Bill's Blog

Nadia and I had an emotional last day of working on campus at Tashkent International School. The seven years were the longest we worked at one school in our international educational careers. Nadia’s friends made a satire video of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, highlighting her personality quirks and unique characteristics as a teacher and colleague. She is an amazing teacher, and her students and parents adore her. Our strengths as educators are the relationships, creativity, and humanity we bring to a school community. Nadia has a greater impact on the students she sees every day, and I have a wider impact as the head of school. The school honored me by naming the new early learning childhood playground after me (Bill’s Naturescape) and a touching sign celebrating my commitment to making connections with each other and nature to create a difference in the lives of students. Hopefully I’ll see it completed when I return in August. We hugged a lot of people and shared a few memories of the good times we had together. 

Globally mobile expatriate teachers and other professionals have unusual lives. We move every few years; in our case, it is usually between 5 and 6 years, around the earth. The basic premise of schools is the same everywhere; the cultural context and resources vary greatly between schools. That is what makes it interesting for me. What time and place in history has a class of professionals been able to do this? I have literally worked on every continent except Antarctica. I still have wanderlust after over 30 years in the field, and I am very excited to take on the challenges a new school, country, and continent will bring us. As the head of school, I not only get to influence the lives of everyone in the community, students, colleagues, and families, but I also become intimately familiar with the local culture. This move will be different as Nadia and I are going back to being “empty nesters” after 25 years of raising three children. We have not been alone with each other since we moved from Perth, Western Australia, to Anaco, Venezuela, in January of 2002. 

Nadia was an absolute champion in sorting through our packing and preparing for the move. It is a complicated summer for us as our daughter Ocean graduated in May and will be enrolling in university in August. She had to decide what is going on to Cairo, what we are sending to Michigan, and what we are donating or selling. Seven years with three adolescents makes for a lot of stuff! She was the queen of the TIS Swap Shop on Telegram! I was too busy managing school affairs to be much help. I finished tidying up my office and sorting through tasks and communications after the farewell ceremonies in the morning. One of the negative aspects of being the head of an organization in post-Soviet Central Asia is the Director of the school needs to sign hundreds of documents weekly. I wonder how many times I put my signature to a contract, order, or financial data sheet? I signed my final document in person at 8:30 PM when a representative from the Centil law firm came to our home to sign a Power of Attorney.

 

Nadia arranged to move more boxes that we are shipping to Cairo when we come back in August to our friend Sarah’s house. An idea struck me that an international school regularly assigns “welcome buddies” for incoming new staff. We should also assign “farewell buddies” to help teachers pack out and complete the myriad of tasks one does when leaving a country. Mercifully, we are returning for a few days in August and we can close our local bank account, turn in the accreditation cards, return my laptop, etc. There is no way I could have completed it now. There was a rare heavy downpour and hailstorm in the early evening. After watching a bit of the Morocco versus Scotland game, I set the alarm for 3:00 AM and fell asleep around 10:00 PM. Ocean came home from her boyfriend’s house after I fell asleep. 

The final day and game of the World Cup 2026 first round of the Group Stages featured Uzbekistan versus Colombia. Kickoff was at 7:00 AM on our students’ last day of classes. Uzbeks are excited and proud of the national team, “The White Wolves”, qualifying for the first time ever. I hosted a World Cup Watch party on our new LED big screen in the multi-purpose room. It was so much fun! 

We have a newly arrived Colombian family at the school, and it was nice to give them the opportunity to watch the game in English. I brought our Apple TV and watched the game on the Fox Sports feed through our YouTube TV subscription. The assembly room was packed. Students, parents, and teachers were playing the bongo drums, cheering and soaking up the history and pageantry of the game. Colombia scored first, but Uzbekistan equalized shortly after with a beautiful goal. The Colombians just before halftime scored another goal to make it 2-1 going into the break. Both teams had chances in the second half with no goals until extra time, Colombia sealed the game with a remarkable crossing pass and header to win 3-1. I was fearful Uzbekistan would be embarrassed and play tentatively, but they had a strong performance in the loss. Uzbeks should be proud of the team! A lot more people should know Uzbekistan now! Many people in the USA give me a blank look when I say I live there. I had mixed emotions watching the game. I lived and died with the Colombian National Team when I lived in Barranquilla, Colombia in the 1990s. The team practiced at Colegio Karl C. Parrish because we had a regulation-sized field and it was not so far out of the city like the national stadium.

As you can see from the video below, soccer brought our community together! I am glad I trusted my instincts and made a big deal about the game! A special thanks to Rob B., Claire, Ramon, Hoji, Pavel, and Vadim for supporting the event. 

Younger and older students equally delighted in the experience, and it made for even greater emotions on an emotional last day of classes for students. The secondary school assembly was interrupted by another summer rainstorm. The community adjusted quickly and we finished the assembly in the gymnasium. I spent the rest of the day getting through my long Things to Do list. 

I was exhausted from hosting such a crazy event so early in the morning, and the emotions of the day. My good friend Aaron arranged a final trip to The Bani, the Russian banya that we frequently visit in the colder months. It was a fantastic way to spend my final full evening in Tashkent before Summer Break. We had a lot of laughs, good food and drink, and I slept soundly after de-stressing in the saunas and cold pools. A Russian kvass always fortifies my energy. I will miss the Russian banya and will be looking for it in my world travels. 

Peter Greste is most known for being arrested on terrorism charges as an Al Jazeera English reporter while working in Egypt in 2014. The Australian Greste worked for many years as a journalist for the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, and Reuters, predominantly in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. He describes his 400 days of surviving in Egyptian prisons. He also reflects on his career in other parts of the world, Afghanistan, Sudan, and even going back to his home country of Australia. His big takeaway from his experience was not the specifics on what happened to him and his two Al Jazeera colleagues, but the wider trend of government suppression of an independent press and violence against journalists.

Greste originally wrote this book in 2017 and called it “The First Casualty”. This is the 2025 version that was re-done in conjunction with an Australian film by the name of “The Correspondent.” Greste covers journalist deaths in theatres of war from Ukraine to Gaza. He also writes about Donald Trump’s attacks on the press, which are getting worse throughout his second term.

I was particularly interested in the story because I will be moving to Egypt in August. Egypt is a large country, Cairo is a megacity, and Egyptian culture is loud, warm, a bit crazy, with an authoritarian government and it is reflected in his prison experience. It was a tricky time for Egyptians. I recently read more about the military takeover of the government from that time. The Arab Spring started a long period of chaotic violence and economic pressures on Egypt that ended just before Greste’s arrest. I am reading up on Egyptian history in preparation of my move to the country and will write more about it.

Of course, I am for press freedom. However, with that freedom comes a responsibility for every journalist and company to report the truth. Today’s press (newspapers, broadcast news organizations, wire services) is swamped with media (entertainment, social media feeds, podcasts) and often the truth is hard to get to. This adds to the pressure journalists get from authorities.

It is interesting to compare the actor to the real person. Below is a photo of Peter Greste, and above is the rugged and grizzled actor Richard Roxburgh, who played Greste. War correspondents interest me because I live a similar life, traveling the globe. Of course, I am not going into war zones, but I do use their approach of attempting to understand a place and, more importantly, a culture as quick as I can.

I end this post with a comment Greste made about his home country of Australia that I agree with. He mentioned after returning to Australia after years abroad, he noticed that Australians are no longer the “larrikins” of his youth. I love this Australian/New Zealand word that refers to someone who is mischievous, irreverent, or a rebel against conventions. After watching Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee, me, like many Americans pictured Aussies as laid back and irreverent (larrikin), but the reality of my time there from 2000-2002 was the same as Greste’s impression. They were rule-obeying and obsessed with safety and fear of the outsider. Not what I expected. One anecdote sums this up. I received a speeding ticket for going something like 2-5 kilometers over the speed limit and got a fine of $150 AUD in the mail with a photo of my car. I was complaining about the severity of the fine for such a minor offense in the teachers’ lounge of the school I worked at in Perth. No one seemed to be bothered about the system. I also remember getting a $50 for not riding my bicycle with a helmet near my school one day. This spirit of government’s harsh measures in the name of protection showed itself during COVID.

The world needs more intelligent and funny irreverence.

The highlight of my day yesterday was taking Ocean to the dentist. She is off to university next year in the USA and I wanted to make sure she got a teeth cleaning and check-up. We too advantage of the inexpensive dentistry services outside of the USA. For the readers living in Tashkent, Smile Concept Dental Clinic gives world-class services and good prices. Ocean has been spending a lot of time (too much) with her boyfriend recently and it was just good to talk to her.

We are leaving Tashkent next weekend so most of day was spent packing. We sold a lot of our furniture as you can see in the picture looking out from our home. I repaired a bicycle that we also sold, besides sorting through closets and storage areas. You collect a lot of stuff over seven years with 3 kids. We are finding a lot of souvenirs from our children’s school years that we are going to have to ship back to the USA. Lots of warm family memories when the kids were young. We are not a big board game family, but we did play many hours of Sequence over the years. I often wrote the date and results of our games on the inside of the box as you can see in the photo below.

We are also wrapping things up at school. I hosted the USA versus Paraguay Watch Party for our school community. Some people actually showed up on a Saturday morning at 6:00 AM. The US national team had a spectactular game by scoring 4 goals! It warms my heart to see them play an attacking style of play, it suits the American temperament. They are not going to win the World Cup, so why don’t go out swinging, or I guess, kicking!

Our time is winding down in Tashkent, with only a couple of weeks left in the academic year. We had a nice time at the faculty & staff party last night at Steinbrau Restaurant. Nadia and I went for a drink at her favorite place in Tashkent, the restaurant bar at the Hyatt Regency.

I am savoring the lifestyle here before we make a big change to a new country in August. I had a delicious traditional summer lunch of Russian okroshka (окрошка) and Central Asian bulgar grains. The Russians make delicious soups, including the quintessential summer cold soup, Okroshka. The base is a lightly fermented kvass (bread drink) with fresh vegetables, dill, and this one had a nice touch of kefir, fermented goat/sheep milk. On my bike ride around the Asian Games Athletic Site, I admired the new Arch welcoming people to the city. All Uzbek cities have a “gateway” monument announcing the border of the city or region. I also managed a bike ride along the canal last Sunday evening.

More and more, I am enjoying the simpler things in life. Being out on the kayaks with the students on Friday was so refreshing. Outdoor grilling and dinner with Ocean and Nadia on our patio, and cutting the grass on a hot summer day. All experiences that give me immense pleasure and ease.

I enjoy listening to Chuck Klosterman when he is a guest on Bill Simmon’s podcast. We are similar in that we were both raised in small towns in the upper midwest, Klosterman in North Dakota and me in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I am four years older than him, but we had a similar childhood and adolescence. We also both love college football. Klosterman, in this book, writes essays about the place American football has in our culture and a lot of different angles about the sport, ranging from the differences between Canadian and American football, football as the perfect television product, the outsized role it plays in defining or reflecting American values. American football is a complicated game with 22 different positions (not including special teams) each position player needing a different set of skills. It makes it hard to follow for people who have not played or were brought up around the game.

I thought his most provocative idea was the future demise of football in our culture. He compares it to horse racing in the 20th century. Horse racing, along with boxing and baseball used to be the major sports followed in our culture. Today, it is American football, basketball, and baseball. His theory, which I’ve heard before, is horse racing fell in popularity because society lost their connection to horses. Before the automobile became popular, most people rode horses or were around horses on a farm. They had a connection to horses that naturally led to them to follow races closely. As horses faded in importance and less and less people had every day contact with the horse, the popularity of big (Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont) and small races faded as well. Today, it is a niche pastime, with the highlights of the Kentucky Derby being shown online as the only time it reaches a national audience. As I write this, I recall the Melbourne Cup, the Australian equivalent to the Kentucky Derby. When I lived in Perth, Western Australia, from 2000 to 2002, it was a big event at our school. I also went to “the trots”, harness racing, as well and betting on the horses was more popular there than in the USA. I always felt Australia was 20 years behind the USA, and that fits with that view.

Klosterman sees a connection to American football, also starting. Fewer and fewer people are playing youth and high school football. I see that at my high school (West Iron County High School), it is difficult to get enough students to go out to form a full squad. The research is showing that concussions may cause brain damage, and families with teenagers of average athletic ability are deciding it is not worth it. Like horse racing in the 20th century, Klosterman predicts football will decline in the middle of the 21st century.

I was particularly interested in his view that the second most popular sport, NCAA university football, will also decline because it is getting to be too much like the NFL. I, like many others, loved the regionalism of college football. The Big Ten Conference represented the northern Great Lakes and midwest and they played a conservative, run-oriented style of football. The SEC (South Eastern Conference) represented a football is the most important thing in our lives, and the teams of from the deep south played a more open version of the game. The West Coast passing game (Pacific 10 Conference) was again another style. When these teams met in bowl games, it was fascinating to watch the cultures and styles clash. The regionalism of college football is being lost with the influx of money. Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, USC are spending for the same players. Klosterman thinks it will become a lesser version or minor league of the NFL and lose popularity because of it. With players getting paid and having the right to transfer schools annually, their ties as “students” are becoming tenuous. Why should I cheer for the Michigan State Spartans, the traditional agricultural and teachers college representing the rural parts of Michigan, when the players are only their to be football players without studying and learning with actual students.

I recommend this book to both football fans and people who don’t like sports. Klosterman is always provocative and interesting for non-sports readers.

This is my second visit to the wonderful city of Tbilisi and the incredible country of Georgia! It is one of the favorite places I’ve visited. My family and I were here on holiday in the New Years Break. This time I am here for an Experiential Learning Conference. The green leaves in May make it even a more lovely city. Why do I like Georgia so much? The city is set in a mountain valley with tall trees and peaks everywhere. The people have a distinct culture with good DNA, with many handsome men and women. The city has a Belgrade vibe to it, with run-down apartments from the Soviet era to Georgian Orthodox churches and cathedrals. The people are engaging, proud of their country, and love good food and wine and socializing. There is still lots to explore and I hope to come back again.

I am here on business, so I didn’t get a chance to do any sightseeing. I did meet and talk with a lot of Georgians as the conference was hosted by the European School of Georgia. They were exceptional hosts and really wanted to make guests feel welcome. We were wined and dined by the host school and made to feel special.

One of the highlights was being invited to a traditional Georgian dinner for the presenters called a supra. It was held at the Funicular Restaurant on the top of a mountain overlooking the lights of the city. A tamadan or toastmaster leads the dinner with a series of toasts throughout the evening. They toast everything from Georgia, guests, their ancestors, peace, good food, beautiful women, etc. A lot of the presenters, who like to talk anyway, got up and made toasts with the help of the tamadan, who is the DP Coordinator for the school. During the meal also, a group of men sang Georgian polyphony (or mravalzhamier) songs. UNESCO put is on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and I see why. We heard a big group at the opening ceremony and another smaller group at dinner, accompanied by a guitar. Of course, the dinner had dozens of courses and fine wines. The owners of the European School have a stake in a winemaking business called Mosmieri. He said the 20% Malbec grape variety softens the 80% Saperavi variety (the most popular Georgian grape variety). The white as a Kisi variety that was also very good. The Mosmieri botique winery is from the Tsinandali micro-zone of the Kakheti region. We stayed at the Schumann Winery in January that is close to the Mosmieri.

The other social highlight were the two meals my friend Sean and I had after the conference wrapped up for the day. We stopped at 8000 Vintages, a wine “library” that has like 8,000 different wines on shelves in the store. They have a restaurant with Georgian appetizers that pair perfectly with the wines. We had a Khikhvi (ხიხვი), one of the oldest white wine varieties in Georgia. It is even older than the most popular white variety, Rkatsiteli. Plantings of Khikhvi are found on the right bank of the Alazani River in the Kakheti Region. The 2024 vintage we had was fermented in the traditional clay pots (Qvevri (ქვევრი). I also discovered walnut paste. The Georgians use it in many dishes. Bazhe (ბაჟე) is the classic walnuts mixed with garlic and spices and served with meat and chicken. Satsivi is the famous cold walnut sauce dish, typically made with chicken or turkey, which is a staple of Georgian festive tables. I want to learn how to make it as plain walnuts are my least favorite nut but the pastes were delicious.

I went on a beautiful hike from the top of Amirsoy Ski Resort over to the Kumbel Weather Station. We had clear blue skies, verdant green hillsides and of course, the Tien Shan mountain peaks! What a day! I enjoyed the companionship of my friend Aaron and his two lovely daughters, Chloe and Bibi.

I was most interested in reaching the Kumbel Weather Station. The weather radar system was set up by the Soviets, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I learned that the white fiberglass sphere is called a “radome,” which protects the radar antenna inside. The USSR government built an extensive network of hydrometeorological stations throughout the Tien Shan mountain range. They monitored snowpack and glacial melt feeding the Amudayra and Syrdayra Rivers, two rivers that were key to the cotton industry in Uzbek SSR.

The weather station has seen better days, and I wonder if it is still in operation. There was a caretaker on site coming out of a different building on the site when we approached. Considering the rust and dilapidated state, I don’t think it is working anymore. I guess there are more modern and automated systems tracking weather, including satellites. The Soviet system was heavy on infrastructure and grand projects that have not been maintained by Uzbek officials after independence more than 30 years ago. We were the only people there and had a delightful picnic lunch, and of course, I took my afternoon snooze on the grass. It was quite warm out of the breeze.

We struggled on the way back, going down steep ridges through wild fennel bushes. The hike was over 11 kilometers and I was very tired by the time we got back to the parking lot at the resort. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic at times on the 70-kilometer trip back to Tashkent. Obviously a lot of people were enjoying the mountains on this long Eid al-Adha weekend.

I finished the evening by joining Nadia and friends for a delicious Serbian dinner. It was my first time in the Mirabad Residences so I took a few photos of Mirabad Avenue from the 7th floor balcony.

My friend Aaron and I walked a loop through the Tavaksay Gorge last Sunday. You can see the difference between the late fall and mid-spring views. We were amazed at the abundance of growth and flowers at the bottom of the gorge. We couldn’t recognize the place we had walked just a few months prior. The Kazakhstan border is 15-20 kilometers away and instructs people in the area to show their identity documents “to internal affairs organs and DXX (the State Security Service, Uzbekistan’s intelligence agency) representatives.” We struggled walking along the steep, grassy hillsides on the way up the canyon and then got a bit disoriented on the way back near the river in the middle of the gorge.

The term “say” or “soy” in Uzbek means a rocky, seasonal stream valley. I visited this gorge, or say many times in my time in Uzbekistan, and I always come back feeling better than when I drove out of the city.

Thanks to the Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for giving us three days of holiday this week due to Eid al-Adha. Muslims commemorate Abraham’s sacrifice of his son by sacrificing an animal (usually a sheep here in Uzbekistan) and have a big feast for the extended family and neighbors. Our neighbors brought us some plov and desserts from their feast on Tuesday evening. I spent the day mostly catching up at school, working, but did manage some family time as well.

We had high winds on Tuesday that caused a lot of downed branches and trees around the city. The tree to the left is on our campus, and the tree to the right is in our neighborhood. It is difficult to predict which trees will break, and it is a reminder to keep people away from the trees during high winds. Thankfully the winds started late in the day on Tuesday and all of the students had left the campus. We also had a thunderstorm on Wednesday that scared our dog Obi. We needed to put on his “thunder” comforter and put his bed in the bathroom because he shakes when he hears thunder.

Nadia was in the mood for going out so we had a double date with my daughter and her boyfriend. We ate at Tanuki, a Russian-owned franchise of pan-Asian cuisine. Alexander Orlov founded the chain in 2004 but recently sold all his shares in the Tanuki brand to an undisclosed buyer. We had a nice meal except due to translation mistakes, they served Nadia spring rolls full of cilantro/parsley. We then went to the Hyatt roof to look at the city and finish the evening. I marveled at how much the skyline has changed in the Tashkent City development. There seems to be a new skyscraper rising every couple of monthys.