Bosnia vs. Mexico

Yesterday we took a half day adventure and drove 4 hours to Atlanta to watch the Bosnian national soccer team play the Mexican national team. Needless to say, the Mexicans outnumbered the Bosnians in the stadium, but we were really impressed and though that maybe 1/5th of the crowd was Bosnian. We talked to some people who had driven all the way from Connecticut. I'm not sure we'd have gone that far, but we had a great time and it was well worth how tired we all are today. I managed to deliver my lecture this morning without a problem, and even got up early to add some extra slides into my powerpoint. Azra  made it to school and Miran is still at work. I think we'll be headed to bed early tonight!

Anyway, Bosnia lost to Mexico 0-2. It was a friendly game that didn't count for anything, so neither team played very hard - no one was diving for balls, but just letting them roll past. Bosnia dominated the first half, but didn't manage to score, and the Mexico came out strong in the second half and scored twice in the first few minutes.

We definitely felt like the away team, not only because there were so many more Mexican fans, but because the entire thing was in Spanish. All the announcements, the programs, even the ads. We never had any idea what was going on. Us Bosnian fans didn't even realize when their team was being introduced so didn't cheer. It was probably meant as a nice gesture by the Georgia Dome for the Mexican fans, but I guess they weren't expecting so many Bosnian fans! We had fun anyway and definitely focused on watching the field.

The most exciting thing in the second half was a streaker who ran across and all around the stadium, which you always hear about, but I've never actually seen. The guy kept his underwear on, but must have been pretty cold, even in the Georgia Dome. The police seemed very slow to bother running after him, but of course eventually three officers cornered him.

Here are some shots from the trip.

Miran as we are pulling out of town ... still smiling because he hasn't yet driven 8 hours and seen his team lose.

The view from our seats ... we splurged and didn't buy upper balcony tickets.

The teams during the national anthems.

And some shots of us fans.

White Christmas !

On Christmas Evening right about dusk it started snowing and didn't stop until after lunch today. We went out to take some pictures last night when there was just a dusting and woke up to 4" today. That's nothing for many places we've lived (Sarajevo, Ithaca), but for Charlotte - its a blizzard!

Our Christmas lights on the house and bushes looked extra nice with the snow!

Here are the newly engaged lovebirds kissing in the snow!

Not to be outdone - here are the long-married lovebirds kissing in the snow.

Post-Christmas Quiet

I am home alone now, but we had a full house for the past few days for Christmas. Mom and Dad and Matthew and Lindsay left this morning and Miran is on a plane to Germany as I type. But here are a few pictures of the festivities ...

The tree with a few more presents under it on Christmas Eve:

Our Christmas formal by the fire:

One of the three hats Miran got from me:

 One of three necklaces I got from Miran (on Christmas Eve):

The latest Teddy Roosevelt bio Mommy opened on Christmas Eve:

The necklace Mommy bought Lindsay in Cesky Krumlov:

Me opening my new electric mixer which I desperately needed and wanted:

One of the many board games we played when not opening presents:



Getting ready for the Holidays

Here are just two quick pictures that show the semester is ending and the Holiday break is upon us. First is the Christmas tree with a sad pile of gifts under it (we're looking forward to our guests arriving with more gifts to fill in the space). Second is Azra (and Miran) at the airport yesterday when we put her on the plane to go home to Sarajevo for a few weeks. She was very excited - and is looking very stylish in her lovely new Birthday coat.

Windows !

Last week we tried to hire some people to clean all the windows of our house from the outside. Because of the upstairs and the bushes, many of the windows are hard to reach, and also the storm windows make things even more complicated. So we found a guy on Craig's List who was very friendly and hard working, but did a terrible job. It was so bad I was crying by the time he and his assistant left. They broke one window, they used a pressure washer on the outside without closing all the storm windows (so got a lot of water in the house) and worst of all, the windows literally looked worse after they left than they had before (which was bad). Yesterday the three of us spent most of the day doing it ourselves. It was a lot of work to take every window in the house apart, but at least they are clean now.

Here is a picture of one of the guest room windows the day AFTER we paid someone to wash it. The second picture is of Miran up on a ladder making things right.