1. Our children´s birth certificates finally arrived back from the United States on lucky Friday the thirteenth with apostilles attached. Plus my husband´s work permit, which the post office has since informed us they are still diligently searching for. All several days later than the expensive service we paid for promised. But we discovered that the fine print said that actually, it was only 3-5 days to most locations (not Slovenia), and that tracking did not apply to all countries (like Slovenia). Why thank you again, US postal service. Then, we were told, they just had to be translated into Slovenian and bound with the originals before we could present them at the administrative office. And so it goes on...
2. I have been reading Courtney Carver´s little book, Mini Missions for Simplicity. One idea that I took to heart was being brave for two minutes a day. Believe me, that does not sound at all stupid if you are introverted and get social anxiety. It has turned into a little game I play with myself for moving forward here - as long as I am brave about something for two minutes a day, I have won. Some recent examples:
3. I tagged along with my husband to an opening reception for an exhibition on The Charm of Wood, sponsored by the InnoRenew Centre affiliated with the university, just to be collegiate and get my face out there, even though I prefer to hide in a corner. I could barely understand a word of all the speeches (they seem to like long, formal presentations here), but I knew the word I was waiting for: vino. The reward for standing in a stuffy, crowded room was good wine and hors oeuvres in the courtyard. The extra bravery was introducing myself to someone I needed to meet (American, so not too stressful). Just about everything was in cases under bright lights, which my cell phone camera abilities were no match for, but here are a couple of pictures anyway.
4. The bravest thing was this past weekend. We were leaving a coffee shop where we had sheltered from a hail storm, and heard an American girl arguing volubly with the waiter over getting the wrong order when she had asked for iced coffee. When she started swearing about all the ˝sh*t˝ that was in it, I stepped up politely to let her know that actually, that was what iced coffee (ledena kava) is in Slovenia, and we had made that mistake, too. Actually, it was more like 45 seconds of bravery, because I retreated before she could argue with me, too. My family agreed I did the right thing, but given her look and language, she probably now remembers me as the interfering bi*ch. And now, iced coffee is forever enshrined in our family language as ˝the stuff with all that sh*t in it˝.
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| The offending article... |
5. Our shipping has actually shipped at last! And we can track it, with a little app that shows a boat icon moving across a blue screen. It is going past Canada and will be stopping off near my parents (Southampton) before trundling across to Koper. And after all that waiting, it is scheduled to arrive while everyone but my husband is in England. Then my husband discovered that you can pull up a maritime map of ALL the ships going around the world, colour coded by type, and spent the evening watching little icons move around the virtual ocean. Here is the link to marine traffic´s site in case you don´t have enough to waste your life on the internet.
6. We are now living a little less like campers, and a fridge freezer and cooker were delivered this week. As if all the newness was not already enough, we ended up opting for an induction hob. I don´t like electric hobs, and there is no gas line here. We would have had to have a canister sitting out next to the stove since we don´t have a fitted kitchen, and I didn´t fancy pitting it against our three-year old. So, more new tricks for these old dogs.
7.But as for the fridge... we plugged it in, and it didn´t work. The first time this has ever happened to us with an appliance, and it had to be in a place where we don´t speak the language. I have been getting by very well with the tiny loaned fridge that we can only cram with a few days worth of food, but now I am just staring at the large, broken fridge freezer that should have been full of all sorts of delights, and seething with resentment. Perhaps I need to add two minutes worth of zen meditation to my daily practice as well.
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