Measure Twice, Cut Once

The Captain gets home early on Fridays so those afternoons are often reserved for tennis with his very good friend, Turtle The Greek, with whom he has been playing for over 20 years...though you wouldn't tell from watching them play.

Whilst at the court, we received a visit by another one of Captain's good friends, The Russian. I met The Russian on my last visit and he quickly became one of my favorite people. Not only because he's a fellow art-geek, but also because he's just all-around cool. He and I chatted for a while and made plans to all go to dinner later.

After coming back home and quickly changing clothes, Cap and I head over to dinner with The Russian and his beautiful partner. We ate at a local diner (gostilna) which was a local haunt for the Cap and Rus in their younger days. Needless to say, the staff knew them well and we all had a great time.

Once, during a discussion of culture and language, The Russian asked me where my father's family was originally from and I explained that they came as slaves so we weren't really sure. This received a collective sigh of sadness and onwards to a discussion of how The Russian had read Roots some years back. This really touched me since I have been used to so many years of people shrugging off slavery that I realized I, myself, had developed a glib attitude towards it. I fell asleep that night pleased that my new home was full of such sensitive and sensible people....

The next afternoon I was adled with yells of Črnka! Črnka(Black lady, black lady) , as two little girls on tire swings pointed at me and giggled and shouted as they happily glided through the air. At a loss, I pointed at them and yelled belka, belka (white lady, white lady) and walked back to our campsite. Yes, people, I was camping. Amazing, but true. Early in the morning, at some ungodly hour, The Captain roused me and told me to get packing so we could take off. I knew we were going to a party, but I knew nothing of the camping or the fact that we had to go so early. However, these days, I am trying to do the whole "be positive, say yes" thing, so I threw a handful of clothes into a backpack and rolled into the car.

The camping was an interesting experience, not just because I scarcely go into the Great Outdoors, but also because it was My First Real Slovenian party. I can't make any grand sweeping statements about they way people party here, since this was my first time, and apparently this was a once-a-year epic blowout that they do, so I will just list component parts of this particular party:

* one massive (i'm talking mid-size concert) stereo system replete with a microphone in the owner's tent for aoccasional crazy announcements to the rest of us campers
* plenty of corny non-jams of the 80's played on high-blast(ie. Toto - Live In France)
* a small (but deep!) bathtub full of sangria (I had an accident early on wherein I spilled about half the fruit and lost some fans. Me so sorry.)
* a ton of gypsy music and old Yugoslav classics
* a huge roasting pig
* way too much (depending on who you ask) barbecued chicken, sausage, and kielbasa accompanying way-too-little (depending on who you ask) side salads
* beer from the pub on the campsite
* random (kinda dumb) locals wading into our campsite for free booze and food
* a few guys who appeared to have arrived drunk and stayed that way for 24 hours
* random annoying overly political dub reggae tunes played at
* a handful of people who decided they needed to stay up until the crack of dawn getting wasted and stoking the fire and blasting aforementioned music at the highest possible level so the rest of us couldn't sleep but had to lay there cursing the deity of our choice.

Luckily, as the first glint of sun rose on the horizon, those bloodsuckers revelers were finally convinced to put out the fire, hit the hay, and let all of us good citizens get some rest. I woke up a few hours later, happy and loving humanity again and promising myself not to go to the party next year.

Alas, due to the insanity of the previous night, I missed the lovely Dr. Fil at Kravji Bal in Bohinj(though The Captain and I did take a brief leisurely stroll there late that afternoon.). However, Dr. Fil and I shall meet soon, and in the meantime, according to her, I have a doppleganger to look out for.

Here are some pictures: