Family Blog: March 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Dan,

If you are hard up for family blog material, here are some pictures from a ski trip that I took with Natalia earlier this week. Originally, our relatives Vassylko and Oksana were going to join me and Natalia for part of the trip, but they were unable to make the trip. Vassylko and Oksana lent us a whole bunch of ski gear, including two sets of skis, plus skiing clothing for me, and provided loads of info on accomodations and restaurants. Bukovel is a brand new ski area that was built just a few years ago...it has amenities that were unimaginable for Ukraine back when I was studying there in 93'-94. It was at once challenging and ultimately fun and rewarding to try after downhill skiing about 20 years after my first and only attempt...I took lessons from an instructor named Yuriy...who was also interested in my joining him on some cellular telecom/Internet business venture...Natalia was also helpful and extraordinarily patient...with advice and the real threat of a ski pole across the #ss for failure to heed said advice...as I advanced from the beginner to the intermediate slope by my second full day on skis. Now I know a lot of skiing terms in Russian that I didn't know before ;-) The picture of me from the top of the slope was taken near an intermediate slope...where we drank some mulled wine ("glintwein"), which gave me the necessary courage to make the descent... (I still fell on the way down...but the pictures of that episode...honest to God...are blurry and I'm too far away.)

On the way back to Lviv, we stopped in Ivano-Frankivsk (it's Polish name is Stanisławów), where I took the attached "Churchill picture." I've asked Mom to show it to Grandpa - I know he will be amused, given his feelings for Churchill's "betrayal" of Eastern Europe at Yalta. You'll have to help Mom viewing the pictures, since she doesn't know how to make them "bigger."

See you all at Easter,

Tim