Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Travels to Lemkoland, Part Two




Enjoy the travel media. More explanatory text to follow. [Okay, I will add that the woman depicted with Alexa is Maria Lazar, who lives in Ubrez, Slovakia. She was married to a Jan Lazar, whose grandfather was *likely* siblings with Maria Lazar, mother of the Opalak girls, Mary, Liz, Ann, Marge, and Helen. We spent the night at her farmhouse, and enjoyed the homemade slivovitz of her husband, Michal. We also found that Russian and Slovak are not all that mutually intelligble!] [Also, Alexa and the dog are in Ozenna, Poland, approx. pop. 30 people. Michal Opalak was dreaming big when he left!] [The video is of Ozenna, and the cemetery is the joint Soviet-German WWII cemetery, despite what the clown behind the camera says. We were struck at how significant the WWII presence was in the area. A major battle, for Dukla Pass, was waged around here and there are many military graveyards.]

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Sports, Part Two




The basketball game (go Khimki!) felt "American." I.e. dancing girls, loud public address announcer, free Thunderstix. The hockey game (go Dinamo!) felt "Russia in the '90s." I.e. tiny crowd, not-quite-skillful game, unnecessarily large police presence (Also, Chris Simon, resident convalescent Canadian goon, who would have fit in just fine in '90s Moscow).

Oh, and why not add a pic of my roommate, one of the Mashas, on our skating adventure?!


Sports, Part One


In the spirit of global sport, I offer little prose, but much action.