Day 5, Friday, December 31, 2004
New Year’s Eve
By Alyssa Fowles and Marrita R-C

This was a very interesting New Year’s Eve. Our heads almost got chopped off by renegade fireworks, we ate a lot of snow (not yellow), we witnessed inappropriate usage of the middle finger by a small foreign child, we biffed it on ice, and were offered unwanted alcoholic beverages by drunk foreigners and their friend named Buddy (not the elf). We also got hit-on by a 30 year old ski instructor named Andre.

Well, the day started when we went to Maribor City Center at 9:00 am. It was pretty cold outside, with a wind-chill factor of about –13 degrees. (Editor’s Note: It was a gorgeous, clear, wonderful day.) We saw an empty skating rink about the size of a dining room table on our way into the center, where we spent most of our time bobbing in and out of the little shops. We did spend a lot of time in a large perfume and cosmetic store, where I, Alyssa, was molested by an elderly Slovenian woman who repeatedly touched my arm while talking to me in Slovenian (which I had difficulty understanding). Then, we stopped into the American equivalent of a dollar store, where I, Alyssa again, bought a giant tennis ball. On the way back to the bus, we started to get hungry when we noticed a sign that would catch any American’s eye: a McDonalds. So, of course, we had to go inside and order our favorite meal: burgers and fries. Then we hurried back to the bus because it was leaving at 12:00 noon sharp.

Meanwhile, the staff was enjoying the mountain

When we got back from the city we decided that we wanted to play in the snow for a while, so we dressed up in our warm clothes and went outside. The snow wasn’t really snow, it was mostly crushed ice, but this just means that it hurts more when you throw it in someone’s face! So, while we were all attacking each other with snow, we noticed a couple of little boys sledding down the hill. We thought they were so cute, sticking their tongues out at us while running up the hill. Until, they came back down the hill and one of them (the smaller one actually) flipped me (Alyssa) off!!! Then I ran to Marri and told her, so she turned around and he flipped her off too! Then we told Danielle, and she thought it was so funny that she took a picture of the culprit while he was flipping her off.

Then, we discovered this machine in the dining room that gives you free hot chocolate at the push of a button! And despite our indulgence in all the free hot chocolate that we wanted, we felt extremely stupid because the night before we bought hot chocolate from the bar next to the dining room for 200 SiT (just over $1). At 3:00 our whole team went up the Gondola (which is actually just a covered ski lift), to the top of the Pohorje Mountain. The ride was fun for some, scary for others. I (Marrita) was so scared, mainly because I’m afraid of heights. Looking down on the city wasn’t very comforting to me. And it didn’t help that we kept talking about how if we fell off our whole gondola would roll down the mountain.

View of Maribor from the gondola

At long last, we finally got to the top where it was filled with snow, which of course meant another snowball fight that our whole team got into. That was a brutal fight, first Heather tried to get me but I got her better. Then out of nowhere Alyssa comes running up behind me and shoved snow in my face. Good thing I’m so used to snow or I would have been so mad, but I got her back. She made the big mistake of turning her back on me, enough said. We fought for about 40 minutes before we all got tired and parents started taking pictures.

So then Alyssa, Danielle, and I started playing on some tire swings next to the bar that everyone was at. Unfortunately for Alyssa, she was wearing light pink cords, and let’s just says that dirt and light clothes don’t mix. So after the pant fiasco the three of us started making a mini snowman with powered snow. We didn’t really finish because we got bored. After we gave up on the snowman we joined everyone else around the fire and ate cut up sausages and other local Slovenia mountain food. Then we made our way back up to the gondola for the ride down. This ride wasn’t so scary because it was dark outside and you couldn’t see the drop below. But our coach, Daryl made it interesting by trying to rock the gondola back and forth and see if we would survive it.

Fine Dining courtesy of Mirc and Marjan

The next couple hours were devoted to getting ready for New Year’s, which meant hair, clothes, and makeup. We went down to dinner at 8:00, where we received our guidelines and restrictions for the night. We started the festivities early with some strawberry flavored juice stuff that was donated to us by our wonderful coach Daryl.

The San Jose Team, all gussied up for New Years Eve dinner

Then, around about 10:30, we decided to go outside and hang out on the slope. There is usually a huge party thrown by the city at our hotel but for some reason it was canceled this year. Although it was relatively empty outside, we met a skier named Andre, who had a sketchy accent and told us he was from Colorado. (This got Shannon very excited). Then after our rendezvous with Andre, we decided to play on the ice and pretend we were ice-skating, which of course means that Danielle and I (Alyssa) totally ate it. This was not a graceful fall; I already have evidence of a vicious bruise forming on my hip.

After hanging around awhile inside the lobby, we were bored and decided to go a little ways up the mountain to watch the fire-works. Well, these were no ordinary fireworks. The firework operators were heavily intoxicated, and gave no thought to firing them into the forest, or right in our direction. We were closely missed by several, but managed to escape unharmed. After being bombarded by fireworks we went inside bring along with one of the Alaskan girls. We went back up to my room (Marrita) and for some reason I just started cleaning I couldn’t stand that my room was so messy. Afterwards we met up with Bret and together we went outside to mingle with the others. Our teammate Lindsay had found a flat inner tube and wanted someone to go sledding with her so I went with her. The first time down the hill was a dud, but then we climbed up even higher. I was in front and since we was in mid hill I instantly lost control of our sled, which did several 360s before we collided with a 12-year-old boy on a sled. He was ok though. Then we went back to our rooms. We would tell you more but our battery is running low so you’ll just have to wait until you see us in person so we can tell you more, but until then, Happy New Year everybody! And to those who are senior’s congratulations on making it to the home stretch of our high school career. OPA!

Editor’s Addition: There were so many options on how to spend the day today that we had to just choose one version (the non-skiers) in the interest of keeping this journal readable. Everyone in the hotel has a free day pass to the Wellness Center, Spa, and Sauna next-door, and then a large group also spent at least a portion of the day/night skiing on the World Cup Pohorje Mountain. The lifts and gondola were open from 8am to 5pm, and then again from 6pm to 3am! A wonderful spot for New Years, and I’m sure we’ll be back to do it again next year!

BIP ringing in 2005! Thanks to everyone for making this tour so great so far!

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