Day 5! (Sunday)
So far there has been a morning ritual. The sun wakes me, I ignore it. The mosquitoes wake me, I kill or ignore them. I try to sleep for a bit until eventually it gets too hot in the tent and then I’ll get up. I’ll do my morning devotion under the kitchen tent and I’ll clean a bit. Then one by one the boys wake up and we’ll have breakfast. But today they didn’t wake up. I was out of my tent by 07:30 and they kept sleeping. At 10 they were still asleep! I was also still tired and I thought it was very unfair that they had shadow and I didn’t and I was hoping that the sun would shine just a little but harder so that they also would be baked out of their tent. But none of that happened. So I wanted to rearrange my suitcase a bit (it was in the outer bit of the tent) and I decided that was a fine place to sleep. So that’s what I did. After about 15 minutes Izak woke up but I was still comfortable then so I kept laying there for another 20 minutes before I got op. By that time just Filip was still in his tent. Oh and Kiki also. They had not started breakfast yet which was quite disappointing. Of course I could’ve had breakfast by myself before, but the last time I had done that it didn’t work out so well (they went swimming on Friday morning and then I had breakfast by the time they came back at 10. They had pasta then and then told me to eat now because it would be a while before we’d see food again, but I was kind of full so that didn’t really work. They then explained to me to go with the flow. Because if I go with the flow I can’t be hungry when it’s time to eat).
At a given moment they were in a conversation. – by the way I now have enough knowledge of the Slovene language to often be able to determine the topic of the conversation.. so they know to be careful around me because when I have a feeling the conversation is about me, I’ll ask for translation. So they were talking -and they also know that I know that ‘ona’ means ‘she’ so they don’t use that word so often anymore - . But Kiki kept very noticeably moving his head towards me as they kept talking. So at some point I said. “OK! Translation please!”. He didn’t want to translate: ‘It is not my job to tell you’. ‘Of course it is!! What’s up?’ I asked. Money problems. They’re broke. So I said: ‘But I have money’. ‘We know’, he said. So I guess that’s what they wanted to ask me. Fair enough, I’ve been living here and have not paid for anything yet. And all they want is € 10. So we went to the shops. Which was beautiful because there was a bathroom there (with one very big spider! I wondered to myself if Hadassa would’ve held it for another 2 days because of the spider).

-Rock, paper, scissors-
It’s a way of life. And today, I won! ☺ Everything here is R,P,S. When, what or how will we eat? R,P,S! Who has to get up to get something? R,P,S.. Just like our touch-the-ground-first actually *. What I forgot to mention before is that on Friday Tomaz went home with his car. Which means there is now 1 car to transport 6 people. So me being the lightweight has to sit on someone’s lap. After Friday I told them that if we were going to be dangerous (those of you who know me, know that when I get in a car I have my seatbelt on, I’m really a safety first kind of person. So sitting in the front seat on someone’s lap wasn’t working for me), I didn’t want to be dangerous in the front seat. So now they do R,P,S about who gets to sit in the front and then R,P,S about who has to carry me.** Yesterday evening I proposed that next time I would get to play R,P,S for the front seat too. You know, as a joke, and they indeed laughed. But today, they actually let me play! And I’m in the front seat as I’m writing this. Kirc is inbetween Izak’s legs.
For two days now they’ve known that I’ve been keeping a diary. Today I decided to come clean and share with them some of what I’ve been writing. So from now on I can write all names freely since they know I’m writing about them anyway. They’ve started to give me suggestions about the things I should write down. This morning Izak told me I should write about his splendid posture, and he also told me to write about peanut butter and honey, something I would have to taste first (it really sounds like one of those weird Egers-things***), which I really was not intending to do. But he just made me some and though I didn’t think it was amazing.. It’s edible, maybe even nice.
It seems as if they plan more and more. Even though it sometimes seems to take forever for them to finally decide. I think today it happened twice or thrice that they had 30 minutes discussions about the plan for the moment. They need a president! And after my super proposal about the dishes they did offer me to become their president.. Maybe I should run for it after all.
Today I realized how much I’m like Hadassa (my youngest sister). The wind blew over the bottle with oil and Kiki tried to safe it. However, in his attempt to save it he tripped, hit his foot and spilled even more oil. I felt for him. Poor boy. But then I saw him cursing inwardly (ok so probably not cursing with bad words), and I just had to turn my face away and giggle. And I knew that if Hadassa had been there both of us would have been creasing with laughter and we would have blamed each other for it.
Our adventure here is almost over. Matej left today so now there are five of us. We’re leaving tomorrow morning, with a bit of luck before the inspection comes. Yes, we’re on ground of Izak’s grandfather, but camping here goes against the plan the government has for this piece of land. I found out about this when I went to see the manager of the camp nearby to ask if we could shower there. ‘Well not really’ he said, because he doesn’t have a lot of showers (2) and ‘By the way, did you know that camping outside of official campsites is prohibited?’ No, I didn’t. ‘And sometimes the inspection comes by and when they see you camping they’ll give you a fine, I know this because one of my friends is with the inspection’. ‘Oh, ok’, I said, ‘I’ll let them know’. When I got back in the camp I told Izak what the manager had said about camping on these grounds. He knew. Kirc who was also there asked how that manager knew that we were camping here in the first place. ‘I told him’ I said. And I saw him think ‘Why does this girl have to talk so much’. Hey, listen: Izak knew what I was going to ask the manager and as sole instruction he said not to let the manager know how many of us there were. I stuck to that. And if there were more things I should’ve really not mentioned they should’ve told me that before hand. SO THERE.
Saturday morning (when I -what was I thinking- had drunk 1,5 litres of water and really needed a toilet) I ran into the manager again. He said the inspection would probably come on Monday. Back then I was still under the impression that we would leave on Sunday so I told him ‘Oh, we’ll be long gone by then’. In any case Kirc believes that I called the Inspection on us and that I should not ask anyone any questions (at the beach I’d asked someone if we could pay with Euros and they said no), I bring bad luck, he says.



* something me, my sisters and some of my cousins and friends do. If for example the doorbell rings and you don’t feel like getting the door you touch the ground and whomever touches it last has to go open the door.
** addition by Iz & Kirc: They’ve never played R,P,S about who has to carry me, just about who sits in front.
***Egers are my cousins Jechiël and Jaïra, they eat stuff like sprinkles with peanut butter and sprinkles with cheese and interestingly enough when I told Jechi about this peanut butter and honey thing he said that he already knows it and that it’s really nice

-Rock, Paper, Scissors Holiday- part 2

Day 3!


The Lord bless the hearts of every woman who lives with more than 2 guys. I love these guys I do but this is life is just really different.

I’ve been observing a lot so have not been talking so much. I don’t want to ask for translation every 2 seconds nor do I want to take them away from their conversation all the time so I’ve been quiet. They worry about that. They wonder if I’m doing ok. Friday we went to an island where there was a Croatian student weekend. There were people there that I knew and they would have entire conversations with me. The guys saw that and according to them I ‘became alive’. I guess I did in a way, I love people and if I can I’ll speak to them, but if they don’t speak to me I’ll find another way to entertain myself. The island was fun, met some nice people. Swam in a beautiful blue sea, went into a cave! Swam into Tamera (Wendy’s friend from Advance). Discovered that these guys left a negative impression on some people (machos/bullies) which is a shame really because I know them to be very caring. I forgot about the rest.


Day 4! (Sabbath)

These boys don’t really make plans, but what they do plan is very broad. We had to leave at 08:30 if we wanted to be at Sabbath school on the island. I guess we didn’t want to because we left around 10:00, we were there just in time for the 6 hour break (just after the sermon). I chilled a bit with everyone, read Psalms 27 and Isaiah 48 + 49. 48 is interesting to study with the topic of the Godhead in mind. Had some good conversations with Stasa, Tamera and Nives, a new girl. Came across a cousin of Endi Stojanovic, dove* (jumped head first into the water) and apparently I’m good for a beginner. Oh the guys noticed that sometimes I find them annoying not so much towards me but in teasing others. So Saturday as they were teasing this girl they started to loudly exclaim “AND ZIPPORA IS WITH US”; at the campsite, on the ferry.. like I care : ) .
That evening we toasted to us, the special group..

*Izak said to mention that he taught me how to do so.

-Rock, Paper, Scissors Holiday- part 1

Last July I paid my Slovenian friends a visit. A few weeks before I left to Slovenia I was speaking to Izak (one of my Slovenian friends) and he asked me, if when I came to Slovenia if I would join him and his cousins on their camping trip. I thought "his cousins" meant Kristjan, Matej, Filip, Kristijan Korat and Alja (girl!). Because up until that point whenever he had said that we would see his cousins, Alja had always been there. But Alja had made other plans for that week. She wouldn't be there. I found out about that when we were about ready to leave for Croatia. Zippora and 6 boys, on a camping trip. The beginning of the saga..


Day 1:

We arrived at the campsite. I saw all the little creatures and suddenly I had enough of my skirt and short sleeves… so I nicely swapped them for my half long coat and jeans. Izak saw me come back and said ‘are you hot my dear’ (as if I had not noticed that it was 23 degrees (Celsius) outside. ‘No’, I said and explained to him that I don’t like bugs to walk all over me. He laughed at me a bit, pointed out that I was a pathfinder and then everyone went back to work. UNTIL all of a sudden both of them started swatting around them and Izak asked me if I brought an extra coat. Mosquitoes. Lot’s of them. Great!

To be continued..

Day 2: or actually, the end of day 1. Izak, Kiki and I were alone at the camp, the rest would come later. It was time for dinner. Egg and macaroni and some vegetable I don’t know how to call.
So Izak asks: ‘How do you know if the oil is hot enough?’ And as I’m thinking about the answer, he spits in the pot*… (AAAHHHH) The oil starts fizzing. ‘It’s hot enough!’, he says.

There were no plates yet so all three of us ate from the pots. I’m used to them (a lot of Slovenians I’ve met) putting cutlery in their mouth and then back in the jam or peanut butter jar, pot etc. But usually I’ll get my food out of the pot first and then they can work out whatever they want to do with their food. Anyway. Eating from the pot. So I’m eating where they are not right? Like having my own little corner in the pot. But I tell you they were following me. Wherever my fork was, Izak’s fork was also.

I killed one mosquito that night. I prayed for a good night’s rest and fell asleep. Around 6 am I woke up, there were 4 mosquitoes in my tent. I killed them, but their brothers kept mourning over them just outside my tent and not softly, so I listened to my iPhone a bit, but I didn’t have my charger on me so after about 45 minutes I got up.


* When Kirc (Kristjan Virtic) heard about this he looked at me rather disgusted and asked 'is that the food we ate from the next day also?' (yes it was) 'Couldn't you have read this to me before?!'
** Izak later explained to me that his professor had taught him this 'trick'.

SECOND DAY!
The rest would come at 6 am (they would leave Koper at 4, which was the main reason I wanted to get to the camp the day before). They came at 8, or 10 even… I ate some bananas for breakfast, had bought them in the village. These boys watched Brüno recently, they talk about that a lot.. I really don’t care that I don’t understand them then :) ! I was laying around a bit, I couldn’t find anything better to do. It was too hot to study and we would go swimming at 4 pm. Oh yeah, we’re on a field where there is no running water. So we’re working with containers/jerry cans. Showers, no! Toilets, no! So they built a toilet. A real toilet bowl, with a hole under it and screens around it on 3 sides. Izak was explaining to me how it works: aim well, no sounds, no smells and you’ll get bonus points. If not, you’ll get minus points. And as he was telling me to use the toilet well especially since we didn’t have a toilet brush and all (he said he said it in English so I would have no excuse), all I could think was ‘Do you really think I’ll EVER sit on your toilet? I really don’t feel any need to!’
Oh dear.. ‘If I would be on Facebook these days my status would be “Zippora is learning how to hold it’. Really twice a day is possible. I went yesterday evening and now it’s almost noon and we’re about to go in to town, meaning we’re about to use a bathroom! I know I just said we’re just about to go, but they said that yesterday. We were supposed to leave at 4pm to go swim and at 3:45pm eeeveryone was still chilling. 5 minutes after, they decide (after a break of 3 hours!) that they have to go to the shops and the kitchen has to be built.. In the end we left around 6. Jokers. Anyway, they’re fast swimmers and they can stay in the water and swim for a while.. which means so did I. It was fun. When I came out my hair was no longer straight. Not long after my hair started growing. Filip thought it necessary to imitate me. You know I had to hit him with my bag right? On our way back we went to “shower” at a well. That was interesting.
That night I realized how much Izak hates doing the dishes when he said something in Slovene about girls. So I asked for translation. Something along the lines of ‘Next time they should bring more girls to do dishes’ he said he doesn’t mind helping but he just doesn’t want to do all of it (but I’ve seen how he helps and sometimes he helps from a chair :)). I don’t care about doing the dishes. If it has to be done I’ll do it. Easy peasy. So I suggested to do them in the morning if they would put it in water for me after they’d finished eating. They thought that was a good plan..so I can stay.