the winter olympics: 2010 redux, days 0-1

day 0: after arriving home from a business trip the night before, i didn't exactly feel ready to leave again, but was excited for a little vacation. i spent friday doing laundry, running errands, and repacking for 'winter' weather.

my flight arrived in portland in the late evening and dylan and kelly played chauffeur and hosts for my overnight. our time was short, but i enjoyed the opportunity to see them, however briefly.

day 1: spencer picked me up early, and i'll admit that it felt like TOO early. nonetheless, since we'd be attending our first event that evening, we wanted to get to vancouver in plenty of time to pick up our tickets, get our bearings, and a feel for the scene.

we made the drive in an unexpectedly low 4 1/2 hours, and breezed through canadian customs.

waiting in line at canadian customs

we decided first to head to the ticket office in downtown vancouver before heading to our home away from home for the weekend. what we didn't realize was that the ticket office was pretty close to the downtown hubbub, and had i known, i might have been unnecessarily concerned about traffic and parking. while we did hit some traffic, it was quite mild given the circumstances, and we found cheap parking easily. our ticket pick-up was equally as simple, after which, we headed back to surrey, which lies just beyond the us border, and was where we would be sleeping for the next few days.

since we had gotten an amazing deal on our rental ($125/night), there was mild trepidation, while we waited to confirm (hopefully) that the place was as good as it looked online. that trepidation remained when we arrived and realized that our 'apartment' was a converted garage. ruh-roh!

when we walked in, however, all our fears dissipated, as we found an outstandingly beautiful conversion. it looked exactly like the photos we had seen, and i was especially pleased at the bathtub, which probably could have fit four people in it! the apartment consisted of a good-size living room (the couch also serving as a pull out second bed), a small kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom. i was quite impressed with the style and taste level, as well as the amenities it offered. truly, it was perfect and we felt like we had gotten a steal!

after settling in a bit, we decided that we would head over to olympic centre for our first event of the games: curling.

we were able to find free street parking about a 1/2 mile away from the venue and the walk was enjoyable, as the weather was extremely nice.

we made it through security (the mag&bag, as we called it in my salt lake days) and headed in to the arena. having looked at the seating diagram prior, we were nervous that our seats weren't very good, but after settling in to them, we realized there wasn't a bad seat in the house!

before the games get started

three pairs of teams would play simultaneously; china v. sweden, switzerland v. france, and the hot matchup of the night, canada v. great britain.

canada v. great britain

i can't be completely certain, as my salt lake experience was a little unusual, but my impression is that the patriotism, pride, and exuberance of canadians at these games surpasses those of the americans in salt lake. possibly we were just more subtle about it, but the canadians are so excited and so proud to be hosting these games and to have drawn the world's focus. that excitement and pride reaches fever pitch, however, when a canadian athlete sets out to prove him or herself on that world stage.

canadian pride

curling was no exception, and the mostly canadian crowd might have just as easily been at the second-coming for all their love and devotion to their team. since great britain is the originator of the sport, and canada was undefeated going in to the match, there were high hopes for canadian success. and those hopes were not disappointed.

the match was excellent, and spencer and i found ourselves in awe of the finesse demonstrated by both teams. their ability to manipulate the stones into the exact pathways of their choosing was pretty amazing. the game was a close one, won on literally the last canadian throw. nothing like a little suspense to make a game more interesting!

team canada

i learned a lot more than i ever knew about curling, and the highlight of the evening was when the crowd spontaneously burst into 'o canada' (video below). it was an unusual experience, and later, while watching the canadian tv broadcast (ctv) they recapped the event and commented on just how unusual, also showing a clip of the stone thrower talking to his teammate when it happened, musing that he'd never heard anything like it before.

i mean, let's be honest, curlers are the nerds of the sporting world (although i don't know when they got so cute!), and to have the crowd respond to their performance in such a way, was quite moving.

after the games were all completed, we took some self-portraits next to the lanes and made our way 'home'. surrey is roughly 30 minutes outside of vancouver, so we decided to try and find dinner closer to our destination. almost everything was closed, so we ended up at a tim horton's 'restaurant.'

after the victory

tim horton's seems to be the mcdonald's of canada - they are everywhere! to be honest though, we had no idea as we passed by multiple other tim horton's earlier in the day that they were a food establishment. in fact, spencer thought they sold socks.:) we only figured it out because it was attached to a wendy's (think kfc/pizza hut combination joints). the wendy's was closed but the tim horton's was open, so we discovered it's joys first-hand.

a strange kind of fast food place, to be sure, seeming to specialize in donuts and sandwiches, but not a bakery. i opted for chili, which was quite good, and after eating, we headed home.

before heading to bed, we reviewed and uploaded photos, and i enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate while watching the ctv recap on the flat-screen in front of the fireplace, before calling it a night.