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