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Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jahorina


for winter break, we went skiing at the site of the 1984 Olympics outside Sarajevo. Susan was the only one of the family who had skied previously (25 years ago!!), so we were all determined to learn how to do it.


The resort is in the Republika Srpska, the half of the country administered by the Serbs. As such, we dined for a week on very traditional Serbian food - meat, grease, and beer. We met up with another family from school (who had actually given us the info on the trip) and they were super pals. Their kids hung with ours and they were very patient in showing us how to ski. Of course, all that going slow had an effect on their table manners...
We truly were in a winter wonderland. We got snow every day, and the trees were weighted down with big, fluffy, white flakes.


Now, we don't know anything about how a ski resort should be set up, so we didn't notice (til someone pointed it out) that there were no marked trails or 'easy' vs 'hard' runs. All the lifts just went up (way, waaaaay up) and then you skied down. People were sure having a good time, though
There was one bunny lift type thing that, after 2 days of instructions, we let Alea and Breck go on. They grabbed ahold of the pole, let it pull them up a slight hill, and then skied down. And they could do it - wheeeeee!
Mom and dad figured out how to do things, too (mom much better than dad!) and by the end of the week we were all going up the chair lifts and coming down - mom was smooth and refined, dad spent a lot of time brushing snow off him bum, Alea made her wide S's just as she'd been taught, and Breck liked to go fast, wipe out, get up, and do it again.

Of course, there were plenty of chances to have other snow games!! We had lots of fun rolling, building, and snowball fighting.

The hotel room was also a fun place to be. We brought lots of books, Legos, and Uno cards to help pass the time. The best part, though, was the fact that the Winter Olympics in Torino were going on at the same time. It was cool to come in after a day in the snow and then watch the athletes doing many of the same things (though doing them a little better).


Speaking of future Olympic athletes!!!

And Alea's awesome drawing of her and Breck on the slopes...


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