Wow... what a celebration

I KNOW you all watched the hockey game this afternoon and I sure hope you all watched the closing ceremonies.

I was at the campus pub for the closing ceremonies and boy was it packed! It was like I was back in Vancouver with people all dressed up in red and white... flags everywhere.. beers in hand just so excited for the game. And what a game it was! Just when we thought we had it all wrapped up... and everyone in the pub started singing and cheering and getting all excited - except for me, who has learned that in sports it isn't over until that timer says 0:00!! The shock that went through the room as everyone realized what had just happened... the U.S had tied the game!

I think that was the first time that people seemed a little bit worried that Canada might not actually win the game. Everyone got a little quieter; conversations became oh no, what if we don't win! It will be so heartbreaking!

As the period started though, everyone got excited.. chanting "Go Canada Go!" and cheering every time we got the puck out of our end. "Luuuuuuuuuu!!!" was a common chant of the evening - you could tell who weren't followers of hockey when they would look around and wonder why we were booing our own goalie!

And then, almost out of no where, the winning goal! Scored by no one more fitting than Sid the Kid assisted by the captain. Just perfect! Everyone was yelling, clapping, cheering, singing Oh Canada, the black eyed peas! Everything! I felt like I was back in Vancouver for a minute!

I was at home to watch the closing ceremonies and although I have to criticize the French of the one speaker... yikes! The rest was AMAZING! (and funny!) - starting with the raising of the fourth pillar of the torch that didn't raise during the opening ceremonies and the lighting of the torch by Katrina Lemay Doan who didn't get to light it due to the malfunction! Gotta love Canadians when we can poke fun at ourselves! These jokes continued all night with the parading of maple leafs, lumber jacks and beavers, mounties and hockey players, and Michael Buble singing first in a mounty outfit and then on top of a mounty hat. Just hilarious!

The speeches that were done by William Shatner, Catherine O'Hara, and Michael J. Fox were quite hilarious - again poking fun at Canadians

Although the concerts started out alright with Neil Young and Nickleback (I know some of you won't agree)... it continued on a lesser note with some not-so-popular-anymore singers like Avril Lavigne and Hedley. But I must admit - it seemed the Japanese were LOVING it! And everyone knew the words so I guess that made it all fun right?

Of course CTV presented a montage of Olympic moments at the end, just to make me cry - and yes I did cry, I'm a sap!

It's hard though... in a way I fulfilled my dream but in another way it never came true! I wanted to be at the Olympics in Vancouver, and I was! But I wanted to be competing and now that chance is gone :(

It did make me want to just start skating again though!

Sochi 2014? lol

Thank you to everyone who helped me get to Vancouver and supporting me in my skating, in my schooling and in my dreams! It meant a lot to me! :) <3

What a day for Canada!

Wow!

Canada wins a bronze and silver in speed skating.... gold and silver in women's bobsleigh ...and our hockey team beat Russia!!! WOOOO!!!

What a great day! So excited for the rest of the Olympics! I don't see how I am going to get any work done with the Olympics on!

The weather... Onterrible

As the people in Vancouver call it, I am back in Onterrible.

I got off the plane and it was snowing/raining and below zero degrees. The weather in Vancouver was amazing... sunny and warm - somewhere between 9 and 15 degrees every day! I don't know how I am going to make it through the rest of the Winter here! I might just have to stay inside as much as possible and pretend it's nice out! :(

Enjoy the pics! I will add more!!

Some pictures from the drive back to Vancouver from Whistler. Beautiful

Simon Ammann - Double gold medalist in Ski Jumping 2010 and double gold medalist in Ski Jumping 2006
The gold medals!
He let us hold one! AMAZING!

hmm

Well I am all packed and I am going to get a few hours sleep before I head to the airport for my 7am flight... :(

I don't want to leave yet! I know that when I get home I will be glued to the tv to watch the rest of the olympics and I won't get anything done haha

I guess the one thing about being here is you miss a lot of what is seen on tv... interviews and all that so it will be good to see all of that on tv at home.

Speaking of interviews though... well I have 2 things... first off I was up at Whistler again last night... a friend of Julia's has a place up there so we went up to party a little bit. We ended up walking past a swiss tv station that was doing in interview... we got right up to the front... and I was on tv for almost the entire interview! lol ... they were interviewing the Ski jumper Simon from Switzerland who won both ski jumping events and as far as I know he won both last year as well! Anyways.. we kept talking to him in between the interviewer asking him questions.. he loved us! And he let us TOUCH AND HOLD ONE OF HIS OLYMPIC MEDALS!!!! It was AMAZING!!!! And we got a picture with him! Soooo crazy!

My second thought though... is I have now seen 2 of our athletes apologize for their non-podium finishes and I have heard that Patrick Chan also apologized. I know that we want to do well at our own Olympics but since when is a top 5 or even a top 10 finish not good enough? Since when do athletes need to apologize to their country because they didn't win? This should not be what the Olympics are about and I think thats what the media is making it out to be. The atmosphere here in Vancouver is nothing but excitement.. and no one is disappointed in our athletes finishes. Sure we feel sad, but thats more for them! Because we know they perhaps wanted more. Our media needs to change its avenue and the way that it is reporting our results... top 10 or top 5 is not a "disappointing finish for Canada"

Only at the Olympics

Well I have no more event tickets.... could try to get one for today but I think it will be too expensive. I might be headed to Whistler - Julia's friend has a place up there and they didn't rent it out so we will stay there.

Yesterday was a pretty weird day/night. I went shopping for a bit in the morning and then I found a nice restaurant called Earl's and sat at the bar for a few drinks. They had TV's and projector screens all playing the Olympics so I figured it was a good choice!

I ended up meeting a woman and her boyfriend and his brother at the bar while they were waiting for a table. They started talking to me about pin trading... yes pin trading. People buy Olympic pins and then trade them for other ones.... it's actually a HUGE thing at the Olympics! People have pins from other Olympics they have gone to and it's just insane.

Anyways, they invited me to sit with them at their table, so I did. We got some appetizers and shared them all and then 2 more of their friends came and joined - one was a thai masseuse and I was really tempted to ask her for a massage!

We were there for a few hours - we had the best seat in the house! Right at the corner of the restaurant which is at the corner of the street and you could see all the people walking buy. We ended up wracking up a pretty big bill... I'm pretty sure it came to a couple hundred dollars - at least over a hundred for sure - and they only made me pay $20! Because I'm a student and they didn't want me to be spending all my money!

One of the girls had a friend who was having a few ppl over at an apartment downtown... and at this point Julia was driving around trying to find parking so I decided to stay with my new friends and walk with them rather than walk alone until I found Julia. They were really nice and made sure that I got a hold of her and that I knew where I was going and everything. Somewhat of a sketchy situation normally, but at the Olympics its just what everyone is doing! You walk around and meet people and hang out with them for several hours... then you will never see them or talk to them again! It's crazy when you think about it.

I took a cab to the Shangri La - where Julia was meeting her friends. And I had to go to the concierge and say I was going to the 61st floor. They were like "Oh yes, mister michelsons, right this way..." - I felt so important! They open the elevator for you and push the button for you and everything! lol

Anyways I found Julia and her friends... and then we went to walk down Robson street - the main street - and wow... I'm glad I did not walk that alone! Drunk people everywhere... the streets actually looked like a giant mess, it was so dirty! Cops walking in groups of 5 or 6.. and they were all about a block apart... walking up and down the streets. By this point it didn't seem like the Olympics anymore - just a massive party. But it was actually very dirty! This is the part of the Olympics they DON'T show on tv!

We only stayed for a bit and then walked back and got Julia's car and came home. A crazy weird night.... only at the Olympics! haha

How could I forget!

Wow... I don't know how I forgot to tell you this part......

After the skating was over I walked around to close to the CTV booth.... David Pelletier was there, Elizabeth Manley, Marie-France Dubreil and Patrice Lauzon. Everyone was talking pictures and asking for Davids autograph... I took a picture from afar. But Elizabeth Manley came out and was talking to some people and then they started talking about the performances and how it all went down... and all of a sudden I'm in there, talking to Elizabeth Manley...asking if she thought that, coming into the Olympics, if Plushenko was going to win it all. She said she did and then I told her I didn't think he was going to or that he should... and I was talking to her about the new system and how he is old system!! Then she told me about the marks and that Lysacek actually got the same scores as Plushenko for the components score and he beat him in the technical.... I was shocked and I was talking to her about it and she was talking to me about it...and I think I was even arguing a bit with Elizabeth Manley! hahaha.... after I got a picture with her and I told her that not in a million years did I think that I would be arguing with Elizabeth Manley! She said oh we aren't arguing! I agree with you!

Then I walked over and found Scott Hamilton and a journalist was interviewing him... then after I asked him if he thought that Plushenko was going to win... and he starting talking to me about what he thought!

What a day...and night!

Wow.... well I tried to get on here and write last night but I fell asleep doing so hahaha. Yesterday was such a packed day!!

I had curling in the morning with my friend Julia - It was the round robin #4 and Canada was playing Sweden. Three other games were also going on including the USA vs. Denmark. Canada's game was over first... and we won of course! The atmosphere in there was crazy though - not what you would expect at a curling game!!! People were cheering, chanting, doing the wave! The place isn't very big, so although our seats were right at the back we were really close and could see everything!

After the Canada game was over I thought most people would leave but almost everyone stayed. By the end, it was only the USA vs. Denmark game left and of course there were a lot of people from the states there so they were cheering pretty loudly for them - which meant that all of a sudden all the Canadians - us included - were cheering for Denmark! We were yelling Go Denmark - chanting Denmark!, Denmark! .... it was insane! Never did I ever think that I would be cheering for Denmark! And throughout all the games - people would cheer if there was a good shot.... it would go silent if it was a big important shot... and as the curling stone moved down the ice, people would start to stand up and watch it go down - it almost created a wave effect.... just crazy! And so cool!

After the curling was over we headed back to Julia's to get some food - I finally didn't have to buy my food!!! (Although I got the most AMAZING crepe the other day... expensive but wow... nutella, banana and strawberries!).

After we ate, Julia walked me to the bus stop and I got on the bus that would take me downtown so I could get on another bus that would take me to the skating! Of course I had my sign with me (Chan's Turn for Victory!) - everyone loved my sign!

I got to the rink and got to my seat.... pretty close to the middle and not too far up. It was a good view! I had my sign sitting beside me and a woman came and asked if she could take a picture with me and my sign (this has been happening a lot lately - I am quite famous at that rink! Even the volunteers remember me from Tuesday!). Anyways.... this woman starts talking to me and tells me that she is friends with Patrick Chan's mom - plays tennis with her! So I tell her that I trained with Patrick for a few summers and she got all excited that I "know" him and she got her husband to take a video on his camera of us saying hi to patrick and good luck - and they were going to show it to him after!

After the first flight of men, I started to make my trek down to the lower bowl to get a better seat in hopes of my sign being seen on tv. I got moved around a few times because people came to sit there.... but then while I was walking around the woman found me again and had just been visiting Patrick's mom so she took me over there because there were some extra seats! Well it turns out that people showed up for the last 2 groups (I hate when people do that - they are so rich that they just buy close seats and then just show up for the last 2 groups of skaters - they don't even know anything about figure skating!). Anyways... I moved just a section over and started talking to a couple sitting there. They said that the people sitting where I was weren't going to come back and I could stay there.

They started asking me if I knew about the scoring and everything.... that's when I became the commentator for the 6 people sitting around me! They started asking me questions about everything and asking what I thought about each performance and if the people were judged fairly, etc. They loved me! hahaha

And then it was time for Plushenko to skate... and I had already ranted a bit to them about my thoughts of Plushenko... they laughed... and throughout his performance I was getting more and more frustrated because he was being so cocky. Well I told the people around me that if he won I wasn't going to watch figure skating ever again!

AND THEN EVAN LYSACEK WON!!!!! It was the greatest moment ever!!! Everyone was cheering and clapping - except the russians of course. There was a section of other russian athletes and coaches (I think - they were all wearing the uniforms and had official looking tags). They were pissssssed! And so was Plushenko!

They did a bit of an awards ceremony after... and I don't know if they showed it on TV but Plushenko went to shake the hand of the third place skater and then instead of walking around to get to the second place spot on the podium... he stepped over the first place spot on the podium - completely acting as if he should be there! In the video of it you can hear me getting so mad!

Anyways... that was amazing... and then I headed back downtown - met up with Julia and her friends at the Irish house! So fun in there! And they have tv's all set up showing the Olympics stuff from the day.

After that... we took a cab with one of Julia's friends to see her apartment... well her families apartment... aka the PENTHOUSE of the SHANGRI LA! aka the tallest place in Vancouver! The view was AMAAAAZIIINNNGG! I took video of it.... wow... just incredible. You can see part of the torch and you can see the Olympic rings... wow... amazing!

All this in one day - it explains why I passed out so fast last night! But wow.. amazing!

I can't believe it's already Friday!

Today we will be walking around - well I will be. It's Julia's mom's birthday so she is going to stay around the house and I'm going to go downtown and wander. I want to find a place to sit and have a drink and watch some of the Olympics!

I will let you know what happensss!!! :)

Day Two!

Wow... yesterday was a full day!

Got up early and headed into Vancouver with Julia. We got coffee and some breakfast at Starbucks downtown near Robson Square (which is where all the streets are blocked off so people can just walk around). There was a radio station doing a live broadcast while we were there! It was pretty cool!

Then we walked through Robson Square - there was the ice skating going on and the zipline across downtown. Pretty neat idea...and it's free! (if you want to wait 5 hours to go on it!) We saw some people doing yoga in the middle of all the touristy stuff!

Julia had to work at 11:30 so around 11 she left for work and I walked down to BC place to pick up my tickets for the figure skating at the will call window. When I got there, there was a side of the booth that said purchase tickets here. When I was at the luge people were walking up and just buying tickets to the event while they were there - even though you couldn't buy anything online anymore unless it was a re-sale ticket. So I went to the booth and I asked if they had any tickets left for the men's long program for Thursday....and they did!!!!!! So I got a ticket for thursday! And it's a good seat too!!! Close to the middle! I was so excited - called my mom and Brandon to tell them the news right away! lol Then I picked up my ticket for the men's short and started to head down to where I get on the bus to head out to Pacific Coliseum. On my way I found a dollar store. I got some bristol board and some markers so that I could make my sign for Patrick Chan.

Downtown Vancouver is a very busy place with everything going on and I had no idea where I was going to find a place to make my sign! I found a little mall... walked in the front doors and put my stuff down on the floor.... and that is where I started drawing out my sign! People kept walking buy and looking at what I was writing. Once it was all done I had a sign that read Chan's Turn for Victory (with the C, T, and V, in the colours of the tv station CTV - so I could maybe get on tv!)

Then I went to find my bus. There were a lot of people on the bus also going up to the figure skating - and they all loved my sign! One couple started talking to me because I said I didn't know where to get off the bus! They knew where they were going so I followed them! They were from Quebec - one woman was a fan of figure skating, the other was not so much but came anyways. I ended up walking up to the Coliseum with them... waiting in the line before they opened the doors with them, and walking around the Pacific Coliseum for a few hours with them before the event started. We got a beer together and walked around taking pictures. And my sign became famous at the rink.... tons of people wanted to take pictures of it! Patrick Chan's equipment manager was walking around taking pictures for him and took a picture of me and my two new friends with my sign and their canadian flag! His daughter is friends with Patrick and some of them are making a scrapbook for him!! He took our emails and said he would send us the picture.

Once we got close to the start of the event, we went to our seats. I wasn't sitting too close to the couple I had met - although they were just a few sections over and down. I never found them in between the flights or during the flood :(

But, as I was walking up to my seat - Janice's mom (my skating coaches mom) was sitting there! She was only a few rows ahead of me!!! And a friend from school from the cheerleading team was only a section over! It was crazy.

My seats were right at the back of my section but it was a good spot. The Coliseum isn't that big so I wasn't far back at all! Had such a good view of everything! It was amazing to see everyone skate!!!

The event was 4 hours long and after I walked around to where the CTV section was - although it was all blocked off for media only - I could see Elizabeth Manley and David Pelletier right on the other side of where it was blocked off!!! Then they tried to make us all leave - didn't see Kurt - but when I turned around, Tracy Wilson was walking in! I got a picture with her (and my sign! haha) and then I left!

The line up for the bus was HUGE! And was going to take hours - I walked another block up to where there was another bus stop where no one was going to and I waited for about 10 minutes and got on a bus back to downtown Vancvouver.

Then my troubles began - I tried to find my friends but I had no clue where they were!! And then my phone died! So I walked up to the main street where there were TONS of people in the streets because of the hockey game that had ended and everyone was celebrating! I asked a police officer where a payphone was and he said I could use his cell phone. So I called Julia and we picked a meeting place. SOMEHOW among the thousands of people.. she found me!!! I met some of her friends and then we walked to see the torch!!! It was AMAZING! Although there is a fence in front of it, it was still amazing to see!!

Then we walked to the German House and got a beer. And after that we headed back home!

A long day but wow it was so cool! Just the people you meet here is amazing!! And there is so much going on even just in the streets!!!

I will upload pictures!!

Today I am doing the walking around thing and seeing Olympic Village and stuff. No event tickets so I will find a place to have a beer and watch some stuff!!

VANCOUVERRRR!

Well... So much to say but so little time to write it all down!

I'm just getting ready to head into vancouver with Julia. She is working today at 12 so we are going to walk around a bit and get some food before she heads off. Then I have a few hours to kill before the men's short program - but it will easily be filled with walking around and seeing all the cool stuff that is set up down there!

Yesterday I saw the luge. I spent the day up at Whistler - well it takes 3 hours to get up there first off and then I walked around a bit .. got my tickets... then headed up the gondola to go to the sliding center for the luge!

I don't have enough time to tell you all about it right now! But everyone is really nice up there! I stood beside some people - an American couple and a Canadian couple who were there watching together. The American couple's niece is good friends with one of the American lugers and came over and was saying how a group of them were there and they have been with her over the past few years - going to lake placid with her to watch her train and stuff. Very neat story!

I was standing at what I was told is a crucial turn in the course...once the lugers wizzed by we could turn around and see them go around the last turn in the track as well so it was really neat! And it was a good thing too because they go by so fast!!!

There were a few kids that were standing there... they loved it! And there was a group of us trying to get pictures as they went by - there were cheers and claps if someone got a good picture (I got a few!).

Anyways... I ended up turning around at one point and my friend from school was there! So I walked around with him and his friends and got on a bus that took me back to Vancouver (a better bus than the one that brought me there - which I had to get in Burnaby - so I had to take some public transit there).

Anyways! I have to get ready to go! BIG day today! I have taken some awesome pictures and video taped some stuff! It only rained last night on the bus ride home and I don't think it is supposed to rain today!

Talk soon!

xo

TONIGHT!

TONIGHT! TONIGHT! TONIGHT!!!

Well I am in the process of packing... making sure I have all my Canada stuff and my camera and video camera... my tickets! Making sure it's all in the bag and ready to go!

My flight leaves tonight at 9:30pm and I will be getting into Vancouver at 11:30pm (Pacific Time).

Tomorrow I am heading up to Whistler! Going to see the Luge which will be an interesting thing to see after the unfortunate accident the other day. I'm a little bit nervous but excited to be up at Whistler!

I can't wait for the excitement! There is so much going on out there! And not just the olympic events!

SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!

Now back to packing!

LUGE!!!!

UPDATE!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!! UPDATE!!!!!

I just purchased a ticket to see the women's singles Luge qualifying event! It's for the 15th - which is the first full day I will be in Vancouver! Unfortunately I will be missing out on the pairs figure skating event - however the tickets have been around the $750 mark and don't seem to be coming down at all and this luge ticket was only $99! And you have to have a ticket to a whistler event to get up there so I needed something to guarantee me a trip up there!!!

They recommend that you take the Olympic Bus Network up to Whistler... however that will cost another $45 which I am going to try and avoid. I believe you can take regular transit there - it will probably just take longer, I'm not sure. So that is what I need to figure out next!!!

I'm getting so excited!!!!!

(technically only 4 days now!!) ahhh!

SIX DAYS!

So close to heading out!!! My excitement is building with each day!!!

I have one last test tomorrow and then I can really start focusing on my Vancouver preparations! The mens long program tickets seem to be going down in price, although I am nervous that those tickets will get sold and I will be left with only the very expensive tickets - of which I will not be purchasing - and then I will be left watching the mens event from somewhere else... cute cafe maybe? lol

Tomorrow I will start writing down what I need to bring - start packing! ahhh!!!

I am heading home to Barrie on Thursday.... getting my hair done on Friday (a very important thing to do before I head out obviously!)... and then I will be spending Valentines Day with the boy and heading out Sunday evening!

Hopefully I will have a good update before I get to the airport about having some new tickets - but if I do not then I will be writing from the airport! Camera and video camera in tow!!!

Can't wait till I hit the hour-by-hour countdown and then VANCOUUUVVERRR!!!!

This is really happening! ahh!

How Much?!!?!

I understand that some people want to make money off of their Olympics tickets... and I understand that some people will pay a lot of money to get some really good seats... but check out the prices for these tickets for the Men's Long program for figure skating at the Olympics!!!

INSANITY!!!!!!

okay, I have a feeling you might not be able to read that.... so here is a summary of what it says:

9,000 for 2 tickets

10,000 for 4 tickets

10,050 for 3 tickets

I don't care what section they are in or where they are in the stadium....TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?!

Olympics Gear

Well here it is!!! The new Olympics gear that I will be sporting throughout my trip.... tourist-y enough?! hahaha.... now picture all of this... a red knapsack (hopefully it will say Canada, not sure)... a camera, a video camera... all while wandering around Vancouver hopefully not getting lost! hahaha

I think people will be taking pictures of me with the caption Canadian Tourist underneath :)

and a close up....

countdown

TWELVE DAYS until I leave for the Olympics!

The excitement is building! I will be heading to the mall this week to buy some more Canada gear!

Is the jacket too much? lol.... and this scarf is from Roots, it's not the olympic scarf from The Bay. I will be looking at that one first... probably best to go with an Olympics scarf!

The knapsack will be needed for my day trips into Vancouver when I will have no idea what I will be doing! :)