Nadia, Owen, Oliver and Ocean – The Kralovec Family
I have not been able to post lately, just too busy with everything. Above is a photo of Ocean and I last Friday night. We went downtown with the family and really had a nice time, walking around the old city and all the shops and restaurants.
The weather the past two weeks has been beautiful. We’ve been enjoying being outside as much as possible. Will blog more as we have a holiday coming up for fall break.
I have been uploading plenty of photos, so check them out on my flickr.com site.
Sunday Oliver and I attended the “Eternal Derby” in Belgrade. The derby is the game between the two biggest teams in the Serbian Professional Soccer League, Red Star and Partizan. The game was held in the Red Star Stadium (Crvena zveda in Serbian) in front of over 20,000 spectators.
Both teams are known for their fanatical hooligans, and I was a bit tentative from attending the game. But the father of one of my students kindly purchased tickets in the VIP section of the stadium for us which was safe. The father happened to be former NBA basketball star Vlade Divac. He hand delivered them to me on the morning of the game. You can see him behind Oliver’s head in the background of the photo above. He is known for his kindness and humanitarian service and it is true. It was a very nice gesture and I want to give him a huge thank you! Please donate to Humanitarian Organization Divac. Vlade is a big star still here in Serbia. I guess the equivalent of this in the US would be Magic Johnson giving us tickets for a Laker-Celtic game. Very cool!
The stadium had an amazing atmosphere! The fans of Partizan especially sang, had banners, fireworks, etc and were on their feet the entire game. We went to the game with my colleague, Luiz, a science teacher in the secondary school. He is from Brazil and used to this kind of rabid fans, but even he was impressed.
Partizan won this 134th edition of the derby, 2-0. There were many goal opportunities for both teams and the action was non-stop. This is Partizan’s sixth straight win in six rounds of the league and they are in first place. Red Star is in eigth place out of twelve teams, with 2 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses.
Red Star is the biggest and most popular team in Serbia. They were formed in 1945 shortly after Tito took over, hence the communist red star symbol. They won the forerunner of the European Champions League in 1991, the only former Yugoslavian team to do so. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, they have fallen on hard times, as most of the top Serbian players go for the higher salaries of other European leagues. Oliver is a big fan of Red Star and so am I.
Partizan is more of a working class team and the second most popular team in Serbia. They were also … (time to go to school, I’ll finish this post later.)
The video above is kind of a follow up to the previous “destructo” post. Ocean is shown eating at the kids’ table as she no longer enjoys sitting in her chair. Of course, we just purchased a new one. She is also heard saying her name, which is new.
Ocean is in the full-on “destructo” mode. Her favorite hobby is to take dirty diapers and papers from the garbage can and put into the toilet. She also enjoys playing with the toilet water, opening up any drawer and spreading its contents on the floor and throughout the house, and eating table scraps from the floor. I also caught her one time sucking on a earthworm in the yard.
She is adorable however and we love her!
I read this on the ESPN web site last night and had to copy it here. Bill Simmons is a sportswriter for the magazine and web site. He is really funny except at times I get lost with his American pop culture references. I was reading his column on his Week 5 NFL predictions and came across a bit from his wife. She occasionally writes in his column and it had me laughing aloud when I read it. Yes, I feel your pain Mrs. Simmons. We are going through the final “destructo” phase with Ocean.
“There needs to be a word for babies that aren’t really babies anymore: Nine to 12 months, when they can’t walk or talk, but they can stay awake for hours, pull a shelf of books down on their heads and stick their finger in electric sockets. I vote for “Destructo.” Our boy hit the Destructo phase six weeks ago. He used to be the easiest, happiest kid! He could play with the same toy for an hour. He could sleep in restaurants or be smuggled into movies. No more. Now he gets his kicks from sticking his face in a dog bowl, or opening a drawer, pulling out all the clothes, then opening and shutting it until he slams his finger.
You don’t want to travel with Destructo. We flew cross-country two weeks ago and I am still drinking two glasses of wine every night to recover. OK, three. All right, it’s a whole bottle. It was just me and him on the way back. Think about holding a 25-pound fish that’s wiggling to get back into the ocean for six hours as the fish emits bloodcurdling screams and you’re stressing that everyone hates you. Does that sound like fun? The one silver lining was the 12 different times we went to the bathroom. Destructo really liked the sound the toilet made when it flushed so I kept flushing it even though I was probably harming the atmosphere. When toilet flushing is the highlight of any trip, you know you’re in trouble.
Some tips if you’re ever on a plane with me and Destructo. First, don’t empathize by telling me, “I know how it is, I just flew with our baby for 12 hours, although he slept the whole way.” Great! I’m glad your perfect kid slept the whole way and mine didn’t! UP YOURS! Second, don’t say, “Don’t worry about us, we’re used to this.” What does “this” mean? Being tortured? Just read your Vanity Fair and shut your piehole. Third, don’t keep glancing back sadly like you feel bad for me! Just don’t! Fourth, if he falls asleep, don’t walk by me and say loudly, “He finally fell asleep, huh?” Unless you want a dirty diaper stuck in your carry-on bag. Fifth, if you’re the pilot, don’t interrupt us every few minutes because you’re excited that we might get in four minutes early, or that we’re flying over the Grand Canyon when it’s pitch-black. You’re lucky that door was locked. And sixth, when it’s over, don’t pretend that Destructo was good as I’m holding clumps of my own hair in my hands and staring into space like a mental patient.
Here’s what you can do: If you’re the flight attendant, keep bringing me wine like the nice lady did throughout our flight. I don’t know where you are, honey, but thank you again! And thanks for not judging me as I stumbled off the plane like Heather Locklear. No jury would convict me.”
Tuesday Nadia and I arranged for the kindergarten students to visit the high school. They are studying “Community” and they wanted to see the older students and teachers. It was a great little tour as they got to listen to the choir sing, “California Dreamin'” and the kinder sang Nadia’s “We Go to ISB” song. We then arranged for the students to read with the HS students. Shown above is Owen reading his book to Marko, a grade 9 student. Owen said he only needed help on a few of the big words.
It was a great morning and I hope to do more of this at ISB.
There is just something about empty cardboard boxes that kids can’t resist. Awhile back Oliver and Owen were playing in the living room and I captured it on video. Needless to say, the boys have quite a bit of energy.
Another cloudy and cool day today – Sunday. We spent most of the day in Zemun and it was really nice! Zemun used to be a separate city across the Danube River from Belgrade, but it is now a suburb. We took a taxi over and the kids played in the park near the river. There were trampolines, bumper cars, etc. We then went for a nice lunch at the Bello Napoli Restaurant near the river. Zemun is much different than most of Belgrade because it was never destroyed by bombing so it has the classic architecture of Europe with cobblestone streets, old buildings, etc. It is a very nice atmosphere especially along the Danube and the sun even came out in the afternoon while we were walking.
In the evening I cut the lawn and we put the kids to bed.
Earlier this month we sold our house in the USA. It was bittersweet to have the home leave our family.
We bought the house back in July of 2005. We just had our second child, Oliver, and I really felt we needed a place to call our own. We had been looking for awhile in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I am from Caspian, and we were looking for a home nearby to spend our holidays. The area is full of forests, rivers, lakes, lots of snow, and it is a child’s paradise. We also have lots of family and friends up there. We finally found the home of our dreams. We were looking for an old “Americana” house in town. The house above, exactly fit the bill. It is a 1911 American Four Square located in a leafy neighborhood of Iron Mountain, Michigan. It was built by the first Swedish doctor in town when Iron Mountain started as a region of iron ore mines. We fell in love with the home.
It is a huge house with over 3500 square feet of living space. The home was owned by another doctor the past 20 years and he did a great job of renovating and adding to the home. You can click on the photo above and it will take you to the set of photos we have. The back yard (above) was great with a swimming pool, sauna, and space to play. In retrospect, the pool was extremely dangerous with young children and we should have gated it or taken it out. The second floor was cool too, with a large terrace and the third floor had a perfect bedroom for the boys. Most of the basement was also finished and it was done in the style of a ski resort.
The reason we sold the home was that we hardly ever were there. It sat empty for an entire year and it was a burden for my family and friends to take care of. We also didn’t like the property taxes, insurance, and mortgage payments we had to make. Later on we rented the house and then we could never use it.
We didn’t lose too much in the value of the home with the market crash of the past year. Most homes in Michigan lost on average 20% in value and our home didn’t do that badly.
We learned a lot about real estate! For our situation as expats, it is difficult to have a home in the USA. For us, it was not worth the hassles and expense. But we will have good memories of our short time in the home. I don’t think our children will remember it however.
I want to thank several people for their help with our home. First of all my mother and father. My dad went every Thursday to clean up the yard and fix things around the home. My mother dutifully paid the monthly utility bills. My sister-in-law Michelle and brother Jim also checked on the house occasionally and had it full of food upon arrival. Finally, I would like to thank our real estate agent, Monica from Stephens GMAC. She was so kind and worked extremely hard in the purchasing, renting, and selling of the home. Thank you Monica!!!!
Some colleauges here in Belgrade were talking about the affordibility of country homes in Serbia. Will we enter home ownership again???
Ocean turned 1 year old today!!! Battery is dying, more on this topic later. (I’m back)
I took this photo Wednesday afternoon, little did I know that it would be the only sun we have seen in two weeks. The rain continued today (Friday) and I just returned soaking wet and full of mud from refereeing a soccer game. The picture shows our high school courtyard. In the upper left you can see the bubble gymnasium. The school is a former embassy and has very beautiful grounds.
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