GOING HOME!

Yesterday after our shifts, we went with Hailey to a restaurant at 'Creekside' (the district at the foot of the Men's Downhill that ran yesterday), and this sign was on the wall ...

(You can click to make it bigger, but in case you still can't read it, it says, "Go, Canada! And go everyone else, too, because we're Canadian and that's the way we roll."

There was a big screen TV playing highlights of the day, and then they switched to the live medals ceremony at BC Place, where Alex Bilodeau was about to get his gold medal. When 'Oh, Canada' started to play ... the entire restaurant, which was packed, stood up and sang along. And, as if that wasn't weird and wonderful enough, the whole restaurant burst into spontaneous cheering and applause afterwards -- it was one of the high points of my stay here so far!

Going home today right after my shift (for three days!) and I'm pretty excited!

OF BUSES AND BLIMPS (AND GOLD!!!)

Yesterday it was sure obvious that the Olympics had come to town. First of all, Biden and his entourage were at the Olympic Park (ski jump) yesterday morning, as was Cindy Crawford, apparently (although I didn't see either of them, just for the record)! The blimp was also positioned directly above Whistler Village, about a block from where I was stationed for most of the day ...

There`s also a blogger entry (not mine) here about the `Pigloos` that have sprung up around town!

But for me, yesterday was all about the buses. Dozens of them arrive by the hour and disgorge all those passengers who have been told for months now that there would be no parking in Whistler:




They`re really lovely to look at!

And what a treat to come home from my shift and watch the Men`s Moguls qualifying round and then the final competition -- Canada finally has a gold medal, on home soil. There`ll be no stopping us now! :)

Some of you may have noticed the time of these morning entries... in order to get both Audrey and I to our shifts -- in two different places -- without using public transit, we have to get up at 4 a.m. Hailey drives us, and then she has the use of my van for the day (after she comes home and goes back to bed for a few hours)! It`s working out great, except for these early mornings... I`m more used to it than Audrey, but it`s still a bit of a grind some days. Oh, well, I have two more shifts, and then I`m going home for three days again!

BACK TO WORK :)

I had a lovely two days off, and didn't accomplish a thing! Oh... that's not true, I did finish knitting the pair of socks that I started the day I got here (sorry, no picture). We never made it to the Canada House pancake breakfast after all -- I slept. A lot. But we did make it to the Whistler museum, which was pretty interesting!

Here is the playground just outside the Celebration Plaza where the medals will be given out...

That's an actual xylophone to the right of the mushroom-tree-thingy by the way. Isn't it cute?

And the Celebration Plaza itself is ready, too, after much scrambling by construction crews all week...

Good thing, because I'm pretty sure it's where Jenn Heil will get her medal tonight!

In addition to the uniform I got for volunteering, on my first shift we were given this cooler to put our lunches in (since we may be on the road when we need to eat):

It's slightly bigger than 6-pack size, and it will be perfect for 'small' dinghy picnics, don't you think?

We also get a 'prize' every third shift we complete -- my first 'prize' was a nice pin (pins are hugely popular, apparently!) and the second one was a little stuffed Quatchie. Apparently the 'final shift' prize is a nice watch.

I'll work today, tomorrow and Tuesday, and then collect another 'prize' before I head home on Tuesday evening for a whole three days!

WASN'T THAT SOMETHING? (And wasn't that sad?)

It was a difficult day here in Whistler yesterday after the news of the Georgian athlete swept through the Village -- and I felt equally bad for John Furlong, who has worked tirelessly for seven years, is exhausted, and then had to rise to the performance of his life, as the athletes do, to give that speech last night at the Opening.

And, though 'bittersweet', what an Opening it was, don't you think?! I gotta tell ya, some of it looked even better on TV than it did sitting in that stadium on Wednesday night. 'Now it can be told' that our seats were about 20' from where that snowboarder began his descent...

The highlight of the whole event for me was the 'breaking up' of the ice floes, and then those orcas, of course ... incredible what technology is capable of, huh? And hearing k.d.laing singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah live was pretty amazing, too!

Day off again today and Hailey and I will go to Canada House in the Village for their pancake breakfast, then we'll visit the Cultural Centre.

TODAY'S THE DAY

.. that Whistler has waited for, for almost 50 years!

Yes, I went to the opening ceremony dress rehearsal night before last, and yes, it was AMAZING. And that's all I'll say about that ... for now. Watch TV at 5 pm PST tonight, along with the other estimated 3 billion viewers around the world, and you'll see what I was privileged to see at the rehearsal. :) Sorry, but I really want to honor John Furlong's words ... "This opening ceremony is a gift Canada has spent almost 3 years hand-crafting to give to the world when we open the XXI Olympiad on February 12th. We're giving you a sneak peek tonight, but then we're wrapping it up to present it to the world on Friday night. Please don't spoil the surprise..."

The trip down to Vancouver was uneventful, but we did notice the ramped-up security all along the route, including a military aircraft circling overhead (in addition to the pretty much constant helicopter patrols) all along Howe Sound, and this military boat ...

And, of course, the streets all around the venue were closed off, so we had to find a parkade several blocks away, and walk.

But stopping at the look-out to get that military boat picture meant I also got to read these interpretive signs about the First Nations:



Now here's a security story for you!

Everyone had to empty the contents of their bags into bins, and the bins were then passed through a security scanner. I had my camera with me, and there were signs everywhere forbidding them. I also had socks on my needles, of course, and the needles were stainless steel double-pointed needles...

Oh, well, into the bin went the contents of my bag!

Hailey was next ... she dumped the contents of her bag into the next bin, and they passed the two bins through. I was waiting, imagining that my camera would be confiscated (I had forgotten to leave it in the van, which was 6 blocks away, and by the time I remembered it was in my bag, I wasn't about to walk all the way back...) -- and, of course, I was hoping that I could knit during the two hours we would be waiting for the show to start.

Well! My bag contents passed with flying colors, apparently, because they passed the bin back to me immediately and wished me a great evening.

Hailey's bag contents, on the other hand, made all the bells and whistles go off, and they started to search through it. The culprit?

An almost brand-new hair spray, which had been a (relatively expensive) Christmas gift from Mischa, got confiscated! I *guess* Hailey could be a terrorist, and even though she had no means of lighting that hairspray on fire, I *guess* she could have planned to have an accomplice sit nearby with a lighter (even though it wasn't me because I didn't have one, and the tickets were randomly assigned and dispersed!) and I *guess* they were just doing their jobs, but it seemed a little bizarre -- after we got done cracking up laughing as we walked away with my camera intact, and my stainless steel weapons ... er, I mean knitting needles!

Here's BC Place, which has a capacity of about 60,000 people -- there were probably 50,000 at the dress rehearsal.

On the way home, we witnessed the incredible light display that's taking place over the whole city right now...

I couldn't get a decent picture of it, but it was pretty amazing!

We got home and to bed around midnight, and I had to be up by 4:30 a.m. for my shift. We're still 'staging' more than actually driving, but I spent most of yesterday sitting in the staging area outside the Whistler Athlete's Village, and watching these cute little red shuttle buses disgorge athletes all day...

And don't tell my hubby I said this, but mmmmm mmmmm.... lots of nice, young, good-looking 'eye candy' there, I can tell ya!

And this map appeared in the lounge area of the compound I work out of every day, showing where all the volunteers are from (remember that you can click the pic to enlarge it):

Last night we took Audrey to the Four Seasons to listen to the Hairfarmers again, and this was the display in the lobby when we walked in:

I have a day off today ... I'll be putting a chicken stew in the crock pot, and curling up to knit until the Opening Ceremony comes on at 5 pm!

Yesterday my friend Audrey arrived from Calgary -- she'll stay with Hailey and I for the rest of the Games. She'll be stationed at the Athlete's Village, but not until tomorrow, so we had time to wander around (Whistler) Village yesterday.

First of all, the 'rings' finally arrived, to adorn the entrance to the Celebration Plaza, where medal ceremonies will take place every night...

(We're assuming that those colored stripes must light up at night ... otherwise these rings are pretty boring. :)

Audrey and I posed for Hailey...

By the way, that piece of plastic hanging around my neck is called my 'accreditation,' and it's THE security bracelet around here -- the info is all scan-able (is that a word, d'ya think?), and includes my 'number,' my photo, my volunteer job here, the list of venues where I'm allowed, and any restrictions on that access (for example, mine tells them that I'm allowed pretty much anywhere in Whistler's Olympic world, but ONLY if I'm in my official Olympic vehicle).


The athletes are starting to arrive from all over the world now -- I've seen Russian delegates, Czech delegates, French delegates... and yesterday I overheard a story about two Kazhakstan (spelling?)delegates who'd gotten hopelessly lost somewhere but were eventually found.

These German delegates were at the rings yesterday with one each of the Olympic mascots. There's Qautchie the Sasquatch..

Sumi the animal spirit ...

Miga the sea bear...

And last, but not least, MukMuk the marmot...

... who only existed in cyberspace until the Vancouver Sun intervened!

Yesterday this was my view from the 'Staging Area' at the Whistler 'Transportation Mall (where we wait for clients who need to be driven somewhere):

That's Whistler's Municipal Hall (unaffectionately known locally as 'the Muni') on the right.

Sadly, we are still spending quite a bit of time practising the routes, routines and procedures, etc, since there aren't that many folks yet demanding our services -- that will all change pretty rapidly after today, though, we've been told.

But today I actually have a day off, because it's the day that Hailey and I go to the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal in Vancouver! Cameras are expressly forbidden so I'm not sure what I'll have to show for it, but we're pretty excited to be going, anyway!

A WHIRLWIND WEEKEND!

Barely had time to breathe, but at least we all managed to get together for breakfast this morning!

(From left to right, my entire family all together: Joshua, Hailey, Jason and Kristen, me and Michael, River, Mischa, and at the head of the table, of course, Gibson!)

On shift tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., so I'm off to bed!