Terry's New Adventure!

If you've come here looking for Terry Anzur's travel blog, you've come to the wrong place.
My new and improved blog website is here!

You'll find the most recent posts from the Terry Anzur Travel Blog, as well as new adventures! In addition, I'll be contributing to a new travel web site, The Voyage Report. 

So, don't be a stranger! Check out my new blog and get in touch if you'd like to be featured.

I look forward to welcoming you to my new Living Room.

Here's the link: http://www.strangersinthelivingroom.com

Language: The Key to Slovenia

Learning to speak Slovenian is not impossible. It's just really hard.

Fortunately, the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts offers a summer school program that makes it fun. I was among 107 participants from 31 countries in the 35th annual summer school of Slovene language in July 2016. A placement test is part of the application, and the first morning of the school is devoted to placement interviews.

Starting from rock bottom, I was placed in the most basic beginner class, consisting of eight people and one dog. Our little group reflected the demographics of the summer school as a whole, ranging in age from college students to retirees. The international breakdown included four Americans, one Canadian, one Argentine, one Thai and one Austrian (who brought the dog). The native English speakers had it relatively easy because those speaking Spanish or German or Thai had to juggle a third language in their heads while the class toggled back and forth between Slovene and English.

The only reason we didn't all suffer mental breakdowns was the immense patience of our teacher, 
Tanja Jerman. As the co-author of our textbook, she undoubtedly could have taught at any level and I admired her cheerful willingness to take on raw beginners. There was a more advanced beginner 
class for people such as the Serbs and Macedonians who already spoke another Slavic language, but our group had no such advantage. Wrestling with the sounds of š, č and ž, I struggled with something as basic as the correct pronunciation of my last name, Anžur. The word for the number 6 (šešt) tripped me up every time. Then there are the words like trg (sqaure) and vrt (garden).  May I please buy a vowel? The fun really begins when you realize there are no articles before the nouns, like "the" or "a." Every new word must be classified as feminine, masculine or neutral and the ending of the word can change, depending on the number and how it is used in the sentence. Asking a question involves deciding whether to use an informal or more polite form.

Adding to my misery was the fact that my son was taking the course for the second time, speaks fluent Polish, and was placed in a much higher class. Eager to show I had learned something, I proudly announced to him in Slovene that "I rode the dog to school this morning!" 
After a few days of games, drills and practice we could all ask and answer basic questions like what's your name, where are you from, what's your job, and how many languages do you speak. The four people in our group who enrolled in the optional afternoon conversation and practice course made faster progress.
Fortunately, the school provides plenty of opportunities to blow off a little steam, with an excursion or cultural activity planned every day and included with the course:

Outdoor activities included a picnic and this trip to enjoy standup paddleboards, rowing, and relaxing with drinks at Lake Zbilge.

A walking tour of the national cemetery with monuments designed by the acclaimed Slovenian architect, Jože Plečnik.

Making štruklji at a culinary workshop with
Cook Eat Slovenia.

And of course bowling!
By the end of the course I had achieved my modest goal of learning the basic structure and sound of the language. The textbook has an app on Memrise that will help me continue to study on my own.  My family lost the language after they emigrated to the United States in 1911 and wanted their kids to  speak only English. For most of its history Slovenia has been more of an ethnicity than a country with its own borders, and the question of who is a Slovenian was answered with another question: do you speak Slovene? I'm working on it. Govorim malo Slovensko. 

I'm Slovenian!

Lake Bled, one of the many beautiful places to discover in the land of my ancestors.

What kind of a name is Anzur?
Over the years, my family taught me many different ways to answer that question.
 "Tell them it's French," said my mother, pronouncing it as "Ahn-zoor." When pulling up to a restaurant, my dad would send me in to give our name to the receptionist. "Tell them it's Anderson, party of five," he would say, explaining Anzur is too hard for Americans to say or spell. Because I'm in journalism, some people just assumed it was Asner, like the actor who played the iconic Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore show. My father's name was Ed, and the rumor got started that I was Ed Asner's daughter.
My real dad would explain that my ancestors considered themselves to be immigrants from Austria, because my grandfather had served in the army of Emperor Franz Joseph.
Growing up as an American kid during the Cold War, I came to understand that they were actually from a place on the map known as Yugoslavia. Yet, it never felt right to say my family name was Yugoslavian.
The truth was always with me, in the form of a ritual our family performed at Christmastime. We'd gather around a table to crack walnuts. From a very early age, my brothers and I would wrestle with nut-cracking implements in our tiny hands. Whenever we managed to crack one of the thick brown shells, it was tempting to eat the tasty nut rather than contribute it to the family bowl. When it was filled, mom and dad would produce an antique nut grinder that could be clamped to the basement staircase. We all took turns cranking the handle to produce fluffy ground walnuts that could be mixed with sugar and rolled up into dough and baked. For my dad, it wasn't Christmas if we didn't have this holiday dessert he called "petitza."

I started to put the pieces together years later when I was a hosting a TV show in 1994 in New York. One night at the popular media watering hole Elaine's, I met a charming older gentleman. Frederic Morton was the author of the definitive book on late 19th century Austria, "A Nervous Splendor." He was intrigued by my last name and introduced me to people from the Austrian consulate.
"Where did your family come from?" a diplomat asked.
My answer, "a small town near Ljubljana," drew a bemused response.
"You're not Austrian. You're Slovenian."
By that time Slovenia had emerged from the former Yugoslavia, and I was eager to learn more about my family's roots in this small Eastern European country. My research has allowed me to learn the proper spelling of potiča, and the proper spelling of my last name --  Anžur. Along the way, I've discovered a lot of reasons to embrace the land my ancestors left over 100 years ago. So I'm going to blog about it.
What kind of a name is Anžur? Good question.

Moj priimek je iz Slovenije!