Volunteers from all over

Today I went out to do inspections on the housing units with a lovely young lady who was born in Barcelona and a young man from Croatia/Slovenia.

My older daughter spent her junior year semester in the Balkans studying transition and social change. One of her classmates did a videography project on identity in the Balkans among young people today.

The man could have been a case study for that project. When I asked him "aside from Whistler, what do you call home?" he replied, "that is hard to say." He claims both Slovenia and Croatia as his countries. He explained that before the war, everyone was from Yugoslavia. Now there are six small countries that were once part of Yugoslavia: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia Hercegovenia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Macedonia. (Interesting that Republica Serbska was not mentioned). When asked about the skiers from Croatia, he evidenced a very strong pride in his country's team.

My Barcelona born cohort left there ten years ago and said she had a strong dislike of cities. She moves from (ski) season to (ski) season now.

I am really enjoying interacting with the worldwide team that is bringing the Whistler Olympic village to the world.