Entries categorized as ‘serbia’
Oliver & Ocean on top of Mount Avala
Fill 'er up.
Categories: Family Journal · serbia
Tagged: Avala, gas, Mount, station
Above is a photo of a typical New Belgrade apartment building I took in September of 2008.
Categories: serbia
Tagged: new belgrade
Genex was a state-owned company dealing in foreign trade and tourism. They also built the Intercontinental Hotel in Belgrade and a hotel in Kaponik, a ski resort in southern Serbia. The tower was completed in 1980, the last year of Tito’s rule in Communist Yugoslavia. On the left side are 30 floors of residential apartments and on the right side are 26 floors of offices. The bridge and tower between the two buildings serves as a restaurant which we will have to eat in. It is not one of the projects featured on their web site however. They have done many engineering projects in Serbia and eastern Europe.
While researching the building, I learned that it is designed in the architectural style called Brutilism. The name comes from the French and refers to raw concrete. The style flourished in the 1950’s - 1970’s. Critics think that it is alien and out of touch with the local landscape and culture. It is the dominate architectural style of New Belgrade. Brutilism was also associated with socialist, Utopian ideals, hence the use here.
I like the look. This is my first time in Eastern Europe and I have never seen a place that looks like New Belgrade before. After WWII, the communists drained the swamps on the other side of the river and built many Brutalist buildings. Over half a million people now live in New Belgrade. I like going over because it is spread out and feels more like the USA with wide streets. I want to learn more about New Belgrade and the buildings and you will see future posts on the subject.
Underneath the Towers (courtesy of Wikicommons)
Categories: serbia
Tagged: new belgrade, Brutalist architecture
The Adriatic Basketball League (NBL is a bank that is the league sponsor) is a regional league consisting of 14 teams from the countries of the ex-Yugoslavia. After the bitterness and violence of the seccesionist wars of the 1990’s, it is surprising this league exists. I guess it must be a testament to the power of sports to transcend these things.
All of the countries have their own regular professional leagues, and the NBL is a “Champions League” type of format. The 14 teams play each other home and away for a 28 game regular season. Serbia has 5 of the 14 teams. The two big sport clubs in Belgrade, Red Star and Partizan are represented along with FMP from the Belgrade suburb of Zelenik, Hemofarm, from the city of Vrsac near the Romanian border, and Vojvodina “Serbia Gas” from Serbia’s second city of Novi Sad. Croatia has four teams, Slovenia three teams, and one each from Bosnia and Montenegro.
The league started in the 2001-2002 season and the number of teams has varied through the seven seasons. For one season, Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv was a member of the league. The champion of the first season was a team from Slovenia, and the second year was the Croatian team Zadar. The last 5 seasons, Serbian teams were crowned champions. Zelenik won twice, Hemofarm once, and the past two seasons the champion was Partizan, who also won the Serbian Soccer League last year.
This year they have played six games each and once again, Partizan is atop the league at 6-0. Red Star is second with a 5-1 record. The league starts in October and ends in April. Red Star American players are Andre Owens, the 6-4 guard from Indiana University played to brief seasons in the NBA and Lawrence Roberts, ex-Mississippi State star and Memphis Grizzly player. The 6-9 power forward played the last two seasons in the Greek league and is new to Red Star. Partizan features ex-UMass star Stephane Lasme, who played briefly with the Miami Heat.
I haven’t been to a game yet, but plan to. The league website is quite good.
Categories: Sports · serbia
Tagged: Adriatic Basketball League, NBL, serbia, Sports
It is really nice to already have learned another language besides my native language. I am finding Serbian to be easier than Spanish. When I learned Spanish starting back in 1992, I had no idea what it meant to “conjugate” or “inflect” a verb. That is because in English, the verb basically stays the same. For example in English, the verb “to run” is - I run, you run, she runs, we run, they run, you (formal) run. Run is run no matter who is running.
Not so In Spanish and now once again in Serbian, the verb ending changes.
For example, the verb imati which means “to have”" is conjugated like this:
- I (ja) imam
- you (ti) imate
- he (on) ima
- we (mi) imamo
- they (oni) imaju
That is not too bad. The most frequently used verbs like biti (to be), hteti (to want), moći (to be able, can) have irregular forms, but the rest are pretty straight forward. I can remember that the “I” is usually ends with “m”, the you with “š” which sounds like “sh”, we is “mo” and he/she/it and formal you with a vowel “a” or “e”.Now it is just a question of learning more infinitives. Of course it does not get into the future or past tense. Hopefully Serbian will not have two different past tenses like Spanish.
Categories: serbia
Tagged: conjugation, language, serbian, verb
She is a member of the Romani people, otherwise known as gypsies. There is a settlement of around 400 families that lives near the Gazelle Bridge. We see them as we go to and from New Belgrade to our suburb of Senjak. The Romani of Serbia are known as “Machvaya” and they are quite numerous here. You see them often collecting card board and garbage from the receptacles in the streets. They eek out a living by collecting refuse and recycling it.
A "Gypsiemobile" cruising by with a load of cardboard.
The settlement under the bridge has been there for decades. As you can see from the photo below, they live in absolutely horrendous conditions. I just imagine what it will be like in the winter. There is an incredible amount of stuff they have collected. More Roma have recently come as there has been talk of the city government will relocate them and provide them with housing. The problem is no one want them as a neighbor. There are plans to renovate and expand the bridge, and the settlement will have to move. Although this has been planned for years.
Main Street on the Gazelle Bridge Roma Settlement
The Roma are fascinating. I don’t understand why they cannot be helped and integrate into society. I really want to help them! They look different that the Latinos of South America and I am interested in learning more about them. You will probably see more posts in the future.
Typical House in the Gazelle Bridge Settlement
Categories: serbia
Tagged: serbia, Belgrade, gypsies, roma
Sunday Oliver and I attended the “Eternal Derby” in Belgrade. The derby is the game between the two biggest teams in the Serbian Professional Soccer League, Red Star and Partizan. The game was held in the Red Star Stadium (Crvena zveda in Serbian) in front of over 20,000 spectators.
Both teams are known for their fanatical hooligans, and I was a bit tentative from attending the game. But the father of one of my students kindly purchased tickets in the VIP section of the stadium for us which was safe. The father happened to be former NBA basketball star Vlade Divac. He hand delivered them to me on the morning of the game. You can see him behind Oliver’s head in the background of the photo above. He is known for his kindness and humanitarian service and it is true. It was a very nice gesture and I want to give him a huge thank you! Please donate to Humanitarian Organization Divac. Vlade is a big star still here in Serbia. I guess the equivalent of this in the US would be Magic Johnson giving us tickets for a Laker-Celtic game. Very cool!
The stadium had an amazing atmosphere! The fans of Partizan especially sang, had banners, fireworks, etc and were on their feet the entire game. We went to the game with my colleague, Luiz, a science teacher in the secondary school. He is from Brazil and used to this kind of rabid fans, but even he was impressed.
The Partizan Fans Celebrate A Goal
Partizan won this 134th edition of the derby, 2-0. There were many goal opportunities for both teams and the action was non-stop. This is Partizan’s sixth straight win in six rounds of the league and they are in first place. Red Star is in eigth place out of twelve teams, with 2 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses.
Red Star is the biggest and most popular team in Serbia. They were formed in 1945 shortly after Tito took over, hence the communist red star symbol. They won the forerunner of the European Champions League in 1991, the only former Yugoslavian team to do so. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, they have fallen on hard times, as most of the top Serbian players go for the higher salaries of other European leagues. Oliver is a big fan of Red Star and so am I.
Partizan is more of a working class team and the second most popular team in Serbia. They were also … (time to go to school, I’ll finish this post later.)
Categories: Family Journal · Sports · serbia
Tagged: Belgrade, derby, Divac, eternal, partizan, red star, serbia, soccer, Vlade
Ocean is pictured in front of the hothouse, which is a classic but it definitely needs to be renovated. There was a collection of bonzai trees out front that were pretty impressive. I enjoy and feel it is important to learn the names of the trees of all the countries I live in, so I appreciated the signs identifying the trees in English and Serbian. I will definitely begin to photograph and blog the various trees I learn of on my other blog about the plants and animals of Serbia. The other nice thing about the gardens was the Japanese pond and hill area. Oliver loved running around them.
We walked back home and Nadia cooked a great meal again. The weather has been cool and cloudy and it just feels like autumn, or first in many years. I am loving it!!!! Ocean is now saying “daddy” “owo” “mama” “no,no” “tu-tu-ta-at” (Bolivian for night-night) and is approaching her birthday number one, Friday. Owen has a loose tooth and a new tooth is coming in right underneath it. Nadia has a bit of a cold.
Good day at school today (Monday) - the highlight was meeting with the school designer on the new middle school. First day of autumn and we are looking forward to the fall colors.
Categories: Family Journal · serbia
Tagged: jevremovac, botanical, garden
Serbia is participating in the qualifying rounds for the 2009 European Basketball Championship. The tourney takes place a year from now in September of 2009 and it is hosted by Poland. Sixteen teams will participate in the championships, with half the teams already set. The host Poland plus the seven teams who qualified via the Olympic qualifying matches. 17 other teams are competing for the final 8 spots, one of which is Serbia. They are in Group A and they have have a record of 5-1 in their first six games. They play Wednesday against Finland here in Belgrade. That is their only loss, so they will be looking for revenge. The Serbs finish up their schedule against Bulgaria which will probably be the deciding match for supremacy of the group and direct passage to Poland and the European Championships next year.
Serbia’s top player in the qualifying is Nenad Krstic who is averaging 13 points and 5 boards a game. The 7 footer played for several seasons with the New Jersey Nets and now plays in the Russia. Hopefully I will be able to go to the game Wednesday.
Krstic goes for two against Bulgaria earlier this month.
Categories: Sports · serbia
Tagged: eurobasket
I was expecting something a bit more “Chinese,” something like Chinatown. A place where you could buy Asian spices and there would be an old Chinese man with a noodle shop. Instead, it was a like the market Barrio Lindo in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Yes, there were plenty of Chinese salespeople manning the stalls. The market was filled with cheap merchandise. It was mostly clothes and houseware. Everything was of very low quality. The only thing I found I liked was bee-bee guns that looked like M 16 US military rifles. I was tempted to buy two for the boys, but they are a bit too young for those. We did buy them plastic guns and transformer masks. We also got a pair of shoes for Oliver. Nadia was really bothered by the smoke and the crowds. I guess if you combine Chinese (heavy smokers) and Serbians (also heavy smokers) you get a lot of smoke. There were thousands of people there. New Belgrade is full of huge Communist era apartment buildings. The low prices probably attract the locals.
Nadia considers the bok choy.
We then went grocery shopping at IDEA, a mega-store like Wal-Mart. The chain is out of Croatia and it was a very nice store. You can buy in bulk there so we stocked up on the essentials. We had some excellent bread, a whole wheat with other nuts and grains.
Nadia and Owen move through the produce section of IDEA.
We took a short nap in the late afternoon and played football in the yard with the boys. We were loving the cold weather! It will be so different to experience the changed of seasons. Our mudroom is full of jackets, something foreign to us.
I skyped with Andy today. My brother is enjoying teaching at Academy Cotopaxi in Quito, Ecuador. Great to talk with him.
All is finally quiet here tonight. Tomorrow we have a UBD workshop so no classes.
Categories: Family Journal · serbia
Tagged: chinese, IDEA, market
