Slovenian Quick Takes: September 2018

A late summer evening in Koper

1. I have barely had time to read or write anything since I got back from the UK. At that point, everyone had finally received their residency papers, which is pretty much the golden key to everything, so it has been a final push on all aspects of living here, from boring but necessary ones like registering with a doctor (three doctors, actually, one for the adults, one for the teen and one for the toddler) to exciting ones like buying a car. And then the forms, oh the forms... the word vloga is forever seared on my brain with a red hot pen.

2. But at least the weather has cooled down. When we last lived here (arriving in sweaty August), I recall being told something along the lines of, "Don´t worry, the weather will break on September 3 at 2.30pm." And it did - then and now. So much better than Mississippi when you didn´t know if you would be perspiring into October.

3. The three year-old began kindergarten this week, and seems to be enjoying himself. He has already started saying "ne" instead of "no", so I think his language transition will be fine. Weirdly, his kindergarten is run by Seventh Day Adventists. I say weirdly, because as far as I (OK, Google) know, there is not even an SDA church in Slovenia. All it means in practice is that they say grace before their vegetarian meals.

We always have to stop by the canal for a spot of nutria watching on our way to kindergarten

4. Our teen began the new term at the International School Trieste, Italy. I would tell you all about her experiences, but she´s a teen, so all we get out of her is monosyllables unless it´s a demand for money to buy school supplies. Counting our eldest, still at MIT, this means we have three children in school in three different countries. Just colour us cosmopolitan.

5. As well as being the end of summer, September is known as one of the rainy months, so a couple of things we had planned to do were washed out by thunderstorms. We did get down to town one evening for an event called "The Street Revives", which was a hotchpotch of live entertainment, informational stalls (university, local businesses, associations etc.) and vendors, set out along the long, sloping street that runs from the central square to what was the old port. I got a free reusuable bag from a stall run by kids in return for taking their photo. When I said I would put it on my blog, they crowded in front of the camera, so, dutifully, here it is:

6. We are still haunting the Sunday morning flea market, and I scored with an almost new ladies bike last week. As soon as we get a kiddy chair fixed on, Alcuin and I will arrive at kindergarten quickly and in style via the extensive network of bike lanes here.

7. Breaking news: yesterday, I finally got Ted to swim in the sea. To me, raised on the icy coasts of Britain, it is luxurious here: cool (not freezing), calm (we are in a harbour), and more buoyant. To him: it is cold. But he went in anyway. This could become a yearly event.

And P.S. (official exoneration from plagiarism notice!), if any old readers are hanging around, yes, I borrowed the series title idea from Seven Quick Takes, first created by Jennifer Fulwiler, who found fame on Sirius radio and passed the baton to Kelly at This Ain´t the Lyceum.