The Game.

I’m sorry world, Vancouver is closed.  For everything.  You can stop calling, we’re not answering the phone for the next few hours.  Hell, we’re not even willingly getting up to go to the bathroom unless it’s really, really important.  The game is on.

The game.  It’s really the only thing that matters right now.  It’s the reason everyone who could went into work an hour early so they could be home in time.  It’s the reason everyone on the train is glued to their smartphones, is trying to figure out how to finally use the radio setting on their iPod, and if they don’t have either of those, they’re looking over the shoulder of someone who does.  And if you have to ask what game, consider this an internet smack upside your head.  Stanley Cup Finals, Baby!!!

Vancouver is a hardcore hockey town.  Seriously.  But yet we’ve never succeeded in bringing Lord Stanley’s cup to our Olympic city.  We’ve been close… 1994 versus the NY Rangers (*turn and spit*).  I was in elementary school, and my most vivid memory of that was school literally stopping for a week and being replaced with pep rallies, fan-sign making in arts and crafts, and wearing nothing but orange, yellow and black until the end.  Yep, that’s how long ago it was, back like two logos ago.  Even kids without facial hair were trying to grow playoff beards.   Today is the start of a series that is gripping the city in a similar way.  Standing at Waterfront station this morning, one of the busiest downtown commuter hubs in the city, 1 in 3 commuters, from businesswomen to bike messengers to seeing eye dogs had on Canucks’ jerseys.  The puck dropped at five, and the honking started at 4:30.  The excitement was just bubbling over so much that people were compelled to hit the horn.  And you know how it goes with honking, it’s like sneezing, once one person does it, everyone automatically follows suit.   Even those Vancouverites not watching the game (what’s wrong with you?  What, not from Vancouver?  Then become a Vancouverite for the day or go home, silly tourist!) will know the score, because the second someone scores the screaming or the booing coming from every car, home, sidewalk, airplane, magic carpet is loud enough to reach you wherever you are.

I love this.  The energy crackles in the air, the crowds randomly gather at street corners wherever a TV is on in a window, and everyone’s friends with everyone else.  It’s really similar to the vibe felt during the Olympics (hockey again, big surprise), but with fewer international visitors, and it’s magical.  There is something amazing about collective excitement that just can’t be beat.  The feeling is so nice, a tiny part of me wants it to stay for as long as possible, but a much bigger part of me wants it to end in 4.  If that happens, Vancouver is going to need a month off to recover, and no one is going to mind one bit.

Go Canucks!!!

Tags: hockey, Stanley Cup Finals, vancouver

And then she fell – experiencing Vancouver’s ski culture – a beginner’s perspective

It’s where the first ever gold medal was won by a Canadian athlete on home soil almost a year ago.  It’s got great snow, great runs, great facilities and it’s only half an hour from my driveway.  Cypress Mountain had been, until recently, an enigma to me – I knew where it was but had never gone up there.  There was no reason to, because, after all, I am not a skier.    I am the exact opposite of a skier, actually.  If it is possible to be the negative of a skier, that’s me.  I don’t even like being cold.  The only time I previously wore skis was in grade 6 and it ended with me and my sprained ankle being loaded onto a sled and taken away by first aid ski-doo.  And that was flat-land cross country.  So you can imagine the trepidation I felt agreeing to try snowboarding.  But when you have these amazing facilities on your doorstep, it’s stupid not to experience them, right?

When I told my Grandmother my plans she asked sweetly if I was “going snowboarding or snow falling?”  That was not a good sign.  But I’m always up for a challenge, and with good friends, a brave face and a “good luck” A&W hashbrown in my stomach, I was ready to go.  The first thing that greets you at the lodge are the giant lime green Olympic rings which, I swear, are just there to make you feel invincible.  There’s something about seeing them there that suddenly takes over your body and makes you believe that you too are an Olympic caliber athlete.  Clearly this mountain would not accept any less.  And clearly I am totally delusional.  I’m a big believer in that when you look like you know what you’re doing, it helps your performance (see delusional comment above), and once we were all kitted out in our rental gear I honestly thought this couldn’t be nearly as difficult as I’d previously thought. 

Thank God not one of the four of us really had any previous snowboard experience, so we started off the day in the only logical fashion: with a lesson.  It was pretty much us and 100 elementary school kids all learning to swoosh and splat together.  We were the taller ones not wearing neon. It was only when I landed on my knees the first time that my imperviousness started to wane when I discovered that I couldn’t get up gracefully.  It was more like a giraffe trying to drink – ass in the air, knees splayed at odd angles, inner thighs screaming as they attempted to keep the board from flying out from under you and sending you right back to the snow. I’m pretty good at laughing at myself when I tank at something, which turned out to be an invaluable skill.   Two hours later we had mastered the learning hill (six feet of fun with a bench at the top) and I was getting the hang of this snowboarding thing.  There’s still something horribly unnatural to not having your body face in the direction you’re going, and knowing if you try to turn that way, you either stop or fall, but whatever, I was psyched and ready to move up to the big girl hills. 

By big girl hills, I mean the mile long bunny hill.  I’m not that stupid.  To get up there it meant taking my first chair lift, and that was nearly as exciting as the run itself.  It was when we were about halfway up that I remembered that my lesson had not included chairlift instructions.  My boyfriend, who’s lesson had included that important skill, tried his best to talk me through it, but it still ended with me making an ungraceful splat and then trying desperately to crawl out of the way of the incredibly talented 8 year olds who were in the chair behind.  My record for the day ended up at 0 for 4.

Holy crap, this thing looked steep from the top.  Visions of that first aid ski-doo ride started flashing through my head, but I came to snowboard, dammit, I could make it down this hill no problems.  Sometimes being young and stupid works to my advantage.  Face sideways, perfect form… oh shit! I’m going too fast and have no idea how to stop… and I was on my ass in the snow.  I’d made it about fifteen feet.  Now I had been awesome at getting up back on the flats, but when you throw in a 50 degree angle it’s a whole new ball game.  Ten minutes of trying everything I had in my arsenal, including squirming, panting, praying to the Gods of snowboarding and making snow angels (that last part was just to make me feel better.  It was an ugly snow angel with my feet attached together) I had to resort to taking one foot out of the bindings, standing, and buckling myself back in.  Standing back up is the hardest part of snowboarding, hands down.  Take two.  All told, it took me fifteen minutes to get down that hill, complete with two spectacular face plants and a lot of snow stuck in interesting inner places in my gear.  Thankfully, falling didn’t hurt nearly as much as getting up did.

By now I was exhausted.  But the only way to learn something is repetition, so it was back to the chair splat, I mean chair lift.  By the end of the day I was noticeably better, my record was only three falls on the way down, and I was very, very good at taking off and re-fastening my bindings.  I’d only cried once, out of sheer frustration when I fell right at the top of the hill (read: inches before I’d actually started going down it) and had been unable to get up while a kid the size of my right thigh swooshed past me with ease, but that actually turned into my best run of the day, so it had been worth something.   I cannot tell you how much I appreciated flat ground, my running shoes and a hot tea, though.

All told, snowboarding was really fun.  Now I understand why people from all over the world flock to Vancouver just for the mountains, as you can easily head up after a long day at the office and still get a few good runs in before closing.  And it’s conveniently close if you have to be heli-lifted to hospital, so that’s comforting.  I’m not sure if it’s my sport… yet,  I’ll need more practice and the ability to get up and stop without falling (both skills which I’m nowhere near mastering), but I’m not giving up.  Just taking an extended break

Tags: Cyprus Mountain, death, Exercise, falling, fear, fun, skiing, snow, snowboarding, vancouver

Swords, hair removal and firemen – City Chase 2010 recap!

Another year down, another day of fun and mayhem on the streets of Vancouver, and now we have 365 days to recover for next year’s City Chase!   My legs have that kinda sore “you had a good workout” buzz, my feet are tired, I have turf burns on my knees and am missing a patch of hair from my right arm, and it was totally worthit.  It always is.  For those of you who didn’t read my blog from last year, shame on you.  Because of that I now have to explain again what the City Chase is (everyone always asks), so here’s the reader’s digest version: you and a teammate join 300-plus other teams, are given a clue sheet with a whole bunch of locations/tasks on it, and you have a maximum of 6 hours to get to and complete 10 of these challenges before racing back to the finish line.  How you do this and what order you do these challenges in is totally up to you, the only rule really is that you can only travel by foot or public transportation. Now that’s out of the way, here’s the annual awesome blow-by-blow recap of how we, Team Llamaface! completed the 2010 Vancouver City Chase.

If you saw a whole bunch of people in red jerseys, some with capes and one guy in a banana costume running around on Saturday, particularly around the start/finish line at Granville Square, that was us.  As one tourist commented, “I don’t think it’s the Gay Pride parade, but I’m not sure” which, of course, made us all cheer and high five her as we ran past.  It started right at 10am, when they told us to run to the Olympic torch.  We were off!  Adrenaline was pumping, excitement was swelling, and we still had no idea what the hell we were going to have to do.  At the torch we finally got our clue sheets and set about deciphering where we needed to go.  From advanced hints sent out via Facebook and Twitter on Friday night we knew that there was going to be something at Portside Park, so we decided to hop a bus right there and figure everything else out on the way.

Chasepoint #1 – 8 Legs or None

One team member had to reach into a big bowl of mealworms and wood chips and find a marble.  The colour of the marble determined what your teammate had to do.  I’m better with creepy crawly things than my teammate Eric, so we figured he would draw the marble, because whatever I had to do was undoubtedly going to be worse.  Yep, it was.  We drew the “mystery box”, which meant that I had to draw a number from a bowl and whatever number I drew was the number of Madagasgar hissing cockroaches I had to dig out of a box and put into a bowl.  I’ve actually held one of these things before (long story) and knew they were dry and harmless, so I just jumped in and was done before Eric had the chance to take my photo.  Nine to go.

Chasepoint #2 – Chasepoint #1

This isn’t as confusing as it looks, the Chasepoint was actually titled “Chasepoint #1″ but it was the second one we did that day, so it was our Chasepoint #2.  A clue we had received via Facebook a few days before the race (but we expected this, because this is the only Chasepoint they actually have every year) said that if we raised CAD$50.00 for Right to Play we would get a Chasepoint stamp that we could pick up at one of two places on the course.  Portside park was one of those two places, so fifteen minutes after the race started we had two of ten checked off.  Sweet.  Eight to go.

Chasepoint #3 – BOWLERAMA

The course this year was probably the most logically laid out of all seven years they have had a Vancouver City Chase, as 90% of the points followed the Canada Line Skytrain line, which is exactly what I had hoped for.  The plan was to hop on the train, go to the farthest away point and work our way back, since the finish line was right beside Waterfront Station. This also gave us more time in transit to plan the rest of our route, so we headed to Richmond.  The idea was to find the Richmond Lawn Bowling Club, which we, thanks to our phone-a-friend online at home, had the exact address to.  Well, we get there, are standing at that exact spot, and find… nothing.  It was a housing development.  After wandering around for twenty frustrating minutes, including asking a whole bunch of people, including other lost Chase teams, we decided to cut our losses and abort.  So we hopped back onto the train, pissed that we had spent all that time on the train for nothing.  Damn.

Chasepoint #3 (revised) Fling it Good

I work at Oakridge Mall, so when the clue said to get to the frisbee golf course at Queen Elizabeth Park, I was on my home turf.  We got off at the Oakridge stop (it was hard, but I resisted the urge to run into my office and say hi to my co-workers) and were soon there.  One team member had to try to get a frisbee into the goal in under four shots.  If they succeeded it was all good, but if it was four shots that meant the non-throwing team member had to have a strip of their arm hair waxed off.  Six or more shots they would loose an eyebrow.  Eric is a much better frisbee-er than I am, not to mention he’s go the arm hair of a shetland, so it was very clear right from the start he was going to throw.  The feeling of helplessly watching the fate of your body hair fly through the air was nerve, wracking let me tell you!  But a good first shot got him close and he was nearly done in three, but a missed “put” meant I was getting my arm waxed.  Poop.  That hurt.  How invented this process?  Medieval torturers?  Thankfully you still can’t really see the missing patch of hair, but the wax didn’t all come off my arm, and when I tried to peel it off all it did was make my hands sticky, so I had to complete the rest of the race with a two-inch square of orange wax on my arm. Seven to go.

Chasepoint #4 – The Wanderers

This one was conveniently located right beside the frisbee golf, so for once we didn’t have to worry about bus schedules or how far we had to walk.  Using high-tech orienteering gear (little beeper tags) and a map we had to navigate a portion of the park and clock in at 12 hidden checkpoints in order.  If we got the order wrong there was a penalty.  This one we made up some good time on, even passing some teams who were already on the course ahead of us.  I might not know my left from my right most days, but I can sure read a map   Four down, six to go.

Chasepoint #5 – Barefoot

This one required about 20 minutes of walking to go from Queen Elizabeth Park to Douglas Park, and we didn’t succeed in finding a bus, so our only option was to hoof it all the way.  By now we were tired, but our successes at Queen ElizabethPark had us invigorated.  We were in good shape.  This challenge was to be tied to your partner, three-legged-race style, and dribble a ball with your foot in a slalom pattern between wine bottles.  At each bottle you had to stop and pick up a glass of water and carry on a waiter’s tray, eventually making a pyramid 6 glasses high.  This was frustrating, damp, and my waxy arm kept sticking to Eric, but we did it, no worries.  As we were putting our shoes back on afterwards the announcement went out on the crew’s walkie-talkies that the first place team had crossed the finish line already.  Damn.  We were only half way there.  I don’t know how they did it… they must have run the whole thing or something.  Damn those uber athletic people!  But we were still in pretty good shape compared to most of the other teams we encountered along the way.  Five to go.

Chasepoint #6 – Blind Grams

Once again, this point was only a block away from the last, so we were there before we knew it and ready to rock.  One of us had to be blindfolded and go out into a field and retrieve seven puzzle pieces, directed by their partner’s voice, and then once all pieces were gathered we could remove the blindfold and both put it together in the shape of a swan.  We learned last year that Eric gives good directions (he actually does know his left from right, go figure), so I was blindfolded.  Besides, nobody would believe us if we said he was the better listener ;P !!! Retrieving the pieces was cake, and putting it together only took a bit longer.  Six down, four to go.

Chasepoint #7  Thumb-athalon

A quick five block walk brought us to the Rogers store at the corner of Oak adn 15th, where we both picked up blackberry smartphones.  We sere seperated, and Eric got a clue sheet with 6 questions on it, which he texted to me.  I had to run around the neighbourhood and find the answers, like what the cost of a shwarma plate was at the nearby flafal joint, or how much the transaction fee was at the ATM inside Esquires Coffee.  The questions were the easy part, but for a tech newbie like me, figuring out how to text/send pics back to Eric took 90% of the time!  All told, though, we powered through this and were soon on our way again.  Three to go.

Chasepoint #8  Local Heroes

Another short five minute walk got us to the plaza behind City Square mall, and a whole bunch of firemen.  Insert happy dance here.  When I wasn’t staring at the firemen we had to don firemen’s hats and jackets, drag a weighted dummy around a course, knock over a cone by spraying a firehose, unroll a full-length firehose and then roll it back up and carry it over a marked line.  This is actually the identaical chasepoint they had in East Vancouver last year, so Eric and I powered through this, already knowing exactly what to do.  Which was good, because it gave me more time to stare at the firemen.  Mmmm, firemen…. Two to go!

Chasepoint #9 – National Defense

This is where reading what the challenges are, not just if their location is convenient, is a good thing.  We didn’t do this.  I have a tendancy to never do this.  Hence the fact that last year Eric had to eat canned smoked oysters adn make this awesome gag/puke sound.  Still apologizing for that one.  A few blocks’ walk got us to Jonathan Rogers Park, just off Broadway, and it was only when we rounded the corner that we realized this was a military obsticle course.  Crap.  This is the type of chasepoint that the really athletic people do.  Like the Olympic Triatheletethat won in Montreal.  He would have been all over this.  We, on the other hand, actually went so far as to pull out the clue sheet, determine there really was nothing else remotely close to us and this fit so perfectly in our master plan, and resign ourselves to the fact that we had to do the freaking thing.   At this point in the day anything more than a strong walk took effort, so, like prisoners walking the green mile, we reluctantly reported for duty, Sir.  They smeared war paint on our faces and fitted us with 20-lb tactical vests and helmets, then our (incredibly nice – we lucked out) drill seargenthad us run up and down the embankment four times, then do 15 push ups and 15 sit ups.  Then came the belly crawl, which tore up the insides of my knees and got a really big wad of dead grass stuck to the wax blob on my arm.  Eric, exhausted and the last in line, cried “but I make video games!” as he put what effort he had left into the crawl.  Hilarious.  But we weren’t done.  That would have been too easy.  Run ten feet, drop to your belly, jump up and repeat the pattern 5 times.  Then, holding hands withanother team, run the lengthof the football field and back, ending with a scramble over a picnic table.  Suddenly I felt like a Survivor contestant, the slow one who gets dragged along by their teammates when they’re all tied together for a challenge.  Not good, but we were done.   One to go!

Chasepoint #10 – En Garde

After a few minutes to recover, it was back onto the Canada Line to Waterfront station and our last challenge of the day.  We had specifically worked it so that this point was our last: it was close to the finish line, we knew where it was without assistance, and I was not going home until I’d done the swordfighting chasepoint.  This is the third year they have had fencing/swordplay, and the first two I had missed because it just wasn’t logical to go all the way there on the route I was running.  This year, however, they had given us the clue the night before (in the form of a facebook-posted crossword I was frantically filling in at 11:30 pm) of Academie Duello, the fencing academy right downtown.  Perfect.  We could make our route specifically so this one was included.   So we crawled in, were fitted withfencing helmets, and I got on a wooden horse (can’t help but insert the Old Spice parody here: we now smell like the team you want your team to smell like, and I’m on a horse) holding a shield and six foot wooden spear.  Eric pushed the horse along a course and I had to spear 3 rings as we went.  Then off the horse, he had to do 15 diamond push ups while I fought off an attacker with a longsword.  SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!  This wasn’t a play sword, either, it was ten pounds of ting!ting!ting! metal and a crazy guy swinging at my head.  Let me tell you, if it wasn’t for that helmet, I wouldn’t have a head, because his sword was bouncing off me like nobody’s business.  After that, to prove that torture is always fair, I had to do 15 burpies(I HATE BURPIES) while Eric defended himself with two metal shields against an equally crazy guy wielding two swords at his head.  Yay helmets.  We made it out barely alive, but we were done!

The finish line was only three blocks away, so we sprinted (read: walked until we knew the people holding the ribbon could see us then ran to make it look like we had energy left) across it.  Done!  Chased and conquered.  We were exhausted, happy, hadn’t fought all day, and thought we had done pretty good.  The official results were just posted today (if you’re not first you’re in the dark for a few days following the Chase, as it takes a few days for the judges to make sure everything is accurate ), and we finished in 98th place!  Out of 351 teams!  In seven years this is the first time I’ve ever broken the 100 mark, and we beat our record from last year by over a hundred teams.  High five!

All told it was awesome, fun, exhausting and I’m totally doing it again next year!

Tags: adventure, City Chase, crazy, fun, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Gearing up for the Vancouver City Chase!

It’s that time of year again: time for the Vancouver City Chase!

Quite possibly my favorite day of the year, it’s the only day that I get to run around like a madwoman, doing all sorts of random adventures in the best city in the world!  At this point all we know is where the start/finish line is and that a secret hint delivered by facebook directs us to Portside Park, but what we have to do there is still a mystery.  Awesome.  And just because they love me (yes, I choose to believe this), they have decided this year to hold it on my birthday.  Yep, Saturday is all about meeeeee!!

So now we’re in prep mode, which is always an interesting thing to do when you don’t know what you’re prepping for.  My teammate is hitting the gym (of course, two whole days of exercise is going to make a huge difference, lol!) and I’m hitting the streets, trying to familiarize myself with the areas downtown I don’t often get a chance to see.  Like I had no idea where Portside Park was until I google mapped it.  With the Canada Line getting you from downtown to Richmond in 20 minutes, that opens up a whole new section of Vancouver that we never could access before, since you would loose too much time in transit to actually complete the race in the allocated 6 hours.  My spider-sense is telling me to check out areas around the Canada Line stops.  Since my office is not too far from a Canada Line station, I already have my coworkers prepped that if I call they’ll quickly do anything I need (love them!).  Going near work would be too awesome for words. But, of course, I could be way off and doing all this for nothing as the route this year could be completely in the other direction.  That surprise is the wonder of the Chase. 

So far this year, in the other City Chases accross Canada, they have done stuff like strip bowling, holding a live crocodile, whitewater kayaking, shooting machine guns and completing a military obsticle course, so God knows what we’ll be asked to do, but one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be epic. 

And I’m going to love every second of it.

Full recap to follow!!!

Tags: awesome, City Chase, race, The Amazing Race, vancouver

Come to Vancouver – we have the best weather!

               Ahh, summer in Vancouver.   Perfect days with a rare cloud punctuating the pure blue sky, a gentle breeze coming in off the ocean, the majestic mountains surrounding us in a comforting hug, and the sun glinting off the glass skyscrapers of the downtown core.  Damn, right it’s the best place on earth.  And you should all drop what you’re doing and come now.  Immediately.  Vancouver wants you.  We have perfect weather, so take advantage of it before stock runs out! 

                Summer finally arrived at the end of June, after the longest winter on record.  Well, technically winter was exactly the same length as every year, but this year it felt like we skipped spring entirely.  But once summer dawned, it hasn’t let up one bit.  We’ve now had nearly a month straight of “coat?  I don’t even need socks in this weather” weather, and I’m loving every second of it.  Life should operate at this temperature every day.  I guess it does in LA, but here we don’t need to deal with nearly as much traffic, garbage, smog, noise…  you get the point.  As much as I appreciate (and boy do I appreciate) the chance to finally thaw, this weather also shows off Vancouver at its best, and everyone needs to take full advantage of it. 

               Right now we’re in the midst of the Symphony of Fire fireworks competition for four consecutive Wednesday and Saturday nights, which floods the shores of false creek with thousands of “ooooh”ers and “aaaah”ers.  Soon we’ll have the Dragon Boat festival, too.  We actually don’t have a deep pool of festivals and events, but the attractions we have year-round are pretty damn spectacular, and when you see them in this fantabulous weather, they’re even better.  You can immerse yourself in the native culture of the pacific coast at the UBC Museum of Anthropology and then get your nekked on at Wreck Beach; shop Robson Street’s trendiness and then finish off the day at a waterfront cafe on False Creek; bike Stanley Park’s seawall, feed the squirrels and enormous raccoons, then visit one of the best Aquariums around to splash with the belugas and dolphins.  A few weeks ago I did the bike thing for the first time since I was like 6 and it was great.  It’s a really smooth, relaxing ride, and a 2 hour bike rental from Spokes on Denman only cost CAD$10.00!    And regardless of what you do, remember to snag a funky twist on lunch at the world-famous Japadog gourmet Japanese hot dog cart.  Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

          But honestly, I’m here in the best place on earth, and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you should be too.  What are you waiting for, people?  We have sun!!!!

Tags: aquarium, best, bikes, BlogSherpa, Canada, fantastic, fireworks, fun, Japadog, Stanley Park, sun, vancouver, weather

Vancouver – Olympic Detox

       OMG, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are over.  They were AWESOME, but they’re done now.  Finished.  Kaput.  Put to bed.  We’ve been prepping for this for the past 10 years,survived the gut-wrenching bid process, the constant traffic disruptions that came with building the new venues and Canada Line skytrain, the protests, the adjusting to the Logo that no one initially liked, the crowds, the incredible excitement, the overwhelming patriotism, the nine-hour line ups for the maple leaf mittens, the best hockey game ever, and the raging hangover from the post-Olympics-and-hockey-game celebrations.  Phew.  Now all us Vancouver (and surrounding area) -ites are left tingling, walking around in a daze and thinking, what’s next?

        First thing Monday morning, assuming you were not one of the 40,000 people trying to fly home from YVR,  the most noticeable change was that there is now nothing on TV again.  That’s one of the fantastic things about the Olympics in general: the 24/7  TV coverage.  You can get up at 6 and catch up on all the short track speed skating and doubles luge action that aired the night before while you were watching the moguls skiing and biathalon.  And here in the lower mainland we had this on not one but four English Channels, as well as French, and occasionally Punjabi ones. Multiply this by 2 if you have HD cable.  Author’s note - If you’ve never watched short track speed skating with an over-excited French commentator, you’re missing out, it’s hysterically funny.  Particularly if you don’t speak French.  But anyway, now we have to watch the same boring crap as always, and it bites.

        And then there’s downtown.  The streets are still busy, but you have to walk down the (gasp!) sidewalkon Robson St. because it’s no longer pedestrian only.  The street performers are gone, too, and we miss the guy in the green skivvies on the giant unicycle already.  Thankfully many of the pavilions, art installations and the wait-in-line-for-two-days zipline are still open thanks to the Paralympics starting on March 12th, so it’s easing us back into regular life slowly, not a sudden  rip-off-the-BandAid jolt.  The biggest difference is that the people walking around are no longer all wearing giant maple leafs on their heads (backs/arms/dogs/children), just a few holdouts still are, and the rest are back in their business formal attire.  Oh, and the line for your Japadog is only half an hour again.

        We’re all kind of numb.  It’s over.  It’s OOOOOOVVVVVVEEEERRRRR!!!!  But it was incredible to have it here, we now have state of the art facilities that will help foster the new crop of Olympians, we have a new appreciation of Curling, and we have the most incredible memories.  We are, now and forever, an Olympic City.  We showed the world how beautiful our scenery and our people are, and, most importantly, showed them how much National pride flows through our veins.  Sorry guys, but Canada isn’t just going to sit by quietly anymore, we’re going to scream our heads off, wear red and white mittens everywhere, and apologize for beating you afterwards.  For that, we thank the Olympics.  They brought us together as a Nation, the home-soil advantage brought us out of our shells, and nobody was more surprised by it than we were.  We always knew our country is the best (I’m more than a little bit biased), but we never really laid it all out there to be seen before. 

Vancouver 2010 Olympics, we miss you.  And we promise to remeber you fondly.

But in the meantime, can you help me find something good on TV again?

Tags: BlogSherpa, Canada, excitement, mittens, Olympics, pride, TV, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver – Olympic Life in the Olympic City

        So we’re more than a week into the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games, or, to use a sports metaphor, wll into the home stretch.  Our muscles and wallets are sore, but it’s so, so, so worth it!   The city just feels energized, and it’s freaking fantastic.

        The pavilions, shows and events set up all over the downtown core gives the whole place a theme-park like feel (you line up for a long time, go on a short ride/see a short show, then walk to the next attraction, past souvenir and snack carts and street performers).  And speaking of line ups, at this point I think people are lining up for the sake of lining up.  The wait times at pretty much everything are multiple hours long.  Even just to get into the Granville st. Bay to buy your official team Canada tee (completely disregarding that we have tons of other Bay stores in Metro Vancouver, just a short skytrain away) is like three hours, and that doesn’t come with any guarantee that they’ll still have what you want in your size.  The longest line by far is the zipline, where, according to Radio Canada, a couple recently set the record for waiting more than 9 hours.  The ride is only ten seconds long!!!!  Think about it people, you’re turning waiting in line into an experience in itself, because you’re not doing anything else all day!  I made it into LiveCity Yaletown with only a 40-minute wait, and I was there right at opening.  God knows what it was like by 6!  Even the fabulousness that is the unique Japadog gourmet hot dog cart has a massive wait for your street meat.  By the time you get to the front, you’re ready for dinner, while you’d lined up at lunch.

          But the coolest thing is the overwhelming “We are Canada, we’re loud, proud and we ROCK!”  vibe that permeates everyday life here.  Just sitting at work I see tons of people each day wearing their Canada tees, stupid (or stupid awesome) Moose toques, and flag capes.  Vancouver has become Disneyland all of a sudden, a place where you can wear all sorts of stupid, furry things on your head, your cape has become regular office attire and the world will cease to exist when the puck drops tonight on the Canada versus Germany showdown.  Even the random stranger that approached us yesterday asking for a light said “Go Canada Go!”  by way of a thank you, and those were probably the only English words he knew.

            We’ve definately upped our international reputation, which was pretty good to begin with.  Unless you ask the British, of course, they’re really hammering us, but I think they’re just trying to call our games a failure (yes, they are really using terms that harsh) to make London 2012 look better.  They’re also forgetting that this is a Winter Games and they’re hosting the Summer, hardly an equal comparison, but whatever.  I’m Canadian, I know our games are fantastic, and at least my country has never been bombed, so the Brits can suck it.

          Even Though we still have days to go before the closing ceremonies and the start of the Paralympics, I already know I’m going to miss the Olympics once they pass.  More than anything, in the past week, people have been happy.  All the time.  It’s just a permanent smiling-at-strangers good mood that I don’t want to let slide once the torch has been snuffed.  It’s a pleasure to be in Vancouver.  Even more than usual.  And that’s saying a lot.

Tags: cape, flag, fun, Games, good mood, hockey, line up, livecity Yaletown, Olympics, toque, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver – Living amongst the flame

       The opening ceremonies last night were incredible.  Watching them at home I was just as blown away with the spectacle that is the Olympics as I always am, but then I take a moment and realize – that’s here.  Here here. Like “if I lean far enough out my balcony I can see that”here.   Going home on the skytrain yesterday the whole car just burst into the national anthem, a whole bunch of strangers heading to the suburbs and celebrating the true north strong and free.

Now that’s cool.

        Vancouver’s ceremony definitely did not disappoint.  It’s weird, I think we all have this slight Canadian inferiority complex that expects everything we do to be good, but always has the feeling that someone could have done it better.  I know, it’s stupid, but the show last night reminded us all to snap out of it, that we really are awesome and we’re going to prove it to the world.  Repeatedly.  While wearing a toque.  Preferably one shaped like a maple leaf.   My favorite moments were the projected whales breaching across the floor of BC Place stadium (oh, and just let me add while I remember, BC Place looked incredible, I kept having to remind myself it has a roof  – the first in Olympic history – and that the snow was fake.  The parkas worn by all the athletes were definitely not needed as it was probably 25 degrees in there, although Bermuda’s shorts were right on), and the beat poet’s declaration that Canada was here to kick some ass and take names.  It reminded me of the Molson Canadian ads from years ago that ended up printed on t-shirts and can most likely still be at least partially recited by 70% of the population.  Come on, you know it: “…the beaver is truly a proud and noble animal.  A toque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced ‘zed’!”

       As a city we were all pretty hyped up for the games before, especially getting behind the torch relay, but after the opening last night, we’re now officially Olympic mad.  I work in a mall, and both the Bay and Zellers – the official Olympic apparel suppliers – are packed.  I mean hold-on-to-your-children packed.  It’s crazier than the last minute Christmas rush to get your Canada mittens and tees, and there was actually a fight over the last scarf when I was in Zellers.    It’s like we were all laid back “yeah, I’ll get some of that stuff eventually”, but last night has spurred us and our wallets into action.   Personally, I’m one of the true north strong and cheap, so I’m waiting for them to go on sale after the games.  But as soon as those markdowns come, you can bet I’m going to look fabulous.

          And this is only day one.  Tomorrow we get the super fantastic combination of Chinese New Year, with it’s giant parade and great food, and the Olympics, so the roof is going to be blown off this town, that’s for sure!

Tags: BlogSherpa, Canada, Canadian, excitement, Olympics, opening ceremonies, party, pride, shopping, skytrain, the Bay, torch, vancouver

Vancouver – Olympic countdown: 0 days !!!!

            It’s finally here.  Vancouver is suddenly in the midst of a giant Christmas-morning buzz, with people walking around with stupidgrins on their faces and talking in that higher-pitched, excited tone usually reserved for large groups of women at a sample sale.  Even water cooler talk has gone from “can you believe what happened on Survivor last night?” to “Who’s going to officially light the Olympic cauldron tonight?”  In six hours we’ll finally know for sure when the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies get underway.  And from the scuttlebutt, it’s going to be huge, with Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado and the Canadian Tenors, amongst others who’ve managed to elude the media thus far, and all the pomp and pageantry and showmanship we know and love.

          Woke up this morning in time to see Arnold Swartzenegger (that well-known Canadian) wade through the masses of people on the Stanley Park Seawall on his leg of the torch relay.  That torch has already done incredible things to unite us as a city and a country, with much larger crowds than expected turning out both to see it run past and also for the concerts and parties surrounding it every night.  Yesterday it was really cool as it was running just blocks from my home and, later, just blocks from my work.  One of my co workers hopped on the Canada Line Skytrain on her coffee break, saw the torch run past, and got back to work in time. Sweet.

         The city already has an electricity that I’ve never felt before, and I think downtown Vancouver buzzes on a normal day.  On Tuesday night, before anything had actually started, I was blown away at the vibe the city was giving off already.  It felt like Christmas, with more Christmas lights out than there had been in December (I guess a lot of downtown businesses are lighting up to show their support, too) and the city just sparkled.  Okay, so I’m a little biased, but I think we have one of the world’s prettiest cities anyway, but combine that with the festivities and it’s incredible.  One of the exits of Pacific Center Mall has become a giant Igloo, complete with polar bear statues, and Robson Square is lit up like a rock concert with lighting and pyrotechnics highlighting it’s new ice skating rink and zipline.  Man, I would love to do that zipline right through the heart of the city.  I don’t think I’ll be able to, the lineups are supposed to be epic, but that would be so cool.

       So cool.  That pretty much sums it up.  As of today, we’re officially an Olympic city forever, and the huge-ass party to end all huge-ass parties kicks off.  I can’t wait.  We all can’t.

GO CANADA!

Tags: excitement, Olympics, party, torch, vancouver, zipline

Vancouver: Ready to welcome the world

We’re in the home stretch now – less than 30 days until the winter Olympics get underway.  Personally, I’m excited, I love the Olympics and having it right here is going to be cool.  I’m going to be watching it on TV (afford to go to the events?  You have got to be kidding me) and going “hey, I know where that is!  I went to school down the road from there!” Or whatever. I always get excited when I see places I recognize on screen, which happens frequently, this is Hollywood North.  Like the end of the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, when they’re walking through a building to a restaurant, I actually squealed “ooh! thats the library!” aloud.  But anyway, during the olympics this is going to be happening at an alarming frequency.  Anyone who knows me, consider yourself warned.

The city itself is starting to show noticeable finishing touches.  The construction walls are coming down on Granville for the first time in like 6 years, we have the spiffy new Canada Line skytrain from the airport to the city center (which rocks!) and even the ads on bus stops and park benches are now citywide exclusively for the official Olympic partners.  Needless to say you can go blocks and see nothing but McDonalds, Samsung, Coca Cola and some random company I’ve never heard of before, but that apparently is the official vaccine supplier for the athletes.   If I can survive the crazy-long commute times – God knows I can barely get on the train on some normal mornings, and when you add eight million extra visitors we’re going to need the people to cram passengers on the trains like they have in Japan – I hope to wander around downtown a bit during the games, because the vibe is going to be electric.  All the excitement, the street performers, free shows, random overheard conversations in different languages to pretend to understand and happiness.  It’ll be great.

If you happen to live in Vancouver and are hoping to get away on vacation during the games to escape the crowds, why haven’t you booked yet?  Do you really have that much money just hanging around that you don’t mind paying eight times the regular price?  The destinations you’re heading to probably have lots of space left, it is the low season, but the flights departing Vancouver don’t and are going to cost you a mint.  At this point it’s not how much but what’s left.  There are a lot of people I see on a daily basis who are surprised by this, but think about it: all the athletes, their fans and supporters are coming and going throughout the games – most of them don’t stay for the whole time, they just jet in, do their event and take off, as do their fans (to avoid a ridiculous hotel bill, as everything’s expensive), and when you combine that with the regular people traveling, there are shit tons of people coming in and out of YVR and only a certain number of seats on the planes.  If you still insist on trying to book for mid Feb, do it now.  Like now, now.  Stop reading this and book this instant or else you’re going to be totally out of luck.

And if you already have tickets, remember that at this point (thanks to the underwear bomber) you can’t take any carry-on onboard the plane with you.  And the heightened security due to that, combined with the heightened Olympic security, means that you’re going to be spending forever in line.  Get to the airport early.  Really early.  3-4 hours early.  Any later and youre going to be in line sandwiched between the chaotic family with the screaming baby heading to Disneyland and the Blackberry-addicted businessman who texts continuously as your plane takes off without you on it.

I’m sure the city will change when the games start, and I’m looking forwards to it.  What it’s going to be like I don’t know, but I’ll report back with the details in two weeks

Tags: airports, commute, crowds, excitement, last minute travel, Olympics, public transportation, security, skytrain, vancouver