For my blog readers, I just want to announce that I will be in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania starting work on my Doctorate in Educational Leadership. It is a program geared towards international school leaders and it allows me to continue working full time while studying in the summer and on line during the school year.
I am really enjoying the program so far and feel I made the right decision to start further study. As you can see in the picture above, the campus is really beautiful and inspiring, not only the buildings, but also the setting. The university is set on a hillside overlooking the city of Bethlehem. There are approximately 75,000 people in the city and it is your typical quaint, Mid-Atlantic region small town. The two universities gives it a cultural boost. What sets the city apart from others is the huge complex of steel stacks in the middle of the town, a memory of the once powerful, Bethlehem Steel Company. It used to be the second largest steel company in the world after US Steel, but it folded in the 1990’s. The city has redeveloped the former factory grounds and turned it into a very cool community center.
I will be blogging about my experiences in the area (including New York City) which is a 1-hour drive away. I snapped the photo above last week of the Office of Admissions.
I am spending the summer at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I am working on my EdD. in Educational Leadership. Last night I had a lot of reading to do so I went to the baseball game to get it done. Baseball (and cricket) are the perfect sports for reading while at the park.
The “Iron Pigs” are a minor league baseball team. The minor leagues are the developmental teams for Major League Baseball (MLB). Every MLB team has several levels, leading up to their big league team. The Iron Pigs are the top level (AAA) affiliate for the Philadelphia Phillies. They were playing last night against the Tampa Rays top affiliate in the “International” League. I don’t know why they call it the international league because all of the teams are located in the eastern and central part of the US. All of the players are just one step from MLB and so the level is quite high, but most of them will not make it to the top team. There are about 800-1000 players in the MLB and about 5,000 minor league players. I would estimate about a third of the players at AAA get at least a game or two with the MLB club.
I was very impressed with the stadium and the large crowd (approx 10,000) people on a beautiful summer evening at the ball park. Americans do know how to make money from professional sports and I wish Red Star and Partizan could come and see what a stadium experience should be like. They were super organized with parking attendants, ushers, and security guards who were friendly and efficient. The experience is designed for families and for extracting money from the patrons. There are restaurants, fast food, really nice beer gardens, BBQ areas, and even a bouncy castle park for kids. In the outfield they have a grassy hill for picnicking. The souvenir shop was also first class and making a brisk business. In between innings they kept the fans entertained by giving away free t-shirts, a bunch of audience participation games, even a mascot running race.
Unfortunately, the home team lost 3-1, but more importantly for me, I got three chapters read of my homework and I enjoyed working in the relaxing environment of the baseball park. I am interested in the finances of the team. I wonder if it is a profitable business?
The past couple of days I’ve been taking the kids out to a very cool area called the Ironton Rail Trail. It is a 9 mile trail that was adapted from an old railway. Along the trail there are the remnants of an old cement company including the building above. Trail management has also a bird feeding station that was quite active with birds, even in winter.
Beyond the old buildings there is an old quarry that is filled with water. Yesterday there was a thin layer of ice on the pit and the kids had a great time breaking the ice and throwing broken ice chunks on the surface.
We played army and they really enjoyed themselves. It is nice that local authorities and concerned citizens have gotten together to make such nature preserve possible. With the onslaught of highways and housing developments in the area, it is a welcome relief to the malls, chains of box stores, and suburbs.
We had a crazy amount of snow this week in Belgrade. It snowed last weekend and a couple of times earlier this week. The temperatures have stayed below zero all week so it stayed around.
The picture above is what I faced for several mornings. Sweeping the car, scraping the ice off the windows, and shoveling the drive. I don’t mind it at all! The city does not plow the side streets so parking and navigating is a mess. It is also a hassle to put on and take off the snow clothes of the kids.
In speaking with the kids however, and watching the joy they found in playing in the snow, I am so happy that Serbia gets so much snow. Owen’s class at school built a really cool snow cave and all three of my kids play out in the snow every day.
I have really enjoyed learning Serbian during my time here. I wish I had more time to study and use the language. My work at an English language international school and a family with young children limit my time practicing Serbian. I am making a commitment to study and use more. Some expats come and learn very little Serbian because many Serbs speak good enough English. They also feel that with being posted here for such a short time, and little chance of using the language later in future postings, some people do not devote time to learning it. I feel that it has enhanced by experience here and I’ve learned a bit more about the culture. It has also been great to learn a Slavic language and getting back to my family’s ancestral tongue.
It is cool that I now understand the Cyrillic script. My favorite Cyrillic letter is ж or ž in the latin version. It is the most “exotic” of the letters. The grammatical cases in Serbian are frustrating, but with my usual flair, I add endings to the words based on how I feel. The Serbs get a kick out of my take on the langauge and they really appreciate a foreigner’s efforts in trying. Below is a sampling of my latest learning.
Moze da ti jede tortu sa glave. (She can eat cake off the top of his head.) – Serbian saying when the woman is much taller than her partner. This happens often in Serbia due to the height of women here. Although my wife is not Serbian, when she wears heels, she could eat cake off my head.
sikter kafa or sikterša This term is used when the host wants a guest to leave. They offer them a sikter (I think this is a Turkish word) kafa which is an “indirecta” to announce it is time to go.
puza mene – When Serbian children play tag, žmurke in Serbian, they spit to indicate they made it safely to goal. The phrase is also used to say that an employee showed up for a mandatory function they really didn’t want to go to but had to. The verb, to spit is pljunuti, or ja pljujem (I spit).
Above is the video of the kids singing Happy Birthday to Ocean. Yesterday we hosted 30 kids at the birthday playground, Okean. Okean, which means “ocean” in English is a pretty appropriate place to have the party. The theme was Hello Kitty, and Nadia made Kitty cupcakes and the cake was also a Hello Kitty. The Serbian birthday party places are brilliant for parents because they also cater to the adults. Besides an enclosed playground monitored by employees, there is a video game room for the boys, a “princess” room for the girls to gather, and the disco tech (shown in the video). The parents can sit in the cafe and talk and I had a really nice espresso. All of Ocean’s friends from ISB and her former school of INSB were in attendance.
We can’t believe it was 5 years ago Ocean was born! It seems like just yesterday. Happy Birthday Ocean, we love you!
Alexander The Great on Horse – Macedonia Square – Skopje
I am finishing my 3-day visit to the capital of Macedonia today. I was here on business but got the opportunity to explore Skopje a bit. I really enjoyed our stay mostly for two reasons. First, I stayed at the Alexander Palace Hotel, which had 6 tennis courts and a café/bar sponsored by the Skovin Winery. We played a lot of tennis and enjoyed the Macedonian wines. The second reason was the hospitality of our hosts, the Novakoski Family. Viktor Novakoski is the principal of the Nova International School in Skopje. They are fellow members of the Central and Eastern European Schools Association. Nova has become a valuable partner in developing our sports programs. Viktor and his team were fabulous hosts and I was very impressed with their school and his mission of bringing international education to the young nation of Macedonia.
The city itself is smaller than I expected, with a population of around 700,000. The topography and climate is very Mediterranean, and it looked and felt like Spain, Greece, or the Croatian coast. Skopje is surrounded by green mountains and with the perfect sunshine and blue skies, it was a very enjoyable 3 days. I was happy my Serbian was useful in getting around the city and the Macedonians easily understood me. I didn’t notice any difference in the Cyrillic script as well.
View From My Hotel
I came with question of where the Macedonians fit in the Slavic spectrum. They are not as tall as the Serbs, and being the southern most Slavic people, the city had a lot of Turkish or Albanian ambiance. There are many mosques, however, the city seemed divided between the Macedonian part and the Albanian part. Walking through the old Turkish market today, I felt like I was in Sarajevo. We even heard the call to prayer one night at dinner. With a growing population of ethnic Albanian Macedonians, it will be interesting to see how the two groups interact in future years. Can the country hold together?
I also was interested in seeing the infamous Skopje 2014 project. City leaders have this plan to build these huge statues, huge Greek Revival buildings, and fountains, plazas, etc. It was a bit amusement park like to see a 50-foot bronze Alexander the Great on horseback on a towering pillar in the center of a fountain. The fountain shooting streams of water in synch with classical music, including lights. They are spending a lot of money developing buildings and statues along the river. I have not seen anything like it and it would be interesting to hear the opinions of Macedonians if this has improved the city. There was also a really nice running track along the Vardar river, going from our hotel to downtown. It was a great place to exercise and I hope they add to the network.
Another Statue – They love horses in Macedonia!
In reading about the history of the Macedonians, I asked the question, are they more like the Bulgarians or the Serbians. I would say that the city felt more like Sofia than Belgrade and they are definitely more Bulgarian, but slightly less central Asian. They truly are a people in between the Serbs and the Turks. Everyone was friendly and treated us well. I would recommend a visit to the country!
The roads of the island have improved greatly since I was last here in 1997. Not only the roads, but the kilometers of bike and running paths. They are everywhere! This is great, but I wonder about the cost. For example, the pedestrian bridge over the highway must have been in the tens of thousands of dollars. I have also seen amazing municipal sports facilities. Near the suburb of Son Caliu where we are staying, there is a community swimming pool in Magaluf, an athletic track in Palma Nova, and an indoor pool and artificial turf soccer field in Santa Ponca. Who is paying for all this?
Last night about 9:30 PM, I went out looking to buy some milk, water, and bread. I could not find a single store open, only restaurants. The Latin American neighborhood “tienda” is not to be found in Spain. There is also a lack of outdoor markets.
Recycling seems to be very strong in Spain. I’ve seen glass, plastic, and metal bins conveniently located all over the island.
Spain consists of “Autonomous Communities” and it is not one legislative district. I thought it was only the Basque Country and Catalonia, but there are 17 “states” including the Balearic Islands. They had a graphic in the Mallorcan paper that showed the Spanish debt divided by autonomous region. The largest debtors are Cataluña and Comunidad Valenciana, that combined have 60% of total 36 billion euro debt.
One of the Spanish Royal family is under investigation for transferring funds to a Swiss bank account to avoid taxes. I feel royalty is an outdated concept. The idea that a family, and whoever marries into the family, is somehow special or made to rule by divine right is ridiculous. I don’t understand what benefits European countries get from having the tax payers support monarchies. Perhaps the English royal family brings in enough tourist dollars to justify their existence, but I can’t believe the rest are self-sufficient. I would strip them of all titles, make them get real jobs, and convert all assests into the public good.
I just finished reading “Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity, and the Perfect Knuckleball” by New York Mets pitcher, R.A. Dickey and Wayne Coffey. I follow baseball and really enjoyed the book. Dickey made his first All Star Game this year at the improbable age of 37 and he is an interesting story.
One thing I got from the book is how hard it is to become a Major League Baseball professional player. Dickey was a highly recruited high school sports star, an All-American pitcher at the University of Tennessee, played in the Olympics, but yet, was not quite good enough to be a consistent Major League pitcher. He was a “4A” pitcher, which meant that he was very good at the Minor League Baseball level (3A) but not quite good enough to stay as a player on a Major League club. He spent over 10 years on minor league baseball teams with some call ups to the big league, but always at the end of the season, he was back down in the minors. It was not until he changed to a knuckleball pitcher, that he become a solid professional and eventually an All Star pitcher. The book details his work in perfecting a difficult pitch over years of trying.
The book also describes his overcoming a poor, rough childhood, and maturing into husband and father. His honesty at his mistakes and overcoming sexual abuse, an alcoholic mother, absent father, and marrying young, are truly inspiring. The book made me want to be more patient and loving with my wife and children, and more open to the moment and enjoying every experience. He used counseling and his Christian faith to overcome his challenges. Although for most people, including myself, earning an athletic scholarship, participating in the Olympics, and even getting to play a single game in the Majors would be enough. But after reading about his struggles, it is good that he got the reward of a multi-million dollar contract. It is refreshing to have an athlete be smart and thoughtful and with help of Wayne Coffey, write an interesting book. I recommend it.
I was out sick from work on Tuesday, but despite feeling ill, I did have a nice day with my daughter Ocean. She doesn’t go to school on Tuesdays, so we hung out together, in between my sleeping. She loves board games and insisted on us playing Hangman. She knows a couple of words, like her name, and Bill, so I thought that is what she would have. I lost and when I asked her to reveal her word, you can see what she put up. I see that she understands the basic format of the game, but not the meaning. Hilarious! How could I get mad at losing with such an adorable little girl like this. We played chutes and ladders, candyland, sequence, creationary, trouble, hangman, and operation. I had a lot of fun! It would be wonderful to be a stay-at-home Dad.
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