The Games are now CLOSED!

What a weekend!!! Remy arrived on friday night. I surprised him with two tickets to Men's Snowboard PGS on saturday morning. The alarm rang at 6am. He did not understand why an alarm was ringing. I told him to wake up and get ready as we were heading to Cypress mountain for the event. It was raining a tiny bit but to our suprise it was pouring at Cypress. We were soaked to say the least. As we were watching the event, I ran into the Derek, my former director for the Canadian Olympic Committee. We chatted a bit and even watched the finals of men's Speed Skating - Team Pursuit between the semi-finals and the finals. We started cheering a gold medal in speed skating for Canada. 15 minutes later we were cheering again when Canada won gold at the event we were attending.

Once arrived in downtown Vancouver, Remy and I had to go buy new pants in order to dry up. We were cold and wet!!! For dinner, we made our way to Granville Island. I think Remy enjoyed what Ganville Island had to offer.

Today, we went to the closing ceremony. It was really interesting being in the crowd versus watching it on tv. I believe the effects and the colours are better portrayed on tv however the atmosphere is undescribable live. It is unbelievable that the games have already gone by. Time sure does fly when you enjoy what you are doing!

I hope you all enjoyed following my adventures.

Take care!

Women's Hockey win GOLD!!!

YAY CANADA!!!! Women's hockey won gold yesterday at BC Canada Hockey Place. Mathieu and I stayed at the Canada Olympic House after our shift to watch the end of the game. We are still tied for gold medal count!!

After the game, we made our way to BC Place for the Victory Ceremony. This is a ceremony that takes place at BC Place every night to hand out the medals to the Olympians. For those athletes who are staying in Whistler, they receive their medals in Whistler. This is showed to us in Vancouver via satelite on the big screen. Essentially, they hand out medals for one event in Vancouver and then one in Whistler, etc. Alternating from one location to the next. What an exciting ceremony for Canada when the winners of Women's 2-man bobsleigh were handed their medals. The whole stadium was singing Oh Canada at the top of their lungs! I have taken a video of this, which I will post on facebook once I am back home.

Following the Victory Ceremony, Mathieu and I watched Joannie Rochette perform on a screen CTV has posted at the corner of Robson and Burrard. The funny part is that while walking on Robson street, I lost Mathieu for a good 30 minutes. We were on our way to the Nike store, therefore I figured I would walk in that direction and meet him there. As I passed by the CTV booth, I noticed Joannie Rochette was about to perform, so I stopped to watch it. As I am watching her performance, I took a glance at the crowd around me. Mathieu was standing right there. Just to put you guys more in context, the CTV booth was about 4 blocks away from where I lost Mathieu. What are the odds we found each other that easily!!

A Big CONGRATS to Joannie Rochette for winning the Bronze yesterday! She is a very brave young girl to say the least!

Remy arrives in Vancouver today!!!! YAY!!! I am working till 4pm at which point Mathieu and I will keep ourselves occupied downtown and then head to the airport for 11:30pm.

Talk to you tomorrow!!

4 medals for CANADA!

Canada has won 4 medals yesterday!!!!!! What an awesome day. Canada has dominated in Bobsleigh last night with a first and second spot. We also won silver in short track speed skating relay and we won bronze in long track (Clara Hughes). We are now holding 4th spot in medal standings and we are tied for gold medal standings.

Mathieu and I made it to the Finland-Czech Republic at the BC Thunderbird Arena. I was happy to be able to go to this game. This aloud us to see another Olympic Venue!!! It is a lot smaller than Canada Hockey Place.

I am anxious to watch the events today. Women's hockey team will be competing for the gold medal tonight as well as Joannie Rochette will be performing her long program!

For those interested in listening to our interview yesterday with CBC radio, here is the link:
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Ottawa_Morning/ID=1424489114

CBC Radio Ottawa

It had already been an eventful morning. Mathieu and I got up early this morning and headed to the CBC Vancouver office to do a pretaped interview with Kathleen from CBC Radio Ottawa. What an experience. It was neat to see the studio and get set up in the sound proof radio studio. We got the mics and the sound on our headphones ajusted. We spoke to Kathleen briefly before the taping. She asked us the proper pronounciation of our names and welcomed us to CBC. Within 10 seconds later we were saying hello again in our actual interview. She asked us what it was like to volunteer at the Canada Olympic House, who we were most happy to meet, how we made it to Vancouver and what our future holds. 15 minutes later, the whole experience was complete!

Tonight, Mathieu and I have tickets to the Victory Ceremony at BC Place tonight. Hopefully Canada can win a medal during the day so that we can cheer on our Canadian Athletes.

On a more heartfelt note, I hope everyone got a chance to watch Joannie Rochette's performance last night. CTV replayed her performance this morning as we were setting up. A lot of volunteers and staff had tears in their eyes watching the replay. I am routing for her tomorrow night!!!!

2 more sleeps and Remy will be joining us in Vancouver!!!! I can't wait to share this experience with him!!!

Women's Hockey

Mathieu and I got tickets at 5pm yesterday for Canada-Finland Game that started at 5pm. We ran all the way to Canada Hockey Place in record time. We missed only 4 minutes for the first period. That included going through security to get into the venue. Luckly the metro station was in the building we worked at and Canada Hockey Place is only one stop away. What a game!!! I enjoyed the atmosphere!!! Hayley Wickenheiser trully has good puck handling. There is a reason she wear the C on her jersey!

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold yesterday in Figure Skating - Dance. Awesome performance. I watched the replays once I got home.

I am anxious to see Joannie Rochette's performance. My heart goes out to her and her family for the loss of her mother. I am happy to see that she decided to compete. You can do it Joannie!

Tonight, we are going to the 9pm quarterfinal hockey game. Unfortunately, it is not Canada who is playing but it should be a good game. We are seeing Slovakia against Norway. It is always a gamble when you buy tickets to quarterfinals, semifinals and finals as you don't know who is going to continue.

Ok i must get back to work!! Have a nice day everyone!!!

Ski Cross

Je me suis trouvé un nouveau sport à suivre. Le ski cross!! J'ai bien aimé ma journée à cypress à regarder le ski cross. L'événement c'est débuté à 9:15 ou 33 athlètes ont décendu la piste une à la fois pour qualifier pour les éliminatoires. Par rapport à leur temps, les athlètes sont regroupé en groupe de 4 pour affronter la course ensemble. Les top 2 de chaque course continue à la prochaine ronde jusqu'à temps qu'il y a un gagnant. Chris Delbosco c'est rendu à la finale et tombé à la dernière minute. Avant de tombé, il était en 3e place. C'est domage qu'on a pas pue gagné une médaille, par contre c'est la nature du jeux. Au temps que la vitesse est importante, la stratégie y prend place aussi. C'est pas que le parcours à aménager.

Christina Groves nous a remporté une médaille d'argent aujourd'hui dans le 1500m de speed skating!!!! Je suis bien contente qu'on a réussit à gagner une médaille. C'est la deuxième médaille pour cette athlète. Elle représente le Canada avec fierté!

C'est domage que nous n'avons pas remporté le match contre les États-Unis. Par contre, nous avons acheté des billets pour le match de quart de finale d'hockey pour mardi soir en espérant que le Canada y joue. Ont verra bien!

GO CANADA GO!!!!

Men's 1000m and Women's 1500m short track

WOW! What a sport. I trully enjoyed watching this event. Although speed is an important factor, strategy is equally important. Every race was different. Some had quick starts with fast speeds and others were slow. You could tell that every athlete had their strategy their strategy. The slow starts demonstrated that none of the athletes wanted to take a lead in the begining of the race.

What also surprised me was the size of the ice. The size of the ice is smaller than a figure skating rink. It is the same rink but they shorten it with thick patted boards. The athletes are constantly turning. The average time for a lap was about 12-15 seconds!!!

I have to admit that I was dissapointed that Canada didn't win any medals in these events. Both disciplines had canadien contenders that made it to the finals. I hope I get to see a canadien win a medal tomorrow as no canadiens have won a medal to the events I have attended thus far.

Tomorrow I am heading to Cypress Mountain for Ski Cross. Mathieu and I managed to get category A seats in order to replace the category B seats that were cancelled. I am anxious to see this sport. The event starts at 9:15am and the finals are held at 12:15 pacific time.