Author: billkralovec

I am interested in how Georgia became an unlikely Christian nation. It shares borders with several Islamic cultures, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and Chechnya. From what I read, the answer is that it became Christian before Islam started and the Georgians identified with religion, even while being ruled by foreign powers (Persians, Mongols, and Arabs). It is amazing that they held on to the Orthodox Church through over 1,300 years of rule by non-Christian empires. The Orthodox Christian Church has been the official religion of Georgia since King Mirian announced it in 337 CE (AD). Why did he do this? Since this happened 1,689 years ago and with no records, it is, of course, a legend. The story goes like this:

Nino was a woman who grew up in the Cappadocia region of what is now Turkey. This was before the Turks came to Anatolia and before Islam started, and most likely, Nino spoke Greek as a mother tongue. It is speculated that she was raised in the early Eastern Christian faith, as this was one of the early centers of Christianity. The Virgin Mary came to her in a vision/dream and gave her a cross made from grapevines. She tied the cross together with her own hair and, being so inspired, went to Georgia to proselytize there. While in the ancient capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, she was preaching and performing miracles and healing the sick. She cured King Miriam’s wife, Queen Nana, from an undiagnosed illness that the royal physicians could not. That was not enough to convert King Mirian, though, until one day he was struck blind while hunting. In shock, he called out to “Nino’s God,” and his sight was restored. From that day, he became a fervent Christian and hence, made his kingdom of Georgia Christian, too. 

Nino continued to spread Christianity in Georgia until she died in 340 CE in Bodbe, Georgia, where there is a monastery in her name today. I am going to explore her story and during the trip, I am learning about the Georgian Orthodox religion. The original grapevine cross is located in the Sioni Cathedral near our hotel here in Tbilisi. When I asked one of the priests where the Saint Nino cross was, he pointed behind him. It is only shown to the public on special occasions. I would guess it will be on display on her feast day on January 14.

Saint Nino erected a cross on the site of the Jvari Monastery after converting King Mirian to Christianity. The original wooden cross became a pilgrimage site. The current church on the site was built between 590 and 605 CE (AD) and is a masterpiece in early Georgian Christian architecture. The word jvari means cross in Georgian. It is located on a stunning promontory overlooking Mtskheta. It is absolutely beautiful and was the highlight of our trip yesterday. The place could easily be the Castle Greyjoy scene in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Another interesting legend associated with the Georgian Church is that Christ’s robe is said to be buried underneath the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. A Georgian Jew, Elias, was present at Jesus’s crucifixion and took Jesus’s robe before he was crucified. He brought it back to his home in Mtskheta and showed his sister, Sidonia. When she grasped it, she was so overwhelmed that she instantly died while holding the robe and her grasp could not be unlocked. She was buried holding the robe. 

A large cedar tree grew over her grave, and the locals regarded it as sacred. When Saint Nino arrived at the place, she ordered that a church be built on the spot, and workers cut the cedar to make pillars for the new church. One of the pillars reportedly levitated in the air and “performed miracles” before being set into place with the other cedar pillars. The cathedral’s name, Svetitskhoveli means “Life-giving Pillar” in English. The cathedral still stands, and there is a marker where Sidonia’s grave was located and frescoes depicting the miracles. No official excavation of the site has been undertaken to search for the robe or the grave. The inside of the church was breathtaking and had a more relaxed vibe than the other churches we visited so far on the trip so we took a lot of photos.

It was a beautiful day with the family and we are really enjoying our time in Georgia. We finished the day by having dinner here at the hotel. We are heading to the wine region later today for two nights before we return to Tbilisi.

We had a quiet day recovering from travel, sightseeing, and a late dinner on Friday. I managed to tour the Tbilisi Botanical Gardens located in a deep gorge below Narikala Fortress. The garden sits in a deep gorge below Narikala Fortress, following the Tsavkisis-Tskali River. The canyon walls probably provide a microclimate and protect the extensive collection inside. I walked through most of the gardens and a long waterfall and views of the city were the highlights. A layer of snow on the ground made everything look even more scenic.

The gardens date back to 1845 and house close to 5,000 different plant species. I particularly enjoyed the Eastern Georgia and Coniferous sections. I didn’t realize the Himalayan Pines (Pinus wallichiana) could get so big. They were planted all over Belgrade and I only saw smaller versions. It is one of the most beautiful pine trees in my opinion. It was a good workout for me walking up and down the sides of the canyon. The waterfall was still flowing, but large ice chunks were forming.

In the afternoon, we went shopping at the AgroHub grocery store. Nadia loves grocery shopping in foreign countries! I took a long nap before we went to Ambrosiano Restaurant for dinner for the second consecutive night. We are loving hanging out and talking with Oliver and Ocean! We laughed a lot on an after-dinner walk through the streets of Tbilisi. There is a lot of good nightlife here.

It was a relatively smooth travel day from Tashkent to Tbilisi, Georgia, yesterday. Our 8:05 AM Uzbekistan Airways 3-hour flight departed on time, and only high winds caused a bit of turbulence as we descended into the airport. After sorting out our rental car, we, of course, stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. We started to notice that there are many dogs roaming the city, including the McDonald’s parking lot. They must be sanctioned by city officials because they have yellow ear tags and are generally docile. There was a dog house in the parking lot, and they must survive on a combination of handouts from the general public and either the city or citizens adopting to feed them.

The countryside, including the snow-capped Caucasus Mountains are beautiful! There are patches of snow and ice on the ground that make it even more scenic. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and went to the Galeria Tbilisi to buy socks and underwear for our son Oliver. We want to take care of our middle son and because he is studying in Wisconsin and so far away, we are devoting much of the Winter Break with supporting him. I just love spending time with him! It is great to have another male in the house again.

In the afternoon I went for a walk across the Kura River to see the Metekhi Church of the Nativity and the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi. I am fascinated with the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Mostly because Georgia and neighboring Armenia are Christian nations on the edge of the Islamic sphere. Why did they convert to and maintain practicing Christianity in this part of the world? Orthodox Churches more so than Catholic Churches, inspire that sense of beauty and awe upon entering. The high domes, the gilded icons, the smell of incense, and monotone singing in the background raise that sense of the sublime and the power of God into one’s consciousness. It was very peaceful and awesome in the true sense of the word (inspiring awe). I like going to Christian churches as well because it reminds me of my parents and my childhood, being raised in a Catholic family.

The highlight of our first day in Tbilisi was dinner at Ambrosiano Restaurant. We had such a good meal it inspired me to write a review on Google and TripAdvisor. “A delightful meal and some of the best ravioli I have ever eaten! A 10/10 rating from our family. The restaurant is in a converted apartment from the Soviet era and has a cozy, elegant atmosphere. The restaurant was fully booked, but the maître ‘d found us a table in the foyer. Delicious red sauce, pasta cooked to perfection, and the prosciutto pizza was divine. To top it off, the house red wines (Saperavi and Qindzmarauli) were smooth and complex. I highly recommend it, make reservations, it is quite busy.”

The highlight of my New Year’s Day was playing basketball with Oliver and some TIS alumni and current players. The Open Gym attracted eight players, including Ollie’s former classmate, Mukhammed. I really enjoy watching Oliver compete in sports and after his Veteran’s Day attendance of the Milwaukee Bucks game last month, he is into basketball. He played well and his team won 4-3 in a seven-game series of games. I played 1-on-1 against Oliver and a short time, 3-on-3 while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. I was the referee of the full-court games. At my age, I try not to play too many team sports to avoid injury.

Of course, we needed to check out Oliver’s soccer championship banners hanging on the gym walls and his Junior Varsity Cross-Country Running Record on a bulletin board in the foyer. He completed the cross-country Junior Varisty Race at the Tashkent Botanical Gardens in 17:45 in November of 2020. His soccer teams were the greatest in school history with back-to-back Central Asian Soccer Classic championships in 2022 and 2023. With us leaving Tashkent in June, this will likely be the last time Oliver visits Tashkent and the school.

I get a lot of satisfaction from coaching sports, and it was so nice to interact with some of my current and former players during Winter Break.

It was a cold but thankfully dry New Year’s Day. I did yoga in the morning and explored the Olympic Park on bicycle in the afternoon. The complex was originally scheduled to host the Asian Games in September, but it was not ready. It is still not open to the public, but most of the sports facilities are completed. There is a new road around the complex and the new airport. As with other areas of Tashkent, the growth and development of residential and business infrastructure make the place unrecognizable. Thanks to the New Year’s Day holiday, there were hardly any cars at all, and I had a fantastic and fast 21-kilometer bike ride. I hope it opens to the public in the spring before I leave.

I am looking forward to the Inner Dimension Yoga “60 for 60” program. I did the first session entitled “Intention” yesterday. The program consists of approximately 60 minutes of yoga for 60 consecutive days. At the core of the program is Power Yoga, which was developed in the 1990s from the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga from 2500 years ago. It translates from Sanskrit to “8-limbed yoga practice with breath-linked flowing movements” in English. It essentially means smoothly transitioning between poses while maintaining focus on one’s breathing. Modern Power Yoga uses poses to increase strength, balance, flexibility, stamina, and cardio in one session. Travis also focuses on the mental health aspects of yoga through posting short meditation videos (10-15 minutes) and encouraging participants to be aware of their breathing. Every session has an inspirational message or theme. In 2026, one of my themes will be eliminating the clutter of digital media to focus my attention on what I think is important.

I will be capturing life in Tashkent and Uzbekistan over the next six months as I end my time working at Tashkent International School in June. I took the photograph on the left of the ubiquitous cotton boll logo that you still see all over the city. Back when Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union (Uzbek SSR) this emblem was its main symbol when it produced 70% of the USSR’s cotton. Uzbekistan is moving away from the monoculture of cotton production. The country has a desert climate, and cotton needs a lot of water. It has damaged the environment here, especially the Aral Sea in the west of the country. Water for agricultural and inefficient irrigation schemes has stopped the flow of the two major rivers in the Aral Sea. Climate change means a hotter and drier Central Asia, which is not helping the water problems that will only get bigger in the future. Uzbekistan is still the world’s sixth-largest producer of cotton ($2.31 billion in exports), but the economy is diversifying, and total cotton field acreage has significantly decreased. The cotton symbol is part of Uzbekistan’s history and heritage and is featured on today’s coat of arms. The 8-pointed star was also taken from this symbol, signifying unity. In the center of the current coat of arms is the mythical “Khumo” bird, with ironically, the two major rivers (Amu and Syr Darya) representing life-giving water sources. The Humo comes from Persian mythology, representing wisdom, healing, and divine blessing. The Russians refered to it as Семург (Semurg), based on the Persian name rather than the Turkic name the Uzbeks use.

We had a quiet New Year’s Eve this year by celebrating at home, watching television with Oliver and Ocean. I didn’t make it to midnight, falling asleep around 11:00 PM. Nadia and I had a nice day together, working out together in the TIS gym with her trainer Svetlana and hanging out at home. The weather was miserable all day with rain, sleet, and snow from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. I went for a 6-kilometer walk after doing yoga in the evening and snapped the photo below in front of the Piramit Tower and Mall. It is not open to the public yet. Central Asians love lighting their buildings, trees, and light posts in the evenings. The building to the right is adjacent to the Piramit Tower and I think it is a business center.

We are loving relaxed family time together here in Tashkent for our Winter Break. Oliver and I went for another bike ride yesterday as temperatures got into the high 60s F. Quite a change from the snow and cold last week. The New Years holiday started today in Tashkent with local schools not in session until next Monday. The Mirobod Bazaar market was full of holiday shoppers and New Year’s Baskets for sale. The middle photo below is an all too common sight on the streets of Tashkent. Many Uzbeks drive at reckless speeds and there are many accidents like this one you come across in the city. The warm weather is much appreciated!

We visited the viewing deck of the Tashkent Television Tower. I don’t recommend it. The $8 admission price only gets you about midway up the tower. All the rooms smell moldy, and the observation windows could be better designed. We stopped at the Ukrainian Butcher shop to get pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches Nadia is making today for us.

We are looking forward to New Years Eve and our trip next week to Georgia!

Nadia and visiting Pangyo, South Korea, in September was my fifth visit to South Korea. When we lived in Japan, I attended twice for head of school meetings (Busan, Pangyo) and twice as a family while we were in transit, leaving Japan.

Our hosts took us to visit the city of Suwon (수원), 30 kilometers south of Seoul, to see both the modern and ancient sites of the famous city. As you can see in the photo above, the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace (화성행궁) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the late 1790s by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty. It was a temporary palace used when he visited Suwon to pay respects to his father’s tomb. He planned to move the capital to Suwon, but did not accomplish it. The Japanese destroyed the site when they occupied Korea. Local officials painstakingly reconstructed the site to its original glory. It reminded us of a smaller version of the Forbidden City in Beijing. That makes sense since the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) governance was based on Neo-Confucion principles, including “rigourous civil service examinations”. I guess over 500 years of this shaped the exam and competitive academic environment of South Korea today.

We watched actors in traditional Korean clothing perform a martial arts dance for tourists. I also played the traditional game of Yut Nori (윷놀이) as an homage to Squid Games. As you can see from the video below, I would have been eliminated. Today, the city of Suwon is home to the Samsung Headquarters and 1.2 million people. We went for lunch and a coffee in the artsy and cute city streets near the fortress. Again, it felt similar to Japan in tourist area and we didn’t see many foreign visitors. I wish we had more time to explore some of the hiking trails to the nearby mountain peaks.

I am not sure when the next time I’ll get to visit the country. With so many Koreans in Tashkent, I follow the country closely due to my friends and school community members.

I am catching up on blogging during the Winter Break. Writing and reflecting on my experiences helps me make sense of the world and leaves a record for future generations of my family. This semester I conducted a job search as this is my last year in Tashkent. It felt like a second job, filling out cover letters, researching schools, preparing for interviews, and then all the correspondence. It is exciting, stressful, and always develops me professionally. I learn a lot from other schools and, more importantly, myself. The job search process crystallizes what I value in education and brings my leadership strengths and areas for growth to the forefront. I always wanted to try this with faculty and staff. Ask them to interview each other with the instructions of the interviewee: What special talents and strengths do you bring to the classroom and the school? It gets people out of their usual routines of preparing for teaching.

In mid-September, Nadia and I visited Pangyo, South Korea, for several days on one of the interview trips I did as a finalist for potential schools. Pangyo is a suburb of Seoul and is the Silicon Valley of Korea. Over 1,300 tech companies are headquartered there. It was a planned “eco-city” when it was developed in 2003 to alleviate the housing crunch in the adjacent Gangnam district. It certainly was green with trails along the Tan Cheon (Tan River) and the lush forested Cheonggye San, Geumto San, and Bara San mountains surrounding the city.

We enjoyed the elegance and development of East Asia. Prior to coming to Uzbekistan, we lived in Osaka, Japan, and we find the two countries to be quite similar. Nadia bought a juicer that she accidentally burned on the 220-volt outlet when we first arrived in Tashkent. On our rest day after an overnight flight, we visited a nearby mall for lunch and shopping. Everything is perfect in East Asia and we joke sometimes it feels like we are on a movie set. In our two trips to the 8-floor mall and walking around the city, we didn’t see any foreigners in the entire trip outside of the school. Korea is much quieter than Tashkent. We love the cuisine, nature, sophistication, and politeness of the culture of Korea. With our Latino/American background, however, the tightness of East Asian cultures sometimes causes us stress.

I would like to thank our hosts, the Korea International School. The hospitality and logistics were outstanding and had a delightful time learning more about the school and the city.

Oliver and I had quite the adventure on a late afternoon bike ride in Tashkent last week. While cycling along a side or minor canal, we came across a dog chained to a house that was a few meters from the canal. I am familiar with the dog because in our former house in Tashkent, I often walked by him on this same canal. I always walked on the opposite side of the canal to avoid trouble because the dog looked quite fierce. The dog would always bark and try to break his chains in rage at the sight of me and Obi. This time, however, we were on bikes, and the opposite side is loose stones and not apt for cycling, so we rode on the side of the dog. I thought we could squeeze by between the dog and the edge of the canal. When we were near the dog, it leapt out and bit my pant leg and tore a hole in my pants. Thankfully, it was mostly pants that the dog’s teeth sank into, and I was left only with an abrasion. The dog would not let go until I pushed him off. I collected my composure and went after the dog using my bike as a guard. I was so angry at the dog. Suddenly, a woman comes out of the house with a big knife and starts yelling at me. I was yelling at her for not training her dog better and for blocking a public pathway. Oliver calmed everyone down, and we went on our way. I went back a couple of days later and took the photograph of the house below. The dog was not there.

I hope she was working in the kitchen and came out to see what the commotion was, and not specifically grabbed a knife to stab me. It is a very poor, industrial part of Tashkent. I guess the dog is there for protection, although there is not much crime in Tashkent. I feel sorry that the dog is being tied up all day and not cared for properly. As a precautionary measure, I went to hospital #1 for a rabies booster, mostly to calm Nadia than the risk of rabies. TIC was kind to support us and sent along a nurse to assist with translation.

The economy continues to boom here in Tashkent. The rate of new building projects is amazing and changing the skyline of the city profoundly. Below is a mixed-use (residential, commercial) “Piramit Tower” shown below. The size and distinctive lighting make it an iconic part of the skyline. I walked to it from our house with Obi the other night since we see it all the time. The Turkish Koç Holding Company built the 215-meter, 48-floor, $150 million dollar building, making it the second-tallest building in the city after the Nest One development. There are 240 offices, 398 apartments, 96 retail shops, and an InterContinental Hotel to boot. I want to check it out sometime soon.

Nadia went all out to prepare a sumptuous Christmas dinner feast for us. We had a baked ham, dressing, Bolivian corn salad, and a dessert of apple pie and ice cream. Ocean loves Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner fare! It was so funny to watch her eat. We laughed a lot while taking photos. At dinner, we went around the table and said something nice about each family member. Owen was sleepy, but joined us from Costa Rica via FaceTime. These holiday family dinners are so special to Nadia and me. I want to thank her for being the engine that drives our family time.

Ocean, Oliver, and I rode our bicycles along the Ankhor Canal. It was their gift to me, and I happily guilted them into spending time with me. It was a bit cold and gray, but fortunately dry. Conditions were good for biking, with only a couple of patches of ice/snow left. As I write this a couple days later, there is very little snow left from the storms we had last week. You don’t know how many more Christmas holidays we will have with the kids, so savoring the day and time with them.