Electricity Woes

We left our large appliances and cars behind. We knew we'd have to. But somehow, we were still clinging to the notion that we could still use some of our belongings. A prelit Christmas tree for example. Why not? We bought some power converters and were on our merry way to decorate the Christmas tree. Plugged it in along with two deer and all was well... or so we thought. After a couple of hours the light bulbs started going out, one strand at a time. We thought that we could still remedy the situation and started changing out the lights and fiddled with it for a week until finally all of the lights were out. It would have made one very sad tree without lights so Chris and I came up with plan B. We took a day to cut out all of the prelit wire and bulbs. Once we had a bare tree again, I set out to the store to find the perfect lighting for our little tree.

An easy task turned out to be a tough one. It appears that in Croatia it is "in" to have blue lights on the tree. I'd say about half of the sizable selection featured blue lights. Finding sufficient quantity of plain white ones was quite challenging. Then, they had at least 5 different types of lights. There were what they called "rice" lights, which were tiny, then "cherry" lights which were larger and round (cute looking too), then regular lights, LED ones, indoor ones, outdoor ones, rope lights... Then there were nets and different quantities and arrangements... Took me some 45 minutes to find what we needed. Another interesting fact that I've learned is that they don't sell strands that plug into each other. Chris couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. My sister couldn't believe that you could buy some that actually plug into each other. See the trend here? I am not entirely sure how people decorate then, especially larger trees. One thing that all of the lights did have though, was a small box at the end of the strand with at least 5 different light settings. That gets you covered, whether you want the frantic seizure-causing blinking or a gentle fade in and out mood-setting lighting. We got it all now people!

I ended up choosing two largest nets I could find hoping that they would cover the tree and provide reasonably nice lighting. What do you know. It took Chris and I just a few minutes to cover the tree, and after all the fuss and effort, the tree lit up and looked perfect. Then we finally proceeded to decorate it. We've been enjoying a beautiful tree since. We cut out the wire and bulbs from the deer as well and strung new lights on them too. They look great as well. Light controller box on the strand of one of the deer is a little messed up though so we can't choose the setting. Lights on it are now blinking on and off in a spastic manner but it all still turned out just great.

In the end, Christmas went well; kids enjoyed the presents. I've attached a few pictures to share. Hope all of you had a lovely Christmas as well.

Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Drink and don't drive

How's this for an interesting fact? Allowable blood alcohol level limit here is 0%. That means not a single drink my friends. Not even a sip. Since fines are rather stiff, I think many people will be walking this holiday season.

Christmas Fair

It was a busy weekend. Domagoj (my nephew) celebrated his 11th birthday on Saturday. The party was successful. Ivor spent a lot of time with the boys and loved every minute of it. He felt as if he were 11 as well, because all of the boys were nice to him and a lot of them spoke some English too.

Then on Sunday we went to the Christmas fair. Kids had fun and we're all exhausted. I suppose that's how it goes. They rode some fairgrounds rides and loved it. Smiled from ear to ear. All four of them, my niece and nephew and Ivor and Mia.

Big Brother

Did you know that "Big Brother" TV show is exceedingly popular in Croatia? No, not the same one you had an opportunity to watch but a local version. Tonight is the season finale and everyone is glued to the television set to see who wins. This thing was on every night since we've arrived in September. Haven't watched it teh whole show but looks as cheesy as the US version. Yes, they have the Croatian Idol too. Can you believe it?

St. Nick came by!

St. Nick came by today. No, not “that” St. Nick, but St. Nicholas from Catholic tradition. According to legend, there were three Italian maidens whose families had fallen on hard times. Because their father could not afford the dowries necessary for them to marry, he was considering selling one of his daughters into slavery to get dowries for the other two. When the good saint heard of the family's plight, he went to their home late one night and anonymously tossed three bags of gold down the chimney. Miraculously, a bag fell into each of the sisters’ stockings, which were hanging by the fire to dry. His kindhearted gift made it possible for all three sisters to marry.

You see, here they didn’t used to do the Christmas gift giving. That’s a novel thing started by the marketing machine just two to three years ago. I grew up waiting for the saint named Nicholas and at the same time feared his mean assistant “Krampus”. Good kids would receive a gift from Nicholas; bad kids would receive a silver or golden switch with a red ribbon on it, with which they could (presumably) be spanked by their parents… or Krampus. I don’t know. I just know that he looked scary and as a kid I didn’t care to see him. Nicholas carried a tall staff and was dressed in Catholic bishop (or similar) garb. Invariably, every year, I got both the gift and the branch. No, I was never spanked with the branch. It was nice and decorative. My mom was creative enough to come up with some other spanking device, be it hand or something else. I never felt that I deserved the spanking, but that’s a story for another blog. :)

On Dec 5, we would polish the biggest shoe of ours that we could find and put it in the window. During the night, St. Nicholas would come by and drop off some goodies for us – maybe candy or a small gift. What fun! My sister now uses stockings for her kids. The stocking custom probably stems from the shoe idea anyway. Couple of weeks later, we would decorate the Christmas tree. Not at the end of November, but on Christmas Eve. The tree was for Christmas and decorating the tree used to be reward enough. Christmas was then reserved for going to church and visiting family and yes – eating cake. We didn’t get to get up at 3:00am to wake up our parents so we could open gifts. By the way, at our house, kids aren’t allowed to open anything until Chris and I are up and conscious enough to take a few pictures. We have to stick to some rules after all.

Now there seems to be some confusion over the whole gifting thing. Marketing is pushing the Christmas gift giving hard which means parents are left with two expensive visitors – St. Nicholas and Santa Claus who seem like the same guy to me anyway. Hardly seems fair to the parents. Don’t know if you read about it but at one of the largest Christmas fairs in Europe held in Germany this year, they have forbidden the use of image of Santa Claus. No Santa ornaments, no Santa pictures, no jolly old man at all. May sound harsh, but I agree with it. They noted that they wanted to return Christmas to baby Jesus. Plus most of Europe already has Saint Nicholas. I suppose that in Croatia this year jolly old man (religious or not) will have to work twice as hard to take care of the kids. We’ll see what happens next year.

No, we’re not going to turn into Grinches here. My American roots are too strong now and we will reward the little children (and big ones) on Christmas morning and sleepily go through the usual commotion that the Christmas morning brings. Pictures to document our generosity will follow at appropriate time.

For the curious ones, here is a link to the history of how St. Nicholas turned into Santa Claus http://www.northpolesantaclaus.com/santahistory.htm.

Here are some pictures of the event. We went to the elementary school where my sister works as a teacher and met St. Nicholas there. Since we know people in high places, St. Nick brought both Mia and Ivor a treat (carefully prepurchased by the parents but kids need not know that). Mia got a little scared but did fine because I held her. She figured that it's safe if I hold her. :)

Exercising

I am on a roll here – here is another post. :) Signed up for another month of exercise classes today. That makes two successful months of attendance now, three times a week. Sure I missed a few classes here and there, but overall, I do OK. My sister and I try to encourage each other. I got a little stronger. I no longer feel like passing out at the end of the class. That’s good news to report. Bad news is that I’ve actually gained some (a little, tiny bit) weight since arriving. Ahem, we won’t mention any numbers mind you. You know, burek (local pastry with cottage cheese, not so low in calories), fresh bread, imported chocolates and daily home made cooking. Yum! Life sure is delicious these days. Now I need to make it through the holidays. Homemade deserts are a staple here at just about every household. You don’t just make one or two but a bunch. I’ll take some nice pictures so you all can collectively drool over them while I indulge a little. :P

City at night

3rd blog in three days! Yay!

We had a really fun day today. We haven't been doing many social things since we've arrived. It's been busy. Work and obligations quickly piled up. Today, however, we made it to a birthday party. We were invited by one of Chris' acquaintances from class to attend her child's birthday party. The kid is Ivor's age and they already had a fun play date so we felt like going. I wasn't planning on it as Mia's naps usually interfere with afternoon activities but she cooperated well enough today so we all went together. It was really enjoyable to see such a great mix of people. I met the hosts, wife is Canadian, husband Croatian. They moved to Croatia about 8 months ago. Also met another couple, wife American, husband Croatian, that have been living in Croatia for about 3 years now. Also met another visiting Canadian. It was interesting to listen to conversations going on. Most people there (including the tiniest of kids) spoke both Croatian and English so the conversation kept switching between the two constantly. Also, they mentioned a number of other people from mixed marriages that they knew so hopefully we'll get to meet them as well.

Night falls early these days so it was already dark outside as we left the party. The street was so beautifully lit up with holiday decorations that we had to take a picture to share (click on images to enlarge) -- note the curious passerbys. :) How lovely. We'll have to do this again.

Soda

Here is another deep insight from Chris on a topic very dear to his heart.

CHRIS: I miss Diet Colas pretty badly. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club helped me get a lot of Colas very cheap and with good taste for many years. I miss not only the amount that I could get - but especially the quality of the taste. I know what you're thinking... "But, surely they have Diet Sodas in Europe!" Well, they do; kind of. See over here they do not use the 'Diet' moniker (because it's not as big a craze as it is in the States) - Instead they're called "Light". So instead of Diet Coca-Cola you see Coca-Cola Light. Now, I only drank generic Diet Sodas for years - but my first sip of Coca-Cola Light on the plane ride to Europe I INSTANTLY understood why a friend of mine (who'd recently returned to the States from Europe) avoided Diet Colas like the Plague.

I would say the beverage tasted like ass - but that's not really fair to ass. It wasn't so foul that it bubbled over with mist and tasted like Limburger cheese, but the taste was... WRONG on so many levels. It would be like trying to take a taste of your favorite soda and instead finding out that it wasn't coke you were drinking but a diet, caffeine-free, cherry-hybrid, red code concoction that the only thing that resembled the taste you enjoyed was that it was wet. At first I thought that the one I had on the plane might have been a bad batch or something. But I quickly saw the error of that thought upon our stay here.

I was even brave enough to try different brands of diet colas here - including about eight lesser (and some generic) brands. After all, I've long held to the old Japanese saying that trying something new extends your life by a year. However, the sheer scope in the difference between the taste of these potions is indescribable. About the best I managed to find after about a month was something that when Mirjana asked me how it was I could reply with 'almost bearable - but the aftertaste of mint and some freaky berry is wierding me out.’ For some reason Mirjana refused to even try the drinks after having the first sip of one on the plane. **shrug**

As a result, I am drinking more water than ever before in my life - it's the main thing I drink. I can also drink teas of so many varieties that went I first stepped into a grocery store here and saw an entire AISLE dedicated to teas that I knew I was in Europe... or some friendly part of France (if such can be said to still exist). But for colas? If I splurge and buy one when I'm out on the town to my language class or something I ONLY buy regular - at least THAT formula here seems to be the same as in the states and not some punitive brew like its "Light" cousin.

MIRJANA: I agree with the above assesment with one exception. Even the regular soda formula is different from the one in the States. Definitely less sugar and tastes weird -- all of it, Coke and Pepsi. I think that they try to cater to whatever they think the local population will like. Another interesting fact is the price. 2 liter bottle of soda costs in the neighborhood of $2.50. Ouch! Believe it or not, it's cheaper to buy beer. Too bad we don't really drink beer.

Buying the paper

My sister and I like to read the local newspapers. Chris, the gentleman that he is, has been diligent in getting them for us on a regular basis. Today is Friday so the papers are featuring the TV guide for the week as well (very handy) so we figured that we'd get a copy while out but didn't want to try to park the car (no parking anywhere) to make the purchase. The locals have figured out a way around that. There are guys at larger traffic lights that sell newspapers. I guess they've figured that you have to stop anyway, so why not make the sale. Very clever. 3 kunas (local currency), 30 seconds, one paper and we were on our way.