Culture Shock: Continuous Participation

Location, Location, Location. . .

The only things that I have had to get used to with regard to geography is using public transportation in Ljubljana and getting used to the small size of . . . well everything. It is a small country, afterall. This has been a very simple transition into regular public transpo use which is saying something given that I have very little experience in this area (hooray Southern Maryland!). I travel on the number 6, 8 and/or 11 bus lines in the Northern and Southern directions daily to travel to and from school. The road that these bus lines travel on are called Dunajska (sp?) cesta which means ˝the road that travels to Austria.˝ In the Northern direction are the large mountains (Alps, baby!). To the South are only hills, which makes it really easy to remember which direction I am traveling in. Just on the other side of the large Alpine peaks is Austria which is also where the name of the street (Dunajska) that runs north and south comes from. Ljubljana is so easily navigated because of so many landmarks, the small size of the buildings and the easy to understand signs and bus routes. It is really unlike any city in America because of how small, safe and clean it is. I think I have gotten used to city life given how often I travel to Baltimore.

Another huge and AWESOME difference in Ljubljana is the pace. People, for the most part, do NOT j-walk. . .at all. It can be 11pm with no traffic coming and people will just stand at the cross-walk waiting for it to turn green. There is simply no rush to be places. Maybe this is because things are so close. In the city, there is either a 15 minute walk or 5 minute bus ride to anywhere you might need to go. Also, people love to sit in really nice coffee shops and just chill, talk and sip on the very inexpensive but amazingly aromatic kava. I think the quality of things here, in general, are better--coffee, food, converstation, even the tap water is boasted as one of the claenest and fresh in all of Europe.

Also--almost everything shuts down on Sundays. ˝Itś a post-communism thing˝is what I hear. In the entire city on a Sunday evening, only the McDonalds and a random kebab place will be open for food. Everywhere else is silent.

Oh! One thing--because of the sea level and Alpine atmosphere here, there is very low pressure. This is one thing that I have had to get used to while here. I frequently get headaches due to the pressure (or lack thereof). Only one cup of kava (coffee) is needed to pop my capalaries open and relieve the pressure, though. No wonder the kava is so strong here! It really is the best medicine!

Culture Shock?

Otherwise, I really haven´t needed to wrestle at all with this new location. I have had absolutley not issues with the locals, with getting around, or ven with culture shock. I was seriously expecting more culture shock. It turns out that Slovenia is really quite Western in their way of doing things. There are many more likenesses with America here than there are differences. Almost everyone speaks Enlgish here, so even in public, there are little to no problems. hen I speak the very few Slovene words that I know, people get really excited and compliment me. I am not so sure what is up with that. Slovenes are extremely humble people I think.

I have really enjoyed being submerged into the Slovene language. I know I said that people speak English, but of course, they don´t star their conversations in English. Even on the bus, I have stopped listening to my Ipod so I can evesdrop on close conversations, only picking up random words here and there.

I still find that small things are different--like the sounds of things (toilette, car horns, rivers, etc.) Otherwise, things are very much similar to what I am used to. I will be visiting this city anytime I am in /near central Europe in the future I think.