December 2002, while I was wandering on the World Wide Web I met a 17 year old boy. We kept in touch and wrote to each other almost every day. It was pretty cool for me to start a long-distance friendship through the internet. I also met more people from Slovenia like this and we became very good friends. Some people may think that I had no real life or friends but in the end...who cares?
As a teenager my knowledge about geography was poor, and when he mentioned that he was from
Slovenia I was quite curious about it. First of all I checked online maps. After I found Slovenia on the map, I became more interested about the people, the land, the history etc.
Finally in 2006 my family and I visited Slovenia for 3 days. Why so long? (note the sarcasm). My family and I went to Rome and stayed there the whole time so Slovenia was just an extra quick get-away. However 3 days where enough for me to fall in love...figuratively speaking since I really fell in love with the one special boy I met when I was 16 (2002). Anyhow, my first time in Slovenia was really nice, exciting and funny. I remember at the airport when the immigration officials asked me why was I visiting Slovenia, “why do you visit Slovenia, who was I visiting, where was I going to? They were doing their job, of course. When I tried to answer where I was going, I said Sevnica, but pronounced it as: sebnika. They answered with a friendly smile: “Good luck and enjoy!” Of course I did not pronounce it correctly, not even close!
At the airport there were two very good Slovenian friends who I had met online. They were very kind to pick us up and take us around Ljubljana. We did not stay in
Ljubljana because my friends live in Sevnica and I really wanted to hang out with them.
Everyone was so nice to me and my family. We travelled by train and we really enjoyed, the view of the land, it was just fantastic, and for us it was almost as being in a fairytale.
We finally arrived in
Sevnica and when we went down from the train I asked my friends to search for a cab because we were going to the hotel. I thought my mom was probably tired from the whole trip and well, we just did not want to walk any longer. My friend said that it was not necessary because the hotel was only a few meters away from the rail station.
After two days in Sevnica I realized that it was a very small city, I come from Veracruz, Mexico and of course I could find big differences, between the two cities. Nevertheless for me Sevnica was (and still is) just wonderful. If you are a Slovenian you may think “What am I doing here”? You need to remind yourself of
Ljubljana, Bled, Bohinj and all the other beautiful places this great country can offer.
After my first visit I knew that I would come back and have more time to go around Slovenia and...I did it! Not only that, I actually live here now. Why? I married my special Slovenian friend in 2009. Despite the distance and how most people may not believe that long-distance relationships can work. It can work if you respect each other and work on making it possible to be together.
When I moved to Slovenia in 2008 I attended a Slovenian language course at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. I met really nice people, made good friends and learned a lot from my teachers. It was not only about the language, but the culture as well. I remember once the school organized an excursion to the
Slovenian seaside. We visited
Cerkvi svete Trojice in Hrastovlje, where they have some interesting paintings in the chapel that are called “
Mrtvaški ples “which means “dance of the dead”. I was very impressed by those images and I really liked the whole trip.
I consider myself a talkative person so I don't think that I ever had problems to make new friends or to fit in. With this attitude I made the best friends ever, I don't have 20 or 450 as my Facebook account says but here I found some really good friends on who I can rely. Sometimes I am very direct and honest to people (let's say a little bit bold) and this is part of my Mexican culture which I cannot change but, which I try to control even though my friends like it and respect me this way.
Another important topic for me is food. Remember that I come from Mexico and food in Mexico is just awesome! But Slovenian food is not far behind, I'm crazy about many dishes like “kislo zelje” (sour cabbage), “matevž” (mashed potatoes and beans), “kremšnica” (a creamy vanilla dessert) and so many others that the list becomes too long.
One of the most beautiful things I enjoy in Slovenia is to go to the forest and pick berries. Yes! Like in the Little Red Riding Hood story. It's so nice to just walk around in the hills, forest or valley and to be able to eat natural fruits on the way. Don't think that this is only possible in the summer when it is the berries' time; Slovenia has all four seasons of the year and therefore you can also find in the autumn such things as nuts, mushrooms, apples, pears, grapes etc.
In brief the biggest change in my life was moving from one country to another. The differences are many but it was fortunately not too hard, because of how friendly people from the beginning and because I was really lucky to have met such nice and warm friends; Every time I visited my friends or met someone new they wanted to feed me with all they had, it did not matter if only they had a little, they would give it all. Slovenian hospitality made me feel at home.
What can I say...I love living in Slovenia.
Patricia Castillo Torres
