What's your coffee ritual?

Roba asked this question... unlike her, I have nothing against rituals.
Anyone who knows me also knows that I consume huge amounts of coffee. Here's my coffee ritual (which varies slightly from day to day):
Workdays:
5:30am - get up, put 8 heaping scoops of Brazil coffee house blend into filter + 7 cups of water, turn on machine, go do some yoga
5:50am- pour cup of coffee, add a touch of milk so it looks like mud (no sugar or any other sweetener), drink coffee while packing stuff up for work and Katja's daycare
6:15am - wake up Katja and give her breakfast, pour my second cup of coffee and drink while getting dressed
Since I start work a tad later on Mondays and Tuesdays, after dropping Katja off at daycare, I usually go to Cups & Kilos and get a latte (to go) (at around 7:40am).
If I am lucky enough to have a break during the day, I either a) get a latte at R'n'B, b) get a latte at Café des Artistes or c) in the office--> two teaspoons of Nescafe & two teaspoons of CoffeeMate.

Weekends: same coffee I make workday mornings, but bottomless cup for as long as I am at home :)

Sunday nostalgia, episode 4

Sunday nostalgia, episode 3

Sunday nostalgia, episode 2

Sunday Nostalgia, episode 1

Katja's first plane ride

I wasn't sure how it would go... The flight from Amman to Montreal takes 12 hours, which can even be rough on most adults. She was great! She slept for about 8 hours; while she was awake she was in such a great mood. She only cried a bit while the plane was descending to land, since the pressure was a bit much for her little ears to handle. People kept coming up to me and saying what a great baby she is. Even the cabin crew was crazy about her :)


Katja with the Royal Jordanian flight attendants

Inspiring... (I wonder if something like this could be organised in Jordan?)

I had been hearing about this campaign to clean up Slovenia in one day, mostly from former students of mine. I thought it was an excellent idea and was very sad that I am no longer in Slovenia to participate in something so wonderful. The idea was inspired by a documentary about a similar campaign, which took place in Estonia in 2008. It was organised by the organisation "Ecology without Borders" and took place yesterday. The most inspiring part of it is that about 250,000 volunteers showed up, removing about 80,000 cubic metres of garbage!
Now, I wonder if it would be possible to organise something like this here in Jordan?
Here are some articles about the campaign:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3 (in Slovenian)

Chat Roulette

My dear friend Tara sent me a link to this article. To be honest, I had never heard of chat roulette. At first, I assumed it was like on-line speed dating or something. Maybe it's something I would have tried out had it existed 16 years ago, back when we'd run to the McGill computer labs at 3am to go on IRC. It doesn't seem like something I'll be getting into anytime soon.

A WALK TO REMEMBER: 60 MINUTES IN AMMAN

Ok, so it was much longer than 60 minutes….but that’s besides the point…
When I heard about this event, I was extremely eager to attend. I hadn’t ever been to a Fastwalk event, though I do walk with Katja on what is almost a daily basis. Luckily, I live near the Sport City complex, which allows me to take these daily walks. Otherwise, I might not be as eager to do so.
You see, although I’ve had my driver’s licence for 20 years now, when I am in a city, I much prefer to experience it either on foot, by bicycle or public transport. Unfortunately, none of these things are at all pleasant in Amman. Sidewalks are pathetic, rendering Katja’s stroller useless for anywhere but a shopping mall. Good luck crossing the street, as drivers here might stop if you’re lucky; quite often they won’t.
Anyhow, back to the event… As I mentioned earlier, the walk lasted much more than an hour. It was a great way to observe the city and seeing pedestrians claim back the streets.
Here are some pics I took before and during the walk:

Me & Roba

Roba & Moose :)

Nice to see I wasn't the only one who brought a baby

The crowd

Michael Sorkin, author of 20 Minutes in Manhattan, encouraging us to reclaim the streets

Scenes from the actual walk:

Amazing...

Farewell to the noughts...

It seems like yesterday I was bidding farewell to the 90s. My buddy Jovan & I were at a party in Trnovo…DJ Gaby was setting the mood with Goa trance; DJ Kesma came on later. It seemed like no other decade could be as “action-packed” as the 90s were for me. After all, it was in 1990 that I graduated from high school and began expanding my horizons… Marianopolis, McGill…Those were amazing times. Montreal had so much to offer young adults then. I lived life to the fullest, did the whole interail/backpacking through Europe thing. I spent the first half of the 90s in Montreal, the second half in Ljubljana, where I awaited the noughts.
Looking back at this decade, it may not have always been as fast-paced as the previous one, but it contains many moments I’m fond of and will never forget.
So here’s to the noughts and the best thereof:

2000: Ljubljana trance parties
Summer trip to Montreal: crazy nights at Unity, Café Sarajevo, tam tams..
Second summer trip to Split: nights on the beach, a group of us singing “Zenica Blues” on the beach as Jovan played guitar
Fall trip to London
2001: Grad studies in Ljubljana…had to balance the trance parties with the books
First time on Triglav (in new hiking boots...ended up with blisters the size of pancakes)
Summer trip to French Riviera and Provence
2002: Started to get sick of the trance scene, extremely involved in translating at the Centre for Slovenian literature
Summer trips: Montreal, Toronto, Paris, Stuttgart
2003: Finally bought flat in Ljubljana after 7 years of renting and moving 9 times,
Summer trip to Lago Maggiore,
visit from elementary & high school classmate Caroline & friends (saw her for the first time in 10 years)
2004: No major summer trips, but 2 visits from old friends Tara and Julie
2005: First trip to Jordan in February, reunited after 14 years. Love is in the air. Second trip to Jordan in October.
2006: Summer trips: Sarajevo & Mostar
Montreal: tam tams are still there after so many years, picnic electronique
2007: New Year’s in Amman,
Summer visit to Ljubljana by my mother and bro and Omar, so he got to meet the family
Ended off the year by getting hitched :)
2008: Ended teaching contract in Ljubljana, moved to Amman
2009: The greatest gift of all, the birth of our sweet little Katja.




2009 was also a year of special gifts for some other old friends of mine... Congrats to Sylwia, Tracy and Emmanuel on becoming first-time parents!

And all the best in 2010!

Happy 1st Anniversary to Enas & Jamal

On this special day

Love touches two lives so sweetly,

Warms you with a gentle joy...

Makes you one completely.

Happy Anniversary To A Wonderful Couple

I also wish you many more years of happiness with your bundle of joy that will be arriving very soon! All the best!

Happy Wedding Anniversary

Making me feel old: Sesame Street celebrates 40th b-day!

Some claimed it was an educational show....others claimed it was the reason for our short attention spans... Either way, it's 40 years old and Google's celebratory doodles definitely put a smile on my face :)

Blasts from the past and new beginnings...

I have been completely neglecting this blog for about a year now. So much has been going on, so much has happened that I just could not find the time to type it all out. I guess I’ll get back on track by telling a story…

Twenty years ago, a bunch of kids from around the globe decided to attend a summer language school in Ljubljana, known as Poletna šola slovenskega jezika. Most of us were second generation Slovenians born abroad, or half-breeds like myself (though I prefer the term hybrid). There were some cases of people learning Slovenian because they had a significant other from Slovenia, a couple of people who just happened to like learning Slavic languages.

So anyways, it was 1988 and I was 14 going on 15--the youngest person attending the school. To be honest, in my case it was an excuse to be allowed to go to Europe on my own without having to stay with relatives. A bit sneaky on my part, but I am not sorry I did it. It was an experience like no other. I made friends from all over North America, South America, all over Europe, Australia and even Jordan. I kept in touch with a lot of them as pen-pals. I knew after spending the summer there, that I wanted to live in Ljubljana.

I decided to go back to the school in 1989. There were more students that year, from even more countries. My friend from Jordan has returned that summer as well. As two teenagers, we got on each others nerves. We probably never thought that we would be reunited almost 20 years later, fall in love and end up as husband and wife.

Back in the late 80s:

and Omar and I 20 years later, right after our wedding:

As another sign of good karma, we were reunited with another classmate a couple of days before our wedding. Milena attended the school with us in '88. She just happened to be in Slovenia for the Christmas holidays and took us out to dinner as an early wedding gift. Here's an old pic from back then...My we've aged gracefully:

left to right: Irena Fele (from Brussels), Milena and I (what was I thinking with that hair?!!)

And Milena and I 20 years later:

So much has happened in these 2 decades. I left Montreal in 1996 to follow my dream of living in Ljubljana, found a nice teaching job and side-career as a translator, bought myself a nice flight right next to the Ljubljanica River and ended up staying there for 12 years.

As of July, I am now in Amman, Jordan to be with Omar. Starting a new chapter in my life is not easy, as I surely never thought I would end up here.... but here I am. I hope the next 20 years are as great as the last ones were!

Picture I took of the Cops

Saturday Walk through Ljubljana, Checking Out the Art Market

Ljubljana
Art Market