Anyone for fish stew?
This weekend we attended a Croatian small-town event that centered around prizes for the best tasting fish stew. Yes, just another opportunity for more cultural learning!
As an American friend of ours explained, it is the Croatian equivalent of an American "Chili Cook-off". Except instead of chili, each contestant is trying to make the perfect fish paprikas stew (often made spicy). Everyone has to use the same type of fish, but they use their own secret, carefully guarded recipes. Some add noodles, and it's sometimes served with bread for dipping.
In the afternoon, the fish is roasted and the teams get to work. For several hours, the teams cook up their concoctions. Then the judges taste them all, and everyone attending the event gets free fish stew too! (What could be better?) Later in the evening, the results are carefully tabulated and the winners are announced. Yes, there are medals given out, and trophies too. They do not mess around. I think one guy even won a ladder as a prize.
While this is all going on, there are also a few stalls set out with vendors selling their local wares--homemade cakes and breads, olive oil, rakija (homemade liquor--brandy, I think?), and some hand-sewn or crocheted things. Of course we acted embarrassingly American and had our picture taken with some of the ladies wearing their traditional dress.
Naturally we had to try some of the soup/stew (not sure what to call it??) Actually, it was pretty good. The one we tried was nice and spicy. I was unsure how to navigate the large chunk of whole fish carcass floating in mine, so I left that alone and ate the parts I could better identify. Overall it was a fun family event. Enjoy the pictures!
Fish roasting.
A friend of ours helps serve us a portion.
Greg decides to give it a try.
Shameless tourist-type pose.
The big winner with his medal and trophy.
(almost like the Olympics!)
Happy Father's Day
Well, I know I'm a little late, but happy belated father's day to all the fathers out there!
This Father's Day I was feeling a little sad, thinking about how long it's been since I've seen my dad. Since he hasn't been able to visit us yet, we haven't seen him since our last trip to California before we moved to Croatia--and that was January 2007! Here's a picture of my dad and Emma at that time.
That's what Emma looked like last time her grandpa saw her--she has grown up so much since then. And he hasn't been able to meet Tessa yet. We're really hoping he might get to visit us this fall. It's hard to be so far away. Miss you dad!
But it's also fun to be able to celebrate Father's Day with my husband. This is Greg's 3rd Father's Day of actually being a dad. (Emma was only a month old the first time). My girls are so blessed to have such a great daddy! Here are three of the most precious people in my life!
7 Years and Counting
On Monday (June 9), Greg and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Thanks to our great friends the Albrights, we even got a rare date by ourselves, while they watched our girls. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful husband. I consider myself very lucky! Now you'll have to indulge me on a quick walk down memory lane...
November 2000--recently engaged
June 9, 2001--Our wedding
Happy to be married!
June 9, 2008--Celebrating 7 years of marriage
Random Things I Miss
Obviously the hardest thing about living overseas is missing family and friends--that goes without saying (and yet I feel I must say it). But let's be honest, there are a few other things I miss as well.
Zagreb is an amazing European city, and we are definitely not hurting for anything. But any time you move to another country, there are those little guilty pleasures that you miss from your own culture. For some reason, most of mine seem to revolve around food....why is that? Here's a random sampling of things I miss (in no particular order):
- Dr. Pepper--yes, those of you who know of my Dr. Pepper addiction may be shocked to know I have not had any in over a year!
- Starbucks--the nearest one is two countries away in Austria =(
- Plain cheerios--this one's for Emma
- Chocolate chips--I just chop up chocolate bars and make "chocolate chunk" cookies, which works fine. But it sure takes longer (have I mentioned that I'm lazy?)
- Panera Bread Co.--don't ask me why, I just miss it
- A clothes dryer--yes, you can buy a dryer here, but they're expensive and most Croatians don't have one. Therefore, most apartments or homes are not set up for one in the first place. I'm learning the joy of clothes dried on the line.
- Good mexican food--they do have a few so-called "mexican" restaurants here. Actually, the longer I'm away from home, the better these replicas taste.
- Thai food--in Seattle, you can find a delicious Thai place on practically every corner. My mouth drools just thinking of it.
- Target--Hard to explain until you're away from the States (especially if you have kids). There's just no store here like Target or Walmart where you can find virtually everything for cheap.
- Vanilla extract--Actually, I cheated on this one and had family bring some for us when they visited. =)
- Cheddar cheese--There is a version of cheddar cheese you can get at some stores here. I think it's a British type of cheddar (?), and it's white, and it does NOT quite taste the same, plus it's expensive. When I was pregnant I craved real American cheddar cheese so bad I thought I would die.
- Cilantro--Sometimes I try to make my own Mexican food to make up for the lack of good restaurants, but it doesn't quite taste the same without cilantro.
- Free refills (with ice!)--If I think hard, I can remember those super friendly American waiters that bring you refill after refill of whatever drink you ordered. Sometimes I think maybe I dreamed that. Now I've learned to nurse along a tiny little bottle of Coke (smaller than a can) for a whole meal. Can I consider that a skill?
- Sliced sandwich bread--Actually the bread here is delicious and they have great bakeries on every corner. But it likes to fall apart on me when I try to slice it, and since it has less preservatives than in the States, you have to buy bread almost every day. (again with the laziness...)
- Reese's Pieces--for some reason I crave these whenever we rent a movie
- String cheese--another one for Emma
- Babies R Us--see Target above. Having a baby in another country makes you miss those huge baby stores in the US!
- Baby changing tables in public places--definitely not as common here. I think I've only found a couple in all of Zagreb.
Looks like whenever I get to visit the States next I might be gaining a few extra pounds trying to make up for lost time! =)
Please Pray
Just a quick note to ask for your prayer for our visa situation. As many of you already know, last year the Croatian government passed some new laws that affect whether or not foreigners can live and work in Croatia. Because of these new laws, it's possible we may not get our visas which give us permission to live here.
We already turned in our paperwork for our visa renewal in April, but still haven't received the approval yet. We keep checking in, and are continually told to keep waiting. There are quite a few other American families (and families from various other countries) who are also being affected by these laws. At this point, no one is quite sure what will happen. There is the possibility that the law might be changed, but it's just hard to say for sure.
We would appreciate your prayers for direction as we wait for our visas. At this point, it's tough being in a limbo situation. We know that if God wants us to stay here in Croatia, he can make that happen. If not, we look for his direction and leading for the next steps. But it sure would be nice to know one way or the other! Thanks for joining with us in this situation!
Probably A Short-Lived Product
I found a fun new snack food at the grocery store today:
I'd say they're as good as they sound. For some reason they left a weird film in my mouth - is that the ham, honey, juice?
A Great Mother's Day Gift
My wonderful husband gave me one of the best Mother's Day gifts you can get--a whole afternoon out by myself (no kids!). This in addition to taking us out to Mexican food yesterday (
with kids--always interesting).
So today I took him up on his offer and headed downtown while he stayed home with the girls. It was a beautiful sunny day in Zagreb, and I almost didn't know what to do with myself (What, I don't have the diaper bag with me? Something's wrong here...) But I had such a great time, just wandering around town, enjoying the sun and the beauty of spring, sitting at a cafe having coffee and reading a book. In a word: heaven.
Here's a few pictures I took as I enjoyed my day:
Trg Kralja Tomislava (King Tomislav Square)
Glavni Kolodvor (Main train station in Zagreb)
Walking down Mihanoviceva street near the train station.
And let's not forget Zagreb's other main standby--graffiti!
Then back home with my girls--what more could you ask for?
Schizophrenic Bargaining
There's an old beat-up car parked on the side of our street that I pass whenever I'm headed home. Someone is trying to sell the car, but they're not doing a very good job.
For a while they had a big sign in the window that said "4,900", which is the Croatian
kuna equivalent of about $1,000.
Apparently the owner wasn't getting any interest, because one day I drove past and there was a new sign that said "5,000". OK...I guess I could see
raising the price to simplify things - maybe they didn't want to have change on hand?
Now there's a new sign that says "4,000". At this point, even if I'm interested in the car, I'm going to wait until the sign says 2,000 or something since it's jumping all over the place!
I'm thinking the transition to capitalism here isn't over quite yet.
Gotta Love That Face!
We think our little Tessa is just about the sweetest baby ever. But maybe we're a little biased...
President Bush In Zagreb
Today the city was wierdly quiet, probably because most of the main streets were closed down thanks to a visit from President Bush. (Here he is pictured with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader). He arrived in town on Friday night, and this morning gave a speech in St. Mark's Square. As you might expect, security was very tight, and basically it was really hard to get anywhere in the city today. Greg even saw some news blurb about how all the manhole covers were welded shut--does this seem like a wierd security precaution to anyone else?
It was very interesting to witness this quick visit as an American living overseas. As we know, the President often travels around to various countries. But the most you see about it on the news in the States is a few second video clip of him getting off Airforce One, or a brief speech or handshake.
In the receiving country, however, the entire thing is televised and much discussed. For hours. Literally, I turned on the national TV station HR1 this morning and it was a special "George W. Bush u Hrvatskoj" (George W. Bush in Croatia) presentation even though there was really nothing to show. Just live footage of people gathering in the square, various talking heads discussing what he might talk about, etc. It went on forever before Bush ever even arrived.
Actually his visit here was very short. Just a stop off after the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania. But Croatia was proud to welcome him and it was a platform for him to congratulate Croatia on being invited to join NATO. Not that everyone here likes him. Actually, as in most places, there are very divided opinions about Bush. But at the same time Croatia seemed proud to have a visit from such a world leader. Despite the complaints about the traffic situation.
Fresh Paint
Kudos to my lovely wife for keeping this thing going for so long! I have to confess that I really have been lazy in terms of posting (and that's assuming anyone's still reading!) Not that there hasn't been anything to report - there might be too much! Living in another country, having another kid in a third country, should all be blog fodder. Unfortunately I just have been doing other things.
In the midst of my long time off, I did check one day to see that our template settings had all disappeared for some reason. So if you add a complete lack of graphic representation to the dearth of posts, it's been a sorry blog indeed. Apologies!
Anyway, hopefully this will work a little longer. It's so fun to get your comments and know that someone is reading! You've all given us a lot of grace on this thing!
Easter Cuties
Our internet has been down recently, but now we are back on-line and I can finally put up a few pics of the girls on Easter. This year, Easter turned out to be freezing cold. It actually snowed! (well, a snow/rain/slushy mess) So my great plans for a cute photo shoot outside with the sun and flowers, etc, etc didn't exactly work out. We just managed to take a few quick shots inside before we ran out the door to church. And Tessa slept through the whole thing. But aren't they just the sweetest girls?
Sretan Uskrs! (Happy Easter)
Today our family celebrates our second Easter in Croatia. It's fun now that we've passed the one year mark of arriving here, we are no longer going through the "first" of everything. (The first summer in Croatia, the first Christmas away from home, etc.) Now we can remember back to last year, and see how far we've come since then, or what changes have happened--but it is not all brand new like last year.
One interesting thing we've noticed so far about Easter here is that in the Protestant churches, it doesn't seem to be such a big event as we would expect. Yes, there are songs sung about Jesus' resurrection. But overall, on Easter Sunday the church service seems pretty much the same as most other Sundays, and attendance actually seems to be a bit less than normal. Quite a difference from our church back in the States, where it is so jam packed on Easter that they have about 8 services throughout the day and there's not even a hope of finding a parking spot.
I don't think the difference comes from Easter being celebrated less here in Croatia in general. In fact, Easter is a huge holiday here, especially due to the Catholic heritage of the country. All over town you can see "Sretan Uskrs" signs up in businesses and stores. The national television channel broadcasts Mass on TV, live from Rome. On Palm Sunday you can see people everywhere carrying olive branches as they return from the Catholic church service.
One friend theorized that perhaps the Protestant churches make Easter less of an event as a reaction to the Catholic tradition. (Trying to set themselves apart somewhat?) Another part of it is probably that many people travel on Easter to visit their family, so they are not in town to attend church. Also, some believers who normally attend a Protestant church will instead go to Mass with their extended family on Easter as part of the family tradition.
Either way, Easter morning felt slightly anti-climactic to us. It seems like it should be the biggest, most important holiday of all for a believer. Today we celebrate how Jesus rose from the dead, and conquered the power of sin and death! What is more important than that? Now if I could just remember to focus on that instead of worrying about Emma's easter dress or how much candy she's eating from her easter basket!
Hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Tessa Arrives!
Yes, it's true--we are a family of four now!
Tessa Kate Collard was born on February 9 in Telki, Hungary (just outside of Budapest). She weighed 3.48 kg (7 lbs 10 oz), and was 54 cm long (21 inches). You wouldn't believe how long it took us to figure out the metric conversion on those stats as we sat in the hospital room--our minds must have been a little overwhelmed by our new bundle of joy! Or we're just really bad at math, which is more likely. =)
Praise the Lord, everything went really smoothly and she was born healthy and beautiful! It all went really fast. My (Amy's) mom flew into Budapest on Friday evening and I woke up at 5 am on Saturday morning with the first contractions. Tessa arrived only a few hours later, at 8:44 am!
Tessa and I ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days, which is pretty normal for Europe. She did have some problems with jaundice, so she had several sessions under the "blue light", as the nurses called it. After being discharged from the hospital, she ended up having to go back to the hospital for one more day because of the jaundice. But we finally got the all-clear, plus were able to get Tessa's passport from the US Embassy and head back to Croatia in time for my mom to see a little bit of Zagreb and then catch her flight back home. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it all worked out!
We were so thankful my mom was able to be here for almost 2 weeks to help take care of Emma. I don't know what we would have done without her! Plus we had great friends in Budapest and Zagreb who helped bring us meals and entertain Emma and just generally be a lot of help. Thanks to all of you!
Now we are back in Zagreb trying to get used to being parents of 2 kids under the age of 2. It certainly is a little different with baby #2! In addition to the lack of sleep at night, a lot of energy is required during the day to keep Emma from accidentally hurting baby Tessa, as she is not always so great at being "gentle" like we've been trying to hard to teach her. But I'm sure we will get into our new family routine soon!
Thanks to everyone for your prayers. We really appreciate it! Here are a few pictures from Tessa's first 2 weeks.
Please Accept our Apologies!
Sorry again to any of you out there who were checking our blog, hoping for an update, for a picture, or for any sign of life at all! As you can see, we let the blog go by the wayside again. Partly because all the formatting mysteriously disappeared (haven't figured that out yet) so it looks really wierd, and partly because we just haven't been inspired, I guess.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know we are still alive and kicking here in Croatia! This week we are finishing up our last week of the semester at our Croatian language classes at the university here in Zagreb. We are certainly FAR from fluent, but at least we have made progress. This language is definitely a challenge!!
At the moment, our minds our somewhat preoccupied with our pending arrival--"baby 2.0", as Greg has affectionately called her so far, is due to make her entrance in about 3 weeks or so. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through this family expansion! No promises about when we will get around to blogging more soon, we'll just have to see how it goes.
For now, I've attached another picture of Emma so you can see how big she is getting. She has no idea how her world is going to be rocked by a new little baby in the family soon! (We've tried to explain, but she's a little young to grasp the concept...)
Goodbye for now!
P.S. Shana--if you read this by any chance, can you e-mail us or post something on this blog? I saw your comment on the blog all those months ago and I tried to e-mail you but I must not have your current e-mail address either!! I've been trying to figure out how to contact you. So if you see this, send us an e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon!
Pray For Emma...
We think she's joined a gang - she keeps flashing the symbols:
