A Visit From Mirko

Our apartment this year is at the corner of Prijateljeva (meaning friend in Slovene) and Privoz (meaning connection).  When our favorite person from Belgrade came to visit last week, he was enamored with how fitting he thought this was.  “You have to be kidding!” he said (add a thick Slavic accent…think “You have to be pulling on my leg!” from Despicable Me).

Of course, with Mirko in town, we had four days with no down time, which is one reason we’ve gotten so behind on blogs.  Mirko has a giant heart, especially when it comes to kids, and is simply enthusiastic about life.  He brought games for the girls and Legos for Sy, and gifts for the two of us as well.  We can’t say that we did anything particularly exciting, but it was all of the little thing: playing Frisbee at the park, going to Neboticnik to see the Super Moon (which just happened to pop out right next to the castle from behind the clouds as we arrived…it must have known Mirko was with us),  buying balloons in Preseren Square, watching the World Cup, listening to Mirko’s excitement about Novak Djokovic winning Wimbledon, and, of course, plenty of ice cream cones.

One of the things I love about spending time with Mirko is that I always learn something…about interacting with others, about politics, about life.  Some of this is that I don’t often hear the perspective of a Serb, but a lot of it is just Mirko.  I have to admit that I had little interest in watching the World Cup final – in fact, I had to turn off the Brewer game to watch it (What? You have to be pulling on my leg!) – but I did just to experience it with Mirko.

It was great to see him, and tough to see him get on the bus to head home.  Even Sy, who gave up his bed and slept on the floor for three nights, was sad.

By they way, apparently it was the Tooth Mouse who visited us the other night.  And she leaves Euros.