Culture Shock

Quality Croatian music videos as creative as this one (scroll down to see the video) are very rare.  Here are 10 reasons why this one is worth blogging about: 10. It promotes Croatia.  I'll be honest, it's hard to find 6 guys so fist-pumpingly excited to live in this country. 9. It does so without showing a glimpse of the coast.  Don't get me wrong, the Croatian coast is amazing, but sometimes people don't realize there's a lot more to this country than the Adriatic. 8.  It's a catchy song. 7. Trombone - a rare instrument in this country. By the way, I was playing at a funeral one time (no, not that one) and after looking at my trombone one of the participants asked: "Jel' to srpski truba?" "Is that a Serbian trumpet?" (Apparently anything that's foreign must be from Serbia.) 6. It makes my boys dance.  And I mean dance. 5.  The blue truck.  Blue trucks are the stereotypical Roma vehicle in Croatia.  Maybe I'm read...

Dear Friends, After taking Emily and Petra to a local office to apply for our daughter's citizenship, I am not surprised that  Steve Job 's life was less celebrated here in Croatia than it was in America. Believe it or not, this picture was taken in October of 2011. It's not that the internet, personal computers, electronic handheld devices, or various other communication systems are not utilized in Croatia.  By no means!  It's just that they are not used in the places where they could arguably be the most useful.  This worker was very friendly.  And if he was confused, it stemmed more from our daughter being born into a unique (for small-town Croatia) dual citizenship marriage. Yes, typewriters are still used all over Croatia.  I find this strange in a land that is becoming more and more like Western-Europe everyday.  My inclination is to hang this cultural difference in the closet that already holds most of the shocking things I've encounter...

As we were waiting for our third child to arrive, my wife and I took a trip down memory lane.  The vehicle was this blog.  As we were finishing, I heard something I never thought I'd hear: "Honey, I'm so glad you started this blog." The culture shock never ends. It's with that in mind that I continue to blog despite more craziness in our house than ever before.  This post will take a look at the birth of one third of that craziness. Fortunately Petra didn't have 59 hours of contractions like she did with Enoh , nor were the last few hours of labor as difficult as they were with Ian .  The speed with which our third arrived is a remarkable thing indeed.  Here are the details of the last half hour before our beautiful daughter was born.  Petra's contractions began around 8 pm on the 20th, then got closer and closer until the morning of the 21st: 6:07 am: Petra opens the front door to begin our short trip.  Despite being in the middle of a contra...