I have moved to new blog:
After 16 days of having Christmas holidays my school started again on Monday. I had such nice welcome in school, I had oral testing at physics, only few minutes after I came to school. When I look on this was not that bad at all, because my knowledge was awarded with a five 
As it was mentioned in my previous post already, I was in Austria during holidays. Yes, there again, it is such a beautiful country. But my real reason to visit it again was Susi, of course But more about my holidays in Austria will be said in next post 
My first school week after holidays was interesting, because it is last full week before our term conference. First I had oral exam at physics, it was about electricity-related topics. On Wednesday I had oral exam at Spanish. I passed it well, I have got cinco. Ahora puedo hablar español bastante bien Today was my last testing in this week, we had test at history of arts. In principal it was something very easy, we had to learn vocabulary related with Greek pillars and then draw them and write names for all parts. Pretty easy. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything. So, till Monday there is no more testing. Hooray.
It has been a while since my last post. Yep, I became lazy again 
Today was my last school day in year 2007 A.D. Now I am going to have two weeks of holidays, sounds really great. Usually I never have such long holidays around Christmas, but this year is an exception, because I will stay at home for three addition days, because I’m going to Austria, to see Susi again
I feel quite weird, because I can’t believe actually that I have got holidays already. I will realize this in some days, when I will stay at home on Monday and on next days then.
Now I have to finish, I’m very tired, school sucked out most of my energy (to be honest it was my sleeping regime). In those holidays or right after them I am going to make more posts, about Christmas and New Year themselves and about my journey to Austria
Good night.
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, liebe Susi! :* Have a very nice year, new year of your life :*
Now you are eighteen, about eleven hours more, to be precise You became adult today, but I think you don’t feel really like grown up already. I am so jealous to you, for me it would be pretty useful to be eighteen I guess you didn’t come to terms with being eighteen, as me, I still can’t believe it that it’s eighteen years since the best girl of the world was born Imagine many kisses for your birthday :*
On 11th of November I came back home from Toscana. I spent there three nice days
Our journey started at 4:00 a.m. in front of our school in Maribor. I was planning to sleep on bus, but I simply couldn’t, I felt too awake and so I decided to play Schnaps with my classmate Gregor. Headmaster was quite surprised because we were playing cards in the middle of the night, he expected us to sleep. Actually, not many people were sleeping. Although we were still driving with the bus, school started like always, at 7:55. Geography teacher (our headmaster) told us something about landscape, Latin teachers R. Č. and B. D. told us something about our journey. Students started with presenting topics which we got on Tuesday (topics were connected with Tuscany and Italy). Around 1:30 p.m. we arrived to city of Pisa. When we got out of the bus we immediately met black people selling their stuff. They could be touristic attraction of Italy, there are many of them searching for naive tourists. But it’s good like this, it would be worse if they would be criminals. We walked to the leaning tower of Pisa and to cathedral. Close to the tower is a market where you can buy souvenirs. Tower itself looks very interesting, it’s worth to see it. Pisa tower is a good example of bad construction From Pisa we went to Lucca. I love this city, it’s so beautiful. In the afternoon city is more or less empty, it finally gets full with people in the evening. City is famous for it’s silk underwear, but I didn’t notice any shop with this. There I bought two boxes of tea in a wine shop, I haven’t tried it so far. Around 8:30 p.m. we got to our hostel. In one room were 15 boys, this was not really the best solution.
Second day. Forst we went to San Gimignano. This city is also called Italian Manhattan, because it has many medieval towers. We visited City Museum and Museum of Torture. As part of City Museum is also one of the towers, we went on the top of it, it was great up there, thought it was pretty windy. Another museum was great, but I really wouldn’t like to live in time of Inquisition. From San Gimignano we went to the city of Siena. City was in medieval times competing with Florence for power in Tuscany, so there can be found many remarkable buildings. I liked cathedral a lot, it was big already, though they couldn’t resize it completely due to plague in late 14th century. In the evening we had free time there, city is beautiful when it becomes dark It even started to train, but fortunately we were sitting in a café at this time.
Third day. It was our last day. In the morning we left hostel and we got some lunch. It was a lunch in Italian style, very modest This day was reserved for Firenze only. We arrived there in the morning, the first thing which we looked at was a church built by Medici family. Quite amazing, church looks poor from outside, but inside it is nice decorated and it was built with donations of one single family. After visit in church we had some free time, we could take a look at leather market. There you can buy almost everything made out of leather, and different kind of toys. Then we went to the chapel of Medici family. Chapel itself was huge and it was not difficult to notice that family was wealthy. From the chapel we walked to the cathedral of Florence. We were told that people don’t like the cathedral really, because it is too much decorated outside, but I find it very pretty When I stepped inside I got disappointed, inside was not that much decorated Afterwards we were watching city hall of Firenze, Uffici museum and Ponte Vecchio. It was nice to see Ponte Vecchio in real, because I have got puzzle of it From Ponte Vecchio we went to Palazzo Pitti. There our journey ended actually, from Palazzo Pitti we simply walked to the bus and we drove home. We only made a short stop immediately after we left Firenze, so that we could take the last look on the city
I enjoyed our journey, it was really nice in Tuscany, now I can understand why Susi loves this landscape so much
Landscape of Toscana
Leaning Tower of Pisa
City of Lucca
Duomo di San Martino (St Martin’s Cathedral)
Our first dinner
View from Tower in San Gimignano
Duomo di Siena (Siena Cathedral, exterior)
Duomo di Siena (Siena Cathedral, interior)
Palazzo Pubblico (Town Hall) and Torre del Mangia
Piazza del Campo
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral, exterior)
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral, interior)
Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace)
Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)
Palazzo Pitti
View of Ponte Vecchio
Slovenia has elected new president!
Dr. Danilo Türk, the next president of Republic of Slovenia
By Sunday evening our presidential elections finished. I think so, because there is no other option left to vote. Anyway, unofficial and partial results should speak for themselves:
dr. Danilo Türk 68,23 % (673.350)
Lojze Peterle 31,77 % (313.595)
Unofficial data, gathered until 19:00 on 12th of November 2007.
Source: DVK (13.11.2007)
Data is unofficial though, but there is no possibility any more that Peterle beats Türk. Quite unexpectedly (after all polls, interviews and first round) Peterle lost. Peterle, as experienced politician, lost a struggle against Türk, homo novus.
Peterle said that current economical-political situation in Slovenia was hostile for his campaign and that most of the people vote against the government and not for Türk (Peterle is member of NSi, coalition party).
Today, Slovenian prime minister, Janez Janša in city of Ormož said that elections were bad, and conditions which led to such results are worrying. He even mentioned an option that government of Republic of Slovenia may resign in near future, because Slovenian opposition pictured Slovenia as a country in bad status, similar to Belarus.
Danilo Türk’s web page: www.daniloturk.si
I’d like to point out his web page. He definitely had the best e-crew and best e-promotion of all presidential candidates. Times are changing, young population which was risen next to computers is getting the right to vote, therefore e-promotion must be done as well. Not only television confrontations.
Dr. Türk is officially going to succeed Dr. Janez Drnovšek on 23th of December 2007.
We had holidays previous week, unfortunately only one week.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent a week in Austria with my Susi. Traveling was long, till Linz I needed six hours, this is two hours longer than usually because one part of railways line between Kirchdorf a.d. Krems and Linz was closed, so we went via Steyr and St. Valentin to Linz. When I arrived to Linz at around 18:04 I saw Susi immediately when I got out of the train, because she was the girl with the biggest smile there and the loveliest of all 
And our paradise has begun… Then we went to her parents, they were waiting for us inside train station. After short walking to the car and about one hour of driving I was in Andorf.
I spent really great week there. When Susi was in school on Monday and Tuesday I used this time for studying, mostly Latin, but also some Spanish and Slovenian. On first of November we went to Susi’s aunt Herta. I have to admit that Stefan, son of Herta is really funny. We played Poker there, Stefan tried to hide some chips, but it never worked out In one round I won a lot of money, but I lost it in next rounds because Susi’s sister Barbara simply had too much luck. There I played chess too. First with Stefan. He was not really difficult opponent, he wanted me to capture all of his pieces and when I captured something of him he said: “This is great fun! ” Afterwards I played chess against Herta, she is really good at it. Her sister is master of cards and she is master of chess Unfortunately I lost against her, but I’d like to play chess against with again, it was very nice to play it Two days later, on Saturday, came Anna & Johanna, friends of Susi. We played some board games and cards. I was not such good at it, especially at Monopoly (Austrian version, it has it’s name, but I can’t remember it now), because I needed a while to check how to play it (our rules are slightly different). I hope I will be better next time On some evenings Susi and me were watching movies. Different kinds, from James Bond to Ratatouille, but there are still some movies which must be seen when we are together. Sunday was unbelievably sad because I had to leave. I still feel really sad, because there are still so many days till our next meeting :’(
Previous week I made some imports and exports. When I got to Austria I took with me 200 hundred Marlboro Red cigarettes for Susi’s uncle, because in Slovenia they are much cheaper, but same quality. Susi gave me Irish Breakfast Tea (originally from Dublin; I have tried it already, it’s delicious ), black tea with orange from Greece and four different Teekanne fruit teas (well, one is herbal tea). I envy Austrians, they have more tea in stock to chose from. Because of my tradings with Austria, Shayo gave me a new nickname, now I am Marco Polo (mainly because of tea I assume).
Tomorrow I’m going away of my home again. Unfortunately not to Andorf this time :’( I’m going to Toscana, to see cities of Firenze, Pisa and Lucca. You might think that this is a normal trip, but it is not. It will be like in school, really Our Latin teachers never forget to prepare some tasks for us, we were already told that we will have to translate a text from Latin to Slovenian and that we will have to prepare presentations (I got Giacomo Puccini to present, he was born in Lucca.). Our journey will start at 4:00 a.m. in Maribor, in front of our school. We should drive to Toscana for about 7 hours, but we won’t be allowed to sleep all the time. At 8:00 a.m. we will have to wake up and start with presentations. In compare with 12 hours long journey to Rome is this only a short drive. We are going to return on Sunday, few minutes after midnight.
I hope you will not miss me too much. I’m going to write postcards and post about my journey to Tuscany will be posted when I come return
Today I am going to Austria to see Susi again. For one week, it will be really great. I hope weather will be nice, I don’t like it too cold or too rainy. Because we have holidays I’m able ti visit her, our ministry is really generous. I feel very excited about it, unfortunately there are about 17 hours left, it still seems so much. I’m looking forward a lot.
Previous Wednesday ended 42th Borštnik Meeting. Theatres from all over Slovenia come to Maribor in order to to take part in the festival, the best plays compete and are awarded all kind of awards. Most prominent award on this festival is Borštnik’s ring, life-work award, this year’s recipent is actress Silva Čušin, member of Drama Ljubljana. I saw three plays, which were part of the festival, but none of them was competing. I am no fan of the theatre, but I have got free tickets from our Latin teacher and it was worth to use my spare time for the culture.
Today I heard about unexpected turnover in presidential elections. Though Peterle was almost the president, one research of public opinion has shown huge advantage of Türk with more than 60% against Peterle. Unfortunately nobody can assure that it will really happen like that, it’s only a speculation…
Tea is good. Darjeeling tea is very good. Yummy.
Voting sites closed yesterday at 19:00. 1.720.298 people had the right to vote, only 57,19% (983.835) of voters have voted (until 19:00).
Here are unofficial results:
Lojze Peterle 28,54 % (279.104)
Dr. Danilo Türk 24,52 % (239.815)
Mitja Gaspari 24,15 % (236.138)
Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti 19,28 % (188.512)
mag. Darko Krajnc 2,17 % (2,17 %)
Elena Pečarič 0,88 % (8.593)
Monika Piberl 0,47 % (4.590)
Unofficial data, gathered untill 17:00 on 22th of October 2007.
Source: DVK (22.10.2007)
First four candidates are very close, more than anybody was expecting before elections. First round is not finished yet, there are votes by post which still have to come and they cause come conflicts between political parties.
Lojze Peterle, although he is the first one, he is the biggest loser of first round. Researches of public opinion before elections were showing to him higher advantage in first round, nobody expected Türk to be so close to Peterle.
It was unknown who will be next to Peterle in second round, Gaspari or Türk. Türk was always better on all kind of polls, but difference was slight. Unofficial results show almost same as polls made before elections. Not difficult to notice that left wing in Slovenia is very strong at the moment.
Jelinčič is definitely the winner with 19%. On previous elections in 2002, Jelinčič got only 8,5%. This shows that National Party is gaining power, mostly among young segment of voters.
Krajnc, Pečarič and Piberl are far away from others. There are several reasons, as analytics have said. Krajnc is seen as too young for a president, but his views are different from other candidates, well explained, and enough determined. For unsuccessful result of last two candidates is maybe one reason – their gender, most likely Slovenia is not prepared for female president. I personally think that Pečarič is good enough for the president, despite her handicap status, because she fights for equal chances of all people. Maybe there will be female president in 2012, nobody can know. Other candidates expressed a wish that more women should enter political scene, I wish the same, it gets boring when just men govern and fresh, different ideas are always welcome.
Second round will be on 11th of November 2007. We will see. Presidential campaign is going to be more interesting and less spontaneous, both candidates qualified to second round agree.
Many people want become president of Slovenia. People listed below are official candidates, we are going to vote for one of them on Sunday, 21st of October 2007. Next to official candidates, there were some people who wanted to candidate, but they didn’t get enough signatures of voters or support of any political party (Jože Andrejaš, Jožef Horvat, Marko Kožar, Pavel Premrl, Matej Sedmak – Peacehiker). Marjan Berančič and Artur Štern withdrew their candidatures (M. Berančič because there were some irregularities with his candidature and A. Štern used his candidature as material for a documentary movie). So, here are the candidates:
1.) mag. Darko Krajnc
President of Stranka mladih Slovenije (SMS) (Youth Party of Slovenia). With 32 years is he quite young for a president. He was awarded a sociological degree, he has been working for Slovenian Student Organisation for several years.
He’s not married, he has no kids, but he has got a partner. His religion is roman-catholic, he says he doesn’t own any real estates or a lot of fortune.
Website: http://www.darkokrajnc.si/
2.) Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti
Jelinčič family was given aristocratic title in 18th century by Maria Theresia, empress or Austria (Plemeniti (pl.) is his aristocratic title). Born in Maribor, later his family moved to Ljubljana where he finished schools and became a pharmacist. In his life he has done many different things; he was a ballet dancer, he took active part in Slovenian war of independence and since formation of Slovenian parliament he is it’s member, he says works for Slovenian people. He owns huge collection of weapons, stamps and money.
President of Slovenska nacionalna stranka (SNS) (Slovenian National Party), he is the only one who candidates as member of the party (others candidate as candidates of voters). He is pretty in love with Slovenia, he loves his home country almost as much as his wife I guess. He says that it’s important for us to care about our own country’s problems than about problems of Sri Lanka or Brazil.
Webpage: http://zmago.sns.si/
3.) mag. Mitja Gaspari
Magister of economy. he served in National bank of Yugoslavia as vice president, later in independed Slovenia he was financial minister in government of dr. Janez Drnovšek. In year 2001 he became president of National bank of Slovenia, he has done a lot for Slovenia to adopt Euro as national currency. His presidential candidature is supported by Liberal democracy of Slovenia (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije) (LDS)
In publich he appears as very calm, cold, he doesn’t smile often.
Webpage: http://www.gaspari.si
4.) Dr. Danilo Türk
From 1992 to 2000 he was first ambassador of Slovenia for the UN, later he was Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs for the UN (2000-2005). He currently works as professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana.
He has many experiences in diplomacy. Before announcing candidature he wasn’t involved in Slovenian politics. Drives Mercedes C240, from year 2001.
Webpage: http://www.daniloturk.si
5.) Elena Pečarič
She is philosopher and cultural sociologist. In past she was envolved in forming handicap movement (YHD) and she is trying to change public opinion about handicap person. Since 2006 she works at Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana.
She is fluent in several foreign languages, including Italian, English, Serbian, Croatian and French. She would like to reach equal opportunies for all people.
Webpage: www.elena-priloznosti.com
6.) Monika PIberl
She comes from Maribor, she is founder and president of Glas žensk Slovenije (GŽS). In her career she was working in Maribor’s city coulcil until 2006 when her party didn’t get enough votes to enter council for another 4 years term.
Married, with two adult children and lives in wealthy family.
She works for better status of women in our society.
Webpage: http://www.monikapiberl.com/
7.) Lojze Peterle
He was leader of Christian Democratic Party of Slovenia from late 1980’s until it merged into other parties in 2000. When Yugoslavia was falling apart at the end of 80’s, he was among the people who lead Slovenia to independence. In year 1990, after democratic elections in SR Slovenia, he became prime minister in DEMOS (=Democratic Opposition of Slovenia) government. He server as prime minister until 1992 when new government was formed under Dr. Janez Drnovšek. In years 1993 and 1994 Peterle served as Slovenian foreign minister. Later, in 2000, he was foreign minister in Andrej Bajuk’s government again. In 2004 he was elected to European Parlament for the New Slovenia Christian People’s Party (Nova Slovenija) (NSi), member of European People’s Party (EPP). In 2006 he was elected as vice president of Europeans People’s Party for a three years term.
He speaks English, French, German, Russian, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, and in addition, currently he studies Chinese Diplomat, politician, musician, bee-keeper, polyglot, pilot.
Webpage: http://www.peterle.si
Candidates who are doing well are Peterle, Türk and Gaspari. Jelinčič does quite good as well, other candidates are quite behind. Three most popular candidates have rich life experiences and a lot of knowledge. Peterle is supported by right political parties, although he collected signatures of 15.000 voters. Türk and Gaspari are supported by left parties. Jenličič has already tried to candidate, but never reached any success.
My favorite candidate is Gaspari, due to his experiences in economy and politics and because he knows a lot of different things, I find this important for a president with such role as in Slovenia.
Researches show that Peterle is going to be successor of dr. Janez Drnovšek.
