Nadia, Owen, Oliver and Ocean – The Kralovec Family
Oliver and Ocean were so cute last night in the bubble bath I had to take a picture. I can’t put them on the internet, but this one above is adorable. Ollie and Ocean have fun together in the bath although they do splash a lot of water on the floor. It is enjoyable to watch them interact in a positive manner. That is not fighting over a toy, etc.
I know it is a cliche, but I had to use it for the temperatures this weekend. April is the finest month for weather in Belgrade and we are taking full advantage of the perfect temperatures and spectacular light conditions. It also means the start of baseball season and I usually do a blog post on the Detroit Tigers. I am shown above pitching to my son Oliver. It is one of my fondest memories of growing up was my family’s Sunday afternoon batting practice. My mom and dad used to take us up to the nearby Caspian ball field and pitch to us. We all played Little League Baseball and my Mom especially was an avid Detroit Tigers baseball fan. All I hope for every year is for the Tigers to contend for a Division Title to make the season interesting. Luckily, they have a good owner that has the tenth highest payroll in the Majors (30 teams total) and although the hated Yankees have a payroll twice as much as the Tigers, it is still enough to field a decent team.
The Tigers have two of the best players in baseball. Justin Verlander is always a Cy Young Candidate and a dominant starting pitcher that gives the team a very good chance to win every few days. Miguel Cabrera is a monster hitter. The huge Venezuelan could lead the league in RBI’s and homeruns and is an MVP candidate. The Tigers added Victor Martinez, another Venezuelan, from the Boston Red Sox which should help. It all depends on the others however, because of the long 162-game season. They have many question marks with the pitchers other than Verlander. They also need some other players, like lead-off batter Austin Jackson, outfielder Ryan Rayburn and others to contribute. So far they are 1-4 and not off to a good start. I predict that they will win the Central Division with 90 wins, in a close race with the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins. All three teams look about equal and I especially fear the Twins because they are so well coached. My other picks for the AL are the Yankees winning the East, with the Boston Red Sox and the Wild Card, and in a surprise, the Oakland A’s winning the west. In the National League, I am predicting the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, St. Louis Cardinals in the central, and the SF Giants in the west with the Colorado Rockies as the wild card. It will be the Tigers and Giants in the World Series with the Tigers winning in six games. Of course I have to pick my favorite team to win it all.
Owen is really into baseball and Ollie is getting used to it. As you can see, Oliver bats from the left side naturally as a right-hander and Owen, a left-hander, bats naturally from the right side. There is no Little League Baseball program here in Serbia and while the kids are young, it is okay that they are just playing with me in the yard. There is a baseball diamond at Ada Ciganlija and I hope to eventually start a program at the school for kids.
I also want to keep them playing soccer and tennis. Fitness and exercise are important to Nadia and I and we want to give that gift to our children.
This weekend I took a refresher course in first aid and CPR with a group of colleagues from the school. Our school physician, Dr. Lilly, brought us down to the City Institute for Emergency Medical Aid (Gradski Zavod Za Hitnu Medicinsku Pomoć 94). As you can see, the building is a bit run down, but it has a fleet of around 100 ambulances with a staff of paramedics, nurses, and doctors on call. The “911” number here in Belgrade “94” which you can see in the title of the Institute. I also learned that “92” is the police department and “93” is the fire department. And “95” is to get the time, which in the age of cell phones is a relic. I remember growing up, my brothers and I thought it was the coolest thing to call the automated time “8212” in my village of Michigan. I don’t want to give this number to the kids yet, because they will be calling it all the time.
They even had a couple Zastava vehicles as you can see in the photo above. The Zastava company is the Fiat/Yugoslavia(Serbian) company most famous in the US for producing the Yugo back in the 1980’s. You still see a lot of Zastava cars here in Belgrade and people make a lot of jokes about them. I could do a bunch of blog posts on the beloved Yugo and the other cars from the Communist Era.
It was a good course to do because I haven’t done one in about 10 years. The CPR rhythm has changed from 15 pumps / 2 breaths to 30 pumps / 2 breaths. I also learned how to use a defibrillator and the importance that all schools should have one handy, although they are expensive. We also reviewed what to do in a variety of emergency situations and we all earned a certificate after the class. I would like to thank Lilly and the team at the Institute for giving the course. I also learned some Serbian phrases “Ne diše” (He/She is not breathing.) and “bez svesti” (without consciousness) to help me with the 94 call. I’ll go over the numbers with my family so everyone knows. Hopefully we’ll never have to use it, but it is good to know.
Oliver is shown above riding his bike at Ada Ciganlija this weekend. He comes home everyday from school and goes directly to his bike to ride up and down our “L-shaped” street. Owen learned to “skid-out” his bike last night. He is turning into a real “dude.” The boys ride up and down and Ocean tags along in her tricycle. It will be great to get the whole family biking. When we head to the bike trails at Ada, we still need to rent a “rickshaw” or bike carrier. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to ride the bikes a bit more and go over to New Belgrade where there are plenty of new trails to explore.
Today we ran in the 18th Annual Novi Sad Half Marathon. Novi Sad is the second city of Serbia and is about 70 kilometers north of Belgrade. Conditions were perfect with cool overcast skies, with temperatures in the 60’s and a very flat course. I finished in 153rd place (out of 295) and ran a personal best 1 hour 44 minutes and 42 seconds.My previous best was last year in Budapest when I ran a 1:57.
Nadia broke 2:00 hours again and finished with a with a 1 hour 58 minutes and 31seconds. This was good for a 238 place. Our friend Eric also broke two hours with a time of 1:51 and another ISB Harrier, Georganne ran 1:30.
The course was a bit monotanous as it looped back on itself several times. I liked that it was completely flat. It also started and ended in the beautiful central plaza. We took the nanny and kids and they had a good time at the McDonald’s, or the Team USA pre- & post- race training center. We used the race as a warm-up to next month’s Belgrade Marathon. I hope to complete a racing trifecta by also doing the Skopje, Macedonia Marathon in May.
One of the race sponsors was the cheese company, Biser. They gave the kids Novi Sad Marathon shirts and Ocean, who loves cheese, was so excited to meet “Sir Milan.” I called him that as a take on Sponge Bob. Sir is Serbian for cheese, and Milan is a common Serbian name.
It was a strange scene last night at the Red Star Stadium here in Belgrade. Northern Ireland came to town for a Group C Euro Cup Soccer Qualifying Match. No one except for 200 VIP Northern Ireland guest supporters were allowed in the stadium. The normal packed scene of lines of fans around the stadium was eerily empty. The only people we saw the press corp and plenty of police and military personnel to keep spectators and hooligans away. (photo below) The Serbian Football Federation was serving a 1-game penalty for fan behavior in October’s match in Italy. The match couldn’t start because of a group of hooligans and Italy was awarded a 3-0 forfeit victory. Last night’s game was the second part of the sanction.
It was an entertaining match. I was surprised because Northern Ireland plays a defensive style and after scoring a beautiful goal off a set play in the first half, (screen shot above from the Serbian television station RTS – Radio, Television of Serbia) I thought it would be more boring delay tactics with nine men in the box for the visitors. Fortunately, Serbia kept on pressing and in a dominant second half, scored two goals to win 2-1. It was odd to watch on TV and hear individual voices of players and coaches.
The first round of games in the group are complete. Despite the forfeit, closed stadium, losing their coach, and suffering many injuries, the “White Eagles” are tied for second place with Slovenija in their group behind Italy. The top two teams qualify for next summer’s European Cup hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine. They have 5 more games with the next game being in Talin, Estonia on Tuesday. Hopefully the momentum of the victory will carry them through a probably cold and dreary game in the far north of the European continent.
Note that the “Gazprom” painting on the seats is the owner of the Red Star professional soccer club in Belgrade. Gazprom is the Russian National Petroleum company. Earlier in the week, Vladimir Putin was in Belgrade and the stadium. Red Star played an exhibition match in his honor with a Russian team.
I can’t wait to go to the next Serbian in September against the Faroe Islands. I think it is good that FIFA penalized the Serbian Soccer Federation. They need to invest in the stadium and clean up those disaffected youths that give the country a bad name. I also feel that the Serbian government is also to blame in that it does not have a good economy to provide opportunities for these young men to put their energy towards making Serbia better and establishing careers.
Yesterday I spent the morning with Owen and Oliver at their Parent-Teacher Conference. They were student-led conferences. Oliver read Nadia and I a book and then answered questions about the book. He then rolled dice and added the numbers. He wrapped it up with doing a senses activity by describing odors and tastes.Oliver learned to read this year.
Owen shared his current book, “George’s Marvelous Medicine” by Roald Dahl. He showed us his learning journal. We spent a lot of time doing math games. Owen surprised me with how quick he added and subtracted large numbers. Owen and I then had a conference with his teacher, Ms. Sheila (background).
I was so proud of both the little guys. Owen is a model student with a positive personality, excellent skills, and a balanced interests. He wants to please others and is very concientious. He is a natural leader in the classroom. Oliver has a stronger personality and is more of a people person. He is always looking for a laugh and puts his interests first. Like Owen, he is an excellent student and he constantly surprises me with his depth of understanding and insight into things.
We are proud of both little guys!!
I took the family with me to the CEESA Educators Conference in Budapest, Hungary this weekend. Nadia and I were attending the conference along with the entire staff of our school. We brought the kids up to Budapest with the nanny and made it into a nice weekend. On Friday afternoon, I took the kids up to the Buda Castle and above, Oliver is pictured looking at the beautiful city of Budapest. We went out to dinner both Friday and Saturday nights and had two great meals – one Italian and one Mexican. On Sunday, we visited the Science Museum and had a final lunch at Subway (none in Serbia) before heading back for home. It was my fourth trip to Budapest. Beautiful city, but very expensive compared to Belgrade.
Weather is very depressing here in Belgrade today – cold, gray, and wet…
I think one of the reasons I like the northern part of Europe so much is that it reminds me of where I grew up in northern Michigan. The photo above of a small road near our hotel, looks just like my hometown in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is strange however that the latitudes are so different. For example, Belgrade has a latitude of about 44 degrees north, the same as central Michigan. But, it has the climate of Washington DC, which is much further south. Meanwhile, Riga, with a latitude of 55 degrees north, is much like Michigan and much warmer than its equivalent latitude in North America.
Below I wrote some final thoughts on beautiful Latvia.
Our Lithuanian friends showed Eric and I the proper way to do the Baltic Spa. Because of the high latitudes, the winters are long, dark, and cold. The Latvians love taking a sauna and spend time at Wellness Spas. It was a refreshing experience.
First they took us to a steam room and our guide went in the middle of the steam room and twirled a towel around, pushing the hot steam at us. We then went out and jumped into a cool mini-pool. We went back in for a second time and this time he put ice on us as we lay down in the steam room. That was followed by a cold/hot foot bath. We then did a bit of sauna (there were three temperature saunas – 60 – 80 and 110 degrees Celsius) and finished up with a “salt steam treatment.” In this room we took salt and rubbed it all over our skin. We finished up with a shower. I felt really good afterwards. The cold Baltic air really got to my core on the walking tour of the city of Riga. I can see why the people of the northern countries like saunas so much.
The city of Riga is nice, although it is not much different from many European capitals. I did notice that there is more of a Russian presence in Latvia than in Lithuania and Estonia. There were many old cathedrals and buildings and quaint walkway and cobblestone streets. The Latvians like to put totem animals on the façade and on the roof of their buildings. The rooster has a special significance during pagan times and so you see many roosters on the buildings.
We had a nice last day. Between getting some work done, I went for a run and touched the water of the Baltic Sea one more time. There were lots of people walking on the snow covered beach on Sunday. It was a warm, gorgeous day. I went in the sauna one last time.
I’m getting a better understanding of the northern part of Europe. I like the coniferous forests, saunas, herbal drinks, healthy lifestyle, etc. I don’t like how quiet and dour they seem, although there are exceptions. I would love to take my family to the far north for a holiday before we leave Europe.
Oliver learned to ride a bike this weekend. Yesterday I had to see for myself so I did this short video of the little guy riding up our driveway. He was so proud! I can’t wait for all three of us to go for our first non-training wheel bike ride along the Sava River trail. Oliver still needs to learn how to use the brakes and he is a bit shaky with bumps and turns. It will take some more practice.
It is one of the nice things about our new apartment. There is a private road that the kids can ride on without interference from traffic.
Congratulations Oliver!!!!!!!
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