ICS News Blog

Child Care Services

2009-03-28T10:55:00.001+01:00

Seventeen-year-old offers child care services.
Experienced with children of all ages.
Fluent speaker of Slovenian and English.

Maya was born in Boston and has lived in Slovenia since she was five. Can provide classic babysitting service for infants and older or provide opportunities to get your child used to hearing and speaking Slovenian, while having fun at the same time.

More structured Slovene lessons can be arranged.
Reasonable prices.

Call Maya at 040-679-118.

For Sale!!!

2009-02-13T19:40:00.003+01:00

These things are being sold by one of our members who is sadly leaving Slovenia.

To see this advert with readable text, download this pdf file:
for_sale_by_ron.pdf

American looking to chat about Slovenia

2009-02-11T17:49:00.003+01:00

Dear ICS Members,

We received this request from the website form and Scot who has agreed to put up his questions on this blog.
If you are interested in answering his question or to chat, please contact him on the email below:

Hello

- I am an American who has been sending/receiving messages from a lady who say's that she lives in a small village, Lucan?
I would like to chat with American or British, expats who are familiar with Slovenia.

I have been receiving pictures, and the dialouge, has been such that I would like to come to Slovenia, to meet with her. I lived as an expat in S.Korea, and information from the existing, knowledgeable, expats in Korea were very helpful.

Anyone willing to chat with me about Slovenia would be appreciated !

I am a single 48 yr. old, caucasion, American citizen. I currently live in Minnesota. The current temperature is minus 15 degrees, bitterly cold.
I see the United States, having a very hard time financially, for the next several years
-I live on a fixed income of approx. $2500.00USD per month
- my 1st question would be if that amount of money would keep me warm, and fed??

Any Information would be appreciated!!

Scot

Email address: kunta3989@yahoo.com

2008-11-26T23:12:00.002+01:00

**** New Home Wanted ****

Female kitten found in Ljubljana Centre.

She's about 3 months old, very pretty, very affectionate and completely domesticated.

I can not keep her as I am not here permanently so I need to find a good home for her. She has a pet carrier, all her food and kitten milk along with a litter tray and litter.

Please call Carolyn on 031 581 261

Car Boot Sale - Thu 13th Nov

2008-11-12T10:29:00.000+01:00

Three British diplomats are leaving Slovenia and we're having a 'garage/car boot sale' for all the things that won't fit into our heavy baggage allowances at the British Embassy, 4th Floor Trg Republike 3 (the tall building next to Maxi Market with the time/temperature flashing on the top) on Thursday 13 November 16.00-18.30. We're selling everything from unused picture frames, inflatable beds, clothes, unused beauty products, CDs, a video player...you name it. Please come along early to ensure you get a pick at everything and spread the word to those who fancy a bargain...anyone and everyone welcome! An opportunity to find something you've always wanted all your life for a bargain price!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Many thanks,
Hannah

Polos, T-Shirts, Fleeces & Coins for Sale

2008-07-16T19:19:00.004+02:00

We have men's and ladies polo shirts, a brand new coin, and a few fleece jackets left.
To purchase email
Sgt J. L. Carling <CarlingJL@state.gov>

EXTRANEOUS SALES PRICE LISTING

POLOS ……………………….16.00 EU

T-SHIRTS ……………………12.00 EU

FLEECES…..………………25.00 EU

COINS……….………..…………7.00 EU

IF SOMEONE WISHES TO PAY IN DOLLARS, USE THE CONVERSION RATE FOR THAT DAY!

House for Rent

2008-07-16T19:11:00.002+02:00

View Post in full page here

American Breakfast

2008-07-16T18:51:00.003+02:00

Furniture for Sale

2008-06-13T20:02:00.002+02:00

For sale by diplomat leaving the country

➽ GLASS TABLE

220 cm x 120 cm, tempered safety glass 16 mm thick, very sturdy but looking very light, easy to clean with those new micro fibre towels.

seats 8 to 10 people

Reduced price now only 500 Euro (initial price ca 3000 €, made to order)

➽ 8 classical black leather chairs in very good condition

now only 50 € each

➽ 10 Mahogany coloured cupboards in different shapes and sizes, all compatible and stackable with many shelves, excellent craftmanship, swiss made.

30 to 50 Euro each

➽ kitchen table, extendible (90 x 160 - 200 cm) mahogany coloured with aluminum legs

50 Euro

Please contact for viewing:

Verena Siegenthaler tel. 040 236 825 or 01 256 17 05 or mail to verena@siol.com

Photo from the Franc Kavcic Exhibition

2008-01-27T10:10:00.000+01:00

ICS Boardgames Club : december meeting

2007-12-13T12:52:00.000+01:00

Hello !

Yesterday took place the December meeting of the ICS Boardgames club. 8 players were present, both men and women (with even more women actually) from 24 to about 40 years old (all women were 24, of course, except one who was 25 - but I won't say who so she won't feel angry on me for telling her age) and yet another couple of great games were played.

For all who might wonder, we also solved an organization issue : from now on, the Book club and the Boardgames club meetings won't take place the same day any more. So ? What are you waiting for ? Join both of them for a maximum of fun and culture !

The games of yesterday :

6th takes : a game of cards where everyone plays at the same time, pile up the cards... and tries to avoid the bullheads !

Ave Cesar : a chariot race in of of the Roman arenas ! Sometimes, it's better not to be ahead but beware of the jams at the chicanes...

Mississipi Queen : another race, but this time of paddle-wheel boats on the Mississipi river. The river flow opens slowly ahead of the players and everyone must stop twice to load passengers. Will you be able to use your coal wisely to negociate your way through the banks, islands and other player boats ?

Your games master,

Arnaud

Christmas Service - Anglican Church of Ljubljana

2007-11-22T21:45:00.000+01:00

The Christmas service of 6 Lessons and Carols, followed by Holy Communion will be celebrated at the Anglican Church of Ljubljana, on Sunday, 16th December at 11.15.

For more info, email Barbara on kenneth@volja.net

Reports from the BoardGames Club

2007-11-18T11:18:00.000+01:00

For the second meeting of the ICS Boardgames club, more participants were present… and I don't think anyone regretted it. After 10-15 minutes of chatting to get to know each other a bit better, we started playing «seriously». For this second meeting, I had once again chosen quick and easy-to-learn games. We played successively to Transamerica (picture 1), Coyote (pictures 2 & 3) and Royal Turf.

- Transamerica is a quick game which consists in building a railway network connecting 5 cities accross the USA. The catch is that each player has different cities but once connected, the the networks are common to all !

- Coyote is a fun game which plays in a few minutes. The idea is that each Indian (player) has a card on the forehead and three feathers. Successively, each Indian tries to bet on the total value of all the cards (including his own, which he can't see). Each bet should be higher than the previous one, but stay below the real total, orelse… COYOTE ! and you lose a feather.

- Royal Turf is a game of horse-race betting, where the players not only bet on horses but also decide which can move and when. At the end of each of the three sets, each player collects money according to the position of a given horse and the total number of bets placed on it. Steroids for sale a the entrance…

You want to know more about these games… and many others ? Stop hesitating and come join us once a month at the pub «Pri Kristini» !

Arnaud, your Games Master.

Beatiful Things from Kenya

2007-10-20T19:12:00.000+02:00

Dear All,

I am selling some very special and beautiful Natural preserved flowers (natural flowers, which lasts for years!), african arts, some beautiful Pashmina sweaters and shawls and unique handcrafted design furniture in solid hard wood (all imported from Kenya). I would like to invite all interested to my home for a coffee and a possibility to see - and if interested buy - my range of products.

Thursday 25th October at 10am

Saturday 27th October at 10am

My address is:

Trstenjakova Ulica 6
1000 Ljubljana

phone 051 299 855

I am looking forward to seeing you all.

Warm regards

Karina

WANTED: Small Apartment in Ljubljana

2007-10-20T16:12:00.000+02:00

Here is small announcement to help one of our friends:

WANTED:

Small appartment in Ljubljana
I am a woman with two sons of 7 and 10 years, who are desperately looking for a place to live in Ljubljana. Maximum rent I can afford to pay per month is 300 Euro.
If you have questions, please feel free to email me on ana_pasquale@yahoo.com.ar

Thank you in advance for your help.
Regards Ana.

Anglican Church of Ljubljana

2007-10-12T14:06:00.000+02:00

Unexpectedly the Harvest Thanksgiving Service cannot take place in Ljubljana on
Sun.14th Oct.

It will take place in Kamnik instead.
You will be very welcome to come.
For the exact address, time and directions please telephone and say if you need
transport: 041 210 301 or 04 572 3015.

WANTED - Event Ideas & Organisers

2007-07-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

We are planning for the late summer and autumn events and would like anyone who's got an idea for an event to contact us. If you have an idea of an event, email it to ICS@SloveniaWelcomes.com.

All ideas are welcome even if you don't want to organise it yourself.

It's Easy to Organise Events!!
We've made it simpler thanks to the website and this is all you need to do:

Find a event
Ask ICS@sloveniawelcomes.com to advertise it on the website or ask for the log in details to add it yourself.
If you need a minimum or maximum amount of people, we now have a ticket system which takes care of this for you. You will be notified via email when people sign up on the website. This email contains all names of the attendants and a total income if you have to charge for the event.
That's it and of course, we will advertise your event in the ICS emails.

If you have an idea of an event, email it to ICS@SloveniaWelcomes.com
All ideas are welcome even if you don't want to organise it yourself.

Donna & Stefan

US Embassy T-shirts for sale

2007-06-25T18:47:00.000+02:00

This is what we have left:

Men: 21 L, 2 M

Women: 4 XL, 13 L, 16 M

Here is what the T-shirts look like:

Both Teja and Jeff are wearing large. Pass the information around and let me know if anyone is interested in buying any. Once we sell more of these shirts we're going to try and order some more XL for the men and XXL for women.

To buy, please contact Vedrana Mandić on Mandicv@state.gov

Our Get in Shape Walkathon is officially over!

2007-04-19T20:56:00.000+02:00

It’s been a tough fight, but it looks like those Canines came out on top and the rest of us are smelling doggy dust!

Here’s the final tally, which all of us should be proud! We finished 9 weeks of walking and kick-started a habit I hope we all keep – Wellness thru Walking. No matter your placement, just getting out & around rather than driving or sitting is a winner for all of us.

Teams - Top Five:
1st Place goes to Canine Companions with 2643.31/3000 Kms = 88.10 % of Target
2nd Place goes to Heat Raiders with 2637.94/3000 Kms = 87.93% of Target
3rd Place goes to Yes Dears with 2296.17/3000 Kms = 76.54% of Target
4th Place goes to Cab Drivers with 2000.60/3000 Kms = 66.89% of Target
5th Place goes to Ljubljana Lightning with 1913.30/3000 Kms = 63..77% of Target

Top Five Individuals:
1st place goes to Olga Biskup from Canine Companions with 1052.99 Kms
2nd place goes to Teja Piskur from Heat Raiders with 748.79 Kms
3rd place goes to Donna Osterc from Heat Raiders with 734.08 Kms
4th place goes to Cecilia Norden Van Gansberghe with 672.85 Kms

5th place goes to Sarah Drost from Cab Drivers with 675.91 Kms

Congratulations to all the Top Five placements – Team and Individual. You will be rewarded for your hard work this Saturday during the Award Ceremony at the Marine House. Not telling what that prize may be, as I like surprises.

View larger image and all the Final individual walkathon scores here.

Warmest wishes to all of you!

Donna Osterc
Community Liaison Officer
US Embassy Ljubljana

Walkathon result Week 6-7

2007-04-10T18:55:00.000+02:00

HOLA muchachos in muchachas y Walkathoners!

We are now at the foothills of Madrid, ready to flamenco our way to Morocco! So enjoy the paella, the wines, the sound of castanets clicking away to the flamenco rhythm. Put on your dancing shoes, kick up your heels and get ready to roll those rrrrr’s and experience sunny Espana. Now that we are in the last part of our virtual race, a little fiesta doesn’t sound too bad.

Here’s the latest & greatest from Week 6 & 7:

Best individuals:
Week 6:
Olga Biskup – 143.20 KMs, Bojan Brescanski – 97.26, Sarah Drost – 91.81

Week 7:
Olga Biskup – 134.55, Tea Piskur – 89.06, Donna Osterc – 89.00

Best teams
Week 6:
Canine Companions – 346.74, Heat Raiders – 283.48, Yes Dears –233.84

Week 7:
Canine Companions – 319.85, Heat Raiders – 316.41, Yes Dears – 254.70

Best overall Individuals, week 1-7:
Olga Biskup – 723.59
Bojan Brescanski – 610.49
Donna Osterc – 540.05

Best overall Teams, week 1-7:
Canine Companions – 1949.82
Heat Raiders – 1907.75
Yes Dears – 1567.71

Walkathon VIRTUAL WINE TOUR & VACATION - Week 05

2007-03-25T11:01:00.000+02:00

WE needed a wee virtual vacation from having to endure all that competition and having our pedometers as our new best friends all these weeks. So we are bringing you as an added benefit of being a Walkathoner, your virtual vacation. Just kick back and Enjoy the coast of France, laying on the beaches that are kissed by the Atlantic Ocean, not far of course from our villa. Everything is sun-drenched and the wines have been kissed by that special blend of land and sea. We are wine-tasting our way thru Bordeaux country spending virtually thousands of virtual Euros drinking that elixir of world wines - the many bordeauxs from Medoc to St. Emilion.

A special lunch has been set for us to honor the best teams that have made it so virtually far – so we raise our glasses and sip our Medoc Bordeaux to the crème de la crème in Week 5 – Canines with 338.44 KM’s, Heat Raiders with 305.65 KM’s, the Yes Dears with 236.99KM’s. We toast to those of us who have made a supreme individual effort to -Olga Biskup from Canines with an incredible 137.20KM’s, Teja Piskur from Heat Raider with 94.96 KMs, and Bojan Brescanski from the Skywalkers with 92.80. We raise our glasses for a final toast to the best teams overall combining weeks one thru five- to Heat with 1307.86 KMs , Canines with 1283.23 and the yes Dears with 1257.04. Then we enjoy the best that Bordeaux has to offer, with a fine evening on our virtual yacht, enjoying the music and the after Week 5 Evening Party in our Our virtual villa! Honor. Fantastique!

To see all the weekly result, here it is as usual:

View larger image and all the individual walkathon WEEK 5 scores here.

Walkathon Result - Week 04

2007-03-10T21:05:00.000+01:00

View larger image and all the individual walkathon WEEK 4 scores here.

Well fellow Walkathoners - we seem to have all blasted thru Week 4! It's getting crazed! We went to an ICS dinner and half the group had on their pedometers, walking to the restaurant which is a major distance from the city center. Obsessive or what? Competition is getting ferocious. Yes Dears, that have been nipping at the heels of Heat Raiders finally overtook them by a measely 19KMs. Coming up fast are those pesky dog walkers, the Canine Companions. If they continue to have a week, like Week 4, we will all be looking at doggy dust. And best of all, the individual numbers are breaking the sound barriers of over 100 KM's & finally the guys are meeting the challenge. By week 10 at this rate who knows, we may have someone who really walked to Marrakesh.

Here's the latest stats for Week 4 - (Feb 26th up to March 4th).

Best individuals - some whopping numbers and here they are:
1st Olga Biskup from Canine Companions with 142.70 KM
2nd Bojan Brescansk from Sky Walkers with 107.67
3rd - Marjorie Carrington from LaFontaine Turtles with 90.56

Best teams for Week 3:
1st Canine Companions with 344.62
2nd Cab Drivers with 289
3rd Yes Dears with 287.44

Best overall Team scores - Week 1-Week 4 :
1st Yes Dears with 1,020.05 KM
2nd Heat Raider with 1002.23 KM
3rd Canine Companions with 944.79 KM

1200 KM's total and we are in Lyon, just a few KMs away. Most of the teams are now past Italy and into France, always a tempting situation - a little wine, great food, lovely atmosphere. I suggest at this point we all have a virtual drink of the grapes or maybe the real thing. With just a mere 1200 Kms to go we will be smack dab in the middle of Spain for a little paella and flamenco dancing, putting us well past the half-way point on our way to our final destination - the exotic land of Morocco. So go, go, go!

Happy pedometering!

Donna

Walkathon Result - Week 03

2007-03-05T21:26:00.000+01:00

View larger image and all the individual walkathon WEEK 3 scores here.

Week 3 results:
We've had another great Walkathon Week! Most of us have walked passed Milano & without doing any shopping. What will power, proud of all you guys. Seriously though, we are gaining on our next big city of Lyon, France which is 800 KM's from Ljubljana. So congratulations to you all and keep it going. Next city in our sites is Bordeaux a mere 600 KM to from Lyon then on to sunny Madrid.

Best Week 3 Team results:
Well this week, the Canine Companions moved on up to 2nd, beating out the Yes Dears, which bumped out Ljubljana Lightning. Way to go Canines!
1st place - Heat Raiders 281.23 KM
2nd place - Canine Companions 276.89 KM
3rd place - Yes Dears 272.17 KM

Best Individuals for Week #3:
The ladies beat out the guys, closest of the menfolk had 75.74.
1st place - Olga Biskup of Canine Companions 94.07KM
2nd place - Cecilia Norden Van Gansberghe of Sleep Walkers 89.63 KM
3rd place - Teja Piskur of Heat Raiders 81.09 KM

Best teams Overall (composite scores from Week 1-3)
Still hanging on but barely to overall 1st place are the Heat Raiders, with Yes Dears nipping at their heels, closely followed by Ljubljana Lightning.

1st place - Heat Raiders with 756.14 KM
2nd place - Yes Dears with 732.61 KM
3rd place - Ljubljana Lightning with 680.91 KM

Don't forget - send in your scores for Week 4 by Wednesday of the following week.
We still are on for our weekly walk up Roznik this Friday, so if you've got the time, come out and join the group. Meeting point is the Modern Gallery at 12:30.

Have another great walking week!
Donna

Walkathon Result - Week 02

2007-02-23T19:38:00.000+01:00

View larger image and all the individual walkathon scores here.

Well WEEK TWO was blistering! Several teams have almost made it one-fifth of the way to Marrakesh, just a few kilometers shy of 500 kms to Milano. No matter where you are in the scheme of things, it's just great to be out there walking.

Best Team Score for Week Two:
1st Place - Yes Dears with 278.45 km
2nd Place - Heat Raiders with 222.81 km
3rd Place - Ljubljana Lightning with 211.48

Top Invididuals for Week Two:
1st Place - Bojan Brescanski of Sky Walkers with 97.47 km
2nd Place - Paul Schultz of Yes Dears with 81.20 km
3rd Place - Jules Kim of Ljubljana Lightning with 76.33

Top Teams overall (Week 1 + 2):
1st team - Heat Raiders with 474.91 km
2nd team - Yes Dears with 460.43
3rd team - Ljubljana Lightning with 449.75
4th team - BBKW's with 447.67
View larger image and all the individual walkathon scores here.

Don't forget week 3 is closing in, need those scores by Monday.

Wishing everyone a great walking weekend!

Donna

Marines Fitness Test Results

2007-02-21T20:59:00.000+01:00

Well gang, we finally have all the results on the Marine Fitness Test. For everyone that showed up, you all are winners. It was great fun, which we will repeat on April 14th.