Category: Family Journal

An archive of our family’s daily life.

Slow Art Day 2011

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Sanja, Nadia, Sara, and Lisa, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Nadia and I attended the “Slow Art Day” event organized by our friend Lisa on Wednesday. Some of the girls are shown above on Kneza Mihailova, the famous walking street in Belgrade. It was a gorgeous sping evening and Nadia enjoyed contemplating the art and we both enjoyed the camardarie and atmosphere of the event.

Slow Art was started by Phil Terry, an internet entrepanuer who wanted to change the “8-second rule” of art museums and galleries. This is the “widely reported statistic that most people spend on average 8 seconds in front a piece of art when visiting a museum.” The idea is to look at a piece for up to 10 minutes and then discuss your interpretations with friends.

Lisa organized several pieces to look at in 5 galleries downtown. Two of the exhibitions were by the same Yugoslavian artist (find name). My favorite was by a Serb-Spaniard, Vecev Vecel. He left Serbia during the war and settled in Mallorca. His exhibition was named 3,727, which refers to the number of days he was outside of Serbia. This was the first time he was back in the country since his family fled. The words in his works are in both Serbian and Spanish.

I didn’t realize how many galleries there are in Belgrade. The city is so full of cultural opportunities. Thanks to Lisa for putting it together!

Kralovecs Run in Belgrade Half Marathon

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Race Favorites, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

Today we ran in the Belgrade Marathon for the third time. We stopped for a photo before the race with the other race favorite, a guy from Ethiopia. It is always nice for the elite runners to get together before the race. I am not sure if he won.

It was a gorgeous spring day! We both finished the race as well as our friends in photo, Michael, Lisa, and Bruce. Nadia and I enjoyed the views of the city and cruised home with 2:09 and 2:05 respectively.

Riding Bikes to School

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Owen and Tata, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.

All last week Owen and I rode our bikes to school. I’ve enjoyed talking with him on the way to school and showing him how to navigate through the city. We live 1 mile from school and there in not much traffic through our part of the city. It is some quality father-son time as we have time to talk. I can’t wait for Oliver to get good enough to join us. It is an great way to start the day. We hope to continue for the rest of the year.

Tulips in Bloom

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Despite the 40 degree F (4C) temperatures this morning and overcast gloom today, we have had a decent spring in Belgrade. I planted these tulip bulbs in November that Nadia bought in Amsterdam on our way over to Belgrade last August. They really came out in full force with almost 100% blooming this year. Tulips are Nadia’s favorite flower and I am happy to see that she can enjoy them for a few weeks on our balcony.

Ocean is shown below on the balcony last weekend. She chooses her clothes and dresses herself. Nice choice with the Olivia Newton John-esque outfit.

Owen Peforms At Talent Show

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Yesterday Owen played his guitar for the Lower School Talent Show. Owen played three songs – Oh Susanna / Ode to Joy / Smoke On the Water. The entire school sang Ode to Joy with him and he let loose a bit with the Deep Purple cover finale. We were so proud of him!!! Nadia organized the show and it was really nice. Click on the play button to see and hear his set.

Bath Time Fun

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Oliver and Ocean were so cute last night in the bubble bath I had to take a picture. I can’t put them on the internet, but this one above is adorable. Ollie and Ocean have fun together in the bath although they do splash a lot of water on the floor. It is enjoyable to watch them interact in a positive manner. That is not fighting over a toy, etc.

Spring Has Sprung

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I know it is a cliche, but I had to use it for the temperatures this weekend. April is the finest month for weather in Belgrade and we are taking full advantage of the perfect temperatures and spectacular light conditions. It also means the start of baseball season and I usually do a blog post on the Detroit Tigers. I am shown above pitching to my son Oliver. It is one of my fondest memories of growing up was my family’s Sunday afternoon batting practice. My mom and dad used to take us up to the nearby Caspian ball field and pitch to us. We all played Little League Baseball and my Mom especially was an avid Detroit Tigers baseball fan. All I hope for every year is for the Tigers to contend for a Division Title to make the season interesting. Luckily, they have a good owner that has the tenth highest payroll in the Majors (30 teams total) and although the hated Yankees have a payroll twice as much as the Tigers, it is still enough to field a decent team.

The Tigers have two of the best players in baseball. Justin Verlander is always a Cy Young Candidate and a dominant starting pitcher that gives the team a very good chance to win every few days. Miguel Cabrera is a monster hitter. The huge Venezuelan could lead the league in RBI’s and homeruns and is an MVP candidate. The Tigers added Victor Martinez, another Venezuelan, from the Boston Red Sox which should help. It all depends on the others however, because of the long 162-game season. They have many question marks with the pitchers other than Verlander. They also need some other players, like lead-off batter Austin Jackson, outfielder Ryan Rayburn and others to contribute. So far they are 1-4 and not off to a good start. I predict that they will win the Central Division with 90 wins, in a close race with the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins. All three teams look about equal and I especially fear the Twins because they are so well coached. My other picks for the AL are the Yankees winning the East, with the Boston Red Sox and the Wild Card, and in a surprise, the Oakland A’s winning the west. In the National League, I am predicting the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, St. Louis Cardinals in the central, and the SF Giants in the west with the Colorado Rockies as the wild card. It will be the Tigers and Giants in the World Series with the Tigers winning in six games. Of course I have to pick my favorite team to win it all.

Owen is really into baseball and Ollie is getting used to it. As you can see, Oliver bats from the left side naturally as a right-hander and Owen, a left-hander, bats naturally from the right side. There is no Little League Baseball program here in Serbia and while the kids are young, it is okay that they are just playing with me in the yard. There is a baseball diamond at Ada Ciganlija and I hope to eventually start a program at the school for kids.

 I also want to keep them playing soccer and tennis. Fitness and exercise are important to Nadia and I and we want to give that gift to our children.

Serbia 911 (or should I say 94)

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This weekend I took a refresher course in first aid and CPR with a group of colleagues from the school. Our school physician, Dr. Lilly, brought us down to the City Institute for Emergency Medical Aid (Gradski Zavod Za Hitnu Medicinsku Pomoć 94). As you can see, the building is a bit run down, but it has a fleet of around 100 ambulances with a staff of paramedics, nurses, and doctors on call. The “911” number here in Belgrade “94” which you can see in the title of the Institute. I also learned that “92” is the police department and “93” is the fire department. And “95” is to get the time, which in the age of cell phones is a relic. I remember growing up, my brothers and I thought it was the coolest thing to call the automated time “8212” in my village of Michigan. I don’t want to give this number to the kids yet, because they will be calling it all the time.

A "Yugo" Emergency Medicine Vehicle

 They even had a couple Zastava vehicles as you can see in the photo above. The Zastava company is the Fiat/Yugoslavia(Serbian) company most famous in the US for producing the Yugo back in the 1980’s. You still see a lot of Zastava cars here in Belgrade and people make a lot of jokes about them. I could do a bunch of blog posts on the beloved Yugo and the other cars from the Communist Era.

It was a good course to do because I haven’t done one in about 10 years. The CPR rhythm has changed from 15 pumps / 2 breaths to 30 pumps / 2 breaths. I also learned how to use a defibrillator and the importance that all schools should have one handy, although they are expensive. We also reviewed what to do in a variety of emergency situations and we all earned a certificate after the class. I would like to thank Lilly and the team at the Institute for giving the course. I also learned some Serbian phrases “Ne diše” (He/She is not breathing.) and “bez svesti” (without consciousness) to help me with the 94 call. I’ll go over the numbers with my family so everyone knows. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it, but it is good to know.

Bike Riding Fever Hits the Kralovec Boys

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Oliver is shown above riding his bike at Ada Ciganlija this weekend. He comes home everyday from school and goes directly to his bike to ride up and down our “L-shaped” street. Owen learned to “skid-out” his bike last night. He is turning into a real “dude.” The boys ride up and down and Ocean tags along in her tricycle. It will be great to get the whole family biking. When we head to the bike trails at Ada, we still need to rent a “rickshaw” or bike carrier. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to ride the bikes a bit more and go over to New Belgrade where there are plenty of new trails to explore.

Kralovecs Run Novi Sad Half Marathon

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Today we ran in the 18th Annual Novi Sad Half Marathon. Novi Sad is the second city of Serbia and is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. Conditions were perfect with cool overcast skies, with temperatures in the 60’s and a very flat course. I finished in 153rd place (out of 295) and ran a personal best 1 hour 44 minutes and 42 seconds.My previous best was last year in Budapest when I ran a 1:57.  

Nadia broke 2:00 hours again and finished with a with a 1 hour 58 minutes and 31seconds. This was good for a 238 place. Our friend Eric also broke two hours with a time of 1:51 and another ISB Harrier, Georganne ran 1:30.  

The course was a bit monotanous as it looped back on itself several times. I liked that it was completely flat. It also started and ended in the beautiful central plaza. We took the nanny and kids and they had a good time at the McDonald’s, or the Team USA pre- & post- race training center. We used the race as a warm-up to next month’s Belgrade Marathon. I hope to complete a racing trifecta by also doing the Skopje, Macedonia Marathon in May.

One of the race sponsors was the cheese company, Biser. They gave the kids Novi Sad Marathon shirts and Ocean, who loves cheese, was so excited to meet “Sir Milan.” I called him that as a take on Sponge Bob. Sir is Serbian for cheese, and Milan is a common Serbian name.