Ocean turned 1 year old today!!! Battery is dying, more on this topic later. (I’m back)
We didn’t have a big party because one year olds don’t deal well with crowds. She also doesn’t have any friends yet, although my colleagues Tim’s girls love her. We did get typical Serbian cake of chocolate mousse and light creme – delicious! As you can see, Ocean enjoyed it also.
She gets cuter by the day and is showing us genuine affection. We successfully weaned her and now we don’t even give her milk at night. She still gets up a couple times a night, but only for a hug from me and then I put her down on her stomach and put the blankets on her to make her cozy. Ocean calls us by name and points her finger and says “no,no,no”.
Grandma Kralovec sends this message to Ocean on her first birthday:
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.
We spent the equinox in the botanical gardens of University of Belgrade. The grounds were formerly an estate owned by Prince Milan Obrenovic. It was donated to the university in 1889 on the condition that it was named after the prince’s grandfather, hence the name Jeverem.
Ocean is pictured in front of the hothouse, which is a classic but it definitely needs to be renovated. There was a collection of bonzai trees out front that were pretty impressive. I enjoy and feel it is important to learn the names of the trees of all the countries I live in, so I appreciated the signs identifying the trees in English and Serbian. I will definitely begin to photograph and blog the various trees I learn of on my other blog about the plants and animals of Serbia. The other nice thing about the gardens was the Japanese pond and hill area. Oliver loved running around them.
We walked back home and Nadia cooked a great meal again. The weather has been cool and cloudy and it just feels like autumn, or first in many years. I am loving it!!!! Ocean is now saying “daddy” “owo” “mama” “no,no” “tu-tu-ta-at” (Bolivian for night-night) and is approaching her birthday number one, Friday. Owen has a loose tooth and a new tooth is coming in right underneath it. Nadia has a bit of a cold.
Good day at school today (Monday) – the highlight was meeting with the school designer on the new middle school. First day of autumn and we are looking forward to the fall colors.
Saturday morning I awoke early and went for a run at Ada Ciganlija (Sport Island). Mike Harvey invited me to come down as a running group meets there every Saturday. Mike works for the US Aid mission here that is helping Serbia go forward from communism and the war into the EU and a better life for all its citizens. We ran the loop around the lake which is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) I liked running with others and not having a jogging stroller and I hope to get the chance to do it more often. Thanks to Nadia for watching the kids and giving me a bit of free time!
We then headed off for shopping down town. We first went to the US Embassy Commissary. The commissary is a store on the second floor of the embassy that carries US products that you can’t get in Serbia. They only accept US dollars, but there is no sales tax (18% in Serbia) which makes it much cheaper than in the stores in Belgrade. We bought waffles, ziploc bags, cream of tartar, etc
The Kralovec family savors its processed food goodies outside the Embassy.
We next went to the Kalenić pijaca located near the St. Sava’s cathedral. “Pijaca” is the Serb word for market and the Kalenić is the largest open air market in the city. Laurence Mitchell in the Bradt guide book describes it, “the spirit of the Serbian countryside transposed to the city.” There are hundreds of stalls with fruits and vegetables, manned by really old ladies in the long dresses and head scarves. They look like the old Italian women in my hometown of Caspian that we used to see in church when I was growing up. It is a very nice atmosphere and beside produce, there are flowers, homemade pasta, meat, fresh ground coffee, etc. Nadia was inspired to make a potato and leek soup and hummus. We had lunch at a nearby Хлеб shop.
We finished up our adventure at a nice park near the Slavija circle, which is the epicenter of traffic in Belgrade. Ocean went down the slide by her self and the boys had much needed running around time. Saturday evening was spent enjoying a delicious meal by Nadia and watching parts of Will Farrell’s “Blades of Glory,” one of my all-time favorite movies.
Nadia and the boys are shown above walking to school on Friday morning. Belgrade had temperatures all last week in the 40’s and 50’s (10 degrees C). The boys have learned to put their hands in their pockets and to wear hoods to keep warm. It is strange to have a mud room full of boots, jackets, and sweaters after living in the tropics the past 6 years.
Last week we went and bought rain gear. The boys (and Nadia) love their boots and rain jackets. Ocean loves to be bundled up and is so quiet in the stroller when she outside. Ollie seems to be adjusting to the cold better than Owen, perhaps Owen has been in the tropics for longer. The cold weather continues with gray skies and scattered showers until later in the week. Everyone tells me that this is unseasonably cold weather and it should warm up again before winter.
We had a short week of school after the conference. Nadia and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary by going to the mall and buying gum boots. We were married September 17, 1999 in Coral Gables, Florida at the courthouse there. We celebrate more our anniversary of when we started dating – Halloween of 1997. It was a busy week with two girls’ soccer practices for me and a building consultant in from the US State Department. The school is designing the new middle school which will be put on the high school campus. Construction is to begin in March of 2009. More on that later.
We just completed two glorious days of professional development. Debra Welch from the Teachers Training Center (TTC) came to Belgrade to work with our entire staff on Understanding By Design (UBD). This is an approach to planning learning units that uses the concept of Backwards Design. This method was produced by educational experts Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. The idea is to first look at the essential learning (big ideas) and work backwards through assessment and teaching strategies. The staff was asked to work on 1-2 units they were going to use this year. The two days gave us a rare opportunity to really go through the process as most of the time we are so busy with the daily teaching schedule, that we do not get the luxury of time when planning curriculum units. It also let us meet across grade levels and disciplines to plan and discuss common issues and units. Deb Welch is shown above addressing the teachers.
I got a thorough understanding of UBD and a booklet of resources that I will refer to throughout the year. I also worked through the Backwards Design process with a middle school girls’ soccer unit and a school-wide discipline model. I also had a chance to meet and talk with many of the staff that I don’t get to see often.
Nadia found some time to shop at the mall at the Hotel Zira
The Hotel Zira was also very beautiful and great hosts!
The classic Eastern Europe view from the Hotel Zira balcony.
Serbia is participating in the qualifying rounds for the 2009 European Basketball Championship. The tourney takes place a year from now in September of 2009 and it is hosted by Poland. Sixteen teams will participate in the championships, with half the teams already set. The host Poland plus the seven teams who qualified via the Olympic qualifying matches. 17 other teams are competing for the final 8 spots, one of which is Serbia. They are in Group A and they have have a record of 5-1 in their first six games. They play Wednesday against Finland here in Belgrade. That is their only loss, so they will be looking for revenge. The Serbs finish up their schedule against Bulgaria which will probably be the deciding match for supremacy of the group and direct passage to Poland and the European Championships next year.
Serbia’s top player in the qualifying is Nenad Krstic who is averaging 13 points and 5 boards a game. The 7 footer played for several seasons with the New Jersey Nets and now plays in the Russia. Hopefully I will be able to go to the game Wednesday.
Krstic goes for two against Bulgaria earlier this month.
We visited the Chinese Market today over in New Belgrade. It was a cold, rainy day but we braved the elements and headed over in a taxi. We met our friends, Tim/Janna, and Jennie and their children. The photo above was taken in between the buildings of the market.
I was expecting something a bit more “Chinese,” something like Chinatown. A place where you could buy Asian spices and there would be an old Chinese man with a noodle shop. Instead, it was a like the market Barrio Lindo in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Yes, there were plenty of Chinese salespeople manning the stalls. The market was filled with cheap merchandise. It was mostly clothes and houseware. Everything was of very low quality. The only thing I found I liked was bee-bee guns that looked like M 16 US military rifles. I was tempted to buy two for the boys, but they are a bit too young for those. We did buy them plastic guns and transformer masks. We also got a pair of shoes for Oliver. Nadia was really bothered by the smoke and the crowds. I guess if you combine Chinese (heavy smokers) and Serbians (also heavy smokers) you get a lot of smoke. There were thousands of people there. New Belgrade is full of huge Communist era apartment buildings. The low prices probably attract the locals.
Nadia considers the bok choy.
We then went grocery shopping at IDEA, a mega-store like Wal-Mart. The chain is out of Croatia and it was a very nice store. You can buy in bulk there so we stocked up on the essentials. We had some excellent bread, a whole wheat with other nuts and grains.
Nadia and Owen move through the produce section of IDEA.
We took a short nap in the late afternoon and played football in the yard with the boys. We were loving the cold weather! It will be so different to experience the changed of seasons. Our mudroom is full of jackets, something foreign to us.
Ocean is standing next to the lion statue on our doorstep. We have the lion theme with our front entrance. There are two lion statues
and then a brass lion door knocker. I guess being a Detroit Lion fan it is appropriate. The statues are a bit battered as you can see and that is appropriate also considering the Lions NFL history. After last week’s opening week loss to the Falcons, it looks like it will be another long year.
Ocean’s birthday is coming up in two weeks. She is developing quickly and comes up with a new mannerism or habit every day. She stands quite a bit but does not walk yet. Both the boys didn’t walk until after their first birthday. We shall see. She is so smart and figuring out how the world works. She is also quite demanding and knows what she wants.
It was a super hard week at school for me. I had four night events Monday – Thursday. On Monday I helped Liz with the senior college application process talk, Tuesday we had the middle school open house, Wednesday was the high school open house, and on Thursday the PTA had a wine and cheese evening. I didn’t get to bed at my usual 9:00 PM and it showed. I learned that the next time that happens, to take a nap in the afternoon. I will be able to function better and make less mistakes.
Oliver is doing better at school. He is getting along well with his classmates. Owen is a superstar and liked by everyone. His reading level was tested at 2nd grade. We have him in kindergarten this year and it is good because his social and maturity level is at kindergarten. We would prefer him to be one of the top students at his level rather than in the middle of the pack in a grade level ahead.
Nadia is feeling more comfortable in her classroom. She was a bit intimidated with the IBO program, but has found out that it gives her structure and pushes her, but she is still able to do things that have been successful in the past.
We finally got our house deed notorized. It was tough to find the time to go downtown to the embassy, especially with such a busy week. The papers went off DHL on Friday so hopefully they will arrive in Iron Mountain and we can close. It will be sad to lose the “house of our dreams” but glad not to have the burden of mortgage payments and upkeep. I’ll post more on the house later.
Well, it was a cold, rainy weekend. Temperatures were in the 50’s and there was a steady rain. Friday night we walked down for ice cream and we passed out at 8:30 PM exhausted. Saturday morning I cut the grass before the rains came. We then went to the embassy commissary but it was closed. We then went to Delta City and walked around the mall. Nadia cooked a good meal for us at night and we went to bed. Sunday morning it is raining again. I did some paperwork and cleaning around the house. I cooked breakfast for the kids and we had a nice morning together!
Above is Sophie and Ocean Sunday at Ada Ciganlija. Sophie and her sister Eve are daughters of my friend and colleague Tim. They both love watching and playing with Ocean and it has been really nice to spend time with them because of this. Ocean loves the attention and it gives Nadia and I a break!
It was very hot this weekend and to beat the heat we headed to my favorite place in Belgrade. I call it “Sport Island” because it really has every sport imaginable there. It is like a northern Michigan lake, but with lots of cool stuff next to it. There is a strip restaurants, coffee places, etc. next to the water. Behind this there is a bike trail that goes around the entire island. On the island there is a golf course, baseball diamond, rugby field, clay and hard court tennis, multiple soccer fields (mini soccer, artificial turf, etc.) paint ball arena, beach and regular volleyball courts, etc. Sunday we weren’t allowed in the water at first because they were holding the student rowing championships. The kids loved to see all the different countries flags and uniforms.
This week is tough due to two Open Houses (middle school and high school), a senior university night, plus a PTA wine and cheese. I have to attend all of them. We had the first day of girls’ soccer practice and it went well. I am the girls’ middle school coach. Owen came along and was the ball boy/manager and loved it.
Bill's Blog 
