Departure and Arrival

Important things I’ve learned:

-Gazirana voda is club soda, not flat water. This should’ve been obvious…I’ll blame the jet lag and the millions of bottles of water looking products with different names on them.

-At the grocery store you weigh your own produce and put the price sticker on the bag for the cashier. Nothing says you’re American like making the whole checkout line wait for someone to bring all your produce back up weighed for you.

-If you stand on the sidewalk holding a map someone here will come help you.

-Some things are harder to figure out than they would seem. Don’t give up! It took quite a few attempts and lots of staring at my door blinds to figure out how to open them.

-Thunder and lightening storms are cooler in Europe.

My flight to Europe was pretty uneventful. Each connection was almost immediate from San Diego, to Chicago, to Munich, to Slovenia. I was lucky enough to have two empty seats next to me from Chicago to Munich and so I uncomfortably laid across them and got in a few hours of sleep. Upon arrival I was picked up by a taxi and was greeted at my apartment by my soon-to-be co-worker, Monika. The apartment is called Mam (pronounced “Mom”) and my landlady’s name is Nana. Not sure how else they could make me feel more at ease. After going over apartment things and having the keys handed over to me Monika took me on a quick tour of town. I was extremely grateful for that especially since it is was a holiday here and she probably had more interesting things she could be doing. Ljubljana is kind of a ghost town on holidays with everyone leaving for the coast or mountains. This means almost everything was closed. After Monika took me through city centre and showed me the office, some local markets, and some restaurants I headed back to settle in. Later, I went back out to get my first Slovenian meal. A Doner Kebob, which is like a fast food gyro in the states. Not exactly what I had hoped my first meal would be but there was literally nothing else open aside from McDonald’s and Chinese food. I also stopped by the grocery store called Mercator to pick up a few things which was not an easy task when you can’t read labels. All in all my first half day in Ljubljana was pretty good. I finished the night off watching a lightening storm from my windows and then got some much needed sleep.

On the way to my terminal in O'Hare.

Flying over the Alps, entering Slovenia.

About the only things I could identify at the grocery store...eggs, yogurt, sausage

The outside of my apartment building, right in the middle of Ljubljana.