Away for Awhile

We're checking out of Croatia for a few days! I'll write all about our travels when we return. In the meantime, I leave you with the following articles written by my boys. They wrote for a book called "Kids Living Abroad" and are excited about seeing their work published! (Me, too!)


Exploring the Neighborhood
by ~D~, age 10

I live in Zagreb, Croatia. Our neighborhood is big, but not too big in size. My brother and I have a friend that lives a few houses down the street. We usually play with him. He’s twelve and has a little brother that is six. We’ve got two soccer fields that we can go to that are both within a mile from our house; luckily soccer is my favorite sport and my brother’s is basketball. The kids in Zagreb are good at soccer. In Europe, soccer is called futbol and the football in the States is called American Football. There are a lot of little stores around here that I can buy Coca-Cola and other drinks at. People all around Zagreb start up their own businesses. I guess they have some money in the bank after all. I didn’t think so because they have so many apartments here. I think the government built all these apartments after the war they had ten years ago.

The money they use in Croatia is called Kuna. Fifty Kuna is worth ten dollars, and that’s my allowance. They have a few fast food restaurants here like McDonalds and Subway, but there isn’t Taco Bell or Burger King. The road laws aren’t as strict as in the U.S. I haven’t seen many street patrol police; as a matter of fact, I haven’t seen many cops at all. When I cross the street I have to be careful; everything else is ok. For instance, my house is kind of big. I’ve got a big downstairs to put all my toys and video games. So it’s easy to see that my neighborhood in Zagreb has many things for kids to do and is a good place to live.



Making the Trip
by ~N~, age 12

When I found out that we were moving to Croatia I was upset. I didn’t want to move away from Virginia. Now that I am here its better because I have made a few friends. I was excited to get on an airplane again because I like airplanes. When we went to Croatia we knew we were going to be able to take our cat. She had to get a lot of shots and a microchip. The chip was so if she got lost that the vet could track her down. Another thing you will want to know is that if you plan on taking a pet like a cat, dog, rabbit or anything that would be in a cage make sure that it has holes on all four sides; otherwise, you will have to do what we had to do. We didn’t know that we had to have holes in the back of the cage so we had to wait in the airport for an employee to come and drill three holes in the back of the cage, which took almost an hour. The trip was going to take about 24 hours.

My favorite part of an airplane ride is the take off because you start to go very fast and the engine is very loud. After liftoff the ground starts to become very far away and the cars are tiny and look like toys. Now the only thing you have to worry about is what you’re going to do for the hours you’ll be on the plane.

My brother and I watched movies playing on a little screen on the seat in front of us. They usually have all the new movies that just came out. If you have a PSP, IPOD, GAMEBOY, or a laptop then you should be set with plenty of entertainment. Some people bring books and magazines with them. The food on airplanes usually isn’t very good so don’t expect it to be. I think that if you are scared to fly to try not to be. You shouldn’t be scared of flying because airplanes are a thousand times safer than cars. Landing is also quite fun. Dropping about 30 thousand feet, then landing on a runway at about 300 miles an hour is quite a thrill- but only for a second, because airplanes have the best brakes of any vehicle in the world. You start to slow down very fast until you’re just going about twenty miles per hour. Then you get off the airplane at your destination.

When I first saw Croatia I didn’t really know what to think because I was still in the airport. When my cat came off the conveyer belt she was meowing like crazy and her hair was all spiked. I quickly took her off and comforted her. When we started driving I thought Croatia was quite a nice place from the front seat of the van. I think it is fun to explore new places and I hope you do too. I hope you have fun wherever you are going and that my story has helped.