Welcome!

Click on photos - some will open into larger images

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Olympics Again

Big Bear and I headed downtown after school on Wednesday to see some Olympic sights.We prowled around the provincial pavilions. Not much to write about; they seemed like places to hear some music and eat overpriced food. Having said that, we only saw a few...
Walking down the street, we happened upon a crowd watching the medal ceremony on a street corner screen; they were just giving the gold to our snowboarder, Maelle Ricker. As the flag went up and the national anthem was played, everyone in the street was cheering and singing along.
Inside the Bell "Ice Cube" (just another corporate sponsored pavilion), we saw Naturally 7, an amazing acapella group. The crowd went wild over them!
I LOVE that the normally reserved Canadians are excited over these games. People fill the streets and yell and cheer. Flags are everywhere - worn as capes, on hats, waved around, whatever people can think of. I've never seen my country this way, and I really like it!
At Robson Square, the skating rink was full and people screamed past on the zipline overhead. So cool!
We headed home after that, bone tired.
On Thursday after school, I went to the O Zone in Richmond with a group of Holland-o-philes. That must be a word.... The weather, again was spectacular. At least, if we must have warm temperatures, it's not raining!
Holland House is the place to be if you're Dutch - or if you just like to have fun! We bypassed the 3-hour lineup because Elsy was able to show that she was born in the Netherlands - and Ellen and Mary could speak Dutch!
The men's hockey game between Switzerland and Canada was being shown on the three huge screens. The Heineken flowed like water, people wore outlandish orange outfits, and the crowd was partying hard! Such excitement when Canada finally won in a shootout!
We left Holland House and went out onto the field to see the huge screen there (people were milling around, waiting for the Our Lady Peace concert). We were just in time to catch another Canadian gold medal ceremony - everyone sang O Canada, but there wasn't as much enthusiasm as there was downtown. Or in Holland House!
And then we caught Canada's Patrick Chan in the men's figure skating long program. Everyone cheered.
I'm liking these Olympics.

1 comment:

Southern Ange said...

Very cool indeed! Thanks for the pics. Is Heineken/Holland House an Olympic Pub then? Keep revelling in the ambience! xo

Links to Author Profiles