Man, two posts in a month, and it's a short month too. Who'd have thunk?

Well, I managed to resurrect the old day-tripping spirit of last year. After a hardcore Tuesday night celebrating Pust last week (sorry Slovenes, I know you get upset at that capital 'P', but this blog is in English - it's a proper noun, go figure. For my English friends, Pust is the same as Shrove Tuesday/Mardis Gras, it's more beer than pancakes over here, that's a Catholic country for you..) I eventually recovered to peel myself out of bed at some ungodly hour and take a trip out East on Thursday. The trip was courtesy of the students I'd met during the pissed up/falling on my face debacle (see below for more information).

I travelled out to Štajerska and Maribor, Slovenia's second city. It was only a flying visit, but Maribor has a lot more of an industrial feel to it than Lj, and a proper sized river, unlike the brook that is the Ljubljanica which we have to be content with. It's where my former neighbour Senki was from, but despite being here for a year already, I hadn't made it there. I will investigate further in future. I was travelling three young ladies (wow, that's simulaneously patronising and very English...) Petra, Katja and Katja 2. The trip was intended to see a traditional Slovene folk shindig. Petra was performing with a Tamburica band. For obscure instrument fans out there, a tamburica is a type of guitar with four strings, configured similarly to a mandolin, so there are two big and two small strings. I think that lowest string is a G when played open. That's all I know, any music geeks should probably wikipedia it, or summit...

The concert was entertaining, fairly similar to the folk concerts that go on in England, but without men with bells tied to their knees waving hankies around. Afterwards we had a feast back at Petra's folks place followed by beer and board-games, civilised stuff.

The next day, when I eventually surfaced, we headed off on a tour of Eastern Štajerska, the highlight being the spring where Radenska mineral water comes from (come on, I was hung-over, this sort of stuff is relaxing...) Then headed back to Ljubljana. Where everything was shut, because some poet died once... It was Prešeren's day, I think I might have written about it last year.

This week I began my Slovene course. On Monday I went to the Faculty of Arts in order to take an exam and have an interview. The exam was in Slovene, but was multiple choice, so I was slightly concerned that there was a chance I'd get a really high score by fluke. Luckily the interview should have sorted that out. I was interviewed in Slovene, and I understood every question, but I answered mostly in English (for shame!)

On Thursday I went for my first lesson, and to see which group I had been placed in. I was immediately concerned by the fact that I appeared to have been put in an 'Intermediate' group and most of the students had Slavic surnames. The lesson went well though and I understood most of it, it seems that although my memory rarely helps me out by providing the words I need when trying to talk, a fair amount of stuff has actually lodged itself in my brain.

Well, that's about it for now, hope all's well out there. Keep it blah.

J