Emilijan Cucek

The Big Circle Emilijan Cucek

With 40 US Dollars hidden in his left shoe, Emilijan ?u?ek, a 23-year-old Ljubljana native, boarded a Yugoslav cargo ship in Rijeka, to sail for America. He won a scholarship at Stanford University in California, where he graduated the next year - possibly as the first student from Slovenia and Yugoslavia.

At Stanford, he lived and observed the student and academic life. He graduated with a B. A.in Economics. The vacation breaks allowed him to visit much of the Western US states and meet a variety of Americans. He also worked in a small metal factory in California.

Afterwards, he continued his travels westward - to Japan and Asian countries. He experienced life in Japan; he stopped at the many Pacific and Indian Ocean ports on the way home. Many months later, he sailed through the Suez Canal back to the Mediterranean and Slovenia - a total distance of some 35,000 kilometers. He describes his experiences with a great degree of enthusiasm and feeling: a well documented and sensitively presented life experience.

Mr. ?u?ek is retired. He lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia