The weather in Ljubljana has been just on the borderline between cold and pleasant. We see peeks of sun during the day, but we’ve also experienced a little rain, too. Fortunately at this point it hasn’t had any impact on our plans as most of our activities have been indoors.
This morning we continued our service learning activity at the Levec Special Education Centre. We had arranged to shorten our stay in order to visit a kindergarten in the late morning, so we left Levec at 10:00 and boarded a city bus to go to the Hans Christian Andersen Kindergarten. There we met with the principal Tina Mercnik and her staff and observed several classrooms. She explained that mothers get 12 months to give birth and bond with their children and then most families (88%) enroll their 1-year-olds in a kindergarten. Kindergarten spans age 11 months to 6 years of age, after which they start primary school.
One interesting note was the kindergarten happened to be located on the commemorative trail that marks the location of the fortified fence that encircled and imprisoned the citizens of Ljubljana during WWII. Medallions in the pavement and signposts reading “POT” which stands for The Path of Remembrance and Comradeship, mark the location of the fence. Each May 9th, the end of the war is commemorated and many Ljubljanchens (citizen of Ljubljana) walk or bike the path of the fence in honor of the sacrifices made during the war.
After a lunch break, students went to the University Faculty of Arts building to visit professor Velko Rus’ class and meet with his students.
