Back to Slovenia, Courtesy of the Senator

This week, Cecile and I will board a plane heading to Ljubljana, Slovenia -- courtesy of a long-gone U.S. Senator. I’m on my way to the University of Ljubljana to teach and research for six weeks under a Fulbright Specialist Fellowship.

Sen. J. William Fulbright had his faults -- the Arkansas lawmaker was a noted segregationist. But to his credit, he stood up to Joseph McCarthy, opposed the Vietnam War and in 1945 came up with program that has sent thousands of U.S. scholars to the rest of the world while bringing international minds to the United States.

Fulbright sponsored a bill to use the surplus military property from the just-completed World War II to fund "the promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science."

Cecile and I first visited Slovenia in 2012 when we came to Europe to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. When we were searching for a special adventure to mark a special year, a colleague suggested we look at “the most beautiful country in Europe.”

As it turned out, another of my colleagues was Slovenian and invited us to stay with her family. Urska Lenart’s introduction to her homeland was incredible. Slovenia is a very small country nestled between the east coast of Italy and Croatia, just over the Alps from Austria. A two-hour drive from the capital of Ljubljana can take you to the mountains, the Adriatic beaches or the eastern country.

While there, I met Marko Milosavljević, head of the journalism department at the University of Ljubljana, who encouraged me to apply for a Fulbright Fellowship. I couldn’t work it into my schedule until I retired in 2017. After a year of paperwork, I was finally able to accept Marko’s invitation.

So off we go again. We will live in university housing for six weeks and I’ll teach at least two days a week. And again enjoy a fascinating country.