary students have the constitutional right to be taught in their native language. Naturally, this is understandable. When I take classes in Canada, I expect the lectures to be in English. However, professors in my host faculty don't receive any compensation for holding extra lectures in English. This means Slovenian and international students are lumped together, which is wonderful. Unfortunately, some Slovenian students have trouble understanding lectures in English and request (some would say demand) to be taught in Slovene. The professor must abide. I have no problem with this, really.
Consequently, I was asked, along with the other international students, to leave the classroom on two occasions this semester. Not because we were unwelcome but because the lecture would be in Slovene and hence, useless to non-native speakers. Despite the professor's stalwart reassurances that all is well, I quickly vacated the classroom to conceal my embarrassment.
I have heard another anecdote to illustrate the tension between local and international students; however, since it's unsubstantiated I'll refrain from mentioning the incident. I assure you the atmosphere is laden with misgivings, as though a fog had seeped into the faculty and clung to the walls and desks.
The students are not to blame, nor the professors. The university's administration, which advertises classes in English without including a clause, needs to be held accountable for causing such a bureaucratic debacle.
The professor for those two classes I mentioned, including a third that is two semesters long, agreed to hold personal consultations and lectures for international students at his own expense. A respected poet and theorist (not to mention any names), I'm fortunate enough to have him as a mentor of sorts for one semester. I owe him thirty-five pages before I return to Canada.
Lisa and I want to ride bikes through the city. Although we never got around to seeing more of Slovenia in February, due to illness and school, we will be taking advantage of the upcoming warm weather to explore this lovely alpine nation.
More to come, I'm sure.
3.02.2008
Kolo
Now that the weather is getting nicer, being in proximity to all these great bike trails without a bike is killing me. Jay and I are in the market for a bike to use this spring. Anybody out there have a bike they'd like to sell or rent out for a few months? We'll be checking the flea market and the stores, but I thought I'd beat the internet bushes first.
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