Dance Taxi

Countdown to 49!

2011-04-09T23:20:00.005-05:00

Goodness...I didn't realize how long it had been since I have posted on here...almost a year! So, what has the last year brought? Some freedom, some frustration, some sadness, some happiness...it has brought life!

Eleanor is almost 17 now and has been driving for a long time. We managed to buy her a nice used car last summer and it has given her more independence and has given me the opportunity not to be the dance taxi any longer. In exchange for the car, insurance and gas, she has taken over the carpooling responsibilities, freeing me up for time at home, time with friends and time with Will. She started dating Michael last May when school got out and they are still "an item" having attended all important school functions that required my purchasing special clothes this year including homecoming, Sadie Hawkins and prom. She has been to the lake several time with his family and will be traveling with them to Orlando for a few days when school gets out the end of May. She needs to start thinking about where she wants to go to college so we can fit in a few college visits.

Amelia is 14 and finishing up her year of purgatory at the Freshman Center. The only thing worse than having to start high school at a dedicated FC is the fact that they are closing the FC next year, reintegrating the freshman in with everyone else and making her a part of the last class to be "segregated" away from "real" high school. She is teaching the preschool ballet class on Saturday mornings and earning a little bit of cash. She has the lofty goal of saving up for a car....which is hard to do on $10 a week. I want to encourage her to save in general though, so I'm trying not to rain on that parade.

Olivia participated in show choir this year and they competed twice, winning once and coming in second place the other time. It was a good showing for them. I don't think she will try out again for next year, but we still have a couple of weeks until those applications will come out and she has the opportunity to change that mind. They will be traveling to Disney in May to perform and it will be her first trip away without parents, beside camp in the summer.

I did not get any of the summer seminars that I applied for, but I was chosen to be an AP reader in Daytona in June, so I need to start sharpening my FRQ grading techniques. I have also been chosen to be a delegate to the NEA annual meeting in Chicago...considering the move by many state legislatures to destroy public unions in America at this time, I think this will be an interesting meeting to attend. Richard S. and I are going to ask for professional development funds to attend the AP Annual Conference in San Francisco in late July. The PD offerings look really great and it will be a nice opportunity to learn with other AP teachers. I've never been to San Francisco either, so I look forward to that opportunity.

Will is still working hard with ESPNU and is looking forward to summer and the slower, more relaxing pace of the summer. It has been a hard year in many ways, although he has been blessed with so much work that it is hard to complain without sounding ungrateful. He is also starting to stop by the admissions office at promising college campuses he visits and asking for information for Eleanor's college search.

What else is going on with me? I have moved from knitting as a hobby to knitting as a lifestyle. I knit daily now. I have made many good friends at Memory Hagler Knitting in Vestavia and have become a valuable member of the group. We meet a couple of nights a week for fellowship and knitting, and are enjoying planning new activities for the new shop location which will move this summer. I taught my first knitting class today, on a beaded necklace project, to 11 women. It was a great experience and I will be repeating the class next month, with 6 already on the list to take it. Very humbling.

Next week, as I celebrate my 49th birthday, I will do so by taking classes at Stitches South in Atlanta. Stitches is a knitting convention that takes place quarterly in different parts of the country. Last year, I was unable to attend because Eleanor could not yet drive and they had to get to rehearsals. I was unwilling to ask for the help of the grandparents when rehearsals were involved, and of course, it is still college sports season so Will was working. This year, I decided that I not only wanted to go, but I wanted to work on increasing my technical skills. I have knit 3 sweaters since late July and I will be taking 9 hours of class at Stitches on sweater construction techniques to help me increase that skill toward independence and design. I will be able to go and stay using frequent hotel points and cannot wait for the PJ party on Friday night! Of course, the market is also a draw, but less so than the classes (which is better for my pocketbook). I'll have to report back afterward and update on how it was. The girls will enjoy spending time with the grandparents.

For now, I will continue working on multiple knitting projects. I have started knitting samples for the shop, which is a win-win. It allows me to work on different skills and projects than I might normally choose for myself, using yarn that is provided by Holly at no cost to me. I also get the ego stroke of knitting beautiful things and having them admired! Current projects include mesh jewelry, a market bag and a baby blanket. I recently knit a doll sweater and skirt for the shop and the beaded necklace that I taught in a class today. I'm watching for other potential sample projects and class ideas for when the shop moves and has a separate classroom. In personal knitting, I have knit a baby sweater for a family member, a skirt for Amy K.'s daughter, a sweater, a shawl, a cowl, some fingerless gloves, and several small gifts for friends during 2011...I think I have finished 15 projects so far and hope to continue that pace for the rest of the year!

I am blessed!

Knitting in the Fast Lane

2010-05-29T21:37:00.003-05:00

I haven't updated this thing in a long while. I need to do better at that. School has just ended for 2009-2010 and I managed to graduate a group of young people that I think will do well in the world...at least for the most part. I had a student teacher this spring and so I rediscovered my knitting passion...less time lesson planning and grading gave me more leisure time. This blog will probably end up being a blog of my knitting projects. I currently have four projects on needles....one is a linen blend table runner for an upcoming family wedding (6/19), one is my first sweater project (back finished, front started), one is a pair of footie socks for Eleanor, and one is a shawl (hibernating for now). I have enjoyed rediscovering the relaxing properties of knitting for pleasure. I have attended a few knitting circle nights at Memory Hagler in Vestavia and enjoyed that a lot. I will unfortunately not be able to join them for World Wide Knit in Public day on 6/19, but I'm doing my bit to knit in public on other days.

So, what is going on in our lives....

Eleanor, my oldest baby, will turn 16 on Tuesday, 6/1. That is an important and momentous occasion. We plan to celebrate by spending our day at the DMV. I sure hope we are early enough to be first in road skills test line! Pray for no rain that day since they won't do the road skills test in the rain. She is also volunteering at McWane this summer for IB CAS hours, and getting ready for her upcoming ballet intensive in Serbia. I am not joining her on her European adventure this year. It makes me sad, but she is mature enough to go with the group without me along.

Amelia has finished middle school and is heading to high school in the fall. She is currently at the beach with some friends for the long weekend and having a great time if her Facebook status updates are anything to judge by. Yes, I relented and let her get a Facebook in the past week. Now starts the difficulty of teaching her what is and is not appropriate to post. She will be going to summer school in June to get ahead on high school credits (computer apps) and is looking forward to lots of days of sunshine and the swimming pool.

Olivia will be 12 on Wednesday and is growing up quickly. She has so far spent her 2 days of summer vacation accomplishing absolutely nothing. She doesn't have anything specific on tap this summer other than camp in July. She is completely happy with that status quo, but I'm going to try to get her involved with something active to keep her from becoming a complete slugabed this summer.

Will and I are busy as always and I have a list of projects (other than my knitting) that is a mile long. Mostly they are organizational, but a couple involve actually finishing something around here. If nothing else, we need to clean up a bit. Eleanor is starting to date, and I don't want to be embarrassed to let her date come into the house!

Update on Life

2010-02-03T18:50:00.003-06:00

Wow, I didn't realize it had been quite THAT long since I put anything up on here. To catch up....obviously, I've been very busy the past year. Along with a few other parents, I started a guild for the youth ballet company to act as fundraising support, volunteer support, etc. That is doing well. I'm the only one of the original Board members that is still working with it, but there is a whole new group onboard now and we are fast approaching our second annual afternoon of dance fundraiser called Dessertissements. The girls are getting older of course. E is at the main campus with me now and learning how to drive...16 is coming fast. A is finishing up her last year of middle school, and O is half-way through her first year of middle school. W is still working hard on sports stuff. AP is going well and my scores were awesome last year (my first year teaching it). Life is plugging right along.

What's this say about Civil Liberties?

2008-09-26T22:31:00.003-05:00

I'm all in favor of order in our schools, but I really think this school system over-reacted and really lost a teachable moment about toleration of differing political opinions. That ability to compromise and reach consensus, as well as tolerate and respect those who differ from us is an essential citizenship skill that our schools should inculcate. This system blew it in my opinion.

This year is chugging right along...

2008-09-23T21:05:00.001-05:00

I've been way too busy to post lately and really I still am. I just added a cool widget with a place to compare candidates though, so I thought I'd mention it. Now to figure out how to add it to my Microsoft Sharepoint website from a Mac....haven't found a browser that will let me update my website at school yet...heavy sigh.

Birthdays and cheers and work, oh my!

2008-08-23T14:37:00.006-05:00

Rah, rah, ree! Amelia cheered at her first game on Thursday night. It was an exhibition game at Spain Park's stadium against Berry. The Bucs won....yeah! She did great and had such a great time doing it. This is a photo of her in their stunt. She is "flying" since she is small. That is definitely her element too. We all showed up to support her, including Papa and Aunt Sarah with Luke and Eli.

Amelia is now 12 years old. She had a great birthday on Friday. I gave her one of her presents on Thursday night since it was a Vera tote in her favorite pattern. She has been borrowing one of mine to use as a backpack for school and so she was excited to have her own for school.

Her BIG present was an iPod Touch. She is absolutely over the moon about it. It is a really cool iPod. I was tempted to keep it and give her my classic. She has wifi on it so this is the closest thing to having a laptop. Honestly, she wouldn't use an laptop for much schoolwork, so this suits her computer needs. She can check and send email, play games and do some research. She can also download pictures into it and keep a calendar. Again, it was quite tempting to keep the thing for myself! She got money from both sets of grandparents and it is burning a hole in her wallet. Aunt Sarah and her crew got her the VB mini-hipster so she has reorganized her purse into that. It's very cute. Her sisters got her an iTunes card and she has already downloaded some new music. I was quite proud of her since she consulted with her sisters on the downloads and even downloaded a couple of Eleanor's suggestions which means they are sharing the music.

Back in the routine

2008-08-07T18:50:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been home for several days now and am just finding a moment to catch my breath and post again. Saturday night I slept well and long after our trip. Amelia had her first communion at church on Sunday and that was very special to share that sacrament with her for the first time. Sunday afternoon, Will had to go to Charlotte for a training session and I went to Apple and bought a Mighty Mouse for my new laptop. The girls and I then went to Target to buy a back to school outfit for each of them and to pick up a few general supplies that I knew they would need while it was tax free.

Monday was back to work and time to get serious about planning my courses and getting my act together. I talked through some of my ideas about structure with some of my colleagues and finally gathered what I hope is a completely coherent plan for the AP Govt. yesterday....I know, I'm such a procrastinator! In this instance, not really. I just needed to sit down and think through some of what I wanted to accomplish.

Today was the first day of school. Amelia was NOT happy about what time we have to leave for school this year. They moved the start time at the high school back about 10 minutes, which means of course that I need to be there 10 minutes earlier. In order to make the rounds through all 3 schools that I go to before mine, we have to leave by 6:40AM. Yikes! We managed it this morning, even with Will taking first day of school pictures before we left. Hopefully we will continue to manage it!

My classes went well, except for a copying snafu on my part for AP. Oh well, I've made my first mistake. I think I regrouped fairly well. We'll see how things work out tomorrow. The girls had a good first day. We finished carpools around 4:05 this afternoon and headed to Walmart for school supplies for Eleanor. It's much harder to juggle 7 different lists than I imagined it was.....I have more sympathy for my student's parents now. In my defense though, my supply list has been posted since May! I don't know if any of my students consulted it or not, but it has been posted...

It's already 7PM here and so I'm going to get down to some organizational business for tomorrow. I hope to get to bed early tomorrow. I'm so glad we start with a 2-day work week....

We're Home!!!!

2008-08-02T18:48:00.004-05:00

We got to the airport and asked about the overbooking issue (with Will's encouragement), but by the time we got to the gate, they only needed one more volunteer to give up their seat...that wouldn't work for us. It's just as well. We were ready to come home.

The flight over the Atlantic was uneventful and was a good flight. It was FULL, but the service was good, the food was good, and the in-flight entertainment system was good too. I watched 4 full movies and part of another, and played Bejeweled and another game on their system. Passport control and customs was uneventful and we made our flight with ease. That actually had worried me. We only had 1-1/2 hours in Atlanta and I worried that we might get stuck in passport or customs. They were very efficient though and it was a breeze. There was a flight to Birmingham about half an hour before ours that was cancelled so there was a mad scramble by some of those folks to get on our flight or any other flight. We were delayed a little at the gate while they fit some of those folks on our flight but we still landed early in Birmingham.

Will and the girls greeted us at baggage claim and we were all quite happy to see each other. Got our luggage quickly and headed for the car. They were ready to eat something and we requested Cracker Barrel. I wanted some good sweet iced tea and some comfort food. It was great!

We got home and handed around our souvenir gifts to every one. We had a lot of fun searching for interesting and fun things this year. I bought Will a metric tape measure in Serbia and an antique compass/sundial in a wooden box on Portobello Road yesterday. We think it is 180 degrees off, but that might be fixable....Popo, I think we need your help! Eleanor saw a sign at a shop yesterday that said "Trespassers will be shot; survivors will be shot again" (or something like that). I think he'll probably hang it outside our house! :-) We found an artist stall yesterday where the woman worked with glass making various color patterns in pendants. We bought one for Olivia and Eleanor (and me and Eleanor too). In Serbia, I bought a brown beaded shawl with turquoise peacocks embroidered and beaded on it. It is for decoration in Amelia's room as we finish it (hopefully soon). Eleanor bought her a jeweled notepad and pen at Hampton Court and I bought her a shirt in Serbia that I think she might wear for the first day of school. Allie helped me pick it out. For Olivia, we got a cartoon pencil box, a Build A Bear outfit with the Union Jack on the shirt, a quill pen and a stuffed hedgehog that is just adorable. We also bought some candy in Serbia and some gum in London for each of the girls. I have other souvenirs for family members, but I won't ruin their surprises by listing them here. I'll see if we can't take pictures of some of the things and post later.

At this point, it's about 8:30PM here, which is 2:30AM on my body clock. Eleanor crashed about an hour ago and is out like a light. I think the caffeine in the sweet tea has kept me awake...that and playing with my new toy.

I failed to mention that I was greeted with a welcome home gift by Will and the girls this afternoon....my very own MacBook Pro! Will was tired of monkeying with the PC that crashed last month and bought me a laptop for work and fun. We have been working on setting it up for the past 3 hours or so, but I'm starting to crash myself. Tomorrow is Amelia's first communion at church, Will is headed to ESPN for training and I have been persuaded to take advantage of the tax free holiday this weekend to do some back to school shopping....perhaps at the new Target which just opened up in McCalla. School starts back for me bright and early Monday morning so I might not check in tomorrow at all....I better finish posting pictures tomorrow though or it might not get done for awhile!

Good night.

Portobello Road

2008-08-01T11:15:00.004-05:00

We got up this AM and went to Kensington Palace. It was nice and we enjoyed the dress collections, both Princess Diana's and the older ones. I still think Hampton Court Palace is my favorite of the palaces though. We then had lunch at the Orangery. I had the soup of the day. I really didn't understand what he said it was. Didn't really like it, but the homemade bread with it was terrific. I liked the hot tea too--had the Earl Grey. We ate outside on the terrace. It was breezy and pretty, but Eleanor thought it was cold, so we walked back to the flat and Eleanor changed into jeans. The temperature today was just amazing. I know I am going home to hot and humid; today was maybe 70 and breezy. That I will miss.

We then decided to check out Portobello Road and its shops and markets. They are slim on a Friday. Apparently Saturday is the day to go, but we had a really good time shopping there and spent plenty of money to support the local merchants. This was on Eleanor's list of things to do because of the scene in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" where they sing about Portobello Road. The most nostalgic part to me was shopping in the....are you ready for this Dad.....Woolworth's! I didn't know those still existed anywhere, let alone on Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London. We bought a bottled drink and some candy which was sold by the hmmmmm....kilo maybe? We pay for things in pounds, but don't measure them that way here. Gee, I'm not sure. It was .69 pence per whatever the measurement was! There was an antique store along the road that had the most amazingly beautiful crystal doorknob sets. I texted Will, but he told me the price was too high. Pity....I'd love to have cut crystal doorknobs in my house...wish they had been a deal!

We came back to the flat and did about 90% of our packing for tomorrow, so I could relax for the rest of the evening. We are going to head to the Victoria and Albert and out to dinner in a few minutes (it's about 6:30PM) and then try to get to bed early. Our car hire is picking us up at 5:45 AM to head to Gatwick for our flight. The flight is oversold and when I checked in online, it was saying that they would be asking people to get off the flight for compensation. I was tempted since it might pay for Eleanor to get back to Europe next summer, but when I checked the other flights out, I only found two more flights after that to the states and they had full coach sections too. Oh well.

*****************************************************************************

Back again....We went to the Victoria and Albert. Unfortunately, they had most of the galleries closed off. I wish their website had been clear about the fact that their late night didn't include all the galleries. We would have made more of an effort to go earlier in the day. We saw some amazing religious art and sculpture though. There was a display on stained glass and church objects (for communion, reliquaries, etc.). Breathtaking stuff. We spent a little over an hour there and then headed toward Queen's Gate Road to catch the Number 70 bus back toward our flat. We walked past the Baden Powell House along the way--it is the former home of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. We found out while at Hampton Court Palace yesterday though that she was a "grace and favour" resident at Hampton Court when she was elderly. Eleanor and I would like to be "grace and favour" residents and get to live in a palace for the rest of our lives!

We finally caught the bus at the gates of Kensington Gardens (far side of the gardens from where we are staying though). We got off about a block and a half from our flat....although we didn't realize we were that close. Tonight....on our last night....we found the cut-through to the side road which we overlook from our flat. Figures! :-) We went to a Tex-Mex and Spanish tapas restaurant around the corner from the flat. This was a concession on Eleanor's part because she doesn't like Mexican food. I had chicken fajitas that were very good....they allowed her to order from the kids menu even though she is obviously older than 10. She had a burger and "chips". Total cost was 29.81...geesh!

During dinner, we discussed our highlights for the week.

For Eleanor, her top three were 1. Spamalot, 2. Kensington Palace, 3. The Churchill Museum and 4. The hamburger she ate at the restaurant across from Hampton Court--perhaps tied with riding the tube. That was more than three wasn't it? LOL

For me, the top three are: 1. Swan Lake, 2. Churchill Museum and 3. Hampton Court Palace. I liked the tube a lot too!

Will told me earlier that if I can get the airlines to compensate us with two round-trip transatlantic flights to go ahead and hop off the plane...but only if they guarantee us seats on another flight tomorrow. I'll see what I can do....

I'll check back in when we get home tomorrow. For now, Ciao!

Hampton Court Palace was great

2008-07-31T12:00:00.005-05:00

We decided earlier this week that we wanted to see Hampton Court Palace since it was recommended to us from more than one source (Mr. Brannon and Margaret Kelley). We added up admission prices to the palaces we wanted to see and figured out that it would be just a little bit cheaper to buy a yearly family pass (for 1 adult and several children) than to pay admission to each, so if we manage to come back within the next 12 months (unlikely), we could still go into the ones we miss. There are five properties in total and we plan to see three before we leave here on Saturday.

I didn't really pay attention to the signs telling me this while at the Tower of London yesterday, but noticed them at Hampton Court Palace today. Apparently none of these historic palaces are supposed at all by government funding or the Crown (which is a pity), so even if we didn't get to visit enough to make the admission a deal for us, I'm glad that we supported the renovation and conservation of them. We plan to go to Kensington Palace tomorrow though--it is in easy walking distance of our flat--and we will save on admission at that point. I told Eleanor I want to have "tea" in the orangery at Kensington Palace too. Her response is generally that she doesn't like tea. I informed her she could have a sprite, but I was having a proper British tea, complete with sandwiches, scones and little cakes (and tea). :-)

Hampton Court Palace was amazing. The hardest thing for us was NOT taking pictures in the state rooms of the palace. Eleanor was almost sick that she wasn't able to take pictures in the Great Hall or the Chapel Royal. I bought the book about the palace so we would have the pictures to refer to in the future. The Tower gave us a copy of their book when we paid for the membership yesterday so we have that one too. We weren't as wowed by the Tower of London comparatively. We were very impressed with Henry VIII's home at Hampton Court. I actually liked it a lot better than Buckingham Palace where we went last year. I'll have to see what I think of Kensington Palace.

We started our day out on the tube to Victoria Station. I mentioned to Eleanor as we were switching from Underground station to train station (Hampton Court is outside of London about 35 minutes by train) that I had read that there were cheaper "same day" tickets available for Billy Elliot at the theater box office each day at 10:30. It was 10:24. :-) We didn't end up buying the same day seats. They were in the first three rows and the lady in the box office said all of them had restricted views. Instead we bought the "nose bleed" seats for 17.50 for tonight. The lady at the box office said they were good seats. I'll let you know. This was actually on my list of things I wanted to do...I was going to forego it in the interest of cost since we saw both Spamalot and Swan Lake, but the tickets were really pretty inexpensive, relatively speaking, so I decided we should go. It will be our last splurge though. Tomorrow's plans don't include admission prices!

We then bought train tickets to Hampton Court (pretty cheap at 1 pound for Eleanor and 6 pounds for me--return). While I was waiting in line for the ticket agents, I sent Eleanor after bottled water in a shop in the station. She came back and asked if she could buy Krispy Kreme too--yes, an Alabama company in London. I said sure and she came back with two glazed doughnuts...a nice little taste from home. We then boarded a train within minutes and were on our way.

Eleanor took 130 pictures today. I'll just post a couple! There was a display of some of the more elaborate costumes from "The Other Boleyn Girl" movie. We were allowed to take pictures in there. Eleanor had some made with costumed guides too. The whole place was interesting and informative. We even went through the maze--I took one of the dead-ends and so Eleanor beat me to the center of it. She took a picture of herself in the center which I'm posting! We had a very late lunch (around 3PM) at a restaurant across from the palace on the main road, so we will probably grab a snack after the show tonight.

We came home for about an hour in between our trip and needing to hop on the tube to see tonight's show. Eleanor has gotten dressed up in her new lace dress from the market stall in Covent Garden. I might dress up to nicer capris than the blue jean ones I have on, but that is as much as I am going to do. It's not that hot today, but it is incredibly humid. I know that I will be drenched in sweat by the time I ride the tube to the theater anyway....it would be nice if the threatening rain would actually fall here!

I'll check in and post after the show. Gotta give highlights!......

Amazing show! I didn't realize how political it was though. I haven't seen the movie that it was based on. Apparently the live musical hasn't come to the states yet, but posters in the tube stations indicated that this was the last summer that it would be exclusively in London. The principal actors in the show were all children. There are four different young men who share the part of Billy Elliot. We aren't exactly sure which young man did it tonight, but we saw him after the show leaving the theater with friends. He was pretty cute. We made eye contact, but didn't have a pen handy and didn't truly identify that it was him until he had headed on. Shame--we would have asked for an autograph. The accents on some of the actors were so heavy that we didn't understand parts of it, except from context--and I had a better basis for context than Eleanor did. I told her we need to rent the movie when we come home and watch it with subtitles.

A man and his son were in the seats next to us and we struck up a conversation. He was a history teacher (and AP Govt too--go figure) from California. I think Eleanor is a little embarrassed by the "never met a stranger" aspect of my personality. I also ended up in conversation with some men on the tube earlier today. One was wearing a KU and NCAA Final Four ball cap. Turned out they were from Overland Park, KS (although one had a really strong Irish accent--said he had been offered a job in Birmingham, AL once but didn't take it). We had a very nice conversation about Kansas City and how it has grown up, the medical center there, the baggage mess at JFK and London.

Still hasn't really rained and so the humidity is still pretty thick, although being close to midnight helps. The temperature is a little better, even if the air is thick. I need to post this and head toward bed I guess. I believe Kensington Palace opens at 10AM and we want to be there early. One nice thing about this membership we bought is that we sail right up to the gate--no queing at all. I think we may go back to Covent Garden since we wanted to see some other stalls (but Camden Markets or Notting Hill markets are a possibility too). I want to see the Victoria and Albert Museum too--it is open until 10PM (although we won't be that late) which means that we won't have the 5PM closing deadline to contend with. Our time is up in less than 36 hours. Hard to believe....

Good night.

The Tower, Leadenhall Market and a teen flick....

2008-07-30T13:10:00.005-05:00

The first picture is of Leadenhall Market; the next is Lloyd's of London. They exist side by side.

We got up (with an alarm this time) and headed to the Tower of London this morning. Eleanor went with a fully charged camera this time and went crazy taking pictures. We liked the jewel tower a lot and felt like we could handle the weight of those crowns. :) Honestly, though, we didn't go into every building in the complex. About half was good for us.

We then walked through the City and tried to take the Tube from Monument to Bank....only to find out that it was a simple walk THROUGH the underground stations to do it. That felt a little odd. We wanted to check out Leadenhall Market because I had read that it was where they filmed the Harry Potter scenes in Diagon Alley. It was really pretty--very elaborate Victorian architecture. We stopped in a little cafe offering "British Grub" and Eleanor got adventurous....she ordered steak and chips. :-) We asked for the steak well done and it was more medium or medium rare. She felt embarrassed to ask them to put it back on the grill, but I told her that was perfectly acceptable and they were very nice about it (as they should be).

The really old "Lloyd's of London" bank has built a very modern steel building right next to the market--very odd juxtaposition of old and new.

We then decided to go to a British teen flick called "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging." It was really cute. The rating was 12A (no one under 12 years old without a parent)--seemed like it would be PG or PG-13 at home. I don't think it would be popular in the states, but it was "dead on" about adolescents and life at 14-16. We enjoyed it a lot.

Random observations:

1. We found the "hood" today. It was near Bayswater tube station....not too far from where we are staying actually. Amazing what a couple of blocks one way or another will do. This city is so diverse. Every area and every tube station has its own vibe and personality.

2. The movie theater had a bar (liquor, beer and wine) in it, a candy by the pound place and the usual popcorn and soft drinks. Eleanor asked for butter on the popcorn and was told they didn't do that..."this isn't America, you know." That cracked us up. It also led us into a nice conversation with the young man.

3. Everything is outrageously expensive here. I haven't bought a "meal" yet that didn't cost us close to 20 pounds (that's $40)...even if there wasn't much to it. We are eating in this evening with groceries from the local store. Still more expensive than home, but not crazy. I really wonder how much money you have to make to live in this town.

We are having an early evening in tonight, with a plan of going to Hampton Court Palace tomorrow. I have to research exactly how you get to Hampton Court though. I don't think we use the tube--I think it might be national rail. Gotta get on that research in a moment.

I'm going to attempt to attach a short video. The bathrooms in the little mall where the theaters were had the most innovative technology for washing and drying your hands. The air dryer was really cool. I had Eleanor take video of it...she thinks I'm weird! :-) We didn't take a picture of the sink...but it was really a slanted shelf/ledge that the water run down and into a long drain area. Very interesting, I thought.

Bomb Shelters and Swans, oh my

2008-07-29T17:23:00.003-05:00

Well, we started off slow again. We finally got out the door here a bit after noon and decided to take a bus and a little more scenery instead of underground like moles.... We took the bus up Oxford Street, turned onto Regent Street, and headed to the Apple Store to see if I couldn't pick up a little souvenir for Will. I regret, my darling, to inform you that there is no such thing as free trade in the UK either apparently...the iPhone is locked here too! The helpful sales people talked amongst themselves for a moment though and came to the conclusion that they think it might be unlocked in Italy....there's a good reason to go to Rome next summer! :-) The store was huge and the sales people were typical Apple sales people though, I'm happy to say....friendly, accessible and helpful.

We then headed back to the tube for our sightseeing stop for the day. Eleanor found a couple of scarves at a street vendor which she bought--she is into scarves now. We took the Tube to Victoria Station and decided to have lunch there before changing Tube lines. It was now a little past 1PM. The place we chose was horrid. Waste of money, energy and time. Live and learn. We certainly won't do that again. McDonald's would have been a better option honestly.

We then headed to the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet rooms underneath Whitehall. Absolutely terrific museum. Eleanor took so many pictures, she wore her battery out in her camera. It is charging as I write. We both agreed that Papa needs to come to London just to see this particular museum. We spent about 3 hours there and both of us stayed interested the entire time. Our legs just gave out.

We headed back to the Tube to head toward Covent Garden at this point. Along the way, we couldn't find the public toilets, and the nice Methodists allowed me to use theirs (it was after hours too--thank you to the Methodists for their hospitality!). On to Covent Garden. We ate at a little cafe there in Covent Garden (pizza and salad, which we shared) and then browsed some of the street market stalls there. Eleanor found a cute little black lace dress for 20 pounds which we bought and we saw lots of irreverent but really funny t-shirts which we didn't buy. I agree that some of them were hilarious, but they not only wouldn't meet the school dress code, they don't meet my parent dress code either (although I did laugh at them).

It was about 7:00 at this point and the market was closing....just in time to head into the Royal Opera House for the ballet. Eleanor felt conspicuous at first because we came in our jeans and shirts because we lacked the time to go home and dress up. We then saw others dressed much more casually than we were--we actually looked o.k. in our nice jeans and shirts--and so we relaxed about that. The only seats I was willing to try and afford were way up in the amphitheatre. I thought they would be so high that it would be difficult to see, but that wasn't the case at all. They were absolutely lovely seats. We were about 10 rows up (in the upper balcony) and in the center. The performance was absolutely wonderful. I can't think of the appropriate adjectives to apply to it, to be quite honest. We are both happy that we had the opportunity to see it.

Now we are home and determined to get up earlier tomorrow! We want to go to the Tower of London in the morning and to the Victoria and Albert Museum tomorrow evening (late hours on Wednesday); maybe we will manage to fit in St. Paul's as well if our legs and feet don't give out (at least for evensong if not a tour).

I'll post pictures tomorrow. Good night!

Day 3 in London

2008-07-28T11:18:00.003-05:00

Well, we did better today! We got up around 8:30 and were out the door at 10AM....which was about 30 minutes later than we planned, but much better than 1 or 1:30PM! The grocery store was closed when we returned home last night and so we didn't have anything in the flat for breakfast. There is a little bagel shop next to the underground and we stopped there for breakfast and then hopped on the Tube to go to the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square for Spamalot tickets. We got seats in the 8th row, center for tonight. This is the one thing Eleanor absolutely wanted to do this trip, so we are making sure it happens early!

We then spent an hour or so in the National Portrait Gallery. It started with the Tudors and moved forward. We didn't go through the whole gallery, just the 3rd floor which took us up through the Regency period (just before Queen Victoria in the 19th century) and then through the BP Art Award paintings for 2008 on the ground floor. We started walking afterward and decided to pop into TGI Friday's for lunch....more sticker shock....but I won't belabor the issue. :-)

I had heard that Top Shop was a good and reasonably priced store for teens. It had really cute stuff, but it was not reasonably priced. Eleanor is very practical and said it was all too over-priced. Amelia would have grabbed it and run! LOL

We then found the Freed's of London store (which is a ballet and pointe shoe maker) and tried on pointe shoes. Eleanor's foot is very narrow and these shoes were very wide, so I got lucky and didn't spend money on pointe shoes in London!

We then walked to Covent Garden and bought tickets to see Swan Lake tomorrow night performed by the Chinese National Ballet. They are nosebleed seats, but that is all we were willing to try and afford!

It's 6PM here now and we are about to eat some dinner and then head to the theatre to see Spamalot.

Good night!

P.S. Olivia--look what store was in Covent Garden!!! The other picture is of a street performer in Covent Garden.

Another postscript....Spamalot was absolutely terrific. We laughed so hard. Eleanor showed great restraint in not wanting a t-shirt that said "I'm not dead yet".....Mr. Head would appreciate it. Sorry, David, we would have gotten one for you, but the dollar to pound exchange rate is too horrific to contemplate the souvenir for you! :-) We had great seats--K8 and K9 in the stalls (that's on the floor about 10 rows up for you yanks!). Sorry, I didn't zoom in on Eleanor, but we wanted the whole Spamalot sign up above. She's the one with the ponytail in the black leggings underneath!

Day 2 in London

2008-07-27T04:57:00.004-05:00

We were obviously more tired than we realized. I woke about 7:30AM, but was still really tired. I got up and switched the washing machine to dry--yes, I finally figured it out last night, thanks to some advice from the travel forums at fodors.com--those guys always come through! I then went back to bed with the guidebook to read to see today's plan of action....and feel asleep until about 10AM.

We had bought some pastries at Tesco last night and I had a croissant for breakfast and looked at the guidebooks. I think we are going to try the Camden Markets in a little bit. The weather is supposed to be clear until dinner time and then scattered thundershowers. We'll carry the "brolly" to be safe. I hope the weather stays clear until at least 8PM or so. We want to do the Harry Potter walk tonight (with a guide) and I don't know if it might be cancelled if the weather isn't clear.

Random observations:

1. The combo washer/dryer unit is incredibly inefficient. It takes about 8 hours to wash and dry a load of clothes....and then said load is smaller than you could get in any washer I've ever owned--even at 1/2 the normal capacity. I did figure out the dryer, but now wish I hadn't. I guess it's something to do with heat settings, but Eleanor's pink ballet tights are now a tan color. My white slip is also a beige, as is the white elastic on some white camisole tops that Eleanor has. I guess it's a heat thing, but I'm really not sure. I'm scared to dry the blue jeans in there. I think they will get hung to dry, even though that is also inefficient. We might not be able to wear them otherwise though.

2. Eleanor was excited to find Dr. Pepper here in London and that was the soft drink we bought for the flat. It doesn't taste the same as US Dr. Pepper though in my opinion. We are following the European custom of buying the large bottle and refrigerating it. I briefly considered making ice cubes in the ice cube tray with bottled water, but decided I can wait another week for my ice again.

Well, scratch the original plans. We were really lazy this morning. We slept in, ate our pastries and then hung around a little longer before we moved toward showers. On some information from the travel forums, I found out that I could apply for a discount travel card for Eleanor because she is under 15. I did so about the time we got out of school and indicated that we would pick it up at Heathrow. At that time, I was planning on us getting to our flat by tube. When I arranged for the car to pick us up, I asked for an extra half hour to collect the card. However, the flight was half an hour late (probably because Obama was landing or taking off and we couldn't land--we did circle for about 20 minutes) and then it took our luggage a really long time. I didn't want to pay the driver to wait for me--who knows how much that would have cost, so we decided to collect it later. Later was today. When I hopped on the transport website and saw how much cheaper all transportation is for Eleanor with that card (all buses are free and the tube is at child rate--about half), I told her we needed to go and get it. The trip to Heathrow was just under an hour. We took the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow, got the card and then took the tube back into the city.

We decided to go on a guided walk based on the Harry Potter theme offered by London Walks. Eleanor is under 15 so she was free. The cost for me was 7 pounds. We went to the appropriate tube stop and decided to get lunch and sit outside and enjoy it. The rain never materialized today and when you could catch the breeze, it was quite nice (without a breeze, it was beastly humid though!). We grabbed a sandwich at Quizno's and ate in the Victoria Embankment gardens. We then walked along the embankment of the Thames and took a few pictures, used the public loos and then meandered to a spot to watch for the tour guide. We walked an unknown distance. The walk had several stops and gave us a commentary on some of the traditions and themes that JK Rowling drew upon in the HP books, along with a nice walk around. Eleanor took tons of pictures.

After the walk, we were pretty walked out. We took the tube back to our stop (Notting Hill Gate) and it looked like everything was closed--it was after 7PM on a Sunday, so we ended up eating McDonald's for dinner--took it back to the flat to eat it. Wow--7 pounds for a couple of "value" meals (that's $14).

After I finish this report, I believe we will make plans for tomorrow. I need to check the weather first. If it's going to be rainy, we'll make it a museum day. If it's going to be clear, we'll make it a Tower of London day. More later.

Pictures: The tour guide is the gentleman in white; the other is of me and Eleanor taken outside the park.

Hello from London

2008-07-26T12:08:00.004-05:00

Eleanor and I got up bright and early this morning in Serbia and got ready to leave. Stevan picked us up about 8:20AM which actually worried me. We stopped for fuel (butane was $1/liter) which I bought in order to be fair and pay our way. We arrived at the airport around 9:30AM for a 10:40AM flight. It was fine though. We had just enough time really to go to the restroom and then get to our gate. The flight was easy and Eleanor and I both dozed a little during it since she got in late from her outing last night and of course I didn't sleep until she did get in.

We arrived in London about half an hour late and our luggage seemed to take forever to be loaded on the belt, but it all arrived and for that I am thankful. I got some cash at an ATM and turned around and there was our driver with my name on a card. We had an easy half hour ride to our building and got checked in easily.

London is a seriously expensive city to visit or to live in. Nice hotels seem to start around $200 night. After much research on the travel forums at fodors.com, I decided to look into apartment rental this summer. I found a studio flat (meaning it's all one big room) for less than $200/night for the week. The flat is on the 5th floor, which is really the 6th floor since the 1st floor is labeled Ground. :-) The regular lift is broken, but the porter took us on the service lift with our luggage which was greatly appreciated. He didn't really give us much in the way of instruction however. the flat is nice and large--it's like the Taj Mahal in comparison to our little room in Serbia.

We managed to figure out how to start the washing machine (finally) and have finished one load; however, the machine is a combo unit (one drum) and we haven't figured out how to make it work as a dryer yet! I think I'm about to hang a line in the bathroom or on the balcony and hang clothes up to dry. Geesh!

After we unpacked and got oriented (and talked to Will), we went out to explore the area a little. We found a cute little restaurant called "Ask" and ate lunch/dinner there, then went to Marks & Spencer Simply Foods (very high priced in retrospect) and bought some fresh fruit--all organic and grown in Britain--the name of the grower and the place where they are grown is on the label. We just finished off some blackberries from County Kent.

We then walked back down the road to Tesco Market and got some bread, cheese and drinks (much more like a normal grocery store in prices) and came home. Eleanor made herself a fruit salad with her high-priced fruit, but said it was all very good.

We are seriously considering just hanging out this evening. It's only 6:15 though and the night is young. We may decide to go out and walk around in a little while after we just enjoy the space and comfort of the apartment versus our little room in Serbia.

The flat is cute and has a Murphy bed and a futon sofa (but a cushiony futon sofa). I'll take the bed and Eleanor will take the sofa! It also has a little table and chairs, a small kitchen and, by our standards of the last couple of weeks, enormous bathroom. I'm going to turn on the "telly" in a few minutes and see what is on TV here in the UK.

I had Eleanor write a list of her "must dos" for London this time and it is pretty short and therefore quite doable. I need to research one of them though. It wasn't something that was on my list at all and so I don't have much in the way of information. She is operating off a recommendation from a former teacher to definitely see Hampton Court Palace, so I need to see about operating hours, etc.

We considered going to the Tate Modern for a while this evening since it is open until 10PM on Friday and Saturday night, but instead we walked down Palace Gardens Terrace and looked at all the embassies near Kensington Palace. Some were really beautiful. When we neared the end of the road, we saw police barricades in front of one and police men guarding it. It was the Israeli Embassy. It's really sad that is necessary. Something tells me that if we go by the American Embassy in Mayfair, it will be much the same though.

We then walked through Kensington Park and saw the Round Pond and the statue of Queen Victoria. We exited the park and considered riding the tube back one stop to our flat, but saw an ice cream shop and decided to get some. Since food isn't allowed on the tube, we walked back and found that it was really close. We had some serious sticker shock on the ice cream though. A small cone with 2 scoops of ice cream in Novi Sad was about $1.20; here a waffle cone with one scoop was 2 pounds--$4 to you mate!

We are settled into the flat for the night now. I have run what I hope is a dryer load on our underwear, but I still may end up hanging them up on the balcony in the breeze coming in. It is finally cooler. It isn't hot here, per se, but it was humid earlier and that got us a little warm. The flat had an electric fan in the closet though--it is running and we have a nice breeze going with the double doors to the balcony open too.

Cheerio and good night!

P.S. Identifying the pictures. The first is me and Eleanor, taken by Eleanor with the camera held in front of us. The second are the swans on the round pond in front of Kensington Palace. The third is of the "living area" of our flat. The sofa turns into a bed.

Our last day in Novi Sad

2008-07-25T07:15:00.004-05:00

Eleanor during the two pas de deux (dance with two)

Today dawned bright and fresh. Eleanor went on to dance and I slept in. Around 11AM, Lynda ran out to find the photomat and get some pictures printed of the group to give to them at the performance this afternoon and I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, it was pouring! Eleanor and Allie came running in, dripping wet, asking to change clothes and have some money for lunch. I asked them to give me 10 minutes and I'd take them to lunch. We met Lynda and Amanda on our way out and Lynda joined us for lunch.

After lunch, we went to get a little more cash (not too much though since I don't want to try and trade it back in--that rate is always unfavorable) and then popped into a souvenir shop again. This time I was very tempted. She had some original oil paintings of scenes of Novi Sad. One of the fortress was particularly pretty and cost 6000 dinars (about $120). I resisted temptation, but it was difficult because it really was beautifully done and would look lovely on my living room wall....we'll just have to come back I guess!

We then made our way to the market to find some roses for the dancers at their performance this afternoon. It was rain washed and lovely. Lynda bought some blackberries (the sweetest I've ever had) and I bought some little berries on twigs that I have no idea what it is called. It is a little sour and a little sweet. I'll have to take some pictures and see if I can figure out what it is called.

We have about an hour until we need to leave for their performance so I am hanging out here and writing this. I should be starting on my packing since we leave for London in the morning. Maybe in a minute... :-) Separating dirty clothes from clean in our suitcases shouldn't take but a moment and so I really don't anticipate this taking too long. I might be wrong though...... I'll let you know later. I did arrange for a car to pick us up at Heathrow and take us to our apartment in London though. It wasn't much more than taking the Heathrow Express and it will deliver us straight to our door.

Back again.....

The performance was good. I got what I hope will be some good pictures. I plan to upload a couple here tonight. There was a little party after the performance with food prepared by Stevan's niece Zlata. She made an absolutely wonderful cake that her daughter Sondra called the 15 minute cake. It was made with biscuits, whipping cream, fresh blackberries and fresh raspberries. It was heavenly and I am skeptical of it only taking 15 minutes to create!

After the party, I headed back to the dorm alone and started organizing my world to pack. Eleanor showed up about 30 minutes later, just in time to talk with her father for a short while on Skype, take a shower and inform me she was going to spend the evening with the young people....which I expected. They went to dinner on their own and then were going out to a cafe to have cokes and dance. She did pack first though! :-)

I went out to dinner with Lynda and Amanda at a little fish restaurant that we passed the other day around the corner from our hostel. It was absolutely charming. When we arrived, there was no one else there. We chose the largest table which was in front of the front window, and included a window bench seat in the open window--which is where I sat, partially because it was just fun and partially to protect myself from what I expected would be cigarette fumes as others arrived. The waitress, luckily, spoke English. I say luckily because these menus (unlike others we have experienced) did not have any English. I had salmon in a cream sauce as did Amanda. Lynda ordered a chicken dish which she said was wonderful. Because both Lynda and I had started out requesting something different....and because I think they just wanted to please new patrons, they brought us an appetizer plate of some different local cuisine at no charge. They also ended the meal with some fresh fruit (watermelon and pears) drizzled in honey and either cinnamon or nutmeg. The really interesting thing about the restaurant though was that the kitchen was across the lane from the restaurant, so our waitress had to walk across the street to give our order and get our food. It is probably the most expensive meal we have had so far. We decided to just split the bill 3 ways rather than trying to figure out each person's share. The total was 3800 dinars, which is about $76. It was also the best restaurant meal I've had while I've been here though. It was magnificent. Lynda, Amanda and I then walked to the square to have some gelato (just because I've only had it once) and walked for a little while through the park before heading home.

I'm packed, with the exception of the clothes I'm presently wearing and my toiletries, so I'm good to go in the morning. Stevan is going to pick us up at 8:15AM which would put us at the airport around 9:15 or so. Our flight is at 10:40. I hope that is enough of a margin. I told him I'd be ready by 8:00!

So, for now I'll say "dovejenia" (butchered spelling). It means "see you later" in Serbian!

P.S. We walked in the door and within 5 minutes, it started raining. Talk about excellent timing!

Thursday....

2008-07-24T17:00:00.006-05:00

I can only identify a few of these dancers, but here goes:

L to R: Eleanor, their modern teacher, Vivian, Allie, Jenn, and then I'm lost since I don't know the Serbian dancer's names (sorry about that)

The sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds again today...at least briefly! It also reached 71 degrees--what a change from the 50's on Tuesday.

Eleanor and I were up late last night and I went back to sleep after she left this morning. I finally got up around 10:30 and we went out around 11:30. On today's agenda was finding an 'Apoteka' (apothecary) to buy some gel to relieve insect bites. I got some last year and it was so much more effective than anything I get at home. I bought two tubes.

I also stopped a linen shop that I saw last year and never went into. Souvenir shopping was in full gear! :-) I did buy a couple of beautiful embroidered lace tablecloths at good prices--I just couldn't resist.

We were invited today to have lunch at Stevan's nephews home. It was a long and leisurely lunch, which is customary here. I found out that I like feta cheese. At home, it is hard and crumbly and I really don't like it. Here it is soft and has the consistency of cream cheese...and it is terrific. I had it spread on fresh bread, along with bean soup, and more homemade baklava. Truly wonderful. Debbie and Mykell joined us on our journey back into town after lunch. We window shopped and I found a tote bag to use as a carry-on. I have bought just enough souvenirs that I can't fit into my luggage on the way home--whoops! Amelia will want to steal this bag from me. It is pink and very cute!

We got to the dance studio as they were ready to leave and stopped and had a drink on the way home. There is quite the cafe' culture here. The city center is lined with tables and umbrellas and it was warmer today, so there was a bustling business at them. We came home for a little while and then back out to a cafe' for dinner. Not much going on really. I watched a little TV this evening...nothing special, but there are quite a few channels in English....and then there are the more "exotic" channels--things that you either have to pay for at home or that are only shown late at night if you know what I mean. They are inserted into regular programming like commercials here--it's quite a shock to the puritan values! :0

Dragan, one of the porters here, brought us some cookies and fruit to try this evening. He called the fruit "smokva". Eleanor correctly identified the fruit, while everyone else guessed around the truth. I saw it and immediately knew what it was since we have several of the trees in our backyard. It was a little green though and I really prefer mine in a Newton! :-) Yes, it was a fig. Everyone argued good naturedly with me about it and so I came back to the room and looked up the word on the internet--it is indeed a fig! The name of it is interesting though--I thought it had a smoky flavor and the name "smokva" sounds that way.... At least, I found that interesting.

Eleanor took some pictures today, but it's after midnight and I don't have the energy to upload them right now. I'll do so in the morning and add a picture to this post at that time. Tomorrow is the last day of class, with a performance at 4PM. I should have pictures to add tomorrow too.

Random thoughts:

1. Food is served differently here from home...at least in restaurants. Food is brought to the patron who ordered it whenever it is ready....piecemeal if that is how it is ready. So, in other words, there were 7 of us at dinner tonight. Three people ordered Greek salads which were served quite quickly; then came soup for Lynda; then a while later came everyone's elses food, except for Eleanor. Her side of fries came and she munched on those, but her main course of bacon and eggs took so long that we were wondering if they had forgotten about it or not written it down (it came about the time we verbalized that thought). You are expected to eat your food as it arrives, even if everyone else in your party has to wait awhile. Very different from home.

2. A reiteration of the thought that a smile and an effort at communication go a long way. The lady in the linen shop spoke no English, but the language of commerce spoke eloquently and fluently.

That's all for tonight. I'm too tired to type any more! Ciao!

Lazy, rainy day

2008-07-23T04:25:00.003-05:00

Second day of rain...and that's o.k. I looked on weather.com this morning though and it is apparently going to rain the rest of our visit here-at least the temperature is expected to rise from the 50's into the low 70's after today--I truly only brought one pair of long pants! The rain will make it extremely difficult to do laundry since it would need to dry outside if I did a real load. I think I'm going to wash out Eleanor's underwear and hang it to dry and she may have to just re-wear some of her other clothing. Honestly, she isn't wearing her other clothing much since she is in a leotard and tights all day long. Thank goodness, the flat in London advertises a washer and dryer. That will probably be the first order of business when we arrive on Saturday!

I woke up with Eleanor this morning and started myself on the path to a more normal sleep-wake schedule today, but I haven't done much today. I have straightened up a little and will do a little more to make this room a little more comfortable for the three days I have left. I'll also take a picture of the room--it's an interestingly decorated room. Just wait until you see what they did to this beautiful 8 foot door!

I spent some internet time this morning and researched prices and hours of operation for the attractions we want to see in London this year and came up with a little tours/entertainment/ground transportation budget, so I'd know where we stand at this point. I need to run it by Eleanor first and see if she wants to tweak any of the plans though. So far, we are planning to see The Tower of London, Leadenhall Market (where Diagon Alley was filmed for Harry Potter), the Victoria & Albert Museum, Parliament, the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, the Harry Potter walk, and perhaps try to attend an evensong service in Westminster and St. Paul's rather than "tour" them. Eleanor wants to see Spamalot. I found that the discount booth in Leicester Square sells tickets to that show, so rather than order online, I think we may just do that. I did some research on getting tickets to Swan Lake with the visiting Chinese National Ballet. The only really good seats are terrifically expensive though. We have to decide if cheaper nosebleed seats are worth attending in--they probably are. I'll let Eleanor make that call and then I can order online and pick up at the box office on the day of the performance. That is all I really have planned. I want to see more of London, but I don't want to plan a schedule so packed that we kill ourselves trying to do it. There is value to making a sandwich and sitting in one of their lovely parks with a good book for an hour or two also!

My plans today include laundry, television and a little knitting. I'll have to see if I can find anything in English on this TV. Lynda says there is a movie channel that shows English-language movies with Serbian subtitles. I think I'll have to check that out!.......Oh my goodness, there is more than one channel that shows US shows with Serbian subtitles, including the Hallmark channel! I have it on as background while I update this a little more.

I took a shower and the nozzle broke off from the tubing...uh oh. I managed to finish my shower, but I'm going to have to get them to come and fix it shortly. It's 1PM though and I haven't been out for any meals. I had some peanut butter crackers around 10:30 this morning and think I should probably go and eat something more nutritious. Strange thing is that I'm not really hungry. I'm going to head out though. I'll write more later this afternoon. I'm going to try and finish up today before Eleanor comes home from class. She wants to get on here and play on the internet in the evenings. I can't complain. I took her computer to DC with me and she has been without it for 2 weeks.

I went out at lunch time and had a ham/cheese pastry and some water, walked down a little ways and hit the motherlode of nirvana...a chocolate shop! It was even called "Chocolate Shop". I found some Serbian chocolates that are made here in Vjovodina (the name of the province). I bought a bunch of them to bring home...what a terrific souvenir. Amelia and Olivia should expect a little chocolate souvenir from me.

I watched a little bit of dance class this afternoon again--jazz class, followed by partnering again. It was so much fun. Partnering is dancing with a partner. It's much harder than the professional dancers make it look. Eleanor is mortified at this point. She accidentally slugged her partner a couple of times and stepped on his feet once. She is embarrassed. The rest of us were amused. She must have apologized to him fifteen times. Her teacher for partnering, Boris, told her not to worry about it--the partner was a "big Serbian guy" and he could take it. It gets better each time though. It is a learning curve.

The rain finally cleared up around 2PM and it is at least not drizzling on us, even if it wasn't sunny. It wasn't as cold today either. I'm not sure of the final temperature, but I was o.k. in capris and a sweatshirt walking around.

Random thoughts and incidents today:

1. High point--finding the chocolate shop--the man there spoke absolutely NO English--but I managed to make him understand that I was looking for dark chocolate. I paid cash. In Europe, the credit cards have something called the "chip and pin" system which is different from our credit cards. I took Lynda back to the shop and he couldn't figure out how to make our debit cards work--so over to the "Bankomat" (ATM) I went so I could buy my souvenirs. This was on trip 2 after I tried what I bought on trip 1! Debbie, Stevan's wife (Stevan and Debbie own the dance studio we take lessons at) and her grandson Mikel went back with me so she could buy some chocolates for her nieces here that they are going to see tonight. The shop owner and I are old friends by this time and I have brought him lots of business. I almost managed not to buy anything the third trip, but I bought Mikel a sucker (Mikel is 3).

2. While I was walking to meet up with everyone after the first trip to the chocolate shop today, a woman stopped me on the street and started talking to me. I thought she was looking for directions, so I stopped her and told her Engleska only. She switched to English, while apologizing for her poor English. She then proceeded, in flawless English, to try a con on me (while I tried to subtly make sure my purse was zipped shut!). When she hit the part of her spiel about "a woman will give you secrets of dark magic", I shut her off and told her that I didn't want to discuss dark magic and I walked away. That was surreal. I guess she was a Gypsy. My only experience with the Gypsies, or Roma, last year was that they stand (or sit) around and beg on the streets, sometimes sending their children. This lady was a little more direct on her con--I managed to escape with all my faculties and my money intact. Who knows, maybe she cursed me as I left though!

3. I also braved the post office today. This was a good one. The first time I went in, I stood in a line for a moment and then asked the woman in front of me if she spoke English (she did). She directed me to a window on the side for stamps. When I got to the window, I showed my postcards to a man there and indicated that I needed to post them. He got up to go and get what I needed when a woman stopped him and said she'd handle it. She then told me I had to go out the door and to the right. O.K. Out the door and to the right was a glass wall--no place to buy stamps. Every place other than where the lady and man were was a long line so I went away. After dance class, I decided to try again. I went to one of the lines and stood there for a little while. I finally found someone who spoke English and asked where I would purchase stamps. He directed me to the window from earlier. This is good now..... The same woman was there this time. I told her I needed to mail my postcards and she took care of me. ?????? It was an interesting lesson in bureaucracy I guess. Maybe I didn't look assured the first time or something.

4. I found out that butane is only $4/gallon, while petrol/gasoline is $9/gallon. I would probably convert my car to lighter fluid in that instance too. :-) The air quality here is awful though--there is a horrible exhaust from the fuel in the extremely old cars (many of which are Yugos). It makes me think Europe should stop fussing at the US on emissions standards!

Eleanor is bugging me to get off here and let her on, so I'll finish up and head off. The picture I've included is from today. The people in the picture are: Front--Eleanor and Allie Gilbert; Back--Igor and Vivian (Igor just got a contract to dance with the National Ballet of Serbia), Boris (the teacher) in the center, Jennifer and Boyen (he's Eleanor's partner that she accidentally smacked-notice how far away from Eleanor he is in the picture) :-)

Day 3 in Serbia

2008-07-22T16:16:00.003-05:00

Today dawned gray and rainy, but that was o.k. Eleanor was up and ready for dance on time. I went back to sleep until about 11:30. I think I need this time with some extra rest and so I feel absolutely no guilt.

Lynda, Amanda and I went to the center square and found a bread and pastry shop where we each had a brunch/lunch and then made our way toward the dance studio to check on the girls. I met the modern dance teacher. She is really nice. Lynda told me that her husband is a film maker and she met him in New York while dancing there. He is Serbian as well and they decided to return home. Their piece is "interesting"...as all modern pieces seem to be....to me at least.

While the girls were dancing, Lynda and I went to find the "Kineska" (Chinese) shops in search of an inexpensive umbrella. It rained all day, by the way. I had found these shops last year as an inexpensive alternative to "mall" prices. It should be no surprise to anyone to know that the Chinese will probably eventually own the world. They already make everything in it from what I can tell...even here. She did find an umbrella and I bought Will a souvenir tape measure--all metric. It's pretty sturdy too. He should be able to actually use it.

After dance, the girls headed back and Eleanor promptly hopped on the internet. Lynda, Amanda and I meandered back more slowly. Lynda wanted to look in a souvenir shop for something for Caleb, her son, and so we wandered into a little alleyway that had a shop advertising "suvenirs". Across the alleyway from the souvenir shop was a sewing shop. I wandered in there and had my most charming encounter so far. I browsed around, looking at the ribbons, buttons and embroidery thread and then found the back room with the yarn. The shop owner knew absolutely NO English and I know almost no Serbian, but we communicated beautifully. I asked her if she had knitting needles. It is amazing what a smile and a little pantomime can do to increase understanding. She led me to the knitting needles and I selected a pair and then wandered back to find the yarn I wanted. While she was going back to find the prices to place on the hand-written sales ticket, I looked around some more and found the circular knitting needles, which I prefer. I told her to wait and exchanged them. Something obviously clicked with her when I made that preferential choice. She asked me if I was the knitter; I said yes; and a world of understanding flowed between us. It was lovely! Those are the kind of moments that I will always remember--I still remember sitting in the hallway last summer, knitting, and having one of the ladies there stop to comment and then show me her knit-work. It was also a wonderful exchange!

We went to dinner as a large group tonight--Me, Lynda, Amanda and all 4 girls who are in the group from the US. The girls chose an Italian restaurant which was quite good, but also quite smoky. We have managed to avoid the smoke by eating inside up to this point since the weather has been lovely and most people have chosen to eat outside at the tables under the umbrellas and the open sky. Since it was still rainy and quite cool, people moved indoors today. I feared that and would have been willing to eat outside myself (to avoid the smoke), but I was the only one who felt that way. I had to take a shower after we returned home because the smoke was in my hair and quite strong.

Eleanor finally gave up the computer to me just a short while ago and is anxiously awaiting my finishing up and stopping the pecking on the keyboard. I told her she would have to be patient with me--as it is, she turned out the lights on me. I hate to tell her, but I'll have to turn on the bathroom light in just a bit. She said I snored and woke her several times last night, so I guess I'll attempt the CPAP machine again tonight. I haven't been very successful with acclimating to the darn thing on this trip and don't know whether I will be able to do so now either, but I'll try for her sake. I still have to finish getting it set up though and that will definitely need a light! Actually, I don't know that I can make the darn thing work. The plug is at the foot of my bed and I would have to lay the machine on the bed to try it. I don't think that is a very safe thing to do, honestly.....

Today's revelations:

1. A smile and an honest effort at communication is all you need to get by in the world.

2. There is much more English spoken in Serbia this year compared to last year; not sure what that implies or the reasons why

3. The 106 temperatures of last year apparently really were an anomaly; today was half of that (although I think this temperature is an anomaly too).

4. This is still very much a nation of smokers.

5. The girls commented that they had seen no black people here. That doesn't surprise me, based on location, but it did them.

6. Staying up late and dancing all day will eventually even take its toll on my 14yo daughter--she is asleep and breathing hard (almost snoring) herself already--it's been about 10 minutes since she turned off the light!

P.S. I'll add a picture in the morning. I downloaded the pictures on Eleanor's computer log-in last night and I can't seem to access them from my login at the moment. I will add one in the morning by logging in as Eleanor! Changed my mind--the computer did one of those weird reboot things that it does and I wasn't finished checking email, so I just logged back in as her. I'll post a picture now!

I think I'm going to open the window again too...even though we are on a very busy street and it sometimes gets noisy. Amazingly, considering how cool it is outside, the room has really gotten stuffy since we closed the window an hour ago.

Wow, what a difference a year makes!

2008-07-21T15:56:00.004-05:00

Average temperature over 100 a year ago....it was 73 degrees F today! I'm sitting here with the windows open and no need for A/C at all...typical. When I need it, it isn't available; when I don't, it's here!

We were up pretty late last night, but Eleanor didn't have dance class until 10:30 in the morning, so I woke her around 9AM to shower and get ready. When she left, I laid around and eventually went back to sleep. It was a nice lazy morning. I got up around 11:30 or so. Lynda and Eleanor came and got me around 1PM when ballet class ended for the morning to take me to join the others for lunch. It was nice and I spent the afternoon watching their partnering class. They learned variations from Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty and practiced dancing pas de deux with some local boys who also dance--Eleanor says they are all straight. :) They did a lot of turns and even some lifts. It was really fun for them and for those of us watching class as well. I didn't have a camera with me though, so no pictures at this point!

Afterward, Eleanor and Allie wanted to go shopping, so I gave her some dinars and she and Allie went shopping. She came home with a cute top, a dress, a belt and a necklace for approximately $40US. Good shopping.

The adults went to Stevan's nephew's house for some home-made baklava (which was unbelievably good) and some pear schnapps (which was pretty potent--I really could only handle a swallow or two). We had a good time visiting and catching up together. Then we came home and I caught up with the family at home via skype. I love that program. We can not only talk for free via an internet connection, but we can see each other too (via webcam).

For dinner, Eleanor introduced me to "Serbian Chinese" food which she finds far superior to "American Chinese" food. ???? We stopped after dinner for ice cream. I can't believe I let myself get past last night without having some! Tonight's flavors for me were chocolate and cherry. Ran by the local convenience store and picked up some Blue Fanta which we fell in love with last year and returned to the dorm/hotel...just ahead of a sudden sky-opening downpour of rain. Eleanor and Allie read some fanfiction on the internet for awhile and we then gathered in Lynda and Allie's room to play cards. I lost!

I talked with Will again on Skype and am typing at 1:30AM. I think I need to get completely acclimated to this time zone...you think? We had the windows wide open and it felt lovely, but the street that this hostel is on is a very busy one and everyone around us also had their windows open and the noise was bothersome, so we again have on the A/C. Hard to believe, but I find it a little cold.

Random thoughts so far:

1. Stevan's nephew, Mickey, has a car that runs on butane. Isn't that lighter fluid?

2. They still drive in ways that will make your hair stand on end over here. The streets are really narrow and they drive little bitty cars at break-neck speeds. Someone's parked too far into the road...no problem, just drive up on the sidewalk. My Durango would be in some serious trouble over here. I don't think we would get very far at all with its size....plus fuel costs....are you ready....approximately $9 per gallon. And we think prices are bad in the US.

3. Novi Sad is still the city of shoe stores. I might have to go and try some on before I leave on Saturday. I'm really enjoying watching Eleanor get excited about the clothing here. She really isn't a shopper, so seeing her enjoy trying some things on and buy a couple of new things for school is fun.

4. They don't appear to have shower heads here. They have spray nozzles that basically require you to get wet, turn it off, soap up, get wet again. I noticed that at the dorm last year and in our tiny bathroom here. When we were at Mickey and Zlata's house, I used the restroom and noticed that they have the same setup. I'm not sure exactly what's up with that. It is probably more economical and environmentally friendly, but I KNOW that I will really appreciate taking a shower at home when I return.

5. No one has clothes dryers either. They all hang their laundry outside to dry. Contrary to what was advertised, the hostel does not have laundry facilities. I asked one of the young men who works here for some direction though and I now have an address of a place where they will do your laundry for you for a fee. I'm going to go tomorrow and try and find it and get Eleanor's laundry done. If last year was any indication, it will be reasonable in cost, if not in convenience.

6. The picture I'm including is one of the many pictures Eleanor took of local graffiti. Much of the graffiti here is sad phrases spray-painted across walls by young people. She found some much more elaborate and detailed graffiti when they went to the Fortress apparently. I'm also going to include a picture of Allie and Eleanor last night at dinner.

Greetings from Europe 2008

2008-07-20T17:36:00.004-05:00

I have had a busy summer so far and it hasn't slowed down yet. I spent one week in June in Bowling Green, KY, training to teach AP Government. I went home for a week and then headed to Washington, DC for a two week seminar on separation of powers (Pres/Congress) which was terrific. Yesterday morning, I boarded a plane for London and arrived around bedtime. I am now a believer in daytime flights to Europe to cut jet lag. It probably helped that I had a short night's sleep on Friday night (bed around 9:30PM and up at 2AM to shower and take the shuttle to BWI for a 6AM flight). I flew all day, arriving at 9:00PM London time. Got on skype and talked with Will and the girls (and Popo) and then headed to bed around midnight London time. I got a full 8 hours sleep and woke up quite refreshed, ate a hearty breakfast and headed back to Heathrow for my flight to Serbia (which sat at the gate for an hour and then another 20 minutes on the taxi way--it's amazing we were only about half an hour late arriving in Belgrade).

I got to Novi Sad around 7:30PM local time. Eleanor and the group went to the beach this afternoon and weren't back when I arrived, but Stevan's nephew called and checked on them and she hurried back...unfortunately the cell phone call had been cut off and I didn't know she was headed back, so I went out to the town square to get some dinars (money) and some food. I came back and she was waiting for me, not having eaten yet. Apparently they have been keeping a pretty late schedule. I went back out with Eleanor, Allie, her mother Lynda and Amanda for dinner. I had a dessert crepe since I had already had dinner. It's 12:42AM on Monday now and I still feel great....no jet lag at this point at all. I think I will take daytime flights from the US to Europe from now on!

I'm not sure what's in store tomorrow. Eleanor will have dance all day. I may search out a laundromat. I came with a suitcase full of clean clothes and can make it to London on Saturday (where there is a washer/dryer in our apartment), but I think she is about to run out of clean clothes. She washed leotards and tights out in the sink today....don't want to do that with jeans!

The weather is much more pleasant this year.....those who read my posts last year know that it was 106F here last year with no A/C, etc. We are staying somewhere different this year. There is A/C and Wifi....woohoo! Tomorrow's temp is supposed to be 73 degrees though, so I probably won't really need the A/C at all during the day tomorrow. Electricity is really expensive here, so I only plan to use the A/C when I need it--like tonight--it was hot today and is still 78 degrees after midnight (not really hot, but stuffy). The only drawback I see so far is that this place isn't a non-smoking facility. There is a slight smoke odor in the furniture in our room. I think I'll be o.k. though. Eleanor has been keeping the windows open to dissipate any of it and the A/C should also help. I have my inhaler if I need it!

Gonna run to bed now. This isn't very exciting yet. I'll try to spice it up when I'm more alert. Good night!

P.S. The picture was taken up at the Petrovaradin Fortress on Saturday. The girls from the US and the girls from Serbia all went on the excursion. I don't know who everyone in this picture is...but Eleanor is 4th from the left in the little blue jacket.

Cheerleader in the family!

2008-04-26T14:42:00.002-05:00

I guess I should take a picture of her so I could post it, but Amelia made cheerleader for her middle school yesterday. She is over the moon excited. This has long been a goal of hers and so we are happy that she made the squad.

It's been a really busy spring, which would be why I haven't updated in such a long time. My department chair announced her retirement in March and I decided to apply to teach the AP Government. I found out on my birthday that I was chosen, so there's some more work for me! I'm happy, but also a bit scared--I now have a very intimidating outside control and judge on my quality of delivery. I will go for training for a week in June.

I applied for an NEH funded workshop this summer as well and found out at the end of March that I was chosen for that. I am very pumped up about this. They could only choose 15 teachers in the whole nation, so I feel especially honored to be one of the few chosen. It is a 2 week workshop in Washington, D.C. on the war powers and separation of powers (Congress and President).

We definitely decided to go to Serbia for the ballet intensive again. Eleanor will leave with her group on July 13. I will be in DC at that time and will fly out on the 19th to London, then overnight in London and on to Serbia on the 20th. We are going to stay until Saturday, the 26th and then fly back to London to stay for a week. I have rented us a studio flat in Kensington for the week and we are both very excited and happy about our choices even though we had originally thought we would spend at least a few days in Munich too. Eleanor wants to see Spamalot, I want to see something else too. We think we will have a terrific time!

We have finally found a plumber to take care of fixing the two showers that were leaking in our house too--we haven't used either one for almost 2 years now--been relying on the one in Eleanor's room. I am here waiting for them to finish for the afternoon and then will go and pick up the children from ballet rehearsal. We plan to see friends dance in Swan Lake tonight from their old studio; tomorrow we will go and see Grease at the high school. Busy weekend...

Oh, and Olivia consented to a haircut finally. She was looking really straggly. The hairdresser I use couldn't see her until next Friday and she didn't want to wait so we went to Head Start. She browsed through the hair cut books and found something she liked. They were able to make her look much neater and fuller--her hair is so fine and thin. She looks really cute.

I'm going to run now. I'll try to update more frequently!

And Then There Were Two

2008-02-27T21:50:00.006-06:00

We've had a rough week. The stray that had puppies in our yard had to be euthanized on Monday. Over a 48 hour period last weekend, 4 of the puppies died from distemper. We managed to save 2 of them. We took one to the vet on Sunday because it was showing NO signs of disease and left it there to kennel after getting shots. We found out that the puppies had the mange at that time too. On Monday, Will took the mother and the remaining puppy to the vet and they gave us the advice to have the mother euthanized, but they felt they could save the other puppy. We left them there to kennel until tonight. The brown one pictured above has an eye infection in one eye due to the distemper, but hopefully the ointment they sent home with us will help prevent blindness for that dog. That is the one that follows Amelia everywhere, at her heels, so she really loves that one.

Will sanitized the areas where they had been hanging out and the dog house. We brought them home this evening and have tried to introduce them to the dog house as their new home, but so far they are just looking for their mother and exploring. We finally clamped a towel firmly, in multiple places, over the opening of the dog house to try and keep them inside. It is very cold tonight and they need to stay in the shelter we have provided--I'm too allergic to bring them inside and they aren't house-trained either. It is supposed to start warming up tomorrow so it is only tonight that we are worried about temperature. We ordered a small fence that can be a puppy or a baby gate system with rush shipping, but they didn't ship until today unfortunately and so it won't be here until tomorrow. They have to be contained/quarantined from our pets for a month so that the mange doesn't spread. We also want to control where they go and hopefully train them to stay in that area. Amelia has instructions on their antibiotics and eye ointment to give them for the next week or so and we have to take them to the vet once a week for the next month to be "dipped." They'll get boosters on the distemper and the mange in 2 weeks.

We told Amelia she could keep one of them but would have to find a home for the other one. Hopefully that will be easier now that we have some confirmation from the vet that they are a mixed breed, part Shar Pei and part Pit.

Next morning update:
They really were very cute at bedtime. They didn't want to go into the dog house, at least not while "blonde girl" a/k/a Amelia was out there as a potential playmate. I had her run inside and get a t-shirt that she had worn recently so they would be able to smell her. Will clipped the towel closed over the door and we ignored the few "whines" that emitted for a short while. This morning when we opened up to give them their antibiotics and let them out to go to the bathroom, they were sleeping near the opening, on each other, and each of them touching that t-shirt which they were also laying on. That was pretty sweet. We put out some food and water for them and headed to school. As we left, they were growling over having to share the food bowl again--don't think they had to do that at the vet's office--but happily chomping down and ready for a day of play.

Monthly Check-In

2008-02-20T11:29:00.002-06:00

Checking in for February.... :-) This has been a rough month for little quick illnesses--I should count my blessings. Even though I've had to take a few days off with sick kids, none has had anything serious so far. Considering the way flu and other viruses are running through the community, that is definitely a blessing. I'm home today with Olivia--we should both be back at school tomorrow. She had to be fever free for 24 hours so we took today off to finish that up. She has been productive this morning working on her author project for school which is due on Friday. She missed 2 days in class to work on components of it so I got permission for her to work on it at home so she won't be so far behind. She has just about finished her game cards for the board game that she is designing and then needs to write up the rules. She has been working on the game board at school so she can finish that up tomorrow. She also has to make some kind of cube--I know where a template is online so I may print that out for her today. She also has to do an acrostic poem--that needs to be worked on today too. Otherwise, she will never finish.

I have updated my website and it is looking decent. I think I'm going to eat a little lunch in a minute and then go and take a shower. There is lots of laundry to fold so I should get on that.

This past weekend, the Girl Scout troop went on a retreat. We rented a cabin in Chattanooga and spent 3 nights there working on bonding, fellowship and fleshing out our Silver Award project. We got most of the Cadette GS Challenge finished--they couldn't do the service component and will have to arrange that on their own. They also looked through the book and finished picking out IPs to work on related to the project and also 5 career exploration activities to do as the alternative to the Dreams to Reality award. Many of them also did some of those career exploration activities. We also "saw Rock City"--it was fun.

Sunday update

2008-01-20T19:45:00.000-06:00

Well, I didn't seem to accomplish a whole lot today. The agenda today was to take 4 old (make that ANCIENT) computers and run a disk erase program on them to shred the contents of the hard drive completely. Mission accomplished with the "What Not to Wear" marathon on TV in the background. Tomorrow we will take them up to the church, along with several boxes that we have filled with "donate-worthy" goods for the youth rummage sale which is next month. The living room is once again cleared of debris (the computer clearing was done in here) and I am in the living room ALONE on the computer and watching TV in the background. I'm waiting for the Masterpiece Theatre Jane Austen movie at 9PM. I think it's at 9--need to check the TV Guide channel in a minute to make sure it isn't at 8PM. I missed last week and wanted to see it. Since I haven't actually read any of her work, but it is of the genre I generally like, I am interested in seeing the TV adaptations.

My children have all been shooed to their rooms--Eleanor is either watching TV or working on homework--not sure which one. Amelia is definitely watching TV--why do homework early. Olivia is grounded from TV and computer so I'm not sure what she is doing. She's supposed to be cleaning, but I'll bet that isn't happening.

Olivia and I had a meltdown this afternoon. I am sick and tired of telling her to clean and being ignored. She has manipulated me for far too long and I haven't had the support of Will to really crack down on her. He is now backing me. He gave her until a week from Monday, so she effectively has tomorrow and next weekend. That Monday is his next day off and he told her if it wasn't cleaned by then, he was going in and cleaning up and decluttering and clearing out. She will no longer have any control over what goes. I was going to do it tomorrow. I hope she understands that we are united and mean it this time. On the one hand, I can't blame her for manipulating the fact that we were not united on the issue, but on the other it just royally ticks me off. I'll bide my time for 10 more days though.

I was hoping to work on my scrapbook and craft area this weekend, but that didn't happen. I'm off tomorrow, but I really need to grade papers. I gave this group of students their first test last Thursday and I'd really like to give them back on Tuesday. Only 500 ID questions to grade--yuck! My own fault though--I didn't have to put those on the test. I also need to do some planning for this week. That is incomplete.

Snow Day!!!

2008-01-19T17:26:00.000-06:00

Well, Alabama had a little snow this morning. When I say a little, I mean "a little" too. It lasted for a couple of hours and gave us a dusting. The girls had fun taking pictures and playing though. I can't believe they actually managed to make a snow ball or two, but I think they scraped snow from the cars to do it!

I am in "organize and declutter" mode this month. While I didn't make a formal "resolution" per se, I have decided that I am going to try and get one room decluttered and cleaned up each weekend. So far, so good. The first project/room was the foyer. Now, I know to many people, the foyer isn't a room. Since ours is about 16x10 though, I think it qualifies. Will actually took the tree down and put it away for me before January 11--that is a record in itself. Last year was June and the tree never got put away from the living room floor. Embarrassing but true. This year it is down and away and I feel liberated. We also put away all the tubs of Christmas ornaments that have littered my foyer for the past 14 months. I had forgotten how large my foyer was! Now, if I could just get him to hand over the key to the shed so I can put the girls bikes away there instead of in the house and we would be in business!

Last weekend, I worked on the living room. The living room has never really been a "living room" and that is my fault. I started out 15 years ago, during our renovation process, telling Will that I wanted it to be a formal parlor--no TV, no cable, etc. He took me at my word. Of course, that was before 3 children and 3 growing children at that. I have reclaimed it now. Last weekend, I organized and decluttered, except for the always large stack of books littering the top of the pump organ (need Will to work on those built-ins). Olivia and I hit an estate sale last weekend too and scored. We found a 27" TV for $95 and snapped it up. It is now in our living room, with cable run from the study next door and a VCR/DVD player that I had in the closet. We have really enjoyed our living room this week. We also ran by Bombay Furniture Company and bought 2 end tables that Amelia is using as night stands now and 2 end tables that are in the living room. I then headed to the study--two rooms in one weekend? I cleaned up most of the study, but had a couple of boxes left. In the process of clearing Will's desk, I cluttered back up a table in the living room, hoping to clear it all week. That didn't happen during the week.

I worked on it today though. The table is 98% clear--just need homes for the last couple of items. I had 2 or 3 boxes of things (manuals, warranties, filing, etc. and CDs/floppys) in the study that needed to be looked at and gone through. That is now done. There is a pile of things on Will's desk that he needs to go through tomorrow--he's working today. I'm going to finish up with what is left in a few minutes and vacuum the downstairs. Eleanor is keeping the laundry going for me and I guess I need to think about folding it soon. I may call it a day after that.

The nice thing is that my energy has apparently lit a fire under Will. He now wants to get working on finishing up projects at the house too. Yeah! Tomorrow's agenda is to clear out the closet under the stairs. Will had it plumbed for a half bath about 14 years ago and we've never put it in. I told him that was the first project I wanted him to work on. Next project will be Eleanor's closet organization. She is working on cleaning up her closet. I found the plans she drew for him to organize it and I hope he will start on that as soon as the bathroom is in. Then I will move upstairs to our bedroom and try to get him on our closet and getting it going.

So far, it's the third weekend of the year and I'm almost done with 3 rooms...hope I can keep up this pace. At that rate, maybe I'll be done by the time school gets out! :-)

Now to work on weight issues too--I found a picture of myself from 2 Easters ago and I had REALLY lost a lot of weight at that point--I looked really good. I think this may provide the impetus I need to get serious about weight loss. That, and the fact that I need to get in walking shape for Europe. I don't want another year of vacation pictures looking so fat either!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-01T13:31:00.000-06:00

As usual, I am slow to update on here. Life just seems to race by so quickly that posting updates falls to the bottom of the priority list. It is New Year's Day and Will is working a basketball game in Tuscaloosa, the weather is cold but sunny and I have just sent the girls outside to play in the sunshine with their bicycles (Olivia's received for Christmas). Eleanor just learned how to ride yesterday--that is an indictment on the parents. We never got around to teaching them to ride before now! I told Eleanor though that Europeans are such bike-riders that if we are able to return next summer, she needs to know how to ride a bike before we go. So, they are all bundled up and outside while I type away. I have to return to school tomorrow and so I am planning on getting some of my work done today so that I don't feel under the gun tomorrow and/or have to work tomorrow night getting ready for students on Thursday morning.

I also thought I'd post our Christmas letter that we "actually" sent out this year...and before Christmas too. That's amazing! The picture was taken for the Church directory this fall and we went ahead and ordered some Christmas cards made at the same time. I also wrote a quick update of our year for friends and family. So, enjoy! Actually, the scanner is working strangely and so I'll post the picture later...here's the letter though!

The Christmas Letter

Seasons Greetings to our Friends and Family

We decided to try something new this year and actually send Christmas cards, not just make them and never get them sent! Of course, as I write this, it is December 21 and the Christmas tree has just gone up and been adorned in the foyer. Every year, I try telling my children that in Germany they don’t put up a tree until Christmas Eve. They are too smart though and have figured out that it isn’t my German ancestry which makes it take us so long to decorate in our household!

Eleanor is in the 8th grade and thriving academically and socially. She was tapped into the Junior National Honor Society this year and we are very proud of her academic achievements and her hard work. She is taking a serious course load as well, with two courses which will gain high school credit-Algebra and French. She is much more seriously involved in ballet, taking between 11-12 hours of ballet per week, plus rehearsals. We have just finished the Nutcracker where she danced a pas de trio to the dance of the Mirlitons, as well as dancing in the waltz of the flowers and the dance of the snowflakes. She is hoping for a high tech Christmas morning and all A honor roll—one out of two won’t be bad!

Amelia began her middle school career this year and we couldn’t be happier with her team of teachers. They are caring and responsive and she is doing well, showing a great deal of responsibility in her school work and looking forward to trying out for the spring play—well, at least her parents are hoping she tries out for the spring play! Trying out for cheerleader is probably more likely though. She is also dancing this year, although not as many hours as her older sister. She danced in the Nutcracker as Clara again this year, with the twist that she danced a pas de deux with the prince, including a swan dive lift…oh my! She hopes for a variety of gifts beneath the tree and is currently into “Vera Bradley” and her cell phone—thank goodness for unlimited texting plans!

Olivia is Olivia. She is in the 4th grade and has decided to follow in her father’s footsteps by getting involved in the daily television production at her elementary school—Tiger TV. She has been working in mostly technical positions this fall (shades of her father), but has also gotten to be on-air talent for the weather report a few times. She is still in the enrichment program and thoroughly enjoys whatever it is they do in there! Olivia is also dancing this year, but I think it may be her last year to dance. Olivia is hoping for an “American Girl” Christmas this year after her visit to American Girl Place in Chicago this summer.

As for Will and Kellye…Will is working for ESPNU quite a lot this year. He is the new owner of a Mac Book Pro, of which he is very proud and pleased. It has helped him tremendously in being able to do his own paperwork on the road, a fact that makes Kellye quite happy! He has discovered that he really loves visiting large cities like NYC and Chicago, but wouldn’t want to shovel snow daily in the winter, so would rather limit his exposure to work visits and not a permanent arrangement. Kellye is working hard this year spinning her wheels. For Christmas, she has asked for replenishment of the Europe fund so that she and Eleanor can return to Europe this summer with the ballet company. Eleanor and Kellye’s visit to Hungary, Serbia and England last summer was so wonderful that they can’t wait to return, no matter where Stevan decides to take them.

Our wish for you—our friends and family is to have a year full of happiness and contentment, joy and blessings. May God bless you and keep you this Christmas season and through the New Year.

Update of November 9, 2007

2007-11-09T12:43:00.000-06:00

Well, we've been toodling along this past month. The book club went well. "Wicked" the book finally got good the last 60-70 pages. I even read the sequel. It was a lot of fun just discussing and exchanging opinions on literature with students in a laid-back way too. I'm game to do that again--maybe in the spring if they organize something.

I'm still giving news quiz hints on facebook. I now have about 75 friends--more than 50% of my students. Quiz scores have improved amongst those who actually use this opportunity to get some steering on what to pay attention to. Too bad they don't all use those opportunities.

I just never seem to update with any frequency. Eleanor and Olivia danced at the Southern Women's Show in October. Other than that, we've been attending lots of Nutcracker rehearsals and being sleep deprived with all the school commitments. Eleanor is on a tough, but good, team this year. They are working her hard. I know it will pay off in the end, but we give up some sleep to get it all done. Amelia is continuing to be very responsible and mature about her work assignments and her father and I are SO proud of her work effort. Olivia is Olivia. She does work occasionally, attempts to fall into "baby of the family" tears when she is caught not doing her school work, that doesn't fly, and eventually she straightens up for at least a little while. Typical Olivia.

Some of the scandal-ridden issues at school have died down now, for the most part. The first playoff game is tonight. If the kids lose, then the coach is gone (finally) and it's all over. If they win, we go another week waiting for resolution. We'll see what happens.

My students have finished almost all of the legislative simulation project. I need to finish grading bills this weekend since progress report grades are due Tuesday.

We are looking forward to a 3-day weekend this weekend in honor of Veteran's Day. We aren't planning anything that is patriotic or related to Veteran's, but I do plan to appreciate and enjoy some downtime, during which I will respect and honor the sacrifices that have given me that opportunity. Thank you Veterans!

Next up--Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Olivia is fine-tuning her Christmas list. I don't know about the other two. Their desires are either for things that are too expensive or too unreasonable at the moment. We'll see how that ends up.

Feeling better about grades now....

2007-10-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

The end of nine weeks grades were better than the progress report grades. The D/F list has only 22 of the 125 or so students rather than 41. That is a significant improvement. Hopefully they won't get complacent this nine weeks like they started out this year. I've been working much harder than they have.

The diet is not going well. I just can't seem to stay organized enough to control my eating as carefully as I need to in order to lose weight. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

I'm running a virus scan in the background on my computer right now. Our wireless keyboard died on us about 2 weeks ago and the computer has been kind of wacky ever since. I ran a scan of my laptop last night and found a trojan horse--from the replacement wireless keyboard that we couldn't even get to work! I eventually managed to get it quarantined and straightened out. The desktop had the same proces overnight and was o.k. after McAfee did its stuff, but my Blackberry has been acting really odd. It won't let me make or receive calls. I just ran a scan on it and it has the trojan on it too. I haven't figured out how to delete it from the phone yet. I uninstalled the software/drivers for the wireless keyboard and I'm running the scan again...hoping it will detect and quarantine and remove anything left over. Jeesh! I guess I should have spent more money for the higher cost/name brand set when I ran to Walmart at midnight that Sunday evening.

I think I'll go on to bed instead of waiting this scan out. I need to finish reading Wicked. I have a book club group that I'm supposed to be facilitating on Monday or Tuesday--can't remember which day--and I am supposed to have finished it for that. Need to get crackin!

Oh, and I have more than 50 "friends" on facebook now. I started posting hints on my wall for the news quizzes and they are now joining and doing better too. If I can focus them by pointing them in the right news directions, I'm there.

End of September Update

2007-09-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

I still don't update this very often, now, do I? School is school--lots of pressure this year for a variety of reasons. I have good kids, but I despair of how to help some of them excel. It is an uphill battle at this point in 4 of the 5 classes. I'll be making parent phone calls tomorrow (yes, on a Saturday--and on my cell phone since I need to accomplish it and the only time I have is while sitting at Nutcracker rehearsals waiting for my daughters). Hopefully, some of these kids will wake up and salvage their grades pronto!

Eleanor was tapped into National Junior Honor Society this week. I teared up but valiantly didn't actually proceed to tears of pride (she's in the middle here with her best friends on either side of her). She then learned a hard lesson about scholastics though. The next night, she had to finish a project that she had procrastinated on and was up until 1:15AM finishing it. It looked good, but holy moly. I made her go to school the next day and when I picked her up, she wanted to go home, do her homework and go to bed. I told her no. She had to go to dance. She finished homework before ballet and then decided that ballet raises her endorphins and that was a good thing. She turned in much earlier that night and felt better today.

Eleanor learned a new classical variation tonight. She is performing at a trade show next weekend for her ballet studio and she didn't like the one that she learned last winter. Stevan taught her a variation from Cinderella tonight and she did really well learning it for the first time. He is confident she will master it by next weekend, so that is what matters. She is motivated to do so.

I joined facebook tonight. It was neat seeing some of my former students on there...two have even consented to add me as a friend. :-) That's encouraging!

I've been on Weight Watchers for about a week and a half now. Tonight was not a good night. I was doing well today and then temptation stepped into my mailbox at school in the form of a "Payday" candy bar. I love those things. I decided that I would sacrifice the points from my weekly "extra" ones that I've been trying hard not to use. Of course, that was late in the day and made me not want dinner on time. I've been snacking ever since, albeit on lower calorie and somewhat healthier things, but still too much. The only bright side is that I have far exceeded my water goal for the day. I think I'm on glass 12 at this point. I may float away soon! I've lost about 4.5 lbs. I wish it were a higher number, but I'll just keep reminding myself that it didn't come back overnight, even though it seems like it, and so it won't leave overnight either. Pity--that would be truly awesome if it would!

Tomorrow will be busy. Amelia is spending the night tonight with a friend and that throws a small kink in my daily schedule, but not enough to deny her the outing. Eleanor has dance from 11-1 and then rehearsal until 3PM. Olivia has a birthday party for a girl in her ballet class from 12:30-2:30 and then rehearsal from 3:30-5:00. Luckily, they will bring her to rehearsal since the birthday girl also has rehearsal. I need to pick up Amelia somewhere in the 1PM range, I guess. I was hoping to get a few chores done at home too, but it isn't looking very likely.

I guess I'll go back to the studio after I pick up Amelia and sit and grade papers. I have two sets of news quizzes to grade and a few make-up tests and quizzes. I also need to write the news quiz from Monday and I need to make some progress in reading "Wicked" for the teen book cafe' at school which is in about 3 weeks. It is a tough read so that needs to become a leisure reading priority as soon as I finish the no-brainer novel I've been working on--probably tomorrow night.
Maybe I can mobilize the girls to help me clean tomorrow evening...doubtful, but I can dream, can't I?

Gotta go to bed, I guess. It's midnight and the witching hour. I need sleep!

So, how do you get it all in balance?

2007-09-06T07:55:00.000-05:00

Work, parenthood, marriage, life..... ?

We are rolling along, but there is definitely some stress right now. I am trying to stay on top of increased responsibilities at work without drowning. Eleanor is taking more dance and that puts all of us at the dance studio a little longer each day. Will is having to do all of his own clerical work for his operations managing this football season and that adds stress because he isn't good at the clerical part of the job! :-) Amelia is adjusting fairly well to middle school and is doing much better academically than we had thought possible, but she is a bit moody and we fear that is the beginning of something longer lasting...ahh, the joys of having all girls. Olivia is moody and stressed too. If she would get her room cleaned up and organized like I have been asking her to do for months now, her life would get simpler and more manageable because it would be easy to find things, easy to choose clothes, easy to just relax and "be". Eleanor is feeling the stress of 8th grade and the pressure of taking two courses which will gain her high school credit if she takes the next level next year. I'm thinking that is almost too much stress for her. She is already concerned about GPA for college. While I want her to care about her grades and her progress, the stress levels that she is feeling just aren't normal at the start of 8th grade in my opinion. I've tried to alleviate her stress, but since it always comes to the forefront when we are both tired late at night, I don't think I've done a very good job. Whew!

I'm going to type through a plan and maybe we can follow it (suggestions are good if anyone is reading this besides me!):

1. Supervise Olivia this weekend to get her room cleaned up and organized once and for all.
2. Help Eleanor come up with a plan for more gradual study and preparation--this is somewhat dependent on the teachers and when they assign things too.
3. Institute a daily Bible study and reflection time for all of us to center us spiritually.

Occasional update

2007-08-27T19:08:00.000-05:00

I'm not very good at updating this frequently, am I? Life is too hectic at this point for frequent updates, but every week or two is about as good as it gets here.

Amelia turned 11 last week. The only present she wanted was a cell phone. Papa and Mama bought her one. She has worn that thing out since last Wednesday evening. Her face was priceless. I'll have to upload and add the picture when I get home tonight (I'm currently typing from the dance studio). She was so excited. Her number was promptly given to several friends and she spent the next several days texting back and forth. She has sped up tremendously on the keyboard of the phone...that's a skill, isn't it? :-) She got an iTunes card from her sisters, a backpack from mom and a $100 VISA gift card from both parents. Of course, we headed to the mall directly after dinner on Wednesday night so she could spend some of it. She was looking for a cell phone case, but didn't find anything. We had less than an hour of availability at the mall too so the card didn't get used until the next day.

After school on Thursday, we went to "Wrapsody", a gift store, to look for a cell phone case, this time armed only with cash that she had left over from allowance and some birthday cash from her other grandparents. She only had about $40. She bought herself a Vera Bradley purse (more money than I will normally spend on a purse, personally) and I bought her a wallet to match. That was it until Saturday...

On Friday night, Olivia spent the night with a friend and Will was out of town. Eleanor, Amelia and I joined my Dad and Debrah for dinner at Applebee's and then headed home for the night. On Saturday, while Eleanor was in dance class, Amelia and I headed to the mall to spend that gift card. She bought some cute things...some lip glosses at Bath & Body Works, some individual clothing items at Limited Too (where we had some "Too Bucks" that could defray the cost) and then I bought her some Sperry Top-Siders which I had promised as part of her birthday present. We picked up Eleanor from class, picked up Olivia from her friend's house and then headed home to work on chores.

We did stop at 2 bookstores along the way, looking for a required reading book for Eleanor. Both were out and so was the school, so I ordered it on Amazon. I didn't want to pay for rush shipping and it won't be here until next week. Just my luck...the school ordered more copies on Friday and they arrived today, so she is expected to have it tomorrow. I haven't decided whether I am willing to pay another $8 for that, or whether she might just have to borrow a friend's copy for class and wait it out. I guess I should check the tracking online and see if it is really going to take until next Tuesday to arrive!

Olivia actually made progress on her room this weekend and she's close to getting to watch TV again and play on the computer. She's been grounded from those for 2 weeks since those are her major time eaters. I caught up laundry and worked on school things. I really hope to catch up on school things soon. It's a seemingly never ending battle to stay on top of the technology and the special needs students this semester. Whew!

We had faculty meeting this afternoon and then I worked until time for dance class. Only 1-1/2 hours to go on dance class. I think I'll go get something to eat in a minute...

End of first full week of school--whew!

2007-08-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite as tired on Friday this week as I was last week...but that is probably because we skipped dance last night and all of us went to bed before 10PM!

My classes appear to be good. I attempted to get them interested in the course this week with a lesson that ranged from the 3 Little Pigs to Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" in one day. The subject of the week was media bias and how to detect it. I think they all got enough of the topic after 5 days that I feel comfortable with the base to build from. Our first news quiz is on Monday...I need to get crackin' on writing that.

Next week we will start on the introduction to government, forms of government, methods of participation, characteristics of democracy, etc., with a little Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau thrown in for good measure...actually more than just a little good measure. We do original source document analysis on those guys.

In order to try and utilize all the technology that we got this year, I have been working on a powerpoint for this chapter for more than a week. It has pictures, text, political cartoons, mp3 recordings and video clips. Something tells me this will be an every other unit thing this semester or it might kill me. I have worked so many hours on this presentation--converting my old overhead projector notes to powerpoint, and incorporating the other activities that we do in a format that is technology friendly. Actually, considering that the course is one semester, if I manage every other unit this semester, I could do the others next semester and I'd be in wonderful shape by the summer...if just a little exhausted.

So, what technology you ask? Not new computers unfortunately. The current ones are strained to the limit with the new stuff, but we are on the cycle for new ones next year I think. We got projection systems with a large screen (all mounted--ceiling and wall), a VCR/DVD player and recorder, microphone/audio system with a microphone on a lanyard if we care to use it (I'm so loud without it, I haven't tried the microphone system), an Airliner which is a bluetooth lapboard with a mouse and pen system which will either act as a mouse for the computer across the room or can also act interactively with me using the stylus like a pen and underlining, highlighting, etc. what is projected (or writing original stuff with nothing projected for that matter), a document camera which can apparently also work as a webcam if we want to do something with that and a responsive handheld clicker system (it isn't here yet) for the students to take tests, quizzes or answer poll questions for immediate feedback. They are also getting DirectTV or something like that for our television system which is projected on the large screen but it isn't fully operational yet. It's all pretty cool. I just hope most teachers are attempting to use it fully and not using it as a large overhead projector for all their old materials.

The students I was worried about appear to be shaping up just fine. This is probably a time when it is helpful to have a "reputation" built over many years. Hopefully it will hold! LOL

This afternoon, we went and bought a new answering machine/phone system for home. The old one (about 17 years old) bit the dust yesterday. We then took Eleanor to ballet and afterward headed home for my two younger children to watch "High School Musical 2" which premieres tonight. I told Olivia to enjoy it tonight. Starting tomorrow she is grounded from the TV and the computer until her room is sparkling clean. At the moment, I think her room could get the house condemned...and I'm only exaggerating minimally. She won't be happy with this status quo, but I'm determined to hold my ground. The only alternative is that I go in with a box of trash bags and a shovel and clear it out until it is sparkling and has nothing left in there either, except perhaps books and clothes. Who knows...it may come to that. I hope not.

Amelia's birthday is this week. She will be 11 and her only request is a cell phone. Her dad said "no" in a firm manner. I'm guessing it is because he knows she will use up all of our family time minutes and cost us dearly. I hope that is the reason at least. He wouldn't discuss it, so I'm guessing. I talked with my father tonight and he asked about her birthday. I mentioned that I was struggling with a present for her because she won't give me any other ideas other than that. He called back a few minutes later and he and my stepmother want to buy Amelia a phone and put it on their account with a boatload of rollover minutes and unlimited texting which they have. I told them that I thought that would be fine if they want to do that. They said it would be an inexpensive phone and I assured them she wouldn't mind. If she does, she'll have to save up for something fancier herself. She better be grateful for this gift...it wouldn't come from us.

Of course, this still leaves me with the problem of what to buy her. We just bought a bunch of back to school clothes, so she is set on that score. We are in the midst of a room makeover and I've already got her new comforter, curtains, etc. She has an iPod Nano she got for 5th grade graduation. I'm stumped. There really aren't any "toys" that she would play with. I can't afford a computer for her. Will and I have always said "no" to ear piercing until they are older too. I'm guessing a gift card or something. Unoriginal but what 11yo wouldn't appreciate money.

This is also the last year that I will let them have a "birthday party" per se. She hasn't asked about that and I'm not volunteering anything. Her sisters and I are thinking about having a surprise party for her next weekend with just a few friends. One idea was to rent a couple of rooms at the AmeriSuites (connecting, with me and her sisters in one side and she and her friends in the other). They could order pizza, have cake and ice cream, swim in the pool, watch a movie, do girlie makeover stuff maybe or go to a movie across the street (although a DVD would be cheaper) and have breakfast the next morning and then go home. I haven't run that by her dad yet though. It would be a little under $200. A pool party at the Y would be considerably cheaper but would require a lot more planning and coordination on my part too. I need to figure this out over the weekend because actual invitations will require work if they have to be sent out. Decisions, decisions...

I think I'm going to surf the web awhile and start on the laundry and then hit the bed with a book. We have dance in the morning and then chores the rest of the day. I'm hoping to whip the house back into shape this weekend. It is downright embarrassing at the moment.

European Travel--Things I learned

2007-08-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

Pack lighter! I read it over and over at the Fodor's forums, but I didn't pay attention because I wanted to be able to cart home my souvenirs easily. I could have fit all my clothes in a 22" rollaboard, but I took the 25" suiter instead. While I appreciated having my pillow with me (left it behind when I left to make room for the souvenirs), if we were doing much train travel or carting around with the luggage, I definitely would appreciate smaller and lighter. You can probably buy an inexpensive tote bag to check on the way home if absolutely necessary. We put all our dirty clothes into a tote that we had packed in our luggage on the way home and packed the souvenirs where those clothes would be in the suitcase.

I had planned to mail souvenirs home but was told not to trust the local post office in Serbia, so I'm glad I had room for the souvenirs in my luggage. It was heavy getting on and off the train though. It was also difficult to navigate from the Tube to the hotel in London. If the tube station isn't almost in site of the hotel with a large suitcase, I would go ahead and take a cab from the tube station to the hotel.

I was smart in packing just a little over a week's worth of clothing and doing the laundry locally. I wore just about everything I packed, with the exception of perhaps one outfit.

Also, I didn't use most of what I thought was essential in a carry-on. The inflatable neck pillow was important as was the eye mask on the plane. We should have shut the window shades when we went to sleep. It never occurred to us and the sun popped up as we passed into morning with the time zone passage and once it hit my eyes, I was awake! The noise canceling headphones with light classical music playing were marvelous. Definitely want to take those again. I might carry a book or I might not on an overnight flight. I found that I didn't read it on the trip over and only minimally on the trip home. I did knit both ways though and I did listen to my iPod, but I listened equally to the plane's entertainment system on the international segment. The inflight music wasn't always available on shorter runs--that is when the iPod came in handy. The pashmina was helpful for warmth as I needed it as well. I used the airplane blanket around my legs and their pillow as a lumbar support.

I carried snacks, but would have been fine not carrying them or putting them in checked luggage. I had plenty to eat on the planes and water was plentiful.

Definitely carry your prescription medicines with you.

The purse I bought at Totes with a strap across my body and one snap and one zip compartment was perfect for almost everything. The passports fit in the zipper section and the credit cards and money/change in the snap section. My daughter carried a small purse size backpack with the umbrella, guide book and camera since I was carrying everything else. She was even able to stuff her jacket inside.

If returning to the dorm in Serbia, bring a small battery operated fan (no more than 7") in case of heat--extra batteries would be nice, but they are pretty cheap there. Buy the Eveready batteries if replenishing in Europe--the local "cheap" option were also not durable. Find an electronics store ASAP if it is hot for an electric fan! Also, if we return to Serbia, I will carry a towel of my own. I will carry some small gifts from home that I can give to the ladies that work in the dormitory. I will carry a local phrase book/dictionary to aid in communication. Carrying pictures of my family on the iPod was great as a communication/sharing device. These are good ideas if staying in other areas as part of a home-stay or hostel/dormitory experience as well.

Carry an unlocked cell phone and buy local SIMS for the cheapest option. Incoming calls are free in Europe on a cell phone. Arrange for a cheap international plan on your home phone for family to call your cell phone. Activate international Blackberry service before your trip to easily check email or take your chances with the internet cafes. Personally, I wouldn't mess with lugging around a laptop.

While I didn't read on the planes much, I did read at night in the hotel/dorm room. Research the area and see if there are English language bookstores in the area to buy books as you go and then leave behind for other travellers. If not, carry a supply that will be reasonable while you are in the areas that lack in bookstores. Don't plan to read a tremendous amount though. Touring will take up your days, leisurely meals and walks will take up your evenings (or other entertainment). Even if you are a voracious reader, you more than likely will not read at anything approaching your normal reading pace.

Take a deck of cards. Take a ballpoint pen. If you can email trip reports to family, friends or even just yourself, that will act as a journal. If not, carry a journal to write in. You will want to remember everything clearly for yourself and your grandchildren. Take your family's addresses with you on a mailing labels folded into your luggage so you can just put a sticker on a postcard and mail. That was a very good idea and helpful. It also tells you quickly if you sent someone a postcard or not. Postcards make good memories for later as well...those pictures are taken by professionals and are probably better than yours if you are just shooting it for the overall architecture or view. Don't sacrifice taking your own pictures too though. Those will trigger memories of what else was going on as you took them.

Pack the adapter and/or converter for your appliances. Take fully charged cell phone, camera, iPod, etc. to hold you until you are in a stable place to charge. If you want the freedom to charge more than one overnight, carry more than one adapter. I wish I had carried my sync cords for my cell phone and my iPod. It would have allowed me to charge them without an adapter when convenient.

I took several credit cards and more than one ATM card. I didn't end up needing more than one of each, but it gave me peace of mind in case an ATM had eaten one or a card had gotten refused. I just put them in the waist money belt or a room safe when possible. Getting money locally at the ATM is the cheapest and easiest option. All the ATM's I saw always had a "choose language" feature that included English.

While I read over and over that taking scarves to "dress up" and change your outfits was a good plan, I didn't wear a scarf more than once or twice in 3 weeks. That was probably because it was so hot. I ended up sweaty and gross in anything that was around my neck. I didn't take much jewelry and that was good, because I didn't want to wear it in the heat either.

I didn't think about my feet or hands swelling when it got really hot. I didn't wear my wedding ring for almost the entire 2 weeks in Serbia and my comfortable shoes were not as comfortable after a couple of days due to my feet swelling. The spare pair that were slightly large from having stretched through use however (leather) were perfect when my feet swelled. You don't need more than 2 pairs of shoes.

A smile goes a long way toward shared communication--it truly is universal. Gestures and simple drawings (stick figures) can go a long way toward aiding communication when you don't have a dictionary as well. A small map of the US might have been nice so that I could show people where Alabama is instead of telling them that it was the state next door to Florida--where Mickey Mouse lives! :-) Most young people speak at least some English and appreciate the opportunity to practice their skills. That is helpful for those of us who don't have a facility for languages. Everyone appreciates your attempting at least a few words in their language though. That is true here and abroad.

Ice cream is better in Europe. Some soft drinks are better in Europe and I wish they would make them here. Ask for "still" water to make sure you don't end up with mineral water. Almost every drink comes in a bottle. When in doubt in a restaurant, point to a picture. The menus are often in English, but also often have pictures that you can point to. Since the local, non-tourist, place is often the best and won't have the English, the pictures can be very helpful. If not, just take your chances and try whatever you end up with. This is an adventure, remember!

Friday, August 10, 2007

2007-08-10T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well, the 7 hour time zone difference was easy for me to readjust to...starting back to work was not! :-) I came home this afternoon and took a 4 hour nap. I'd probably still be sleeping but Eleanor woke me up. She said she was worried I'd wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. When I woke up, I wasn't feeling like that would be an issue, but she might have been correct. We went and got something to eat at Quizno's after that. I wasn't up to cooking at 8PM and I still felt dead tired, although I'm a little perkier now...unfortunately.

School went well, but I am so glad we start with a partial week. We switched class schedules this year and no longer rotate and have a class disappear from the rotation every day. I think each class period is slightly shorter, but I am seeing every class every day which is something I really wanted. I hated that everyone was always slightly off pace with one another and in order to get them together, I would often not cover quite as much in all classes trying to keep them together. Hopefully I'll get more done this way. We'll start the real curriculum work on Monday. Yesterday we worked a little on the US citizenship test (pilot version) for students to see how they would fare if they had to test in order to become a US citizen. Their homework was to read through the rules and procedures at my website last night and come in with questions, prepared for a quiz. I gave that quiz today and then went over the answers while they graded it, elaborating a little on items that I thought they would have questions about.

We'll start a unit on media bias on Monday and then move into regular curriculum from there. I need to sit down in a focused time and place and work on some real long-term lesson planning though so I can keep up with the requirements of all the IEP's I have this year which seem to require a little longer term planning from me with regard to notification of test dates, etc. That isn't how I normally function and often feel free to change things on the fly when I think of something that I want to do with the kids that goes with the flow--teachable moment and all that. This will definitely challenge my normal methods, keeping up with these mandates. I'm not sure how I'll feel about it...guess I'll see. Of course, I will still keep up with teachable moments and those flashes of genius. I think it is part of what makes me a good teacher so I'm not going to sacrifice it. I plan to take the laptop with me to dance class tomorrow and work while Eleanor has class. That is a 2 hour block that hopefully I can use to my advantage.

We missed dance class tonight because a storm came up that was pretty intense (60mph winds) and I didn't want to drive until it ended. I laid down for a 15 minute rest and ended up sleeping 4 hours, so no dance. Whoops. We were all tired though. She will probably perform better in class tomorrow than she would have tonight.

I need to pick up our American edition of HP7 which I reserved before my trip. It is slightly different from the UK version and I have all of the books in hardback, American version, so this will complete the set. Eleanor is taking French I this year too and so I feel a need to buy her a dictionary for class. She said the teacher was getting some, but I feel like she needs one at home too. I'll go to Books a Million tomorrow while we are out for dance class and take care of these items. I think Amelia has some books to return to the library too and I'll be passing the library tomorrow so I should return those. I also need to find my copy of our school's summer reading book and read it this weekend. The author is coming to speak at our school the week of August 20th and so I feel like I need to complete the homework like the kids to appreciate it. The book is "Riding the Bus with my Sister"...it's not something I would normally read, but I'll give it a whirl. I need to pay the bills this weekend too--yuck!

I think I'll take my Requip now and lay down and read for awhile before bed. It's 9:21 and I want to get to bed close to normal bedtime so I can maintain the consistent sleep schedule all week. It should help me readjust more quickly to the early wake up call! Good night.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

2007-08-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe I've been home a whole week. Today was filled again with meetings in the morning. I met Will at the mechanics at lunch time and we went to lunch together at a "meat and 3". I then got a little bit done at school, but not a tremendous amount. I had a visit from a former student and that was nice to have that little chat and "check in". They occur infrequently and it is always nice to hear how a former student is doing and to visit.

The girls are back into the ballet schedule at this point. Eleanor is taking daily...every day except Sunday. Amelia is taking twice a week and Olivia will be taking lyrical and one ballet. We grabbed Quizno's on the way home. I really need to eat healthier!

I'm doing a quick check-in here and then I'm headed to bed. That 6AM alarm seems earlier and earlier at the moment. I'm tired!

Kellye

Post-Trip Report and random ramblings

2007-08-05T09:10:00.000-05:00

We arrived home on Tuesday, July 31, about 11PM. We managed to roll into bed around midnight and slept like the dead for about 9 hours. I felt pretty good on Wednesday. I even went to work for awhile and we went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a family on Wednesday night. Again, we fell into bed and slept like the dead though. :-)

The adjustment to time zone this direction has been easier for me. However, I have noticed that I generally have an easier time gaining time than losing it. When I went to California several years ago, I had no trouble adjusting to the time on the West coast, but it took me a few days to readjust to home. I always have an easier time with the fall time change (CDST to CST) than I do with the spring time change. Good info to have...it tells me that I need to schedule in a day or two to adjust to time zones on the way to Europe, but I can come home at the last minute and be able to adjust easily without needing to rest up a couple of days when I get back.

On Thursday and Friday, I had responsibilities at school for the new school year and so I got up and leisurely got ready for an afternoon at school each day. My letter to parents is written and my room is arranged the way I want it. Now to work on items of substance for my curriculum.

This weekend was a "sales tax free" weekend on clothing, shoes and school supplies, so Friday afternoon, the girls and I headed to the mall for back to school shopping. We shopped for about 10 hours. Whew! The good news is that Eleanor is now able to fit into the junior department--wearing 00 jeans. I didn't even know they made a size that small. She is excited that she isn't stuck in the children's department any more. We shopped for shoes for Eleanor on Saturday and for a few accessories for all of the girls as well. All of the girls got cute things, with accessories, and I think we are finished with that...at least for now.

I start school tomorrow and need to spend some time today getting ready--both at school and at home. I bought myself a new desk chair at Big Lots yesterday because my personal desk chair was broken by someone. It's hard to know who with all the floating teachers and substitutes that come through my room. Hopefully this one will be a little hardier.

I need to download the CPS for Powerpoint program onto my desktop at school so that I can edit powerpoints for the first week or so. When I went up on Saturday night, it looked like they had hooked up all my new equipment, although I did not try to take anything for a test drive yet. I don't want to mess anything up! I think I'll check on that again this afternoon while Olivia is at a birthday party.

...I'll do the "at school" part tomorrow. When I was there on Saturday evening, the girls left my ID with the scan code to get in the building in my classroom. Oh well. I was able to finish my opening powerpoint/quiz for the year from home since I had my USB flash drive.

Hope to go to bed early. 6:00AM will come early, especially when I'm no longer used to it!

Pictures from our European Adventure

2007-08-05T09:08:00.000-05:00

I have uploaded our pictures to http://www.flickr.com/photos/10852435@N06. They are divided into locations--the European Adventure is in the folders labeled Scenes from Budapest, Novi Sad, Grebel Ballet workshop and London.

Europe Trip Report--Day 21

2007-08-04T23:47:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken in the airport in Amsterdam as we were leaving for the US.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

We had an early start this morning with a 4:30AM alarm. We left for the airport by cab at 5:10 for a 7:00 flight. Turned out that the 7:00 flight has been discontinued and we were instead on a 7:40 flight...wish we had known that...we could have slept a little longer. There is a long story attached to why we didn't know that. No harm done though.

We got to Amsterdam and breezed through passport control and customs and then rechecked our bags with Northwest. We had about an hour and a half to kill and so we shopped in the shops in the airport...we had to buy wooden shoes! Eleanor finally spent a little money on herself too.

The flight to the US was long! That is about all I can say. We got to Hartford about half an hour late and stood in the long passport control line after standing in the long line for the ladies room. They waved us through customs though which was good.

We stood in a really long security line in Hartford and each of us got singled out for hand inspection...go figure...we've been through 2 other countries today and it is CT that checks us by hand! Border patrol even waved us by! They did have an interesting machine we had to stand in which blew puffs of air (I'm wearing a skirt). We also went through the normal metal detector machine. I'm not sure what the puff of air machine does but it was interesting. (Update: a friend said it checks for drug residue and explosives residue--since we came from Amsterdam, I guess it makes sense they would check for the drug residue!)

We are scheduled to arrive in Birmingham at 10:30 tonight which will put us right at 24 hours of travel. We are both very weary now as we wait for our delayed connection to Atlanta. We have a couple hours in Atlanta so hopefully we will make it!

....We both napped on this connection. I also got my toe crunched. I had stretched into the aisle a little and someone stepped on my foot on their way to the restroom. It smarted for a little while.

Made it to Atlanta and I have talked with my husband, my mother in law and father in law, my dad and my daughters...it is nice not to worry about the cost of the cell connection again. The chairs at the gate here are quite comfy and have footrests as well. Quite traveller friendly...which is a nice touch for Atlanta. Anyone who has to travel through Atlanta knows what I mean by that!

I am going to go ahead and send now. They will board us in about 20 minutes for this flight.

Kellye and Eleanor

P.S. We got into Birmingham about 11PM. By the time we got to bed, it was about a 26 hour day for us...whew!

Europe Trip Report--Day 20

2007-08-04T23:44:00.000-05:00

Reading in Green Park, London. We rented time in the chairs for 2 pounds for 2 hours. We rested and Eleanor worked on her second reading of The Deathly Hallows for about an hour. It was quite pleasant--about 68 degrees and sunny.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Well, it looks like this will be our last day in Europe. The Delta waitlist still hasn't cleared so back we go tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing my husband and children again, but regret that I didn't get to tour Parliament or the Tower of London. London isn't at the top of my wish list for our next trip to Europe either...but only because of the really poor exchange rate. Maybe if the dollar ever strengthens, it will move back up that list!

We overslept a bit this morning and headed out about 8:40. We walked through St. James' Park to get to Buckingham Palace and started with a tour of the Queen's Art Gallery. This season it features Italian artists. There were some really lovely pieces. I bought postcards of some of my favorites. I liked the furniture and official gifts from other heads of state the best.

We then toured the state rooms of the Palace. Oh my! I could live there...so long as I had the staff, that is...and a sofa or two to kick back and relax on! There is also a special exhibition to celebrate the Queen's 60th wedding anniversary this November...beautiful dress and jewelry. The displayed wedding gifts were very nice.

We skipped the Royal Mews in favor of a picnic lunch in the park, with the food courtesy of Marks & Spencer. We then attempted to shop for clothes for Eleanor, but she is in that awkward phase where she has to wear kid's clothes for size, but is too mature to want to wear anything from that department. Shopping was a failure.

We did pick up our pre-ordered copies of HP7 for family and friends.

We had a rest in Green Park for about an hour and then walked back through St James' Park. We stopped to have dinner at a place across from the Treasury Building called The Red Lion. Eleanor is varying the menu a bit....tonight it is steak and fries.

I think we are going to make an early night of it tonight and pack and watch a little British TV. Our flight to Amsterdam leaves at 7AM so we will have a long day of it. We are supposed to arrive in Birmingham at 10:45 tomorrow night, so approximately 24 hours of travel when all is said and done.

...We did stay in this evening and it was a good thing because I needed to finish my listing of purchases for customs declaration when we come home and pack. I am not really sure how that whole customs thing works....do I list a total and have to make a declaration? Or, since I am within the limits for the US, do I just choose the nothing to declare line? Anyone who knows please feel free to give me some guidance!I'm going to get ready for bed now since it is almost 10PM and we need to leave for the airport at 5AM. Assuming nothing odd happens tomorrow, I guess this is my last report from Europe!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 19

2007-08-04T23:39:00.000-05:00

Picture was taken in the British Museum in one of the Egyptian rooms. Eleanor took the picture with me looking through the exhibit...kind of a neat effect.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

We have had a good day today. We got a little later start than I wanted but Eleanor needed a bit of a lie-in. The concierge never contacted us with the info on the Presbyterian Churches in the area either, so we decided not to go anywhere else. We rode the tube to Victoria station and had breakfast. Eleanor had Krispy Kreme...a taste from home.

We then changed to a bus line and went to the British Museum. That place is enormous. Highlights...Rosetta Stone, Elgin marbles, mummies, 19th century porcelain and jewelry. We didn't do the place justice. It just can't be done in 2-3 hours. Eleanor took tons of pictures. I've posted quite a few on our photo website.

We stopped for lunch at a pub across the street from the museum where once again my non-adventurous child (at least gastronomically) had a burger and fries. I had fish and chips. I'm sure I could get better fish and chips somewhere, but it worked for satisfying my desire to have some while in England.

We then went to the British Library to see the Gutenberg Bible and the Magna Carta. The original musical scores from as early as 970AD and from the Beatles were a hit (no pun intended), especially since you could listen to the music too (and not just the Beatles music). There is also a special exhibit called Sacred which highlights artifacts and texts from Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The atmosphere was hushed and reverential. I am so glad we didn't miss it, especially since we did miss Evensong at Westminster Abbey.

Rode a combination of a bus and tube lines back to the hotel to freshen up and put up our feet a bit before starting out again.

We had tickets to a dance performance at Sadlers Wells tonight. We found it this afternoon, quite by accident...which is a good thing. Thank goodness for the impulse purchase of a maps of London book before I came. It saved us more than once today!

...We are going to be late to the show! We got on a subway train that is having difficulties--as in, I'm not sure we'll make it to the next station other than crawling out of the train and walking up the tracks kind of difficulty. If we can get to the next station soon (or at all) we can switch lines though and still get to our performance.

....We managed to change lines. Eleanor is an on-time freak though and she is really stressing about this. Funny names for stations/towns too...we are now on the Piccadilly line and the last stop North is called Cockfosters...I just know there is an interesting story there somewhere! I didn't get an opportunity to ask anyone about the town. The internet might be a good source for info. I'll have to research it.

...The show was "interesting." For a dance performance, it was a little mature for both of us! It was at least loosely based on Carmen. The other influence according to the director/choreographer was "A Postman Always Rings Twice." It was much more sexual than either of us desired for a dance performance!

There was an express bus back to Victoria station outside at the end. We couldn't use our day passes on that bus, but it was a double decker bus and we sat up top and saw a part of the city we might not have seen otherwise. It also took us right back to Victoria station which is just one stop from our hotel. Eleanor took some interesting pictures too with the lights and blur of movement.

We grabbed a very late dinner at Victoria station. I had a Cornish meat pasty (thank you Walter for the suggestion); Eleanor had Burger King. ;-) A Whopper value meal is 4.99....pounds that is. Double that amount and you have the total. She ate a kids meal and it was $7.

We caught the tube back to the hotel and we are going to turn in. We have a tour of Buckingham Palace at 9:45 in the morning and we are going to walk and get some pictures and see more of London on the way. I want to leave the hotel by 8:00 so we can enjoy a leisurely walk. I think the afternoon will be shopping on Oxford and Bond streets. Eleanor wants a chic outfit from London for school. Since she really hasn't bought much of anything on this trip, other than ice cream, she has plenty to work with.

Good night!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 18

2007-08-04T23:35:00.000-05:00

Eleanor in front of the Heathrow Express. This was more expensive than some of the mass transit options from the airport, but well worth it in time and ease of commute.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

We're in London! Stevan and his nephew picked us up at 8 this morning to take us to Belgrade to catch our flight to London and then waited until we were through passport control. The flight was packed but uneventful. I sat next to a man from Ireland who was returning home with his family from a European Youth Olympics event which his 17 year old daughter had competed in. It was interesting sharing our experiences in Serbia.

We went through passport control at Heathrow and had our luggage within 30 minutes...nothing to declare. Got some money and bought tickets for the Heathrow Express. We rode the tube to Waterloo station and were going to walk to our hotel but the roads wind in such a way that we ended up jumping into a "black cab" after about 15 minutes and riding the rest of the way. It cost £3 for the cab...well worth it! Our luggage was just getting heavier and heavier with each step! Obviously we were very close though. The instructions I had received from people told me to go to the Westminster tube stop, but the map made Waterloo look closer. Now I know that Westminster was a better option...live and learn!

Our room is very nice...and such a contrast to dorm life. We are quite comfortable with our air conditioning! Of course it's only 73 outside but the air is on in our room! Eleanor is cataloguing the luxuries for me...bathrobes, toiletries, turn down service, etc. The funniest is the umbrella in the closet! There is also a complete setup to make tea of course.

We have tickets to see Wicked tonight. It is almost 5:00 PM and we are going to change clothes and go find someplace to eat before the show and look around a little.

...We ate dinner at a restaurant near the theater called "The Duke of York". I had a very traditional British dinner of a meat pastry with gravy, mashed potatoes, and green peas. Excellent flavor. Eleanor ordered a monstrous Angus burger and fries. She could only eat half of the burger.

We then headed to the theater. It is just across the street from Victoria Station. Arrived at the theater, picked up the tickets from will call with jackets on due to temperature (a nice change we thought), bought a program and some refreshments and went to find our seats. I will admit that I splurged on the tickets and picked them carefully after much research, but I won't say how much of a splurge it was. These are awesome seats!!!! I am attaching a picture of the set (if it will take). We are in the dress circle, four rows up, dead center on the aisle!

Update from intermission...Awesome show!!!!! And at intermission, they sell ice cream too! Again...better ice cream than I ever get at home. You should travel to Europe just for ice cream!

The show was terrific! We exited the theater to rain. Unfortunately, we didn't bring the umbrella and so we are a bit damp from the walk from the tube station to the hotel. That's OK though. It's been so long since we have seen rain and, besides, it's London. It's supposed to rain here, right?

We aren't completely sure what we are going to do in the morning. The concierge is researching Presbyterian churches in the area...I stumped him. He knew where the Catholic church was, but I even had to spell Presbyterian. Scotland it ain't! Hopefully he will figure it out soon and call with a location.

We are also trying to decide between the Tower of London and a street market. The Portobello Road market is on Saturday so we missed that, but the Camden Market is active on Sunday.

Monday we are going to Buckingham Palace for the Queen's summer opening while she is at Balmoral. Maybe we will flip a coin in the morning. The only certainty is that we won't have enough time to see everything we want to see. We will just have to come back!

Cheerio!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 17

2007-08-04T23:30:00.000-05:00

There was a party for the girls in the ballet program on Friday evening. Here are 5 of them, 3 from the US and 2 from Serbia. Eleanor is on the left.

Friday, July 27, 2007

This morning we got into a conversation with Svetlana, the director of the dorm, at breakfast. She and I share an interest in history and she is very knowledgeable about the area and its history. She asked if we had been in any of the churches and we said that we had only seen them from the outside. She offered to escort us to a couple of them this morning. We are just waiting on Brenda to finish getting ready....she takes a lot longer than my typical 30-40 minutes!This changes my plan for the day, but for the better. I will choose a church and a personal guided tour over a museum any day!

......What an amazing day! Svetlana spent several hours taking us around the city, gaining us access to places we would not have been able to go as tourists. One of those places was the library of the Matiska Serbska or the Order of the Serbs. This organization was formed about 200 years ago to preserve Serbian culture, learning and the arts. The library is undergoing restoration and she is not only a member of the organization, but knows the people in charge of the restoration. We had a chance meeting on the street and next thing I know we are headed into the building to look around. They were doing excellent work with superb craftsmanship. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I was not allowed.

From there we headed to the Orthodox Church. It was a modest building on the outside, but from the inside....not at all modest! There was lots of gold leafing, beautiful and ornate stained glass windows and murals and frescoes on the walls and ceiling. There were two in particular that took my interest and imagination. One was of a triangle with the all-seeing eye of God inside. The other mural was above the entrance to the Bishop's room--would be behind the altar in our churches--that mural depicted Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. I knew with certainty that it was God because the shape surrounding his head was a triangle like in the other mural, which the more typical circle indicating holiness surrounded Jesus' head. The Holy Spirit was also there as a dove ascending (or descending--I'm not really sure). On Jesus' knee rested the Bible which represented to me that the Word was eternal. It was very moving. I wish I could have taken pictures, but there were people entering almost continuously for prayer and I felt that would be disrespectful.

We then walked through the park and on to a cafe for refreshment and conversation. We talked a lot about Milosevic and how scary it was when he was in power. Her husband is a doctor and he was forcibly conscripted until they could find someone who could get him out. They then went into hiding until NATO removed Milosevic. Of course there was also great deprivation as a result of the bombing campaign and she outlined that for us as well. She has no children, at least in part because she is a pacifist and didn't feel that a country in war was the place to bring children. She then aged and lost that opportunity. I think she was at peace with that decision, but it made me sad for her.

She also took us to the "Strand" which is a public beach on the Danube. I saw entirely too many old, fat men in Speedos and older, fat women in string bikinis. I DID NOT take pictures!

After the beach outing it was time to buy some flowers for the dancers and head to the studio. Eleanor did very well. I received wonderful compliments on her progress. They said she may have gotten the most out of the experience because she was willing to try whatever they asked her to try, even if she wasn't really ready for it technically. She hopes to come back next year. We'll have to wait and see what the terms of the situation are and also look at the budget.

On the way back to the dorm, we popped into the cathedral to see it. While it is most impressive from the outside, it wasn't nearly as pretty inside as the Orthodox church. I'm glad I looked in--now I won't wonder what I missed!

After dinner, there was a party at the dorm for all the dancers. Then we packed to leave. Next stop London!

Ciao for now!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 16

2007-08-04T23:21:00.000-05:00

Picture is taken from the city center with a few more people in the square mid-day. Look at how blue that sky is...not even a cloud in sight. The birds caught my attention.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Brenda and I walked to the bus stop and took a local bus to the base of the Petrovaradin Fortress this morning. There are about 500 steps carved into the mountain side that you have to climb to get to the top but the view is well worth it when you get there. I think I have gotten some good pictures.The Fortress dates to the 18th century and they have taken some of the buildings and turned them into restaurants with tables on a large patio overlooking Novi Sad and the Danube. Unfortunately, 2 very persistent bees were interested in me. Since I didn't have any Benadryl with me and I am very allergic, we found it prudent to eat inside.

We chose the Asian restaurant. They serve foods from about 8 different Asian countries. It was very flavorful and a little spicy. There was also an Italian restaurant for their favorite food here...pizza. Also, a French restaurant...that would have been nice. This was the most I have spent for a meal in Serbia...$16 with tip. Another building up there is being renovated into a hotel. It will have a commanding view of the Danube.

In 1999, all the bridges over the Danube were destroyed by NATO when they were going after Milosevic'. The caretaker's son told us that some of the windows in our dorm were blown out during the bombing raids. He was 7 at the time. I can't imagine how scary that would have eben for him or for his parents who wanted to protect their children. They have done a nice job of rebuilding things here.

After we walked around the fortress, we took the bus back to the city. It stopped very close to the ballet school so we decided to go and watch the end of the modern class and the rehearsal for tomorrow's performance. We stopped and I bought Stevan an ice cream cone on the way back as our appetizer for dinner. He said he hadn't had any ice cream yet. We were shocked since it is a daily thing for us!

Dinner was pork again...they like pork here at the dorm. Very tasty though. They did my laundry one last time before we leave for London on Saturday. I found out the cost today although there wasn't a specific breakdown. As a group, we need to pay for internet service...which has been sporadic, and laundry...are you seated....$30. It was left to me to apportion it...which was difficult. I charged everyone $1 for internet and $5 for each of the other mother/daughter pairs who also did a couple of full loads of laundry and $1 for each of the other girls who did just a little laundry. I'm paying $10 for laundry because we did it 3 times. What a deal though...I still wish I could take them home with me.We also each have to pay a new registration fee/tax that goes to the police of $12.50 each. That wasn't in the original costs because it is new. We can pay Stevan because he is paying the dorm. He prefers US$ and I have some in my record pouch so at least I don't have to go and get any more dinars from the ATM. Eleanor and I each have about $20 of dinars at this point which will take care of lunch tomorrow for each of us and water at the airport after we pass security in Belgrade on Saturday.

I need to go and get Eleanor to get her things together in the girls' room that she was sharing so I can pack up tomorrow while she is in class. They have a performance with the Serbian girls at 5:00 tomorrow and a celebration/party here at the dorm at 8:00 tomorrow night with everyone. We won't want to pack during that and we need to leave for Belgrade and the airport at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning to catch the flight to London.I also want to try and go to the contemporary art museum here tomorrow as it is the only thing that I haven't seen that I wanted to see.

Gotta run...Ciao!

Kellye and Eleanor

PS...the pictures I'm attaching are the best from the phone...the really good ones are on the camera memory card of course.

Europe Trip Report--Day 14

2007-08-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

There are painted cows all over the town center of Novi Sad to celebrate summer. This one was my favorite. After we left, Eleanor told me that a "puzzle" cow was her favorite--I didn't get a picture of it though. She should have told me earlier!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Hot, hot, hot....again! I looked on weather.com this evening and saw that the hottest temperature anywhere in the U.S. today (at least at 1PM central time) was lower than the temperature here at 8PM. Jeesh! However, we have a storm brewing right now and it's supposed to be in the 80's the next couple of days with lows in the 60's--yeah!!!! I am SOOOO ready for that.

Brenda's little rash/blisters on her foot have spread a little. We looked up the key ingredients in Lamisil and Tinactin and went to the chemist to get her something. She was thinking it might be something fungal like an athlete's foot kind of rash. They gave further instructions to her on how to use the spray we were introduced to as well. Hopefully she will feel better quickly. I'm thinking it might be something viral--she stayed off her feet most of the day today so she didn't aggravate it. And for those of you who are worried with the communal showers, she has worn flip flops in the shower the entire time, so she isn't spreading whatever this is.

We went to lunch about 3PM and then walked around just a little, poking in shops on the way back to the dorm. We found a shop with postcards so I'll be writing some to the family tonight. I then hopped online and tried to follow the latest scandal for Hoover High. It's certainly been our summer at that school... NOT!

I also picked up a Serbian SIM card today. The European SIM that I purchased with a Lichtenstein number is supposedly .39 Euros per minute to the U.S. You can only recharge in $90 increments though and that only gives about 45 minutes which means it either has a heck of a surcharge and/or it is more than .39 Euros per minute. I went into one of the thousands of little cell phone stores here in Novi Sad (slight exaggeration) and asked her to look up the costs for their cards for calls to the U.S. It is 30 dinars per minute--about .50. It came with 200 dinars on it; I could recharge in any amount from 50-10000 dinars. I chose 600 (about $10) and when I did it, she informed me that with that amount I got an automatic doubling bonus so I now have about 1400 dinars on the card, which I calculate will give me about 45 minutes of outgoing calls (incoming are free), all for $13 or so. Much better deal! I'll have this whole system figured out by the time I go home...and the mistakes I made were after doing extensive research! Next time, buy local SIM card and email the phone number home to your family!

Eleanor and I walked out for ice cream about 8:30 tonight. The ice cream here is unbelievably good. The wind was really kicking up though and all the cafe's were struggling to put down their umbrellas before the storm took them away. We decided it would be prudent to come on home.

I think Brenda and I are going to play Scrabble or cards in a few minutes....neither of us is tired and we can't take part in our usual evening pastime of sitting in the courtyard with the storm starting.Tomorrow, I am going to get out and explore--the high is supposed to be 85--that is so much more reasonable for me. Thursday is supposed to be around the same...just in time since we leave on Saturday for London where the long term forecast says in the 70's--hip, hip, hooray! I need to explore the rest of this town while it is cooler. The heat is supposed to start creeping back on Friday. I haven't been to the museums yet or to the Fortress. We didn't go to the Fortress last week because they were still cleaning up from the EXIT music festival. I think that is completed now though so maybe we can see a little more before we leave.

That is about all for today--sorry to be so short tonight. It's been quiet and lazy here for me. Eleanor is gaining more confidence in her dancing and feels like she is improving--a thought which has been echoed to me by her teachers. Since that was the purpose of the trip, I'm happy to hear that. She is really enjoying the dance classes and the cameraderie with the other girls. I'm happy we were able to make this trip this summer for both of us. I'll write more tomorrow!

Ciao!

Kellye

By the way, it turns out that the Scrabble game had Cyrillic letters! Oh well. I'll leave it with one of the Serbian girls when we leave.

Europe Trip Report--Day 15

2007-08-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

The monastery school in Sremski Karlovci. Religion is Orthodox.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The weather is so amazingly beautiful today. It is in the 80's with a cool breeze blowing and sunshine that is pleasant rather than oppressive. Someone on this list must have been praying pretty powerfully about the weather for me...thank you! God has delivered up a gorgeous start to my final week in Europe.

That is all I'm going to say about weather any more. Will said he was tired of the weather reports! He told me about that after I typed this though so I'm not changing it! ;-)

I am sitting on a bench in the shade on the banks of the Danube writing to you. In person, the 'Blue Danube' isn't so blue--only when the sun hits it perfectly. It does make me want to waltz though. It looks blue in some of the pictures that I took though. I'l attach one today; let me know if it looks blue at all.

I went to two museums this morning. The Gallery of Foreign Art was a funny little place with a special exhibit on a Serbian opera singer. I'm not certain how that fits with foreign art?? Nothing was marked in English and I couldn't take pictures. There was an amazing porcelain fireplace/stove that I wish I could have captured on film...actually I wish I could take it home and put it in my living room. My bet is that it is Austrian--this used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire--probably late 18th century. No markings/placards however and the proprietors spoke no more English than I spoke Serbian.

The second museum was the Museum of Vojvodina. Novi Sad is the capital of the autonomous province of Vjovodina, Serbia. It encompasses the Northern half of Serbia. This museum was a history of the region from the stone age until quite recently. The largest placards explaining the history and the exhibit were only in Serbian, but the small labelling of artifacts was in Serbian and English. Of course I wish I had someone to translate the largest placards to me but at least I could identify the artifacts! The ones that I found most fascinating started in the middle ages with the religious history of the area. There were Bibles, liturgy books and prayer books from around 1200 to 1800. Beautiful illustrations and colors. The religious icons and sacramental items (and the vestments) were so ornate. I can't find the words to describe their beauty without a dictionary handy. There was also a small section with Jewish religious artifacts.

I also passed a little shop today near the Orthodox Church which sells icons and other religious items. I may need to at least poke my head in and look.I also really liked the section on applied arts or handicrafts. There were handcrafted pieces of furniture which were carved and then painted for ornamentation. The linens and traditional clothing were so richly detailed...we need a national costume in the US!

After the museums, I walked through the Duneska Park to the river. Duneska means Danube apparently. I sat there for about 30 minutes snapping pics, writing to you and just enjoying the view and the day. I walked back toward the center but took a detour and found a farmer's market and flea market. Very colorful....even well past morning.

It was about 2:00 by this time so I headed to the square to find a cafe to have lunch. I branched out to someplace new today and had fried chicken breast and fries with a fascinating dip for the fries...a yogurt/sour cream. It was good. They use sour cream in place of mayonnaise here. I've had it as the dressing on a ham sandwich and on a tuna sandwich and liked it, but then I like sour cream a lot. Note to Amelia--you need to try this with me--you'll love it!

The merchants have got to love this change in weather too. Every other day that I have been here, the square has been deserted from about 2-6 in the afternoon because of the heat. It is full of people today!

I am going to go back to the dorm and check on Brenda. At breakfast she said that her foot was not any better and she thought that she might need to brave a local doctor. I need to see how she is doing.

Brenda was not there when I got back but she returned by dinner. She decided to keep using what she has bought for one more day and hope it works. I hope so for her sake. Keep her in your prayers please.

The girls were invited to a party tonight at the local ballet teacher's home. Eleanor said it was just for the girls so I stayed home. I hope she is having a good time. The local girls were coming too.

Tomorrow I am going to the Fortress to look around. It is a centuries old military fortress (about two centuries, so plural is appropriate) and museum. There is also a modern art museum near the ballet school. I may try to get by there as well. I also need to go by the airline office and reconfirm our flight to London on Saturday. Strangely, Eleanor has a seat assignment but I don't!

The caretaker just walked through to the front door and I hear the girls. I guess I'll see how the party went. I hear happy voices so I guess it was fun.More tomorrow

...Ciao!

Europe Trip Report--Day 13

2007-08-04T22:51:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken at Fruska Gora Park on Saturday. It is of Stevan and Debbie with the American dancers on the trip. Note that Vivian has her Harry Potter bag with her! The book is in it.

Monday, July 23, 2007

I can't believe it has been almost 2 weeks. Today was another fairly lazy day. I lay in bed after breakfast until I finished Harry Potter around 2:30 this afternoon. I am satisfied with the ending...it tied up loose ends nicely and I was content with the final resolution, if not happy with it. I laughed and I cried...both happy and sad tears.

After that I showered and dressed. Brenda was in the dining hall when I went to get some water. She was calling Debbie Grebel. Brenda has had a blister and rash on her toe and the director of the school told her that she thought that she needed to go to a doctor or the hospital. While we waited for Debbie to call us back, we sat and had our afternoon coffee break with the ladies. Instead of calling, Debbie came and told us that Stevan's nephew's wife had a friend who was a nurse practitioner and they would take us to Mickey's house to let her look at it.

What followed was a delightful couple of hours. We sat in her kitchen and talked and snacked and laughed. The friend told us to use something in a pressurized spray can called 'Enbechyn'...this is from the Cyrillic since I don't have that kind of keyboard on my phone! She said it had an antibiotic in it and Brenda said it had a freezing effect. She bought some and hopes it will heal things up by the time they leave on Sunday.

We were served some homemade lemonade which was very sweet...in contrast to the bottled lemonades here which are bitter. She said it was sweetened with flowers by boiling the water, using sugar and then, when the water is merely warm, adding the flowers and letting them steep for 24 hours, straining it and adding the lemon. Mickey looked up the plant on the internet because Brenda is really into plants. The plant is called Zava which translates to 'Elder'...didn't Aunt Bee in Mayberry make Elderberry wine? If this was any indication, that is a very sweet wine. It was excellent lemonade.Of course, the best part was being invited into a local home for refreshments and conversation...not to mention some local medical advice. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience and one to be savored and remembered.

Sandra walked us home and then took the girls to buy cake and ice cream to bring back to the dorm. They also bought nail polish and are currently doing the girly thing as a group. All I can say is that they better share some cake! :-)

One more thing...Stevan told us that the local TV station came to the studio today and taped some of the class and it will air tomorrow morning at 10. Sandra said they are going to tape it, but I don't know that I can get it into a format that is 'showable' at home. They use PAL format in Europe instead of NTSC. Mickey works in television though so maybe he has the resources to convert it...I hope so!That is really all I have to report. Museums were closed today so I didn't go anywhere on my own...maybe tomorrow. It was a little cooler...just under 100. That was nice...it was nice sitting in the air conditioned kitchen this afternoon too. Debbie said that they just got the A/C on Saturday!

K and E

Europe Trip Report--Day 12

2007-08-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

Eleanor reading "Deathly Hallows" on Sunday while everyone else was swimming.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

I was awoken this morning to church bells calling everyone to mass and the sound of Stevan's voice in the hall calling with the sweet voice of an angel that he had FANS for me and Brenda!!!!!!!!

We had told him yesterday that we were going to the flea market this AM to try and find some. He was very worried about our falling prey to pickpockets and thieves and so he and his nephew went early and got them for us. Best $25 I have spent in awhile. When I leave, I will donate them to the ballet school. I think this means that my sweet daughter Eleanor has once again decided to room with mom! :-)

I had left our laundry with the ladies yesterday morning but they had indicated that they wouldn't get to it until Monday, so I washed out my undergarments in the sink last night and hung on the line to dry overnight. Spasenka came in to cook our breakfast this morning and she has already washed everything and is placing it on the line. She said the girl this afternoon will iron them and return them to me...I want to take these women home with me! Wow!!!!

I am taking Sunday as a day of rest. I took a nap after a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and homemade chocolate croissants.I think I will get my shower in a moment--just past 1PM--and then walk to the corner store for more water bottles. This heat drains me of hunger so I may skip lunch entirely...we'll see.

Eleanor decided to stay home with me this afternoon rather than go swimming with the girls. She is enjoying Harry Potter and being lazy before starting the work of classes again tomorrow. I imagine 6 hours of dance class/rehearsals in a ballet studio without A/C in this heat is draining!

...We had cold leftover pizza from yesterday's lunch for lunch today. Our laundry was waiting in the dining room when we got there. Beyond payment in money, I need to think of something nice I can do for the staff here. They really go above and beyond what I am used to in terms of service!

Karen's mother invited Eleanor to go have ice cream with her a little while ago and I seized the opportunity to read another 50 pages of HP while she was gone. She has reclaimed it now though....I really did next to nothing today but am obviously very relaxed!

Karanna, Karen's mother, said that the staff came through cleaning the bathroom and mopping the floors about 6AM...I never heard them and I had our door open for airflow. At home, I wake up with the slightest noise and never nap! This sort of forced relaxation due to the heat is probably a really good thing!

Random thoughts:Smoking--everybody does it...everywhere. Friday afternoon, I saw a lady in a sidewalk cafe give a light to a Gypsy child who couldn't have been older than Amelia. They don't think a thing of it though.

Gypsies--they beg on the streets--only women and children--sometimes very old women. The other day an old, hunchbacked woman came by the cafe where we were eating seeking money. When I refused, she pointed to my half-eaten pizza, so I wrapped it up in some napkins and gave it to her. She seemed appreciative so I felt good about that. On the other hand, I saw a child begging for coins who didn't want anything but coins. Whatever the reason, I find myself suspicious of that...one more reason why I shouldn't occupy a profession which would require patience and forebearance in that situation! The ministry is definitely not my calling; or social work either.

Bug repellent--why can't they make it smell good AND work at home? It's an American company... I'm buying a couple of extra bottles and bringing them home with me!

Ciao!

K and E

Europe Trip Report--Day 11

2007-08-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the group at the winery in Sremzski Karlovci.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Today dawned bright and steamy. I attempted to sleep in slightly, but I was awoken by 2 teenage girls who wanted to pick up their copies of HP. I gave them directions and gave Eleanor some money and told them they didn't need me to walk 2 blocks to pick up pre-reserved copies of a book in a store with staff who speak English. They got lost even with good directions! Vivian is apparently somewhat hopeless with directions. They found it though and then wondered how they got lost because it was so easy to find!Eleanor read 15 pages and then went shopping with another girl. I read 77 pages while she was gone--I'm a much faster reader. She then took it back and is past me by quite a bit now. (She and Vivian took it with them on the sightseeing excursion today...hopeless!)

We found a little Italian place for lunch and now we are waiting for Stevan to take us to the tour....On a side note, I need to ask today where I can find boxes and packing tape. If I ship our Hungarian souvenirs home, then I don't have to lug them around or include them in my customs declaration according to my guide book. I know where the post office is....now to find the right boxes to send things..probably on the slowest boat through China to keep it cheap.Our suitcases were pretty heavy on and off that train the other day. I think I'm still within the 44lb European luggage limit but I'd rather not risk the excess baggage fees on our next legs.

The tour to Sremski Karlovci was fun. The tour company bought a red double-decker bus from London to do tours in the area. On the country roads, it took up more than half the road. Cars pulled out of our way!We had a guide who told us the history of the town and the area. It spans back to the Romans. We got to peek into an Orthodox service. The church was beautiful and so different...lots of incense, chanting and iconography.We then went to a family winery. They have been in business so long that bottles of their wine were found in the wreckage of the Titanic. We got to try a little of their wines. The Merlot was fine if you like Merlot. The other wine was a (sickenly) sweet dessert wine...I didn't particularly like it. It had a cinnamony taste. I took a ton of pictures, but took them with the good camera instead of the phone so I can't send them to you.

Our last stop was in the mountains of Fruska Gora. There was a park there...it reminded me of Oak Mountain Park, but without the lake. It was at least 20 degrees cooler there with a fairly constant cool breeze. It was heavenly. My favorite picture from the park was actually of 3 little girls who were playing badminton...but with one little girl being the net because they didn't have one!

We came back, had dinner and sat in the courtyard and talked. Vivian has finished HP already...I don't want to know what happens!The girls are going swimming tomorrow afternoon. I think the grown-ups are going to the museums.

There is a car parked somewhere nearby and they are playing a lot of American music on their radio...that is kind of surreal, especially when you consider that there isn't as much English spoken here as there was in Hungary.

I'm going to attempt bed now--wish that guy would turn off his radio though!

Ciao!

K and E

Europe Trip Report--Day 10

2007-08-04T22:32:00.000-05:00

This picture is from the top of the Petrovaradin Fortress toward the city of Novi Sad

Friday, July 20, 2007

Well, I got into the computer lab tonight before they locked it up and I can type this on a real keyboard instead of painstakingly pecking it out on the Blackberry--hooray!!!!

I was lazy this morning and got up and had breakfast, but then went back to bed until 10:40--what a slug I was. I took a shower and knitted for awhile. One of the ladies who works here walked by and saw me knitting and indicated to me that she also knits. She was examining my pattern but I was on the phone with Will and didn't get to speak with her. I got on the internet later and found a Serbian-English dictionary and looked up the words to write out the pattern. It's a simple 4 row repeat--hopefully it was intelligible for her the way I wrote it out. When I took the pattern to her, she showed me a sweater vest that she knit--that is WAY out of my league! It was neat to have that attempt at conversation though in the shared commonality of the hobby. I have knitted two pairs of socks and have both with me. I'm thinking they might make a nice gift for the ladies in the kitchen that we share coffee and "conversation" with daily--they won't let me pay them for the laundry so this might be a nice payment if I can't get a price out of them--I could stuff some dinars in the socks!!!!

I then got a call from Debbie Grebel (Stevan's wife) about a change in the girl's schedule today. The character dance teacher (she was the one in the picture I sent yesterday that had her back to the camera in the front) was going out of town for the weekend and wanted to finish teaching the girls the combination they have been learning. As a result, they moved that class to the morning and the girls decided to continue through rehearsal and then be finished for the day at 3PM. That meant we wouldn't meet for lunch until that time. Brenda and I waited for them outside a little restaurant we have tried a couple of times and then decided we had missed them and sat down to eat lunch. The girls came walking along a little later. They wanted to go to a pizza place and a bakery though and went on alone. Brenda and I brought back a couple of slices of a chocolate/hazelnut torte to share with the kitchen ladies. Only Branka was working today and she is off this weekend. She shared it with us over coffee and she asked the caretaker's son to come in and translate.

He is starting an engineering high school program this fall--very smart young man (16yo) and very nice. It was very interesting to hear about how admission to high school works here (not everyone can go) and his plans. He had to make high grades and then pass a test with a high score to be admitted. He could choose up to 20 different specialized high schools to attend; he chose 10. He got his first choice. If his grades stay high, the state will pay for his schooling. If not, his parents would have to pay.

We also found out that Branka works on the weekend catering weddings. We talked with him about where we could find an electric fan (my kingdom for a fan!) and he gave us the names of a couple of stores and showed us where they would be on the map. We went to the office and talked with the secretary and she called the stores to see if they had any--wouldn't you know it, they sold out today! Too bad we didn't have that talk with him before this afternoon. Jeesh! Stevan said his nephew is going to some superstore here in the morning to try and find some for us. If he doesn't find them, we still have another alternative though. Apparently there is a big flea market/car auction, etc. place that is only open on Sunday mornings that is massive. Everyone we talked to thought they would probably have something there if you could find it. We were told which bus to take, and warned about pickpockets and thieves because of the crowds. Hopefully Mickey will find something in the morning and we can bask in a slight breeze without that experience! It would be nice to be able to close the windows occasionally--we are all eaten up by mosquitoes. The bug repellent is of limited usefulness--just like at home--although it does smell much better. Perhaps I'm not applying it as evenly as I need to...

As you all know, the Harry Potter book is being released tonight at midnight. We reserved a couple of copies at an English language bookstore here in town (for Eleanor and Vivian)--I just couldn't wait for London! The caretaker has to stay up and let us in and out though so I told the girls they would have to wait until the morning to pick them up. The store reopens at 9AM and we can go then--that will be 1AM in the US so they will get it about the same time as their friends. Too bad they couldn't get it tonight--they would be ahead of the US by enough hours to finish a good portion of it! :-) Eleanor and I may fight over who gets to read it first. Maybe I'll let her read this weekend and then I can read while she is in class on Monday. I also plan to buy a Serbian-English dictionary there in the morning to help us with those words that just aren't in the phrase book--which is lots of them!

Stevan has arranged for a tour tomorrow to take us to Szremski Karlovci, which is the oldest town in Vojvodina, the province we are in. There is a winery there and a forest area, not to mention the buildings and churches. They will take us on a double decker bus with an English speaking guide. The tour should be around 3-4 hours and costs about $15 each--that is well worth it in my opinion. The girls have been invited to go to Sandra's house on Sunday evening for crepes suzette. Stevan was thinking on something the adults could do then too. We may try to hit the museums here on Sunday afternoon--if Stevan can go with us, then it won't matter if there aren't signs in English. He can translate for us!

I think the girls may want to try and go to the beach or the public pool sometime this weekend too. I did buy Eleanor a bathing suit, so it might be nice if she uses it! Brenda is nervous about letting them go without us; Eleanor has been able to swim like a fish for about 8 years now though, so I'm not worried about that. Since it is a public beach, I'm betting there are lifeguards as well.

That is about all for today. We went out tonight and bought a Scrabble game (in English, we think) (we need something to do at night besides play cards) and some batteries for the tiny battery-operated fan that Brenda's daughter brought. We have been running through the batteries. She bought cheap locally made ones the other day and they didn't even last through one night. We found Eveready's tonight--yeah USA! We also stopped at a candy store that we pass daily and I bought some of those fruit jellies that have the hard "rind" and the sugar-coated jelly center (a treasured department store candy area treat from my childhood). I guess I need to learn how much a "kilo" is--that is how it was priced so I asked for that much--holy moly, I have a lot of candy! I hope the girls like it and want to share. Otherwise, I'll never finish it and that seems so wasteful--at least I have contributed to the local economy. After that, we stopped at the corner market for water. The ladies in there know exactly what brand we like now. It is called "Vodavoda" water-water. The store is smaller than my foyer but they have an amazing variety of goods for their size. Brenda has learned how to say "see you later" in Serbia and said that as we left--they were quite impressed! :-) It was a definite "smile" moment.

Ciao!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 9

2007-08-04T22:26:00.000-05:00

This building is the City Hall for Novi Sad. It is directly across the square from the Cathedral that is pictured in some other pictures on this blog.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

I had a very welcome and timely reminder (and also quite gentle and subtle) from a friend last night that the less pleasant aspects of my trip, a/k/a the heat, are a good reason to remember to count my blessings (like the fact that I am in Europe at all!). Thank you for that gentle reminder Barri. No more whining about the heat...enough said. I will truly appreciate my A/C when I come home though!

Brenda and I are planning to find the art museum this morning and then meet our daughters for lunch at the pizza place we found the other day. More on why they actually want to meet up with their mothers later. Update...we won't make the museum this morning. I can get ready in about 30 minutes...Brenda cannot. It is 12:07 and she still isn't ready for the day so I guess the first stop will be lunch.

We are covered in mosquito bites and I am going to the "Apoteka" (apothecary) today to find the local variation of calamine lotion or Benadryl cream. 'Off' would be a good idea too! Eleanor also needs some toe clippers. Apparently it is painful to dance 'en pointe' with unclipped toes! There is a section in the phrase book for drug store phrases. I guess I'll give that section a workout today! Yeah--I found my clippers in the deepest reaches of my toiletries bag. Eleanor will be happy to know that! Note to self: bring Chiggerex next time.

I'm starting to get a handle on the money. My 6's in school are coming in handy. There are 60 dinars to a dollar and I'm doing lots of math in my head...see Amelia, there really is a purpose to math class! ;-) You need it to calculate the cost of those cute shoes you want to buy! I bought some yesterday and actually got Eleanor's approval on the cute factor--they won my blessing on the comfort factor!

...I went to the Apoteka while Brenda was in the shower. Armed with a phrase book, I was ready to tackle the insect (inseckata) issue. The pharmacist spoke English! :-). She gave me a cream for the bites. She said it was natural and non-allergenic...made with chamomile. We can put it on 3X daily. I just tried it and the bites on my legs do look less inflamed 5 minutes later and feel a little better too--Chiggerex is far superior though. I also got insect repellant that is safe for kids. It is made in Italy--too bad I don't speak Italian so I could read all the warnings and instructions on the bottle. It is made by Johnson Wax, an American company. It probably isn't approved by the FDA which is why we get the smelly version in the US. I need to bring some home.

We are finding that lots of things here are imported from the U.S. The shoe stores (and there are lots of them in this town) are full of Skechers, Nike and Rocket Dogs. Of course, they cost at least double what they would at home and sometimes more. Too bad because they have different styles from home and I've seen some really cute ones! The shoes I bought were a brand called Liberty...I think they are British. They were "On Sale" and very European; also leather. I'll see if I can attach a picture...I know Amelia will want to give approval too! :-)

There are lots of chic clothing stores too...also having sales. Unfortunately, I appear to be quite large by European standards and I can't seem to find anything that fits! :-( Or maybe all the fat Europeans shopped early and there just isn't anything left. I think I will be skinnier when I get home between the walking and the sweating...provided I don't keep eating the Gelato! On the fashion front though, I now understand why European women don't seem to wear slips under their dresses/skirts. It's too hot! I have gone European on this issue...at least while I'm here.

We met the girls for lunch and then we browsed a few stores but didn't buy anything. We came back and checked email and surfed the web for awhile. I went into my room and ended up napping a little (siesta). Afterward it was time for the coffee hour with Spasenka and Branka. They had some sweet corn on the cob on the table that Branka had grown in her garden and boiled for us. They don't slather it in butter like we do--it was very sweet but I bet butter would be very good too!

We never made it to the museum. After dinner we are going to walk around the neighborhood the opposite direction from the town center and see if we can't find that electronics store and a fan or two. It wasn't cool enough to attempt sleep last night until after 11...we'd like to get to sleep earlier tonight.We also need to buy some more bottled "voda" or water. We are drinking it faster than we can buy it!

...No electric or battery operated fans to be found in this city...I now know to pack one if I come back--just like I did for Olivia for camp this week! We found the Kineska stores though. That is the word for Chinese. It was kind of like a dollar store. I bought some slippers, a deck of cards for the girls, some Chinese hand fans (better than nothing) for everyone and some hair clips so I can pull my hair off my face and neck. I think I spent less than $10. We then bought some bottled water and sat in the courtyard for about an hour and talked and waited for a breeze.I'm about to try to go to sleep now.

Ciao!

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 8

2007-08-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken on my phone of character class at the studio. The lady all in black is the teacher (with her hair down). Eleanor is the one looking backward in the blue leotard.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Somehow I sent yesterday's update from Will's email which is still loading on my Blackberry from a family trip last month. If that was confusing or you didn't get it as a result, let me know and I can resend.

I slept extremely well last night in my new room with my clean pajamas and the slight breeze. The only drawback to these rooms (other than the no A/C thing of course) is that they are renovating the building next door and they start pretty early. Since we have to get up ourselves though, it is a minor thing to me. I would love to see what the finished product looks like. Apparently the building is used as an arts academy.

Breakfast is at 8AM regardless of when I think I want to get up. :-) Today was omelettes cooked as we arrived to get them and very good.

I'm trying to plan my day. There are a couple of small art and history museums in Novi Sad and I might go armed with my map and try to find them this morning while it is cooler. I think I will adopt the custom of siesta this afternoon.

I'll try the museums tomorrow morning before it gets too hot....I was also considering the movies this afternoon as an escape from the heat but the first showing isn't until this evening. Maybe I'll try to sneak in and watch Eleanor dance a little today

....Brenda and I found the little mall we were looking for yesterday. There isn't much in there, but it is cooler than being outside--not US mall cool, but European cool. :-) We sat down at a little drink bar next to a kid's fun zone with inflatables and the waiter spoke enough English for Brenda to explain how to make a latte which she has been in search of. I think it's too hot for that personally, but then I'm not a coffee drinker either. They have a pretty neat system at the fun zone. For 200 dinars ($3.50) parents can drop off their kids and go shop while the staff watches their kids. I couldn't read the directions to know how the rate is charged (i.e. hourly or open ended) but it still struck me as a pretty cool system. There would probably be too much legal liability in the litigious society of the US for that to work well in an affordable way here.

I watched Eleanor's character class this afternoon (folk dancing). She doesn't have any experience with that really--I thought she did well. She is enjoying the classes. The Serbian teachers are excellent. Stevan seems to only be directing their rehearsals for the performance that they will have at the end.

Dinner was good, if unrecognizable. I think we had a meat and vegetable casserole of some kind--perhaps it was eggplant or squash. We communicated some more with the ladies in the kitchen. They appear to not want to accept payment for our laundry...I need to find out what would be appropriate and pay them anyway. We found out that Spasenka drives 2 hours each way to work...how awful...at least that is what we thought was communicated to us!

The door to the breezeway wasn't open this evening and it was quite oppressive and so I determined to figure out how to prop it open. Clutzy me broke it. I thought the hinge was similar to our spring-loaded mechanisms on the doors at school that you push just a little and it locks into place (open). Apparently not! With the help of a phrase book I managed to convey that to the caretaker and he is fixing it as I write this and Eleanor is watching the door for some of the girls who went to get a pastry. I'm not sure that I successfully conveyed the fact that I would be happy to pay for the repairs. I'm such a clutz! By the way, Eleanor is watching the door because they lock us in/out as a security precaution and he has to unlock the door for the girls to get in. There aren't any "fire doors" with automatic exit ability here like in the US either. Apparently that isn't required here.

The air is very still tonight. Stevan's nephew was going to get us a fan today but his father-in-law got sick and he couldn't go. If I knew where he was going to go, I would go myself. I think we are miserable right now because of the humidity. According to weather.com, it is 84 with over 50% humidity. That's at 10PM.

Back to the postcard fan for me (i.e., a postcard that I am using as a hand fan with my energy)!

Other random thoughts on Europe. Men wear capri length pants and carry shoulder totes across their chests here. We would think that was really odd at home but they think nothing of it here.

Crickets sound the same no matter where you are...there are lots of crickets here. There is something relaxing about them.

There are lots of churches here and all have a bell tower to strike the hour. That is also peaceful and picturesque to me. I hope I get to visit the inside of some of them.

It's after 10 here so I'm going to try and sleep through the stickiness...Ciao!

K and E

Europe Trip Report--Day 7

2007-08-04T22:13:00.000-05:00

Picture is of the Petrovaradin Fortress from across the Danube. More on the Fortress during week 2 in Novi Sad.

Tuesday, July 16, 2007

Dobar dan! That is the greeting here.Wow! I can't believe I've been gone a whole week.It is hot, hot, miserable hot here. Even at 10 in the morning it ia about 90! They said it hasn't gotten this hot here in years--just my luck!Eleanor and I arrived last the other day and we got the smallest room at the end of the little corridor with no air flow. We were told that we could be anywhere we wanted in the building once all the guests here for the music festival left, but yesterday we stayed down there because it is contained and away from any potential guests. The dorm is actually owned by the city and the director has no control over who she accepts as guests. If the city calls and tells her to take people, she has to do so. Considering the mixed gender character of the crowd here for EXIT, who were also college-age and a little older, we felt better in a dorm setting staying in a more contained area.

After last night however, Brenda (another mother) and I changed our minds and searched out the rooms with morning sun instead of afternoon and good windows for cross ventilation. There are no screens, but at this point I'm willing to take my chances with the bugs! As soon as they clean up the block of rooms we chose, we are moving into the main wing. The girls want to be together too and this adds a room so they can. I had 2 additional girls in my room last night and it just got that much hotter in that small space with extra bodies.We have also asked about the location of a store where Brenda can buy a new hair dryer and I can buy a small electric or battery operated fan! I know I'm a wuss, but give me some credit--I'm staying in a hostel at my age (which for the unenlightened is 45!).

...I probably should have titled this something like "My Kingdom for a Yugo". The car is still made here and there are lots of them here in the former Yugoslavia. For those of you who don't know, Will had a little red Yugo when he first graduated from college 20 years ago or so. Will drove it until the wheels fell off--I think I saw it yesterday with the wheels put back on! :-) It was a little more banged up too! Stevan said I could buy one for $3,000; $5,000 if I want A/C. If it weren't so cost-prohibitive to ship home, I might be tempted to get one for Will. Really--where in the US can you get a brand new car for $3-5,000?

...Well, I got lost today. I thought I had a good sense of direction...I guess not. In the process, I also learned that they sell small portable A/C units but not fans! It is 105 in the shade; real feel according to Accuweather is 107. Maybe I'll get skinny with all the sweating I am doing. ... We are sitting in the shade of the town square across from the Hotel Vojvodina and Brenda just walked across to see if they had A/C and if so how much their rooms are--it is that hot! If I thought the hostel would let me get away with putting one of those portable units in one of the rooms I think I would pay the approximately $300 for one right now! The forecast for this weekend is 111 with a real feel of 115.

On a brighter note, we had lunch in a little cafe off the main square and I had some truly excellent pizza. We are learning that you have to sit outside all the time though because they are very heavy smokers here. The smokers always seem to already have the choice spots inside and even the promise of light A/C isn't worth enduring that atmosphere for us.

There is an English language bookstore by the hostel which is advertising Harry Potter on the release date. I might have to get a copy on Saturday! Update--I went in the bookstore and they will have the English version of HP--I reserved 1 copy! I told Eleanor I get to read it first, but I bet she will get it first anyway.

We came back and struck up a "conversation" with the ladies in the kitchen. We found out that they each have 2 children--a boy and a girl each. I had pictures of my house and Will and the girls on my iPod and so I showed those to them and learned the words for daughter and son. It was a special encounter even if we didn't share language.

I got my clothes back from them then too. Oh my--I've never looked so good! They ironed them!!!!!! I don't do that--I just go around wrinkled. :-). I still don't know what it costs but since the average income here is $500 per month, it can't even come close to what the service is worth to me!

Stevan came back with the girls and had a Coke with us and did some translating. He promised to see what he could find out about a fan. I told him I didn't care what it cost! He also said he is checking into the possibility of some excursions this weekend, including the possibility of hiring a boat tour down the Danube. He'll let us know what he finds out and costs. He said local weather is forecasting the possibility of rain this weekend and cooler temps next week. His great niece said that the weathermen just lie here though. If the real temp is 38C, they say 28 so people won't just stay home from work because it is too hot! I told her our weather men were always wrong too and she said theirs were just liars! Too funny.

Sandra has taken the girls to see Harry Potter tonight. She said it is in English with Serbian subtitles. I told Eleanor to ask her if the theater is cool during the day, get directions and show times. The moms will go tomorrow during the heat of the day.Eleanor is really enjoying the freedom I am giving her. This is a small town and very safe so she is getting to go out with the group without mom and, now that we have changed rooms, she is staying with the girls instead of me. I have a room to myself and am happy too.

Well it is close to 9:30 and much cooler too. I think I'll finish and send before it gets too late and I forget. Good night.

K and E

P.S. I appreciate the email I have gotten from so many of you. I've tried to respond to all of them but may have missed some of you. If so, I apologize. I appreciate your responses so much.

Europe Trip Report--Day 6

2007-08-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

Picture is from the outside of the ballet school in Novi Sad. It is on "7 Jew Street" and is housed in the former synagogue school in Novi Sad. They apparently had a sizeable Jewish population pre-WWII, but it didn't return. The synagogue is now used by the city as a cultural arts center for music performances.

Monday, July 15, 2007

It was interesting, to say the least, sleeping on the top bunk of a bed again! The top was the only place to get at least a little airflow.We were fed a typical continental breakfast this morning of cold cuts, cheese and thick slabs of bread. Muesli and hot milk was also an option. Then the girls got ready for dance class.

Stevan's great niece Sandra came to walk the girls to the dance school. It is about 10-15 minutes away on foot. I was given a tour of the school by Sandra and then I left. Eleanor says I make her nervous when I watch her dance.The Serbian girls almost immediately brought up going to the beach. We didn't bring bathing suits so off I went to find one for Eleanor. Just like at home, by this point of the summer they are pretty much gone, but I found a couple and got them for her. I then stopped to buy some water and came back--two cold bottles of water for about $.84...I like these prices.

When I asked about laundry facilities, I was told to give them to the ladies in the kitchen and they would do my laundry for me and I just pay them afterward. I didn't ask how much, but I can't imagine it is too much. We are down to the last couple of pairs of underwear though so I guess it doesn't really matter how much it costs at this point! There are no laundromats in site, even though I did bring detergent and dryer sheets.

I am sitting in a courtyard of the dorm tapping this out in the shade listening to 4 very drunk Slovenian boys go on and on. They were here for a huge music festival that occurs in Novi Sad called EXIT. They are supposed to depart today...any time now works for me. They are disturbing the peace I seek.

I was just going to relax here the rest of the day, but it just occurred to me that Eleanor has no money to buy lunch (oversight on my part) so I guess I'll have to head toward McDonald's at lunch time--ugh! I've managed to avoid it so far. I guess I don't have to eat there though--just get some money to her!

...I am sitting on the steps of the synagogue which is next to the ballet school waiting for the girls to come out for lunch. If they are still planning on the Golden Arches, I think I'll just give her some money and head off my own direction. I don't eat there at home so I don't see a reason to do so here! (Update: She ate at McD's; I ate at a restaurant called "Teatar" or Theater--it was good and I ate there 2 or 3 times over the course of 2 weeks.)

Once the Slovenian boys said Ciao this AM, I laid down on a bench in the shade and read and relaxed. It was quite peaceful and not something I ever seem to have time for at home...that was nice. I may attempt to find the art museum this afternoon or I might not. I have 2 weeks here and the city isn't that large.

..Sorry I didn't get this out last night! The battery on my cell phone was low and I couldn't get it to charge. Turns out that my adapter works fine but the circuit was blown in our area of the building. One of the other mothers, who hadn't done her homework, tried to use her hairdryer the first day without a converter--just an adapter. Whoops!

I am charged now and will work on the next installment and post later today.

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 5

2007-08-04T21:57:00.000-05:00

Picture is of the dorm in Novi Sad

Sunday, July 15, 2007

We found our train! While waiting, we met a lady who was originally from Ukraine but now lives in Los Angeles. She was headed to Belgrade and seeking an English speaker in the crowd to ask about the train. I heard "English" and "Serbia". You know me...never met a stranger... and I struck up a conversation. She had tickets in the 2nd class car though so I couldn't continue it for 6 hours--the conversation that is!

I had purchased our tickets before we left the U.S. The train isn't very full though. I could have waited. Since I've never done the train thing, I was a little nervous about navigating the train station-- I shouldn't have been. We were at the train station more than an hour early with no A/C and over 90. I will be happy when the train car cools down. We are miserable!

We went to the supermarket last night and bought provisions for lunch. There is a dining car and I guess we could have bought a meal on board but the grocery store was very cheap. I also made sure to pay cash for dinner last night and breakfast this morning to deplete my Hungarian money so I wouldn't have to pay a fee to exchange it back. I got down to about 2600HUF which is about $12, probably enough to get a cold water bottle on the train later on and still have a little left for Olivia to show on her display for the Culture Fair at school in the winter. At the moment I have at least 1 of every coin and a couple of different bills.

...It is very peaceful on the train as we watch the countryside roll by. There aren't that many people in our car. The train frequently slows down to a crawl at the rural intersections. Having watched Hungarian drivers for the past several days, I guess I'm not surprised. I'm amazed we witnessed no accidents. There don't appear to be any speed limits or rules. One way street the opposite way...no problem...that is what the horn on the car is for, right? Will would love it! I just resolved not to try driving in Budapest! If they drive this way in Serbia, then I understand why Stevan was discouraging of my idea of renting a car one day next week and taking a day trip to Pecs', Hungary which is about 2 hours from Novi Sad but only accessible by train by returning to Budapest and then back the same basic direction and slightly East. A Yugo rents for about $20/day, but the stress factor might do me in! I guess I will ask his nephew if there is a bus or a guide we can hire. I can probably check with a tour agency in Novi Sad too...got to get out and about while Eleanor is dancing every day

....I'm back. We arrived in Novi Sad about 30 minutes late. Stevan was waiting for us with his nephew, Mickey--it just occurred to me that you might not know who Stevan is--he is Eleanor's ballet teacher and he is from Novi Sad. We are staying in the dormitory for the ballet school here. There is a huge music festival here this week--the largest in Central Europe. The city owns the building and they have rented most of the rooms to student backpackers from all over. They put us in a secluded area with only 3 rooms for tonight but tomorrow when all the concert goers leave, we will move and have the place to ourselves. I was expecting no A/C--there isn't any and there isn't much airflow in this wing but it is only slightly sticky. I am hopeful that when we move, it is either cooler or that we can at least open the windows at night.We are still having fun--even with the heat. Eleanor wants me to stop tapping so she can go to sleep, so goodnight for tonight.

K and E

P.S. I later found out that there was no A/C in the 2nd class train cars and, according to Mickey, there is no A/C in any cars if it is a Serbian train. I'm glad it was an international train then...and that I sprang for the 1st class seating. It was only $60 each for the tickets...well worth the extra expense since we were comfortable and cool.

Europe Trip Report--Day 4

2007-08-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

This picture is of the Basilica in downtown Pest.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Today was a shopping day (no museums)! We slept in and then headed out around 11 AM or so. On the weekends in the summer, they close some of the roads near the Danube to cars along the area around the Chain Bridge and have a festival with food stands, artisans' stands and music. This weekend appears to celebrate France on this side of the Danube.

We walked over to the Pest side and made our way to the Great Market hall where they have lots of stalls from Hungarian artisans and food vendors. We browsed and we bought! We then had lunch at another cafe where we could sit outside. We like being outside because (1) it is so charming and (2) we can avoid cigarette smoke! We also like to people watch. There are a lot of Americans, Japanese, Germans and French tourists. We did some clothes shopping and other shopping along Vaci ut which is a pedestrian shopping street, but Eleanor didn't see anything she liked enough to spend her money on! She didn't even want anything when it was Mom's money. I guess it's a good thing I wasn't shopping with Amelia. She would definitely buy if it were Mom's money! She did buy some sunglasses and a nesting doll.

We stopped at Gerbeaud's, which is a famous pastry and coffee shop and Eleanor got some ice cream--more properly referred to as Gelato here. It is better than our ice cream too!We then went in search of a bookstore which was in my guide book as having English language books. Eleanor brought 4 books with her and has already finished them. She bought 5 books and hopes that will hold her until we get to London and can pick up our copies of Harry Potter 7. By this time we were hot and tired, so we came back to the hotel to cool off and rest a little.

The phone rang in the room right after we arrived and it was Olivia and Will. It was nice to check in with home!I think we are going in search of dinner at the food vendors in a moment and see what kind of music they are playing outside. We may also go to the neighborhood market for snacks to take on the train tomorrow. Our time in Budapest is almost at an end. We are a little sad about it. As Eleanor said earlier today--I like this country!

We ended up eating in the hotel restaurant again tonight (which used up more forints so I didn't have to trade them back). Eleanor wasn't interested in the food stalls outside. We were in our room pretty early and apparently missed fireworks around 10PM. We heard the booms from our room and Eleanor peeked out the window and could see flashes of light, but not the fireworks themselves--I guess they were over the Danube side. We were already in our pajamas and packed to go so we didn't change.

Stay tuned for more adventures with Kellye and Eleanor. Tomorrow we tackle the international train!

K and E

Europe Trip Report--Day 3

2007-08-04T21:34:00.000-05:00

This picture is the Holocaust Memorial at the Great Synagogue in Budapest

Friday, July 13, 2007

We started this morning with a tour of Parliament . We can see the building across the Danube from our hotel, but it is even larger than it appears from that distance. The building was built in the early 20th century and has seen periods of no use (i.e., during communism). It was ornate and beautiful. The architecture was incredible. I was very impressed with the gold leafing throughout the building. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.

We then walked about 10 blocks to the Intercontinental Hotel and bought tickets to a hop on and off tour bus with a live guide who speaks English (albeit with a very strong accent). We stopped at the Great Synagogue and were once again awestruck at the beauty. In this instance we were also struck by the enormity of the death and destruction of the Jewish community here in the Holocaust. I am attaching a picture of the memorial in their courtyard which was funded by a foundation started by the actor Tony Curtis whose parents were Hungarian Jews. Each leaf on the tree bears the name of a Hungarian victim and if turned upside down, the tree would be a menorah.

The guide told us that the Jews in Hungary were not rounded up until the summer of 1944 (around D-Day) and were almost completely exterminated within a 6 week period. The synagogue here is the second largest in the world (the largest is in NYC) and was designed by a Christian architect. As a result, it resembles Christian churches in many respects with the pulpits, narthex and seating. There is gold leafing here too...just like in Parliament. There is also a cemetery on the grounds which is unusual for a Synagogue. However, they had to have mass burials during the time that the Synagogue was a holding spot in the Holocaust and would not move the bodies after that point, which I appreciate and respect. Their Torah scrolls were saved by 2 Christian women who came in and took them and buried them until after the war and returned them when a Jewish population returned to Budapest.

After that, we hopped back on the bus and rode as far as the State Opera House. Tours are only at 3 and 4 and so we stopped at a little pizza place with outdoor seating and had lunch. The pizza was excellent. It reminded me of a place we went to in Chicago last month and the pizza was just as good.

The Opera House was also breathtaking...more gold leaf and ornamentation. I wish it was the season for the opera or ballet. It would have been marvelous to attend a performance there.

After that tour we hopped back on the bus and rode it through to the end. We then walked back over the Chain Bridge to get back to our hotel and relaxed for awhile before dinner at a more "Continental" time of 9:00. We had a burger on the terrace below our room.

Tomorrow is slated to check out the shopping districts of Budapest and another church and the fine arts museum and then on to Serbia on Sunday.

More random thoughts on the differences...we have figured out that we want the bottled water with the pink tops rather than the blue ones. Still water instead of sparkling (bubbles or no bubbles). All the bottles are glass too...no plastic.

The doors in our hotel room aren't "in" the door frames, but rather mounted to them. I'm not sure how to explain that without visuals!Finally, the lights and plugs in our room only work when the key is in a slot labelled "main switch"...I guess it's another conservation thing which we aren't as good at in the U.S. :-)

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 2

2007-08-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

This picture is from the top of Castle Hill looking out over the city, taken by a kind fellow tourist.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Today was another lovely day with temperatures in the 70's and a light breeze. We grabbed a pastry for breakfast and then walked along the Danube to the Chain Bridge and the funicular, which is a sort of train up the very high hill to the former royal palace and grounds. The prime minister occupies one of the buildings and it is barricaded and guarded and very much off limits. The other buildings have been turned into national museums and we toured the National Gallery and saw some amazing pieces of art. Interestingly enough, my favorites were in the exhibition of student art work from around Hungary. There was some amazing talent in that exhibition.

We then had lunch at a little outdoor cafe on the grounds and browsed through some gift sellers in tents. From there we walked through the Castle Hill district until we came to Matyas Church and the Fisherman's Bastion. Those are the buildings we can see from our room which look like a castle. The church was breathtaking inside and the view from the Bastion was remarkable. We then came back to the hotel and relaxed until dinnertime.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant in the Hilton and I tried authentic Hungarian goulash. It was good and the service was excellent. After dinner we attended the "Budafest" program in their courtyard which was a flamenco dance show. We had never seen anything like that before and we were very impressed. Eleanor forgot her jacket though and the temperature was in the 50's when the sun went down. We huddled together under my pashmina. I would later appreciate that cold evening very much...keep reading successive days!

Our impressions of Budapest so far...everyone is so friendly and helpful. There are so many unbelievably beautiful buildings and so many of them are marred by grafitti which is such a pity. Probably the strangest thing we have encountered is the practice of having to pay to use a bathroom. It seems so odd to us because it is so different from home. On further reflection though, it makes sense. They do have to pay for the water, toilet paper, soap, and the cleaning of the facilities. Why not charge the users for the privilege.

And the drivers are so wild...I wonder what their statistics are on accidents? They also park anywhere they wish, including on the sidewalks. Crazy!

Well, I'm off to bed. It is about 11 PM and I'm beat.

Kellye and Eleanor

Europe Trip Report--Day 1

2007-08-04T12:20:00.000-05:00

My oldest daughter, Eleanor, and I have just completed our first trip abroad. I typed daily trip reports and sent them by Blackberry to a list of friends. I am recording them in my blog for more public consumption and posterity!

Photo is the view from our hotel window at the Art'otel Budapest.

Tuesday/Wednesday, July 10-11, 2007

My eventful Tuesday and Wednesday--tapped out on a Blackberry, so you know I love you!

We got to the airport on Tuesday about 3:00 for a 5:00 flight to Detroit. Eleanor almost hyperventilated when she saw the security line for the main terminal. Luckily NW doesn't operate that many flights out of Bham so we went out of the overflow terminal which is tiny...about 7 or 8 gates. We were the ONLY people in that line for a few minutes.

The first leg was easy and uneventful. Detroit's airport was very nice. We had time to go to the bathroom and buy a bottle of water. By the time we arrived at our gate, they were already boarding. We were seated 1 row behind the exit row in the 2nd section of coach. The seating config was 2-4-2 (Airbus 330) and we were in the lefthand 2. There were moms with babies flying in the center bulkhead in front of us and an older couple seated in the 4 config next to us. We got lucky. He decided he didn't want to be behind the babies and they got moved to the forward cabin. I moved over and Eleanor and I each ended up with some room to spread out.

We only got about 2-1/2 to 3 hrs sleep but managed ok. Got to Paris and on a shuttle between terminals and to the right one with no difficulty (bypassing passport control entirely the way they took us); made our connection to Budapest with plenty of time to spare and I napped for most of that segment.

We got the 1st stamp in our passports in Budapest. Took the airport minibus to our hotel and checked in. I unpacked and showered; Eleanor freshened up and off we went for a walk to find an ATM and dinner. We also found a little neighborhood market and we enjoyed seeing the similarities and differences to home. Bought a slice of Sacher Torte and some water and snacks using smiles and hand gestures. The Hungarian phrase book is still sitting on the shelf at home--whoops! The bill at the grocery store was about $5.

We went to bed early; Eleanor woke both of us for about an hour at 3AM and now I'm up at 8 something tapping this out. I'm going to get my shower and then wake her so we can start our day. I am attaching a picture I took from our hotel window after dinner last night. We are headed up to that castle to start our day at the National Gallery.

Love,

Kellye and Eleanor

P.S. I found out that the "castle" from our window wasn't a castle at all, but the Fisherman's Bastion, once a fish market. Wow! We went there too, but I wanted to clear up my misunderstanding of where I was.