March 1, 2010
Well, they are not wasting any time on the streets of Vancouver, already venues and pavillions are being torn down. We walked passed Robson Square today. It was all roped off and the tear down was in progress. Streets are open again which is a good thing for the people in Vancouver. It looks like the mass exodus of people they were expecting was true. I hardly saw any Olympic people out on the street today. In fact I’m pretty sure I was the only one wearing red mittens. We headed over to the Bay Olympic Superstore and for old times’ sake there was a line up to get in, only about a 30 second wait. It was still busy in that store, looking at it you might never know that the Olympics had ended the day before. I had a pin to exchange and headed over to that area. I thought I would try to trade pins once more at the Coca Cola Pin Trading Centre and again was shut down by the collectors, quite rudely in fact! Most Olympic people I have talked to have been so nice, these pin traders not as much. I guess they look at it like a business transaction and if they don’t want anything from you they have no need for you. I think from now on I’ll only trade with friends or others who approach me. It’s not like I am a serious collector or am hunting for particular pins. I was looking up some of my pins and it seems like they are pretty good ones. They were not available to the general public and there were only a certain amount produced and distributed usually to employees. Guess I’ll hold on to these for awhile. I exchanged my pin and we moved on.
From the Bay Superstore, we went to Robson Street. I wanted to do a bit of shopping before I left Vancouver and Robson Street seemed like a good place to start. One store that I really liked and would fly back to Vancouver to go there was a store called Plenty. It was a well merchandised store, had a good assortment of price points and the staff was very attentive which is a nice change. I tried on a bunch on things and only came away with two tops. One sweater I’m still on the fence about. I’m going to look them up and see if they sell online, at the very least I’d like to get a list of the lines they carry and try to locate them in Toronto. Went into a few other stores and looked at shoes. By this point I was exhausted even though it wasn’t very late. I think the pace of the Olympics was catching up with me. Or it could be the cold I got a few days ago. We headed home to have some down time before tomorrow. I also had a few blog posts that I needed to catch up on, particularly my Closing Ceremony post.
I’m meeting up with some Vancouver Olympic friends for coffee in the morning. We can talk about the Olympics and pretend it’s not over! In the evening I'll have to start packing for our trip home on Wednesday. :(
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Day 17 - Vancouver 2010 Closing Ceremony
February 28, 2010
Before Closing Ceremony
I knew this day would come at some point but I feel like I was only at the Opening Ceremony a week ago. It went by so fast and now we are getting ready to head out to the Closing Ceremony. The instructions changed and we are now supposed to be in our seats at 3:30 pm and at 1:30 pm they are going to be showing the hockey game so we need to get there much earlier than we thought. We'll be able to watch the end with tons of others inside BC Place!
From our condo we can see the people making their way into Canada Hockey Place for the Gold Medal Hockey game. There has been a steady streams of people since about 10am. There has also been a road hockey game going on for the last hour. Road closures gives them more opportunity to play. It has been a lot of fun looking out the window and watching them play.
After Closing Ceremony
Today was a bittersweet day for me. I was thrilled to be going to the Closing Ceremony but sad because this meant the end of my great Olympic adventure. We arrived at BC Place around 2pm and they already had the Gold medal hockey game on the big screens. Everyone was looking at that screen. The mood was pretty jovial until USA tied the game near the end of the 3rd period. When Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal, everyone in BC Place went nuts. We sang the nation anthem along with everyone else and people were taking photos of images on the big screen. It was a great ending to an already great Olympics. At times it felt like the whole game had been scripted to end well for Canada. It was an exciting end to our Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
As for the Closing Ceremony, I thought the beginning was hilarious, genius actually. When we arrived at the stadium and saw only 3 arms up again on the Olympic Cauldron, we wondered what was going on. I thought they were going for consistency and soon found out I was wrong. I'm sure many people didn't like it, I thought it was clever. Something did go wrong in the Opening and rather than pretend it didn't, it was made into a parody for our Closing Ceremony. I was so happy that Catriona Le May Doan finally got her turn to light the cauldron.
As for the rest of the Closing Ceremony, what can I say other than another great job. John Furlong made a great speech and was halted by the crowd with their cheers when he mentioned our fabulous hockey team. As always, fine words about the 2010 volunteers (who were outstanding) got lots of cheers. The flame was extinguished and I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be. I have a feeling if my family hadn't been there with me, I might have been more of a mess. It is sad to see this great event end, but I have such wonderful memories from it.
Before Closing Ceremony
I knew this day would come at some point but I feel like I was only at the Opening Ceremony a week ago. It went by so fast and now we are getting ready to head out to the Closing Ceremony. The instructions changed and we are now supposed to be in our seats at 3:30 pm and at 1:30 pm they are going to be showing the hockey game so we need to get there much earlier than we thought. We'll be able to watch the end with tons of others inside BC Place!
From our condo we can see the people making their way into Canada Hockey Place for the Gold Medal Hockey game. There has been a steady streams of people since about 10am. There has also been a road hockey game going on for the last hour. Road closures gives them more opportunity to play. It has been a lot of fun looking out the window and watching them play.
After Closing Ceremony
Today was a bittersweet day for me. I was thrilled to be going to the Closing Ceremony but sad because this meant the end of my great Olympic adventure. We arrived at BC Place around 2pm and they already had the Gold medal hockey game on the big screens. Everyone was looking at that screen. The mood was pretty jovial until USA tied the game near the end of the 3rd period. When Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal, everyone in BC Place went nuts. We sang the nation anthem along with everyone else and people were taking photos of images on the big screen. It was a great ending to an already great Olympics. At times it felt like the whole game had been scripted to end well for Canada. It was an exciting end to our Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
As for the Closing Ceremony, I thought the beginning was hilarious, genius actually. When we arrived at the stadium and saw only 3 arms up again on the Olympic Cauldron, we wondered what was going on. I thought they were going for consistency and soon found out I was wrong. I'm sure many people didn't like it, I thought it was clever. Something did go wrong in the Opening and rather than pretend it didn't, it was made into a parody for our Closing Ceremony. I was so happy that Catriona Le May Doan finally got her turn to light the cauldron.
Flagbearers enter the stadium first.
Trying on our moose ears during the audience participation rehearsal.
Before the Ceremony began, we had another audience participation rehearsal. One of our props was to be used during a segment called "Made in Canada". I remember thinking, "I wonder what that is going to be". After the handover to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics, we found out. This segment poked fun at some of our Canadian stereotypes yet also showed some of the things Canada is most known for like our Royal Canadian Mounted Police, hockey, moose and beavers. Personally, I liked it. It was as Canadian as our Native origins and maple syrup. If you don't have much of a sense of humour, you probably didn't care for it. I bet you never thought seeing giant moose and beavers would be so much fun. I hope you got a good sense of how huge they were on TV.
The athletes enter the stadium together during the Closing Ceremony.
After that, the musical talent performed. I felt that it was geared towards a much younger audience. Given all of the musical talent in Canada, I think they could have had a bit more variety. This part we couldn't see very well. We were seated right behind the large stage and the other stage was at the other end of the stadium, very far away. The good thing is you really only had to be able to hear them. One of my favourite sections were the hip hop dancers when k-os was performing. That part was also a bit difficult for us to see because they were so far away. I'm looking forward to seeing that part on TV.
As we headed out of BC Place onto the streets of Vancouver, we heard people cheering and car horns blowing. The hockey game had been over for hours and the party was still going on. We can home, dumped out stuff and went out for a walk. I wanted to see what was going on. It was pretty wild. There were more people on the streets than I had ever seen during the Olympics, everyone was in a great mood and people were high fiving anyone including police officers, hugging people and even dancing around. It was great.
On Granville Street celebrating our hockey gold medal win.
This whole Olympics Canadians had been showing a never before seen level of Canadian pride, winning the gold medal kicked that up a notch and was displayed all through the streets of Vancouver and from what I understand all across our country. Way to go Canada, I knew you had it in you to win gold after gold and to show the world we are as proud as anyone else is of their country.
What an amazing end to a completely amazing Olympic Winter games. Way to go Vancouver, way to go Canada, way to go World!
The family at BC Place before the start of the Vancouver 2010 Closing Ceremony.
Day 16 - I Don't Want Vancouver 2010 Olympics to End
February 27, 2010
It was another early morning as we made our way back to Vancouver Olympic Centre once more for Curling, this time for the Bronze medal match between Sweden and Switzerland. I wasn't sure who to root for since Canada wasn't playing. I decided to go with a majority rules scenario. If we were sitting with lots of Swedes in our section, root for them, and vice versa. Turns out Canadians in the crowd still outnumbered any other nationality and in the end we cheered for any good play by either team.
Despite not having a vested interest in the outcome of the game, it was a great curling match. At one point the skip from the Sweden team had a 4 rock take out. It was so amazing! No matter how much I watch curling, I'm in awe of some of the plays teams at this level can do. On my curling team, I'm happy to be able to throw up a decent guard that is sort of close to where my skip wanted it to be.
This game was much quieter than the ones we saw on Thursday. I guess that shouldn't be surprising. If Canada had been playing this morning the crowd would have been raring to go. In the end, Switzerland won the game and again it had come down to the very last rock that was thrown which seemed to happen a lot in the matches that I saw. You had to feel sorry for Sweden. They played so well.
One of the great things about Vancouver 2010 is that you are likely to start talking to anyone at anytime anywhere you are. On the Skytrain home from the Curling venue, it was crowded so my Mom and I stood most of the way. When the train started to clear out, some young boys took the empty seats. The Mom teaching her boys manners and how to be a gentleman, asked the boys what they would should do. It seems they have been through this before because they both knew they should offer their seats to someone. When the Mom inquired who they would ask, the boys came right over to my Mom and I and asked if we would like to sit down. We both declined and thanked the boys for asking us. I started talking to the Mom because I've never seen anyone teaching their children that. We talked for a bit and I gave her a Canada Loot Bag for the kids. They had visited the Ontario pavilion here so they had heard of Ontario and were so happy to have the pins. Then I thought it would be wise for the boys to each have their own Loot Bag. Turns out this was a good idea because they had already had fights about pins! They were very grateful and pulled the pins out of the bags right away. It has been nice to have my Canada Loot Bags to give out to people and provide them with some memories of Vancouver 2010.
We headed home in a hurry to make sure we saw the start of the Men's Gold Medal game. I was so nervous for Kevin Martin and team! That was a close game as well and eventually Canada won which was a great moment. We all laughed when we heard John Morris say to his teammates, "We did it boys"! That statement pretty much sums it up. It was another great moment for Canada athletes and Canadian history.
In the evening we headed out to Molson Canadian Hockey House. Someone had given me tickets for tonight and on the schedule was the Bronze medal hockey game and Colin James performing afterwards. It was a really fun place to hang out. I can only imagine what it is like in there when Canada is playing a game! I'm sure it is completely nuts! I started talking to two girls who were cheering on Slovakia. From them I learned this would be the best finish in an Olympics for the Slovakia hockey team. Even if they didn't win the bronze medal, that is quite an accomplishment. I gave them Canada Loot Bags and they took out all the pins and put them on their Molson Canada scarfs they had won. Looks like Olympic people love pins of any kind!
After the game Colin James came on stage. That was a great performance. In my younger years I was a big fan of Colin James but had never seen him live. I rarely see anyone live anymore and this was a nice treat. The hockey house is a small venue compared to a stadium which also makes it more interesting to watch. I can't believe how close we could get to the stage! My brother doesn't dance at all so we found him a place to sit down and I danced!
The emcee announced that some special guests would be showing up soon. I danced some more while we waiting for these "special guests" to show up. Time passed and we eventually decided to call it a night. As we were about to get our coats, the emcee came on stage and on the screens they were replaying the end of the Men's Curling Gold Medal game. Did this mean the special guests were our Men's Curling team? No way! Indeed it was Canada's Gold Medal champs in Curling, all onstage except for Kevin Martin who was supposed to show up later. The medal ceremony was replayed and everyone in the Hockey House sang O Canada at the top of their lungs. It was amazing. I never thought so many beer drinking hockey fans would be so excited about a Curling medal but they were! I can't believe we almost missed that, I would have been so mad at myself. When that was over we did leave but not before I accosted “Mo's Bro's” over by the drink ticket kiosks. John Morris is a member of Kevin Martin's team and I have read that his nickname is "Johnny Mo". I guess Mo's Bro's were big fans of his. I had seen these guys at the semi final match and thought their T-shirts were hilarious. I'm still not sure if they are related to John Morris, friends of John Morris or groupies of John Morris. If anyone knows their story can you email me and let me know? I will include it in this post if I get an update.
Click here to see the photos of the day.
Thanks for reading everyone. I can't believe it is the second last day and this amazing time is almost over!
Canada Medal Results
Jasey Jay Anderson - Gold in Snowboarding Giant Slalom
Men's Speed Skating Team - Gold in Team Pursuit
Men's 4 Bobsled - Bronze in Bobsleigh
Kevin Martin's Team - Gold in Curling
It was another early morning as we made our way back to Vancouver Olympic Centre once more for Curling, this time for the Bronze medal match between Sweden and Switzerland. I wasn't sure who to root for since Canada wasn't playing. I decided to go with a majority rules scenario. If we were sitting with lots of Swedes in our section, root for them, and vice versa. Turns out Canadians in the crowd still outnumbered any other nationality and in the end we cheered for any good play by either team.
Despite not having a vested interest in the outcome of the game, it was a great curling match. At one point the skip from the Sweden team had a 4 rock take out. It was so amazing! No matter how much I watch curling, I'm in awe of some of the plays teams at this level can do. On my curling team, I'm happy to be able to throw up a decent guard that is sort of close to where my skip wanted it to be.
One of the great things about Vancouver 2010 is that you are likely to start talking to anyone at anytime anywhere you are. On the Skytrain home from the Curling venue, it was crowded so my Mom and I stood most of the way. When the train started to clear out, some young boys took the empty seats. The Mom teaching her boys manners and how to be a gentleman, asked the boys what they would should do. It seems they have been through this before because they both knew they should offer their seats to someone. When the Mom inquired who they would ask, the boys came right over to my Mom and I and asked if we would like to sit down. We both declined and thanked the boys for asking us. I started talking to the Mom because I've never seen anyone teaching their children that. We talked for a bit and I gave her a Canada Loot Bag for the kids. They had visited the Ontario pavilion here so they had heard of Ontario and were so happy to have the pins. Then I thought it would be wise for the boys to each have their own Loot Bag. Turns out this was a good idea because they had already had fights about pins! They were very grateful and pulled the pins out of the bags right away. It has been nice to have my Canada Loot Bags to give out to people and provide them with some memories of Vancouver 2010.
We headed home in a hurry to make sure we saw the start of the Men's Gold Medal game. I was so nervous for Kevin Martin and team! That was a close game as well and eventually Canada won which was a great moment. We all laughed when we heard John Morris say to his teammates, "We did it boys"! That statement pretty much sums it up. It was another great moment for Canada athletes and Canadian history.
In the evening we headed out to Molson Canadian Hockey House. Someone had given me tickets for tonight and on the schedule was the Bronze medal hockey game and Colin James performing afterwards. It was a really fun place to hang out. I can only imagine what it is like in there when Canada is playing a game! I'm sure it is completely nuts! I started talking to two girls who were cheering on Slovakia. From them I learned this would be the best finish in an Olympics for the Slovakia hockey team. Even if they didn't win the bronze medal, that is quite an accomplishment. I gave them Canada Loot Bags and they took out all the pins and put them on their Molson Canada scarfs they had won. Looks like Olympic people love pins of any kind!After the game Colin James came on stage. That was a great performance. In my younger years I was a big fan of Colin James but had never seen him live. I rarely see anyone live anymore and this was a nice treat. The hockey house is a small venue compared to a stadium which also makes it more interesting to watch. I can't believe how close we could get to the stage! My brother doesn't dance at all so we found him a place to sit down and I danced!
The emcee announced that some special guests would be showing up soon. I danced some more while we waiting for these "special guests" to show up. Time passed and we eventually decided to call it a night. As we were about to get our coats, the emcee came on stage and on the screens they were replaying the end of the Men's Curling Gold Medal game. Did this mean the special guests were our Men's Curling team? No way! Indeed it was Canada's Gold Medal champs in Curling, all onstage except for Kevin Martin who was supposed to show up later. The medal ceremony was replayed and everyone in the Hockey House sang O Canada at the top of their lungs. It was amazing. I never thought so many beer drinking hockey fans would be so excited about a Curling medal but they were! I can't believe we almost missed that, I would have been so mad at myself. When that was over we did leave but not before I accosted “Mo's Bro's” over by the drink ticket kiosks. John Morris is a member of Kevin Martin's team and I have read that his nickname is "Johnny Mo". I guess Mo's Bro's were big fans of his. I had seen these guys at the semi final match and thought their T-shirts were hilarious. I'm still not sure if they are related to John Morris, friends of John Morris or groupies of John Morris. If anyone knows their story can you email me and let me know? I will include it in this post if I get an update.
Singing O Canada with the Canada Men's Curling team.
Loved the all white suits on these guys. They high fived everyone walking by them.
The infamous Mo's Bros at Molson Hockey House. All I have to say is why don't guys in Toronto look like this, and why don't more guys who look like this follow curling?
Thanks for reading everyone. I can't believe it is the second last day and this amazing time is almost over!
Canada Medal Results
Jasey Jay Anderson - Gold in Snowboarding Giant Slalom
Men's Speed Skating Team - Gold in Team Pursuit
Men's 4 Bobsled - Bronze in Bobsleigh
Kevin Martin's Team - Gold in Curling
Day 15 - Hockey Gold Medal Game Decided
February 26, 2010
There are two Men’s Hockey Semi Finals today and I have tickets for one of the games. Unfortunately it wasn’t the Canada game, we saw USA vs Finland. You would think that at a semi final level, the teams would be pretty evenly matched. This didn’t seem to be the case in this game. USA came out in the first period and got 6 goals, some within mere minutes of each other. To my amateur eye, it seemed like Finland wasn’t prepared to put up a good fight against the powerhouse USA team. I was hoping for a good game, close score and evenly matched to keep the game interesting. It was kind of boring though. After the first 4 goals, people weren’t even getting up to cheer anymore.
The crowd rallied behind Finland, giving them encouragement and chanting “Go Finland Go” but it didn’t seem to do much good. They were able to score 1 goal in the last period which wasn’t going to do them much good at that point.
So USA moved on to the Gold medal game and later in the day we found out that Canada will be their opponent. I think there are a lot of people who wanted the Gold medal hockey game to be a USA/Canada showdown.
At night we attended our first Victory Medal Ceremony, the last of these Olympic games to be held at BC Place. In Vancouver they awarded medals for the Men’s Aerials and a cross country event. As we were heading into BC Place for the medal ceremony, hockey spectators were heading into Canada Hockey Place for the Canada vs. Russia semi final. There were a lot of people going through security and it is probably the longest I’ve had to wait in a security checkpoint here.
There weren’t any announcements made on the Canada game for awhile. We were lucky that a guy in the row in front of us was regularly checking the score and shouting it out to the people around him. If people didn’t hear it, we passed on the message.
After the medal presentations, Great Big Sea took the stage. It is the first time I have seen them perform and they were awesome as people told me they would be. I moved my brother over to my seat so that i could dance in aisle. We were sitting in almost the last row of our section so there weren’t too many people behind me so I could dance the night away without blocking anyone’s view. I don’t know if it was because we were so high up or because the stadium is like that, but it was really hard to make out what was being said when people were talking on the microphone. I was at BC Place for the Opening Ceremony and didn’t notice a problem. This was set up a bit differently and that may have been why. The concert was over around 8:30 pm and was way to short! If Great Big Sea comes to Toronto again this year I’m going to go even if it means going by myself.
I wanted to see the Olympic Cauldron and the Olympic rings in the water at Coal Harbour at night all lit up so we headed there after the Victory Ceremony was done. I’m glad we went. The Cauldron is impressive during the day and it is even more stunning at night all lit up. It looked like it was glowing. Night was also a good time to go because it wasn’t as crowded. I was able to get some really good pictures. It was harder to get good pictures of the Olympics rings because they are out so far but I think I managed to get a few good ones. My brother and I were recruited to take some photos of groups of people and in return they took some of us. My favourite was a girl who pulled a Quatchi out of her bag to hold in the picture. I could have stayed there all night looking at the Olympic Cauldron and rings. Call me a sap but I took video of the burning Cauldron to watch later on after the flame has been extinguished. I’ll loaded the video onto YouTube and inserted it below. I have a feeling I won’t be the only who wants to see it.
By this time it was known that Canada had beat Russia and were moving on to the Gold medal game against the US. To say people were in a good mood is an understatement. People were shouting out “Go Canada” and “We want Gold” or they were high fiving strangers in the street, on the Skytrain, basically anywhere you went. When we were at the Olympic Cauldron we could hear people yelling in the streets. It is amazing to see the pride of Canadians during these Olympics. I wasn’t sure we were capable of such grand displays of patriotism and now I know we are! I’ve never seen so many Canada flags in my life or sung our national anthem this many times in one week.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics are winding down. I’m sad that it is coming to a close and happy that I was able to be here to be a part of it. Tomorrow my Mom and I are going to the Men’s Curling Bronze Medal game. Our Canada Curling team goes for gold tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be glued to the TV for that one.
You can find pictures from today by clicking here.
Canada Medal Results
Women's Curling - Silver medal
Charles Hamelin - Gold in Short Track 500 m
Francois Louis-Tremblay - Bronze in Short Track 500 m
Men's Short Track Team - Gold in 5,000 m relay
What a day Canada!
There are two Men’s Hockey Semi Finals today and I have tickets for one of the games. Unfortunately it wasn’t the Canada game, we saw USA vs Finland. You would think that at a semi final level, the teams would be pretty evenly matched. This didn’t seem to be the case in this game. USA came out in the first period and got 6 goals, some within mere minutes of each other. To my amateur eye, it seemed like Finland wasn’t prepared to put up a good fight against the powerhouse USA team. I was hoping for a good game, close score and evenly matched to keep the game interesting. It was kind of boring though. After the first 4 goals, people weren’t even getting up to cheer anymore.
The crowd rallied behind Finland, giving them encouragement and chanting “Go Finland Go” but it didn’t seem to do much good. They were able to score 1 goal in the last period which wasn’t going to do them much good at that point.
So USA moved on to the Gold medal game and later in the day we found out that Canada will be their opponent. I think there are a lot of people who wanted the Gold medal hockey game to be a USA/Canada showdown.
At night we attended our first Victory Medal Ceremony, the last of these Olympic games to be held at BC Place. In Vancouver they awarded medals for the Men’s Aerials and a cross country event. As we were heading into BC Place for the medal ceremony, hockey spectators were heading into Canada Hockey Place for the Canada vs. Russia semi final. There were a lot of people going through security and it is probably the longest I’ve had to wait in a security checkpoint here.
There weren’t any announcements made on the Canada game for awhile. We were lucky that a guy in the row in front of us was regularly checking the score and shouting it out to the people around him. If people didn’t hear it, we passed on the message.
After the medal presentations, Great Big Sea took the stage. It is the first time I have seen them perform and they were awesome as people told me they would be. I moved my brother over to my seat so that i could dance in aisle. We were sitting in almost the last row of our section so there weren’t too many people behind me so I could dance the night away without blocking anyone’s view. I don’t know if it was because we were so high up or because the stadium is like that, but it was really hard to make out what was being said when people were talking on the microphone. I was at BC Place for the Opening Ceremony and didn’t notice a problem. This was set up a bit differently and that may have been why. The concert was over around 8:30 pm and was way to short! If Great Big Sea comes to Toronto again this year I’m going to go even if it means going by myself.
I wanted to see the Olympic Cauldron and the Olympic rings in the water at Coal Harbour at night all lit up so we headed there after the Victory Ceremony was done. I’m glad we went. The Cauldron is impressive during the day and it is even more stunning at night all lit up. It looked like it was glowing. Night was also a good time to go because it wasn’t as crowded. I was able to get some really good pictures. It was harder to get good pictures of the Olympics rings because they are out so far but I think I managed to get a few good ones. My brother and I were recruited to take some photos of groups of people and in return they took some of us. My favourite was a girl who pulled a Quatchi out of her bag to hold in the picture. I could have stayed there all night looking at the Olympic Cauldron and rings. Call me a sap but I took video of the burning Cauldron to watch later on after the flame has been extinguished. I’ll loaded the video onto YouTube and inserted it below. I have a feeling I won’t be the only who wants to see it.
By this time it was known that Canada had beat Russia and were moving on to the Gold medal game against the US. To say people were in a good mood is an understatement. People were shouting out “Go Canada” and “We want Gold” or they were high fiving strangers in the street, on the Skytrain, basically anywhere you went. When we were at the Olympic Cauldron we could hear people yelling in the streets. It is amazing to see the pride of Canadians during these Olympics. I wasn’t sure we were capable of such grand displays of patriotism and now I know we are! I’ve never seen so many Canada flags in my life or sung our national anthem this many times in one week.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics are winding down. I’m sad that it is coming to a close and happy that I was able to be here to be a part of it. Tomorrow my Mom and I are going to the Men’s Curling Bronze Medal game. Our Canada Curling team goes for gold tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be glued to the TV for that one.
You can find pictures from today by clicking here.
Canada Medal Results
Women's Curling - Silver medal
Charles Hamelin - Gold in Short Track 500 m
Francois Louis-Tremblay - Bronze in Short Track 500 m
Men's Short Track Team - Gold in 5,000 m relay
What a day Canada!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Day 14 - Hurry Hard to the Curling Semi Finals
February 25, 2010
It was an early morning as we had to get to Vancouver Olympic Centre for the Women's Curling Semi Final at 9am. I have to say out of all the venues that we have been to, this one was the most disappointing. I had taken my eye contacts with me to put in at the Centre when I got there, it was too early to put them in when we left. I didn't think it would be a big deal, find a washroom when we got there, wash my hands and put in my contacts. Guess what, there are no real washrooms here. There is a room with portapotties and on the way out a machine that dispenses hand sanitizer. To say I was grossed out was a understatement. I can't believe they don't have proper washroom facilities, something as basic as soap and water is pretty standard. Washing your hands is good hygeine. It also seems like this is a temporary structure. It was basically curling rinks that had been created under a tent. There is no choice but to grin and bear it, but really as far as making an impression goes, this one does not. If I never had to go there again I would be happy. Unfortunately I do have to go there again.
Despite these initial problems, the Women's Curling team did not disappoint. It was a great game and it came down to the last rock to determine the winner. Cheryl Bernard and her team moved on to the Gold Medal game. I had heard a lot about the level of noise at the curling rink and people making noise during curlers getting ready to throw their rocks. There was a bit of that but for the most part the crowd was respectful and kept quiet during the rock delivery. After that though, there was no stopping the noise. All kinds of cheers from "hurry hard, go Barnard", Canada cheers in response to the Swiss cheers (they were our opponents) and stomping feet on the bleachers.
I spent a good part of the game explaining how it was played and scored to a young man sitting beside my Mom. I didn't really think anyone else was paying attention until the game ended and a woman in front of me thanked me for my details. She said she understood so much more now! Happy I could help. I told her I had only been playing curling for 2 years and I didn't really know a whole lot. It's nice to know what little I can explain was useful to others.
The Canada Men played in the afternoon. Our seats for this game were horrible. The men were playing the sheet right in front of where we were sitting. Trying to see what was going on over everyone's heads was impossible. I had to stand up most of the time to see what was going on. One of the middle sheets of ice was not being used, most of us were wondering why they didn't put them on there. Martin's team gave us a bit of a scare in the beginning, after a few ends they got back on track and there was no stopping them. They moved on to the Gold Medal game very easily. On the sheet of ice that we could see very well, Norway was playing so we got to see those pants up close and in person. After the game, I saw someone wearing a whole suite in that pattern! The Norwegians are leaving a fashion fad behind in Canada. I love it!
In the evening, my brother and I headed over to LiveCity Yaletown with Tomarra. There was a bit of a line up and it moved quickly. We were inside the site within 10 minutes. Johnny Reid was performing. I had never heard of him and I don't consider myself a country music fan but I really enjoyed listening to him and seeing him perform. It is great to expand your musical horizons. I never would have come across this singer if it wasn't for LiveCity Yaletown. We stayed until the end of his show. We watched the fireworks which were fantastic. I especially liked the video they showed with the fireworks display. It consisted of Olympic memories from Vancouver 2010 and it wasn't only Canadians featured. I love how we do things like that. It was a really nice night. I couldn't believe I was outside at night in February listening to a concert outdoors and I wasn't freezing. That is Vancouver for you.
From LiveCity Yaletown, we ventured over to English Bay to see if we could find Vectoral Elevation. Vectoral Elevation is part of the Cultural Olympiad and involves searchlights making designs and patterns over the water. It was really cool to see. It is one of those things that I could have watched for hours. We stayed for awhile, tried to get pictures of it-Tomarra was more successful at this than I was, and then it was time to head home. It was a pretty full day and I was ready to get to bed for some much needed rest.
Happy Birthday Allan! Sorry we had to miss it. We're celebrating when we get home.
The photos for the day are availabe through this link. Enjoy!
Canada Medal Results
Womens Ice Hockey, Gold Medal
It was an early morning as we had to get to Vancouver Olympic Centre for the Women's Curling Semi Final at 9am. I have to say out of all the venues that we have been to, this one was the most disappointing. I had taken my eye contacts with me to put in at the Centre when I got there, it was too early to put them in when we left. I didn't think it would be a big deal, find a washroom when we got there, wash my hands and put in my contacts. Guess what, there are no real washrooms here. There is a room with portapotties and on the way out a machine that dispenses hand sanitizer. To say I was grossed out was a understatement. I can't believe they don't have proper washroom facilities, something as basic as soap and water is pretty standard. Washing your hands is good hygeine. It also seems like this is a temporary structure. It was basically curling rinks that had been created under a tent. There is no choice but to grin and bear it, but really as far as making an impression goes, this one does not. If I never had to go there again I would be happy. Unfortunately I do have to go there again.
Despite these initial problems, the Women's Curling team did not disappoint. It was a great game and it came down to the last rock to determine the winner. Cheryl Bernard and her team moved on to the Gold Medal game. I had heard a lot about the level of noise at the curling rink and people making noise during curlers getting ready to throw their rocks. There was a bit of that but for the most part the crowd was respectful and kept quiet during the rock delivery. After that though, there was no stopping the noise. All kinds of cheers from "hurry hard, go Barnard", Canada cheers in response to the Swiss cheers (they were our opponents) and stomping feet on the bleachers.
I spent a good part of the game explaining how it was played and scored to a young man sitting beside my Mom. I didn't really think anyone else was paying attention until the game ended and a woman in front of me thanked me for my details. She said she understood so much more now! Happy I could help. I told her I had only been playing curling for 2 years and I didn't really know a whole lot. It's nice to know what little I can explain was useful to others.
The Canada Men played in the afternoon. Our seats for this game were horrible. The men were playing the sheet right in front of where we were sitting. Trying to see what was going on over everyone's heads was impossible. I had to stand up most of the time to see what was going on. One of the middle sheets of ice was not being used, most of us were wondering why they didn't put them on there. Martin's team gave us a bit of a scare in the beginning, after a few ends they got back on track and there was no stopping them. They moved on to the Gold Medal game very easily. On the sheet of ice that we could see very well, Norway was playing so we got to see those pants up close and in person. After the game, I saw someone wearing a whole suite in that pattern! The Norwegians are leaving a fashion fad behind in Canada. I love it!
In the evening, my brother and I headed over to LiveCity Yaletown with Tomarra. There was a bit of a line up and it moved quickly. We were inside the site within 10 minutes. Johnny Reid was performing. I had never heard of him and I don't consider myself a country music fan but I really enjoyed listening to him and seeing him perform. It is great to expand your musical horizons. I never would have come across this singer if it wasn't for LiveCity Yaletown. We stayed until the end of his show. We watched the fireworks which were fantastic. I especially liked the video they showed with the fireworks display. It consisted of Olympic memories from Vancouver 2010 and it wasn't only Canadians featured. I love how we do things like that. It was a really nice night. I couldn't believe I was outside at night in February listening to a concert outdoors and I wasn't freezing. That is Vancouver for you.
From LiveCity Yaletown, we ventured over to English Bay to see if we could find Vectoral Elevation. Vectoral Elevation is part of the Cultural Olympiad and involves searchlights making designs and patterns over the water. It was really cool to see. It is one of those things that I could have watched for hours. We stayed for awhile, tried to get pictures of it-Tomarra was more successful at this than I was, and then it was time to head home. It was a pretty full day and I was ready to get to bed for some much needed rest.
Happy Birthday Allan! Sorry we had to miss it. We're celebrating when we get home.
The photos for the day are availabe through this link. Enjoy!
Canada Medal Results
Womens Ice Hockey, Gold Medal
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Day 13 - Short Track Speed Skating Rocks!
February 24, 2010
Sorry folks, yet again I am doing a half post because it is late and I need to go to bed early tonight. We have to be up early tomorrow to go see the Curling Semi Finals. Women's is in the morning at 9am and Men's is in the afternoon and I have tickets for both! Team Canada is in both matches so it should be a great day. I believe the winner of each will play for the Gold Medal on the weekend!
Today was amazing! I finally got to see Short Track Speed Skating in person and it was so cool! I want to go see more of this sport! It is exciting on TV but even better in person. I was there to see our Canadian women win a Silver medal in the 3000 m relay, the second time I've been present when Canada has won a medal. It really is such a great feeling and wonderful to be a part of. I don't know that I will ever make it to another Olympics but if I do, I know it won't be as special as this one. Seeing Canada win at home with these huge crowds is unbelievable! I will cherish these moments forever.
And it has been a busy day for Canada. Miss Clara Hughes won a Bronze medal for the 5000 m in Speed Skating, and I found out a few minutes ago our female bobsledders took Gold and Silver. What? I love bobsled and I don't think it is usually an event that we medal in. Canadian women were on fire today!
I owe you a few blog posts and will try to update the details for you soon. I'm thinking I'll bring my notebook with me tomorrow and write out my posts during the spare minutes in curling. I don't want to get too far behind because I'm worried I'll forget stuff! Just so you know, I am now starting to lose my voice. this is actually pretty good. I made it through 3 events with voice intact. I thought I would loose it a lot sooner! Have a great night. I'll be back soon.
Here are the photos for today.
Canada Medal Results
Clara Hughes - Bronze in Speed Skating 5,000 m
Humphries/Moyse - Gold in Bobsled
Upperton/Brown - Silver in Bobsled
Womens Relay Team - Silver in 3000 Short Track Relay
Sorry folks, yet again I am doing a half post because it is late and I need to go to bed early tonight. We have to be up early tomorrow to go see the Curling Semi Finals. Women's is in the morning at 9am and Men's is in the afternoon and I have tickets for both! Team Canada is in both matches so it should be a great day. I believe the winner of each will play for the Gold Medal on the weekend!
Today was amazing! I finally got to see Short Track Speed Skating in person and it was so cool! I want to go see more of this sport! It is exciting on TV but even better in person. I was there to see our Canadian women win a Silver medal in the 3000 m relay, the second time I've been present when Canada has won a medal. It really is such a great feeling and wonderful to be a part of. I don't know that I will ever make it to another Olympics but if I do, I know it won't be as special as this one. Seeing Canada win at home with these huge crowds is unbelievable! I will cherish these moments forever.
And it has been a busy day for Canada. Miss Clara Hughes won a Bronze medal for the 5000 m in Speed Skating, and I found out a few minutes ago our female bobsledders took Gold and Silver. What? I love bobsled and I don't think it is usually an event that we medal in. Canadian women were on fire today!
I owe you a few blog posts and will try to update the details for you soon. I'm thinking I'll bring my notebook with me tomorrow and write out my posts during the spare minutes in curling. I don't want to get too far behind because I'm worried I'll forget stuff! Just so you know, I am now starting to lose my voice. this is actually pretty good. I made it through 3 events with voice intact. I thought I would loose it a lot sooner! Have a great night. I'll be back soon.
Here are the photos for today.
Canada Medal Results
Clara Hughes - Bronze in Speed Skating 5,000 m
Humphries/Moyse - Gold in Bobsled
Upperton/Brown - Silver in Bobsled
Womens Relay Team - Silver in 3000 Short Track Relay
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Day 12 - LiveCity Yaletown and Men's Team Canada Hockey
February 23, 2010
Today we headed over to LiveCity Yaletown. I had been to the Downtown one and wasn't that impressed. I was hoping for bigger and better things in Yaletown. The line up was not to bad, we were inside within 20 minutes. As soon as we got in we joined the line up to enter the Coke pavillion. We waited close to 45 minutes to get in here and I have to say I don't think it was worth it. The best parts of the pavillion are on your way in, once inside you can't really get back to that area. They had a display of past Coke bottles and it was cool to see all the designs and how they had changed over the years. There was also a display of past Olympic torches.
Once inside we watched a short movie that showed clips from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay. And then it was into the pavillion. Coke teamed up with Aboriginal artists and they each designed a Coke bottle. Those were really cool to look at. They are being auctioned off during the Olympics. I believed there were 12 bottles in total and there were 6 on display at this location.
Because it took so long to get into here, we didn't have time to go to any of the other sponsor tents; Panasonic, Samsung or Acer. We will try to go back but I'm not sure we'll get there. Our schedule is pretty full for the weekend.
We had tickets for the 4:30pm hockey game, Team Canada against Germany. I was looking forward to this one. We walked to Canada Hockey Place in the pouring rain. There was a huge crowd of people waiting to get in. The previous game went into overtime so I think they were a bit late getting people in for the 4:30 game. Eventually we got to our seats, we had row 15 in one of the 300 sections. I thought this sounded good until the volunteer told us to go straight to the top. Turns out row 15 is the last row! They were still pretty good and we could see everything. We had a great view of all the red hockey jerseys everyone was wearing. I've never been one to really like hockey jerseys, but after seeing to so many here, it kind of makes me want one! I gave out a few Canada Loot Bags to some kids that were in my section, including the family sitting beside us. They were very excited to add more pins to their collections and the stickers are a big hit.
When Team Canada took the ice for their warm up, I couldn't figure out why everyone was booing the goalie. Later in the game someone explained to me that his nickname is "lou" and that is what everyone was saying. If you didn't know that, you would swear they were booing him. I was relieved to find out this wasn't the case.
Canada started to scored early on and there were huge cheers from the crowd everytime. It was complete luck that we got to see them play. Out of all the games that were on the schedule, I couldn't believe we were fortunate enough to see Team Canada. The final score was 8-2 for Canada. Close to the end of the third period, people were chanting "we want Russia". I'm telling you there are some real characters at these games. I wish I could get good photos of all the costumes, wigs, and face painting that I've seen. Great to see everyone so into the Olympics and our Canada team.
Tomorrow I'm off to Short Track Speed Skating, an event that Canada usually does well in. The relay will be really exciting to watch.
Here is a link to the photos for today if you want to check those out. Hope you are having a great Vancouver 2010. It is so awesome to be here for this.
Canada Medal Results
Ashleigh McIvor - Gold in Ski Cross
Today we headed over to LiveCity Yaletown. I had been to the Downtown one and wasn't that impressed. I was hoping for bigger and better things in Yaletown. The line up was not to bad, we were inside within 20 minutes. As soon as we got in we joined the line up to enter the Coke pavillion. We waited close to 45 minutes to get in here and I have to say I don't think it was worth it. The best parts of the pavillion are on your way in, once inside you can't really get back to that area. They had a display of past Coke bottles and it was cool to see all the designs and how they had changed over the years. There was also a display of past Olympic torches.
Because it took so long to get into here, we didn't have time to go to any of the other sponsor tents; Panasonic, Samsung or Acer. We will try to go back but I'm not sure we'll get there. Our schedule is pretty full for the weekend.
When Team Canada took the ice for their warm up, I couldn't figure out why everyone was booing the goalie. Later in the game someone explained to me that his nickname is "lou" and that is what everyone was saying. If you didn't know that, you would swear they were booing him. I was relieved to find out this wasn't the case.
Tomorrow I'm off to Short Track Speed Skating, an event that Canada usually does well in. The relay will be really exciting to watch.
Here is a link to the photos for today if you want to check those out. Hope you are having a great Vancouver 2010. It is so awesome to be here for this.
Canada Medal Results
Ashleigh McIvor - Gold in Ski Cross
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