An archive of our family’s daily life.
Oceanćs First Tobaggan Run, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
I promise not to do too many “kids in the snow” photo and video posts this year. I couldn’t resist however last weekend. We took the kids to Košutnjak Hill for some tobogganning. Ocean went down solo for the first time. She doesn’t like the snow as much as she does the water.
We really enjoyed the big snowfall and hopefully, more snow is on the way.
I made another moving run, taking a full car of stuff from our old apartment to the new place. Nadia organized a bit in the kitchen and the place is really coming into shape. I reckon in another week, we’ll be finished with the move. I took the boys to our intrasquad basketball scrimmage and afterwards, fellow coach Eric Sands hosted both the boys and girls’ basketball teams for a get-together. The high school students are always great with my children. My kids are exposed to a variety of cultures and interests. Shahaf a grade nine student, shown below, taught the boys a bit on the piano. After basketball season, I plan to take piano lessons, and after seeing Oliver last night, perhaps him too. It would be good to get our family playing music together.
Yesterday Belgrade received a decent snow! It was only the second snowfall of the winter, the first being right before we left for Bahrain, on December 18th. I can’t wait to go outside and play with the kids today! I will definitely be posting photos our our family winter fun. Nadia, Oliver, and Owen are shown above walking to the car. Our new apartment building is in the background.
We will be finishing our move this weekend also (hopefully). We moved suburbs, going from Senjak to Dedinje. The suburb of Dedinje, which means “Old Man’s HIll” (note that deda is grandfather or old man in Serbian), is the most exclusive, and in my opinion, the most interesting neighborhood in Belgrade. The area reminds me somewhat of Gross Pointe, in suburban Detroit. That is a nice thing about teaching overseas – educators can live in the nicest neighborhoods in the city. In the US, our middle class salaries put us in more modest areas.
Anyway, Dedinje is interesting because of all the history that has occured here. The suburb is located on the slopes of Topcider Hill, and was home to the city’s rich and elite for many generations. After World War II, Tito and the communists came in and occupied the mansions and villas of the old money families of Belgrade. Later, ex Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and other shady characters like Arkan, moved in. I’ll be posting about the various aspects of the suburb for the next couple of years. Our apartment is quite modest compared to the diplomatic residences and other mansions around us. It is very comfortable however, and we’re very happy to be in a newer and better constructed apartment. We are just off the main drag of the suburb, ulica Užička. (ulica is street in Serbian, and Užiče is a city in southern Serbia)
Owen & Oliver, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
We’ve been quite busy since our return to Belgrade last weekend. It was a busy start to the school year with getting the second semester off and running and coaching basketball. Outside of school, our time has been devoted to moving apartments. After 2+ years in Senjak, we are moving to a different suburb. I’ll be blogging about the move and our new home later this month. Above, Owen and Oliver are shown playing our first soccer game at our new apartment. We should be in the house this week.
As you can see, there is no snow on the ground. Temperatures have been quite warm, and it is strange to have such a green winter. All is well and I should have more time to blog later this week.
I am catching up on my blog posting from Bahrain.
In the morning we organized our clothes and de-cluttered Marita’s apartment. I spent most of the time attacking an Acacia tree in her back garden. I cut off some branches near the ground to allow the plants underneath to flourish as well as make it look more like a tree and less like a bush. We also cleaned out a lot of the dead vegetation. I asked why she didn’t develop her back garden more and put some picnic tables and chairs out there. She replied that December is about the only time of the year that one can spend quality time outside as it is extremely hot and dusty most of the year. The backyard does look much nicer and I’ll finish up tomorrow.
We went out for a big lunch at a restaurant called Al Abraaj. The food was spectacular! I highly recommend the restaurant, and there are five of them on the island. I had the stuffed “hammour” fillet, which I believe was catfish. The typical Middle Eastern starters and salads were also great. The Turkish bread with the dips labnah, hommos, and mutabal were delicious. The most interesting thing about the restaurant were the curtains in front of each booth. They have curtains so the Bahraini women can take off their head dress and eat without other men seeing them. This does not include the Indian and Bangladeshi waiters.
In the late afternoon my brother-in-law and I played tennis on the hard courts of the Riffa Views International School. I haven’t played a tough opponent in years and it showed. I enjoyed the workout however, and want to play more while I am here.
My Christmas spirit has completely gone. In Serbia with the snow, cold, and the live Christmas tree, I was totally into it. But with coming to the Persian Gulf desert, the Christmas spirit has fizzled out. I hope to regain a bit as we approach Christmas day. Still no internet and I’m dying without it.
On our second day on the island, we got outside of Manama. We are staying in the area known as Riffa, which is one of the southern suburbs of Manama. After a morning of skateboarding on the streets of the Riffa Views gated community, we took the kids to Al Jazayer Beach. The beach is located on the south west coast of the island. We was a decent beach for kids. The water was clear and shallow, perfect for kids. There was plenty of playground equipment and the beach was generally free of litter. There were also shade structures and trees to set up a picnic area.
It was strange to see women on the beach in their full “ninja”, or black robes. The only people swimming were foreigners, besides us there was a British family. The closet the locals came to swimming, were two women getting their feet wet. I also saw a family stop what they were doing, face Mecca and pray into the setting sun. No one bothered us and we had a spirited game of beach soccer followed by rock throwing into the water. It was my first time swimming in the Persian Gulf. The water was cold and salty. It must be refreshing in the Bahrain summer. Yesterday tempertures were in 70’s.
Last night, my brother-in-law and I went for drinks in downtown Manama. We went to the Hard Rock Café and a club known as F1. The Hard Rock was exactly what they are all over the world. There were no women in the place, however, and a couple of Bahrainis in their robes and headdress drinking beer. There was a live band in the F1, playing covers ranging from Metalllica to Lady Gaga. There were close to hundred “professional” girls, mostly from China. Several approached our tables to offer their services, which we politely refused. They were charging anywhere from 100 to 300 dollars per night. It was very sad that they had to do this to make a living.
There certainly a lot of money around here with Cadillac and BMW dealerships galore and spectacular sky scrapers. I’m still trying to understand the traditional clothes of Arabs. I associated the robes with the desert, camels, and tents, not driving Hummers and walking through air-conditioned malls. I also see some Bahrainis dressed “western” and others in traditional gear. I want to know if there are certain days or occasions that they were the robes.
Hermes & Bill, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
My father-in-law, Hermes and I are shown above in our new Arabian outfits. We purchased these our first day in the Persian Gulf Sheikdom of Bahrain. I wore mine around the mall and received many positive comments from the Bahrainis. One gentleman fixed my head dress and two women approached me in the traditional black and raised her eyebrows (it was all I could see of them) and said “nice.”
I’ve had problems connecting to the internet, but will try to post more photos and commentary during my time here in Bahrain. Below is an introduction to the country I wrote and my Day One journal.
I am spending the Christmas and New Year’s Holiday in Bahrain. Bahrain is a small, flat, sandy island, about 3 times larger than Washington DC, located just off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. It is one of the “Gulf Sheikdoms” which are small island nation-states ruled by a separate ruling families. All of the sheikdoms are Arabs that have close ties to the Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain differs from the others in that it is considered the poor sister, when compared to Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Although it is poorer than its neighbors, it is still very rich compared to other parts of the world. Oil was first discovered on the island 80 years ago, but has now run out. They have moved to more of a service industry, they now rely on financiers, developers, retirees, and tourists which they have tried to attract. They also have a large US military base on the north part of the island which also probably brings in significant income. They host one of the races on the Formula One circuit.
It is tough at times to actually see a Bahraini on the island. There are thousands of imported workers from India, Bangladesh, China, and Nepal. They are the contractors, accountants, domestic employees, manual laborers, etc. who basically do everything. I do see Bahrainis driving really nice cars, talking on cell phones, and sitting around drinking coffee.
Compared to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is quite liberal. In Saudi, the citizens adhere to a type of Islam called “Wahhabism.” Wahhabism began in the 1700s by a puritanical preacher by the same name. He believed that Islam was degenerating and should become more strict and conservative. His family had strong ties to the ruling Saud family, as they still do today. With the influx of petrol dollars and increased communication, there creates an impossible choice for them between the fundamentalism of Wahhabism and a total Western lifestyle. The Bahrainis have done it better by being more open and accepting of foreign influences than the Saudis. The Saudis come to Bahrain to have some fun and it is sometimes known as the Las Vegas of the Gulf. It is still quite conservative here however, and you see all of women covered in black, some including the face except the eyes. I even saw one completely covered, even gloves and only two small holes for the eyes.
We are staying with my sister-in-law who works at the Riffa Views International School. Riffa Views is one of the many gated communities on the island. It is one of the most exclusive with a golf course designed by Colin Montgomery and beautiful homes. The school is spectacular with a swimming pool, tennis courts, a huge gymnasium, and modern classrooms and common areas.
Bahrain however, is not an Arizona in the gulf. They do have their issues with the royal family being Sunni and the majority of the population being Shiite. Oil has run out and with the global recession, they have taken a step backwards. It is an interesting place to have a holiday and a part of the world I’ve never been to. It is also good to know many of the locals to get an insight into the culture. I’ll be blogging from here the next several weeks.
Bahrain Journal – Day One
We are having a wonderful time! It is nice to see my sister-in-law, nephew, father-in-law and a former roommate. It is nice to be around extended family during Christmas. We are staying in the Riffa Views gated community. The desert light and landscape were a shock to my system coming from a snowy and tree-filled Belgrade. We arrived at 3:00 AM so we slept in a bit. Nadia, Marita and I went for a run about the compound and the kids played at the school.
In the afternoon we visited the Sheik’s camel farm. He owns 450 camels and the stables are open to the public. I’ve never seen that many camels before. I observed a couple of strange behaviors with the camels and if there are any experts out there, please comment on this post. The first was they would make a strange gurgling sound and a bladder of some sort would come out of their mouth like a balloon. They also spent a lot of time chewing on the knee joint of their front legs. Why do they do this? There was a large team of Indians taking care of the camels and it looked like they lived on the site in some makeshift sheds in the back. The stables are open to the public and one can easily approach the camels. In one corral, I approached a 4-day old camel, and mom quickly came over and gave me a warning grunt and stared me down. I quickly removed myself from the situation, understanding loud and clear, not to be a target of a mother’s wrath. It must be expensive to feed and care for that many camels. I wonder what they are used for? I read where they do have camel races. The camels also had only one hump, (look on google the species name and habitat)
We also went to one of the shopping malls in the city. Hermes and I bought the local traditional dress (look more up on this>) I kept it on and walked around the mall. I received several unsolicited comments from Bahrainis. They were very complimentary, even two women approached me and said “nice” when I was in the food court. One guy even stopped and helped me adjust the head dress properly, so I looked like the “big boss” who is the head of Bahrain. It felt strange to wear the outfit in public, but it also felt elegant. One carries themselves differently when dress in a robe. I was a bit tentative to do this, because I wasn’t sure it was a sign of disrespect. It turned out to be very respectful and the locals appreciated my attempt to understand and participate in Arab culture. I am not sure if I’ll get another chance to wear it. I cannot wear it in Europe or America. I’ll have to put in on a couple more times while I am here.
Oliver is shown above yesterday morning in our yard. We finally got some of the white stuff (sneg is Serbian for snow) and we love it. Today is snowed lightly for most of the day so the trees have a pretty covering of snow. After all those years in the tropics, I am loving the change of seasons and especially the snow. If one dresses warm, there are no worries about cold weather or snow. I had an exhilarating run yesterday. We also have had several excellent snowball fights.
Oliver is shown above watching a video message from Santa Claus this morning. Unfortunately, my battery died about halfway through the message, but his expressions were priceless! Nadia found a great website to send the kids’ letters to Santa and he’ll respond to you in a personalized video message. When Oliver heard Santa call his name and talk about him, he almost flipped. Santa asked him to be a good boy and he was the first one dressed and in the car this morning.
Below is Ollie and Owen posing with the Santa at the Usce mall. They were too shy to go up to Santa’s chair, so Santa came down and posed with them instead. The snow is falling pretty steadily right now, so I’ll have some winter wonderland photos tomorrow. Finally, SNEG (Serbian for snow)!!!!
Owen Blows Out the Candles, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
Owen turned 8 years old yesterday, We had a small party with just the family last night and we went to Pizza Hut downtown to eat in honor of Owen. He is growing up so fast. I can’t believe it has been eight years since his birth. The time is just flying by! Both Nadia and I are so proud of the little guy. He is such a good boy. I love his curiosity, intelligence, positive outlook, and good heart. (thanks dad! – Owen wrote that and he is reading this just after I wrote it. Owen took over the blog post below. This turned out to be a historic blog post with Owen joint posting with me.)
I had a lot of food at my party!
EVERY ONE LIKED MY CAKE I BROUGHT TO SCHOOL! Thanks to my mom Nadia my party would have not happened at school
Bill's Blog 