Celeste's reading has been taking off, and she's been plowing through the books we packed which we hoped would last her awhile. She likes to read out loud to us almost as much as she likes us to read to her!
Here are the books she's read just in the last two weeks:
Amelia Bedelia
Thank You, Amelia Bedelia
Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower
Poppleton and Friends
Poppleton Everyday
My Brother, Ant
Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea
Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears
Owl At Home
Houndsley and Catina
and possibly a few more I can't think of right now.
Now we just have to find some Croatian kid to give them to when we leave...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Going to Brac
From all of us, 3/26/08
Happy Birthday, Grandma!!! Hope you are enjoying France! We can't seem to get the phone to call you there, but we're thinking of you...!
Ruby says,
"When we went to Brac we took a ferry there. The ferry was very big. We climbed upstairs and sat down. at first it was boring while the people got on. when it started to move we were not bored!
After awhile people started to smoke, so we went outside. We went upstairs to the cold and windy top deck. The ocean was clear, and the air tasted wet. we went down to go to the bathroom. it was stuffy downstairs. we played frog juice and then went back up. I smelled salt water and saw Brac. there were a lot of tiled rooves.
When we got off the ferry, we walked until we found tourest information. They showed us a good hotel on the map. We started to walk in that direction, through the town, along the street by the ocean. We saw some loud construction. The hotel was next to it!
We got a room and dropped off our stuff. We walked to a church, but it turned out not to be a church. It was a giant crypt. We went to skip stones. We saw two girls making boats and I cut myself on my pocket knife while I was watching them because I was thinking about walking up and saying hello to them.
We went to our hotel until dinnner time. Then we walked to a nice resterant and I had fried squid. The next morning we took a ferry home. It was fun going on a ferry to Brac!"
The new, fancy batteries for our camera weren't charged yet, so we found some pictures of Brac on the internet:
What the town of Supetar, where we went, looks like
Brac from the air
What the water really looked like - only deeper, so darker blue!
Supetar (on Brac) was really wonderful, especially the graveyard, which is out on a spit of land in the beautiful water, with the incredible mountains of the mainland as a backdrop. Everywhere you go on that side of Brac, the mountains stand across the water from you, huge and beautiful, especially in early or late sunlight. The night we were there it got down to freezing, but we walked to dinner in the middle of town, and ate like pigs, and then huddled together on the walk home. Ruby and Celeste were great, and walked everywhere cheerfully. There were so many things to look at and think about!
Celeste says, when made to write SOMETHING:
"I do no know what to writ. bisides why am I here. bisides I’m tired.
there is a cat who pees in our gardin. Wons I saw him going out of a fens and in too an outside bit of a cafe."
(After a Jaffa Cake, Celeste became more inspired):
"On easter morning. I wok up I lay in bed as long as it takes to hav a sausage boil. And then I got out of bed. I went out too the living room. I saw Dada and then I looked at the tabel ther was a big pil of ICSIYTMINT."
(the last word is "excitement")
More soon, now the camera is finally fixed. We miss you all!
PS. If you want to see or read more of Brac, check out this website.
Happy Birthday, Grandma!!! Hope you are enjoying France! We can't seem to get the phone to call you there, but we're thinking of you...!
Ruby says,
"When we went to Brac we took a ferry there. The ferry was very big. We climbed upstairs and sat down. at first it was boring while the people got on. when it started to move we were not bored!
After awhile people started to smoke, so we went outside. We went upstairs to the cold and windy top deck. The ocean was clear, and the air tasted wet. we went down to go to the bathroom. it was stuffy downstairs. we played frog juice and then went back up. I smelled salt water and saw Brac. there were a lot of tiled rooves.
When we got off the ferry, we walked until we found tourest information. They showed us a good hotel on the map. We started to walk in that direction, through the town, along the street by the ocean. We saw some loud construction. The hotel was next to it!
We got a room and dropped off our stuff. We walked to a church, but it turned out not to be a church. It was a giant crypt. We went to skip stones. We saw two girls making boats and I cut myself on my pocket knife while I was watching them because I was thinking about walking up and saying hello to them.
We went to our hotel until dinnner time. Then we walked to a nice resterant and I had fried squid. The next morning we took a ferry home. It was fun going on a ferry to Brac!"
The new, fancy batteries for our camera weren't charged yet, so we found some pictures of Brac on the internet:
What the town of Supetar, where we went, looks like
Brac from the air
What the water really looked like - only deeper, so darker blue!
Supetar (on Brac) was really wonderful, especially the graveyard, which is out on a spit of land in the beautiful water, with the incredible mountains of the mainland as a backdrop. Everywhere you go on that side of Brac, the mountains stand across the water from you, huge and beautiful, especially in early or late sunlight. The night we were there it got down to freezing, but we walked to dinner in the middle of town, and ate like pigs, and then huddled together on the walk home. Ruby and Celeste were great, and walked everywhere cheerfully. There were so many things to look at and think about!
Celeste says, when made to write SOMETHING:
"I do no know what to writ. bisides why am I here. bisides I’m tired.
there is a cat who pees in our gardin. Wons I saw him going out of a fens and in too an outside bit of a cafe."
(After a Jaffa Cake, Celeste became more inspired):
"On easter morning. I wok up I lay in bed as long as it takes to hav a sausage boil. And then I got out of bed. I went out too the living room. I saw Dada and then I looked at the tabel ther was a big pil of ICSIYTMINT."
(the last word is "excitement")
More soon, now the camera is finally fixed. We miss you all!
PS. If you want to see or read more of Brac, check out this website.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Croatian Easter Bunny
Ruby says,
"Celeste shook me awake on easter morning saying, "Ruby, It's Easter"
I yawned and looked at her "O.K." I said and we walked out into the living room. There was a basket with yellow roses in it and a beautiful bag ful of candy for each of us.
We played Hide and Go Seek with the roses and after that we blew some eggs out, and cooked and ate the inside and then we ate some chocs. We played more Hide and Go Seek and then decorated the eggs. We had fun on Easter."
Celeste is not totally clear on the geography, though she is learning:
"Croatia has lots of ilindes. I know 3 of them. 1 is Split. I am living in Split. 2 is Zagreb. 3 is Venice.
P.S. They are all my faverite"
Hot Chocolate and Our Garden
Our camera isn't working. We have finally figured out that we have the wrong kind of batteries, so as soon as we find the right kind, Ruby will take some pictures of the ocean to match her writing!
Ruby says,
"Hot chocolate in Croatia is like chocolate pudding. The best kind is very thick and very chocolaty. The worst is thin and blah. Today we had some good hot chocolate. As we looked out over the ocean I saw a ship. The ship was near an island it was very fogy and cold. We walked along a cold sandy beach. The hot chocolate warmed me up a lot. I found a beach with white pebbles. I liked it there. The sky was gray. I hoped it would clear up. It was fun."
Celeste says,
"I know what to write. Our Gardin has 500000000 millipedes in it. And 40000000 snails. And 6000000 Leaves. Ands 6 trees, + 1 naked tree.
P.S. I am scard of the millopides in our gardin."
Ruby says,
"Hot chocolate in Croatia is like chocolate pudding. The best kind is very thick and very chocolaty. The worst is thin and blah. Today we had some good hot chocolate. As we looked out over the ocean I saw a ship. The ship was near an island it was very fogy and cold. We walked along a cold sandy beach. The hot chocolate warmed me up a lot. I found a beach with white pebbles. I liked it there. The sky was gray. I hoped it would clear up. It was fun."
Celeste says,
"I know what to write. Our Gardin has 500000000 millipedes in it. And 40000000 snails. And 6000000 Leaves. Ands 6 trees, + 1 naked tree.
P.S. I am scard of the millopides in our gardin."
Friday, March 21, 2008
Playland By-The-Sea
On Wednesday we celebrated Rhabyt's birthday down by the seashore, which is about ten minutes' walk away. There was a little beach made of small pebbles and a really cool little place for people to go into the sea, with little steps down and all these little spaces for kids to play, right on the edge of the sea. One of the places had a cannon with a pile of cannon-balls and an iron chest that looks like it should hold gunpowder, and battlements. Another of the little places had a pretend Greek temple and some broken columns rising out of the water. There were showers and places to hang your towels, and little benches built into the stone wall so people can just sit around in the sun.
But the weather has been pretty cold. There is a cold wind that comes in off the water, so even when it's sunny we shiver, sometimes. People here are wearing their winter coats and stare at us when we walk by with thin sweaters and naked legs. But we didn't want to pack our big winter coats because after a month or so we won't use them anymore, and then we'd have to bring them home!
Ruby says,
"I noticed the water is so clear you can see about 5 feet down, it’s as clear as glass, and when it is too deep to see through it’s a nice blue!"
Celeste says,
"The Bacon in Croatia does not comin slices like this
It comes in chunks. It is so salty.
It comes like this
Mama has to cut it up."
(images by Heather, in imitation of Celeste's drawing)
But the weather has been pretty cold. There is a cold wind that comes in off the water, so even when it's sunny we shiver, sometimes. People here are wearing their winter coats and stare at us when we walk by with thin sweaters and naked legs. But we didn't want to pack our big winter coats because after a month or so we won't use them anymore, and then we'd have to bring them home!
Ruby says,
"I noticed the water is so clear you can see about 5 feet down, it’s as clear as glass, and when it is too deep to see through it’s a nice blue!"
Celeste says,
"The Bacon in Croatia does not comin slices like this
It comes in chunks. It is so salty.
It comes like this
Mama has to cut it up."
(images by Heather, in imitation of Celeste's drawing)
Ruby's Dream
I was walking down the road and I came to this place. Its walls were painted white and it looked just like my room here in Croatia. It was just as small, but there were three restaurants in it.
I came in and ate at one restaurant. One restaurant was a counter, the next had three tables, and the next had just one table that was in sort of a car shape with a trunk, even. In the trunk was a lady with black hair.
She reach out and twisted our seatbelts around our necks and so we had to go where she said. We went to this place, a beautiful miniature golf course. Except, the only problem was, everywhere in it were skeletons. They all had flowers on their heads, and some had skirts (like Mexican skeletons).
The other people wandered off, and I realized that we were going to become skeletons too if we stayed there.
On one side of the place there was a meat counter, which had this little thing which was like a big fat leg of lamb with brown hairs on it, with the fat end sliced off. When you wanted some meat, you took off little squares (they came off that way, like the muscle was created in tiny squares), and you ate it raw.
I saw Mama had come in too with Celeste. She bought one of the squares of meat and handed it to me, and I ate it.
By this time we were sick of skeletons, so we escped. We had to go through Grandma and Grandpa’s house. But inside there were all these paper skeletons, like piled up everywhere and on the ceiling and everything. So we went on through and down the hill.
I could see Mama and Celeste ahead of us. We went on, and suddenly we came to a big stone door. Something inside it opened it. A big pig like thing, with purple skin and a big stone club (made out of limestone) was there, muttering about a pie, a spinach pie.
We realized the lady was still coming after us, and I realized she was Magica de Spell. She was running after us, and she was catching up so fast, that finally I jumped down that bank that’s covered with poison oak onto the road. Then she jumped down too, and I ran and ran and ran.
Finally, I got a cardboard box and bonked her on the head and knocked her out. Then we took her back and I don’t know where we put her.
the end
I came in and ate at one restaurant. One restaurant was a counter, the next had three tables, and the next had just one table that was in sort of a car shape with a trunk, even. In the trunk was a lady with black hair.
She reach out and twisted our seatbelts around our necks and so we had to go where she said. We went to this place, a beautiful miniature golf course. Except, the only problem was, everywhere in it were skeletons. They all had flowers on their heads, and some had skirts (like Mexican skeletons).
The other people wandered off, and I realized that we were going to become skeletons too if we stayed there.
On one side of the place there was a meat counter, which had this little thing which was like a big fat leg of lamb with brown hairs on it, with the fat end sliced off. When you wanted some meat, you took off little squares (they came off that way, like the muscle was created in tiny squares), and you ate it raw.
I saw Mama had come in too with Celeste. She bought one of the squares of meat and handed it to me, and I ate it.
By this time we were sick of skeletons, so we escped. We had to go through Grandma and Grandpa’s house. But inside there were all these paper skeletons, like piled up everywhere and on the ceiling and everything. So we went on through and down the hill.
I could see Mama and Celeste ahead of us. We went on, and suddenly we came to a big stone door. Something inside it opened it. A big pig like thing, with purple skin and a big stone club (made out of limestone) was there, muttering about a pie, a spinach pie.
We realized the lady was still coming after us, and I realized she was Magica de Spell. She was running after us, and she was catching up so fast, that finally I jumped down that bank that’s covered with poison oak onto the road. Then she jumped down too, and I ran and ran and ran.
Finally, I got a cardboard box and bonked her on the head and knocked her out. Then we took her back and I don’t know where we put her.
the end
Sunday, March 16, 2008
We Made It!
We are finally here!
There are lots of new things to look at and do, but first we had to buy Ruby a bed. Celeste is sleeping on a bed made from two armchairs pushed together front to front. She likes it - it's like being in a boat.
It is very windy and we can hear the ships honking at each other in the harbor sometimes. When people speak Croatian, they sound like they are speaking Russian with an Italian accent.
After Ruby's bed, we had to find out where all the food stores were, and walk to the center of town to see the old part of the city. The center of the city is an old Roman palace that the emperor Diocletian built. People still live in this part, and there are shops and everything. Many of the streets and squares in that part of the city used to be hallways in the palace, or rooms, or courtyards. The old walls are all around and between the newer houses, which are mostly medieval (when Venice ruled this area) or from Napoleon's time.
Ruby found out about the emperor Diocletian. Here's what she says:
"Diocletian was a Roman Emperor. He lived from 236 to 313, he was born in Greece and moved to Croatia when he was VII. He became a Roman emperor when he was 55, the date was 285. He was the first Roman emperor to retire. Most of them were either killed in batele or asassinated, but he retired and moved to a palace in Split with his most trust worthy Garrison. His palace is still here today!"
Celeste is fascinated by details, like the cats that are everywhere:
"Ther are many whild cats in Croatia. Thay escaped from thar oneres. Thar oneres let them out side and they ascaped."
Take care, everyone, and we will post again soon!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Zagreb (and returning to Split)
Darkness is falling on the snow as we move slowly south of Gospic. The train that was nearly empty coming from Split is now close to full, but thankfully I have a forward facing seat.
Zagreb was like visiting the city from the beach. My Californian parallel would be going to San Francisco from Santa Cruz. Zagreb seems to have been built entirely in the 18th and 19th centuries where everything in Split was built before or after that. Split is entirely white limestone and red tiles (or white painted modernist concrete with a sea-wind patina). Zagreb has trams, pastry, and sausage, looks Austrian, and dresses for the snow in the winter, wearing wool, black leather, and fur. Split has promenades and alleys, pizza, and fish, looks Italian, and dresses for an ocean storm in the winter, wearing blue and red gortex and nylon.
(the train stops. Snow on the line. We are waiting for a plow train)
For all its million people, Zagreb’s center was very accessible. The walk from the station along a series of open squares. The trams seemingly free (no one buying, selling, or stamping tickets), though there are rumors of tram inspection police. The pastry and ice creams shops put Split to shame. The old town (yes, there is one) was nice but oddly filled with Croatian government ministries.
I only visited one museum, the Strossmayer, a collection of old masters that was really inspiring. I was the only viewer there other than a couple of art students with their oils and easels. The 15th century Italian and Italian influenced work was great. Little was by top names like Bottecelli or Bellini, though they were there. The collection’s focus was on the best work of the second tier artists. It was intimate, personal and direct in a way that I have never experienced with renaissance art before.
The other cultural outing I made this morning was to Mirogoj, a huge and wonderful cemetery in the north of Zagreb. I have always loved the old London ring cemeteries like Highgate and Abney Park. They were closed around 1900 when their space filled up and their owning companies went bankrupt. But Mirogoj was what would have happened if growth had been slower and more continuous. Every family in Zagreb must have a plot and the variety of funerary architecture is, oddly, a joy to behold. Modern formalist sits side by side with Victorian melodrama. The whole thing was only marred, in an apt metaphor for the country as a whole, by the enormous Albert Speer-like tomb of Franjo Tudjman. However, a freezing wind coming down from Mount Medvedica to the north led me to cut my visit short. We shall have to come back to Zagreb in the spring.
(line cleared. On our way)
Leaving the on the train for Split I realize that it has ugly suburbs with small vegetable plots with plum and olive trees. Zagreb has ugly suburbs with tower blocks, underused factories, and barren ground. Is this why I moved to rural Santa Cruz?
Zagreb was like visiting the city from the beach. My Californian parallel would be going to San Francisco from Santa Cruz. Zagreb seems to have been built entirely in the 18th and 19th centuries where everything in Split was built before or after that. Split is entirely white limestone and red tiles (or white painted modernist concrete with a sea-wind patina). Zagreb has trams, pastry, and sausage, looks Austrian, and dresses for the snow in the winter, wearing wool, black leather, and fur. Split has promenades and alleys, pizza, and fish, looks Italian, and dresses for an ocean storm in the winter, wearing blue and red gortex and nylon.
(the train stops. Snow on the line. We are waiting for a plow train)
For all its million people, Zagreb’s center was very accessible. The walk from the station along a series of open squares. The trams seemingly free (no one buying, selling, or stamping tickets), though there are rumors of tram inspection police. The pastry and ice creams shops put Split to shame. The old town (yes, there is one) was nice but oddly filled with Croatian government ministries.
I only visited one museum, the Strossmayer, a collection of old masters that was really inspiring. I was the only viewer there other than a couple of art students with their oils and easels. The 15th century Italian and Italian influenced work was great. Little was by top names like Bottecelli or Bellini, though they were there. The collection’s focus was on the best work of the second tier artists. It was intimate, personal and direct in a way that I have never experienced with renaissance art before.
The other cultural outing I made this morning was to Mirogoj, a huge and wonderful cemetery in the north of Zagreb. I have always loved the old London ring cemeteries like Highgate and Abney Park. They were closed around 1900 when their space filled up and their owning companies went bankrupt. But Mirogoj was what would have happened if growth had been slower and more continuous. Every family in Zagreb must have a plot and the variety of funerary architecture is, oddly, a joy to behold. Modern formalist sits side by side with Victorian melodrama. The whole thing was only marred, in an apt metaphor for the country as a whole, by the enormous Albert Speer-like tomb of Franjo Tudjman. However, a freezing wind coming down from Mount Medvedica to the north led me to cut my visit short. We shall have to come back to Zagreb in the spring.
(line cleared. On our way)
Leaving the on the train for Split I realize that it has ugly suburbs with small vegetable plots with plum and olive trees. Zagreb has ugly suburbs with tower blocks, underused factories, and barren ground. Is this why I moved to rural Santa Cruz?
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Train to Zagreb
An early rise after a rainy night had me at the train station by 7:15. A short modern two car diesel passenger train had me comfortably seated in nonsmoking, but facing backwards. Alas! The train was only partially full so I could have tried rearranging but the conductor had little English and was concerned that I remained in my assigned seat, number 46.
The outskirts of Split were of partially derelict industry surrounded by a random assortment of mostly built but already lived in houses. Reminiscent of Turkey, Syria, or Jordan. Construction was an on-going activity but spread over decades and without plans, architects, or permits. The effect on northern Split was less than charming. The train proved to run on new, heavily banked, single track through the limestone hills. As windy as a minibus on a mountain round, quite surprising for a train. As we gained altitude and swerved around corners, I felt, for the first time in my life, mildly trainsick. I’m not even sure that I’ve heard the word before, but that was my state.
The limestone left little topsoil and only small fields in the dips between hills, which had thick stone walls evidencing generations of work separating rock from soil. Plums and possibly a few cherries were in bloom, but everything else looked dry and sapped of life. After an hour or so of weaving and rising, we reached Knin a small depopulated looking town that had once been the capital of Krajina, the Serbian separatist state taken over by the Croatian army in 1995. Previously the majority, the serbs left/were expelled. Most went to Repulika Srbska in Bosnia or to Serbia proper. It didn’t look like many people moved into the houses. For the next couple of hours, roofless or boarded up houses became common, maybe a fifth to a third of all the buildings.
Next we hit snow. Just a light dusting here and there to start. In some way it made it all the sadder. Gracac was also grim, but in a less abandoned, more communist way. It started snowing properly and the cover grew to an inch and slowly to about two. The limestone started giving way to other stones, never going away but losing its dominance. Trees moved from the stunted oak and tiny pines of the coast to larger birches and others all bare of leaf but holding some damp snow, then as we got the mountains proper, different taller pines and some yew or cedar, droopy and working to shed the snow, now closer to four inches thick.
Then, four and a half hours into the trip, we started to decend. The snow returned to a light dust and then we were surrounded by open fields, but now green with clay and substance to the soil. Suburbs marked our approach to the capital and finally Zagreb station. Small by some European standards, but huge for Croatia. This city has more than a fifth of the country's population. But more n Zagreb tomorrow
The outskirts of Split were of partially derelict industry surrounded by a random assortment of mostly built but already lived in houses. Reminiscent of Turkey, Syria, or Jordan. Construction was an on-going activity but spread over decades and without plans, architects, or permits. The effect on northern Split was less than charming. The train proved to run on new, heavily banked, single track through the limestone hills. As windy as a minibus on a mountain round, quite surprising for a train. As we gained altitude and swerved around corners, I felt, for the first time in my life, mildly trainsick. I’m not even sure that I’ve heard the word before, but that was my state.
The limestone left little topsoil and only small fields in the dips between hills, which had thick stone walls evidencing generations of work separating rock from soil. Plums and possibly a few cherries were in bloom, but everything else looked dry and sapped of life. After an hour or so of weaving and rising, we reached Knin a small depopulated looking town that had once been the capital of Krajina, the Serbian separatist state taken over by the Croatian army in 1995. Previously the majority, the serbs left/were expelled. Most went to Repulika Srbska in Bosnia or to Serbia proper. It didn’t look like many people moved into the houses. For the next couple of hours, roofless or boarded up houses became common, maybe a fifth to a third of all the buildings.
Next we hit snow. Just a light dusting here and there to start. In some way it made it all the sadder. Gracac was also grim, but in a less abandoned, more communist way. It started snowing properly and the cover grew to an inch and slowly to about two. The limestone started giving way to other stones, never going away but losing its dominance. Trees moved from the stunted oak and tiny pines of the coast to larger birches and others all bare of leaf but holding some damp snow, then as we got the mountains proper, different taller pines and some yew or cedar, droopy and working to shed the snow, now closer to four inches thick.
Then, four and a half hours into the trip, we started to decend. The snow returned to a light dust and then we were surrounded by open fields, but now green with clay and substance to the soil. Suburbs marked our approach to the capital and finally Zagreb station. Small by some European standards, but huge for Croatia. This city has more than a fifth of the country's population. But more n Zagreb tomorrow
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