Bill's Blog

We celebrated America’s 250th birthday yesterday. We had friends over for the classic Fourth of July BBQ of bratwursts, hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans, and strawberry cream dessert. My brother Jim and his wife attended, as well as our good friends, Scott and Heidi Bociek. It was a beautiful summer evening as we contributed to the noisy neighborhood when Jim brought an old box of bottle rockets he found in his garage. We finished the evening by going up to the Stambaugh Airport to watch the fireworks display. We also visited with many of my old high school friends.

It was a beautiful, relaxing, summer day for me. Nadia and I worked out in the morning at the West Iron County School fitness room, courtesy of my brother who is a teacher at the school. I did an hour of yoga while Nadia was on the exercise machines and in the weight room.

Iron County is a cycling paradise with many smoothly paved roads and little automobile traffic. I had another glorious mid-summer ride yesterday, completing a loop from my house to Ski Brule Resort. Cycling brings me happiness, and I can’t get enough of rides. The hills in Michigan are challenging but not the spirit-breaking mountains of Uzbekistan. On yesterday’s loop of 30 kilometers or so, I encountered a handful of cars. My daughter Ocean practiced driving by taking Oliver and me to Ice Lake for a quick swim to freshen up before dinner. I try to get a dip in an Iron County freshwater lake daily while I am here in the summer. So far, I have swum in Ottawa, Sunset, and Ice Lakes.

We had a lot of laughs and great conversations and it was a fantastic way to celebrate America’s birthday.

We had the honor last week to serve as witnesses for my brother Jimmer’s blessing of their wedding vows. Jim and his wife Michelle have been married for over 20 years, but were only bonded civilly. Lately, Jim’s Catholic faith has become stronger, and he wanted to bless his matrimonial vows. Father Michael Chenier planned a touching ceremony for us, and I had the privilege of serving as a lay reader for the ceremony. Jim married the former Michelle Lusardi and they live in Michelle’s hometown of Iron Mountain, Michigan.

The ceremony took place at the Mary Immaculate of Lourdes, aka the Immaculate Conception Church, on the north side of Iron Mountain, Michigan. The parish dates back to the 1890s when recent Italian immigrants working in the local iron ore mines formed the “Italian Church”. Iron Mountain is a 45-minute drive east of my home in Caspian, and the north side of the city is still known for its Italian culture, including famous NFL football coach and NFL Network commentator Steve Mariucci and Michigan State Basketball Coach Tom Izzo. The church was completed and blessed by Father G. Pietro Sinopoli on January 1, 1903. That is ancient history for America! It was a strange juxtaposition of a Mediterranean courtyard and Italian-style facade set in the northwoods of an Upper Peninsula former mining town. That is America. They treated us to lunch at the Moose Jackson Cafe downtown afterwards.

It was a sweet and touching ceremony, and Nadia and I were happy to be there for them.

My daughter Ocean wanted a day of walking and shopping in Manhattan, so we headed down to the SoHo neighborhood. I didn’t know that “SoHo” stands for “South of Houston (pronounced HOW-ston by New Yorkers) Street”. No surprise, I am not a big shopping guy, but I enjoyed watching Ocean and Nadia bond and have fun together. The day was also an insight into contemporary youth culture for me. Ocean went to Instagram to find a trendy bagel shop and landed on Leon’s Bagels, which were pretty good. She loved eating a bagel and people-watching in Washington Square Park in the neighboring Greenwich Village. The area originally was a burial ground for the poor and victims of yellow fever in the early 1800s. It is estimated that the remains of 20,000 to 25,000 anonymous people are buried under the park. Today it is a vibrant public gathering place and we enjoyed watching some Norwegian soccer fans enjoying the city.

Ocean next wanted to go to the Brandy Melville flagship at 509 Broadway in SoHo. I had never heard of the store, the clothes looked like a Banana Republic or Gap, to me, nothing special. However, for teenage girls, as I was joking, it felt a bit cultish. HBO’s Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion tells the origin story of the company and their use of social media influencers to develop a devoted brand loyalty. I felt like I was working at a girls’ school, monitoring high school break duty. It was easy to identify the company’s demographic. Brandy Melville Italian CEO, Stephen Marsan sounds like a creep.

Some other highlights from the day were walking around the “campus” of New York University. I put campus in quotes because it was basically nice office buildings in Greenwich Village, not the typical camps (see my Adrian College visit blog post). We also walked by Nord Anglia’s NYC campus as well, again, just an office building. I had to take a break and explored Union Square while the girls continued shopping for shoes and clothes. This was the site of the 9/11 memorials and America’s Labor Day (early September), began from protests taking place in the 19th century. I found the Teach Yourself Arabic book ($10) I was looking for at the Strand Book Store. I could have spent the entire day in there exploring its “18 miles of used books”. It started in 1927 and is the last remaining book store from that era.

I am lucky to have two beautiful women in my life!

I have really enjoyed helping my daughter Ocean prepare for her driving tests. Most people start the process when they are 15 years old, but since Ocean lived internationally, she is starting at age 18. For 18-year-olds in the State of Michigan, you do not have to attend a licensed driving school. She is required to pass an online theory test followed by a driving test after 30 days. We spent the past few days reviewing “What Every Driver Must Know” handbook issued by the State of Michigan. She passed her test and earned her “Learner’s Permit” from the Michigan Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is what other states call the Department of Motor Vehicles. She now needs to log at least 50 hours of driving, 10 of which are in the evening. She will then be eligible, starting August 1, to take the driving test at one of the regional testing centers. I also refreshed my driving knowledge, but most importantly, spent quality time with my daughter (and son). I want to make sure she is a safe driver. The Secretary of State’s staff was very helpful and I appreciated their extra attention to our unique situation.

The last time I walked the Adrian College campus was probably April 30, 1990, the day after I graduated. I returned after 36 years+ when we spent the night in Adrian on our way from Freeland to our home in Caspian, Michigan. The NCAA Division III private, liberal arts college is located in the southeastern corner of state. It was about as far away as I could get from my hometown and still be in the state of Michigan. I chose Adrian College over St. Norbert College and the University of Michigan because I wanted to play on the basketball team. I also wanted a smaller school (in the late 1980s, Adrian College I remember had an enrollment around 1,200 students) and somewhere that no one from my high school graduating class attended. I guess I wanted a fresh start!

It was a good decision for me looking back. I received individual attention from my professors, was able to do a lot of activities, including play basketball, commentate the football games for the college radio station, radio track Red-tailed Hawks, complete my student teaching at Columbia Central High School, etc. I was immature and didn’t take full advantage of all that it had to offer, but overall, it helped me on my journey and get my first teaching job that started my career in education.

It was such a long time ago and I was trying to recall the buildings that I frequented all those years ago. I remember living on the second floor of Stevens Hall (see photo above) in the quad. The campus felt smaller to me. I walked to the cafeteria and remembered that was where I first saw Kate Abbot, my first serious girlfriend. I also spent a year in either Jarvis or Estes Hall, I couldn’t remember which one. I don’t think I could have found the locations of my off-campus housing. We nicknamed them “The Dawg House” (after the Adrian College nickname, the Bulldogs) and the Maumee Mansion (after Maumee Street). I stopped by two of the fraternity houses I used to frequent and they were still there. The Phi Kappa House moved to another house near the campus.

I was pleased that Adrian College is thriving! Demographics in Michigan and the USA are not favorable for universities. There are less 18 year olds graduating from high school and a significant number of universities are in financial trouble. I read a bit about the demographics impacting university enrollment and it cleared a couple of misconceptions I had. My graduating class of 1985 (~100,000 graduates in Michigan) was on the downslope from the Baby Boom, the post World War II effect of people having more children, which peaked in 1980 (~125,000 graduates). Following that was an “echo boom” in 2008, peaking at ~117,000 graduates. Since 2008, the number of graduates has decreased to ~99,000 graduates in the Class of 2023. Unlike 1985 however, the decline will not rebound and persistent declines will continue through at least 2050. Some universities expanded around that 2008 boom and are not able to adjust to declining enrollment in recent years. Several universities closed, including Siena Heights (Catholic university in Adrian) and Finlandia University (former Soumi College in Hancock). The hardest-hit public universities are the mid-tier regional campuses. Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ferris State, Saginaw Valley State, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior State have all lost 25% or more of their enrollment since their peaks. These institutions are not closing — they have public funding — but they are cutting programs, laying off faculty, and in some cases consolidating departments to survive on smaller student bodies. The universities that are growing are University of Michigan, which is trendy now, and Grand Valley State. Michigan Tech and Michigan State are holding steady.

Adrian College invested a lot into infrastructure since I left. They started an ice hockey program and built an ice arena. They put in an artificial turf football stadium on campus. When I was at the school, they used the Adrian Maples High School field. They also put in an indoor football field/track in a bubble dome structure, renovated the athletics track, added really nice tennis courts, an on-campus baseball/softball field to round off the improvements. In my final year, the college opened the Merillat Sports Center with a basketball arena. The old Ridge Gymnasium was converted to a student center. The Phi Kappa house was torn down and moved to a different house. Everything looked well taken care of, and I imagine the college is doing fine.

It was a trip down nostalgia lane for me and I loved it. We drove the long 8-hour drive to the Western Upper Peninsula later that morning. With better roads and a higher speed limit, the trip has been reduced by almost 2 hours since I used to drive that in the late 1980s.

It was a glorious summer day in New York City! We started our final day in the city by taking the subway to the Midtown Manhattan Flatiron District. We delighted in watching the dogs in Madison Square Park, and we spotted actress Lena Hall walking her dog with a coffee in hand. TNadia’s all-time favorite television show is Friends, and so we had to visit the Friends Experience. I haven’t seen Nadia so excited about something in a while! I purchased the full experience for her that included a coffee at Central Perk, and we took photos in recreations of several sets from the show. In speaking with the employees, most of the customers are tourists and women. The television show ran from 1994-2004 and is a global phenomenon, still making money in syndication and Friends Experience venues in Brisbane, Mumbai, Las Vegas, Mexico City, and New York.

Ocean wanted to picnic in Central Park, so we headed back uptown. It was an absolutely perfect day, with blue skies and pleasant temperatures. I am impressed with the number of people the park can hold and still feel like you are in a forested park. We called Oliver and Owen, and all three of the kids expressed the desire to someday live in New York.

We finished off the day by attending the Broadway play “Giant” starring John Lithgow as Roald Dahl. Dahl is a famous children’s author (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Giant Peach, etc.). The play focuses on an afternoon meeting in the summer of 1983, of Dahl, his fiancée, and representatives from his publishing company in the summer of 1983. Dahl wrote a review of Australian author Tony Clifton’s book about the 1982 Lebanon war that had critical views of Israeli government and military and anti-Semetic views. The publishers were concerned that piece would hurt sales of his latest book, The Witches. They were trying to convince him to retract and soften his tone towards Jews in general.

We were captivated for the full two hours. The playwright Mark Rosenblatt builds Dahl’s point of views and arguments through the play. We went from maybe Dahl is pushing back against over zealous cancel culture to towards the end of the play, yeah, he doesn’t like Jews. There were several audible gasps from the audience as they reacted to Lithgow’s comments. I was happy that Ocean shared the experience with us of seeing some of the greatest professional actors in the business ply their trade only a few meters away on stage. I didn’t see many teenagers in the audience as it was mostly retired people. The play started a good conversation between us and it was refreshing to have views like this out in the open in a forum that encouraged thoughtful discussion. The topics are very relevant today as Israel continues to defend itself against Hezballah and Lebanon, provoking some of the same views 40 years ago.

Dahl is one of the top 40 best selling authors of all-time with estimated 300 million books sold. His books are still popular today, decades after his death in 1990. His estate did apologize for his anti-Semetism.

We are slowly recovering from jet lag and the long flight from Tashkent to JFK. I spent the morning getting my driver’s license renewed. I couldn’t do it online outside the USA, even with a VPN. MiLogin has good security because as soon as I went online in the USA, I was able to log in and renew my license.

In the afternoon, we drove to Allentown, Pennsylvania, so Ocean could open her first bank account. We bank with TD Bank because they specialize in international teachers who need a US bank account. Ocean needs a bank account and it is one of many things we are doing to set her up to be on her own in the USA at her university. Our school uses TD Bank so I took a photo outside the bank to send to the business office.

We also stopped at the Apple Store in the Lehigh Valley Mall. I bought a new iPhone and the girls got headphones. We drove back to Freeland, Pennsylvania in the late afternoon. Uncle Jack made Polish pierogi. Delicious! Freeland is Trump country and you see a lot of flags like the one above promoting the Right to Bear Arms.

As readers of my blog know, I enjoy and try to make the most of travel days. You have a choice to be annoyed at the hassles and discomfort that come with long-distance air travel. I choose to view it as an adventure, not knowing how the day or night will go. I am also mercifully out of digital communications and have time to read and write. I’ve finished many books and blog posts through the years on these long travel days. The best aspect of travel days is spending quality time with family! 

The highlight of our morning was rushing through check-in, immigration, and security so Ocean could see her boyfriend one last time before leaving for summer break. Roman’s flight was scheduled to depart about 30 minutes before our flight. We had a relatively fast check-in after hiring a Yandex Cargo truck (Yandex is the Uber of the Russian-speaking world and is a brilliant service!) to transport 9 large suitcases and boxes from our home to the Uzbek Airways check-in desk. There were a lot of flights departing this morning, and the lines at immigration were long. Ocean was tired and anxious to see Roman, so we purchased the “fast track” (around $25 per person) service. An airport official walked us to the front of the immigration line, directed us through the business class security check, and Ocean was able to spend a few precious minutes with Roman before he boarded. We were apologetic to our fellow passengers waiting in the immigration line. I explained that my daughter wanted “one last kiss” from her boyfriend before they left for separate lives. They were smiling because it was a good story. It is probably the best money I’ve spent in a while to see Ocean reunite with Roman. 

We usually stay for a week after school gets out to close the office, but with us switching schools and Ocean’s entry to university, we departed the morning after the last official work day. It was nice to be on the same flight as my friends and colleagues Rob and Frank. We had a nice coffee and conversation while waiting to board. 

Uzbek Airways has improved a lot in our seven years here. The plane was really nice with plenty of legroom and space between seats. The breakfast was delicious. I loved the White Wolves World Cup Soccer Logos recently painted on the plane. The complimentary travel kits were World Cup Soccer themed and included a nice bag and a Uzbek soccer key chain. Brilliant idea! Uzbeks are proud to have made the World Cup and after experiencing it first hand in the country, I agree with FIFA’s decision to increase the number of teams from 32 to 48. 

Our bags and we arrived safe and sound. We are impressed with the improvements made by Uzbek Airways. Uncle Jack picked us up at JFK and got us through the bumper-to-bumper traffic through NYC. We arrived in Freeland, Pennsylvania in the late afternoon. We finished the long day with a nice meal at a local bar/restaurant, and exhausted, I fell asleep around 9:00 PM.

Nadia and I had an emotional last day of working on campus at Tashkent International School. The seven years were the longest we worked at one school in our international educational careers. Nadia’s friends made a satire video of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, highlighting her personality quirks and unique characteristics as a teacher and colleague. She is an amazing teacher, and her students and parents adore her. Our strengths as educators are the relationships, creativity, and humanity we bring to a school community. Nadia has a greater impact on the students she sees every day, and I have a wider impact as the head of school. The school honored me by naming the new early learning childhood playground after me (Bill’s Naturescape) and a touching sign celebrating my commitment to making connections with each other and nature to create a difference in the lives of students. Hopefully I’ll see it completed when I return in August. We hugged a lot of people and shared a few memories of the good times we had together. 

Globally mobile expatriate teachers and other professionals have unusual lives. We move every few years; in our case, it is usually between 5 and 6 years, around the earth. The basic premise of schools is the same everywhere; the cultural context and resources vary greatly between schools. That is what makes it interesting for me. What time and place in history has a class of professionals been able to do this? I have literally worked on every continent except Antarctica. I still have wanderlust after over 30 years in the field, and I am very excited to take on the challenges a new school, country, and continent will bring us. As the head of school, I not only get to influence the lives of everyone in the community, students, colleagues, and families, but I also become intimately familiar with the local culture. This move will be different as Nadia and I are going back to being “empty nesters” after 25 years of raising three children. We have not been alone with each other since we moved from Perth, Western Australia, to Anaco, Venezuela, in January of 2002. 

Nadia was an absolute champion in sorting through our packing and preparing for the move. It is a complicated summer for us as our daughter Ocean graduated in May and will be enrolling in university in August. She had to decide what is going on to Cairo, what we are sending to Michigan, and what we are donating or selling. Seven years with three adolescents makes for a lot of stuff! She was the queen of the TIS Swap Shop on Telegram! I was too busy managing school affairs to be much help. I finished tidying up my office and sorting through tasks and communications after the farewell ceremonies in the morning. One of the negative aspects of being the head of an organization in post-Soviet Central Asia is the Director of the school needs to sign hundreds of documents weekly. I wonder how many times I put my signature to a contract, order, or financial data sheet? I signed my final document in person at 8:30 PM when a representative from the Centil law firm came to our home to sign a Power of Attorney.

 

Nadia arranged to move more boxes that we are shipping to Cairo when we come back in August to our friend Sarah’s house. An idea struck me that an international school regularly assigns “welcome buddies” for incoming new staff. We should also assign “farewell buddies” to help teachers pack out and complete the myriad of tasks one does when leaving a country. Mercifully, we are returning for a few days in August and we can close our local bank account, turn in the accreditation cards, return my laptop, etc. There is no way I could have completed it now. There was a rare heavy downpour and hailstorm in the early evening. After watching a bit of the Morocco versus Scotland game, I set the alarm for 3:00 AM and fell asleep around 10:00 PM. Ocean came home from her boyfriend’s house after I fell asleep. 

The final day and game of the World Cup 2026 first round of the Group Stages featured Uzbekistan versus Colombia. Kickoff was at 7:00 AM on our students’ last day of classes. Uzbeks are excited and proud of the national team, “The White Wolves”, qualifying for the first time ever. I hosted a World Cup Watch party on our new LED big screen in the multi-purpose room. It was so much fun! 

We have a newly arrived Colombian family at the school, and it was nice to give them the opportunity to watch the game in English. I brought our Apple TV and watched the game on the Fox Sports feed through our YouTube TV subscription. The assembly room was packed. Students, parents, and teachers were playing the bongo drums, cheering and soaking up the history and pageantry of the game. Colombia scored first, but Uzbekistan equalized shortly after with a beautiful goal. The Colombians just before halftime scored another goal to make it 2-1 going into the break. Both teams had chances in the second half with no goals until extra time, Colombia sealed the game with a remarkable crossing pass and header to win 3-1. I was fearful Uzbekistan would be embarrassed and play tentatively, but they had a strong performance in the loss. Uzbeks should be proud of the team! A lot more people should know Uzbekistan now! Many people in the USA give me a blank look when I say I live there. I had mixed emotions watching the game. I lived and died with the Colombian National Team when I lived in Barranquilla, Colombia in the 1990s. The team practiced at Colegio Karl C. Parrish because we had a regulation-sized field and it was not so far out of the city like the national stadium.

As you can see from the video below, soccer brought our community together! I am glad I trusted my instincts and made a big deal about the game! A special thanks to Rob B., Claire, Ramon, Hoji, Pavel, and Vadim for supporting the event. 

Younger and older students equally delighted in the experience, and it made for even greater emotions on an emotional last day of classes for students. The secondary school assembly was interrupted by another summer rainstorm. The community adjusted quickly and we finished the assembly in the gymnasium. I spent the rest of the day getting through my long Things to Do list. 

I was exhausted from hosting such a crazy event so early in the morning, and the emotions of the day. My good friend Aaron arranged a final trip to The Bani, the Russian banya that we frequently visit in the colder months. It was a fantastic way to spend my final full evening in Tashkent before Summer Break. We had a lot of laughs, good food and drink, and I slept soundly after de-stressing in the saunas and cold pools. A Russian kvass always fortifies my energy. I will miss the Russian banya and will be looking for it in my world travels.