We had a special visit to our high school boys’ basketball practice. Former NBA All-Star Vlade Divac stopped by to help the student athletes with aspects of their game. He talked about doing the little things right, like crisp passing, wide elbows on rebounds, boxing out, have a repetitive free throw ritual, etc. The students were truly inspired.
At the end of practice he had a little fun with us. In the video above, he is telling a story of a trip to China. He demonstrates the one-handed, back-to-the-basket, half court shot. All net in one attempt. Truly amazing. He also laid down at half court and made the basket from the floor in three attempts.
I can see why he is a basketball legend. Great size combined with attention to detail, athleticism, and lots of hard work. Thanks to Mik J. for the video above. The start shows his hand as he was taking his camera out of the bag. Vlade appears shortly after the start.
Middle School Mathematics Teacher Lekisha Jackson is shown above assisting Nathalie and Alex moments before the team competition. This weekend we hosted the CEESA (Central and Eastern European Schools Association) Math Counts competition. Math Counts is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting math excellence among middle school math students. Seven schools with 54 “mathletes” competed in written and oral tests, with both individual and team categories. The students were billeted with ISB families and besides the mathematics, they enjoyed getting to know the cultural side of Belgrade and socialized with our students at a big dance on Saturday.
The event was dominated by Korean students. The top 10 students in the individual competition were all Korean students. ISB grade 8 student Rick was the top non-Korean in the competition, finishing one question short of the top 10 in 11th place. Winning the competition was Tae Suk Joung from AIS Budapest, with Victor Moon and Duk Sung Ahn from AAS Moscow finishing second and third respectively.
ISB Team Members Irem, Andrej, Rick, and Carl
In the team competition, the Anglo American School of Moscow took the top two spots with AIS Budapest finishing in third place. The gold medal AAS Moscow team consisted of Duck Sung Ahn, Victor Moon, Ji Tae Park, and Gi Cheol Shin. Also participating in the competition were AIS Zagreb (Croatia), the American School of Paris (France), the Anglo-American School of Sofia (Bulgaria), and the Tirana International School of Albania.
I would like to thank Tim Moynihan, Will Clowney, Igor Saljic, Aleksander Nikolic and Marija Vuckovic for their outstanding efforts in organizing the event. A lot of work goes into behind the scenes when hosting a successful event of this magnitude. A special mention goes to our Math Counts Coach and math teacher Ms. Lekisha Jackson. She spent countless hours preparing the students and the community for the event. Her dedication and organization paid off as our students learned much from the event and performed extremely well. Ms. Jackson has been a special addition to our staff this year and we all appreciate her teaching! Thank you Lekisha!!!
The dance on Saturday evening was also special. I would like to thank Mr. Sean Hayes and the STUCO students for the fine organization of the dance. Our students made our guests feel at home and they enjoyed themselves in a responsible manner. Thanks to Mr. Vrbaski, Ms. Tharalsen, Mrs. Medenica, Mrs. Jovanovic, and Mr. Hayes for chaperoning the dance. The out of the classroom relationships our teachers form with the students is one of the best characteristics of ISB. I would also like to thank our ISB families that hosted students. I only heard positive comments from the parents on the comportment of the students.
In summary, Math Counts accomplished its mission of encouraging math excellence. We look forward to next year’s competition.
Nadia, Ollie and Owen are pictured with Alejandra and Sebey at the Christmas Fair in the center of Budapest, Hungary. They arrived from Bahrain on Friday afternoon and the next morning we left for the 4 hour drive north to neighboring Hungary.
Edelweiss, our new car did extremely well on its first excursion out of Belgrade. The countryside north of Belgrade is reminiscent of central Wisconsin or Illinois. It was extremely flat, lots of agriculture, and decent highways. We had no trouble crossing the border. It was nice to go through the Diplomatic Corps line and not have to wait. I got Diplomatic plates through the US Embassy which is very kind of them.
Budapest is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and I can see why. The Danube runs through Buda on one side and Pest on the other. We stayed at the Marriot Hotel right on the river. It was a nice hotel but I would not stay there again. Great breakfast and views, but no swimming pool and they charge for overnight parking in their garage ($40). We used the GPS to find the hotel and other places we went and that was great. The first day we took the kids for a walk over the Széchenyi Chain Bridge shown in the picture below.
Budapest at Night (Wikipedia Photo)
We also stopped to throw some rocks in the Danube. We were with our good friends the Moynihans.They are shown to the left. We finished the night at the famed Budapest Christma
s Fair. It was crowded and in my opinion, overrated. But after a couple of mulled wines, we ended up having a great time. I half learned how to say Merry Christmas in Hungarian, Boldog Karácsonyt
We were not impressed with the Hungarians. We found them to be very different from the Serbs. They were cold and borderline mean. For example, Ale and Nadia asked two people to take a picture of the family and they refused. I guess it is the culture, as the Hungarians have had a long history with the Germans and Austrians. I know one can’t judge a people with just one day in the country, but we did feel a difference. I was also comparing the cities of Budapest and Belgrade. Both are beautiful and similar although Belgrade was mostly destroyed during WWII and does not have all of the beautiful old buildings of Budapest. Although Belgrade has its charms, and if they would clean up the Sava and Danube rivers, it would be nicer. I like the fact however, that Belgrade has virtually no tourists and it is more authentic and vibrant. I hope it doesn’t change, but in the future it will as it looks to join the European Union. I also noticed it was more expensive in Budapest.
The next day I took Ollie and Ocean to the city park. They had a great time feeding the ducks and in the playground. The girls did some more shopping. We were thinking of doing some ice skating, but once again, the rink was crowded. I did enjoy the the Heroes Square. This was next to city park and had statues of all of the Hungarian Heroes. It was similar to the Venezuelan Panteon.
We do plan to return to Budapest as there is lots to explore. We hope we run into a friendlier bunch of Hungarians however.
Ollie & Ocean in Heroes Square in Budapest
Ocean is getting cuter every day. What an angel! She is so cautious and calm and she cries like a girl. Below is the most recent photo for Grandma.
Today is a Day #4 and I will be in the MS the entire day today. Branka and Bojana will be handling any discipline issues.
Lunch in the Library: Due to repeated occasions of food debris and litter in the library, there will be no lunches allowed to be eaten in the library. There has also been too much disruptive behavior in the library. The following notice is posted by the librarian:
The Library is a space for reading, writing, and quiet conversation.
No one should suffer from another’s noise, mess, or disruptive behaviour.
· No food or drinks
· No music, videos, or gaming
· No mobiles or online telephony (skype, gtalk, etc.)
· No behaviour that disrupts other’s ability to learn.
High School Knowledge Bowl Competition: Students interested in joining the team are asked to meet today at lunch in Mr. Slough’s room.
Hooded Sweatshirt Sales: Our PTA has asked me to let you know that today during LS conferences, they will be taking pre-orders for new ISB sweatshirts that they are selling. There are 3 different styles of sweatshirts available. Samples of the shirts, and pre-order forms will be in the LS library for interested parents and/or staff members during the day on Tuesday. HS Receptionist Update: The receptionist will begin training on Monday December 8. A new desk is being designed and built for her and will be ready by December 15th. We are currently in contract negotiations. High School Math Competition: Mrs. Vuckovich will be holding an informational meeting at lunch on Friday. The competition takes place in Bucharest on February 13-14.
Why Asian Children Are Better at Mathematics: An interesting idea from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of “Blink” in his new book “Outliers”. He reckons that it is the Chinese language and organizational system for numbers that makes mathematics easier for them. The Guardian has an excerpt at this link.
After talking with ISB parent, Vlade Divac at Parent-Teacher Conferences on Tuesday, I learned that the Adriatic Basketball League is sort of a minor basketball league. He follows the Euroleague Basketball
The Official Logo of the Euroleague Basketball
The league consists of 24 teams from around Europe. The teams each year are selected by the ULEB, a consortium of professional basketball leagues. The teams are selected on their performances in recent domestic leagues and contracts with ULEB. There are three teams from the Adriatic Basketball Association that Serbian teams play in. There is one team from Croatia, one from Slovenia, and two-time defending league champion, Partizan of Belgrade, Serbia.
The Euroleague Basketball has a strange format of play. The 24 teams are placed into 4 groups of 6 teams. Each group plays a round-robin schedule of 10 games. Partizan is in Group D along with teams from Moscow, Madrid, Athens, Milan, and Istanbul. This stage is from October 22 – January 15.
The top two teams in each group moves on to the next round of 16 teams, appropriately called, The Top 16..The 16 teams are put into 4 groups of 4. Once again there is a home and home round robin format so each team plays 6 games. This stage is from January 28 to March 12.
The top two teams in each group advances to the Quarterfinal Playoffs. First place teams are matched with second place teams. Each pair plays a best of five series.
The winners of each quarterfinal series advance to the Final Four. The final four is the same as the NCAA Final Four, in that it is a knockout round.
In summary, it goes from 24 to 16 to 8 to 4, and then a champion. A team that wins the league, could play 21 to 23 games.
The Serbian representative, Partizan, last year made it to the Quarterfinal Playoffs. This year they are second in their group with a 2-1 record. Below is their first round schedule.
I am blogging live from the Ambassador’s party at the Sava Center in Belgrade, Serbia. There is around 500 people at the party and there are TV’s tuned to CNN and plenty to drink and eat. They did a vote of party attendees and Obama won 313 – 41. This was expected as it is a very cosmopolitian, liberal crowd of American expats, diplomats from everywhere, and important Serbs. Time to go, photos coming soon.
I have had no time to blog this week. We worked extremely hard at revamping the secondary schedule and have put in 14 hour days consistently. The first day of school is today so the boys and Nadia are quite excited. I’ll blog more this week when things settle down.
We made it to Belgrade and we are in our new home! The flights went very well without delays. The kids were well behaved, especially Owen and Oliver. They had their own personal movies on the flight that they loved. Ocean was a bit of work as she would only sleep on me and that was after a lot of bouncing and fidgeting. Goran and Gordana Z. were at the airport to greet us with the school van. We lost one piece of luggage out of the 13. We flew Northwest Airlines over the Atlantic and then the Serbian national line JAT to Belgrade. We were not impressed with the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, it was a bit shoddy. The only thing nice about it was the Concord placed in the middle of the airport.
Our home is much bigger than it looked in the photos. We are in a very nice neighborhood of Belgrade called Senjak. Gordana prepared the house with food and bedding etc. so we are settled in quite nicely. The school really set us up well!!!!
Lots of work to be done around the house. I wish my brother Andy and Dad were here with their handyman abilities and tool kits! I just didn’t get that construction gene they have. I’ll start blogging photos of the settling in as soon as I can.
A big thank you to my parents and brothers for a wonderful summer! My Dad and Andy dropped us off at the airport and Shelly came over with my nephews to say a goodbye to our children. It was very sad to leave my mother – we love you! We were surprised at the airport by my Aunt Darlene, my mom’s sister! She came up and fed Ocean and had dinner with us before our flight.
My rule for counting countries is that I have to be on the land outside of the airport grounds for it to count, regardless of how long I am in the country. I also get to determine what is a country and what is not. Sometimes it is not obvious. The following are the countries I have been to in no particular order:
United States of America
Canada
Mexico
El Salvador
Costa Rica
Panama
Colombia
Venezuela
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Chile
Brazil
Argentina
Paraguay
Uruguay
Jamaica
Trinidad & Tobago
Grenada
Barbados
Saint Lucia
Martinique (insular region of France)
Antigua & Barbuda
British Virgin Islands (UK overseas territory)
New Zealand
Australia
Spain
Germany
Lithuania
Serbia
Bulgaria
Hungary
Croatia
Slovenia
Austria
The Netherlands
Finland
Romania
Bosnia i Hercegovina
Estonia
Montenegro
Italy
Bahrain
Latvia
Slovakia
England
Macedonia
Greece
Cyprus
Sweden
Denmark
Japan
Poland
Czech Republic
Turkey
Malta
Malaysia
China
Thailand
Macau (special administrative region of China) – 2015
Guam (unincorporated US territory)
South Korea
Singapore
United Arab Emirates (Dubai)
Uzbekistan
Hong Kong (special administrative region of China) – 2019
The office will be open today from 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Local Employee Update: We finished printing the local employee contracts for 08-09. It is the last day of work for the local teachers and assistants. We will have a party after school today. Refreshments are provided by the parents. Thank you!
Farewell: I met with Weatherford Inc. Board Member Nial Shepherd yesterday. He is leaving for Mexico later this month and we discussed the transition. Nial was a very supportive board member and was very dedicated to the students of Escuela Anaco. His presence and that of his wife Marisela and son Diego will be missed in our community. Thank you! We wish them the best of luck in their new post.
Summer Construction: We finalized the list of housing work to be done in June and July. Every summer, we do repairs and buy appliances for the homes. We are fortunate to own our expatriate teacher housing as this reduces our costs greatly. The following is the list of projects for each home. We plan on spending over 20,000 bolivars.
EA Housing Construction Summer 2008
House # – Work / Appliance – Cost
0 Split AC 1800
0 Leak in roof of play room
0 New toilet in second bathroom 300
0 Buy new part for fridge (Phillip will do this in USA)
0 Buy blender glass
0 Fill hole where a dryer used to be
0 Swap the AC’s in living room and play room
1 Fix the bathroom plumbing 600
1 Move Desire’s stuff to the house
2 Put mouse trap to catch last mouse
2 Buy new plates
2 Fix drawers in dressers
2 Fix lighting in living room
2 Buy microwave and blender 350
3 and 4 Connect the two to expand the day care
3 and 4 Move utensils, furniture to House #6
3 and 4 Put small porch near front door 1200
3 and 4 Take out dangerous cactus plants move to garden
3 and 4 Put cement where plants were
3 and 4 Complete overhaul in electrical system
5 Move Gary’s stuff to House #9
5 Split AC 1800
5 Buy an iron
5 Fill archway made for Gary last year
5 Put a front porch roof 1200
6 Renovate kitchen
6 Washing Machine 2200
6 Buy an iron
6 Fix lock on front door
6 Split AC (24BTU) 2500
7 Split AC 1800
8 Put water tray under kitchen AC
8 Split AC 1800
8 Move utensils, kitchen ware, Desire’s things to #1
8 Move dryer from #9 to #8 for the Denkers
9 Split AC 1800
Estimated cost for items above w/ no cost listed 2000
Total Housing Expenses for Summer 2008 19350
Priorities for Today: We will be finalizing the school construction projects. I am meeting with a new prospective family this morning. I also will be completing the purchase order for physical education among other items.
