Jean MacDonald

Photo challenge sprint, Day 2: orange. 📷🌈 #mbmay.

The butterfly habitat at the Volčji Potok Arboretum, Slovenia, July 2019.

The Centre for Slovene as a Foreign Language (@centerslo) is now tentatively offering a USA- and South Africa-friendly schedule for the 2020 online course, depending on demand.

It’s an awesome challenging language for which I’m willing to get up to do the class at 7 PDT! You?

It’s official. The Slovene Summer School program at the University of Ljubljana will go online only this year. Time to look into canceling my trip. 😭😭

• The good news: I can still take the course!
• And good news for everyone else: You can take it too!

Day 23 of the Micro.blog February Photoblogging Challenge: “station.” Villach, Austria, en route to Ljubljana, Slovenia, June 2019

(Only 7 more days left in the challenge!) #mbfeb

The only gators I see in Gainesville are students and alumni. But who knows what’s lurking in this swamp on campus? 🐊

(I almost went to school here. It’s so weird to reflect on how different life would be…maybe.)

Made a side trip to Gainesville and paid a visit to the childhood home of Mr. Tom Petty. They named the public park down his street after him. 😍🎸

Today I am thankful for my stepmother. She’s very kind and good to my father. I’m looking forward to walking around in some nearby parks and seeing the Florida flora and fauna with them.

53 degrees in Orlando. First time ever I brought a fleece vest to Florida and actually needed it.

Me, trying to figure out how the dude hooked up the PDX airport display to his gaming rig.

I didn’t want to try to hard and attract security’s attention.

My guinea pigs Ada and Grace

Littlest nephew for a sleepover

Old friends Jean, Rosie, Peggy

Sonoma sunset

MacDonald in Miami

Lekcije slovenščine

Post-knee injury podcast rig

Nieces and nephs

Hand-picked—no algorithm needed

Why has no one ever told me about this??? Wendleton Guinea Pig Village in New Zealand..

brb, making plane reservations…

Slovenia: one of the few countries to be designated the least risky place to travel on Travel SOS’s 2020 map, along with Iceland, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

For my Slovenia 2.0 trip, I will not venture into the riskier areas, such as Trieste. 🇸🇮

To catch my flight to Release Notes Conf, I’m up at Slovenia o’clock, the time of day I can reply to folks in Slovenia in real time.

PS. I’m booked to return to Ljubljana for a do-over next summer. Bonus: I won’t be in the beginners group. 🇸🇮 🕜🇺🇸🕞

This flight alert was confusing for a split second.

In that other universe, the other Jean had an amazing time these last two weeks…and is also practically fluent in Slovene.

Portland or bust.

Made it to Munich Airport. It turns out Montag ist Schnitzeltag at Airbrau, so things are looking up. Flight tomorrow to Portland.

I had a mishap in Trieste today. I tripped and tore the tendon in my left knee. I’m spending the night in the hospital and then figuring out how to get back to Ljubljana and then Portland for surgery. So I’m out of commission for a while. 😢

Cool slo-mo I made in the butterfly atrium at the Arboretum yesterday. I wish I had gotten the name of this beauty. One of our Slovene teachers called them the supermodels of the exhibit. 🇸🇮🦋

Has anyone been to Trieste? I’m going tomorrow for the day just to commune with the ghosts of history. I’ve got Jan Morris, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, on my Kindle. 🇸🇮 🚌 🇮🇹🚶‍♀️☕️🚶‍♀️🍝🍷 🚌 🇸🇮

Vocab homework sampler:

trg = plaza

črn = black

prst = finger

čmrlj = bumblebee

Slovenia, I’d like to buy a vowel? 🇸🇮🙏

I have 45 minutes to get ready for school, including finishing my homework and packing my lunch. I feel like I’m 11 years old again. I didn’t work this hard when I was an exchange student! We spent a lot more time just hanging out and attending the occasional lecture. 🇸🇮📝😬

Where my head’s been the last week: “rewrite the sentences in dual and plural.” Slovene has a dual form, in addition to singular, plural. 🤯

I slept all weekend, my brain was so full. But I did get Micro @monday with @pratik published, and managed Discover curation again. 🇸🇮

Thinking of @bitdepth. Our class is going to see Gaia’s World at Kinodvor. 🇸🇮🎬

Achievement unlocked: first scooter ride in Ljubljana. 🛴🇸🇮

(It took me a week to get up the nerve, with @rosemaryorchard’s San Jose mishap in mind.)

I’m not sure why I waited so long, but I’m finally watching Good Omens. What a production! I’m so enjoying it, so much so that I broke my rule of “only 1 hour per day of English-language TV while in Slovenia” rule. I will make up for it over the next week. 😬🇸🇮