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Anne Zakelj

December 31, 2009

Top Embassy stories of 2009

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Only a few hours left, and another important year for the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia will be over. It was definitely an important year, which we will remember for different events and good-byes to our coworkers.

We hosted some very interesting events, had pleasure of meeting great people and gained lots of valuable experiences that will help us to do our job even better in the upcoming year. We started off the year with the opening, on Slovene National Day, February 8, of an exhibition of photographs by the Slovenian Consul General in Cleveland, Dr. Zvone Žigon. 

Then, we participated in the famous Small Nations’ Poetry Reading event, which brought together the ambassadors of nine countries. The Embassy of Slovenia was represented by Chargé d’Affaires, Ms. Miriam T. Možgan, who read the poem Veliki črni bik (The Big Black Bull) by Dane Zajc. 

We also hosted one of the most popular contemporary Slovenian poets, Tone Kuntner, who read from his latest collection of poems, Moj svet/My World. Let’s not forget our Slovenian national legend, the poet and folk-rock musician, Vlado Kreslin, who entertained us with his concert at a popular downtown venue in late March. 

But definitely, when we are talking about cultural events, we should not fail to mention Bogdan Grom, a Slovenian–Italian painter and sculptor, and the retrospective exibition, at the embassy, of his extensive body of work from 1947 to 2008. The exhibition will remain on display until the end of January 2010; so, if you have not yet seen it, you still have time to visit us. 

Within the European Union community, there were also lots of things going on. 

We celebrated the Europe Week by attending a screening of the documentary film Američanke/100% Slovenian, and The Rooster’s Breakfast. We also took part in the third annual EU Open House, which attracted an enormous crowd of people, 2600 at the Slovenian Embassy alone. In September, if you had come to “EuroNight”, you could have taken a cultural tour of Europe and feast on its national dishes without ever leaving the DC! And, of course, we were not missing there either!

At the second annual Kids Euro Festival, this year Slovenia offered a fun puppet-theater story, The Gigantic Balloon, by Andrej Rozman-Roza. 

Another aspect of collaboration among the member-states of the European Union was the exhibition by photographic artists from EU countries, entitled What Lies Beneath: Nature and Urban Landscape. Slovenia was represented by the young, talented photographer Miha Štrukelj. 

But this year will definitely be remembered also for good-byes to several of our coworkers: our stretch of the »Embassy row« was marked by the departure of our Deputy Chief of Mission, Miriam Teresa Možgan; Defense Attaché, Colonel Andrej Lipar; Political Officer, Andrej Berginc; and Cultural Advisor , Katja Čergolj Edwards. 

On the other hand, we were delighted to welcome our new Ambassador, Roman Kirn, who arrived on May 14th, new Defense Attaché, Colonel Ladislav Grabar, new Political Officer, Mateja Kavaš; new Administrative Attaché, Eva Prša Simonović; and new Cultural Advisor, Neja Brglez. 

To all of you who have gone, we wish good luck at your new endavors, and as to all of you who have joined us, we firmly hope that together we will be a strong, compatible team and will be able to realize all our professional and personal goals.

And for you, dear readers, we will try to do our best to provide you with valuable information and interesting ideas. We are looking forward to reporting to you on our progress regarding this initiative in future columns of this newsletter. Please, stay with us, give us your feedback and recommend us to your friends and colleagues. Wish you all the best in the coming year. 

Happy New Year!