Over and Out

Figure Skating Medalists

The last shift of my Olympic journey is officially over. Bummer. It was really hard to leave the coliseum (PAC) Thursday night; it feels as though I just had my first shift yesterday! Luckily, I got to work inside for my last shift, which was the Ladies free skate. Seeing Joannie Rochette win that bronze medal was a great way to cap-off my time there, even though I had one of the most stressful shifts of this experience! I worked in the section with the $450 seats (translate: ‘elite’/demanding clientele), and there were some broadcast/press seats in my section as well.

The broadcasters and press are an interesting group – they will try and get away with just about anything and do a really good job of convincing you that they have the correct information and you don’t. It’s easy to fall for it here because rules/policies change every 2-3 minutes, and answers always seem to depend on who you ask! But, I stayed firm but polite and throughout this experience, I have learned to pick my battles. I even made friends with a few of the NBC broadcasters; this was the 14th Olympics that one of them had covered! Additionally, this means that I was standing right beside the NBC broadcast booth where I was about 2 feet away from Scott Hamilton – very cool.

Pacific Coliseum: on the ice!

At the end of the night, a few of us volunteers went down to the kiss & cry area, and I made my second attempt at getting my picture taken at centre ice – success!! Just in time before we got kicked off. Definitely one of the most memorable experiences here. AND, I’d like to think that perhaps my standing on the ice had a positive effect on the men’s short track team who skated on it tonight – WOO HOO! Gold, Gold AND Bronze!! Judy and I were at the Great Big Sea medal ceremony at BC Place tonight, which was AMAZING (those boys never fail to disappoint) – but – I did find myself wishing that I had gone down to the coliseum for the short-track events instead. However, as I’ve learned from this adventure – you cannot be in two places at once.

Judy and I walked down to Yaletown after the medal ceremony, which was the same time that the hockey game let out. I would like to think that I’m good with words but, really? There’s nothing I can write here that will capture or describe what the vibe in this city was like tonight. With four medals won today, a forthcoming gold-medal hockey game, AND securing the top-country spot for gold medals – people were in celebration mode! My tolerance for completely obnoxious/drunk people has sky-rocketed since I’ve been in Vancouver, to the point where I can’t imagine what it would be like here without them! Judy and I sat on a heated patio on one of Yaletown’s main streets (Yes – a patio in February : ) and just watched as people danced and partied in the streets, having a great time. We made friends, high-fived all over the place with strangers, and it wasn’t uncommon for chants of “Go Canada Go” to break out completely spontaneously all throughout the night. It even continued when we hopped on the sky train – this group of guys just blew bazooka horns and whistles and yelled “Go Canada!” at the top of their lungs during our entire 15-minute ride home – and no one told them to put a sock in it. Heck – I would have told them to put a sock in it under normal circumstances, but, I loved every minute of it and high-fived them all as we got off the train….these are the moments I will miss the most about being here.

Me and Aunt Judy celebrating Canada's medals on a patio in February!

As this trip winds down, I’m trying to get in a few ‘last’ visits to some places and say some ‘last’ goodbyes to friends, in addition to squeezing in a few of the sights I haven’t seen yet. I met an old high-school friend (Kurt) and his girlfriend today for breakfast at a great little breakfast/brunch spot called Provence Marianside. It was great to catch-up with an old friend out here in Vancouver. I still haven’t been able to get to Grouse Mountain OR the Canadian Mint to see the Olympic medals (lines have been about 5-7 hours long) but Heather and I did make the trek out to the Richmond Oval after breakfast to try and get scalper tickets to today’s team-pursuit event. No luck, as it doesn’t appear the scalpers like to make the long trek out to Richmond. Instead, we hopped back on the Canada Line and spent the rest of the afternoon at the Granville Market. I’d have to say that the market is at the top of my all-time favourite places that I’ve been to/discovered since I’ve been out here. Yet again, it was tough to leave not knowing when I’ll be back for all that fresh food once again…

I’m hoping to squeeze in a trip to the Mint early Sunday morning before the hockey game, and Judy and I are heading out to Victoria for the day. Looking forward to the ferry ride as I’ve heard it’s beautiful.

Family time in Vancouver

Granville Public Market

I’ve been off work for two days now, but I’ve been no less busy – believe me! Since Erin and Tye, and Jonathan and Terri have arrived, we’ve been packing in as much touristy stuff as we can. The problem is, there is SO much going in in Vancouver right now that no matter what, we’re going to miss something! Every day we hear about five or six more attractions, Olympics-geared or otherwise, that we want to see or do and there’s just no time to so it all. It’s overwhelming, but we’re doing to the best we can to pack our days full of good stuff…

Yesterday I met Erin and Tye at the Olympic Line so we could head over to the Kids Market at Granville Island. I’ve been over to Granville a few times since I’ve arrived here, and absolutely love the vibe there. The public market there is amazing; not only is it gigantic, but I’ve never seen so much fresh food in my whole life. It’s such a quaint little spot with a beautiful harbor view and cute boutique shops. Tye loved the market geared for kids, and we got an awesome window seat in the market on the top floor for lunch, overlooking the dock.

Erin and Tye

After doing some exploring and picking up a few souvenirs for peeps back home, I separated from Erin and Tye so I could head over to Pacific Coliseum (my venue) for the Pairs Figure skating final. With the proper credentials, I had the advantage of going through the work force entry instead of having to wait in line at the spectator gate. Since Jonathan and Terri had upgraded my ticket as a Christmas present, I had an absolutely fantastic seat, only about a dozen rows from the ice in the corner. It was amazing to see this event live and up close. The speed of the skaters and the height and difficulty of their lifts does not translate on TV as well as it appears in person. There were a lot of flawed performances – Ihave to wonder about the condition of the ice, given that so many pairs were falling. It was unfortunate that the Canadian skaters didn’t fare better, but despite Dube & Davison’s flaws, they were certainly the crowd favourite and we went wild for them both before and after their performance. If it wasn’t going to be a Canadian pair getting the gold, I was happy to see the Chinese pairs take home gold and silver. Shen and Zhao have been on the scene for awhile and have always skated beautifully. It was great to finally see them recognized as top competitors in this sport. Several of us agreed that the French skaters should have scored better as they were another crowd favourite and skated beautifully. They were one of the only standing ovations of the night and when the pair joined the spectators in the crowd later in the night, that section gave them another standing ovation as well. I enjoyed the event sitting next to a very nice couple from Richmond, who turned out to be the parents of Darcy Marquardt, a Canadian Olympian in rowing. Yet again, I never cease to be amazed by the friendliness of the people here….

Beluga Whale

This morning started bright and early meeting Erin and Tye at the Sky Train to head over to the Vancouver Aquarium. The aquarium is in Stanley Park, yet another attraction that I need more time to discover. What a beautiful place. It could just be my imagination, but the forestry here is much more beautiful and lush than back home. Erin and I didn’t even bother taking many pictures there because there’s no way a picture would do it justice. We had a blast at the aquarium with Tye – his favourite part was seeing the sharks, and we watched a very cool dolphin show (which was my favourite) – also got up close and personal with some beluga whales. Although the aquarium is adult-friendly and I enjoyed it immensely, it’s 100 times more fun going with a five-year old and seeing him enjoy it.

Bannon/Michienzi clan!

While you could certainly spend a whole day at the Vancouver Aquarium, we ended up seeing everything in just a couple of hours so that we left ourselves lots of time to get over to Canada Hockey Place for the Canada vs. Norway game! We met up with Jonathan and Terri and got some ‘family pics’ of us in all of our Canada hockey gear; I can’t even tell you how awesome it feels for all of us to be here together. The energy in the crowd/line-up even before we got into the stadium was absolutely electric. And, you were hard pressed to find a single soul who was not wearing red and white. We got fully into the hockey spirit by painting our faces too (Jonathan and Terri went ALL out with this!). Oh, and did I mention that we were just a mere ten rows from the ice, right behind the Norway net?? I have never in my life enjoyed a hockey game as much as I enjoyed this one; the crowd was charged and electric, our seats were amazing, and you could just feel the Canadian pride in your bones every time the arena erupted in cheers and chants. I was also able to meet up with my friend Jess, from back home, for a beer during the intermission, as she’s volunteering as a photo assistant at the venue. I’m not sure I’ll ever go to another hockey game that will top this one! If tonight’s game was any indication, Canada will be bringing home the gold on home ice….

Great seats!

Of course, we celebrated the game as well as Canada’s second gold medal today (whoo hoo!), with some drinks and snacks at Steam Works Brewery downtown. But, I made it a somewhat early night as I’m absolutely drained from the activities and early mornings of the last few days. Since the moment I got to Vancouver, it feels like I haven’t stopped and I’m wondering if I’m ever going to be able to fit in some downtime somewhere! But, as Jess keeps reminding me – “You can sleep in March!” Additionally, I hope that I can squeeze in some more time to actually WATCH some coverage of the Olympics. Although I’m having this absolutely incredible experience here that’s very different than the Olympic experience I’d be having back home, it does come with some sacrifice. I’m still DYING to witness a medal win for Canada LIVE instead of hearing about it second hand, and I’ve still yet to see the replay of Bilodeau getting his gold medal, or the replays of our silver and bronze medal wins. During the very little time I have off (after tomorrow, I only have one more day off), I like to take in as much of Vancouver as I can, but it doesn’t leave much time for just hanging at home or at a bar and watching the events….

On that note, another early morning and busy day tomorrow with Erin, Tye, Jonathan and Terri at Capilano bridge, followed by our last event tickets of this trip – Short Track Speed Skating. We’ll be in the second row, so if you’re watching – be sure to look for us!

Face-painted fans, Jonathan & Terri

Syd the Kid

Game on!

Smurf Squad

Volunteers are very easy to spot in Vancouver these days. They (we) generally travel in pairs or packs and our blue jackets stand out. We’ve affectionately self-dubbed ourselves as “smurfs.” The nicest thing is that when passing fellow volunteers on the street, we all smile and say hello to each other as if we’ve all met before. And as much as I have heard that some Vancouver locals are none to happy to have the masses descending upon their city, our experience so far would certainly suggest otherwise…

Judy and I went out to tackle downtown Vancouver today, and since it was pouring when we left the house this morning, we opted to wear our waterproof blue jackets (well… maybe we were just excited to wear them : ) As soon as we got on the bus, this tiny old Asian lady spotted us – her eyes lit up, and she gave us a big smile with the thumbs up sign. Then she turned to her friend and started talking excitedly and with a big smile – pointing at us. So, she was either laughing at us (possible) or just really excited to have spotted her (first?) Olympic volunteers.

Judy's Venue - Main Media Centre

As we headed down on the Sky Train to Canada Place on the Waterfront (Judy’s venue – the Main Media Centre), we approached a few other volunteers who happened to be locals. They recommended a trip up the Harborfront Tower where there was a revolving restaurant at the top. Although it was expensive – Judy and I decided to splurge. Besides, what better way to see the Vancouver sky line and mountains than a nice relaxing lunch, and a 360-degree view of the city? Despite the most expensive, but also most delicious, sandwich I’ve ever had, the view from there did not disappoint. It was a great way to spend our lunch downtown and as the clouds moved over and the sun came out, it turned into an absolutely beautiful, sunny day.

After lunch we headed out for some more sightseeing. After stopping for a quick coffee (me at Starbucks, Judy at Timmy’s), we wandered down to Robson Square, BC Place and LiveCity Downtown Vancouver (the Robson Square zip line does not start running until Friday though, which was kind of a bummer for us). Fortunately or unfortunately, our blue jackets attracted attention and people kept stopping me and Judy to ask questions and/or directions! We had to simply laugh and say that we were just Ontarians on our second day in Vancouver, and direct them to the info booths. One local even asked us what there was to see and do in Vancouver today, and then ended up giving US advice on what to see and do!

View from Harborfront Tower Restaurant

The locals here have been absolutely wonderful. There have been more than happy to help with directions, and even if we just looked confused or were staring down at maps, they have not hesitated to approach US and ask if we need help. I asked Helen and Gord if this was common of Vancouverites, or if it was simply because they were on their best beahviour for the Olympics. They assured us that no – this is pretty common for people out here. Given that we’re essentially taking over their whole city and disrupting their normal way-of-life, it’s great to see so many locals getting into the spirit with positive attitudes. It certainly paints a different picture than what I’d been hearing about, and has made us smurfs feel very welcome.

Tomorrow Judy and I are meeting up with fellow volunteer from London who is not only working at Pacific Coliseum with me, but as it turns out, is also staying just 2 or 3 blocks away! We’re going to head out to Granville Island for the afternoon and then meeting up with a group of volunteers there before all of us head to Yaletown for dinner and a bit more sightseeing in downtown Vancouver. It will be an early night for me, as work starts Wed morning at 5am!

Rain + Sun = Rainbow over Canada Place!

Lastly, shout-out and congratulations to my dodgeball team back home for our first win of the season tonight! Go Yetis!