Christmas in Europe 2004:
Zero day
First Code Red at West Point, and I'm not there to get paid for it. DAMN
Stealing Mom away for nails and toes. Watching Bush make like a fool refusing to "negotiate with himself" during a press conference. Winter Garden mauve on toes, Frenchy nude pink on fingers.
Everything seems to time out "perfectly" - packing fits "perfectly." Forget brownie boxes for Spela. DAMN
Driving to JFK with Mom. RIDICULOUS efforts to get brownies are unrewarded. Note: Stewart Leonard's is code for HELL ON EARTH. Note: Costco is run by bitches who I can't even pay to take my money for a lousy box of brownies that I KNOW they had in there.
Traffic, silliness, the need to pee. Quick drop off at the curb. Easy check in, grab a sandwhich in a fake pub. Wait.
Boarding = boring. Sitting next to a blond older man who speaks neither English or German very well. He drinks lots of vodka. I drink lots of water. Read, music (iPods rock), change into flannel pants, sleep.
10-point landing, in my opinion. Awesome cameras both under the plane and "pilot's eye view" scare the LIVING CRAP out of me.
Runway lights look like fire, and are arranged in the shape of a cross.
Day One
40 minutes between landing of plane #1 and boarding of plane #2 = nervous ris. Airport dash, purse almost lost. Arrive at gate #2 twenty minutes before boarding with almost an hour til take-off. Who knew it was that small?
Start computer to kill time. Begin strange choppy writing.
The plane ride to Klagenfurt was quick. It was great to jump on Ziga when I saw him in the airport.
Getting settled was very low key. Z made a great nativity scene under the thoroughly golden Christmas tree - complete with working waterfall. Unpacking was followed by a long (3 hr) nap.
Ziga's elaborate nativity
Had the Pretnars sample the Peppermint Bark from the Arredondos, apparently an exclusively American treat, or least something they hadn't seen before. Then Z and I went off and hit a few random pubs and bar/coffee places. A quiet night.
Day Two
Z was full of bouncy energy, woke up at 7am. Ris was not full of energy, woke up at 10am. Morning was sight-seeing, and the sites were mountains, trees, apline lakes. Fairy-tale quality.
Touring the countryside
In Bohinj a light snow was drifting off the mountains
A quick visit with the paternal grandparents in Bohinska Bela. Very sweet people.
Late lunch at home, then another long afternoon nap. Z seems to have grown more tired over the course of the day. Some watching of TV (mostly BBC and VH1). And now we've just foregone another quick trip to the pubs for an early night, given that we'll be heading to Ljubljana early in the morning.
I understood my first Slovenian conversation today, without any help at all. Spela (Z's mom) asked Klemen where the keys to the car were. Klemen responded with a question - where are you going? Spela answered that she was going to the store. Of course I didn't understand every word, but the chief ones - avto, kljuc, trgovina - combined with the context and voice inflection got the point across. It seems a bit more possible now, that I might someday at least understand what's going on. Communicating my own thoughts is an entirely different thing.
I'm a little overwhelmed, and it makes me needy. Z is great with that, I hope I don't over-tax his resources.
We took a peek at the family sheep, penned in the barn for the winter
An adorable lamb
Christmas is coming . . . Next Page
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