DAVE AND (mostly) BETSY'S BLOG

What's in a Name??

2012-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

I guess Dave and I really like nicknames. When we thought of names for Jacob, we decided to pick his name based on the fact that we wanted "JJ" as a nickname. That and it was our only hope in actually naming our child because we could NOT agree on a name. Dave wanted names like: Hunter and Arrow, and I threw out names like Henri (French name for Henry) and Amon.

Then, after JJ was born and grew, we had all sorts of nicknames for him, some we didn't even realize we said so much, like "Bud". We called him JJ, Jage, Bud, Mister, Dude and a recent one - Bubba. Apparently this one is my sweet name for him because when he gets in trouble, he asks me, "Mom - can you please call me Bubba again?" Apparently when I get mad I only call him Jacob Jonathan. How sad it is that his actual first and middle names we mostly only use when we're mad??

So, with Emma June, picking her name was easier than picking JJ's. She is named after my grandmother (my mom's mom), and Dave loved her name right away. I always loved both of my grandmothers' names: Emma June and Esther Willamena. You can see how Emma June won out though - slightly more appealing than Esther Willamena (I still love her name though).

Anyway, even though Emma June is her official name, we already have nicknames for her: Little Miss, Miss Miss, Miss Emma, Junebug and Dave calls her Sweet Pickles.

So, as she gets older, like JJ, she'll answer to just about anything.

Post-Pregnancy Reflections

2012-01-03T01:56:00.000-08:00

I recently started reading a book written by a woman who wanted to chronicle the pregnancy of her third and last child. Reading this book has been a real powerful and emotional way for me to reflect on our own last child.

So here are my recent musings on post-pregnancy and motherhood.

On Sacrifice:
When I was pregnant with both of my children (that still sounds weird to say), I felt it was a huge sacrifice to carry them around for 10 months. I had gestational diabetes with both of them, carried quite big for both and with Emma I had shooting nerve pains down my legs, which brought me to my knees a few times (once just outside the restaurant Dave took me to for my birthday).

And then there was the relief of having them out, and the realization that that particular sacrifice was over, but then the further realization that sacrifice continues and looks like something new: feeding several times in the middle of the night, the sacrifice of "our" time that isn't "our" time anymore, giving ample attention to both kids, juggling life/work with the new addition, etc... But in the midst of the sacrifice, even though it's hard, it's all worth it.

On Body:
One of the things on so many women's minds after they've given birth is "when can I have my body back?" I kept saying during pregnancy, "I can't wait to have my body back", but I didn't mean it in the way that I want my figure back. I meant that it will be nice to be able to lie on my back to sleep without worrying about squeezing off some important artery that pumps blood to the baby, or, because I had gestational diabetes, being able to have a bowl of ice cream when I want without worrying that I'm harming both myself and the baby, etc...

But I'm also fascinated by the intense desire women in general have to get their figures back. For me, it's not that intense. I know from experience with JJ, that this whole getting "my figure" back thing takes time, at least for me it does. Mainly because I don't try to be a fanatic about rushing it. I know it's important to be healthy and to heal from surgery well, and that's why I want to start walking and being active, but I also feel there are more important things right now than getting my figure back pronto, like caring for a newborn and figuring out how to also keep giving attention to my 6 year old, who has already expressed emotion of how hard it is for him to watch me give so much attention to a new baby.

On Love:
The second time around, I'm still fascinated at the amount of love I have for this baby. I remember looking at JJ when he was only a few days old and thinking, "how can I love this little guy so much?" And I know I kind of bonded with both before they came out because I carried them for so long, but as soon as I heard Emma's cry in the operating room, it all became real - she was real. She wasn't just this squirmy image on an ultrasound screen or this alien moving inside me. She was real, and so was my love for her.

Christmas Blessing

2011-12-26T03:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!

Right now there is a lull in the Christmas excitement, as JJ works on his new Christmas Lego creation, Dave is doing some dishes, and our host friends are out for a bit at their church service. I'm sitting next to the beautiful new addition to our family and reflecting on what an adventure the last two weeks have been!


Emma June - born Dec. 20th in Budapest

In the last two weeks, I had to learn to let go of control, something that is probably hard for many Americans to do. Culturally we are brought up to think that the world is within our control, and we set the course for how things will happen. Something amazing happens when you travel to other countries and cultures and especially live in those cultures; you realize that you are now a part of a whole new system of doing things that have existed long before you ever did, and you learn to operate (or at least try) within those new constructs, new rules, new boundaries. And this is not always an easy process, especially for me who likes to be in control of my environment.

So, we had two surgeries planned in a country we do not live in and scheduled only about a week apart from each other. And we've been stretched in ways we could not have imagined. And with it all came many tears and frustrations but also gratitude and joy.

There were so many things we wanted to change, but couldn't. Watching my son get blood drawn in what seemed like a very old fashion way and watching him experiencing pain because of it was not easy to go through. We asked if it could be done another way, but the system is already in place. Hearing my daughter scream all the way from my hospital room and then walking in to see the same technique being used on her was equally as hard for me. All I could say was "Are you almost done?" Then I scooped her up in my arms and brought her back to where I could be in control of her.

We had these surgeries in a hospital that didn't believe in over-medicating. So not being given very much pain medication after JJ's surgery, and instead being told that he needed to eat and drink right away was so hard for him, and there was little we could do about it but encourage him to fight through the pain and promise to be there with him while he did. But then he fought through the pain, and now today he is almost his regular ninja self again!

Laying in bed, fighting to move through immense pain and asking for harder pain medication and being told that I needed to fight through the pain was terrifying for me. I felt helpless and beyond frustrated. But then I moved and fought through it and the other day I walked up 94 stairs!

As hard as it was, we made it through the pain and suffering and learned a bit more about coping when things cannot be within your control.

Here are some pictures of a healthy JJ and our precious Emma's arrival, the gift, the blessing and precious reward that came through the pain and suffering.

Tonsils are Out

2011-12-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

I had my tonsils out when I was 8 years old. And I truly believe it was due to that experience in conjunction with my very wimpy personality that set up the course in life where I knew I would never become a nurse.

According to my 8 year old mind, it was a traumatic experience, two IVs (one nurse took one out because she didn't know I was spending the night, so another had to put one back in), throwing up blood, two pain killer shots in the bum, etc...

Dave also had his tonsils out when he was younger, although not that young, maybe when he was 16.

So, when JJ started having tonsil problems when he was younger, it was no surprise. This year in the month of October, JJ had 3 bouts of strep throat, missed at least 10 days of school, had fevers, head aches, belly aches, etc... all associated with strep throat. His body took 2 doses of antibiotics, and it didn't clear it up until he had a shot of penicillin. Those stubborn tonsils!

So, we decided it was best to have them out before the baby comes - to be exact 8 days before she comes. We couldn't schedule it earlier because we were having it done in Budapest and couldn't come up from Zagreb earlier.

So, here we are in Budapest, the baby is coming in 6 days and today JJ comes home from the hospital! He made it fine through surgery with no complications, although I really wish they could use a different drug for the general anesthesia that doesn't make them absolutely crazy when coming out of it. According to the doctors he's healing quite well. Thanks for thinking of our little guy!

Here are his before and after operation pictures:

Now we're hoping for a fast and easy recovery!

Taekwondo

2011-12-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

JJ has been taking Taekwondo classes at school and to say he loves it would be an understatement. His teacher told us he's a natural and is talented and that we should have him join a studio. We're still thinking through that one. But in the meantime, when he's not doing Taekwondo at school, he's doing it at home. The other day he had me measure his kicks to see how high they were and he goes around the house doing some really fancy fierce moves.

Often he invites us to his taekwondo "classes" where he teaches us really super cool moves. One day he gave out special taekwondo names for us all:
Dave is Black Skylar
JJ is Black Warrior
and he told me that I'm Black Belly

The other day as well he was telling me of daddy and his special powers. I can't quite remember them exactly, but they were super cool, like sneaky ninja powers, shooting lightening from their hands to capture enemies, super human strength, super high jumps, etc... And when I asked him what my special powers were, he said: A wobbly stomach that pretty much does nothing.

Awesome.

JJ's First Canvas

2011-11-25T00:22:00.000-08:00

While working on this, Jacob came up with 2 fun ideas on his own: to pour paint on the canvas and blow at it through a straw, and to splatter it over the shapes he painted. As soon as he was done, he asked to do another one.

A Bit of Croatia: Vrbnik

2011-11-22T00:48:00.000-08:00

There are things I will be able to do before we have our 2nd baby, and there are things I won't be able to do. This is the reality I'm accepting. But, one of the things I'm sooo happy we were able to do before was go away for a night together with an awesome group of people to a place on the coast, for a time of being together, getting to know each other better, having fun together, and relaxing together. One of the highlights for me was discovering this new part of the coast with them. It was on the island of Krk, in a small beautiful town called Vrbnik. Here are some photos from our brief but very memorable interaction with Vrbnik:

This is the smallest street in the world.

There were doubts on whether I could make it through. Surprisingly I could fit both ways - a few cm to spare!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this cat.

Big Brother JJ

2011-11-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

Super sweetness alert!! (*Note when JJ is 16 years old, I'll probably have to take down all of these super cute posts, so I'll get them up while I can and while the sweetness is still here.)

As many of you know, we're having a baby in about 5 weeks, and that we have an almost 6 year old. And JJ is totally loving the idea of being a big brother!! He's very excited about helping with the baby, feeding the baby, he's even asked if the baby can sleep in his room with him. As we put away clothes people have given us, he likes to look too and even has favorite outfits picked out.

Many of you are familiar with "Heart Love", JJ's bear and one of his favorite animals. Anyway, Heart Love is like JJ's preparation for the baby. He put a newborn diaper on Heart Love one night, swaddled him/her (Heart Love's gender is yet to be determined) and then Heart Love slept next to him that night.

Recently, he really wanted to put one of the baby's outfits on Heart Love and feed her/him. So, here are pictures of our still sweet boy who is super excited about being a big brother!!

Budapest Part I

2011-11-16T01:50:00.000-08:00

So, this past weekend, we made our first journey to Budapest, where will be having our baby and where JJ will be having his tonsils out (hopefully). We visited the hospital, met both doctors and feel a peace about it. And one of the best things about this decision is that hopefully JJ will have his tonsils out before the baby is born AND he will be able to stay with a family (who have 4 girls) he feels really comfortable with while Dave and I are at the hospital for the birth of the baby. Here are some other highlights of the weekend (not in any particular order):

Budapest's version of Chipotle = Yummy Mexican food with actual guacamole, corn tortillas and can't forget the free soda refills
Getting to see beautiful Budapest - wow!
Eating very yummy homemade peanut butter and homemade oatmeal delight and seeing one of our friends in an awesome middle school play!
Spending awesome time with our team leaders (a.k.a dear friends) and their awesome girls
Hearing JJ call these girls his "sisters"
Eating Korean food!!!
Hitting up Ikea on the way home (supposedly we will be sent our missing crib nuts and bolts for free)

Confessions of a Thirty Something Year Old Pregnant Woman

2011-11-06T01:37:00.000-07:00

I've done lots of confessions on this blog, but this is my first one about pregnancy:

True story: I got stuck somewhere the other day and had to yell to Dave for help (Dave took a picture, but I refuse to post it).

I was gluten free before I got pregnant, and now I have gestational diabetes. Try living a gluten AND sugar free life abroad. I'm making it work, but it's neither easy nor fun.

I really don't like going to the Diabetic clinic here. Here are my reasons:

I just don't understand the system, and often just stand around waiting to figure out what to do or when to go into the office.
No one knows what to do with me because I go to a Private doctor who is not in the "system". They always ask if I have a "uputnica", to which I say no. I just figured out this week what one is.
It seems so "old school", and I know I bring into that statement the way I've been oriented by an American culture that functions on convenience/efficiency/productivity. I go to the clinic to pick up my blood vials, then go home and test them for one day (4 times that day which means filling them each up with blood about 1/4 full), then I have to bring the vials back between 7-9 a.m. the next day, and then I have to come back 2 days later at noon to pick up my results results and then bring them to my Dr's office. I once asked if they could fax the results to my Dr., and they said, "no."

I'm fairly certain I'm the only very pregnant student at the University where I study Croatian. The bigger I get, the more the 20 year old students stare at me as I walk by them.

Last night I fell asleep at 8:30 p.m. and woke up at 6:30 a.m.

I recently met someone who thinks pregnant women are so beautiful, which felt really good to hear because I have felt just the opposite recently. She asked to touch my stomach, and I didn't even mind!

Life is about to change in a big way in about 6 weeks from now. Yikes!! Yeah, so we've been a bit spoiled in only having 1 kid so far.

Pregnant Woman on the Tram

2011-11-05T03:16:00.000-07:00

I'm 32 weeks pregnant and so it's hard to miss me on the tram.

There is an unspoken rule in this culture about who gives up their seat for whom on the tram. Here's what I've noticed the priority is of seating on the tram:

The elderly or handicapped
Pregnant Woman accompanied by younger child
Pregnant Woman by herself
Those who are a bit older (40s-60s)
Young child with a parent
The young and healthy

Lately, I've found it very fascinating, the behaviors of others toward me on the tram, especially when it comes to who gives up their seat for me. It's become a sort of social experiment for me! I often plant my pregnant self in front of various people to see who will give up their seat for me. Here's what I've observed:

Gender matters:

Females are way more sensitive to my situation and will give up their seat way more often than males will.
Young males have almost never given up their seat for me. I think it has only happened once, and I take the tram every day to school. I've tried lots of tactics: ranging from looking really tired and pathetic to standing really close to them and sticking my belly practically in their faces, and still nothing. They just turn their heads, look out the window and pretend they don't see me.
However older men are more likely to give up their seat for me than younger men, but it's still not as common as women.

Age matters:

The elderly still do not give up their seat for me, but the women who are a bit older and whom normally are given seats by younger, healthier people, almost always give up their seat for me.
The younger generation (especially college aged) have given up their seat way less often than the middle aged and older generation. The younger they are, the more they pretend to not see me. And like I said, it's hard to miss me.

I generally am not the kind of person that has to sit on the tram and would gladly give up my seat for anyone who needed it, but I've realized there are some benefits to being pregnant, and I may or may not be enjoying taking advantage of it while I can. :)

Love You Forever, Like You For Always...

2011-10-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Baby #2 is coming soon, and I still refuse to buy this book.

Disclaimers:

Um...if you like this book, you probably shouldn't read this blog.
If you actually gave this book to me, sorry.
For those who want to venture further, sorry if I ruin it for you, like I did for my friend Melody who loves this book!

One day I would love to write a Family System Dynamics/Boundaries paper about this book, but for now I'll just tell you why Dave and I vowed we would never buy this book.

For those who don't know this book, it starts out all sweet with a baby and a mom. When the baby sleeps, the mom walks into the room, picks up the baby and sings to him: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

I know, sounds sweet, right?

Then she comes in again when the baby is a bit older, a toddler, and does the same thing. And it's not that I don't resonate with the mom at this point in the book. After a long, rough day, I've been known to go into JJ's room for a few minutes to watch my sweet "angel" sleep and maybe even give him a kiss on the cheek. It sort of helps wipe out the rough day we just had.

But, then in the book the child becomes 9 and then 16 years old, and the mom does the same thing; she creeps into the room after he's fallen asleep, crawls on her hands and knees, holds him in her arms and sings, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

I think any mom of a 16 year old knows that if her teenager woke up while she was sneaking into the room on her hands and knees then proceeded to hold him while singing this song, it would completely creep him out.

Then it gets worse. The next pages tell us that the boy is now fully grown, living in his own home and married. Next we see the mom (who is also much older at this point) driving to her son's home WITH A LADDER ON TOP OF HER CAR, where she proceeds to prop that ladder up against her son's bedroom window, crawls on the floor on her hands and knees while he sleeps, holds him and sings, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

Um....

Listen, I have a son, and sure, in many ways I will always look at him as my "little" boy, even when he's grown and married. I know that because my mom says the same thing. BUT, come on - driving to your son's house with a ladder and crawling on the floor?? Where are the boundaries? And I can tell you as a wife of a son, if my mother in-law (whom I love dearly!!) drove over to our house in the middle of the night with a ladder, snuck into our bedroom, crawled across the floor and tried to hold Dave while he was sleeping and sang, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be", we would have to have a conversation about boundaries, and about letting go, and about not projecting your neediness onto your child, etc...

There are so many great children's books out there. I think I'll stick to the ones that show healthier family boundaries.

JJ's Harvest Party

2011-10-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

We wanted to share a bit of JJ's world with you. Last week he had a sort of "Harvest Party" at his school. All of the kids in his class dressed up in traditional clothing and they performed various skits, dances, songs, etc... I couldn't make it because I had Croatian class, but Dave went and video-taped it all. Here's a super cute video of his class dancing.

Poor guy, you can tell in this video that he doesn't have a lot of energy. Come to find out, he had strep throat AGAIN (that was the 2nd time this month). The day after this he came home from school with a fever. He's currently home from school resting and on antibiotics.

Hope you enjoy the video, a little glimpse into JJ's world.

Roller Coaster Ride - Language Learning

2011-10-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

I realized today that's how I would describe learning a foreign language - a roller coaster ride. I'm in the process of learning my 3rd foreign language - Croatian. French was my 2nd, and the roller coaster ride was the same in France. It was challenging, and during those challenging times I thought I wasn't going to make it over the hump; I felt like giving up, I thought the assignments were too hard, but then I slowly climbed and kept climbing, and then I would turn a corner and make a huge leap in progress. Often I wouldn't realize it until after an event, like spending all night with our French friends and actually conversing in French for 5-6 hours straight. Later, I would think, "Was that me?"

And now I'm in Croatia and in some ways having gone through that process with learning French and living in France has greatly helped me learn my 3rd language. However, it does also pose problems, like often in public when I'm conversing, I know exactly how I would say something in French, but don't yet have the words in Croatian. This is frustrating.

I currently dread going to my Croatian class every day because I skipped a level, and while grammar is my strength, vocabulary and speaking are not. I'm with students who have lived here for 3-5 years, some married to or dating Croatians, and some have Croatian relatives. I'm so afraid I'm going to go into class one day and not understand anything or be able to communicate at all, thus the dreaded uphill climb of the roller coaster ride. BUT then, after I leave class, I realize I understood almost everything and actually conversed, even though it wasn't perfect.

So one of my problems is...perfection. Yeah, I'm sure my mom is reading this saying, uh yeah, you're a perfectionist and you put way too much pressure on yourself. So, my new goal is to be fearless: fearless to try, fearless to speak, fearless to ask questions. (these are really hard things to do for perfectionists)

This morning over breakfast I was sharing with my guys my jealousy (o.k. that's apparently another problem of mine) of how two Russian girls in my class, who are either engaged to or dating a Croatian man, converse in Croatian with such ease:

"Not fair!" I was telling them. "Not only do they already have a declension (the case endings for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns that change according to the function they play in the sentence) structure in their language, but they practice Croatian all day long!"

But, in all fairness, I was just being a baby. And then JJ said, "Mom you're doing great! You just need to listen to it more, and it will come!"

And he's right!!! Here are 5 quick tips for people learning foreign languages (wherever you are). If you're like me and struggling with being a baby or a perfectionist, hopefully these will help:

1. Spend time with and in the language. I interpret this as "put the time in" and "be fully immersed as much as possible". This means being intentional about things like: listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases.

2. Listen and read every day. They recommend at least 1 hour of this every day.

3. Build up your vocabulary. Learn verbs, notice words and how they come together as phrases.

4. Take ownership and responsibility for learning. Don't wait for someone else to show you the language or tell you what to do.

5. Relax and Enjoy yourself! Basically loosen up and realize learning a language takes time and in the meantime don't obsess about being perfect or waiting to speak until you're perfect. The good news is that soon our brains will start making sense of it all!

Yeah, one day (hopefully soon) I'll get over this hump, and realize that learning language is a series of humps. I need to rejoice in the humps I've made it over and know that I'll make it over this one too.

And one day, like in France, I probably won't even realize it until I look back and say, "Was that me?"

The No Good Very Bad Rainy Day - Turkey Part I

2011-10-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

I had to blog about this day because I didn't want to forget it. Our flight to our destination in Turkey seemed uneventful according to the itinerary we printed up from the airlines. We would have a 2 hour layover in Istanbul and truthfully I was excited about it. Not that I would see any of Istanbul, but it was fun to say we would be there, even if for a few hours. But if I had to say whether I would go back to that airport, after our first connection experience there, I would've said no way!

It all started when we landed in Istanbul. We got off our plane and were intent on finding the immigration area, the one we were supposed to buy our Visas from. We asked a man who worked there, which one to do first...Customs or Visa. He said Customs. But, as we waited longer and longer in the Customs line, we saw our connecting flight flash "Last Call" on the monitor. Yeah, a little bit of panic set in at this point. We got to the window, anxious to go through, and the Passport Man says, "Where's your visa?" We told him we thought we were supposed to do that after Customs. Nope. So, he sent us to another window far to the left to purchase our Visa Stickers. We did that as fast as humanly possible, than ran back (despite a few "heys...excuse me...you can't cut...") to the same Customs window, and the Passport Man sent us through.

Then we began our run to the Domestic Terminal. Yeah, that wasn't fun. Dave was WAY ahead of me, as I moved my pregnant body as fast as I could, thinking that if I run move any faster, I foresee early labor right here and now in this terminal.

We arrived at our gate after huffing and puffing and saw that our flight was delayed!! And not only our flight was delayed, but all the other ones before and after as well. Apparently the weather was so bad- rainy, windy, and foggy, that they weren't allowing any planes to land. So, this was when the real fun began.

We waited in the hot (anyone who was there can attest that it was not just pregnancy - it was HOT) terminal and waited, and waited and waited some more.

Then a couple of hours later, we were told to go to another gate, so we did. Then we were told to go back, so we did. Then we were told nothing. And it got later and later. Eventually I found myself laying on the cold concrete of the airport terminal floor, and it felt good.

And we waited some more.

Chaos was all around us. People wanted answers - nobody had them.

Eventually a man, who I had been convinced worked at the airport but came to find out was just a passenger like us, told everyone that if we had any hope in flying out tonight, that we needed to rebook our tickets.

So, we went out of security, to the ticket counter, and mayhem had already ensued. People were yelling, a group of angry passengers were escorted from the ticket counter. We waited patiently with another family at a very nice ticket counter, and remained calm. And we think this may have helped us get our tickets onto what was the last flight to leave the airport that night.

We ran to now an even different gate and waited with the chaotic group of angry passengers, all shoving and pushing there way to the gate, hoping to get on this flight. Finally, an airline worker came and tried to make some order, but it wasn't possible. Luckily, we waited near the gate entrance and were able to be some of the first on that plane. One of the funny things about our no good very bad rainy day was that our new re-booked seat assignments brought us to "Business Class"! We had our own computers, which didn't phase me b/c I was way too tired to look at it, but JJ liked it. And our seats reclined, which was sooo nice. The problem was that so many peoples' seats were double-booked, and the mayhem continued as angry people were moved from their seats and other angry people didn't have seats.

We stayed quiet and calm in our seats and I kept thinking, "Nobody is going to pry this tired pregnant body from this amazing comfortable seat." And luckily no one had to.

Finally we took off around 2 a.m. and arrived in Baggage Claim around 3:30 a.m. But the chaos had followed us.

With so many canceled, delayed and re-booked flights, the bags were everywhere, no system, no plan, and no bags could be found...at first.

We were the last of the families (who had been through this ordeal together) to find our 1 bag around 4:45 a.m., and finally we were off to our destination.

After a very hot and sticky tour bus ride to our hotel, we finally landed and arrived in our room at 5:30 a.m., totally and utterly exhausted.

Here were some amazing blessings of the night though:

We found out the 1st of the flights to be let out of the airport that night was horrible. Our friends were on that flight and literally my friend prayed aloud for 20 minutes, thinking they were going down. I vaguely remembered the word in the terminal was that IF this first plane landed, they would send more. We were the last of the 3 they sent out. And for those out there who know how much I hate to fly, well, you know I wouldn't have done well on that 1st flight.
JJ, after running around like a happy (by "happy" I mean completely giddy from being over-tired!) mad man in the airport, finally crashed at 1:00 a.m. and continued to crash, even through the rest of the craziness. I wish I had taken a picture of him on the baggage claim floor, sprawled out, totally asleep on the make-shift bed I made for him (which was Dave's jacket and my sweater). There amid the lights, mayhem, yelling, kids crying, people frantically looking for bags, was JJ sleeping peacefully.
The Istanbul airport terminal had a Starbucks! BONUS! I'll never forget drinking that decaf iced vanilla latte in the 100 degree terminal!
The most important thing - we actually arrived and arrived safely, very very exhausted, but safely.

Life has Begun Again

2011-10-08T00:46:00.000-07:00

In Europe, the month of August is often when people vacation. Sometimes this spans from July to August. So, generally in the summer the city can feel dead - at least this is what we were told. Then summer hit, and for us it still felt busy...Dave's parents came for 3 weeks from Korea to visit us (pictures below), we hosted a large group of students from America (who were living abroad in SE Europe for 3 months prior to coming here), our current team left in August, Dave went on his epic bike ride with friends, a friend stayed with us for a week, etc...

And then September came and...you could actually feel and see the change in the air. The city seemed to come alive, people were everywhere! There were no longer empty seats on the trams, which were now crowded with students studying at the various "Fakultets", cafes and the streets were filled with people, seating was scarce at restaurants.

And then September hit for us too. Our two new volunteers arrived, JJ started Kindergarten in a new part of the city, we went as a team and taught at an English camp, we were preparing to move to a new apartment, and we both started preparing to study Croatian again in the fall. And I could feel it; Life had begun again.

Here are some pictures from the English Camp:

We especially felt it this past week, when we actually moved from our old apartment (where we lived for 8 months) to our new place, we were all sick: JJ had strep throat, Dave was getting over a bad cold, and I was hit full force with a really bad cold. This past week, I often said to myself, am I crazy?? What am I doing? I went to Croatian class every day, to a doctor's office three times, correction 4 with JJ, to a lab once, tried to unpack AND stay on top of my homework.

I keep telling myself this week that challenging myself will be the best in the long run for my language learning! But I still think I'm crazy. In the month of September I met with a private teacher and worked hard at skipping a level of Croatian. I wanted to do this because: in my first level I often wanted to learn at a faster pace, and the second is that moms kept telling me that because I'm having a baby, I needed to push hard now so as to not plateau with language when the baby comes. So, that's what I'm doing - I'm pushing full steam ahead...up what seems like a really steep mountain! So, I took an exam and tested out of the next level. I'm also fairly certain I'm the only pregnant woman going to the University (that I can see anyway). And this week my head was literally spinning (and I don't think it was the decongestants)...often I felt WAY in over my head, often I just sat there and wrote down as fast as I could all the words and phrases I didn't understand. But I'm going to work hard and not give up.

Now tomorrow we head to a country we've never been to for one week, for our first Regional conference. We are very much looking forward to this time! I also think it's one of the first times that children are encouraged to come, so there will be a Children's Program for them, which JJ will love! That, and the pool of course!

Yep, life has begun again.

What Pregnant Women DON'T Want to Hear

2011-09-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to pregnant women everywhere and designed to educate people on how to talk to pregnant women. (Note: I’ve wanted to write this since I was pregnant with Jacob.)

Despite what you may think, here are 10 Things Pregnant Women actually Don’t want to hear (not in any particular order).

1. “Wow – there must be twins in there!”

2. “You’re about to pop any second!” (this is especially nice when the comment comes 2-3 months before due date)

3. “There must be a big baby in there!"

4. “Is there a baby gorilla in there?” (this actually happened to my friend)

5. “You’re ONLY 6 months? Uh oh.”

6. “Are you sure there’s only 1 in there?”

7. “Your stomach is huge!” (or insert any other body part in there…I’ve gotten others)

8. “How much weight have you gained?”

9. These are not words, but had to add this one: Random stranger touching your stomach without asking.

10. “Should you be that big by now?”

For those who are now wondering, “What CAN I say to a pregnant woman?”, here are some tips for you:

Tip #1 – Avoid using these words: huge, big, twins, gorilla, fat, swollen, due/pop any second

Tip #2 – Despite what you may think, most pregnant women don’t like totally random strangers touching their bellies, especially without asking.

Tip #3 – Our pregnant stomachs are not public property. Just by being pregnant, we are not inviting you into our experience or giving you permission to comment on our bodies.

Tip #4 – I’m sorry if me being pregnant stirs up your weight anxiety issues – but please don’t ask how much weight I’ve gained. I don’t ask you how much you weigh!

Tip #5 – If you MUST comment on me getting bigger, it’s better to use these phrases:

“I see the baby is growing.” (This puts the focus on the baby, rather than on our bodies)
“You look beautiful."
“You look great!"
“You look healthy!”

Tip #6 – You can tell me I’m “glowing”, but I guarantee that it’s only sweat.

Tip #7 – All women have different body types and thus carry differently. So, despite what you may think, you are not a Dr. and thus should not give out an opinion on how big I “should” or “should not” be.

Tip #8 – All pregnant women do not like pickles and ice cream.

Tip #9 – We don’t like unsolicited advice:

Person: “Should you be doing that?” (said to me while working out on an elliptical machine) Me: “Yeah, my doctor recommended it!” Person: “You should swim.”

Tip #10 – Most of the time we’re hungry, tired, cranky, or all of the above.

Green or Purple Room

2011-09-14T02:35:00.000-07:00

This was our big decision last week. Let me break it down for you.

In JJ's Croatian school, on the first day, he was placed in the Green room. All rooms in the school are Croatian rooms except for one, the Purple room, which is the "English speaking" room. Apparently in this room, there are both international children and Croatian children, and the teachers only speak in English to the children. However, the children play in their mother tongue with each other, which is mostly in Croatian.

So, JJ was placed in the Green room with all Croatian children and Croatian teachers (with one whose communication with JJ is mostly in English). All day long the instructions are in Croatian and the play amongst the children is in Croatian. We knew this would not be easy for him, but we thought - what a great environment for JJ to learn Croatian!!

Anyway, day 2 or 3 of school, we were pulled aside by the speech therapist and Director. They informed us that JJ may be more comfortable in the Purple room (for those who are already confused, that's the English room). They told us stories of other children who learned lots of Croatian in this room even though English is spoken by the teachers, and how JJ could still be prepared for Croatian school next year in the Purple room. They were saying this because they watched him play primarily by himself for 2-3 straight days and that he gravitated only toward the teacher who primarily spoke English with him.

We listened and while it broke our hearts to think of our little social extrovert playing by himself all day, we told them our concerns with putting JJ in the Purple room and why the Green (Croatian room) might be a better fit for him in the long run because he needs to learn Croatian. We told them that every playground and play place JJ visits, there are Croatian children, not English speaking children. Despite our efforts, we yielded to their advice, which was to invite JJ to be a part of the Purple room to see how he would do. The idea was that JJ might learn Croatian faster in a room where he feels more safe and comfortable. So, on Friday he went, and we were told to ask him what he thought about it and which one he liked more.

So on Friday after school, we did just that, and he said he did not want to talk about it but think about it all weekend. So, we let him.

On Monday morning, he said he had made a decision. He said something like this:
"I've thought about it and I really like the Green (Croatian) room. I have friends there, and I like to practice my Croatian!"

Then he proposed that maybe he could go to the Green room in the morning and the Purple room in the afternoon, but that he wanted to be in the Green room every day in the morning with his friends.

So, when I got to school, I met with his teacher and the speech therapist and told them of JJ's wishes. The speech therapist said she would invite JJ again to go to the Purple room that day to see how he would do and the next day she would tell us which room to put JJ in: Green or Purple. She also introduced me to one of the teachers in the Purple room who told me that JJ could contribute in the English room and possibly encourage the others to communicate in English.

For some reason, I drove from his school feeling a bit defeated, like I hadn't succeeded in putting JJ's wants first. In the end, I thought, Purple room it will be.

So, I arrived in the afternoon and was eager to find out which room he would be in: Green or Purple. I saw my happy energetic boy playing with many children on the terrace. He ran to me when he saw me and his teacher from the Green room came over to tell me what happened that day:

Come to find out, JJ WAS invited to go to the Purple (English) room, but he declined. He told them he wanted to stay in the Green room. And his teacher continued to tell me that he asked her all day long how to say various things in Croatian, so he could interact with his friends. She said he was very eager to learn Croatian, and that he likes his friends there.

Have you had that feeling of busting with pride? That was me. Here JJ had all these people deciding what we thought was best for him: maybe he would feel safer/more comfortable there, maybe he could contribute in what he knows best, etc...

And all the while JJ stuck up for what he wanted. In the end it's not the "easy" choice for him, but he made it, and he wants to learn Croatian and is going to stick it out!

And yesterday was the same report - JJ had an awesome time, participated, listened to the teachers and interacted well. No, he's not communicating in his first language, and he's playing with children whose first language is not English. BUT he's thriving.

I couldn't be more proud of my little guy!!!

JJ's 1st Day of Croatian Kindregarten

2011-09-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

I think my brother was referencing my blog recently when he wrote on Facebook, "I don't read your "book" much anymore." So, in an effort to keep this more interesting and enticing to my brother, so that he'll read about our lives again, I'll keep this short and sweet! (o.k. that's probably a lie, but I'll try!!)

For those who are sick of hearing about other peoples' kids 1st Days of Kindergarten and looking at all the pictures on Facebook of their kids in backpacks, this is not the post for you. But, for those who are interested, it was sort of a big day in the Scott household yesterday - JJ's 1st day of Croatian Kindergarten!

It started the night before, when JJ got a haircut, and took a shower, and he even let me pick out a collared shirt for his first day. At first he protested, "NOT a collared shirt mom!" That was when we had a conversation about 1st impressions. I could tell in his submitting to this, that he knew it was a special day.

Then yesterday morning, when he woke up, Dave said he would make him anything he wanted (within reason) for breakfast for the special day. So, JJ asked for pancakes with nutella and a fruit smoothie. And so it was done:

Then, he held his very important sign up for some special pictures outside:

We then arrived at the school, and I was definitely feeling emotional as we approached the building. JJ seemed to be completely fine. He was nothing but excited to go to school. He even said to us, "Mom and Dad, I really don't want to be late today." We knew he was filled with anticipation!

Starting one's first day of Kindergarten is a big day for any kid, but this felt different because he was starting in a new school (different from last year) and in a Croatian school where he will be learning 1/2 the day in Croatian and 1/2 the day in English, hopefully progressing toward 100% Croatian by the end of the year.

But, he seemed to be feeling no anxiety about this at all. When we arrived at his building, and found his classroom, he walked right into the "shoe" area and put on his favorite Spiderman crocs or as they are called in Croatian, "papuče" (meaning slippers). In Croatia, kids where "slippers" not their "outside" shoes in the classroom. They only put their "outside" shoes on, you guessed it, when they go outside. It keeps everything much cleaner inside! After his slippers were on, he walked right into his classroom and almost forgot to say goodbye to us! No tears, no hesitation, no worries.

Even though his first day went like this, we do know that being, living and learning in a new culture in a new language can be taxing and hard, so we are determined to keep all communication lines open.

But for now, I'm thrilled that he is excited! Yesterday when we picked him up, he was really sad he couldn't stay for lunch with the kids and then for the afternoon. So, we promised he could today. He told me this morning that he really likes pouring his own soup. Soup is a common meal for Croatians, especially in Vrtić (Kindergarten).

And I just got back from dropping him off at his 2nd day in Croatian Kindergarten, and again he did wonderfully! Today he asked to bring in a special book to show the other kids. I watched him walk away with his book in his arms and a "see ya later mom". Awesome! I'm so proud of my little guy!

A Day in the Life - Outing into the "Centar"

2011-08-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

The other day I had 2 tasks to complete in the "centar" of Zagreb, to meet the girls (two members of our team) for lunch and go to my Dr's appt.

I took the tram into the center of town, and while the girls were running late from the Police Station (don't worry - they weren't arrested - just had to "undeclare" themselves as they left yesterday), I decided to head to Dolac. Dolac is the largest and cheapest outdoor farmer's market in Zagreb.

Aerial view

The markets in and around Zagreb are great to shop at because the produce is considerably cheaper than the big grocery stores' produce and all are accessible by public transportation, which is great for those who don't have cars. We have a car, and so sometimes I buy the bad fruit at the grocery store because I'm there and then kick myself afterward, because I've just spent more money on rotten fruit. Thus, I was excited to shop at the historic Dolac market while I had the extra time. As you can see, Dolac is quite huge. There is sooo much stuff being sold there, and honestly still a bit overwhelming for me b/c I do not visit it enough to know my favorite vendors or where the best deals are.

However, quickly upon arrival, I realized I was going to have to overcome my fear of bees if I was going to buy anything there. The bees were swarming the fruit and were everywhere! Inside the market are small maze-like pathways. So, once you enter the small pathways, I knew it would be virtually impossible to escape the bees. I decided to practice my own version of behavior modification therapy, while I walked along the exterior of the market taking in the scene. Preparing myself to enter the interior of the market, I took in the smell and allowed myself to almost taste the yummy fresh fruit, as my positive reinforcement. While I kept breathing, I took a step into the market through the bees who were encircling me, and kept my focus on the fresh fruit as my reward.

In the end I was victorious! I had several bags of fruits and vegetables (6 to be exact) and made it through the market without a freak-out scream that was very indicative of my childhood behavior. True story - frequently my brother used to come up behind me and either make a buzzing noise or tell me to stand still because there was a bee on me, just so he could see me scream and run away like a crazy person. Ah...brothers.

Anyway, carrying all of my bags, I met up with one of the girls for lunch (while the other was stuck at the police station), and then made it to my Dr's appt by tram again.

As I waited for the tram, I looked around me and felt very Croatian. Many women were also boarding the tram with bags and bags of fresh produce from Dolac. I thought about how it might appear odd that I would be bringing all my bags of food into the Dr's office, but no one batted an eye.

After my appt was done, I figured out (with my trusty tram map) how to take 2 trams back home, all the while with my bags of fruit and veggies, who accompanied me on the hot trams and even braved the brief moments of hot cement, as I had to lay them down on the summer streets to take a drink of water.

As I finish this blog, I'm also finishing a yummy fresh peach from Dolac and can't wait to do it all over again.

Our Adventures

2011-08-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

It's 8:12 a.m. and my son is already in his soccer gear, with shin guards on and all. This is what it is like to have an early riser and a boy with a lot of energy. Today is Sunday, and I've decided to make chocolate chip (we don't have chocolate chips here, I just cut a bar of chocolate up into little pieces) pancakes for the fam. After that, I'll sit down and share a bit about our two latest adventures - a night in Slovenia and our first time hosting and bringing 27 people to a monastery and to the Croatian coast for camping.

Well, so it's three days later and I'm finally sitting down to finish this. That's sort of my life lately. Chocolate pancakes turned into chocolate coffee cake, and that was because I'm slightly absent-minded these days and was looking at the Coffee Cake recipe, thinking I was making pancakes. Sorry I digress...

So, Dave's birthday was July 30th and our anniversary was August 3rd (9 years!!!). On August 4th we had 22 people arriving in Zagreb, so we decided to go away for a night as a family before everyone came. We found a thermal water park in a very small town in Slovenia, where we could rent an apartment for one night and in the price of lodging, included entrance to the thermal water park for 2 days and 3 meals. The little town we went to was in the middle of nowhere, nothing but a thermal resort, where all the pools in various hotels and the water park are fed with what they call "thermal" water, which apparently has healing properties.

So, we made our way to Slovenia on Dave's birthday. We decide to skip all the border traffic and follow our GPS, which seemed suspicious but we followed it nonetheless, even though it was bringing us to a much smaller side road that was miraculously going to bypass all the border traffic. So, we headed on the side road toward what looked like an abandoned border crossing, and we heard honking. We looked to the right, and it was the most random meeting ever. Our friends from Zagreb were on the same tiny abandoned road. And the cool part was that she had her cell phone in hand and had been trying to text Dave to tell him "Happy Birthday", and now they were able to tell him in person!! So, with them, we decided to try to go through the abandoned border station, and soon came up to a pile of rocks blocking the road. So, we had to turn around and sit through a host of traffic, but this time with our friends next to us the whole time. So fun!

Anyway, so we arrived at the little town, found our apartment, had some lunch and headed straight to the water park. Aside from the one black thermal pool we went into, where I read a sign that said the water was not disinfected so it could have micro-organisms that carry contagious diseases, we enjoyed the Thermal Water Park!! We sort of promptly got out of that particular pool and never returned. We had fun watching JJ continue to learn to swim and we even went down a water slide as a family. I tried to use the pregnancy as an excuse to not go (a.k.a. I'm afraid of heights), but then Dave pointed out that 3 and 4 year olds were going down it. So, I went...once.

So, we got back from our trip on the 31st of July and continued to prepare for the 22 people that were heading our way in Zagreb. We, along with our last 2 team members, were to take them on a debrief trip (to talk about their experience of being in SE Europe for the last 3 months) and then on to experience the Croatian Coast for some rest and relaxation time after a rewarding yet tiring 3 months.

Our debrief spot was amazing...way up on top of a hill secluded from the world and immersed in the beauty of the Croatian countryside. After our debrief time, we headed to a campground near Zadar, Croatia, where we were to camp for 4 nights. We found a place where we could rent all our tents (that were already set up for us) that came with everything we needed: from fridges to electric stoves to bedding.

JJ absolutely loved both our debrief spot and camping!! He went on long walks with the Sunberg girls, picking plums and playing outside at the monastery. And it was our first time camping as a family! At the camp site he played constantly on the rocks nearby or just collecting sticks. Being an extrovert, he also loved being with so many people. There was a beach nearby, unfortunately the walk was a bit long in the heat, but the reward at the end of that walk was the refreshingly cold water. And when I say refreshing, I mean brrrrrr.

Here are some photos and some fun things I learned this trip:

It was actually possible to squeeze 26 people into two vehicles, but only for 1/2 hour of a ride, any longer there may have been some puking.
Parking in Zadar is nearly impossible, but we finally discovered how to pay for parking from our cell phone - which we did every hour.
Croatian s'mores seem just as yummy to me as American s'mores.
I loved camping, but I didn't love the heat of camping - what I did become a fan of were cold showers!
Ear plugs were a must have.

Zadar - a city 1/2 hour from where we camped

JJ and Emily taking in the beautiful view of Zadar (or Emily keeping JJ from jumping in...)

Our campsite

Prego

2011-07-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

When I was recently in Italy, after saying "Grazie" (thank you) to people, they would respond with "Prego". Hey, watch it, I know I'm only 3.5 months pregnant, but come on. Then I remembered "Prego" means "you're welcome". (psst..I knew that all along, I just thought it was funny)

So, yeah, the cat's out of the bag. So it seems we are expecting our second child...and finally...some may say. It's official on Facebook; 530 people know I'm pregnant, so I might as well write about it on my blog. But, don't worry, I'm pretty private about it. Maybe because it's only my second and most likely my last. I haven't been pregnant enough to get used to being all open about it. You won't see an ultrasound pic on Facebook or read a post about detailed movements I feel or anything like that.

BUT I thought it would be fun to share what it's like being pregnant in another country:

One of the worst things is that I can't satisfy my food cravings I'm having or have access to comfort food I miss. For example in the first three months, I was brought to tears at the thought of Chipotle. I also on a regular basis crave: Boba, Thai food, fresh guacamole, Mexican food in general, Chick-fil-A, Greek food, Gluten-free food I love from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, and definitely veggie tacos from Chipotle.

Weighing all of my options on where to deliver has been very difficult. There is much to take into consideration. Part of my personality is not wanting to disappoint others, but of course we have to take into account what is right for our family.
Being in a foreign country with virtually 0 baby items, including maternity clothes is a bit daunting. I've grown to have a peace about this and know that we'll have everything we need, but in the beginning, the idea of this was pretty scary.
Going to the doctor's office and every time not knowing exactly how to communicate with the nurses who don't speak English. I think it's getting better though, which is good.
Learning another language and continuing to go to language classes when you're exhausted and nauseous. That was a good time.

Unless you're a pro and are on your 7th child, like my sister, I think it's quite normal to be where I'm at - filled with excitement but also a bit of fear, and nervousness to expand our family, especially in a foreign context.

I'm excited though to get to know other moms and the other day I experienced the joys of maybe how a Croatian woman is congratulated when they tell others they're pregnant. I told our neighbor, a "baka" (a grandma) who oddly enough asked if I was pregnant before I even bought a pregnancy test. All I said at that point was "Možda (maybe)." So this time I decided to tell her that yes I was and how many weeks I am. She rushed over to me, embraced me and gave me a kiss on each cheek uttering many words of congratulations and expressing her happiness for us. It almost brought me to tears.

It was such a blessing.

Plitvička Jezera (Which means the Plitvice Lakes)

2011-06-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just retrieved my almost burnt re-heated coffee from a small pot on our stove and sat down to write this blog. This is how I re-heat coffee in an apartment that doesn't have a microwave. Sorry to my coffee shop barista friends who are reading this write now and probably cringing.

So, this morning I went online to do my morning internet routine: news, email, facebook, and sometimes blogs, and when I was on my first step, I saw an article about some of the most beautiful lakes in the world - and they happened to be in Croatia! They also happen to be lakes we JUST visited. So, I decided to throw together a quick post of the day we skipped school as a family and went to Plitvička Jezera (Eng - Plitvice Lakes). And might I add...it was worth it!

We walked and we walked and we walked, and it seemed as we walked more, the beauty kept unfolding into more beautiful things. It was more beautiful than words could describe. We really had never seen anything like it. JJ had a blast - running from bridge to bridge, letting the clear, pristine water wash over his little fingers whenever he could.

We decided to leave after a few hours because it was a hot hot day and Dave had really wanted to jump in the water, but it is forbidden to get in the water at Plitvice. So, ahead of time I read of a nearby tiny village where we could swim in the river, which has the same beautiful clean water as the Plitvice lakes.

We arrived in the very adorable tiny village, so tiny that as we were driving through it, it felt we were driving through peoples' backyards. We stopped and I asked a man if we could swim somewhere there. He said yes, and then very kindly offered for us to park on his private property. He then told us to walk about 1 km "that" way and we would come to a small lake with a waterfall.

O.K. we thought, why not. So, we started walking and made our way on this path...

...and eventually came to this!

Unfortunately it was a bit too cold to take full advantage of this gorgeous water, but that didn't stop Dave!! He couldn't resist the waterfall. And so with his son and wife cheering him on, he carefully walked across the top of the waterfall and...

jumped in!!

Well, the cold temperature of the water didn't really stop our son either, who LOVED wading in the cool water. OK, so it was really just me that didn't go in the freezing cold water. This is about as far as I got in.

But I'm looking forward to going back to our secret little beautiful undisturbed piece of nature in the hot summer sun!! So, for those who have asked, yes we have been to the lakes, and yes they are sooo beautiful!

And when you come visit, we'll take you there too!! :)

I like these nights

2011-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

I'm on my balcony, where I just finished hanging our clothes out to dry. It was a hot day, but it's a very beautiful night. I like these nights. It's very peaceful in our neighborhood. I can hear the birds singing, a lawn mower going, and a rhythmic bang of a tool. I also hear laughter and clinking of glasses. And that is the sound of family or friends dining outside, which everyone with a yard does, especially this time of year. On a beautiful night like tonight, the tablecloths are draped over the table, and the meal is served in the yard or garden by the dusk light, while the food and conversation are plentiful. I close my eyes and take it in. I love the sound of it. I've experienced it. It's beautiful. There's nothing like long European meals, straight from appetizers to coffee and dessert, that stretch into the evening where time does not seem to exist. Before you know it, it's dark outside, and you've been lost in the long extended moment of friendship, food and great conversation. You leave feeling satisfied, but are left with a longing, a yearning for when it can happen again.

Yeah, I like these nights.

What are the Scotts up to in Croatia?

2011-06-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

What HAVE we been doing for the last few months!?! I guess time flies when you're living in a new country.

Today (Thursday) and Friday we have our final exams for Croatian level 1A! YEA! We've been in class for 3 hours a day every day since February. We can say so much more than when we arrived, but still have a long way to go.

Some days are like today, where we get home from school and our sweet neighbors speak to us in Croatian. Soon we realize what they were asking, that they want us to pick cherries from their tree. So, we gladly say yes! So while Dave was high on a ladder picking cherries, I was on the ground below working on my Croatian with our neighbors - a sweet sweet older couple. I'm super pumped because cherries are everywhere in Croatia, and in our neighborhood we're surrounded by beautiful cherry trees, and oh how I've longed for my own. That's kind of hard when you don't even have a yard. So, here they are, our beautiful mound of fresh cherries (that's a salad bowl).

What else beside picking cherries have we been up to?

We're excited to say that we've worked hard with our team in creating the first NGO for our organization here in Croatia. We're very excited about the possibilities this will open for us and in inviting others to join the mission. We find out soon if it has been accepted officially by the ministry here.

Dave continues to meet new friends through sports and coffee - two of his loves in life (other than Jacob and me of course). He plays basketball weekly and has joined a group of guys that meet weekly for coffee and talk about things Dave loves to talk about - religion, out of the box stuff, coffee, and just getting to know these guys is awesome!

On a daily basis, we feel blessed to be here. That doesn't mean all our days have been easy - many are not; we miss home, things from home, and especially people from home. But we are also meeting really cool people who have already loved on us in amazing ways and let us love on them.

We have not forgotten our French - actually I want to find a language partner to speak French with, so I don't lose it, but I thought it was smart to focus first on Croatian. That is another part of what we miss - our lives and friends from France.

JJ continues to be amazingly creative and social. He LOVES school and begs to have long days there. He has started sporadically speaking Croatian at home. And we're excited that this Fall we hope to put him in a school where he can learn 1/2 the day in Croatian and 1/2 the day in English. In 1st grade, he will also have the option to learn French as a foreign language. How amazing the systems are here with teaching children other languages at such a young age. Here he is (from yesterday morning) as a very dangerous dragon fly. He woke up and said he wanted to be a dragon fly, and so he made his costume and went to school this way. He went to school as a dragon fly and came home a dinosaur. Oh to be 5 again!!

And then here are some other fun updates:

In April we went to a conference in Bulgaria and met our SE Field team for the first time!
Our team leaders, from Bulgaria, came for a visit over Easter weekend!
In May a team member and I were the head of the prop department for a Croatian musical. We found it to be quite a challenge to make things like: gold shackles, goblets, and a snake puppet when you don't have a JoAnns, Michaels, or Party City!!
Also in May Dave had a fun work weekend with the team at a nearby camp. I stayed home with JJ. And when I say "fun", I mean working in the mud all day long on endless projects that keep going awry. But, nevertheless, they all seemed to have fun. (Oooo, I learned the Croatian word for "nevertheless" the other day...it's "ipak")
Also in May our friend, from America (from Fuller actually), moved to Croatia!! We were so pumped to pick her up from the airport in Zagreb and to have her stay with us for a week, to rest, eat, rest some more. We're happy she's so close!

Well, that's it for now. Signing off, but I promise now that classes are soon to be over, we'll post more regularly and definitely NOT this long!

JJ's Art Room

2011-05-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

JJ made this for his room one day:

And inside is his wall of art, and it's growing:

From Croatia to Ireland

2011-04-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

So, many of you know that we went to Belfast, Ireland for a weekend recently to meet the British Isles North District, and to speak at their District Assembly. We also had the opportunity to spend time with a wonderful church family on Sunday as we were invited to speak at their church and have lunch afterwards.

Some of our other adventures included having an 8 hour layover in London (pictures are below), and missing our flight out of Belfast back to Zagreb. We had an early flight, and after much running and huffing and puffing our way to Security, we found out that our plane left 15 minutes early. So, that day we arrived at the airport at 6:45 a.m. to leave Belfast and arrived at our apartment in Zagreb later that evening, after taking a plane from Belfast to London, then from London to Köln (Germany), then from Köln to Zagreb.

All in all, we were sooo grateful to have been able to make this trip. We met so many amazing people! We are so grateful to our amazing and hospitable hosts who lived about 45 minutes from Belfast in the countryside, where we got to see the beautiful landscape of Northern Ireland. We were even made an "Ulster Fry", our host Tom's favorite meal. We felt right at home, and we'll treasure the great talks we had over coffee in their sun room about their lives, their family, the history of Ireland, the church in Belfast, the Church everywhere, and more.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

There she is

Part of Buckingham Palace

As you know JJ loves flowers, so he LOVED this park on our way to Buckingham Palace

Giant lion in a main square in London

Ben really is a big clock

The church in Belfast where the Assembly was and where we had our services. JJ was a trooper!

Meeting Day (JJ and I were home sick while Dave went)

JJ Never Stops Creating

2011-04-09T00:20:00.000-07:00

He made this this morning with Daddy during art journal time.

True or False: Why not?!?

2011-04-02T03:08:00.000-07:00

We recently traveled for the first time to Northern Ireland to attend an Assembly. It was our first time in the UK, and we loved it! We're working on a blog post to share with you our experience there, but it's not ready yet. So, in the meantime I felt like a little "True or False" was in order.

So, not necessarily back by popular demand, here's another "True or False".

True or False: Right now we're using recycled toilet paper.
True: Oh gross, not like that. It's 100% recycled paper!

True or False: We can speak Croatian.
True AND False: Last night at a restaurant, I wanted lime in my drink, but I didn't know how to say it in Croatian, so I described it as a small green fruit, and it worked - I got a lime! So, can we communicate? Yeah, more and more each day. Does it sound pretty? Definitely not.

True or False: This is a picture of the biggest baked potato in the world.

I have no idea: but it was certainly the biggest baked potato I had ever seen. I ordered it for lunch at an airport in London. Did I know it was going to be this huge when I saw baked potato on the menu? Ah...No. Was it amazing? YES! Did I eat more of it than I should have? Probably.

True or False: I watch "Croatian Idol" for language learning.
That's actually false. I watch it because it makes me smile.

True or False: When we recently missed our flight out of Belfast, we had a layover in Cologne AND we didn't know where that was.
Sad but true. For those of you who are slightly geographically challenged like we are (which is maybe a result of being raised in America - did I just say that?), well it's in Germany.

True or False: Recently our car broke down, and that makes me sad.
Surprisingly False! I'm enjoying that it's forcing me to get back on the bike, and walk everywhere again.

True or False: Having a broken down car makes me feel a bit trapped.
That's true. We can't drive to places the tram or our legs can't go to, and we can't go somewhere as a team outside of Croatia. So, here's to getting our car working again or to getting a new one!!

Inferiority Complex

2011-03-28T02:03:00.000-07:00

To our children, for a while at least, we must seem omnipotent and infallible. We must seem very strong and perfect - we set the examples, we are what they aim to be one day, we are their role models.

Oh sure though, before now, JJ has known that I am not infallible, as I'm open with him about the mistakes I make and often apologize for when I've hurt him or his feelings. I feel as a parent it's important that we do that with him - he sees himself as a respected person in our family that matters. We teach him that it's not o.k. for him to hurt others' feelings, and what sense would that make if we often hurt his feelings and never cared to apologize?

But today is a sad day. I realized that my child sees me as inferior, just because I am a girl.

This morning, we had both just announced to each other we needed to use the bathroom (so what, we're an open family):

JJ: Mom - I'll race you to the bathroom. First one there wins!! (and so he took off way before I even had a chance to get out of my chair)

Me (racing behind him but coming in 2nd): Wow, you won! You're fast!

JJ: Mom, yeah of course.  Boys are faster than girls.

Me:  Excuse me? What makes you think that?

JJ: Mom, (said with tone of "duh"), of course I already knew this because of my machine! I invented a machine that contracts speed.   For me it says 152, and for Daddy it also said 152, and well mom, I'm sorry to say this, but for you it was 10.

New Way of Eating

2011-03-19T03:28:00.000-07:00

I wish you could see what I ate for lunch yesterday at our University's cafeteria. There is a chef that speaks English with us occasionally, often helping us identify the food. Yesterday, he told us they had grilled squid and "blitva", which is basically made with potatoes, swiss card, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I didn't take a picture of it, but I found these pictures online.

Grilled squid

Blitva

We also have a new found love for salads that are very popular in Croatia. We made these dishes the other night for dinner:

Bean salad - We used brown and white beans with pumpkin oil (which is really good!), salt, pepper and a mild onion
Tomato/Cucumber salad mixed with Olive Oil, mild onion, salt pepper and topped with a Croatian cheese

JJ's Art

2011-03-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

JJ calls this one "shaken numbers"

And the other day when I woke up with JJ, he said he wanted to be my Art teacher. I said, o.k., "What should we do today?" He told me I was to get a piece of paper and copy what he was doing.

This was what his looked like (what I had to copy) when he was done:

Confessions of a Thirty-Something Year Old Mom

2011-03-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Why not, it's been a while:

I'm 34 and sometimes like to rock a faux-hawk.

I’m not a scrapbooker. Often times I wish I were one, but it’s never going to be me. As a result, I have a lot of undocumented memories, and one day when I begin to lose my mind, I’m going to wish I had been a scrapbooker.

It's at the point that when I dye my hair and it grows out, I can see a forming line of gray. Once when I was young, and pre-going gray, I told Dave I would never dye my hair regularly because “Salt and pepper is distinguished”. Note: That was when I was pre-going gray.

In my small neighborhood in Croatia, I actually found Zumba classes. For two nights a week, I could pay around $45 a week to go. I’m desperate but not that desperate.

These are beginning to be some of my favorite comments: “You know we met this couple, they were older, like in their 30’s.”

Dave and I have known each other for 16 years now, started dating 12 years ago, and have been married for 9 years this August. I need to stop thinking in numbers – it makes me feel old.

Our Language Class

2011-03-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Confessions of a Foreigner

2011-03-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Living abroad may seem romantic to some people, and while I will not deny that there are “romantic” moments, living internationally is not easy, and usually pretty comical:

The other night I had a doctor's appointment. I met with a doctor who spoke Croatian and German, and understood English but didn't speak any. Meanwhile I speak French and English and only understand and speak very little Croatian. Somehow, through a lot of guessing, game of gestures, writing words/numbers down, and once he even drew a picture; we made it through the appointment.

I almost did a cartwheel in the store the other day when I found a German gluten free bread mix. It’s called “dunkle brot” (which I found out later from google translate means "dark bread"). I had to type the instructions from the bag into google translate to make it, and I still didn't get it quite right. I'm sure they're not the worse tasting gluten-free bread in the world, but I’m fairly certain they each weigh 10 lbs.

Dave bought a surge protector, and ½ of the outlets blew as soon as he plugged it in. Kind of defeats the purpose of getting a surge protector. He didn’t know enough Croatian to bring it back, so we are currently using 3 out of 6 of the plugs on it.

Like I mentioned on Facebook, Dave is currently using a lego to scrape frost off our windshield in the morning. I guess when you live in another culture, sometimes it's just easier to make do with what you have, instead of trying to figure out where and how to buy the item you need.

Other times, it is quite fun to be in a new culture. For example, this past weekend our new friends invited us to join them to a family “carnival” celebration in a nearby village. Here are some pictures from our outing:

Our Superhero

2011-03-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

JJ is our little superhero. He has done so well with all of our transitions. For a while when we were on our way to Croatia, but in the states working on our Visas, he would pray all the time "God, please send us to Croatia." The other day he prayed it again, and then said, "Oh wait, we're already here! What a time saver!"

Even though he has been amazing, after all, he is human. He has hard days just like us. One day recently, he told us that no one played with him at school. We asked why he didn't join others to play, and he said, "They all speak Croatian."

And he told us the other day that 3 kids picked on him in one day: one spat on him, one pulled his hair, and one grabbed his stomach during quiet time. It broke our hearts to hear that (and I have to admit, mama bear was NOT happy!). But we had a conversation with him, and the next day he chose to tell the teachers what had happened. The teachers addressed it, and he still dove right in again and played with these boys. Since then, he has had no problems.

This week at school was carnival week, and yesterday they could go to school dressed in their costumes. I remember last year biking all over Montpellier trying to find a costume for JJ for his first school carnival. Luckily in Zagreb they have them in the grocery stores. JJ picked this one out.

JJ also tried ice skating for the first time. After being here 1 week, the teachers asked us if JJ wanted to go ice skating with the class for the following 2 weeks. The first day he told us he fell 100 times, the next update was 10, and the last update was 0. He had a blast!!

That's JJ in the back

With part of his class

Getting his diploma

Superhero or not, we're proud of our little guy!!

Week 1 of Learning Croatian - Done

2011-03-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

Week 1 Observations of Learning Croatian

For those who are interested in learning languages, this post is for you. We finished our first week of learning Croatian, and our brains hurt. We are in class for almost three hours a day for the next 4 months. :) Let the good times roll!

Here's a cool thing about our class: There are 15 students and 13 countries represented: Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Peru, Chile, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Argentina, Nigeria, Germany, and the United States (that's us).

Here are some cool things about Croatian:

It is a phonetic language, so it means every letter has one distinct sound and each sound is pronounced in the word.
They chose to stay with the Roman Alphabet, and not Cyrillic. This is good news for us,
They don't use articles, for example, "a, an, the". This a change because in French there are lots of articles: "le, la, les, de, de la, du, des, un, une". In Croatian, they're dropped. While it feels weird at first to drop them, maybe it's easier in the long run.

Here are some difficult things about Croatian:

While many sounds are familiar, there are still new ones to learn, and thus we're working constantly on our pronunciation:

bilježnica - The "i" sounds like "ee", "lj" is one sound and is like the ending in "million", the ž is like a soft "g" like in "mirage", and the "c" is like "ts".
I learned this word today: "računovotkinja" which means female accountant. The "j" is a "y" sound like in "yum", the č is "ch" like in "chop", and the "r" is a slightly rolled r.

There are seven cases for adjectives and nouns, which means their endings change based on where they are in the sentence.
Each noun can be either masculine, feminine or neutral. And based on that, they will have a different singular and plural ending. It also seems pronouns and adjectives have to agree to the noun, and follow the declension rule. Yikes!
On top of that, some words change to match the subject, like professions: A singular male teacher is "profesor" and plural is "profesori". A female teacher is "profesorica" and plural is "profesorice".

So, it seems we have a lot to learn and many frustrating days ahead, but with frustration comes growth, right??

28 Days in Croatia

2011-02-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Today marks our 28th day in Zagreb!! Each week we've learned what it means to settle in a bit more in a new culture. Some days are really good and some have been more challenging. Overall, we're doing really well!

Here are fun things we've learned or accomplished:

We've opened a bank account, which ended up being quite confusing and comical.
JJ is enrolled in a school he likes. He has already taken 2 weeks of his first ice skating lessons with his class. We got to see him skate. It's true; we're sappy, and we almost cried.
We live about 7 minutes by car from the students.
We are about a 30 minute tram ride into the downtown (which we really like) of Zagreb.
We have a washer but no dryer, so we hang our clothes out (or rather in) to dry.
I can still get my Boba on in Croatia (thanks Glo!!).

Today we went to the University and didn't even need to take an entrance exam because we truly are beginners. We start our official classes tomorrow at 10:30 a.m.!
We love Surf -n- Fries, a french fry place that comes with fun dips. Dave loves the "mediteran", and I love the "jogurt".
"Sladoled" is ice cream in Croatian.
We finally know how to order our tram tickets the right way. The tram lady (whom we see often) even cheered for us the first time we did it right!
We buy our bacon in a hunk of meat that we slice ourselves.
Yesterday Dave went to an orphanage with some Croatian friends and two of the members of our team. I'm eager to go, and maybe we'll bring Jacob too!

Also, here is more art from JJ.

Girl Time

2011-02-23T00:40:00.000-08:00

I went on an overnight/road trip with the girls on our team to have a mini-retreat from life in Zagreb, and to have some bonding time.

We had all the elements of a good overnight/road trip:

Tiny old European car (that wouldn't start on the 2nd day, wouldn't stay started as we tried to leave the city and whose speedometer needle stopped working after it screamed fiercely at us)
4 fun ladies!
A hostel fit with shower in the room, but the toilet down the hall and a flight of stairs
Checked in at the bar of the hostel with the bartender/owner of the establishment
Had breakfast (which actually exceeded our already established low expectations) just adjacent to smokey bar
Great conversation
and Dutch Blitz

Here are some photos from our trip:

Learning Croatian

2011-02-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

Dave told me this story when he got home today from buying something for our apartment.

The scene - Dave is at an electronics store "talking" with a Customer Service person about the item he wanted to purchase:

Customer Service Guy: Speaking Croatian with Dave...

Dave: ne razumijem hrvatski (I don't understand Croatian)

Customer Service Guy: Speaking again in Croatian...in more full sentences

Dave: uh...ne razumijem hrvatski. Govorite engleski? (I don't understand Croatian. Do you speak English?)

Customer Service Guy: Ne. (no) Ugh...Hrvatski, Hrvatski, Hrvatski

Dave: Sorry (in Croatian accent, which is an acceptable word for "sorry" here)...

Customer Service Guy: Speaking Croatian but this time motioned for Dave to follow him.

He then brought Dave to the check-out line and helped him make the purchase. Then he walked with Dave outside of the store, looked at him and said, "Where is your car?"

Dave: Oh! So you do speak English.

Customer Service Guy: Not so bad.

Dave: Well, I'm going to start learning at the Croaticum in one week!

Customer Service Guy: Learning what...?

Dave: Croatian, of course!

Customer Service Guy: Oh, Croatian! That is good!

I Love My Husband

2011-02-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a conversation I had with him the other day:

Me: So, what do you think about me going on the "Sound of Music" walking tour with the girls?

Dave: Sounds awesome (fake enthusiasm).

Me: Well, do you know what I'm going to have to do in order to prepare for it?

Dave: No, what?

Me: Watch the "The Sound of Music" a few times before we go. Aren't you excited (knowing that Dave doesn't really care for it)?!?!?

Dave: Oh. I thought you were going to say...walk.

New Digs: Zagreb

2011-02-13T04:31:00.000-08:00

We live in a neighborhood that is about a 10 minute walk to the rest of our team and a 30 minute tram ride to the center of Zagreb. Here are some photos of our new apartment and neighborhood:

Living Room

Stairs to the 2nd floor (where JJ's bedroom is)

Bathroom - having only a washer and no shower curtain is pretty common

Kitchen just next to living room

Neighbors to the right who like to work in their yard and garden

Back balcony

View off of back balcony

View out Kitchen window

More Art by JJ

2011-02-11T00:57:00.000-08:00

JJ has been creating a lot of art since we arrived in Croatia. He loves watercolors. Here are a few of his new ones:

1 Week Anniversary in Croatia

2011-02-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 1 week since we've arrived? It's gone by so fast. On our 2nd day here, we took the tram into downtown by ourselves to meet our team and have pizza together. Immediately we were thrown into the culture here, as Dave had his first experience of ordering water for everyone in Croatian.

Since then we've figured out: how to buy food, where to open our bank account, where the best ice cream in town is, how to order in Croatian at a Farmer's market, how to buy tram passes, etc... Today we registered for our temporary visas, the other day Dave played soccer with some members from our team and their Croatian friends, and we've even found JJ a school to go to.

If you were in our house, you would be able to tell right away that JJ has started school again:

"Mom, I had no idea that the heart looked like that (he draws on the table a shape), you know with all of those tubes connected to it."
"Daddy! I learned about the Great Wall of China today. It was made to protect China and keep the bad guys out. I want to see it! Can we go there?"
"Did you know that there is a big room in a bank where there is lots and lots of money? And that I can save money too if I want to?"

On day 3, we emailed the principal of a private Croatian school we had had previous communication with from the states. Here JJ gets to learn in English but has a lot of exposure to Croatian, as he goes to school with mostly Croatian children. The kids speak Croatian to each other, and sometimes the teachers speak it to the children, as they are teaching them English at the same time. JJ is already attached to "Teacher B", who has taken him under her wing and gives us detailed daily updates when we pick him up. The other day she told us that all the girls love JJ. They have all gone home to tell their families about JJ; mostly that he is so polite and nice. We are so proud!

As we did for France, here are some of our first impressions of Croatia:

More people are dressed athletically here than we had expected, and we even saw two guys playing basketball on an outside court, which Dave was really happy to see. We never saw that in France.

Love our neighbors across from our apartment, a couple in their 80's who spend a large part of the day tending to their garden and yard. Every day we say "Dobar dan" to each other.

On the tram (a 35 minute ride) on our way into the downtown of Zagreb, we see tall drab, gray concrete apartment buildings and as we get closer to downtown, the buildings become more colorful, built close together, with a sort of Austrian-Hungarian architectural influence. I'm mesmerized by the romantic and historic look of the city. It draws me in and makes me want to learn more about her.

American music is playing everywhere. Today when we were registering for our visas at the Police Station, the very serious officer was listening to Beyoncé.

Right now to us, Croatian sounds a bit like Russian spoken with a slight Italian accent.

Speaking Croatian makes me feel like I have too many consonants in my mouth - often words barely have vowels in them, like:

Trg - square (like in a city)
Prvi - first
kljuc - key

Overall, just really intimidated by the language. I read this recent description which TOTALLY put me at ease: "Croatian is a system of seven cases each of which, in principle, changes with male/female/neuter, singular/plural, noun/adjective. However, in practice there is a lot of similarity between individual declensions and the number of combinations one needs to learn is greatly reduced (for example male and neuter nouns behave very similarly)."

(I don't know if you can tell, but I was being sarcastic above)

Overall, the people we've met are very gracious and very kind to us. They are patient, always with a smile and eager to help us.

Our team is AMAZING! We're very proud of them, and we feel (hopefully they do too) that we've really bonded this week. It is so great to see them in person and not just behind a computer screen. I will probably say this a million other times, but simply, they rock.

From France to Croatia - First 2 Legs

2011-01-31T03:43:00.000-08:00

When we arrived in France, we weren't quite sure how we were going to get our belongings from Montpellier to Zagreb.

When we looked into it all, it was much cheaper to rent a truck (in this case a large van) and so Dave would have to bring our belongings to Zagreb, and come back. Then we would all go together as a family. So, Dave ended up going with a friend, which we were sooo grateful for.

In two weeks time, we packed up our life in Montpellier, Dave drove to Croatia and back, we said goodbye to all our friends there, and actually somehow completed all the official things we needed to do before we left.

Then we needed to figure out how to get to Zagreb, which was a bit easier because Dave had just done it. Instead of splitting the trip into 2 legs - which would've been 8 hours to Venice, then 4 hours to Zagreb. We decided to take it easy, given the very hectic moving situation we had just gone through, so we went: 3.5 hours to Nice, then 6 hours to Venice, and 4 hours to Zagreb. After lots and lots of research, we found out it was a huge advantage to pass through these two cities in January, the lowest season of the year. We found 2 really cheap 1-bedroom rentals each for a night - with great owners and great locations.

I know, I know, rough, huh - Nice and Venice? I know that's the general consensus, "Poor us!" "What a stressful trip through Nice and Venice!"...on our way to Croatia.

But, while I'm sitting in our rental in Venice, I'm reflecting on how sure, after being at these two places, there were certainly moments of "wow, this is amazing!", but lodging in foreign places is not always magical and romantic, and actually quite hard and challenging at times.

For example:

What we saw of Nice was mostly the Picard (frozen food) store and the buildings outside of our balconies. Did we sit on the beach in the French Riviera? Nope, we found a gas station and hit the road.
Our tired selves also searched and searched for coffee the next morning, but didn't find anything that was open on a Sunday morning, so we waited until we got to Italy and bought cappuccinos at the gas station.
The whole way on our drive to Venice, while amazing cars were zipping by us, our car was happy to stay at 120 km/h while we were praying that our 1989 Renault would make it. It wasn't until we pulled up to Venice that our car started to make a noise we had not heard before. Let's hope we are problem free to Zagreb.
In Venice, which is practically floating on water, one has to park their car in a lot and find the water bus which takes you to the part of the city you're staying in. We tried to use Dave's tickets from when he was there, but they had expired - so Dave frantically ran to try and find more so that we don't miss our water bus. We did miss our water bus, but no biggie - they come every 10 minutes.
A woman kindly met us at the water bus stop and then we wound through the city to our rental - like a very intricate maze of bridges, canals, buildings, and alleys. We never would've been able to find it without her.
This morning we did not have this kind woman to show us around, so we walked around desperately for coffee and food (one of the downsides of staying in an apt - no "continental breakfast"). We made many wrong turns, ended up being starving out of our minds, and finally around 11:00 a.m. found affordable food. Up until that point, our son had eaten a spoonful of Nutella and a piece of cheese for breakfast.
After almost giving up hope of finding our rental again, Dave suggested that we ask a gondolier (fancy Italian word for "taxi driver") for directions. Luckily, we had written down the address of our rental, and he told us how to wind around the city to find it.
After spending 2 previous nights together and all coughing through the night, we braved our way in an Italian Pharmacy to purchase cough medicine - 9 euros.

So, we're back in our Venice rental to pack up our things in order to make the last leg of the trip to Zagreb, where our new apartment and team awaits us!!

Wish us luck. We hope for a very low key day not filled with too much adventure!

Some photos of our trip from France to Venice:

How JJ kept himself busy in the car

JJ on the Water bus to our 1 night rental in Venice

Grand Canal at night

In search of food and coffee this morning

View from Rialto Bridge

Italian chocolate I bought at a gas station

Places in France

2011-01-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

There are lots of places in France that end in "rie":

Creperie = A place where they make and sell crepes.

Glacerie = A place where they make and sell ice cream.

Boulangerie = A place that mainly makes and sells bread usually including all sorts of baguettes but can also sell pastries.

Patisserie = A special kind of "boulangerie" that specializes in pastries and sweets, including cakes

Viennoiserie = A place where special baked goods are made and sold, specializing in using yeast leavened dough or puff pastry, which are usually eaten at breakfast or for snacks. Some examples are brioches, croissant, pain au chocolat, etc...

Boucherie = A place where fresh meat is cut and sold (a.k.a "Butcher Shop")

Charcuterie = A place that uses the otherwise scraps of meat and extends the life of the meat by preparing and selling cured meats and sausages

Fromagerie = A specialty cheese shop

Brasserie = An upscale restaurant where the atmosphere is a bit more relaxed; Brasserie is also the French word for a brewery, so beer is sold in Brasseries

And then today I saw a new one:

Bridgerie = As I walked by, I looked in and saw round tables with people of a certain age sitting around doing something together, and then I saw the sign: "Bridgerie". Oh right - a place where people play bridge. LOVE IT!

Learning to Drive

2011-01-24T03:12:00.000-08:00

2 other discoveries I remembered:

Darkness: Almost every building has timed lights. What this means is that it is very common to find oneself in dark hallways or stairways, even if it's located in a "professional" type building like a doctor's or lawyer's office. The lights are not automatically turned on, and once you press the button, you have only a couple of minutes before everything goes dark again. This seems, at times, very odd and creepy to me, because I associate places in the states like this as dangerous. In the states, lights keep away crime, or at least that's the idea. But here, it's just normal.
Bags: You must bring your own shopping bags to the grocery store with you, otherwise you have to buy a sac, which can be very annoying, when you have a 1,000 bags at home. We think grocery stores in the states should definitely do this. Yes, I know American stores sell bags to be re-used or reward customers who bring in their own bags, but they don't CHARGE you if you don't bring bags in.

Today I feel the need to expound on the driving in Montpellier, and specifically my fear of it. I have found that in general as a family and a couple, we generally have our patterns of doing things. For example, this morning I was missing my "coffee maker", which is Dave. I realized he is just way better at pouring boiling hot water out of a pan over a much smaller filter which is resting delicately on top of our coffee pot.

And there are other certain things, like driving around Montpellier, that he usually does. We didn't get a car until the last two months of our time here. Even with the car, it is often much easier to walk or bike to places in the city. But when we did drive, I grew to be very comfortable with Dave, and we never forced me to drive, especially by myself.

And to be afraid of something like this is very unlike me. The other day Dave said that he finds this whole relying on him to drive me all over the city thing as funny because in general he thinks I sort of pride myself on being an independent woman, but here I am being dependent on him to drive me everywhere.

So, Dave left yesterday morning, and I decided to brave driving around the city by myself. I had the task of finding my friend's house, as JJ and I were invited over for lunch.

With GPS in hand, we head to our very dark garage (see "timed lights" section above). Little did I know getting out of the garage would be the hardest part of the whole driving adventure. Our car is a 1989 Renault Super 5. It may be old, but it is in general a reliable car. It only has what is equivalent to 73,000 miles on it. The only consistent problem is starting it sometimes. So, there I was; I could not get it to stay started. I could barely get out of our spot, and then when I did, I puttered almost all the way through the garage, because the car would not stay on. I had a couple of onlookers, but was determined to figure it out by myself.
I was relieved when I finally made it out of the garage and could enter my friend's address into our GPS. Just my luck; it was not finding her address. O.K., with motorcycle man behind me, I was off, without the GPS.
I knew how to get to the tunnel, but after the tunnel, I knew I was going to be completely confused. I wish you could see this intersection, a windy mess of one-way swirls on top of tram tracks. So, I called Christina and asked where to go after the tunnel.
I get out of the tunnel and get to the crazy intersection, and even though I was supposed to go right at some point, I couldn't find where and instead found myself in a lane that only wound around to the left. Then I found myself in a neighborhood, to which I ended up circulated through about 8 times.
After attempt #5, I get a hold of Christina, and I find out that I left the "de" off of her address, and that's why the GPS wasn't picking it up, for example "Avenue de Saint Maur".
With the new address in, I was off again, with hope.
Suddenly the GPS is telling me to take a left-hand turn when there is clearly a sign in front of me that says "do not make a left turn".

I was not surprised by this. Our GPS was one of the cheapest models, and it is quite a silly one. It has taken us very crazy places - ask Dave and Mel, our friends who were with us for 1 month in France. One time it literally took us through an old vineyard on a very small dirt path.

So, I wound around again through the trusty neighborhood, which I've totally mastered now by the way, and call Christina again to ask her about this mysterious left turn.
She tells me that there is in fact a left turn after the "do not turn left area", which I can't see until I am literally there. So, I drive up there and take a left, which takes me under a bridge, then another left turn, then a sharp windy right, which takes me under another bridge, then another sharp right, and I'm finally there.

So, here's the cool thing about doing something you've previously been afraid of. You have a sense of accomplishment. The fact that I found it was a success, even if it did take me quite a few times to get there. And now, I can definitely do it.

So, today JJ and I are going to try and find the grocery store. Should be fun!!

Old Discoveries

2011-01-23T02:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday marked the 1 week point that we have been back in Montpellier. And what a week it has been!!

It's very interesting being back in a place that we lived for almost a year, but then left for what we thought was only going to be 3 weeks and turned into 4 months. Because of that, we felt we didn't have a real sense of closure from this place, so it has been great to be back in order to have that. But also, it's been so great to see people we loved dearly and also re-visit things we both loved and were frustrated about this city.

Here are some of my favorites re-discoveries:

Picard Surgelés: Yes, that's in Jean-Luc Picard...any Trekkies out there? Anyway, true story: we lived here for a long time and never went there because we thought they sold surgical supplies. That was before we knew that "surgelés" meant "frozen food". It's actually not a surgical supply store, but a frozen food store, and we love it!!! I know, maybe that sounds lame or weird, but it's really yummy and fresh frozen food, anything from ice cream to duck to veggies to cakes to chopped fruit. True story again: The last two nights we had dinner made from food we bought from Picard - duck, smiley potato fries (that JJ picked out) and carrot/potato/cheddar soup. Yummm!
Baguettes, baguettes, and more baguettes: We asked JJ what the first thing he wanted to do in Montpellier was, and he said, "Eat a baguette." He also wanted to visit his favorite playground, which we did. A warm baguette, freshly made, for under 1 euro, with some butter - there's nothing like it.
Raclette: I went to the store and one of the things we had to have was Raclette cheese. I think it was the 2nd night here, we had Raclette, with sausage, potatoes, peppers, and of course Raclette cheese. Seriously...so yummy!
No Fear: There is no fear here on the streets of Montpellier; with the cars, buses, motorcyclists, the bikers or even the walkers. It's a free for all. Pedestrians do not seem to have the right away, a car will seriously run you over. Bikers and motorcyclists weave in and out of traffic constantly. We can't complain about that one, because we are them when we're on our bikes. But, yikes. I know traffic rules must exist here, I just don't see very many people following them.
Biking: The first night here, I got on my bike was off to the grocery store. That was one thing I grew to love, biking everywhere. Espcecially I love to bike to the store with my backpack, because it's exercise, and it helps me buy only the things we need, instead of want. I love winding through the city with that sense of freedom, and the feeling of the wind in my face. I hope we can do the same in Zagreb.
Lots of Extras: These things don't seem weird to the French because it's normal to them. But, I forgot how so many little things are different. For example:

We can only use a grocery cart if we have 1 euro, otherwise they are all chained together.
We can only leave the parking garage at Ikea if we first pay in person at a special place, otherwise you are stuck at the gate and have to back up and make a lot of people angry.
You have to weigh all your own fruits and vegetables and put a price sticker on them before you go to the check-out line.
We have to light our stove with a lighter.
The milk comes in small cardboard cartons - we have to drink less or we are making a lot of trips to the store. The good news is though that the milk doesn't have to be refrigerated if they're not open.
Our feet are freezing because the floors are all tile. Slippers are a must.

Driving is Hard: This is all a matter of perspective, and is heightened when you've spent time out of the country and are trying to get used to it again.

We live/lived in a very complicated neighborhood of Montpellier because the main street is being converted into the new Tramway. So, driving around here is like driving through a giant maze that changes every couple of days. It can take you 1/2 hour to drive a few kilometers.

Doctors and Insurance: I know some may disagree with me, but I really like the French Medical system.

I had to go to the Doctors and get some blood work done. Without any insurance, that trip in total cost me 40 euros (which is $54 with current exchange rate). I couldn't believe it! AND that amount is fully reimbursable for the people who are in the "system". That was my out of pocket expense WITHOUT insurance. That's it??? In America, due to some tail bone pain I was having, I once had an ultrasound and x-ray done, and seriously it cost me $700 out of pocket WITH insurance.
Also, one does not have to make an appointment to see a doctor here. I literally walked in, told them why I was there, and saw a doctor in 5 minutes.
I also was able to see any doctor I wanted to. You look in the phone book and go. You don't have to see this doctor only if he/she is in a "provider network" and you can go to a specialist, even if you don't have a "referral" from your Primary Care Physician.

Being a part of a new culture and system partly makes you appreciate things about your own culture, but also appreciate new things about the ways other cultures do things. It's not all rosy and easy, quite the contrary. Being part of a system that is so different from yours is very stretching at first, and feels like constant tension, until finally you realize the tension is less and less, and this is the acclimation part of slowly becoming part of a new system.

And now we get to dive into a whole new culture and system of doing things, and with it will come all sort of emotions. I'm partly excited, terrified, and anxious; just how I felt before we moved to France. But I look forward to how we will adjust to our new culture, new emotions and all. One thing is for sure, it will be no less than a grand adventure.

Quite an Adventure - Back in France

2011-01-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

Step one has been completed of our move to Croatia, but not without its fair share of adventure.

Yesterday we woke up and finished packing, which consisted of weighing, packing, weighing, packing,etc... Our goal was to only check 4 bags (all weighing 50 lbs), 3 carry-ons and 3 personal items.
For lunch we ate our last Chipotle for a long time (thanks again Jon and Ang)
Drove to the airport, arrived at US Airways desk, and began weighing bags:

"This bag is 7 lbs over", she tells us, and we are ordered to take some items out. Dave takes out 2 peanut butter containers weighing 5 lbs total (no worries though, all those who want to send us some more - we found 2 big ones at our apartment when we arrived!!)
Every other bag she lets go through weighing in at 52 lbs! Woo Hoo! Thank you for a super nice ticketing agent!

We arrived at our gate, after having one of my very thoroughly packed carry-ons sifted through. Boo.
We boarded our first plane only to soon find out that Dave's carry-on was too big to fit on our first small flight to Philly. Boo, oh wait, Yea, we just got a free checked bag and won't have to lug that thing around the Philly airport (which we found out would be quite a task)!
Then we walked about 5 miles in the Philly airport to find our international gate, and we finally found it - 3 gates from the furthest gate possible.
We were called to board 5 minutes after arriving there due to a very long waiting experience on the runway in Pittsburgh. Something to do with someone's ridiculously large bag not fitting under their seat and having to move it overhead and it knocked us out of line to leave (thinking to self: SOOO glad that wasn't us).
We finally make it on our long flight and see that we have 1 whole row to ourselves. Weee!!! That was exciting because we all had to try and sleep because when we landed in Paris, it would be 1:40 a.m. our time.
JJ fell asleep for most of the flight, while Dave and I desperately tried to. Dave couldn't, and I slept for a very short period of time. I looked down at what seemed like our huge row and realized JJ was taking up 3/4 of it. Even though I really wanted more room to sleep, I was so glad to see my little guy was sleeping.
We arrived in Paris, a bit late, and were both sweating as we made our way to Customs. This was because we realized our Student Visas had expired in December while we were in the states working on our Croatian Visas. We didn't know what to expect, just hoped they would let us go through.
So, we arrive at the window, and I put forward my best and "have grace with me" smile! He asks me in French where we studied. I tell him Montpellier 3. And then says in French, "not where, what?" I say, "Oh, Français!" To this, he chuckles and smiles and says in French something like, "Hmm...maybe a bit more work, then?" Then he asks us how long we're staying. I say no more than two weeks, because we're moving. He says, "Oh, in that case, you can go. You just can't stay longer than 3 months" and stamps our passports! Weeeee! We made it through!
Then we wait for a long time for our luggage. Apparently one of them was inspected, which is why it took so long. We finally get them and realize we have 15 minutes to head over to the train terminal and make our 9:27 a.m. train to Montpellier.
We don't see our friends, who said they could meet us at the airport to help with luggage and getting to the train terminal. We realize it is about 45 minutes after the time they could meet us, so we think they may have left and we try to head over to the train terminal ourselves.
Carrying our luggage was by far one of biggest challenges we had - somehow with no sleep, we made it work.
We arrived at the train station and began running to the platform where our train was expected to arrive. We realize we have 5 minutes to do this.
We approached the elevator and was so relieved to see that it was working (both times I've been there before, it was not), and we throw everything in to get down to our platform.
The train pulls up and we are desperately trying to find our car. I run to everyone asking where our car is. One guy tells us that it's very far, so we all start running to the end of the train. How we were all running carrying two 50 lb bags and more, I have no idea, but we were. Oh yeah, it's called adrenaline.
We finally made it to a bunch of ticket-collectors, and they tell us that the train is leaving and to just get on even though it's not the right car. So we do.
Our friends helped us load our luggage on and, after seeing their faces for all of 5 minutes, we say goodbye through the doors of the train.
The next thing we found out is that our ticket collectors love our "Frenglish". They found it very funny, and finally they let us stay in that train car, for which we are truly grateful.
After we are seated I stumbled upstairs to get us food. I buy: one tiny apple sauce, one yogurt, 1 small juice, 1 bottle of water, and 1 small bowl of fresh fruit, and that comes to 14 euros. Do I care? No, we're hungry and tired.
We then began our 4 hour train ride to Montpellier.
We arrived, somehow managed to get all of our luggage off the train and saw two friendly faces as our friend and daughter came around the corner.

We are now sitting in our apartment surrounded by bags we brought and bags that were packed for us (from the tenants who lived here for 4 months). They have offered to temporarily move out while we situate our things and re-pack everything in preparation for our move to Croatia.
But yesterday, after operating on very little sleep, all we could do was find food and coffee, you know the necessities.
Skip ahead to 1:45 a.m. - JJ is awake and comes down about 3 or 4 times to see if he can get up yet.
We all finally go back to sleep and the next thing we know it is 11:20 a.m.!!!! I remember this happened when we first moved to France. We were bummed b/c we had wanted to got to church and we had made lunch plans with our French friends.
So, now we had minutes to wake up, find clothes, and head over to our friend's house for lunch by noon! Meanwhile we forget we don't have our car, that our friends borrowed it, so we try to call around to see where it is and also told our friend we would be late.
Finally, we decided that Dave and JJ would bike to our friend's house and represent us. I was feeling a bit too shaky to ride, especially up the big hill, that I once got used to.
So, off they go, and I text in French to our friends to say they're arriving and apologize for being late.
Moments later, Dave returns with a crying JJ. Dave describes to me that JJ's foot got caught in the wheel of the bike. After almost 10 months of riding like Europeans with JJ on the back of our bikes, it finally happened. Apparently 3 people rushed to his side and helped him get JJ unstuck. And then he walked the bike back with JJ on his shoulders. Dave felt horrible, but JJ is fine, just has a bad scrape. We have now vowed to never take him on the bikes like that again.

So, there you have it. Our first full day, already filled with adventure.

Next on the agenda:

Find our way through this mess called our bags sprawled out over the whole apartment
Find a way to ship or move (in a van) our belongings to Croatia