Author: billkralovec

It was a miserable day weather-wise yesterday with cold temperatures (between 3-6 C), intermittent rain, and grey skies. I did manage to get out between downpours and ran 10 kilometers along the Anhor Canal. The origin of the word Anhor is not known, it could mean anzor=grape, angor=field or anhar=rivers. The Russians developed it in the 1800s and it formed the boundary between the old town and the newer part of the city. It is my favorite place in the city and I’ve walked, run, and cycled many kilometers along the canal. The best way to deal with inclement weather is to ignore it. I had a good workout and Obi ran with me the entire way. I also learned the first bridge over the canal is called Urda. City officials recently added a stop light and crosswalk on the bridge to make it safer for pedestrians.

I love being able to watch sports and not have to rush off to school. The Detroit Lions had a classic Dan Campbell victory against the 49ers this morning. They were unstoppable on offense, went for it on fourth down in crucial times, and came up with two interceptions to win The Lions have the best offense in the league, averaging almost 33 points per game. They need it because their defensive unit has been decimated by injuries with basically an entire defensive unit sidelined for most of the season. It really hurt them to lose their best lineman, Aiden Hutchinson, but it was followed by two great linebackers, Alex Anzalone and Malcolm Rodriguez. The team has 14 wins and 2 losses for the season and is tied with North Division rival Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings and Lions play each other next week, with the winner claiming the North Division title and the #1 seed in the National Football Conference. Due to the playoff structure, the loser becomes the fifth seed despite having 14 wins and has to play road games. I was proud to see them give a good effort tonight and win the game! They lost the NFC championship game in San Francisco last season and this was a revenge game for that loss.

I love the media narrative being against the Lions. Before the injuries earlier in the season, they were the Super Bowl favorites. Now with the injuries, experts are picking Minnesota or the Philadelphia Eagles. I think that takes the pressure off the team and they can continue to play their loose, aggressive style. It is so strange to have them play big games during prime time and have the national commentators talking about them all the time! They already have accomplished so much.

14 victories is the most in franchise history, 8 and 0 on road games, #1 offense in the league

• 14 wins is the most in franchise history in a season
• 8 and 0 record in road games (first time in franchise history)
• Two running backs and two wide receivers gaining over 1000 yards in the season (first in NFL history)
• Four players with over 1000 years from scrimmage and at least 7 touchdowns (second team ever, first since 2004)
• Three players with 12 touchdowns or more (fourth time in NFL history)

I can’t wait for the game next week! Go Lions!

Yesterday we visited the Yangiabad Weekend Flea Market. Every time I go there I find interesting items to purchase. There are cool Soviet era, “made in the USSR” antiques. The best find was a functioning Sputnik wind-up men’s razor. The Soviets designed electronics to be durable and repairable, unlike today’s products. I cleaned it and could check the blades. It is missing accessories (brush, second beard trimmer blades) but perhaps I could find them. It cost me $7.75. The middle photo is of a Soviet desk thermometer. It was missing the pen holder and was damaged, so I will look for a better one. Finally, I purchased two Abba records, the one below from 1977.

So many interesting scenes. The market is on the grounds of a former factory. We discovered “Pigeon Alley” (photo below) where men were selling rock doves. They were quite animated and had lots going on. It reminded me of the cock fighting markets of Latin America. In the winter the scene is a bit grim and I forget there is poverty here in Uzbekistan. The government does a good job of not having homeless people, but there are still many people who need assistance. I think for my New Years’ Resolution I will make a pledge to do more to alleviate income inequality and help those less fortunate.

It has been so nice to have our family together again and Nadia and I are spending as much time as we can with them. It is fun just to hang out at home in the evenings, watching movies, making dinner, etc. Our guest Sarah baked gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. Oliver and I loved watching the Fulham FC game in the English Premier League last night. I am looking forward to my trip to London next month.

I took the kids to the Magic City Mall / Amusement Park. Ocean loves amusement parks and it was rewarding to see her happy. Magic City is basically an outdoor shopping mall with a Disney Magic Kingdom facade. I wonder if the developers needed to pay Disney to use aspects of the Disney brand? They also have some amusement park rides and a cinema so it is a good night out with kids. It is next to a big park where I often walk Obi and so I see it a lot but rarely go in. As my readers may know, I loathe the big amusement parks (Disney, Universal Studios) but go to them for my children.

The graphic above from the New York Times got me thinking again about global warming and climate change. Because fossil fuels are so vital to our modern lifestyle, we are not slowing down or stopping adding greenhouse gas emissions to our atmosphere. Global warming will continue through the century. It does not look to be an existential threat and it won’t be happening in my lifetime, but looking long term, I am concerned about the quality of life of my descendants and future generations. I was born in raised in Michigan’s Upper Pensinsula (UP) and as you can see on the map, they had a white Christmas. In speaking with my brother, he is noticing warmer temperatures during the winter and this report from the Washington Post shows the city of Marquette, Michigan, has warmed 0.55 degrees F per decade since 1980. One of the reasons I love the UP is the famous “lake effect” snow from Lake Superior. I always remember snowy winters! However, Lake Superior is rapidly warming, and projections show by the end of the 21st century, it will warm by 5-9 degrees Celsius. This will result in the mid-term (2040-2059) more lake effect snow due to less ice coverage in winter, but it will come in a shorter time frame (February to March). By the late 21st century (2080-2099) there will be a substantial decline in overall snowfall amounts across the Upper Peninsula, projected to be reduced by 30-34%. The lake-effect snow will be confined to mid-to-late winter (January to March). There will be more precipitation, but it will be more rain than snow. The research suggests that while the Upper Peninsula’s famous lake-effect snow won’t disappear entirely, there will likely be a significant reduction in snowfall and a shorter snow season by the end of the century, with the greatest impacts in early and late winter. Central Asia has also seen a decline in snowfall and higher temperatures. As you can see in our back garden, there is not much snow.

I had a nice day yesterday, spending time with my son Oliver between meetings at school. We changed his flight dates so he can spend an additional 3 weeks with us in Tashkent! We stopped at the Korzinka grocery store so he could get his favorite roast chicken and Fuse Tea drink. I also drove him to his friend’s house, just like old times. Driving my children around gives me time with them!

I love the interlude between Christmas and New Years. Partly because I am on flexible/remote working hours and relaxing as much as I can. The gift of time is such a luxury with my busy work schedule. I love being a head of school and wouldn’t want it any other way, but getting some downtime is so nice. One bummer yesterday was the poor air quality as you can see below. It is better today with 185 reading as I am writing this blog post. I am not bothered by poor air quality, but I feel for people who do. A haze was noticeable around the city and I tried to capture it in a photo at a stoplight. The government needs to get on this to improve the lives of Tashkenters.

I made a short video of our trip to the Mirabad Market and family dinner on Boxing Day.

We had a nice Christmas morning with breakfast delivered to the chalet and a few hours of skiing. We only bought lift tickets for the bottom half of the mountain due to the thin snow cover and icy conditions above the snow-making machines. I needed to concentrate with lots of ice patches on the snow. Breakfast was delicious, I love Central Asian porridge. The best thing about the trip was just spending time with the kids. Driving back home reminded us all the road trips we used to take when we were younger.

Nadia and I walked Obi to school while Owen shot baskets in the gymnasium. We then had a nice Christmas dinner with 20 friends at Kaspikya Restaurant, a Russian seafood place in the Tashkent City Mall. It was great to connect with so many people on the holiday. We’ve stopped giving gifts to the children. We paid for them to come to Tashkent, and that is their gift. Christmas is not the same without young children at home, but the gift of time together is more appreciated.

We had a great day on the slopes of Amirsoy and an entertaining evening in the chalet to celebrate Christmas as a family. The resort just opened some of the ski runs on Sunday so we were fortunate to get some of the first skiing of the winter season. There is still not enough snow at the top for all of the courses to be open and the ones that are, have rocky and icy patches. I went down a couple of times, but decided not to tempt fate on my 57-year old body. I spent most of the time working on my technique on the lower parts of the mountain where they have snow machines. Watching Instagram Reels and YouTube videos, I am improving my skiing. I have been an intermediate skier for a long time, and my goal this year is to become better. My big learning for these two days of skiing are to lean into the turns, which is counterintuitive. I always leaned towards the mountain, but it is better balance to dip one’s shoulder away from the mountain and into the turn. This gives better balance to the outside ski. It is amazing how much better I looked by the end of the day. We will ski this morning again before heading back to Tashkent.

The chalets are awesome. We had a fire going, there is a market in the village where we bought a bottle of wine, and we played music on Spotify through the television. We had a lot of laughs and it was fun to spend time with the kids and the Wakefields!

We are staying in a chalet at the Amirsoy Resort for the next few days. It is nice to get out of the city and despite being only 76 kilometers away from our house, it feels like a world away. The slopes opened yesterday so our timing is fortuitous. We arrived this afternoon and tried to rent equipment for tomorrow, but of course, they do not have a system for renting a day in advance. Same for the lift tickets. Uzbekistan is still developing a tourist culture and modernizing and that is the way it goes. We’ll go up tomorrow morning and go through the rental process. Hopefully there will not be a lot of people because the Western Christmas is not celebrated and it is a normal work day.

The resort is guarded by military and police, I am not sure why. I guess it might be close enough to the border? Anyway, they act like military or police, not resort security. I was walking my dog around the resort and was told twice that I was out of bounds, although there are no signs indicated this. I wanted to get a photo at sunset from the helicopter pad, but was not allowed to stand on the flat area.

I love to celebrate solstices and equinoxes. I feel the entire Northern Hemisphere should celebrate these four days the same way as other big holidays. It is amazing to think that yesterday, December 21, (the Winter Solstice), was the day with the shortest amount of daylight: 9 hours, 11 minutes, and 26 seconds. This is 5 hours and 58 minutes shorter than June 21, the Summer Solstice. It is fascinating that the number of daylight hours varies by almost 6 hours at 41 degrees north latitude. Starting today, December 22, the daylight hours lengthen gradually, getting that additional six hours back! Today’s daylight is 2 seconds longer than yesterday, with a 7:45 AM sunrise and 4:57 PM sunset. I photographed the sunrise view from one of our spare bedrooms and the sunset from the bridge over the Ankhor Canal.

The highlight of the day was walking along the Ankhor Canal with our guests, Sarah, Emma, and Beau. Temperatures were pretty much below-freezing the entire day so it was a brisk walk. It is one of my favorite things to do in Tashkent and it was nice to share it with visitors. I love snow and ice! We warmed up by stopping at Bon Cafe for hot chocolates and later on the Tashkent Food Mall. In between taking care of work stuff, I watched the College Football Playoffs, did some yoga and just hung out and talked with my family. A great day!

It was a special day yesterday when my son Owen and some of his TIS alumni friends returned for the holiday break to Tashkent to play against our current boys varsity basketball team. It felt like old times watching him play in the TIS gymnasium. He missed his senior year basketball season because of COVID. Owen plays a lot of basketball at NMU and it showed. The alumni won 63 – 51 and both teams played well. Boys take longer to mature and there is a big difference between men in their early 20s and teenagers.

Due to Christmas falling on a Wednesday this year, we decided to hold classes until Friday, December 20, which is much later than usual. We all pushed through, but definitely it was a long haul since Fall Break and we are all grateful that we are now on holiday for the next three weeks! It is always a hectic finish near the end of the calendar year at school for administrators. I am looking forward to the break to recharge my batteries and spend time with my family and friends.