Day -1: Uniform Pick-Up & Celebrations

Another rainy morning. That won't stop me from getting up, though! Today's mission: uniform pick-up.

I hopped on the bus, which is free now with my accreditation card, and headed downtown for lunch with Adam. Sushi, of course! After lunch, I went back east, to the Pacific Coliseum for the best souvenir a volunteer could ask for. I skipped the accreditation pick-up line (since I already have my card) and headed to the fitting rooms, where I got to try on various uniform sizes and find the best fit. Once that exercise was completed, I headed to the depot with my 'prescription' to get my uniform, along with some other goodies! At the check-out cash, my giant Vancouver 2010 bag contained: snow pants, a jacket, two long-sleeve shirts (made of extremely comfy bamboo cotton!), a vest, a toque (une tuque, pour mes amis franco), a stainless steel travel mug, a bottle of Cold-FX pills (seriously?), a volunteer pocket guide, and some Olympic post cards from the IOC! Love it!!

I took the bus back home, unpacked, and headed downtown to meet up with another friend for dinner, and some trekking around downtown. Vancouver looks great at night, especially now! I am dying to post some pictures - haven't found a way to transfer them from my camera yet but be patient! I will come up with something...

So, Andrew and I wandered around the city, visiting some of the Olympic hot-spots to check out the action:

• Robson Square (where one can still buy tickets to some of the events, skate around on an ice rink, or fly through the air on a Ziptrek zip-line! Oh yeah, I'm definitely trying this one out!),
• the Irish House (where - according to the news - the Irish athletes and fans party until 3 in the morning every night, stealing the precious peace and quiet from the locals who live near by... Would you expect less of them? I love the Irish!),
• a part of the Olympic Torch Relay on the Granville Bridge (the second time I got to see the Olympic Flame, first being in Montréal at Place Jacques Cartier),
• Vectorial Elevation (very cool robotic searchlights set up on both banks of the English Bay - check out the videos on www.vectorialvancouver.net), and
• Vancouver 2010 Countdown Clock (located in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the clock was showing just over 19 hours to go until the opening ceremony begins when Andrew and I took some pictures there tonight around 10PM)

Tomorrow is Day 0. The day it all begins. The day I've been waiting for for 2 years when I signed up to volunteer in Feb. 2008. Where will you be? Are you going to watch the opening ceremony? Who do you think will ight the cauldron? Leave some comments... :)

... and let the Games begin!