Ljubljana, Slovenia

I came to a country called Slovenia. Okay, I admit. I didn’t even know the existence of this country. I am here from November 12th through the 19th. Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia in 1991. It is located in the Northeast of Italy with a population of 2 million people. It is not many, but they have their own language, Slovenian. It is amazing that they can go to Venice by car in one hour or so. I was pretty excited when I heard that people go for shopping on the weekend to Italy! It sounds fantastic!

Currently, their local currency is Toler (SIT), but as of January 2007, they will start using Euros. And it seems there are going to be only two months to keep both currencies after January 1st. It is kind of amazing that people lose the “money” they’ve lived with in only a couple of months! I cannot imagine losing Japanese Yen like that! I lived with it! Anyhow, it seems there are coins with Toler, but people don’t use them. So most of the machines like ATM or vending machines are not made for coins, only for paper bills. However, Euros are full of coins, so there are major changes in those machines right now. Also, all the savings in bank accounts will be automatically converted to Euros over night. That’s serious programming. I would not want to be responsible for that! Anyways, I always thought that converting local currency to Euros are quite convenient, but I didn’t even think about all the troubles that come with it!

Tonight, I went out for dinner by myself for the first time in months. There had been many trips, but it seems I did not go out for dinner on my own. I didn’t even realize it until tonight. It has been a little different from when I was in the united states making trips. When I travel now, I usually have someone with me or the people who I work with take me out for dinner. Probably that is because I go abroad, usually pretty far away. So, it was a bit lonely to have dinner by myself tonight. I’m used to be alone, but certainly it is much better if I have someone to have conversation with over meal; especially when I go out to eat.