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Published: August 27th 2010
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It’s taken eleven months to get around to writing this. And it’s my last chance because I only have two weeks left. Though I’m glad that I waited until the summer because had I written this blog in the depths of winter; the tone would have been very different.
Any avid follower of these blogs (that’s just you mum) will have noticed that when I wrote about Slovenia in 2007, I had really fallen in love with the place. I decided back then that I would one day come and live here. It took a bit longer to actually do this after taking the English teaching course in Mexico reminded me of how much I love Latin America; consequently I ended up living there for almost eighteen months instead.
During those eighteen months I began to really miss Europe. Proximity to family and friends was one thing; whether they come to visit me or not, it’s nice to know that they are nearby. There are no 20 Euro two hour Easyjet flights from the UK to Costa Rica.
I don’t want to belittle Costa Rica here because I did (and still do) love it there but it wasn’t
Bled
It doesn't matter how many times I go it's still a fairytale. fulfilling enough. I missed strolling through beautiful towns and cities steeped in history. I missed cultural events and activities like music festivals, gigs, theatre, food and wine festivals, art exhibitions and traditional celebrations dating back hundreds of years. I missed walking in national parks through ruins of old castles and stopping in ancient pubs in ancient villages. I missed being able to walk home at night without worrying about getting robbed. There are too many more things to mention but they together made me realise that I loved Europe and wanted to return. At least for a bit.
When asked by Slovenes why I moved to their country and I tell them that I wanted to return to Europe and this was my first choice; few of them believe me. When I start to list the attractions they usually accept that yes, this little land is not bad at all. As well as everything that I listed in the previous paragraph, there are the mountains.
I’m quite fortunate in having visited and trekked in some of the world’s most beautiful mountain ranges, such as the Andes, the Rwenzori, New Zealand’s Southern Alps, the Tatras, the Scottish Highlands, to
Ljubljana
Taken when I first moved there in September 2009. name just a few. Despite this, I’m still blown away every time I get high in Slovenia’s mountains. Indeed I do get high.
And best of all is the accessibility. If you climb up to Ljubljana Castle the mountains are clearly visible. By car you can be there in half an hour. I usually get around by public transport, which can be frustratingly slow but nowhere is more than two hours away.
Another significant advantage of living in Slovenia becomes immediately obvious when you glance at a map of Europe. Take a look at the position of Slovenia and you will see the multitude of opportunities for weekends away, or even day trips:
Fancy a cappuccino? Let’s go to Venice for the day.
Christmas market? We’ll nip up to Austria.
Beach? Croatia is right there.
Goulash, čevapčiči, rakia? Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia.
I arrived in Slovenia at the end of September 2009 and started work teaching English. It was immediately obvious that the work would be very different to teaching in Costa Rica. Slovenes are famous for being polyglots; most being able to speak several languages to high levels. Therefore, most of my classes
Piran
The nicest spot on Slovenia's 47km coast. were advanced or upper-intermediate and were learning business English. In fact the very advanced class that I taught in Costa Rica would here be classed only as upper-intermediate.
Rather than students learning English for a hobby, so that they can watch Hollywood movies, listen to British music, etc, as was often the case in Costa Rica; students in Slovenia need English for work; because they have meetings with Austrians, Italians and Croatians. Whereas idioms and slang were very popular with Costa Rican students, Slovene students are not interested because their colleagues or clients won’t understand. In Costa Rica games and activities involving running around or messing about were always popular whereas in Slovenia these sorts of things don’t go down well at all. I don’t want to give the impression that classes here were boring, quite the opposite. Now I enjoy teaching business English more than anything else as the exercises and situations are realistic and useful, which the students particularly appreciate.
Enough with the positive things it’s about time to start complaining. After all, if it was so good then I wouldn’t be leaving. I did want to stay here forever for the reasons mentioned in the
first few paragraphs but I just can’t.
The main reason is the winter. Yes it was particularly bad all over Europe at the beginning of 2010 but I just don’t like it. It was very cold and very snowy for months. Having to wrap up so thoroughly to go anywhere is awful.
The worst effect of the weather is the changing attitudes of the people to one of hibernation. When I first moved to Slovenia there was lots going on, I received lots of invitations to events or nights out or day trips, this all stopped in the winter. Actually my friends seemed to switch from only Slovenes to only other ex-pats. True many locals spend all their free time skiing, which I really should have tried but never got round to.
I said that I moved to Slovenia for the high peaks and these are effectively closed to non-mountaineers from mid-October to mid-June due to snow. I still tried to go up into the mountains but several dangerous walks (getting lost, falling in crevasses, etc) restricted me to lower levels. So for only four months of the year can I do what I moved to the
country to do every weekend?
A big difference between the school that I work at here and the one in Costa Rica, is that here I am one of four native speaker teachers. In Costa Rica all of the teachers had arrived from the USA, Canada, Australia or the UK knowing that they would be there for only a year so and without knowing anyone in the country. Consequently we did everything together, from weekends at the beach to planning lessons to beers after work to parties. I expected something similar in Slovenia but it’s very different. The teachers are almost all Slovene so have always lived here and have their lives and ways already established. Therefore most friends I made were nothing to do with the school and it took a lot longer.
If I was in a really whiney mood then I would also complain about the nigh on impossible to learn language (though everyone speaks English), the little village that is Ljubljana (though it’s nice that you can walk everywhere), the fact that it’s quite hard to get close to people (though they are very friendly) and I couldn’t find a regular football team (though
I did play cricket every week).
However, like I suggested in the opening paragraph, this isn’t going to be a negative blog. Since the summer began, I have fallen in love with Slovenia again. An English teacher doesn’t have that much work through July and August and I feel I’ve made the most of this available time:
Stunning mountains two or three times a week, and in record time seeing as through the winter all I did was run and read (not at the same time).
Parties, barbecues, nights out, Trnfest, coffee by the river, karaoke in Thai Inn, friends coming to stay, gigs in Krizanke, evening football matches; where were you all in the winter?
Holidays sailing around the Kornati Islands, walking in Cinque Terre, relaxing in Rovinj, backpacking around Albania.
And now I’m leaving. I’ll be sad to go because the weather is still great, there’s lots going on and I have some really good friends here. But I’ll be back. Maybe to live if global warming keeps on. I’m off now to burn some fridges.
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