Our New Home (Sam’s entry from 30,000 feet in the air on our Maui Trip)

We gave our school a list of needs, wants, and likes for an apartment. They then took that list and tried to accommodate all our wishes to fit with their budget. We knew coming into this that we would never get the type of living we have in Yakima such as a yard, parking, and living space, because we were now going to be living in a major city in Europe. Prices are different and their standard of life is different. Layouts of living space in Europe tend to be a lot smaller than in America. I really like this way of living in theory. I like simplifying life and really valuing space versus need. It’s amazing how many things we buy that we hardly use. One of my goals in the next few years is to just simplify life with less clothes, less food, and less possessions.

One of our biggest worries about moving across the world was housing. Honestly we had some concerns because it was something more or less out of our control. To make matters more difficult, we have a dog. That in and of itself can narrow down our school’s options in finding us a place. We received an email with some pictures of our first option. The apartment was about a 7 minute walk away from the school. The place was up to date with basic living necessities and had some very good qualities. However, it was one bedroom and we would like to have two bedrooms so we can have guest over and a place to work on my art. The landlord was concerned about our dog, because they had problems with previous tenants that had a dog. So we wrote back and asked for another housing option. We also attached a video to the email that I made of Lucy, just being the good little dog that she is. Here is the video link. http://vimeo.com/39306474

This I think made it easier on our school to find us a place for us. I deal with a lot of parents at work, especially in the area of sports. Some parents have a very skewed perception of their own kid and their true talent. I can see how landlords could feel the same thing about us when we write an email about our perfect little angel of a dog. So I wanted to show the landlords a video that shows Lucy’s behavior and personality.

So what our school found for us is perfect from what we can see from here. The distance is farther away from downtown and the school, but we are closer to the main park in Zagreb called Maksimir. By this park is the Soccer Stadium where I’m hoping to get season tickets for the Dinamo. We will be a 40 minute walk, 30 minute bus ride, 20 min bike ride, and 7 minute drive from work. The transit system is amazing in Zagreb, but not from where we are going to be living.We have also found a car so we can have more flexibility to travel on the weekends and to transport guests around. There are 2 cafes 100 meters away, and a little grocery store called Konzum which is the Safeway of Croatia, not much farther from the cafes.

I can’t wait to get home from work and take a stroll to the café with Katie and Lucy to have a relaxing bite to eat and people watch. Then after the bite, we walk to the park to play fetch with Lucy. Hopefully, we can find other dog lovers that can help me practice my Croatian. Then get home before sundown to watch the sunset from our terrace.

Here are pictures of our place in Zagreb. We are planning on maybe changing some furniture out with our own and painting the guest room. We’re going to bring a couple of our prints/photographs rolled up and then frame them when we get there.

Reservations on the Island of Dugi Otok :)

We just reserved an apartment in a village called Verunic. It’s close to the village where my great grandfather came from named Veli Rat, on the island of Dugi Otok. This was one of our favorite spots when we visited Croatia three years ago. We didn’t stay long because we had to catch a ferry off the island the same day. We are staying a whole week on this island in late July. We will be fishing in the sea, and bathing on the shores of Saharun beach. We will be visiting the town of Sali for shops and dining.

Link to a map of Dugi Otok:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=43.999312,15.087927&spn=0.412932,0.887833&t=v&z=11

Link for where we are staying:

http://www.gorgonia.hr/

Small World List

History teacher at the American International School of Zagreb went to Eisenhower High School in Yakima where I teach. He was a foreign exchange student from Croatia. Then went UW.

The Art teacher I’m replacing went to school at Western Washington University, and is from Richland, Washington.

Math teacher at AISZ went to school at Central Washington University where both Katie and I went. He did his student teaching at Davis High School, which is the cross-town rival of Eisenhower High School where I teach. He also has a house in Washington.

Another teacher at AISZ has the name Mirkovich in her family tree dating back 2 generations. Her family is from the island of Susak, which is just north of Dugi Otok where my family originated from. If we are related, I don’t know but I hope to find out. :)

Went to see the Vet to get Lucy all up to date with her shots and micro chipped to go overseas. I mentioned to him that we were moving to Croatia. He said he knew someone from his church that had a daughter in Zagreb who runs a summer camp. A phone call and an email later, we are communicating and planning to meet in Zagreb. She knows someone on the Zagreb Baseball Club.

Bittersweet: How a 1994 Honda Accord Made Me Cry (Katie's Post)

Our very first car was bought in Ellensburg in the summer of 2004. We were engaged, in college, and poor. We found a 1994 Honda Accord with a CD player, cruise control, and a sunroof. What else could you need?

We drove that car all the way down to Alamosa, Colorado, when Sam tried a Masters program down there one summer. He decided he didn't like other people telling him how to do his artwork, so it was just a 3 week trip for us. We took it to Santa Fe, Colorado Springs, Yellowstone. We were going to take it on our very first camping trip down the Washington, Oregon and California coastline. But on the first night of our trip, Sam got rear ended in Seattle. So we ended up taking a rental car (which incidentally got backed into in San Francisco. Ironic.)

We filled it up with all of our belongings and moved it to Yakima, where it got broken into about 5 times. It also got stolen in Yakima (all they took was the CD player and some burned CDs. I'm sure they were disappointed by my CD collection of Norah Jones and Dave Matthews.)

We picked up Lucy and took her home from the vet in that car. She loved to hang her head out the window, which she can't do so easily in our Honda Fit.

It's weird that we get attached to such objects in our lives. I remember my parents sold this gray couch when I was little. I literally cried when they sold it. A couch. Cried. It's strange.

But we have a lot of great memories tied up in that car. And today we sold it. It made me extremely sad to see it drive away, feeling like I was losing something really special. Silly, I know. We're starting to pack up our house, put it on the market. And I know that selling this house will make me much sadder than selling a car. But it's all part of the process. Bittersweet. One less thing to worry about when we move. One more step to saying goodbye.

The money we got from selling the Accord will go towards buying another car in Zagreb, which will surely carry even more wonderful memories.

Baseball in Zagreb? (Sam's Post)

I was browsing online about Zagreb and I came across a website for a Zagreb baseball club who plays in a Croatian league. I was really intrigued. So I clicked a couple of links (although I didn’t know a single word on the page because it was all in Croatian). On the site I saw a couple pictures of men playing baseball. I was really thrown back by seeing baseball being played in Croatia. Long story short, I thought it would be fun to play baseball again. What an amazing way to get to know Croatia and its people by playing a game that I once loved.

Baseball has been a tough, emotional rollercoaster in my life. From getting second team all-league for the position of 1^st base as a junior in high school to getting kicked off the baseball team my senior year because of differences with the coach. Then returning to baseball in college and adapting to a new position as a pitcher. I just fell in love with the game again. After finishing college I started coaching baseball, which I grew a very strong passion for. However after a couple years of coaching in Yakima I just kept on having doors close on me. I went from having a job coaching baseball to not having a job available, to head coach turnovers, and then not getting the head baseball coach position at Eisenhower High. I realize now that I was not the right fit for the job at Eisenhower because I didn’t have the experience yet to take on that role. Through all that, I truly didn’t feel like the culture of Yakima baseball was the right fit. But there was a lot of pain in my heart over this. Over time, I’ve become thankful it didn’t work out. The best way of illustrating this experience is when a relationship doesn’t work out. Then over time, you look back and see the big picture and see that it wasn’t a good relationship to begin with. Eventually you see you are better off because new opportunities arise later... Anyways back to baseball. If I received a more permanent baseball job in Yakima I would have never applied for this position in Zagreb. It wouldn’t have even been on the radar. My life would have been so closed off to such great opportunities. So for that, I am grateful.

So I emailed the President of the team in Zagreb by using Google translator. Shortly after I heard back that they were interested in having me on the team. I truly feel that God closes doors to open better ones later. Some of the best times and the best people in my life were on the baseball field. I truly can’t wait for next year and what it will bring to us.

Car and Travel

We are currently planning our summer vacation now and we are struggling on how we should get a car. We want to buy a car in Croatia. However we need to have residency before we can register for a car there, and that can take up to 2 months to process. This might be some of the red tape still existing from the communist era. So we might have to rent a car for a month, which is very expensive, and we would love to use that money to go towards our new car that we would eventually purchase anyways. We are looking into other options such as finding someone that is leaving the country at the same time we are coming into the country. We are also looking into neighboring countries to buy our car where we don’t need a residency. Then once we have residency in Croatia, we could then register it.

Once we get the car thing settled as well as our travel dates of coming into Croatia, we are hoping to plan a 3 to 4 week vacation to really get to know the country of Croatia. Last time we traveled Croatia we really rushed our travel experience into one week. This time we really hope to spend more time in each place and truly enjoy the slow café life that Croatia has to offer. Where we can socialize, read, journal, draw, take photos, and enjoy great coffee and food. J Here is our map of destinations.

View Croatia Summer 2012 in a larger map

We are going to mix camping, guest housing, and hoteling to save on cost. However getting a guesthouse to stay at is pretty inexpensive and can really add to the experience, because you can really get to know your landlords. When we were in Trogir at a guest house, the landlords were a married couple. The woman was an elementary teacher and the husband was a computer programmer for the Croatian Military. We asked about the state of education and the war. They asked about the American culture, and politics. He handed me a book “My Life” by Bill Clinton in Croatian. I thought was pretty funny at the time. However in this last year I read “Back to Work” by Bill Clinton and really enjoyed it. It has solid points and perspective on where we should go as a country in our current economy. Anyways the landlord told us how influential Bill Clinton was on the Croatian’s War of Independence. He said “There are 3 countries in the world you don’t mess with: Israel, Russia and the USA. During the war the USA took out the enemies major communication networks with large air strikes. Then within three days the enemy retreated and left the area of Croatia.” So as result of our conversation we got to learn a little bit about the history and perspective of someone that was there during the war.

Small World

The art teacher at the American International School of Zagreb that I’m replacing is actually from the city of Richland in Washington State and went to Western Washington University. One of the math teachers went to Central Washington University and he did his student teaching at Davis High School in Yakima, which is Eisenhower’s rival (where I teach now). Another teacher who is going to be my “buddy” is originally from Croatia and has spent some time in Yakima and Seattle. He is my “buddy” because the school connects new teachers with current teachers to make the transition smoother. If that wasn’t enough, there is another teacher at AISZ from New Jersey whose mother’s maiden name was Mirkovic(h) and her family was from an Island called Susak which is north North of Dugi Otok where my family originated from. Are we related? Who knows. Stay tuned!

Update on my Croatian lessons. They are progressively getting tougher and they are demanding more time for mastery. It’s taking me now about a week for each lesson. I’m spending about an hour or more each day on it. I’m currently on lesson 10 of 30. At this pace I should be done with all 30 by the time I get there. I want to push myself so that I can use the language in its context. It’s all a mystery right now because I never learned another language before and I don’t know how my learning disability will play in this process.