Viva Livada Lavanda

back in croatia after a great trip home for passover, and a ridiculous paganello (placing 10 with slovenia's frizmi, very good finish), i spent the weekend planting lavender with ogi livada and marina piria, two great friends. (i was their best man!!) lots of people came out to the small farm, about 45 minutes from the city. we feasted and bonfired at night and camped. beautiful. here's a shot at sunset, when it was finally cool out.
they have even more land though not much capital or mechanization (yet). they are interested in other crops but at this point are starting with one thing.

when harvest comes, they can either sell to a wholesaler (fixed price), to a small business who make lavender products (a little bit more volatile pricing but higher on the high side), or they could start making products themselves and potentially sell at a market (quite a risky venture at this point). this is ogi, toiling away:


there was plenty of water, beer, wine. extraordinary quantities of domestic food, like beans and sausages, bread and cheese, quantities of peanuts you wouldn't believe. now back in zagreb i have planted a few lavender plants on my balcony of the apartment, so i have my own to tend to. picked up some cilantro, basil and mint, and going to grow those too. almost grill season too...

Burla Beach Cup, Viareggio Italia

Hey gang, my contract with the UN has finished and I'm interviewing for new positions around town. (Was interested in staying on there, but the funding available to pay me wouldn't kick in until January '07, so I've got to move on.) It's all taking time, but I'll report back on the interesting things on the horizon as they get a bit closer. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to mom, dad, and Jess's arrival the end of the week. I'll meet up with them in Villach, Austria (named by dad as the Meredith, NH of the Alps), and take a train through the Julian Alps to Ljubljana. After a stop there and a visit to Zagreb, we'll rent a car and head down the coast. Trogir, Split, islands, Dubrovnik. A week on the coast, hop a plane to Budapest, and that's all she wrote! Should be great.

Here are some photos from Burla Beach Cup, an ultimate tournament in Viareggio, Italy. Long trip, awesome tourney. Beautiful beach and mountains outside Pisa/Florence. Thanks to Gregor and Sigi, I played with Catchup (Graz, Austria). The most fun of the weekend was being part of getting the team all on the same page with a balance of having fun (read: not caring about turnovers and mistakes) and winning. Being tactful about having the right lineups out on the sand was key, and the weekend ended up a lot of fun.

Michelle made it over from Barcelona for the tournament, and joined up with Catchup. That was great, except for a three hour, post-midnight search for each other in the wilds of rural Viareggio on the night she arrived. We rolled in to different campsites. She planned to walk from hers to mine, when she got there around 1:30 in the morning. We agreed to meet halfway - but each respectively got directions that led us effectively around a big rectangle, following each other but never meeting. Eventually found each other and made it to the bunks around 4:30am. Yeesh! The weekend was awesome, well worth the trip.

Michelle's visit and frisbee camp in ljubljana

Hey everyone, the past few weeks have been busy and exciting.

Michelle came to visit, en route to Barcelona. We hopped on a train to Split and a ferry to the island Hvar, where we swam, cooked, slept and threw frisbees. Dalmatian speed meandered into our lives, so we took it easy the whole time.

After she left, I had an interesting week at work, getting to know people from Iskorak, the NGO representing gay people in Zagreb. This was part of a training in Respondent Driven Sampling, a new technique for gathering biological and behavioural data on hard to reach populations. In Zagreb, a group of public health institutions are running a pilot of RDS, to find out more about injecting drug users and men who have sex with men. The goal is to find out about behavioural risk factors and biological stats, in order to create more targeted interventions. RDS is a relatively new derivative of snowball sampling (don't think Clerks) that relies upon a mathematical model to adjust for the non-random networks of people. It is interesting, and after two weeks of training, I am skeptical. Anyone (public health or math people, or anyone) who wants to know more can check out www.respondentdrivensampling.org.

Anyway, got to know some fun people in town, and found out where all the gay clubs are. Anyone who wants to come visit, there is a bigger gay scene in Zagreb than one might think (but that's probably true everywhere).

This past week of training transitioned from the local implementers to an international conference on RDS. Fantastic crowd of people from all over - Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, plus Yemen, Iran, Armenia, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and others. They were mostly MDs and PhDs, interested but skeptical about the process. It was a good chance to learn about career paths and opportunities in public health. The main instructor, Lisa Johnston, did a really good job integrating the diverse group into discussions, all in English.

The biggest hilite of the last two weeks, though, was the ultimate frisbee camp in Ljubljana. the weekend in ljubljana was better than i could have hoped for. we brought 8, frizmi (from ljubljana) had 20+, catchup (graz) contributed three assistant coaches, plus we had coach greg 'scoops' connelly. he did a very very good
job, and left everyone wanting more. great combos and sequence, and he explained things very clearly. ultimate seems very cerebral for him, the way i imagine golf is, for people who understand golf.

we all stayed at houses of frizmi players, none of which was more than ten minutes drive from the fields. the fields were in view of the mountains, reminiscent of playing in boulder (with jess bloomer when i biked through on HBC) but without the gasping for air. and the players from ljubljana are so great. ljubljana is beautiful.

with the kick in the pants/carrot/stick of this weekend, my team now
seems really in a crucible, regarding the level of intensity it wants to commit to. out of eight, there were five or six who were on the same page regarding effort and commitment, and the remainder had
different expectations (and often have a guitar or beer in hand, which is still great). i'm concentrating on not being too far away
from the upper third of expectations. one play epitomized the whole
thing. on sunday we taught a basic zone, for offense and defense.
mali dim had the ball on our own goal line, against a breeze.
three handlers, with our least serious player stuck out in right field. we worked the disc a remarkable 60 passes, no turnovers.
only three or four chancy throws, and those were reasonable. then we
busted it wide open and ended up so close to the goal that our deep
guy received a five yard pass in front of the goal. he proceeded to
immediately throw a hammer out the side of the endzone, while the rest of the team's collective heart sank. this was just the kind of moment when people ask themselves about the level of commitment and effort we want to put in. for better or worse it puts a fine point on the team mentality and who needs to be on the field.

the group of people is thinking about what they want to be, and it's not just because of me anymore. they are seeing a bigger picture of the sport and everything, and now they can make real choices. i do hope their choices involve hardd work, but i will have to deal with whatever comes out of it.

that said, rebeca and mak have been running every other day at the
track, and ogi and marina appear to be in good shape too. and frki is a pimp. so there's a basis for this. we just picked up an ex-pat who is a balkan historian, post-doc, just moved to zagreb. and there is at least one guy from my gym who has now been caught by the magnet. and he is fit to say the least.

even if mali dim doesn't become bmo and fulfill all of my hopes and
dreams, i am trying to fill the competitive void - for myself, as well as for the byproduct of being able to be nicer to everyone on the field here in zagreb. so, i am playing in tournaments with some
better teams, finally taking them up on the offers. thinking of getting involved in some road races, if i find them. burns, any thoughts?

there is a picture up top of all of us in ljubljana.

Istria and Opatija

The Roman arena in Pula, Istria.


Sanja Komadina, Zeljka and me, in front of the statue of Madonina in Opatija.


My adventures in Istria last weekend:

* Two concerts of Los Caballeros, the Croatian mariachi band.

* One plate of delicious lamb, slow-roasted on a spit.

* One big mistake: eating the undercooked lamb kidney at the urging of Tomislav Frkovic.

* Negotiating a settlement with a group of female German tourists after they rear-ended our car.

* Poaching a beach campsite.

* The big hilite was meeting Sanja Komadina, a friend of Sanja Pirsl (of Ron Landsman fame). She showed me all around Rijeka and Opatija, and we chilled for an afternoon with her friend Zeljka, a med student.

* The other main event was meeting up with my friend and teaching mentor, Maja Marijanovic. She lives in Pula, and gave Frki and me an afternoon historical city tour. I sat with a statue of James Joyce, who lived there for a time. Pula is lovely, and feels Italian. The great Roman arena imposes over the whole city. Joyce apparently did not like Pula; this puts me on the right side of Pula and the right side of Joyce, if you ask me.

Istria

I just returned from a weekend in Istria, including a stop at the Roman arena in Pula, and a personal tour from my friend and teaching mentor, Maja. I also had the chance to meet and hang out in Rijeka/Opatija with Sanja Komadina, who I got to know through my good friend Sanja Pirsl.

More on that to come when I get some photos. In the meantime, here is the website of Zare, my main man at the gym. http://honda-wwwhondazg.blogspot.com/. Check it out, and picture me lifting weights with this guy, four or five days a week. Yowza.

Jana and Jelsa

So work is slow in Croatia during the summer - a lot of holidays. So it gives me a chance to get to the coast and other places.
Last week I got to help Ogi and Marina at their new house in Sveta Jana, outside Zagreb. The house is a fixer upper. That day we mixed/laid concrete for a kitchen and bathroom, and I dug part of a septic trench. Here's Marina laying concrete:


Here is the captain of Slovenian ultimate, and good friend of mine, Kista. I visited him for a week on the island of Hvar, a ferry ride from Split. His gf Ana was also there for a bit, and we stayed with Kista's parents at their house in the town of Jelsa. Beautiful. Night life too.


Hvar, and much of the Dalmatian coast, feels closer to Italy than Croatia. The town center, which in the rest of Croatia would be called a 'Trg,' is in Jelsa called 'Piazza.' Here is the piazza in Jelsa:


Me, above Jelsa, after a day of running, throwing frisbees, swimming, coffee and beer:

Extremfeiner Schottercup

Last Friday, Dario and I rather impulsively hopped on a train from Zagreb to Graz, Austria, where there was an ultimate tournament this weekend, http://www.frisbee-graz.info/schottercup. We didn't have a team to play on, directions to the fields, or any sort of 'plan,' and it was pouring down rain when we arrived on Friday afternoon. It was perfect, and we had an awesome time. Seeing ultimate friends from all over this region is reason enough, and we also spent a fun afternoon on a walking tour written and emailed by none other than Julz Katzenbeisser of a team called Chuck Bronson, in Vienna.

Here is my favorite picture of the weekend, sent from Rytz Richtsfeld of Graz Catchup, the tourney hosts. The players at these tournaments are mostly great friends, and there are many very happy moments during play. This shot was taken just after I faked the disc, Rytz called 'up,' and looked away, literally said out loud 'where is the disc?', and then turned around to see it still in my hand. We both laughed hard, and he had the spirit to send me this great picture, with the Zip-esque caption, 'You got me':


I've said it before and I'll say it again: she is the best ultimate player in all of Europe, Julz:


Greg Connelly (former coach of the Brown women's team) pops up everywhere, from Mount Washington (on a bike) to Graz, Austria, where I found him lined up to guard me in the first game on Sunday. Also pictured, another cool expat named Gilbert. The three amigos:


On the pre-tournament tour, Dario and I climbed the steps up Schlossberg, and took a look at the city, including the big friendly alien in the center. I also learned to count big numbers Croatian on the steps up:


Dario, rising Croatian ultimate stud and big punk:


The Felix, a quick and explosive ultimate player, and exhibitionist of Parkour, a new generation of freestyle running, www.parkour.com:


Slovenia and Croatia representing in Austria...Damian, Maja, Me, Jasmina and Dario:



Finally, the cats Dario and I played with, Stack Overflow, www.omikron.at. Saturday was notable only for featuring particularly miserable ultimate, but bits of improvement game-by-game ended up with a remarkable day Sunday. We upset a very fun and good-spirited Chuck Bronson team, guaranteeing us a placement game higher than playing for last or next-to-last. Excellent. We gave Catchup a run for their money in that ninth place game, showing a much better side than we had when we played Catchup the first time on Saturday:

Frisbee and film festival

The tournament last weekend was a big success, with some ups and downs. We came out slow both mornings - not a battle-hardened group. The defense on Saturday was outstanding. When we got beaten it was usually on the break side with something exciting. Our open side D really declined on Sunday, when people were more tired and satisfied to just chase the cutters. Dario and Frki are coming into their own, and we owe a big thank you to Jakob (from Austria), plus Jill and Kris (from Calgary) for picking up with our team and elevating the level of play. It is tough to get better when you only play with new players, so the infusion of more experienced people was excellent. Stacie and Ilana (our American med student friends) started out as great cheerleaders but worked their way onto the field and scored lots of goals. Also, the guys from Mali Dim formed a pickup team in the men's division, which was the most fun playing of the weekend. We picked up a few studs from other co-ed teams, and won all of our games.

Lake Balaton was also awesome. From the train platform when we arrived, we could see the sand ultimate fields, the huge lake dotted with sailboats, the big tent already set up for the party, and a handful of bars, cafes and restaurants a stones throw from the dorms where we stayed (also within sight). Perfect setup.

And shoutout to Beatbox from Ljubljana for doing what he does best.

Back in Zagreb, last night I went with Dudo and Sanja from work to the Tabor Film Festival, at Veliki Tabor Castle. We made an afternoon of it, and did end up watching some films there. On our way we stopped for a coffee at a lovely, renovated hotel: http://www.bezanec.hr/. Before going straight to the film festival, we ate a traditional meal on top of a steep drive, overlooking the hillside farms and the castle. For appetizers we had homemade bread with spek (a spread of pure fat) and a salad of lettuce, cabbage, cucumber and tomato, doused in vinegar. I ate the dragon steak, which consisted of lamb with carrots and potatos in a gravy.

The film festival itself was sleepy during the day (the party starts at night), though a friend of a friend was on a film crew for a movie about knights and damsels. Visitors set up their tents for camping outside the castle. Inside, the place is awesome and being renovated to become a mainline tourist attraction. There are some artifacts that are cleaned up and arranged, as was the carriage in the foyer. At the same time there was old artwork and bits of old plows and things just sitting around. In the end the films were fine but the castle was the attraction. I hope to go back:


This Friday Dario and I are heading to Graz for an afternoon of touristing and then another weekend of beach ultimate.

This weekend Mali Dim is headed to a beach ultimate tournament on Lake Balaton in Hungary. We'll have all of our studs there, and I think it will be our coming out party. Heretofore we have been a very fun and spirited team, always needing a few extra players. This weekend we might sneak up on some teams and walk away with a good result. Our best goal is to show improvement from last tournament to this one, and to keep improving from Saturday to Sunday. Tell me if I sound like coach Wicks.

We haven't played a tournament since May, so nobody has seen us in a while. The group has been training pretty well, and improving on a nice curve. I'm excited that we have more and more players who can bomb it deep, so I can cut nearly whenever I want. Should be fun this weekend! It is Dario's first tournament, and he is the growing star of Croatian ultimate. Hopefully I'll end up with a photo of him doing something sweet.

Also, it looks like we'll be joined by two visitors from the USA, Ilana and Stacie, both med students at University of San Francisco. They've been taking Zagreb by storm as part of a clinical HIV/AIDS study. This is their first ultimate tournament.

Here are some new pictures. Other than the first one nothing fancy, but Michelle and my folks have asked to see what daily life is like. More to come!

Here is the view from the island Rab, where I went with the frisbee group for a weekend of training and relaxation:


The owner and proprietor of my gym is also a former Yugoslav national bodybuilding champion:


This is one of the many cafes on Bukovacka, a street near my office. I sit here often:


Here is a little shop for buying this and that. It is around the corner from my office:


My co-teachers from Lingua Grupa, at our end of the year party. See if you can guess what they all have in common...the director of the school, Ana Mavar, says that we have the best and most beautiful language school in Croatia:

Dalmatian Coast

The water near the town of Marina, on the Dalmatian coast:

On a run up the hills, I took this picture of Marina bay:

A passageway in Trogir, old island city on the southern coast:
Fishing boats in Split, a magical and historic place...:

Champagnes at Passover

Here is a photo of Dad, Mom, Jess and me at Passover in DC earlier this year.

In Zagreb

I am back in Zagreb, and things are moving. After being in the US and spending a week in Bobbe’s garden, seeing the gang in Provi, watching BMO regionals and communing with the fam in DC and Harrisburg, I started a couple weeks ago doing work here in Zagreb at UNAIDS, for the Regional Knowledge Hub on HIV Surveillance (www.surveillancezagreb.org). I’m also teaching English (www.linguagrupa.hr), and coaching/playing ultimate (www.frizbi.hr), and getting to know life in Zagreb.

I joined a gym, Jump Fitness Centar (www.fc-jump.hr), attached to a high school. Lots of funny things happen there, including working out with a former Yugoslav body-building champion and working out perilously close to the reigning European women’s karate champion. It’s a bare-bones gym, with a great crowd.

Hopefully I will be living in the dormitory at the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, and thus far I have been crashing on couches at Rebeca and Mak’s, and at Marina and Ogi’s.

Notable events:

I was the best man and witness at Ogi and Marina’s wedding! The first question I know you’re asking…weren’t they married already? Right, apparently not. (This pair are the center of ultimate frisbee life in Zagreb, and have been incredibly loving and generous hosts when I have needed a place to stay here.) Second question…why ask me to be best man? It was a court affair, not a gala event, and there were four people (including bride and groom) in attendance. They told their parents (and even other best friends) after the fact, and I think they didn’t want a lot of hubbub, though we gave them a sweet party nonetheless. So why ask me? Still kind of a mystery, but Ognjen said I helped renew their spirit about young people and maybe having children one day. Truly, that was very touching, and I think it is why they asked me to be there in that role.

Thanks to Sanja Pirsl (a colleague of our old family friend Ron Landsman), I met Ilija Jandric, a widely known journalist, and independent reporter for Croatian State TV. He did a story on me for the Sunday night news program Dnevnik, the most popular news show here. The piece discussed why an American, well-educated and upwardly mobile, would come to Croatia. It is always a big surprise to people when they get answers to who I am and why I’m here, even though I don’t feel like I’m doing anything really extraordinary. Ilija asked all about my background, motivation and goals etc. An incredible percentage of people seem to watch that show – I can’t go anywhere without being recognized somehow. File it under ‘strange but true.’

Last weekend, our ultimate club traveled to Slovenia for a friendly match (and drinkup/bbq that would make Amy proud). Our side took five people on the 1.5 hour drive that slowly became a four hour trek, after Ogi forgot the directions and none of us volunteered our cell phone minutes to call the Slovenian players. When we finally arrived amid the raindrops, the other team donated two players to our cause, and we proceeded to play a full seven-on-seven game. I felt mostly satisfied and somewhat surprised with how hard my teammates worked on the field, and how well we did. The group is showing a lot of improvement, and the commitment level is increasing. All challengers should show up to the Lake Ballaton tournament in July. (Also, if you are an ultimate player in the area and want to come to an ultimate frisbee getaway in a beautiful place, get in touch. The Adriatic island Rab, on the weekend of June 24.)

Best thing about being back? Finally starting on some productive projects and seeing my friends here.

Worst thing about being from the states? Missing mom and dad’s thirtieth wedding anniversary.

USA

I am back in the states, seeing family and friends before returning to Southeast Europe and settling into life in Zagreb. I will post more when I go back!

My contact info in the states is the usual email address, and 717-514-2730.

Some ultimate pictures

These are from a few weeks ago in Slovenia. Thanks to the Frizmi guys for the pictures!

This is Ogi, the ultimate pioneer of Croatia:


This is Marina, top women's player in Zagreb and wife of Ogi. She also competes in badminton and she taught me to ski, and she has me on a strict diet of lemon juice, fresh honey, garlic and Mexican food while I'm sick right now. In the background of the picture, cutting in red, is Heidi-Marie from Berkeley (aren't you the woman who was recently given the second Fulbright?). She picked up with our team, and she lives in Austria playing for a sweet team called Spin.


It looks like this was the right play:

During the war...after the war...now.

Here is the Eternal Flame, Sarajevo, dedicated originally to the Liberation of Sarajevo on April 6, 1945. This is a historic spot of course and was thrilling for me to see because I started studying this region with a course at Brown on the Balkans during World War II.


So in Sarajevo you hear a lot of stories about the war and you can learn a lot very fast. And there is art all over the city commenting on life before, during and after. Here are pictures I took of EU Force trucks driving down the road and an old chopper, covered with graffiti and sitting in a yard.



As I found myself saying over and over, Bosnians know how to have a good time. I don't know if I was allowed to pay for a single beer or coffee or meal over the course of ten days there...and there was a lot of beer and coffee. I was promised that when my friends came to the U.S., I would be allowed to pay. Whether you're drinking cappuccino or Bosnian coffee for hours on end, or going out for Sarajevska beer, or if the hour grows late and people young and old start dancing on tables in bars, you're sure to have a good time. Here are my friends in Zagreb, Mahir and Sejdefa on the left, Zana and me on the right, with Eldin and his lady at the end of the table. This dinner was awesome - a tiny restaurant with some tiny sign outside. But inside, a famous tv chef (I saw him later that week on the tube) made us a fresh delish dinner in front of our very eyes.