I woke up to this:
OK so you can't REALLY see the fat flakes of snow, but they were there, I promise. Beautiful view from the cabin window!And then I got ready for my first shift. Do I LOOK like a keener? Because I am SUCH a keener:
I checked in at the Athlete's Village. Once I got there I received word that I had almost two hours to kill before the revised arrival time for my chef de mission. I loitered in the break room for a minute before I saw a sign that said, "Extra time on your hands? Call Jason to help Event Services". So I did. I ended up working 90 minutes at security screening, filtering athletes and coaches through the metal detectors. I was at the rifle checkpoint, but didn't think to be freaked out by that until later. Did I mention I hate guns?
And later, I helped check my team into their accommodations. It was great to meet them! They are very nice, and I am now able to relax a little about the whole language thing. I spoke French with her, and she spoke a little Spanish and French back, and we got along quite well. They have a townhouse for their team, and it's really very nice! After I left them to unpack a little more, I grabbed dinner in the dining hall (BBQ chicken, rice, green beans, Thai noodle salad - all quite yummy!) and left for Whistler as the Torch was arriving tonight!
Whistler was CRAZY. I have never seen it so busy! It was just packed at Skier's Plaza at the base of the gondolas. There was music and entertainment, and red mittens everywhere! The crowds were a little much for me, so I hiked up the mountain a ways, past the first tower on the Fitzsimmons chair. Looking down on the excitement was beyond words. I was also in the fantastic position of being right on the route that Julia Murray, the Canadian Ski Cross athlete that Westminster Savings is sponsoring for the Olympics, brought the torch by on the snowmobile. Um, yeah. So it would have been a whole lot better, closer, clearer if I HADN'T fallen down the mountain just a little when I jumped in excitement at seeing her 10 feet from me. This is the picture I took after I fell. Um, see her?
Yeah, me neither.She lit the torch of Steve Podborski, legendary skier! He skied down into the village and lit the torch of a young Whistler resident chosen to light Whistler's cauldron. See that glow in the middle? That's Steve lighting Tyler's torch. It was a PHONE camera; don't give me a hard time.
It was a great day!
5 comments:
I see little lights! And frankly that's still closer than we'll be to a Torch! So Awesome! How many athletes does the Andorran team have?
Cool to see the best of the Olympics....just got a call from our pilots....3 airplanes had to pull up and go around and hold over abbotsford a 5am as the security people lost the clearance....total fuel burned???
Ah.....I wont ruin it for you...
Have a blast.
But what would you have done if you saw a turkey with a gun? :-)
Tamsin, great updates! What a hilarious sense of humour you have. Keep having fun.
Carl (Katz)
@Carrie - they all had rifles; but they were not turkeys, they were biathletes... luckily no ammo though!
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