Category: Uncategorized

As I get older I appreciate more the simple things in life. I loved spending the afternoon and evening outdoors on a snowy day in February. It is nice to live in a place with four distinct seasons. Winter is my least favorite of the seasons (#1 summer #2 spring #3 fall #4 winter) but I do take advantage of the positives winter brings. Last Sunday I took Obi for a long walk along the Ankhor Canal. Snowfall quiets the landscape and brings out the shapes of trees and pathways. It was so peaceful to be out.

One of the downsides of snow is road conditions. It is my job as the director to determine if the community can get to school safely. Tashkent does not plow and salt/sand many of the roads so even a bit of snow like we had on Sunday (4-5 inches) makes it bad. My big criterium is icy on the road and sidewalks. Thankfully, it was bare road and snow more than ice on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Another aspect I like about the winter months is hockey season. The Tashkent Humo Hockey Club is in the playoffs this week. I went to Game 1 on Tuesday at Humo Arena. Humo is the second seed and they were playing the seventh seed, Karaganda Yellow Hawks. They looked sluggish and were down 5-2 in the third period when all of a sudden, Humo exploded for three goals in 6 minutes! The game went into extra time. I made it through the first 17-minute intermission after the game and the first overtime period (20 minutes) but no one scored. I went home after that and missed the Karaganda’s winning goal 5 minutes into the second overtime period. I took Joe and Cam to the game and met my friend Shawn and we had a good time. I like a game with goals!

Humo went on to lose Game 2, 2-5 the next night. They are playing February 25-26 in Karaganda in Games 3 and 4. This would be a big upset if Humo loses. They finished the regular season with 38 wins and 12 losses compared to Karaganda’s 24 wins and 26 losses. Karaganda is a city of 500,000 in the center of Kazakhstan, south of the capital of Astana. I am learning Kazakhstan geography through Humo’s participation in the Kazakhstan league. My question of the night was why are periods in hockey not referred to as “thirds” like in basketball or football’s “quarters”?

I end this post with some photos from the Tashkent City Development Park. I have not been there for a while but on Wednesday night, I went to dinner with friends. I was impressed with the growth of the place with literally 10 massive building projects going up over the past 2 years. I didn’t recognize the place. It looked like a winter Dubai. It is incredible how fast Tashkent is growing during my 5 years here. Projections show that Tashkent will grow to 4 million people by 2035.

I had a fascinating afternoon touring Tashkent yesterday with architects visiting our school to renew our Master Site Plan. I wanted to give them the full flavor of Tashkent and Uzbek architecture. Alexander Federov led us on a tour focusing on Soviet-era modernist buildings. He is a graphic designer, artist, activist, historian, and passionate about preserving these historic buildings in Tashkent. His enthusiasm for Soviet-era “Oriental Modernism” was infectious. It was sad to learn how these buildings are slowly being replaced or altered. I understand the Uzbeks, however, and they might not want reminders of being colonized by the Russians. Something is lost if these buildings are not preserved. They are part of the history of the city and make Tashkent distinctive and add to its charm of east meets west.

It was also fun learning from architects talking about their work and architecture. I learned a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright and the fundamentals of architecture and design over the 4 days I spent with them. I feel our school’s Master Site Plan is in good shape with Cam and Joe and their firm of Truexcullins. We also took the subway back and got to admire the Soviet’s recreation of the Moscow subway station design in Tashkent. Below are some of the buildings and sites we saw on the tour.

Exhibition Hall of the Union of Artists (1974) Rashidov Ulica 40

One of my favorite buildings is the Experimental House жемчуг “Pearls”. It was finished in 1985 and recreates the idea of the mahalla in apartment block form. As you can see in the photograph in the far right, there are 5 common areas that children and families can play and socialize, recreating the idea of the neighborhood streets. There was even a pool on the roof that is no longer working.

The National Historical Museum used to be the Lenin Museum and was built in 1970.

We started the tour at my favorite building in Tashkent, the Hotel Uzbekistan. I learned that it used to have an outdoor pool in back with an amazing roof and that the concrete facade hides utilities underneath.

We hosted a Super Bowl party last Monday. Central Asia is UTC+5 which is 13 hours ahead of Las Vegas. That meant the game started at 4:30 AM for us. It was the first time in a long time that I did not have to go to school on Super Bowl Monday. We celebrated Lunar Year with a 4-day weekend and had the Monday off.

The Super Bowl is the quintessential American holiday. It celebrates consumerism, spectacle, and violence. Many people watch the broadcast solely for the commercials that this year came with a price tag of $7 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Considering that the Super Bowl is one of the few events that many Americans stop to watch at the same time, it was probably worth it to the companies and people advertising. The game is a small part of the event with the hype and commentary before and the halftime music concert. Usher was the artist and I thought it was a too over-the-top show. The only part I liked was the roller skates. My cultural and pop music references of the 1990s is limited because I lived in Colombia and Bolivia in the 1990s and at that time, the internet was just getting started. I was isolated from the global culture. I remember in the early 90s, having to rely on getting a Miami Herald occasionally at the Hotel Prado in Barranquilla and my mother sending me VHS video tapes of sports games and newspaper clippings. I only knew one of Usher’s songs.

Our party theme was “Denial Bowl”. Because my favorite team, the Detroit Lions lost to the 49ers in the NFC championship game by 3 points, that might be the closest they ever get to participating in the big game. They have not won the NFL championship since 1957, 9 years before the Super Bowl started in 1966. We had a Detroit Lions/Taylor Swift cake and asked attendees to wear Honolulu Blue of the Lions. People actually came over at 4:20 AM and in attendance were a family from California rooting for the 49ers. I was cheering for an entertaining game and slightly favoring the Chiefs. I correctly picked the outcome of the game as I went with Patrick Mahomes being a better quarterback than Brock Purdy and the under (45.5) because I thought the 49ers would play slowly to keep Mahomes off the field. As with all close games, a few lucky breaks usually determine the outcome and the Chiefs won. We also were cheering for Taylor Swift suite camera shots. I probably won’t have a chance to host another party until I retire. I was kind of sleepy the whole day and would have preferred to get up at 7:00 AM and watch the end of the game live. We have a subscription to Paramount + thanks to my uncle and watched the US broadcast. I hope the Lions are playing in the game next year!

Saturday afternoon we had dinner and went out for drinks at Maqom Bar (“status” in Uzbek). They have a fun drink menu and beautiful Art Deco/Uzbek decor filled with interesting-looking people that makes it one of my favorite places to socialize. I rarely drink these days because alcohol has such a strong negative impact on health. I want my remaining years on earth to be as active as possible and taking care of my body is my priority. I am exercising a lot and eating less and better and hoping to extend my physical fitness into my 70s and 80s. Nadia and I went to the Hippodrome Market shopping for “disco” style clothes for next weekend’s Gala and were successful. Always good people watching in the market.

Nadia and Ocean had a girls day at the InterContinental Hotel. Massages, spa, and the breakfast buffet. I am blessed to have two beautiful women in my life!

The first adult novel I really enjoyed was Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot when I was a grade 9 or grade 10 student. 40 years later I still occasionally read a Stephen King novel and his latest, “Holly” was good, but not great. He has written over 70 novels and collections of short stories so not all of them are going to be incredible. It was a solid horror/detective story that helped me fall asleep.

Holly is a detective crime story featuring Holly Gibney, who was featured in the book and HBO television series, The Outsider, which I loved watching. This time she is investigating the disappearance of a young girl. I don’t want to spoil the book too much, but it is the story of a couple of elderly cannibals and Gibney puts together a series of missing persons to track them down. King always tells a good story but I found myself scrolling through parts of the story that I found boring. One major side story was a character’s relationship with an acclaimed elderly poet that I felt didn’t really go anywhere. The book was criticized by some for its many references to masks, anti-vaxxers, and the habits we developed during the pandemic. It felt like King included them to publicize his strong views instead of having them be part of the story. He was really affected by the COVID pandemic as I listened to interviews he gave. The references don’t distract from the story, but they don’t add to it.

The book made me think about the biology behind cannibalism. I read over 1,500 species of animals practice cannibalism. Research is showing that Neanderthals practice cannibalism and may have eaten Homo sapiens as well. Human cannibals make good horror stories and I think there would be some good historical novels set in places like Papua New Guinea or in other cultures that practiced cannibalism.

One line I liked from the book, “Sometimes the universe throws you a rope. If it does, climb it. See what’s at the top.” That encapsulates the role of luck in one’s life. You must seize opportunities when they are presented and the more you are searching or just being open to possibility, the more lucky breaks you will get.

My family has a four-day long weekend as our school is celebrating Lunar New Year. We are staying in Tashkent for the break and enjoying the city. I savor holidays as a time to be off the clock and have more time to devote to myself and spend time with my family. I had 5 full weeks, plus Saturdays, of working and it is an ideal time to decompress and recoup my energy and enthusiasm.

In the morning, I completed workout #63 in my Inner Dimension Power Yoga 108. It has been transformative for my body, increasing my muscle strength, flexibility, and balance. It has improved my body and I feel I am a calmer person. I do need to incorporate a better diet, mostly eating less, but overall, I feel years younger. I can’t recommend it enough. After taking Obi for a long walk, I then spent the afternoon with Ocean and Nadia.

We visited the Fine Arts Gallery of Uzbekistan. There was an exhibition of miniature paintings “Oriental Motifs” and it cost 75 cents to enter. I especially liked the video demonstrating how an artist copies traditional painting. They also had a display of ancient coins from the time of Alexander the Great and Tamerlane. We walked around the many parks in the area, enjoying the 64F (18C) spring-like weather. I dropped the girls off for a night at the InterContinental Hotel and then went to a professional hockey game.

Tashkent Humo is in second place in the Kazakhstan Professional Hockey League. They are 37-12 and 5 points below league-leading Kokshetau. They lost 1-2 in an exciting, physical game last night to fifth-place Aktobe (26-22 – 55 points). Aktobe is the fourth largest city in Kazakhstan, in the northwest near the border with Russia. There were many penalties and hard hits and both teams had lots of chances for goals. I would say overall, Humo deserved the win, but the goalie for Aktobe was good. In the third period, Aktobe scored to go up by a goal. Humo put on a flurry of pressure at the end, but couldn’t get the equalizer. The bottom tier of the stadium was full and it was a vibrant atmosphere. I put together some footage below of the game. The Humo have a nice uniform and logo and I bought Nadia a jersey. Oliver came with his girlfriend and it was a good night out.

I saw many signs of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and Belarussian flags all over the city. He is here in Tashkent on an official state visit. Uzbekistan really tries to be a good host, celebrating the visiting leader and the relationship of the country with Uzbekistan. I don’t know how many countries would celebrate the visit of Lukashenko and I wonder what benefit Uzbekistan gets through its relationship with Belarus. Security has been tighter around the city with police posted everywhere. The president and his delegation visited the Amirsoy Ski Resort and hockey game and there have been restrictions on the gondola and tighter searches entering the stadium.

Having the fortune of living over 50 years on planet Earth gives me the perspective of seeing changes in climate over time. I am amazed at global warming. This process started before I was born. When humans started burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) to produce energy, carbon emissions started collecting in our atmosphere. 2023 was the hottest year on record, 1.2 degrees C (2.1 F) above the average baseline from 1951-1980. 1.2 doesn’t sound like a big deal to me, but the effects are dramatic.

One manifestation is warmer winters with less snow. My brother sent me a photo of his front yard in Iron Mountain, Michigan (left). The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is famous for its snowfall. Winds often come from the west, flowing over Lake Superior picking up moisture. Winds drop the water in the form of snow in the first land mass it encounters, which is the Upper Peninsula. Even the towns closer to the lake like Marquette (live camera screenshot right) show a lack of snow in February.

Contrast this with the photo below of my dad, Charles Kralovec taken in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He is showing the snow bank level in front of the door of my childhood home in Caspian, Michigan. I remember we used to get stuck in the snow when I was a kid. We would pull our foot out of our boot and then have to try to fish it back out while laying flat on the snow. We also made snow tunnels all over the yard.

I sense the winters are also shifting to be more in the spring (March/April) and less in December-February. This is only anecdotal however and I have not done any research. We are having a mild winter in Tashkent this year. It has snowed probably 5-6 times but it only lasts a day or two. Temperatures this week will reach 18C (64 F) this weekend and will be in the 70s the following weekend. I’ve been taking my dog for walks when it snows to enjoy the fresh air and quiet snow brings, but the next day, it is like it never happened.

I had a lovely day on Saturday. After my morning yoga, I coached two of my daughter’s high school basketball games. The girls won both games and are showing improvement. Nadia and I then watched the doubles match on Day Two of the Davis Cup at Humo Arena. Poland won 7-6, 6-4 to win the tie, 3 matches to 0. Hubert Hurkacz and Jan Zielinski defeated the Uzbek team of Sergey Fomin and Khumyon Sultanov. The class of Hurkacz was on full display as he made some amazing shots at the end of both sets. You could see the difference of 200 ranking points in the players. Poland (world ranking #51) now moves to World Group I playoffs and Uzbekistan (world ranking #36) drops to the World Group II playoffs. Both will be played in September.

We had a late lunch at Farsh (minced meat in Russian) a new hamburger restaurant. It has a nice atmosphere with a selection of good imported beer/wine/ciders. At sunset, I took Obi for a long walk around a new commercial development, Seoul Mun (Seoul Gate). Developers are constructing a shopping and restaurant district along both sides of a deep ravine on the Ankhor Canal in the city. They are also building apartment blocks that look really nice around it. The site used to be a little used dirt trail when I first arrived in Tashkent 5 years ago. Only one phase is nearing completion.

As readers of my blog know, I am passionate about tennis. Uzbekistan is hosting Poland this weekend in the Davis Cup World Group Playoffs here in Tashkent. The matches are played in Humo Arena, home of the Humo Tashkent Hockey Team. The Uzbek Tennis Federation purchased a beautiful Rebound Ace hardcourt from a German supplier (approximately $200,000) and installed it in the arena. I had great seats thanks to friends yesterday (thanks Sasha and Igor!). Oliver and I watched the first two singles matches in the “tie” as it is called in the Davis Cup. A tie is a best of 5 matches, featuring four singles matches and one doubles match. All matches are best of three sets (this is a change from the previous five sets).

The big name in this event is the top Polish player Hubert Hurkacz, the world #8. Last week he lost in the Australian Open quarterfinals in five sets to world #3 Danil Medvedev. Hurkacz is the best Polish tennis player ever. He has won 2 Masters titles and 7 ATP tour titles and the 26-year-old is now ranked #8, his highest ever. Hurkacz is 6-5 and has a big serve (9 aces in two sets yesterday) and with his long arms, gets to a lot of balls. I thought his opponent, Sergey Fomin #403 ranked, put up a good fight and despite the 6-2, 6-1 scoreline, was an exciting match with many games having multiple deuces. He was clearly outclassed by Hurkacz, but I think he could have used a bit more of the slice to get his big opponent off-balance and moving.

In the second match, 20-year-old Maks Kasnikowski, the #277 ranked Polish player had an easy time 6-3, 6-1 over the Uzbek top player, Khumoyun Sultanov #330. The Uzbekistan team was disappointed in the result as they had a chance with the older Sultanov being closer in rank to the up-and-coming Kasnikowski. It really shows how much of an anomaly Hurkacz is on the Polish team with the second-strongest player, Kasnikowski, being ranked 269 places below him. We will be attending the doubles this afternoon.

I love the Davis Cup! The Davis Cup is the “premier international team event in men’s professional tennis”. My favorite aspect of the Davis Cup is that it brings professional tennis to places that normally do not host professional tennis tournaments. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) changed the format in 2019, in an attempt to make it more like a tennis World Cup. They formed a World Group of 18 national teams to play against each other in one venue in one week. Formerly it was a knock-out tournament throughout, with each “tie” being played in one of the team’s countries. Outside of the World Group of 18, the qualifying groups still play the old format. The new format has not been successful as the World Group Finals is barely covered in world media. I would prefer if they went back to the old format. I think the Summer Olympics has taken over as the “World Cup” and it should be left at that. There is no interest or space in the professional tennis schedule for a World Cup. I think it is good that professional tennis is at the Olympics and gets a broader audience and the Davis Cup will bring a team competition to lots of countries that would never be able to see live tennis. Other team competitions in men’s tennis tried to become the premier “World Cup” like the Laver Cup, but they are nice, but not it.

The competition is named after Dwight Davis (1879-1945) an American tennis player and government leader. He was the Secretary of War under Calvin Coolidge and Governor-General of the Philippines under Herbert Hoover. He was also a tennis “professional” before the ATP at the turn of the century. He won the “All-Comers” US Champions doubles three consecutive times from 1899-1901 and lost in the singles finals twice in 1898 and 1899.