Expat life

Aruba

~ au

Dugo ne pišem, i bijaše mi malo žao da nisam Arubu ni spomenula. To je jedna od mojih životnih želja koje se već godinama vuku… i to je zapravo bio razlog zašto sam pristala da se preselim u SAD na koju godinu 😀
Prošle godine u decembru smo preskočili put u hladnu Evropu i okrenuli nos prema Karibima, ne bili sebi digli nivo malo. Kad ćemo ako ne sada?

Aruba je ostrvo blizu obale Venecuele. Ima fantastično vrijeme i plaže kao i snova. Takođe leži izvan pojasa uragana, što ovo ostrvo čini odličnim za posjećivanja u bilo koje doba godine.

Noćili smo u tad novom hotelu Radisson. Hotel je bio toliko nov da kuhinja nije čak ni uključena bila…to nas je koštalo dobrih para jer smo “morali” svaki dan ručak i večeru po restoranima da jedemo😂. Ako ikad odete u Arubu, planirajte pofin dio novca za hranu…

Što me pravo šokiralo kad smo stigli na Baby beach je bio pogled na jednu RAFINERIJU nafte?? Baby beach je inače jedan mali zaliv, gdje nije toliko duboka voda tako da su se djeca tu kupala, hem “Baby”. Rafinerija je danas zatvorena, ali se toj obali i dalje ne smije približiti. Pretpostavljam da je to sve zagađeno i da nije baš adekvatno sanirano. Ja, ni dan danas, ne mogu da shvatim koji moraš biti tip čovjeka, da postaviš rafineriju na Arubskim plažama gdje se djeca kupaju…

Jedna stvar koja je upadljiva bila, a koja se naravno ne postavlja baš na svoj instagram je da su neke plaže pune smeća. Struje to smeće izbace i tek se onda može malo pretpostaviti koliko su naša mora ustvari zagađena.

Kad smo već na toj temi, druga upadljiva stvar je, morala sam to potvrditi od lokalnih ljudi, da nivo mora raste. Na mnogo mjesta se vide drveća u vodi stoje, par metara od plaže odaljena. Osušena, kao neke statue koje pokazuju budućnost mnogih mjesta koji su na morima. Iako lijepo izgleda, bićemo sretni ako Aruba ostane ostrvo slijedečih 30-tak godina. Sve mi se čini da će Arubu more progutati i da će ostati samo jedna lijepa uspomena, sjećanje na sve što smo imali.

Onako malo smiješna informacija što su nam ispričali na ostrvu…. znate onaj predivni pjesak što je sitan kao brašno i u kojem možeš da satima samo čaprkaš nogama… to su ustvari fekalije od riba 😀

U Arubi smo naučili da je “supa od Iguana” domaće jelo koje su, srećom, zabranili. Znači to bi bila supa od guštera. A Iguana gušter je kao jedan mini-dinosaur. Fantastično stvorenje koje treba da živi a ne da ga ljudi jedu.

I za kraj, mislim da nisam ljepši novac vidjela nego Arubske Funte. Pogledajte i sami odlučite.

Toliko od mene… do slijedećeg puta 💕

Moving in…/ Useljenje…

~ au

There is one thing I have noticed here in US and that is don’t take anything for granted. Be foolproof.
For example we got a pretty threatening mail from the moving company that we have to take the furniture on the exact day that they had planned or we have to pay for the storage. Since it is a ship container that can easily cost over 1000 USD per day. Of course we agreed to take the furniture.

Postoji jedna stvar koju sam primjetila u Americi ai to je da ne uzimam ništa zdravo za gotovo. Morate napraviti plan takav da svaka budala može da ga prati…ergo automatizirati sve. Nije ni čudo što su najuspješniji u programiranju. Njihov mozak je takav. Kao kompjuter…Ako je x uradi y, ako je y uradi z. Čim je nešto komplikovanije ode sve u vraga.
Na primjer dobili smo prijeteća pisma iz kompanije koja donosi naš namještaj da moramo uzeti svoj namještaj baš tog datuma kojeg su oni planirali ili moramo na svoje trošak platiti  skladište. Priča je o brodskom kontejneru koji lako može košta preko 1000-2000 USD… dnevno!
Naravno da smo rekli uzeti namještaj.

Since, there is a company that is taking care of everything that has to do with us moving I expected that they had it all organised means…we have the temporary living furniture in the house that first has to be removed before our furniture is placed.
I would then expect this company to organise it in such way that this rented furniture, obviously, is removed before our own furniture comes.
I was thinking of asking/ reminding the lady in the company to double check both the “rented furniture company” and the shipment company to avoid any mistakes but then thought this company deals with such things every day. They know this and they would get angry with me making their job.

Budući da postoji firma koja se koordinira sve što ima veze s našom selidbom, očekivala sam da su sve to organizovali …jer imamo privremeni pozajmljei namještaj u kući koji se prvo mora iznijeti prije nego naš namještaj bude postavljen.
I naravno očekujem da ova firma organizuje sve toi na takav način iznajmljeni namještaj sklone prije naš namještaj dođe
Razmišljala sam da pitam / podsjetim damu u firmi da ipak provjeri i dogovori sa firmom 1 koja sklanja iznajmljeni namještaj i firmom 2 što utovara naš namještaj iz kontejnera. Ali onda sam kontala pa to svaki dan rade, (valjda) to znaju i reće da sam ona naporna čvaka koja joj pametuje.

The day our furniture came was rainy. Really rainy. The container was standing in front of our house and I was asking the guy where the other group is that will remove the furniture inside. He didn’t even know there is furniture there. Such a mess.
The guys loaded tons of things and the house transformed from empty to overfull. We had over 250 cartons of stuff !!

Dan kada je namještaj stigao bio je kišovit. Onako kiša je padala kao iz kabla. Kontejner je stajao ispred naše kuće i pitala sam vozaća gdje je druga grupa koja treba iznijeti iznajmljeni namještaj. Šofer nije čak ni znao da u kući postoji iznajmljen namještaj. Koji haos ! Toliko sam se iznervirala da sam ih sve mogla od zid lupiti.
Kako su počeli tovariti stvari iz kontejnera u kuću, kuća se polako pretvarala iz prazne kuće u kuću gdje vlada haos koji ni u univerzumu ne vlada i gdje se ništa ne može naći. Imali smo preko 250 kartona stvari!!

The funny/ weird thing though is that these guys that were bringing our furniture knew that the other guys removing the rented furniture will not come and despite that they brought all the furniture to all the rooms.
Then they announced that they couldn’t assemble our furniture due to limited space and will be back in 2 weeks. I said there is no chance we can live like this with boxes everywhere. In some rooms you couldn’t even enter. So then these poor/smart guys where told by their chefs to move anything that was in the way into our garage. Sometimes it is good to think before doing something or you end up doing it twice…

Smiješno / čudno je to što su ovi momci koji su donosili naš nameštaj znali da drugi momci koji trebaju skloniti iznajmljeni nameštaj neće doći i ipak (???) su sav nameštaj u sve sobe prenijeli.
Kad su to uradili najavili su da ne mogu montirati naš namještaj zbog ograničenog prostora i da će se vratiti za 2 tjedna!! Rekala sam da nema šanse da ovako živimo u haosu sa kutijama i gdje trebaju i gdje ne trebaju biti. U nekim sobama se čak nije moglo ni ući!!
Zvala sam curu u firmi koja organizuje sve, koja je dalje zvala i naredba je stigla.
Sve što ne mogu napraviti ili što smeta da smjeste u našu garažu. I tako su ti oni sav onaj namještaj ponovo morali nositi nazad u garažu.
Ponekad je dobro misliti prije nego što nešto uradite ili završite dva puta … 

At least someone has fun 🙂 / Bar je nekom zanimljivo 🙂

And the one thing that beats my mind… when they carried the wardrobe up the stairs they hit the wall on a couple of spots. In Europe the wardrobe would be damaged…here the walls got damaged hehe unbelievable…:D

I jedna stvar koja mi je pala na pamet … kada su nosili garderobu uz stepenice, udarili su od zid na par mjesta. U Evropi bi oštetili ormar a ovdje su zidovi oštećeni ostali …nevjerojatno …: D 

And on top of all this…the kitchen was so dirty we had to use spatula to get off the grease from the kitchen cabinets…

I vrh toga…kuhinja je bila tako prljava da smo sa špahtlom morali skidati masnoću sa viseći u kuhinji…

Library and the American (lack of) culture / Biblioteka i američka (ne)kultura

~ au ~ 2 Comments

One of the things I love and I want my kids to love is the visits to the library. I assume that every city has a public library and so I found out about the public library in White Plains.
The building seems to be built in 60’s which means it is really ugly (my opinion).

But like in many other things it is the inside that counts. Inside is ok. It is for sure not the most beautiful library but it works fine. The trick here was though that even if living in White plains we couldn’t register in this library but we had to go to another town to which our community belongs to and register as members. Means unless you know exactly to which library you need to go, check it up before going to one, or do like us. Drive her and forth to get a library member ship.
The thing that it is for free in the land where everything costs a fortune was motivating.
They have very nice exhibition of different things that schoolers have done which I find very nice of the city to show as proper art. It has a very big children area with toys as well as very nice books which is what I essentially need.

Jedna od stvarih koje volim i koju hoću da mi djeca zavole su posjete u magični svijet biblioteke. Pretpostavila sam da svaki grad ima neku gradsku biblioteku i tako sam pronašla jednu i u White plains. Zgrada je napravljena u nekim 60- ili 70-im što znači da je izrazito ružna (moje mišljenje).
Ali kao u dosta stvari računa se unutrašnji dio i tu je ok. Nije sigurno najljepša biblioteka koju sam vidjela ali haj, ispunjava svoju funkciju.
Naravno nije bilo samo ući i prijaviti se kao član nego su skontali da pod našom adresom pripadamo nekom drugom gradu tako da sam maksuz otišla u drugi grad da nabavim bibliotetsku karticu… Samim tim ako ikad dođete živjeti ovdje onda se preispitajte kojoj biblioteci pripadate jer u današnjenjem visokotehničkom dobu sa internetom i tako to ne možeš da se registruješ bilo gdje nego samo tu gdje pripadaš:P
U državi gdje sve košta jedno bogatstvo osim članstva u biblioteci (džabe) to me onda malo motivisalo da se vozikam tamo vamo.
U biblioteci imaju lijepe izložbe od raznih stvari od raznih školaraca što mi se baš svidjelo jer prikazuju školsku kulturu na lijep način.
Dalje ima velik odjel za djecu gdje imaju čak igračke i dobre knjige (što je u biti zbog čega smo došli). Slabi su sa “internacionalnim gradivom” što me dovodi do zaključka da ovdje naših ili ne postoje ili ne čitaju. Ali ne vrijedi samo za naše nego i za švede ako ćemo biti korektni.

During the day they have some activities for kids which is nice when you have no where to put your youngest kid.
One thing though is their café which is also nice but they serve everything in paper mugs or plastic.
I do not like to eat soups from a paper mug unless I really really have to. But in a “everyday healthy” café with “organic coffee” I don’t see the point of using paper mugs, plates and plastic cutlery. It just looks very cheap!
Another thing is the soup doesn’t cool down so I asked for a porcelain plate for my son and they didn’t have one single normal plate in the whole café. I was asking in three different ways about the plate thinking they hadn’t understood me…then an old lady proudly (?) tells me that is American “culture”. I was looking at her and swallowed and fought with myself for a moment.
I wanted to tell her lady ” ballet, opera, wonderful art are culture. Culture is something positive for the environment. Drinking coffee in a paper/plastic mug is NOT culture it is actually LACK of culture! Maybe it turns culture the day all the Michelin star restaurants start serving their food on paper plates and plastic mugs… but until then… it is for sure not “culture”!
Then I remembered I was here to learn about new “cultures” , to open MY mind not someoneelses mind. So I took my kids out to the kids area and let them choose some books. These are the first books they borrowed in an American library 🙂

First borrowed books in an American library/ Prve iznajmljene knjige u jednoj američkoj biblioteci

U toku dana drže se aktivnosti za djecu koje su super kad nemaš gdje ostaviti najmlađe dijete.
Imaju i kafić! Everyday health (Svaki dan zdravo? ili kako to da prevedem). Ono fazon ekologija sa ekološkom kafom i hranom…koja se servira u papirnim tanjirima sa plastičnim escajgom? Nisam skontala to korištenje papirnih tanjira, plastičnih čaša i to. Meni to samo izgleda jeftino a da ne pričam o promjeni ukusa kafe, hrane itd.  ili zagađivanju prirode.
A onda nastane problem da se supa neće da ohladi i hem tako ti ja odem pitati imaju li oni “prave” tanjire…ali me nisu skontale. Pa sam na više načina probala da objasnim da hoću porculanski tanjir… tu mi se onda jedna starija žena ponosno (?) obrati i reče da je to “američka kultura”. Nekoliko sam je momenata posmatrala i borila sama sa sobom. Htjela sam joj reći “ gospođo, balet, opera, divno slikanje su kultura. Kultura je nešto pozitivno za okoliš. Piti kafu u papirnim /plastičnim šoljama NIJE kultura to je, ako ćemo pravo, NEDOSTATAK kulture! Možda postane kultura tog dana kad Michelin restorani počnu servirati na papirnim tanjirima i plastičnim čašama…ali do tad… ovo sigurno nije “kultura”.
I onda sam se podsjetila da sam JA ta što sam došla da se učim o novim kulturama i običajima, da otvorim svoj um a ne tuđi. Tako da sam se (kiselo) nasmijala i djecu pozvala i otišli smo u magični svijet knjiga. A ovo su prve knjige koje su izabrali u jednoj američkoj biblioteci 🙂

White Plains – stay in a hotel

~ au

After arriving to the hotel and then experience the first chock with one bed to little we made a complaint and got a bigger room with two beds but from the next day. It is not a catastrophy but after such a long trip that is the least problem you want to have… where to sleep :/
So can someone please tell me how someone comes to the idea to book one room with one bed for 4 people?
Anyway… the rooms where nice and it is more like a small apartment, since we are stying here for a week or two that is ok. Funny thing is though that in each bedroom there is a tv. All in all three tv:s in one apartment… People seem to like watching tv here.

Since we are living in hotels since a couple of days we had a lot of laundry to do so imagine my chock when I heard that each wash is like 2.5 USD and additional 2 USD for the laundry detergent. 4.5 USD for one wash :/

At least someone liked to put in coins…:P

One thing I couldn’t even imagine was that they don’t have the plastic bottle deposit for all plastic bottles but only for some bottles in some places.
I hope I have misunderstood it and there is a system that I still haven’t found out but for the greatest economy in the world it is a disgrace if they don’t have it for each and every plastic bottle.

Today we also went to see the house we rented. It was in much worse shape than we expected and it was left very dirty so we got approvement from the company that we can paint the worse rooms.
Let’s see how that turns out!

Arriving in USA- Newark

~ au

In the morning we ate breakfast and immediately went to the airport with all our luggage. We had all in all 5 big suitcases , two small and additional backpacks, and two car sits for the kids… and two small kids that were, to say the least, excited.
We had to give back the rental car and it took some time. Then suddenly all the baggage cars where gone. Like vanished. No where to find. After some 15-20 min we finally got some and could than continue.
We made the check in (sounds like it took 5 min but in reality it was an Odyssey) and then we finally entered the business lounge. We prepared the kids for the flight, talked and wondered why only our kids run, scream, dance, climb, hide and so on.
I couldn’t tell if people smiled at us because the kids were fun or because they felt sorry for us. In any case the wilder the kids got the more I feared that this will be a long…very long journey.
I mentally prepared for the worst on top of the feeling of actually not liking to fly.
Taking our seats we were served whatever we wanted in real glass not plastic! So much about the “security” and the prohibition of bringing all possible things on the plane.

The kids got the cutest airplanes! I got champagne !

I promised Ada that she could watch as many cartoons as she wanted!
And shortly after taking off the food came. It was tasty like real restaurant food.

However, lucky me my back started hurting from all the bags I had been carrying and lifting up and down so I could hardly sit during the flight.
The pilots where really flying fast because we landed almost an hour before the schedule.

Finally we arrived in Newark!!!
After the most stupid and useless control I have experienced in any of my trips ever (of course we are not allowed to take picture there) we finally got out from the airplane.
A taxi waited for us and drove us to a hotel in White Plains. If you are an expat and deal with Americans my tip to you is to be VERY specific (foolproof) in what you want.
For example we needed a hotel room for four people and also said that expecting well beds for all…
We got one bed and a couch??
After paying business class tickets for the whole family they save money by booking a hotel with one bed for a family and that after a 20 hrs trip… No comment!
Welcome to America 😛