I've watched very little of the winter games this year. Part of that is timing with work, part of that is NBC being stupid, and part of that is sadness, because I'd really wanted to go. Alas, fortunes changed and it became too expensive. I sold the two curling tickets I'd gotten in the ticket lottery and watching the games just hasn't been as fun.
4 years ago, I wanted to make plans to go to every Winter Olympics. They are just a lot of fun. International (you'll notice some Norwegians and Latvians in my photos below), beautiful (host cities look pretty good), and pretty easy to get around (everyone speaks English and the transportation is really great).
I think that the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia, still sound appealing.
When I was in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2001, communication was very difficult–I didn't know the language and so few spoke English. I relied on my friend the whole time to translate everything. But the nature of going to the Olympics would make that barrier a lot easier, I think, and it would be fun to venture back to Russia. (Perhaps one of the main reasons I'm enjoying the Clancy novels from the 80s–I'm on Cardinal of the Kremlin right now–is reading about Russia).
For those who weren't following along as I blogged the trip, here are some representative pictures of Torino. I saw alpine skiing, curling, the ski jump, and USA hockey vs. Latvia.
