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!

Day -2: The Arrival

At 10:15AM Pacific Time, the wheels of Air Canada's Airbus A321 flight AC111 touched down on Vancouver airport runway. Thanks to favourable winds, we made it here 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Cool! I get a head start to this crazy Olympic journey!

Arriving to Vancouver through YVR is an experience in itself. Parts of the airport are converted into VANOC's accreditation centres and media hot-spots. And every single ad is Olympics-related!

I hopped on the newly-built Canada Line, a light, fully-automated rail system linking the airport with Vancouver's downtown core. Just over 20 minutes and $8.75 later, I arrived at the Vancouver City Centre stop. When I walked out of the station it hit me: I landed right in the heart of the action! The Bay building is covered in enormous pictures of models in their official Olympic clothing line, some streets are closed to traffic and filled with sculptures, sports gear, flags, tourists and locals taking it all in...

After I settled in at my friend's place, where I'll be staying for the next 16 days (thanks, Adam!), I went to the Uniform and Accreditation Centre (at the Pacific Coliseum) to pick up my accreditation card. I couldn't get the uniform that afternoon because there just wasn't enough time: we had to make it down to BC Place for the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the 21st Winter Olympic Games! As I mentioned previously in a post, all volunteers got a complimentary ticket to watch the rehearsal. I hopped on the SkyTrain and met up with Adam at the Stadium-Chinatown stop, from where we trotted down to BC Place. Once we passed through security and hot-dogs stands, we located our section (447), row (RR), and took our seats (101 and 102). BC Place is enormous! It seats over 60 000 spectators. The stands were illuminated in blue and the floor was covered in artificial snow. I'm not really supposed to talk about the show but let me just say this: it's going to be grand!! Expect an awesome kick-start, a fantastic light show, plenty of good music, and a touch of magic... actually, plenty of magic!! And of course the lighting of the cauldron remains a big secret. The rehearsal ended just before that part, so don't ask me who will be lighting it! I have no idea... Polls on the streets reveal that most people would like Betty Fox (Terry Fox's mother) to do the honours, while others voted for Wayne Gretzky. Time will tell... (I won't 'cause I really don't know!)

After the show, we headed out to meet up with some friends at a house party. We also made plans to watch the opening ceremony from their place as it’s facing False Creek and BC Place, and the view from the balcony guarantees a spectacular show! From there, we headed out to Gastown’s Met karaoke bar, where after a few rounds of pool and pitchers, we called it a night.

Hello, Vancouver! Hello, World!

The 2010 Winter Games are just 2 days away…