An archive of our family’s daily life.
Yesterday we went and found our Christmas tree. We had a great time going with our friends, the Moynihan family. As last year, we traveled out to the village of Zuce, located on the eastern slopes of Mount Avala in the Sumadija region of Serbia. This year’s selections of pine trees was not great, but we did manage to find a cute one. Owen and Oliver selected the tree. The park has a wide variety of trees and shrubs for sale.
It was very cold, the coldest it has felt so far this year. We still do not have snow, probably one of the few places in Europe without snow. I want SNEG!!!
A nice option at the Park Zuce is to take your tree, roots and all back home (see photo below). They dig up the tree and wrap the roots and soil in a bag for you to transplant back home. We stopped at a roadside shop and bought a big plant holder and extra soil. They tie the tree up for easy transport. We will decorate the tree today and then after the New Year’s holiday, plant the tree in a nearby park. Last year’s Christmas tree is still growing in our garden. This is a nice green option and would be a nice idea in the USA. Imagine how many trees could be planted!
It was a really nice day yesterday. Besides the journey to Zuce, we took the kids to McDonalds. Owen, Oliver and I then went to basketball practice. I played for the first time in a long time. My back is a bit sore today and I worry about my knee blowing out when playing, but I played well and it felt very good to get back out on the court. We finished up the night, worrying about Serbia being down 1-2 today in the Davis Cup. I’ll be posting photos of our Christmas tree today.
Last night Nadia and I attended the first of many holiday parties. The school held its annual Christmas party at the US Ambassador’s Residence. As you can see, Nadia was looking absolutely radiant! It is great to have such a beautiful wife.
It was a fun evening with lots of laughs. Below are two of our friends, Verica and Marianna. I would like to thank Ambassador Warlick for opening the official residence to us.
We didn’t get a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. We did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, however. The Moynihan family invited us as well as several others to a Thanksgiving feast at their apartment. The food was delicious and the company exciting. The highlight for me was the post-dinner dancing.
I have so much in life to be thankful for! I am a very lucky man and appreciate all of the family and friends I have. I am also thankful for satisfying career that allows us to live internationally. I was sad not to enjoy the holiday with our families in Michigan and Bolivia. We did do a Skype video conference with my brother’s family and my Dad got to see the kids, which was very nice. Thanks to Luiz for the photos.
Zabranjeno Pušenje – No Smoking, originally uploaded by bill kralovec.
The Serbian Parliament last spring passed a public smoking law that went into effect last week. I was surprised at how well restaurants and cafes are enforcing the new law
Serbs love to smoke. According to the Ministry of Health, 1/3 of all adults smoke. but I would say it may even be a bit higher. In the US, according to the CDC (Center of Disease Control) about 17% of adults smoke. I believe this high percentage of smokers in Serbia is the same throughout Eastern Europe. I am not sure how many countries in the Balkans or Eastern Europe have anti-smoking laws. It would be interesting to get some statistics of smoking here and around the world.
The law gives police the power to fine individuals for smoking in prohibited areas (65 dollars) or businesses (13,000 dollars). It also bans smoking in theaters, cinemas, and most importantly, shopping malls. For restaurants, bars, and cafes, it depends on the size of the establishment. If it is too small, a business has to declare smoking or no smoking. Larger buildings must designate a smoking and a non-smoking area.
I say Hurray!!!! That has been one of the annoyances of living in Belgrade, especially in winter. There were so many places that we avoided because of the smoke. After coming home from a social gathering, our clothes were always stinking of cigarette smoke. We ate two great meals at Zodiac and Daco restaurants this weekend. They both had large non-smoking sections with the signs above posted. We also had smoke free experiences in the Usce and Mercator malls. What a difference!
I am sure some businesses do not like the new law. The smoking sections of restaurants that we see has more people than the non-smoking sections.
The nice weather continued this weekend in Belgrade. It was a bit cooler, but still unseasonably warm. I cut the grass, hopefully for the final time on Sunday. We also played with the kids in the yard as you can see below.
I thought my Dad would like the fact that his alma mater, St. Norbert College, came to the International School of Belgrade this week recruiting ISB and Belgrade students. There were 20 private universities on a tour of Eastern Europe and they made their first trip to Belgrade. It was great to have all of the admissions people at our school.
St. Norbert is a Catholic university in De Pere, Wisconsin. They only have about 2,000 students. I was telling Sam Dunlop above, the representative from the school, about my Dad’s experiences at St. Norberts. He went there from 1950-1954. It was a all-male college then and heavily influenced by the church. It is now coed and surprisingly international. It will be one of the universities I will think about sending my children to.
I still have lettuce and peppers growing in my garden. This is very unusual for November in Belgrade. The weather this month has been fabulous, with high temperatures in the low 70’s / high 60’s and lows in the evening in the mid 40’s / 50’s. We’ve taken advantage of the glorious autumn days and spent much more time outside. Belgrade is 44 degrees north latitude and has a climate similar to Washington DC, but this November, it has been warmer than normal. The normal average high is 50 and the low is 9.
I was also proud that I planted this lettuce in August and I am harvesting it in November. We’ve only had one slight frost and it survived. This is the first time sowing seed and eating the product for me. I hope to do some more gardening this spring.
Owen is also shown above adding to our compost pile. The school is doing compost piles on all three campuses this year and he brought in a bag to add to the school compost. We decided to do one here also. The Kralovecs are getting more green. I heard they now have a recycling program in Senjak. We’ll check that out.
Last night we attended a birthday party for one of Owen’s friends. They had a face painter at the party and Ocean wanted to know what she looked like. She loved the “mariposa’ and had a great time at the party.
It was a gorgeous day with sunny skies and a high temperature of 71 F (22 C). Perfect weather conditions and with the low autumn sun, it was just a great day to be outside. We did stay outside the whole day down at my favorite place in Belgrade, Ada Ciganlija. I call it “sport island” because of the plethora of sporting activities. We watched the CEESA Boys’ Soccer Tourney, (ISB came in fourth) and in between non-ISB games, rode bikes and ran about the “lake”. The kids had leave fights and played in the parks.
We met Claudiu, Vesna, Krina, and Dane, our Romanian friends. We ended the day with nice meal at an outdoor restaurant.
One of my big impressions of the day is sporting nature of the Serbs. They are so much more active than Americans! There were thousands of people playing baseball, rugby, soccer, running, roller blading, bicycling, walking, water skiing, etc. They are also generally in much better physical condition.
The warm weather continues today and all this week, although there will be patches of rain. I am enjoying these days in the 70s in November.
Yesterday we received the boys’ school photos. This ia a tradition that I really like. We see the kids everyday and often do not notice how much they have grown up. Oliver above, looks adorable! He is a such a cute, mischievious little guy, it is impossible to stay angry with him. Oliver has a heart of gold underneath is rambunctious exterior.
I carried Owen last night from our bed to his because he fell asleep next to mom. I really noticed how big he is getting and looking at the photo above compared to last year’s photo, he is now a young man.
Both guys are growing up way too fast. We just have to enjoy the limited amount of time we will have with them. I mean limited in the sense that they go on to university and start lives of their own. I guess I am more in tune with that stage of life with my job as a high school principal.
I made mosiacs of the boys’ school photos from previous years. My mother used to put the school photos of me and my two brothers each year on the wall going up the stairs to the second floor of our house. I guess below is the electronic version of this practice.
We do not have any photos of Ocean yet, as she is not going to school. She just turned three in September.
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