Ryan Nitchie

Curling and Family, Friends

2010-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

Up really early today to make the trek out again downtown to meet my aunt and uncle and deliver some curling tickets to the Canada vs Swiss and China vs Sweden semi final game at 9am.

Aunty and Uncle are travelling over the ferry from Nanaimo to Tswaassen then bussing from their to Bridgeport on the Canada Line and I will meet them at King Edward station. I was a little early arriving at the station around 7:30am so I just waited on the bench for them to arrive. As I head up to go to the bathroom I notice the scalpers congregating outside the station so I ask what they are selling single tickets for and they said $100 which is the face value so I decide that once Aunty and Uncle arrive I will just buy a single ticket for myself to catch the game - and I'm glad I did.

They arrived about 8:30 which didnt give us much time to get to the venue and pass through security before the event started. We stood in the line to pass through the security and we only missed the first end which wasnt that bad actually. We are sitting in the same section I'm just up a little higher than them but good seats as we are behind the house.

What a great curling game. Bernard had to make a great shot on her last one to try to limit the Swiss skip to getting just 2 points and forcing an extra end as Swiss had the hammer but on the Swiss last shot she wasnt able to hold her shooter and it spilled out of the house picking up only 1 point and giving Canada the game and a shot at the gold medal tomorrow.

After the event I went with them downtown to get some lunch and see the Olympic caulderon. I was also supposed to meet up with Ron Brinnen and his wife Pat sometime today. It just so happened that as we came up the escalator at City Centre station they were standing waiting at the top of the escalator so the 5 of us went for lunch at a great sushi place called Oisye Oisye. I was a little turned around on my directions and finally stopped into a hotel and asked the concierge for help and got the right address for the restaurant. A point that Ron was quick to give me a rough time about but I would expect nothing less from him. It was wonderful to see them. So after a short walk through downtown we enjoyed a Japanese lunch and had a great conversation about what's been going on. It was great to see them and I had a wonderful time. (Thank you guys for coming over and thanks for lunch)

After lunch I took Aunty and Uncle down to the flame and we took some photos. We wandered our way back to the skytrain and I directed them to the Canada Line and I jumped on the Expo Line and headed back to Teds hopefully in time to watch the Canadian women win gold in hockey.

I am sick and tired of riding the SkyTrain. I much prefer my 2 minute commute from my house to work in Armstrong. Sometimes my commute at home takes three minutes if there is a slow moving tractor in front of me!!!!

I am really excited for tomorrow as I am starting to get a little homesick and am really missing my wife and kids. Three weeks is the longest I have ever been away. I go away for 3-4 days at a time sometime with City business but never this long without them and it is really starting to get to me - so tomorrow that ends as Tami and the girls are driving down on Friday. We have a day in town then head to Seattle on Sunday with my brother Kody and his family then jump on a plane to Mexico for 12 days - YEEE HAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Clara Hughes Wins Bronze!

2010-02-26T12:53:00.000-08:00

Got to sleep in a little today before making my trek from Cloverdale out to the Richmond Oval. I'm not sure how long this commute will take so I leave a little early to make sure I can clear security in time for the event.

I'm pretty stoked as I have never been to a speed skating event before and watching them on TV looks like the crowd is really into it.

I bus from Cloverdale to King George Skytrain, take the train to Waterfront, switch to the Canada Line then ride the Canada Line out to Aberdeen station. From there it is about a 2km walk along the river to the beautiful Richmond Oval. Proud to say that members of the architectural team that helped build Armstrong's new arena helped to build this massive wood facility and is this building spectacular!

Once I pass through security I find my seat which couldnt be in a better place. Right on the corner by the finish line. The Dutch fans are all starting to pour in wearing their bright orange outfits - they absolutely LOVE speed skating. Many are still depressed about Kramer's unfortunate disqualification yesterday which would have won him his 3rd gold medal but unfortunately his coach told him to take the inside lane on the final corner when it was supposed to be the outer lane and he was DQ'd.

Inside the oval the track officials are setting up for the race and the Dutch fans are already singing, chanting and ringing their cowbells. They are located 1 bleacher over from me. Two young speed skaters take to the ice to test the timing system and as they pass on their 2 laps to test the Dutch are standing and cheering for these volunteers. Then the Zamboni/Olympia machines pass to flood the ice and the Dutch stand up and cheer for the ice machine drivers - I cant imagine what they'll do when a dutch skater actually passes.

Time for the race, Cindy Klassen is in the first of 8 pairings, she puts on a gutsy performance but you can see that she simply doesnt have what it takes to be a legitimate threat for a medal and ends up in 12th place after the racing is over. We see the next 3 pairings each one featuring a Dutch athlete and the crowd goes wild beside me everytime they pass by.

After the 4th pairing they flood the ice again so more cheering for the Zamboni drivers. They have a commentator wandering around the stands with a jumbotron cameraman interviewing people in the rink. So the interviewer picks a couple sitting a few seats down from me. She asks them some questions like 'Where are you from?' 'Are you enjoying the games?' 'What events have you seen' and they both answer all the questions. Then she asks the guy if he has any other messages to his friends and family at home and he says yeah and he reaches into his pocket gets down on one knee and proposes to his girlfriend. Well the Dutch fans see this and they start singing and chanting and cheering and of course the girl said 'yes' so that was kind of neat.

Back to the racing. Clara Hughes is in the first pairing of the final 4 pairings. She skates an absolutely unbeleivable race. On her final lap you can just see the anguish in her face as her legs are burning as she glides down the ice. It is absolutely unreal how fast these people skate. Watching it on TV doesnt give it any justice as it is hard to judge the length of the straightaways and how in about 6-8 strides they are down the entire length. Clara pushes right to the end and posts a 1st place time and she is yelling and fist pumping and screaming in the oval and the crowd of Canadians were yelling just as loud - it was electric.

There were 3 other pairings to go. The next group finished under Clara Hughes so she kept her 1st place position. The next group had Kristina Groves and Bechert from Germany. Groves tried hard but I dont think this event is her strongest and she finished in 6th while Bechert beat Clara Hughes time to bump Hughes to 2nd. The final pairing features the world champion Seblikova of the Czech Republic and a girl from the USA. Seblikova doesnt look anything like the other speed skater girls. The other girls have these massive thighs and big bums that are pure muscle. Seblikova is this slight long legged girl who skates like she is floating. She holds the world record and has the track record. She skates an unreal race beating everyone by a couple seconds and is way ahead of the American in her race. So now all there is to watch is to see if the American is fast enough to put Clara Hughes out of a medal spot - she finishes the race and Clara Hughes holds onto the bronze medal.

I can see the whole Canadian Team along with the coaches and everyone jumping and hugging as she captures her 6th Olympic medal and ties Cindy Klassen as Canada's most decorated Olympic athlete. She does her victory lap with the Canadian flag and the crowd was going nuts. The Dutch were still jumping and singing and chanting for her as they cheer on everyone but they really appreciate good performances and they were clearly cheering for the Canadian girl.

A very cool afternoon to say the least.

I headed home to catch the Canada/Russia hockey game and the day got even better as we were leaping off the couch everytime Canada pumped another goal in on the Russians - what a fun game to watch.

I'm heading to curling tomorrow, however, I had talked to my cousin Paulyne in Duncan and mentioned that my aunt and uncle who are there too might want to come over and watch the curling and that I would let them have my tickets. She called me during the game and said that Uncle Omer and Aunty Carrie decided to come over so I am going to meet them out at the SkyTrain station on King Edward early Friday morning and give them the tickets.

A great night.

Sorry for the bad photos, I was by myself and had to ask someone to take picture so my eyes were closed and I didnt want to bother them for another pic. Also, speed skating pic is a little blurry as you cant run flashes in the venue.

Once I was the King of Sweden..Now I eat Humble Pie

2010-02-26T04:34:00.000-08:00

Royalty - what a life! I could have named this post "From Russia with Love" as well as you will learn...

Yep, today I finally got a new post and what a posting it was. Today I was at the Guest Pass Centre where all of the guests to the village must enter by picking up the appropriate accreditation. In order to do so, they must be accompanied by an accredited person to enter, they must leave their passport with the accreditation folks and must leave the village no later than 9pm in order to retrieve their passports.

So the posting is quite interesting with lots of VIP people, media and athletes passing through here.

The evening started with quite a lot of hullabaloo as the head volunteer honcho guy came in to brief us all that the King of Sweden was arriving by motorcade at around 4:30pm. Just prior to 4:30 quite a few plain clothes CSIS security started arriving as did the Village photographer and several other VANOC people to greet the king. Sure enough right at 4:30 a motorcade of about 6 black SUVs with flashing lights on the front came driving into the driveway and lots of security RCMP/CSIS guys jumped out along with the King dressed in Team Sweden gear. They whisked him through security and through our post and into the village in no time.

About a half hour later I had an interesting encounter with a very burley Russian man. He was in his 60s I would say, a huge man, very sullen. He tried to pass through my post. As I scanned his accreditation it came up red on my computer screen which means that he is denied entry. He looked flustered at me as I told him he wasnt allowed to enter. He grumbled something in Russian to me and pulled out his cel phone and started calling people. After about 10 minutes of calling he finally left and headed back to Sochi House. He retured about 1 1/2 hours later. I once again scanned his accreditation and it still came up 'red' so I denied him access. I told him "No Access" he responded in a deep Russian accent - "No Access"! He grumbled a bunch more and pulled out his cel phone and began speaking with someone. Then he passed me the phone to speak to the person on the other end. It was a very polite girl who spoke perfect english who asked me nicely if I could just let the man pass. Of course, being the good blue jacket volunteer, I explained that he wasnt allowed to pass without permission. She said that she was giving permission and I kindly replied that I dont know who she is and what her position was and that only my superiors could grant permission for someone to pass. The girl on the phone said she would make some calls and get back to us. About 10 minutes later we get a call from Frederica our boss who grants permission for the Russian man to pass. Afterwards she explained to us that he is the Russian Minister of Sport in charge of the Sochi Olympics in 2014!! Oh well, we take our jobs seriously I guess.

The day went by quickly. During my lunch break I headed over to the ticketing office to see if there were any tickets for events available and I lucked out.

Some of the athletes who purchased tickets are selling the tickets through this office so they post signs up by the desk with the details of the tickets, prices and dates. All of them are being sold at face value with no service fees so it is better than buying from scalpers.

I notice 1 ticket for women's speed skating 5000m at the Richmond Oval tomorrow. I absolutely love speed skating and this was one event that I really wanted to see so I purchased that ticket. Then I noticed 2 tickets for womens semi final curling for Thursday so I purchased those two tickets.

So now I am actually going to see some events.

So with that luck I ended my evening excited about the coming two days off as I get to take in some events. We were dismissed from the job at 9:30 which was nice and I headed home on the long trek on the SkyTrain to the Gomorra of BC aka Surrey Central SkyTrain Station. This place is hell. Nothing but drug dealers, gangsters, scumbags - a really lovely place to wait for a bus at 11pm!

Oh how I love Armstrong!

Day 17 - O Canada - Damn!

2010-02-22T11:53:00.001-08:00

Prepared all day for the big hockey game Canada vs USA.
Ted and I did some shopping and I picked up a new pair of prescription sunglasses as I need them for my Mexico trip and my old ones have been stepped on by your truly too many times.

What a frustrating game to watch!!!! What was with Brodeur and the cricket paddle clearing attempt and then the Ken Dryden style save attempt that looked like Owen Siddall on a Tuesday night 11pm drop in hockey night at the Nor Val!

Oh well, they did out chance the US and they hit a very hot goalie in Miller. My personal feeling is that playing another warm up game against the Germans isn't such a bad thing as they get another chance to play together and work on some chemistry.

My hope is that someone steps up in the room and really puts a fire under them as they need an Esposito like '72 rant to help them put some passion into their game. Oh, and bench Pronger.

Have to run. Late shift today.

Day 16 - Party in the Downtown

2010-02-22T11:42:00.001-08:00

We did some shopping today in Everett before making our way back into Canada. We decided to try and beat the long border lineups and go to the Aldergrove crossing - oops. We waiting in line for close to 1.5hrs to get back into Canada.

Once we got back I met up with Iain who is a business consultant working with Askew's and we hit the downtown for the evening. He was incredibly gracious as we drank some wine at his place in Yaletown then had dinner and tried to get in the line up to see Sam Roberts at the Yaletown Live Site but there must have been 15,000 people trying to get in there. We crowd surfed for a while and ended up at a bar in Yaletown drinking very over priced drinks.

We caught the awesome fireworks show which started right after the Sam Roberts show. What a spectacular show.

After the show there must have been 250,000 people or more in the downtown area. A hockey game was out, Victory Ceremony got out at BC Place plus thousands of people partying downtown on a Saturday night made for chaos on Transit. I walked from False Creek at the Yaletown Live Site up to Stadium skytrain station but the line up was about 2hrs long so I walked from there down to Main Street station and waited for a short time and crammed myself onto a train. Ted was nice enough to wait up for me and picked me up around 1:30am.

I was supposed to be up at 4am for an early shift, however, I'm not going to make it on Sunday and am taking a day of rest tomorrow.

Day 15 - Lacrosse at the Olympics?

2010-02-22T11:39:00.001-08:00

Yep, in my dreams but even though it is still winter I can still take in my favorite sport while down at the Olympics!!!!

I'm was off today and once Ted got off work we headed into the USA to catch the Calgary Roughnecks and Washington Stealth play in Everett.

Had a fun time even though the Stealth team didnt show up to play until the 2nd half with the score already 10-1 in Calgary's favor. Met up with Chad Pieper down there and had a few drinks together.

Day 14 - A Golden Day!

2010-02-19T00:22:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day today!

I got to sleep in, have a shower and leave for the bus around noon as I've finally figured out my timing for getting to the village.

The sun was bright, not a cloud in the sky and by noon it was already about 12 degrees and feeling like spring. The grass is green here and the krokuses are up in people's flower beds.
I had a great sleep last night. I went to bed around 10:30pm and didnt wake up until around 9am. So I was very rested and ready for a fun day and it was a really fun day.

I was deployed to the Welcome Centre again today which is a little slow now that the games are on and most of the athletes have already checked into the village, however, a lot of athletes use this entrance to get dropped off by their drivers and all the hockey teams including the Canadian men and women use this entrance when returning from their games as it is closest to the Canada House residence here at the village.

One great thing about this post is that there is a TV located at the back exit to the village so I try to get there right away so I can catch olympic coverage while I'm working. So I got to see Christine Nesbitt's gold medal skate in the 1000m long track speed skating event which was made even better when at 9pm tonight she came through my post with her coach as she returned from her medal ceremony where she got her gold medal. She was absolutely beaming with joy and she asked me if I wanted to see her gold medal. She carefelly removed it from her Team Canada jacket and unwrapped it from the felt she had it wrapped in - it was beautiful. Inscribed on the back of the medal is the event, date and her winning time. She said she was still in shock. It was a pretty cool moment.

Shortly after she left then Team Canada hockey team came through and Sidney Crosby passed through my post so I got to say 'great goal' after he scored the winning goal in the shootout tonight over Switzerland. He just smiled and said 'Thanks, I wish I'd scored on the first one" then headed off with his buddies.

I'm off for two days now and am heading down to Everett Washington with Ted tomorrow afternoon to catch a National Lacrosse League game between the Washington Stealth and Calgary Roughnecks. We are going to drink a lot of cheap American beer and stay the night and come home on Saturday. Should be fun.

(Sorry for the lack of photos lately, they have put a complete ban on anyone taking any photos in the Residential area of the village. This came into effect as soon as the pro athletes arrived. So I'm hoping to break the 'law' next week and snap some pics in and around Canada House and some pics of the village with all the flags everywhere.)

Day 13 - Fun at the Village

2010-02-18T23:54:00.000-08:00

Third morning shift in a row and it was hard to get out of bed today...a little tired this morning but it is my last morning shift for a bit so it's all good!

Fully briefed and assigned to Team Athlete which is the Athletes entrance to the village off Quebec Street and where the athletes catch the motor coaches to their venues.

It is bloody cold this morning!!!! The unfortunate thing about this location in the morning is that there really is nothing to do until around 11am. All of the athletes have breakfast at the dining hall then run to catch their bus by about 8:30am and we do nothing for them while they exit. Only after about 11:30am does anyone start returning so we just stand around and talk and feel our feet and fingers go numb in the cold.

I met a nice lady named Pat today who lives at Predator Ridge. She is relatively new to Vernon and her and her husband are retired now and are both volunteering at the games. We chatted all morning and passed the time yacking.

At around 11am I was moved into the athletes dining hall which was a sweet post as all the athletes were streaming in for lunch including all the NHL guys as apparently they sleep in through breakfast.

Very funny moment when three Norweigan hockey players came in and one was unfortunately on crutches with a large walking cast on his foot. A Swedish player that was sitting having lunch with the Sedins and Peter Forsberg got up and started talking to the group. Obviously I cant speek Swedish or Norweigan but the conversation went something like this:

Swedish guy: "Bourke Bourke Bourke" english translation "Hello Sven what happened to your foot"

Norweigan guy: "Svengi Svengi Svengi" english translation "It really hurts think my ankle is broken"

Swedish guy: "Bourke Bourke Bourke" english translation "What happened?"

Norweigan guy: (This is really how it sounded) "Svengi Svengi Svengi - PRONGER"

No Lie - I couldnt understand what they were saying but I assume that when the guy said "Pronger" I think it's safe to say that he took a Pronger shot off the foot and has a broken ankle now.

After my lunch break I was moved back to the athletes entrance but I was only there for about 5 minutes when the supervisor asked for a volunteer to go to the Anti Doping post. I was the first to put up my hand so I got picked and away I went.

The Anti Doping post is pretty cool. It is located at the Polyclinic which is a fully functional hospital located inside the village. I took a wander through the place looking for a washroom and there is a MRI, XRay, operating room, Cat Scan the whole nine yards in there with quite a few volunteer doctors, nurses and even two dentists. I was talking to one of the nurses and she said that a lot of the athletes from poor countries were booking dentist appointments as they dont get or cant afford dentistry in their countries.

Anyway, the Anti Doping spot is cool as there is a clinic in this building where athletes must come to provide a sample and be tested for performance enhancing drugs or banned substances. The clinic was quite busy prior to the games but now that the games are going on most of the testing is done at the sport venues. However, from time time, the IOC will select athletes at the village and notify the team at this clinic and a team of two Doping Control Officers head out into the village to find the athlete and bring them back to the clinic for testing.

My job was to monitor the door to make sure that only people coming into the clinic have a purple pass. Well nothing exciting happened on my 2 hr shift but I did get to have a great conversation with the coach of the Chinese womens curling team who is a Canadian. He had brought his Chinese co-coach into the polyclinic to see a doctor about a bad rash he had developed on his arms. The canadian coach said that the Chinese guy is getting several calls a day from various Chinese government officials wanting updates and really pressuring him to ensure they win gold at these games. He said the guy is so stressed and he thinks the poor Chinese guy's rash is totally stress related.

I was finished at the Anti Doping spot after about 2 hours and then headed home for the day. I am really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow as I dont have to work until 2pm on Thursday.

If anyone has any questions about stuff at the village please post a comment and I can answer them if I know the answer.

Day 12 - Happy Birthday Kaia!

2010-02-16T14:40:00.001-08:00

Early shift again today.

Today I was posted to Team Dining which is a really great post I have now learned. At this job you rotate between three positions.

First position is in the bag check area. When the athletes enter the dining hall they are not allowed to bring their backpacks, skis, snowboards etc with them as the hall gets crowded and they want to maximize space. The one exception I have learned are speed skaters skates. Apparently they are very superstitious about their speed skates so they are allowed to take those into the hall with them. Not to mention the fact that they are custom moulded to their feet and probably cost a lot of money and if they lose them they are done for the olympics as you cant simply run down to Sportcheck and grab a pair of Bauer Supertacks off the shelf and set a world record at the Richmond Oval!!!

So it is fun at the bag check area as in the morning a lot of athletes are up early to have breakfast then catch their buses to their specific venues. All we do at the job is we have these carribeaners (sp?) that each have a matching number on them. You click one of the carribeaners onto the bag and give the other to the athlete then shelve the bag on the metal racks behind us by the corresponding number. When the athlete returns he/she gives you the tag you and find the bag and take off the carribeaner, clip the two carribeaners back together and wait for the next person to help. We stayed really busy for about 2 hours with 5 of us running back and forth.

Next posting was into the dining hall with a click click counter in my hand. All I had to do was stand and smile and everytime a person walked through the door to eat breakfast I clicked the counter and made sure my count corresponded with the food services person's count. I also had to watch that people didnt leave the hall with food (other than fruit or packaged stuff) as the athletes arent allowed to take food back to their rooms because they dont have refrigerators in their rooms and the IOC is worried about food poisoning. I honestly dont know who would want to take a Big Mac back to their room and then eat it 4 days later!!

Third posting was just to stand outside and as the athletes approach you ask them to flash their accreditation to see that they have a fork and knife symbol beside their name which means they are entitled to eat at the dining hall.

So it was a really fun job for the morning but unfortunately there were so many of us blue jackets around today that when I came back from my break at 11am there was no job for me to do so I volunteered to go home a little early.

I actually took the opportunity to head over to the event ticketing office located inside the village. This is where the athletes pick up their comp tickets and buy family tickets for their events. As volunteers we can access this ticketing office too and have access to event tickets on a list called 'obstructed view' seats which are seats that may be close to the boards or close to TV cameras but are still good seats and they are slightly discounted.

I really want to try to see some event(s) but I cant afford to pay $400 for a figure skating ticket! Today on a hand written piece of paper beside the ticket availability list was a list of curling tickets for sale from a Swiss curler who purchased the tickets for family members but no longer needs them. There are some tickets for Canada vs China womens curling on Sunday that I have requested so I am waiting for a text message from the Swiss athlete to see if I can still buy them. The nice ticket selling lady is helping me to secure them. They are affordable at face value $65 each. I think that China will be Canada's stiffest competition for Womens Curling so this should be a pretty good draw to try and see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but now that I know how/where to find tickets I will keep checking every morning as apparently VANOC releases tickets every day for events as sponsors decline tickets or they release some reserved seats for VIPs or guests.

So I have come home a couple hours early and hope to catch a 1/2 hour snooze before calling Kaia and wishing my little girl a very happy 9th birthday. I wish I was home today to celebrate with her but we'll celebrate in a couple weeks when we head to Mexico.

Happy Birthday Beanzo! - Love Daddy

Day 11 - No Fun Fun Zones

2010-02-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back at it today. Up at 4:00am for the commute into downtown Vancouver for a 6:15am shift.

After check in I head to briefing and meet up with Ed, a retired electrician from Burnaby. We've been chatting together regularly at our various posts and during our lunches. We both pick up our cards and today we are both back at Team Welcome at the Welcome Centre which we are both pretty excited about as it is warm and dry and today many of the NHL players will be arriving.

During our briefing, however, our entire Event Services Team is given some very clear and stern direction from the Supervisors. Apparently, a few athletes have left the village and sought accommodation elsewhere - Why? - because all of us folks in 'blue jackets' are too friendly!

Yes, we are too friendly, apparently as an olympic athlete you have to be very focussed 24/7 and even saying "hello" or "good morning" is too much interaction with others and very distracting therefore, by official edict, we are no longer permitted to talk with the athletes unless they engage us in conversation! Hmmm, I'm no olympic athlete but you would think that if your performance is going to be scuttled by a simple 'hello' or 'good morning' that perhaps you weren't destined for gold!

Reports from the supervisors were a little more detailed as I guess they witnessed a couple blue jacket people approaching the pro athletes for autographs and photos and apparently one even hugged Luongo which is understandably very inappropriate. From the supervisors point of view, the athletes walk from their residences to the dining hall and see about 50 people on the way to lunch and get 50 'hello's or 50 'good mornings' and that is too much.

If I'm sounding a little sarcastic that's because I am feeling a little annoyed by some of the assertions that we are all jeuvenile teenagers seeing the Jonas Brothers for the first time - we arent. Many of the volunteers are similar to myself, high functioning 'doers' in our communities who run businesses, full time volunteers etc so we all have the common sense not to act star struck when we see Sidney Crosby (whom I met today, giggle giggle, giggle).

Anyway, after we were all chastised this morning I headed to my post at the back of the Welcome Centre where all of the athletes must pass through my check point to enter the village. So I scan them and approve their accreditation and let them pass or not. Who is the first person to come through my post - Roberto Luongo. (So I jumped into his arms and hugged him with all my might - just kidding) It was a steady stream of NHLers as most finished their final NHL games on Sunday night and travelled to Vancouver overnight to check into the Village. Here's a list of who I saw just in case anyone is interested: Luongo, Getzlaf, Boyes, Selanne, Koivu, Karpa, Thorton, Pronger, Sedin x 2, a bunch of Russians whom I cant spell or pronounce, Ruutu, Weber, Toews, etc etc. My favorite was Daniel Alfredsson. I was scanning him and his joke to me was "Can you fix that thing so that the coaches dont know when we come back?" We actually chatted for a bit as he was waiting for another player to finish their accreditation.

It was a fun day at the Village over all. I was posted to the NOC entrance at 1pm and was done my shift at 2pm so I met up with Ted and Lesley who were downtown touring some more pavillions etc.

The skytrain was absolutely packed with people. At the Waterfront station it was mobs of tourists going downtown to look at the cauldron. John Furlong must have read my blog and listened to my displeasure with the 10' fence around the flame and is apparently making adjustments to the security so people can get closer and take better pics (ahh to have that kind of pull).

We headed home around 7:30 and I was beat tired. I passed out on the couch at 8:45 and went strait to bed as I have to be up again at 4am for tomorrows shift.

Day 10 - Day off

2010-02-16T14:17:00.001-08:00

Today was my last of 3 days off in a row. We did some grocery shopping today and had a fine Indian feast at a local Indian food restaurant here in Surrey. Back at it for an early shift on Monday.

Day 8 & 9 - Opening Ceremony and Touring

2010-02-14T00:11:00.000-08:00

I am currently off for 3 days so I took Friday to sleep in a little and just relax. I waited excitedly for the Opening Ceremonies to start on TV and enjoyed watching them as much as I enjoyed attending the rehearsal.

There were a few changes to the program that I noticed from the rehearsal on Wednesday night. After some publicity on the national anthem being a little over embellished I did notice that it was toned down a little which was good.

Several of my predictions were correct:

Who would light the cauldron?

My guess was always Gretzky and I was mostly correct. However, I did like the symbollism of having a team light the torch together (despite the fact that Catriona Lemay Doan's pillar didnt rise up).

Who would bring the torch into BC Place and who would they hand the torch to in the relay inside BC Place?

My prediction was Rick Hansen, Nancy Greene, Bobby Orr, Steve Nash, Gaetan Boucher, Catriona Lemay Doan and I was mostly right on that one.

Who would carry in the Olympic flag?

My prediction was Bobby Orr, Betty Fox, but not Ann Murray, Donald Sutherland, the astronaut and the humanitarian.

What/Where is the cauldron? My prediction was that the caldron would be located outdoors as I couldnt see a large burning flame lit inside BC Place as the dome would fill with noxious fumes over time so I figured it would be outside somewhere. Also, every media outlet in the world wants to film the olympic flame burning outside in their evening shots so it had to be located outdoors somewhere. I thought that they might put natural gas jets all around the perimeter of the roof of BC Place and have the whole circumference of the dome alight with flame - which would be pretty spectacular...but the artsy iceberg calderon down in Jack Poole square is cool enough.

During the rehearsal, the part where the aerialist runs through the wheat fields of the prairies to the Joni Mitchell song 'Both sides now', was performed using canned/recorded music. As all of the other songs during the ceremony were performed with actual artists present I thought that was a little strange. It made me think that perhaps the producers were holding back one performer from us perhaps an internationally famous French Canadian female artist who spent a lot of time in Las Vegas, initials CD, would make a surprise appearance but I was wrong on that one too. I think we'll see Celine at the closing ceremony. I also think, although it is horrifically cliche, that if the men win gold in hockey, Stompin' Tom Connor will sing the Hockey Song sometime during the performance - just like at the Sydney games with Waltzing Mathilda was sung by some folksy performer of theirs.

On Saturday we headed downtown to see some of the various pavillions that have been set up. We started at the Russky Dom where the Russians are promoting the 2014 games in Sochi. Quite a large pavillion. Lots of promo stuff in there with a media centre and bars of course. I got to see Vladislav Tretiak and took a picture of the top of his head.

We went through the Saskatchewan pavillion and the Quebec pavillion and waited around for about 1.5 hrs to see a 5 minute 4D movie at the Ontario pavillion. Nothing to write home about. Perhaps they'll be interesting for people from outside of the country.

We then wandered up town and had dinner at a sushi restaurant recommended to me by one of the volunteers who lives in Yaletown and it was excellent. That restaurant was only a few blocks from where the olympic cauldron is located by the International Broadcast Centre so we walked down and took photos by the flame. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the 10 foot chain link fence keeping people back about 200 feet from the cauldron. I guess with some of those black masked anarchy cowards wandering around town acting like clowns they have to be careful. (I liked the guy on the news tonight who stepped into the street and picked up the newspaper stand that was knocked over by those idiots and said 'come on let's go get 'em' trying to rally the pro olympic people to do some vigilantism.) I fully respect peaceful protesters and their right to have an opinion but those bandana wearing cowards should be rounded up and put in jail.

We hit the skytrain and ended up in Surrey at their Live Site event and watched with a few thousand other people as Jennifer Heil won a silver medal tonight. People were disappointed that we didnt win our first gold medal but even she was gracious in winning silver and gave full credit to the American girl who clearly skiied better than her tonight.

Anyway, not much planned for tomorrow. We were going to head downtown again and see some of the stuff we didnt see today but it is supposed to rain pretty hard tomorrow and I have to work at 6am on Monday while Ted and Lesley have the day off on Monday so I dont mind just chilling, calling my wonderful wife and wish her a happy Valentines Day (I am very fortunate to have such a great partner and friend who lets me go on these little adventures and I love her with all my heart)

Day 7 - Very Busy Schmozzle

2010-02-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

Day 7 today and an afternoon shift.

I arrived at the village about an hour before the shift started so I wandered around watching welcoming ceremonies which are happening every hour on the hour today and Friday to try and get them all done before opening ceremonies.

One of the Supervisors, Jackie, was at the workforce check-in area early handing out deployment cards so my friend Magnus and I asked to be deployed to the Welcome Centre today as we both wanted to be out of the cold after yesterday's chilly shift.

We went to our morning briefing and were promptly deployed to the Team Welcome - this is when the 'schmozzle' started. Firstly, our team leader was a fellow who has possibly the worst leadership skills I have ever witnessed in my life. His customer service skills are horrific and his social skills are even worse!

Background: The Athletes Village is divided into two areas: the International Plaza and the Residential Area. The International Plaza is available for all accredited persons who have a code VL or VVL on their accreditation cards. This zone is where the media meet athletes, guests wander around etc. The Residential zone is where the athletes residential towers, dining hall, Salt Building, fitness centre, anti doping, security, etc are all located. Only persons with the codes VL, VVL, AND R on their accreditation tags are permitted in this zone. All of our supervisors are constantly reinforcing to us that by no means can ANYONE enter the 'R' zone without proper accreditation.

The main group that is constantly trying to enter the 'R' zone is the media and papparazi. Obviously they want photos of the celebrity athletes and access to the athletes for interviews.

Their are several access/entry gates to get into the village. Athletes can enter any gate. Guests, media and VIP must enter through the Guest Services gate located on the East side of the village by Science World.

I started my shift at 2:30 and was posted at the front of the Welcome centre where there was a steady stream of athletes arriving from Whistler and the airport. The transportation team was also dropping a lot of people off whom they were picking up at the airport. Most of these people were diplomats, media, dignitaries, heads of sport federations even royalty. These people were not supposed to be dropped off at the welcome centre but rather at the guest centre because their accreditation does not permit them to leave our welcome centre tent and enter the 'R' zone of the athletes village.

(I edited this as after writing it I felt that I shouldnt be so hard on volunteers, I will keep my own frustration of the issue to myself as I understand that everyone including myself has bad days. Basically the story invloved a Team Leader that didnt do his best work and it was a story about how myself and a few others problem solved on our own to rectify a bad situation.)

Anyway, I needed to rant a little about my day...it was interesting to say the least. All day long similar things were happening and the funny thing is, once we set the framework up for resolving issues of dignitaries showing up at our gate, my team leader used our model to solve the problems!

A fun day all in all.

I am off now for 3 days - a chance to watch the Opening Ceremonies on TV tonight and to start watching the actual competition this weekend. Ted and Lesley and I are going to head downtown tomorrow and tour through some of the many pavillions that have been set up.

Should be fun.

Day 6 - C-C-C-Cold and O'Canada

2010-02-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

What a day today. A morning volunteer shift and then tonight at 6pm is the Opening Ceremony Dress Rehearsal. My first morning shift so up at 4am for the commute into town and a 6:15am start.

Today I was deployed to Team Athlete which is the Athletes entrance to the Transport Mall at the East end of the athletes village. The entrance is located beside the dining hall so for the morning shift many of the athletes eat breakfast then head out of the athletes entrance to catch buses to their respective training venues.

The weather this morning was very grey and the coldest I've experienced so far. The wind was blowing and although we were located under a very large tent, the minor amount of heat in the building wasnt enough to stop you from freezing. I like the Welcome Centre posting much more.

The day went by quite quickly. The nice thing about this location is you get to meet a lot of the athletes and speak with them so today was fun. Talking with Kevin Martin our men's canadian curling skip as well as the rest of his team. I met and talked to Jari Kurri of the Edmonton Oilers who is a coach with the Finnish hockey team. Enough of the name dropping.

The great part of the day happened later in the afternoon. At 2pm I went for my afternoon break (my supervisor Leon liked me as I didnt whine about being cold like a lot of the volunteers and wasnt picky about taking breaks ) my supervisor let me leave at 2pm and go and watch the Welcoming Ceremony for Team Japan and Team Russia. The ceremony starts with representatives of the four First Nations drumming in the teams and singing a welcome song. Then Sandra O from Grey's Anatomy and Rick Hansen (Village Mayor) took the stage for a short welcoming speech and an exchange of gifts from each country. The Olympic flag is raised and then each country has their flag raised and anthem played. The short ceremony concludes with a team of multi national drummers taking the stage and all the teams dancing around with the volunteers.

The ceremony was lots of fun and the throngs of media from Russia and Japan swarmed the celebrities in the group for interviews after the ceremony.

As I started to walk back to my post I saw my supervisor Leon coming toward me and said that we were done for the day so I got to stick around and watch the ceremonies for Team Poland and Team Greece. A couple of the Olympic mascots came out and were taking pictures with athletes and volunteers. It's hard to tell which is the mascot and which is the volunteer in my photo as I have on about 5 layers of clothes trying to stay warm.

While watching Team Poland a very nice Greek female athlete approached me and was looking at the various pins I was wearing on my accrediation lanyard. She asked in very broken english if I have a pin from Vancouver. I had lots so we traded an official Team Hellas (Greece) pin and an official Olympic Federation pin for one that I had. We talked for a while, she was a cross country skier.

A great way to end the day at the village.

Now onto the Opening Ceremony. All I can say about this is that I encourage EVERYONE to watch the opening ceremony on Friday night. We are sworn to secrecy about the details of the show. We got to see pretty much the entire production with all of the actual performers, however, they withheld a couple elements including the cauldron and lighting of the Olympic flame.

THE SHOW IS INCREDIBLE.

The evening started with John Furlong, Premier Gordon Campbell and Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressing the crowd of 55,000 saying thank you to the volunteers. The dignitaries are in town today as Team Canada has their welcome ceremony at 7pm tonight at the village so I assume they were heading off to the village after welcoming us at BC Place.

Then the show starts and it is amazing! I cant wait to watch the real deal on Friday night.

I have posted a couple of pictures from my day today so enjoy.

Day 5 - A day off

2010-02-11T09:34:00.001-08:00

I had today off from the Olympics. A chance to rest.

Day 4 - Lance McGregor - what

2010-02-09T12:40:00.001-08:00

Fun day today, another night shift for me. Ted had to work today so I had to travel overland using transit for the first time. Left the house around 11:15am to give myself lots of time to get downtown, however, it didnt take nearly as long as I thought, made it downtown by 12:30pm.

So I decided to check into the Village early and just sit in the beautiful warm sunshine and soak in some atmosphere for a while. I passed through security and checked in at the volunteer centre and got my first reward for completing my first shift (another pin for my collection).

I found a great bench in the plaza in front of the Salt building. The Salt building is a restored fish packing plant that looks like a big red barn. It has been totally transformed inside into this really cool lounge, rec room, vitamin bar and concert stage where the athletes can go to play pool, sit around and visit and listen to concerts at night. After the major performers play at BC Place for the medal ceremonies they will head over to the Salt building to perform for the athletes.

The sun was shining, it was about 14 degrees, and I just people watched for about an hour and a half looking at all the buildings and enjoying the view. The Athletes Village is absolutely beautiful with great architecture and it would certainly be a really cool place to live once the games are over. I was speaking with a realtor for the company selling the condo units and she advised me that the entire village was about 80% sold already. There was music coming from the mainstage in the International Plaza where a live band was warming up in preparation for the Welcoming Ceremonies today for Bulgaria and Lithuania.

2:00pm approached and I headed to the afternoon briefing and deployment meeting. The supervisors hand out color coded cards at this meeting to determine what area of the village we will be working at today. Once again I chose Team Welcome which means I was posted to the Welcome Centre - I like it there.

One of my first postings was out in the sunshine along the sea wall under the Granville Street bridge. A lot of the athletes have brought their bikes with them and go out for a ride along the sea wall. There is a check point where only accredited people can get through so my job was to check accreditations to make sure everyone who passed was allowed. I was there with an RCMP member and a fellow volunteer named Keith McGuire.

We started chatting and he asked where I was from. Normally when I say that I am from Armstrong the response is OH ARMSTRONG, HOME OF ARMSTRONG CHEESE, but for Keith he said: OH ARMSTRONG, SO YOU KNOW LANCE MCGREGOR. I thought this was hilarious. It turns out that Keith played lacrosse for Kelowna back in the 70s against Lance and was actually picked up by the Tigers to play in a Presidents Cup - so we yapped about lacrosse during our time together and had a great time enjoying the day.

Day four was a good day for celebrity athlete encounters. Today I met Patrick Chan our Canadian figure skating gold medal hopeful, the Canadian womens curling team, Haylee Wickenheiser, Manny Paradis and a bunch of other ski team guys plus a whole slew of Russian and Italian and Chinese athletes that I am sure are famous but I didnt recognize them.

At about 8:30 I was marshalling outside the Welcome Centre when I heard a huge explosion and then fireworks lit up the sky all around BC Place. Last night was the first dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and at the end there is a massive fireworks show. I saw several helicopters hovering around during thattime and then today on the NBC I saw massive fireworks around BC Place on one of their olympic previews so they must have been filming to promote the ceremonies on TV. Word has it from an inside source that we will be blown away by the show as my inside source saw the sound and light check and said it was unbelievable.

My lovely supervisor Nancy recognized that I had a long commute home and at 9pm I was dismissed as no more buses of athletes were scheduled to arrive. Apparently the snow storm back East has delayed some of the athletes arrivals.

Tuesday is a day off for me so my next post will be on Wednesday night after my first morning shift and after I attend the Opening Ceremonies dress rehearsal.

Stay tuned.

Day two Cut Short

2010-02-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

My second day on the job and I was ready! I knew how to get there, knew where to go once I was there, did the morning briefing, got my posting for the day, unfortunately, there were so many of us keener volunteers there and not enough athletes and people arriving to keep us busy so I got sent home about 3 hours into my shift.

The organizing crew were expecting to do about 5 Welcoming Ceremonies today. The Welcoming Ceremony is a traditional Olympic ceremony that occurs in the athletes village where all of a countries athletes and NOC people gather at the International Plaza, say some speeches, raise their flag to fly during the games and sing their anthem and do some ra ra ra stuff. However, they started doing the ceremony for Lithuania today and no athletes were in the village yet and only about 5 of their NOC (National Organizing Committee) members were present so they have delayed starting the ceremonies until tomorrow.

We got word today from Vancouver Airport that they are expecting bus loads of athletes and village residents to be arriving tomorrow so I would expect Monday to be a huge day for us.

I am slowly figuring out the ins and outs. Today I arrived early and did my usual check in stuff and went to the briefing room. When I got to the briefing room I noticed that the front row of chairs were already filled so I took my seat in the second row. While we waited for the supervisors to arrive to deploy us a different supervisor came into the room and said he needed 4 people right away for something really fun. Before I could jump up the front row folks got the job, that job turned out to be hanging out at the Welcoming Ceremony so tomorrow I plan to get there early and get the front row seat - I know I am such a keener.

Before heading to the village this morning I went to the training centre on Dunsmuir Street and picked up my tickets to the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal on Wednesday. I was only allowed 2 tickets but the fellow in front of me in line was only picking up 1 so I asked him if he could buy a second for me which he did so know I can take both Ted and Lesley (my generous hosts) to the show - should be fun.

Met 1 celebrity today, good ol former Canuck Jyrke Lumme who is involved somehow with Team Finland. I am sure some of the other folks I helped into the village today were celebrities in their own countries but unfortunately I didnt recognize any of them.

Thats it for today, more to report tomorrow hopefully.

First Day at Olympics!

2010-02-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

What a whirlwind today was!!

Today was my first shift at the athletes village in Vancouver. My shift was from 2:15pm until 11:00pm.

I was a little unsure about timing in terms of taking the skytrain to Vancouver, finding the village and the proper entrance gates as I havent been to the village yet.

I got downtown about an hour early and made a couple wrong turns before finding a nice RCMP officer who kindly pointed me in the right direction. There are more police outside and inside the village than I have every seen. There is constantly two helicopters flying over Vancouver. There are two military/police boats in False Creek with suited frogmen in the boats doing security. I walked along Quebec street and down some seedy ally and turned into an old musty packing plant building that has been converted into a security screening site for the volunteers. I was scanned and magnetotronned and passed the security clearance. After exiting the volunteer entrance area I was corralled by a nice volunteer supervisor who asked me my name and knew that it was my first day and gave me some great directions. Into the volunteer reception room where they scanned me again and gave me a card where I get stickers everytime I show up for my shift and a prize after every 3 shifts.

Then onto the morning briefing. About 40 of us 'blueberry' people all dressed in our bright blue uniforms all piled into a meeting room for the morning report. After the report they asked us to raise our hands if it was our first day. There was about 8 of us newbies. The remainder all were given color coded cards and at the end of the meeting all the blue cards went with one supervisor to a station, all the red went with another supervisor to another station etc etc. All of us newbies went with a very friendly Italian speaking Canadian supervisor named Luka. We spent about 2 1\2 hours touring the entire athletes village. Walking down the residential zone you see flags from the various countries fixed to the balconies of the apartments where the athletes are staying that was the first time I really experienced the truly worldly experience of the Olympics.

The Canadians obviously received the best buildings for our athletes. Every balcony is adorned with the maple leaf.

We toured the athletes dining hall. All of the athletes enter their dietary needs into a computer the night before and the kitchens prepare their specific meals for them if they choose.

The tour ended at one of the busiest stations called the Welcoming Centre. This is where the athletes arrive by bus and vehicle. They enter the centre and have to pass through security including xray and magnometer then they receive their accreditation. Luka asked if three of us would stay there and I quickly volunteered as it was very warm and looked like fun. I took my post with a laser scanner gun in hand and zapped people's accreditation cards as they left the building and entered the village. I did that for an hour then went for dinner. When I came back they moved me to the entrance so as the athletes arrived I waived them into one line or another. It was pretty slow today with only a few hundred athletes arriving while we were there. Apparently Sunday and Monday will be the busiest as all the athletes are expected to arrive over those two days. Later I moved inside and helped as a pacer. Stopping people before they went through the mag machine, saying hi etc.

At about 8pm all of the supervisors showed up around us. Apparently an IOC member was arriving so we were all supposed to put on our biggest smiles and make sure we really nice - pretty easy to do as most everyone at the games as volunteers are super acheivers as I can see. It certainly is fun to be around so many people who are positive and enjoying themselves and are looking to have a great life experience.

The day was supposed to end at 11pm but at 9:45 our supervisor called us all in and said that they werent expecting anymore bus loads of athletes for the rest of the night so we could all go home early.

So it was a pretty good first day. I was pretty nervous as I think most people are the first time they go to a new job or try something new but after about 2-3 hours I was making friends with fellow volunteers, teasing a nice girl from Ontario about her Ontario accent (she tells the athletes "Yous can all go into this line now - Yous is so Ontario", and I met a great guy named Magnus from Sooke. We made a friendly bet about who is going to light the Olympic cauldron. (I think Gretzky, he says Betty Fox - we're both probably wrong)

So off to bed, get to sleep in tomorrow and start at 2:00 again. I have to go downtown Vancouver a little early to pick up two tickets to the Opening Ceremonies Dress Rehearsal which is happening on Wednesday Feb 10.

Pretty tired tonight, feet a little sore from standing all day, but my prediction is that this is going to be a lot of fun!

Day 1

2010-02-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Travelled to Vancouver last night. Already experienced some great hospitality. Sat with Jacqueline Mushaluk from Armstrong and had a great conversation during the flight and she was nice enough to give me a ride with her sister Ashley to the skytrain station to get out to Surrey.

I will be staying with my best friend Ted Semenoff and his wife Lesley for the Olympics. So incredibly nice of them to allow me to crash at their house for 3 weeks.

The skytrain ride was my first experience in public wearing the bright blue volunteer suit. The reception I received on the skytrain ride was wonderful. Complete strangers coming up to me and asking me questions about what I was doing, where I was volunteering. There certainly was an air of excitement everywhere down here.

Heading off for my first shift this afternoon. I assume I will go through some orientation and quick training for the first part of the day. I will report back when I get back tonight.

2010-02-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome Everyone!

I will be posting my daily happenings at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver as I attend as a volunteer with Event Services as a Host at the Athletes Village in Vancouver.

I leave the Okanagan on Friday Feb 5th and begin my first shift on Saturday Feb 6th.

I have had a lot of people asking me about what I will be up to, the details of my job and what I expect so here is where I will post the details and experiences as travel along my Olympic volunteer journey.

One of the most common questions I get asked is "how did you get chosen to be a volunteer at the Olympics"?

2 years ago I applied online through the VANOC website when the put a call out for volunteers. I chose to volunteer as I dont fit well into one of those speed skating suits and volunteering is about as close to being an Olympian as I will ever get. After completing a long online application I simply waited for a response. Several months later I received a phone call from someone at the volunteer centre for a quick telephone interview. A few months after that I received by email an invitation to attend a face to face interview in Vancouver.

In March of 2009 I travelled to Vancouver prior to leaving with my family for a quick 1 week vacation to Mexico. I completed a quick orientation at the volunteer centre and underwent a 1/2 hour face to face interview with a volunteer recruiter. The interview went very well, many questions about customer service and I was asked to give an example of a time when I gave 'exceptional customer service'.

After the face to face interview was completed the interviewer advised me that the next step would be a group exercise where he warned me that there would be a few evaluators watching the group looking for leadership qualities and persons who stand out in the crowd. I took charge of our group and we had a lot of fun with our project. After what I fealt was a successful personal interview I simply waited for a call.

The funny part of the recruitment process occurred mid summer. On a Saturday after work and with all of my family over for a BBQ and after a couple beers I received a call from a very nice lady from Vancouver 2010. She said her name and advised me that she wanted to conduct a French interview with me over the phone...I was a little shocked and very unprepared. I studied french my whole life but I dont get a chance to speak it very often. When I filled out the application I apparently checked the box that said I speak fluent french when I should have checked the box that said I can speak 'conversational' french (basically enough to get by). I stumbled through the interview, my french was aweful. I could understand every question she asked me but when it came my turn to respond the words just wouldn't come to me. After about 10 minutes of torture she politely told me my interview was completed. I figured I had failed miserably and after the briefing we received after the face to face interview where the instructor advised us that several hundred thousand applications had been received for around 30,000 positions I figured that they would simply take my application and place it in on the bottom of the pile.

In August, I received an email from Vancouver 2010 with 'Job Offer' in the subject line. Before opening the email I thought to myself "they are going to offer me a position parking cars in some cold parking lot in Whistler"....much to my delight they offered me a job as a Host at the Athletes Village in Vancouver!

Prior to accepting the position I spoke with my manager at work, Terry, who very graciously allowed me to take a short leave of absense so that I could participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity. Askew's Foods truly is a great company.

I accepted the position online and started receiving training information. I travelled to Vancouver in mid January to pick up my uniform prior to my first shift. Last Tuesday, our community welcomed the Olympic flame in the torch relay. After the torch had passed we held a community celebration downtown and I attended wearing my uniform for the first time...pretty neat feeling.

So that's it in a nutshell.

The journey starts Friday.