Day 12: Last Volunteering Shift!

This is it! It's Feb. 24 and it's my last shift as a Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games voluneteer. I had in fact one more shift scheduled for tomorrow, but it got cancelled. So, today, I say goodbye to Cypress. But not before I say hello to all the fresh snow that Cypress got over night! That's right... snow! Reports indicate that over 17 cm of snow have accumulated on the mountain, just in time for today's event:

• Ladies' Aerials - Finals

We got to the mountain just past 2pm. It was not only white everywhere (first time I see it like that since I started) but also foggy. We started our shift with a snow statue competition! Our team build a pretty large inukshuk but we have no word on who actually won the competition.

I got assigned to team "Bravo 10" with Caroline and Jane but due to a large number of volunteers not showing up, they put us on "Entry," which is right at the front gates where spectators come in for screening and through ticket check-points. Hence, we didn't get to see any of the competition. Thanks to today's mobile technology, however, we got to follow the Russia vs. Canada hockey game live through the spectators' smartphones! Another way that technology can reunite us? One could definitely argue for it!

The shift was long... It was a wet evening and standing around in the rain on Cypress Mountain does not keep one warm for long. Luckily, dinner time came sooner rather than later. I got to spend it with Caroline and Jane on eating and plotting our escape from the "Entry" assignment. It was fruitless. By the time we got back, we got dispatched on the path to the parking lot to control the crowds returning to the buses. As always, we made the best of it. Glow sticks: check. Reflective vests: check. Megaphone: check. Olympic van parked on the side with music blasting through its open back door: check! I think we put a smile on every single of the 10 000 spectators returning home that night! We had a blast doing it, too... making complete clowns out of ourselves and making friends with a large Australian crowd! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie? Oi, oi, oi!

Yay, Olympics!