Winter Sports Day and the great search for an working ATM

So today was Winter sports day for the school and maybe all of Slovenia, but before I get into that I would like to take you on a Journey (not quite as awesome as Dans. It all started once I got into Slovenia. In Austria I had begun taking out large sums of cash daily in order to pay my first months rent which originally was suppose to be somewhere between 400 and 450 euros (ended up being 208! Balla!). So I had a fair amount of money in my wallet and didn't have the need to withdraw cash until a few days ago. One ATM after another turned me down. Running through my mind was the thoughts "did I forget my code" "did the bank freeze my card" "am I just an idiot who doesn't know how to work an ATM" each of these I checked before I left (even the idiot one). After a couple of lengthy skype calls (skype is bomb account=mdhickel) the bank told me that my card was not being read (obviously) and that i needed to find specific ATMs that work (Plus or something like that). So, the next day after classes and a long talk with Jim (our UMD professor who came to observe us) I embarked on a journey to find the mysterious ATM. With my trusty sidekicks Chris and Megan we embarked on what ended up being one hell of a trip around the city center with many curse words along the way. It was sort of a game to the other two "hey there is an ATM try it" then they would laugh as I tried it and it failed (they each have pictures of this). We would find plus ATM, Visa ATM and any other ATM imaginable and none would work. By this time I was bitching pretty incessantly. During this time I would go into banks, Tourist info and other types of places and ask about my situation. Each place would tell me of an ATM that was off in some random direction that they were "positive would work". So we would head off in the direction only to be disappointing by signs similar to this...


Jeeze, was I getting pissed and I felt bad that the other two had to follow me around.I kept telling them to ditch me, but I think they thought is was greatly entertaining watching me fail miserably. In the end I managed to find a bank where I would withdraw money from the teller, for a substantial fee of course. Nonetheless I finally snagged some cash and did the only thing I could do after an event like that... went and got a drink. Considering one of the founders of jagermeister recently passed away I decided to buy the three of us a shot in his honor as well as a thank you for their sticking with me. And then I found 500 Euros... well not really, but I began to realize this story was getting a little lame sorry, but its already typed and I can't go back now.

Winter sports day was an interesting day. Megan and I were put with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th and 5th graders for sledging and hiking. Yes I wrote sledging and not sledding (look it up). It was a fun but hectic day as I soon came to see that I would never want to teach elementary school. Holy crap little kids are all over the place and they try and test you every step of the way. I also realized that field trips are a ridiculous amount of work if you are in charge of those on the trip (Its like herding cattle). I apologize to any teacher that I made life a living hell on a field trip, I now know. It wasn't all for not, they took us to the mountains where it was crazy b e a u tiful and they also had the worlds largest ski jump (so I hear). Here is a pic of the little rugrats after some epic sledging (only minor injuries).

Little ones


Ski Jump

Watch out for bears

-Hickel