OLYMPICS!!

(Directors Note- if you would like to quietly hum the olympic theme to yourself, that would be strongly encouraged- or if you like you could open this link in another window and have it as back ground music while you read)

OK THE OLYMPICS!!




We headed up to the Olympics on Tuesday (incase you were wondering it was in Vancouver in 2010!!)





Vancouver is in CANADA!!


Whoa Nelly was there no question about that! Canadians were so into being from Canada and having the Olympics in Canada it was a little overwhelming at times. It was like Spirit Week in your highschool times 5 million (that much more money as well as people). Every store front, bus billboard, childs face and street sign was painted Go Canada, go Olympics. Not to get too far ahead of myself but one of the neatest parts of the day was being in the city of Vancouver while Canada defeated Norway (I think) in Hockey. It was like (I imagine) being in a Superbowl City. Here is one of the giant screens set up around Vancouver for people to watch the game:

So the point is- Canadians love being Canadian and love Hockey and Canada.

Admitedly I had previousl only spent a few days in Canada (in Victoria which I absolutely adored, but I was out of my mind sick as a little dog then zonked on crazy Canadian cold medicine and accordingly was unable to draw any realistic conclusions) but the whole time I was walking around Victoria I was thinking about how much Canada is Bizzaro America. I expected to pass an exact version of our olympic group except they would have goatees and say "badbye, eh?" -- Seriously everything is the same but just a little different (like people put maple syrup in their hot chocolate? is that a joke Canada?) street signs, fast food shops, the love of hockey instead of football. This whole same-differentness put a surreal spin on day.

The Olympics themselves- I have mixed feeling about. I really love the Olympics- the whole idea of bring the world together for two peaceful weeks etc etc. And I really loved going to them and being part of that! But that being said - The Vancouver part of the Olympics were not very well organized and just a little disapointing. As my friend Brian Alamars said "I think I've gotten a gold medal in the Olympic Experience of waiting in lines." Everywhere we went- there were mind blowing disneyworld lines. It was an hour wait to get IN to the Olympic Store to see if there was anything you wanted to buy and an other hour and a half to check out (we didn't go). It was two hours just to pick up our Olympics tickets, and another hour to get through Security at the venue. I realize that there were literally thousands of people from all over the world desending upon Vancouver- but there was also only two or three places you could pick up your Olympic tickets- and they were manned by only two or three people. That is just a small example of how the Olympics were just not very well planned. There was a total lack of signs and maps - and although our team leader had done extensive research before we left (in fact this was our saving grace) it was extremely difficult to figure out what was up. This might be the case for all Olympics- that the Games are just to massive an event to properly manage- but I've only been to this one and again I was a little disapointed.

Ok enough bitching- you dont care about that shizzle! Olympics Olympics Olympics!! We DID get to see the Olympic Torch, which was pretty incredible!


Although don't be fooled- the picture below was about as close as we could get without a sweet zoom function on your camera


Here I am with the Olympic Torch:


Another thing that was cool was seeing athletes just walking around- we saw groups from Italy Germany and Russia in the various Olympic areas (outside of the event we went too), and our friends Brian and Tiffany were at the same resturant as Sven Kramer the Netherlands Superstar of Speed Skating. And it was really neat seeing people from ALL over having pride for their country. Like this person:

Ha ha! This was on the way to the Women's Hockey Russia vs USA game that Andy and I went too. Going to the event was incredibly fun- and in the way the Olympics came up a little short in other regards, being at this event and seeing Team USA play was completely awesome.

The security line was a little long- but they had audio recordings of Canadian celebrities like Martin Short, Mary Hart and David Copperfield welcoming you to the games while you waited, and all the Olympic Staff and Volenteers were very very nice.

This is the Olympic Logos on the Ice, which I thought was pretty cool:








The Olympic International Press- their section was HUGE!




And OLYMPIC ZAMBONI!!


Here is the Olympic Village from afar!!

If you click on the picture it will make it bigger- then you can see all the flags hanging off the balconies

This is some kind of Olympic thing:


Here is the Olympic Ice Skating Rink


Here is my Olympic Lunch!

After the Hockey Game Andy and I ended up in some kind of crazy Olympic street fair outside a CASINO! We had this delicious noodle pile

To me- one of the coolest parts of the whole Olympic set up was the SOCHI Dome! It is a little embarassing to admit- but I didn't even know what Sochi was until going to the Olympics- it is the host city of the NEXT Olympic games, in Russia. Here is the Sochi Dome by Day:



And by Night:

Overall- the Olympics get a 6.5 out of ten from me. I am so glad that I went- and if there is any chance of getting up their in the next week I really recommend you go too!