According to Wikipedia 'an oceanic climate is typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of all the world's continents, and in southeastern Australia and is accompanied by plentiful precipitation all year round.' Plentiful precipitation, huh! You can say that again.
Yesterday it rained on and off all day long. It makes perfect sense now why people, and by that I mean all people of oceanic climate, don't even bother to open an umbrella, or even carry an umbrella. In Slovenia we are also used to short spells of rain but then again not that short.
For example, on Wednesdays there's a market along the main canal (de Nieuwe Rijn) and last Wednesday I went there to buy some bread. In just that couple of minutes that I was buying it the sudden downpour of rain began, got worse - the kind of heavy rain that signifies the expression 'to rain cats and dogs' - and ceased completely. Most of us didn't even notice it, some people waited under a roof, some just carried on around their business.
And then last night this kind of on-and-off raining continued. It felt real good to be inside with the storm raging outside, sending merciless ligthning and thunder upon this little Dutch town of ours.
I must have been really optimistic or just foolishly ignorant of the past experience when I packed so many summer clothes, maybe hoping to persuade the weather to act otherwise. Well, it hasn't worked so far. So I stopped resisting and put on my black pair of leggings, extra socks, a long-sleeved sweatshirt and another long-sleeved hoodie. Mmmmm, lekker warm!
Zdaj sem dosegljiva tudi na telefon: 0031616293652. Pokličite kej!
You can now also reach me on 0031616293652. I'll be happy to hear from you.
Als je in Nederland bent, dan weet je het eigenlijk al dat je gewoon 0616293652 intoetst. :)
Danes se mi je že drugi dan zapored zgodilo nekaj totalno nepričakovanega.
Včeraj nič hudega sluteč sedim v kafeteriji na faxu, ko mimo mene pride eno dekle. Preden se obe sploh zaveva, kaj, kako, zakaj, kdo, kako nama je ime, se objameva in se začneva smejati. Flora, Madžarka, s katero sva se spoznali pet let nazaj, poleti leta 2004, v Gentu, v Belgiji, na poletnem tečaju nizozemščine. Takrat je sicer bila blond, zdaj je rjava. Ravno včeraj je zaključila študij, diplomirala pri profesorju Beheydtu iz umetnosti. Živi v Amsterdamu in ja, na kavo bova morali v kratkem. Kar ne morem verjeti, kako se nam te naše poti križajo.
Danes je bilo srečanje še skoraj bolj 'creepy'. Včeraj sem punco vsaj vedela kam dati. Danes grem ven iz ene stavbe in med vrati grem mimo ene punce, ki se v istem trenutku obrne in dobesedno zakriči: 'Mojca!' In jaz jo pogledam in gledam, ma 'doesn't ring a bell': Aaa, ow, kdo pa sploh si ti?! Ker je dejansko ne poznam. Pa mi razloži, da se me spomni z nizozemskega lektorata s faxa. Punca me je enkrat v življenju videla in si zapomnila ne le moj obraz, ampak ime! No, debata sledi, elektronski naslov, telefonska ...
Je torej svet majhen? So to naključja? Ali so to osebe, ki so po usodi dane na mojo pot? V spodbudo. V tolažbo. V oporo. Vas prepustim tem mislim ...
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Should the two events from yesterday and today make me believe that the world is indeed a small place to live in, or should they make me think of a greater cause behind this all, or should I just simply enjoy the joy and laughter such coincidences bring about? I'll let you meditate on that a bit ...
Yesterday I sat pondering on my schedule in the coffee room at the faculty when all of a sudden a girl passes me. We glance at each other and without a second of thought run into each other's arms, laughing in disbelief. She is Flora and comes from Hungary. We met 5 years ago, in August 2004, in Gent, Belgium, at a summer course of Dutch. She has just graduated from Dutch and lives in A'dam. Will definitely meet her for a coffee.
The other surprise meeting took place today. That was even more than surprising, it was even creepy. Because yesterday I at least know whom I saw, today I didn't. So, I'm walking out of a building (Lipsius) when a girl from a group coming the other way suddenly shouts out my name: 'Mojca!' I turn to look. I stare and rack my brain. Hm ... no, doesn't ring a bell, no, I definitely don't know her! 'Who ARE you?' I say with an expression of utter surprise and disbelief, which might have struck her as impolite. But she starts laughing and explains that her name is Mili and that she once (ONCE!) saw me at a Dutch lesson at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts. She saw me once (!) and remembered not only my face but even my name! How crazy is that?! Well, as it is highly pleasant to have a native Slovene speaker aexchange emailround we quickly exchanged e-addresses and telephone numbers and went our separate ways. Until we run into each other again, haha.
Zadnji avgustovki dan sem se vselila v svojo novo kamrico, ki bo moje gnezdece do konca januarja. Jorien, moja cimra izpred dveh let, mi jo je z veseljem odstopila, ker gre za pet mesecev na prakso na sever Nizozemske (Groningen). Ta dan sva se še videli, da sva se še poslovili. Takoj ko sem vstopila, sem zagledala veliko vazo rož in v celofan zavitke lepe svečke in sem pomislila: Oh, Jor je morala imeti koga na obisku in je dobila poslovilno darilo. Pa sem se motila. Vse to je Jorien pripravila meni, za dobrodošlico, da se bom v njeni sobi fajn počutila, kar se mimogrede dejansko res - dobro počutim. Naj vas torej skozi sliko povabim v moj novi mali svet ...
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I entered my little new world at Oude Rijn 54a on the last day of August. It was a fine shiny day, that day. In terms of weather but also in terms of me feeling fine. I got this room from a girl Jorien who was my housemate two years ago, when I lived in the house just next door (that was after I moved away from 'Vrijlaten', hahaha, Roelof and Oosterstraat 2b). Now she is away with internship in Groningen (north of the Netherlands) for five months so I get to keep her room until the end of January. In the meanwhile I'll try to find something new for the rest of the year. So, that's technicalities ...
When I entered my room-to-be I was taken aback by a large vase of pink flowers and a tray full of shiny, glossy, incensed candles of every shape and colour. I was sure that was somebody's farewell gift for Jorien since she was still there, but apparently that was a welcome gift for me. She is a true sweetheart!
Well, let me invite you to a photo tour through my cosy and gezellig room, my little new world for the next five months ...
I just wanted to make sure you know how to use the comment application since it is in Slovene.
At 'komentiraj kot' choose either Google address or whatever you might have, or simply 'Ime/URL'. Try not to choose 'Anonimno', because then I don't know who you are, unless I recognize your wisdom and wit :), or if you do so, please put your name under your comment.
Then, if you choose 'Ime/URL', just put your name down and leave the URL gap empty. This should do. I hope I explained it well enough. Now go make yourself heard ... read. :)
