Once again, blogging has gotten away from me. I apologize to all of you guys who have been wondering what I've been up to! So I will be glad to share with you all. But before I do, I would like to thank you all for taking this journey with me! I hope that the retelling of my European happenings are entertaining, and makes you feel as if you were there too! I am really having a great time here. Of course I miss my family and friends back home, but I love Europe! And this has been an amazing opportunity for me to learn about myself as well as other cultures.
So....Here we go!
For those of you who don't know me, I'm really responsible and not spontaneous by many standards. A by-product of my responsibility is my tendency to over think. I often ponder every outcome then talk myself into and out of the decision several times, weighing all of my options meticulously until I'm sure that I have chosen the 'right' one, and having a backup plan in case I didn't choose the 'right' one. I especially find the decision between paper and plastic a particularly difficult conundrum (I'm kidding! we all know to use reusable bags! Ha ha).
But one of my personal
goals for my European adventure is to take myself out of my very
padded comfort zone. So when some of my friends said that they were
going
to catch a ride with our
friend Nathan's (Ireland) rugby team to Slovenia that same day, of
course I turned them down. I couldn't possibly go to another country
in such short notice. I had been in class all day. I just wanted to
write this paper that was due and enjoy my weekend in Innsbruck. But
did my friends accept it? No, they kept goading ' Cooommmeee on! How
many chances do you get to go to Slovenia?" I steadfastly stuck
to my 'No'.
But considering my
personal goal of being more spontaneous I was torn. Should I power
through the paper? Should I go? Ahhhh, the pressure!!! Then after a
few words of encouragement (Thanks J.R), I decided to go. I submitted
the paper at 4:15 am, thru together a bag, let my friends know that I
was going (they were pleasantly surprised), and were on our way to
Slovenia by 4:30 am.
Now I'll remind you that
before this study abroad experience I had never been out of the
United States (heck, I've never been further west than Alabama). I'm
orignially from south Florida eight hours from the Georgia/Florida
Line a good, so any departure from Flordia is a pretty deliberate
action. So it was a BIG DEAL that in less than 12 hours, I was
informed of a 2 day trip to Slovenia was on a bus on my way there. I
couldn't positively point Slovenia out on a map of Europe (I'm still
not 100% sure I could do it even today :P ) I tried to stay awake but
after 24 hours of being awake, I was out like a light. I woke several
times to see some AMAZING landscape as we crossed Austria but I was
back out just as quickly as I'd woken up.
After a pitstop and some
traffic, we made it to Slovenia about 1pm. We walked to our Hostel
(which was HEADS AND SHOULDERS above the Paris Hostel) to drop our
bags... once there, I was informed of which city we were in. It took
a few attempts to try and pronounce the city, but I finally got it-
Ljubljiana. (pronounced Lub-liyanah). the capital city of Slovenia.
The sky was overcast and there was a light rain, but we got to
fashion our umbrellas so it wasn't that bad. Because the weather was
rainy and there weren't any bleachers nor coverings near the rugby
game, the Rugby captain 'excused us' from having to watch the game.
 |
| Me with the Ljubljana skyline |
So there was a group of eight |
| Creepy Slovenian Art |
and we made several memories. We got to see Slovenian art (a little darker than my taste, but hey). I can say that I've been to Slovenia, and I can say that I was spontaneous.
 |
| Creepier Slovenian Art |
 |
| One of the pretty views I was able to see on the way Back! |
I honestly think I got
more from being spontaneous. I made a rash decision, and the world
did not implode. SUCCESS!!
Til next time...(about 15
minutes!)
- Pella, the Pilgrim.
