Bill's Blog

A New Era Begins

November 6, 2008November 7, 2008billkralovec

Shown above is my friend Ethan in an US Embassy-issued Uncle Sam outfit. We had an enjoyable night at the Ambassador’s party for election night. We only stayed until around 1:00 AM as the very first results were coming in (Kentucky & Vermont). It was a school night so we couldn’t stay longer. We found a sitter earlier in the evening.

As I posted earlier, the vote at the party was a landslide. My real vote, absentee I did in my home county of Iron in the state of Michigan helped Obama win by 133 votes. The final tally in Iron County was 3,080 – 2,947. An amazing 7 counties in my region of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, went for Obama this time, finally making Michigan, truly a blue state.

I met the Ambassador, Cameron Munter, who is a nice guy. The Prince of Serbia was there, as well as some other big wigs in the country. We laughed and had a great time. I awoke to hear Obama’s speech, wonderful! He made me proud to be an American. I really hope that this will move all of us to be better people and begin again to be a beacon for the world for individual freedoms and excellence.

Kirsten, Janna, & Nadia With the B92 Cameras

Serbian President Tadić had these things to say:

“Your election paves the way for opening a new chapter in the long history of relations between Serbia and the United States, during most of which we have been allies and friends,” the Serbian president’s message read, Beta reported.

In his words, Serbia is staunchly determined to improve bilateral relations with the U.S, while contributing to stability and the European future of the Balkans.

Tadić added that he hoped the new American policy would demonstrate more understanding for Serbia, which is defending its legitimate interests in a peaceful and diplomatic way.

US Elections in Belgrade

November 4, 2008billkralovec

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.

Family Journal: Sunday November 2, 2008

November 3, 2008November 3, 2008billkralovec

It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Belgrade yesterday. We all wore t-shirts and shorts as temperatures were near 80F. The family took advantage of the warmth and we went for a run around Ada Lake. It took Nadia 38 minutes as I trailed with the bike stroller and Owen rode his bike, on the 7 kilometers trail. As you can see above, Ollie fell asleep as well as Ocean did too.

In the afternoon we carved pumpkins and ate roast chicken outside. Sunday night was the usual, clean the house, bathe the children, and we played UNO (Owen won twice). Then it was a movie and to bed.

Family Journal: Saturday November 1, 2008

November 2, 2008November 2, 2008billkralovec

Ollie and Ocean are shown above playing in the leaves in our yard. I did a bit of yard work Saturday morning and the kids had fun. The weather yesterday was in the high 70’s and it felt like summer again. I also swept the steps of leaves and debris, changes multiple lights around the house, and generally cleaned up. In the early morning we went to Merkator for our bi-weekly shopping trip and spent $290 on groceries.

In the afternoon I went to school to meet with our DP Coordinator Liz and we worked a bit on next semester’s schedule. After that I came home and prepared the kids for the baby sitter. Yes, Nadia and I went out on a date!!! We are celebrating the anniversary of when we fell in love. On Halloween weekend in 1997, we began our relationship and have been with each other ever since. Ollie’s teacher assistant, Jelena, came and watched the kids. It was perfect. We went to Duomo, and upscale Italian restaurant in the Dorcol suburb of Belgrade. Excellent salads, pasta, and pizza, and a nice atmosphere. Nadia and I shared a bottle of wine and came home around 9:30 PM. A rare night out for us, but we plan to do this more often. With three young children, most of the time we are devoted to them and our relationship has been lost in the maelstrom of work and kids.

Happy Anniversary Baby, I hope we have many more!

Wine Note- The wine was a red named “Adega de Pegoes” which is produced by a Agriculture Coop in Portugal. The vintage was 2007 but I didn’t get the grape variety. Excellent

NLB – Adriatic Basketball League

November 2, 2008billkralovec

The Adriatic Basketball League (NBL is a bank that is the league sponsor) is a regional league consisting of 14 teams from the countries of the ex-Yugoslavia. After the bitterness and violence of the seccesionist wars of the 1990’s, it is surprising this league exists. I guess it must be a testament to the power of sports to transcend these things.

All of the countries have their own regular professional leagues, and the NBL is a “Champions League” type of format. The 14 teams play each other home and away for a 28 game regular season. Serbia has 5 of the 14 teams. The two big sport clubs in Belgrade, Red Star and Partizan are represented along with FMP from the Belgrade suburb of Zelenik, Hemofarm, from the city of Vrsac near the Romanian border, and Vojvodina “Serbia Gas” from Serbia’s second city of Novi Sad. Croatia has four teams, Slovenia three teams, and one each from Bosnia and Montenegro.

The league started in the 2001-2002 season and the number of teams has varied through the seven seasons. For one season, Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv was a member of the league. The champion of the first season was a team from Slovenia, and the second year was the Croatian team Zadar. The last 5 seasons, Serbian teams were crowned champions. Zelenik won twice, Hemofarm once, and the past two seasons the champion was Partizan, who also won the Serbian Soccer League last year.

This year they have played six games each and once again, Partizan is atop the league at 6-0. Red Star is second with a 5-1 record. The league starts in October and ends in April. Red Star American players are Andre Owens, the 6-4 guard from Indiana University played to brief seasons in the NBA and Lawrence Roberts, ex-Mississippi State star and Memphis Grizzly player. The 6-9 power forward played the last two seasons in the Greek league and is new to Red Star. Partizan features ex-UMass star Stephane Lasme, who played briefly with the Miami Heat.

I haven’t been to a game yet, but plan to. The league website is quite good.

Kralovec Halloween Family

November 1, 2008November 1, 2008billkralovec

Last night we enjoyed the ISB Halloween Festival at the school. The weather was quite nice and the kids really had fun. We took the photo above on the way home in front of a spooky gate. Belgrade is full of “haunted houses” and has a perfect atmosphere for halloween. The boys and Ocean went trick or treating around the classrooms, and Owen participated in the costume parade. I couldn’t get Ollie to go with his class. He would rather play in the park and his teacher was dressed as The Cat in the Hat and it freaked him out. All three kids liked best the Arts & Craft station where they did worksheets and put stickers on mini pumpkins. Ocean crawled under the tables while they were doing that. Our costumes were repeats from previous years. Owen was superman, Ocean was Yoda, Ollie was Woody, Nadia was Le Chef, and I was a fair dinkum Aussie. Next year we will go with a family theme and plan for the evening. Now that we are not in the tropics, there is a possiblity of cold weather, but last night it was beautifullly warm, as it has been most of the month of October. The only thing I didn’t like about the festival was it was too crowded.

Nadias Kinder Class — Nadia's Kinder Class

We had a good week. I am feeling more comfortable at work with a quarter under my belt. We are getting our car on Monday!!! It has been a bit of a hassle with taxis and I am itching to explore Serbia outside of Belgrade. I got out of going to the Paris MYP conference as we are hosting a CEESA boys soccer championship, as well as a visit from the architect designing the new middle school, etc. Parent-Teacher conferences are also on Tuesday and we have no classes.

Oliver was a brave little guy again and got out his stitches. He will probably have a slight scar between his eyes. You can click on the flickr account to see the rest of the festival pictures. International schools love Halloween because no other country has the holiday and it is a good idea.

Nadia & Oliver: Family Journal – Wednesday October 29, 2008

October 29, 2008October 29, 2008billkralovec

I just got back from a Principal – Parent Coffee session. Every month I meet with parents. It is nice to get a chance to hear from them.

It was surprisingly warm today. We woke up and it was raining, but the day turned out to be quite nice. Serbia moved their clocks back this weekend and we really notice the time change. It gets dark before 5:00 PM which much different for us. I took this photo of Nadia and Oliver yesterday on the way to school. Nadia was looking particularly beautiful that morning.

Very tired and going to bed.

Deliberation in a Democracy Workshop

October 29, 2008October 29, 2008billkralovec

I really enjoyed participating in yesterday’s workshop. Katie Moore from the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Los Angeles, California came to give our teachers a workshop on how to implement their Deliberating in a Democracy initiative. This program aims to improve the teaching and learning of democratic principals and skills of civic deliberation. The program is funded by the US Department of Education and works in schools in eastern Europe and the USA.

I learned the difference among deliberation, debate, and discussion. Deliberation is listening to other viewpoints and opinions carefully and then for a person to make his/her own decision. Debate is trying to convince the other side and discussion is talking about an issue but not making a decision. Katie led us through a sample lesson and we deliberated the question, “Should our democracy permit hate speech?” which comes under the topic of Freedom of Expression.

I particularly liked two parts of the lesson procedures. The first is it forces students to first use their heads and concentrate on the facts and readings and not go directly to their emotions on controversial issues. Deliberation is about controlled controversy, and almost all of the topics are controversial. The other aspect is each side needs to “teach back” to the other side what they learned from listening to the other side’s arguments. The rules for deliberation also help young people control their emotions when involved in these discussions.

Katie has been to Serbia many times and they have a page on the Deliberation in a Democracy web site. I would like to thank her for including ISB in her visit and for the teachers who enthusiastically participated in the workshop. This will definitely benefit our students.

Ocean Walks

October 28, 2008October 28, 2008billkralovec

The past couple of days Ocean has been walking more and more. The video above is from Sunday evening, as she is shown walking in our living room from me to Nadia. Last night (Monday) she was walking even more, so it is inevitable that she will soon leave crawling. She is just about 13 months and it is a bit late to walk She is developed in other areas however. Her speech and understanding of daily events is amazing. Ocean mimics much of what we do and say. She will be a smart cookie!

Below is a photo of one of Ocean’s favorite hobbies. Playing in the toilet! She also loves to go into rubbish bins and take everything out. Even though she is in her “destructo” mode, she is so cute that it is impossible to be mad at her.

It is also nice to see that the US dollar is finally rising against other currencies. When we arrived in Belgrade in July, the exchange rate was 1 dollar = 50 dinars, and now it is up to almost 70 dinars.

Weekend Family Journal: October 24-26, 2008

October 26, 2008October 28, 2008billkralovec

Owen is shown above with his passport ready to re-enter Serbia. Owen was the ball boy of the girls’ MS soccer team. He faithfully attended practtices and really helped me out by retrieving balls, cones, among other duties. It was really nice to spend time with him alone. He loved the swimming pool at the hotel so that is about all I saw of Sofia besides the school. We were not in Bulgaria for much time, but I have a few impressions. It was surprising that Bulgaria seemed a bit less developed than Serbia, despite the fact that Bulgaria is part of the EU and Serbia is not. There was a lot of construction on the “ring road” going around the city and the school is located on the outskirts. It was a beautiful, new school situated on the base of the mountains surrounding Sofia. The Bulgarians were defintiely different from the Serbs, as they looked more Turkish, Armenian, than Slavic. Owen was a good boy during the trip! We drove over on Friday and came back the next day. It was also great to win the game on Saturday and have the girls play so well during the weekend.

On Sunday, Oliver and I attended the Belgrade Book Fair. The Serbs are readers and the convention center was packed with people buying books. This was the last day of the seven day fair and I was impressed with the number of book stores and readers buying books. There must have been close to 5000 people in the convention hall. My only complaint was the cost of books. The two books I wanted to get, very few in English, cost 7,000 dinars and 5,000 dinars. That is over $100 each. I did by a biography of Tito for $18. From the Blic web site, the director of the book fair gave these statistics:

About 135,000 tickets were sold, while 4,800 people worked on stands on daily basis. There were 1,180 accredited journalists, which is, according to Trpkovic, the greatest number so far. About 4,000 invitations and 2,000 tickets were handed over, so altogether 147,000 people visited this year’s Book Fair. The greatest number of tickets (31,500) was sold on Saturday.

We hosted Janna’s and Abby’s birthday party at our house. Paul, Abby’s father and our IT person at the school, worked the BBQ. We have a beautiful stone oven in our yard. We had a really nice time. Once again, the tempation to use Alkohol, created a fire again. Alkohol is a flammable spirit that is used here to begin fires. Think of a super-charged lighter fluid. Paul threw some on the coals to get the new ones going, and the result was a massive flame shooting up through the chimney and catching the vines covering the opening on fire. Paul acted quickly however, and put out the fire with our garden hose.