Day 16 (Saturday Feb 27)

Ethan scored his first goal in hockey today! He was pretty pumped. I was SO sorry to miss it; you have no idea. Everything I have seen and done here has been so worth it, yet I will be ecstatic to get back home to them. This has been a long LONG time to be apart.

I spent a lot of the day packing and tidying up. I didn't have much to do in the athlete's village today, besides hanging out with all my skiers who were unexpectedly clad only in their underwear. These Europeans have no shame. It's pretty hard to discuss logistics for closing ceremonies when you are the only fully clothed person in the room. I took off my jacket and shoes, so I could fit in a little, but I drew the line at removing my pants, thank you.

They were all excited to go see Usher tonight at the Medals Plaza. I didn't have a ticket but I have a spot on the wall opposite the entrance where you can see into the plaza. And of course it's open air, so you can hear the concert all the way back to the cabin anyway! So I stood on my wall for a few songs, then headed home to clean the toilet. Oh, it's glamorous here, let me tell you! Royalty one day, toilets the next.

Tomorrow morning Paco competes in the 50k Cross Country event, as we're racing around checking them out of the accommodation and checking them in for their flights. Then we race them down for the ceremonies and afterwards, relax for a nice dinner out downtown. I'll be up early and to bed late, so off I go to bed now. I have packed Kleenex for tomorrow...

Except I Totally Forgot This...

OK, how could I forget that I bumped into the 51-yr-old Mexican Alpine skier, Prince Hubertus, today? He's German or Austrian royalty, I forget which. And he's 51 and still skiing at an Olympic level! Last week, I nearly walked into the King and Queen of Sweden, today Prince Hubertus. Also this week, the King of Norway brought us a cake. It was the absolute best cake I have ever eaten in my life. (And I knows me some cake) Turns out it was baked by the official bakers to the royal house of Norway. No wonder it rocked!
Royalty. Wow. And l'il ol' me.

Day 15 (Friday Feb 26)

I don't think my heart is strong enough to watch another hockey game. They won, but oh lordie they made us sweat at the end! Please, Canada, go hard on Sunday for Gold!!!

Today the Andorran assistant based in Vancouver came up to Whistler for a field trip, since he hasn't had much to do during the games. I showed Jefte around Whistler village, and took him to see the Sliding Centre too. Then we watched Mimi and Sofie race (not a great day for Andorran skiers) before heading to WVL.

We met up with Mariana and Erin, and all four of us assistants signed the cards we got for the athletes and coaches. We had a brief meeting with Vicky to discuss how we're going to manage the whole check out / closing ceremonies / departure process. It's just like the logistical nightmare we faced for Opening Ceremonies, only more so as we are getting baggage down to YVR and returning vehicles and cell phones... ay ay ay. I have only two more nights in Whistler, and I have completely mixed emotions about that! I can't wait to get home to Mike and the boys, and to my lovely bed in my lovely house and my lovely life. YET. This experience has been so amazing that I really don't want it to end!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Xoke. Sniff sniff. Then Sunday night the Andorrans are taking us out to dinner and dancing after Closing Ceremonies. I'm going to crash on my brother's couch that night, since we'll be up early again Monday morning to get them all to the airport, and get us assistants back up to Whistler just to check out and catch the 4:00 bus home with all our luggage. Sigh. But Monday I should be home before the kids go to bed!!!

Vicky gave us all more gifts tonight - a pen / wallet / keychain set nicely engraved with Andorra on it. More hugs, more kisses. I have kissed more cheeks this month than ever in my life. So please forgive me if, when I get back to Real Life, I greet you by laying a big smackeroo or two on you. And if I speak in French or Spanish, I apologize in advance, because I seem to be having a hard time with English lately!

Tomorrow I sleep in. Then I clean up and pack up. 2 Whistler sleeps to go!

Day 14 (Thursday Feb 25)

I started off today with a nice gentle run on the Valley Trail. My original destination was Meadow Park, but then this happened to the trail: Which wasn't such a happy thing for my knees as every step in the ice and snow seemed to wrench. So I returned back over the River of Golden Dreams and headed for home. Although I got tired while running, I get too bored of walking, so I ended up running most of the way home too. It felt good to get some exercise after all the free meals at the athlete's village. Seriously, when you can have McDonald's Cinnamon Melts every day for free, you really do need to be an elite athlete to work it all off. March = Salad month for me.

When I got back to the house, the plan was to watch Mimi's race, then shop for a goodbye gift for our chef de mission (leader of the Andorran delegation) before heading to WVL for my afternoon shift. Poor Mimi DNF. But then I found a very pretty BC jade pendant and necklace for Vicky (chef de mission) from us assistants. As for the rest of the day - Of course, as always, plans change by the minute. Instead of sitting in the break room at WVL for 8 hours, waiting for something to do, would I like to go to the Ladies' Figure Skating final program tonight?

Why yes I would. Thankyouverymuch.

So I drove our chef de mission to Pacific Coliseum. Although our seats were quite high up, we were in athlete seating. So we were quite literally surrounded by athletes. I am in a million pictures tonight! People were snapping away at the USA team behind us (one alpine skier Kaylin, one ice dance figure skater Emily, etc.), the Japanese speed skaters, the Georgian and US ice dance teams, and on and on and on. I was a little star-struck, to be honest. So many faces I recognize from TV, and I'm sitting among them!

And then our girl Joannie skated to bronze. Sigh. This is her at the kiss and cry. Can you see her? Squint into the jumbotron, and into the lower left corner above those people's heads... The Korean girl was especially beautiful to watch, as well. So it was lots of fun and muchas gracias, milles mercis to Vicky for asking me to go with her! I feel very privileged!!!

Day 13 (Wednesday Feb 24)

WOOT WOOT Canada!!! Awesome competition day!

I had pretty much zippo to do for the team today, so I sat in the break room and did Sudoku as I watched competitions on TV. Half of the ladies' Giant Slalom got delayed so we were kind of in a holding pattern for most of the day. One of our girls DNF but the other is waiting for the second run, rescheduled for tomorrow! Here's a picture I took today of the fire pit for the athletes: All the Andorrans but one were at Creekside today. We had to laugh when we went to deliver the competition DVDs to the house - Xoke had tidied the common room while everyone was gone and wrote a big note on the whiteboard in English for everyone to keep it tidy!

This is what it said (be forewarned, they like to swear!)

"Hey Mothers Fu**ers - Keeps it Ranged!"

Xoke (that's his nickname; it means "Crash") asked me to correct it, so I did. I am SO glad I majored in English at University, because you just never know when you may need to tell any Mothers Fu**ers to keep the room tidy in proper English.

Anyway, we sat and chatted for a while. Then, since Erin was there, I no longer needed to stick around on call. I had been getting so nervous about the Canada-Russia hockey game, and I just couldn't stand watching it at the NOC Services Centre with a bunch of other assistants. In fact, I got so nervous about the game I couldn't stand to watch it at all. So I found a last-minute Bobsleigh ticket for the Ladies' final tonight. And off I went!

I stopped at home to throw my long underwear and jeans on, and got to the Sliding Centre just in time to watch the first sled. Luckily I can stay well within VANOC rules of posting competition shots as all I could get with my camera was ice after the sled had passed! Here is a nice shot of the bottom of the Sliding Centre, taken from near the top. I worked my way up to the top during Heat 3, and then worked my way down during Heat 4 so I was at the finish for the GLORY GLORY of Canada winning Gold AND Silver in this event!!! I was THERE y'all!

Unfortunately I saw two crashes during the event, but all four of the ladies walked away. The British girls looked pretty shaken, and upset about losing, but the German crash was more freaky for us. The crash knocked the back girl clear out of the sled and she slid by herself for FOREVER. Unbelievable that they can walk away.

So I was already riding the Gold-Silver high when I heard that not only did Clara Hughes get Bronze in speed skating, but the Canadian men had beaten the Russians! Unspeakably Awesome. Now we wait to see if we face Sweden or Slovakia in the semi-finals. Next game: Friday! What event can I distract myself with then???

Day 12 (Tuesday Feb 23)

I didn't get to take our athlete to the airport today. I was supposed to go down to help him with his bags as, due to his injury, he is unable to lift them himself. However, when push came to shove, he needed to choose between space in the car for me to sit to help him at YVR, or space in the car for the last of his bags. He chose to take his bag home with him. I hope he found someone to haul his stuff once he got to YVR! I was ridiculously sad to say goodbye to him. We had a nice hug and farewell, and I promised to send him our pictures. Sad, sad, sad to say goodbye.
:(
So I consoled myself by watching Team Canada spank Team Germany in hockey. Sigh of relief at a happy result! And I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when someone offered me a ticket to tonight's Victory Ceremonies at Medals Plaza. Isn't the torch purty? Here are the women's biathlon teams getting their medals: This shot makes me swell with Canadian pride: the Mountie saluting Canadian Gold in Ski Cross. Then they gave out the Men's Alpine Giant Slalom medals; here are the flags being raised: After all the medals were awarded, The Fray played a set. It was fun! Now I'm tired and need my beauty rest. Bonsoir!

Day 11 (Monday Feb 22)

I'm pretty sure I was told not to bring any animal products through security into the athlete's village. So how did these end up in here? Oh wait, they ARE security. You wouldn't believe what a hit these cuties were with all the athletes from all over the world. It was very hard to snap this shot WITHOUT an athlete in the frame.

I took the ripped ski bag to the seamstress today. They had a very expensive pair of skis escape from their bag in transit to Whistler, and the skis completely broke. They want to make sure their skis arrive safely home! We wandered a little bit in behind Nesters, and eventually found her condo. She sews out of her home, and is perhaps the only seamstress in Whistler! While she repaired the seam, she told us stories of the business she's had lately: sewing badges onto the Mounties' red serge uniforms, crests onto Olympic uniforms, and also sewing black armbands for the Georgian delegation in the wake of the luger's death.

What is heartwarming about this story is that although this woman is obviously struggling to make ends meet, she is doing most of this Olympic work for free! She wouldn't take any money for the repair today, although I did make her accept an Andorran Olympic pin. She wanted to volunteer for the games, but couldn't find anyone to watch her young son. So she is giving back to the games in her own small way. I just stumbled upon her name at the drycleaners, and I'm so glad I found her!

Mariana and I completed the repair with upholstery glue to reinforce the seam, and then enclosed it all in an attractive layer of duct tape inside and out. The bag ain't pretty, but if the skis escape again, it will not be through THAT seam, I can promise you!

We also had a little free time to just hang out at the Andorran house. One of the girls was showing us all her 2010 souvenirs she's purchased, one of the boys was jokingly trying to make me do his laundry (I politely declined), and we chatted a bit about favourite places to ski. Apparently I need to go to the Swiss Alps and the Dolomites in Italy, although he's been pretty happy with his time in Whistler!

I googled "Dolomites". Um, yeah - I could hang out there!
Tomorrow's another YVR run I think. I may not get to a computer tomorrow night to post... but I'll try!

Day 10 (Sunday Feb 21)

Mike and I slept in this morning! This is news-worthy, for sure. We both feel like we never get to sleep late. So this morning = 8 frigging 30. Yee haw!

We got to our event (Men's Super Combined Alpine Skiing) a little late, but we were happy as we avoided most of the lineups to get in, and we got to see the Andorrans' and the Canadians' runs in the downhill.

Then, as everyone went to find food and go pee between the downhill and the slalom, Mike and I eased our way up to the front fence. Although we were in the shade and so it got cold by the end, I was very happy to be up front so we had a great view of the course, clear view of the Jumbotron, and as an added bonus we were right at the skier's exit so we saw all the racers come by after they finished.

We got some great photos that I am not allowed to post here, including one of me and Roger after he raced as he stopped to chat with me. It was another fun day!

Now we are watching the men's hockey game: Canada vs. USA. I'll let you know in about 2 hours if it's going to be a good evening or a bad evening... :-)

Day 9 (Saturday Feb 20)

Lots going on today!

I met Maria Ana in the morning and we went for waffles at Norway House. Let me just say TAKK to the Norwegians for my delicious breakfast! We had gone to Canada House first for their pancake breakfast, but got there a little late to eat, so we changed allegiance and visited Norway! I have to say, however, that it is very cool to be a Canadian at our Canadian Olympics. We have definitely seen a surge in patriotism this year! And what I love, too, is that I have never in my life been embarassed to be a Canadian. In fact, I've always been darned proud. There are other nationalities that should be ashamed of themselves and their general behaviour, but not us Canadians. We are the BEST! And being among so many happy Canadians has been so much fun! Having the opportunity to be together with a mass of other proud, happy Canadians when we win a medal = So Awesome.

After my waffles, I went to Creekside to meet up with my crew. We drove up to watch the men's cross country. I hadn't attended a cross country event before; and it was pretty cool to watch. The athleticism of these guys - holy cow! And the stadium is beautiful.

Here is a snow sculpture in progress at Whistler Olympic Park. It was so warm up in the Callaghan - 11 degrees Celsius!!! I had dressed in all sorts of layers based on our ski jump chill, but I ended up shedding all but my long sleeved T. Our guy DNF, so it was a quiet car ride home.

Once we got back to the village, I was happy to do a couple of mundane tasks like picking up Andorra's mail and getting a little shopping done in the athlete's shop. I found the tuque Mike has been looking everywhere for, so he was pretty happy once I got it to him later that night! It's the one like our Canadians have been wearing on the podium. I also found a place that repairs ski bags in Whistler.

Here is the Truce Wall in the athlete's village. This is the wall the athletes sign to adhere to the Olympic Truce, to promote peace at games time. Last duty before leaving was to translate for our physiotherapist. It involved some medical terminology that I had no idea how to translate to French! But we muddled through anyway, and I think she was happy I was there.

I got back to the cabin sometime after 6pm. Mike, his dad and Connie had made dinner plans with friends so we got ready. I needed Tylenol after squinting into the sun all day (wah, wah, poor me - too much sunshine!!!) but we had a nice dinner at La Rua. Unfortunately, we texted back and forth with Aaron all night but never connected. Mike and I went to check out the ice bar at Monk's after dinner, but I got psyched out from going inside after I saw the parkas they were putting on everyone. It cost $20 to borrow a parka, head inside the giant freezer, sit on an ice block and sip freezing cold vodka. Hhhmmm. Maybe sitting in front of a fire at home is better? Yup. So home we went.

Day 8 (Friday Feb 19)

I stayed in bed late today. Throat feeling ok; lots of tea and soothing drinks. Luckily I didn't have much to do today Olympically speaking. Besides watch my boys on the Super G, of course - this time on TV. I am like a nervous mama watching them race! It's nerve-wracking! I can't breathe, I'm sweaty, my hands are shaking...

So far, they have all made it down the hill in one piece. Huge sigh of relief. But I was so angry with CTV who decided to cut to commercial when it was Kevin's turn at the end. Was it fair to televise every single racer but him? I saw all of Roger's race, though! He looked so happy at the end and he really did well. I heard him yell "Go Andorra!" to the cameraman. I MAY have yelled it back to the TV. Witnesses? No? Good.

I can't wait until we see them race again on Sunday. It will be the Super Combined, rescheduled from Tuesday when we had all that snow. The Super Combined is a downhill race in the morning, and a slalom race about 2 hours afterwards. The combined total fastest time wins, so the medallists have to be good at the speed events and the technical events. It's exciting!

I'm so proud of all of them I could just burst!!!

Day 7 (Thursday Feb 18)

I am the luckiest girl on earth. My only "job" today was to wave the Andorran flag frantically while our girl raced in the Super Combined Alpine skiing. Again, we had fantastic seats! It was a beautiful day (my sunburned nose speaks for itself) and I had tons of fun cheering Mimi on. Here's the scoreboard just after she finished: We also got a picture with Olympian Allison Forsyth, who gave us an inspirational speech in one of our training sessions. She tore her ACL in Torino 2006 and had to retire from her illustrious skiing career in 2008. She's very cool!
I also finally watched the Opening Ceremonies that I had recorded last Friday. I haven't had the chance before now! I loved the ceremonies. The singing, dancing, special effects, parade of athletes - all so awesome. My favourite parts were the slam poet (with an inspiring, tear-provoking poem about Canada) and k. d. lang singing Hallelujah. Oh my God she was awesome!

Oh, and um - uh oh? My throat is sore. Nnnnooooo - there are ten days left!!! No sickness allowed!!! I am SO going to bed early and SO sleeping late tomorrow. I had thought I would ski tomorrow but I will have to see how my throat is. I gotta stay healthy!

À demain - bonsoir!

Day 6 (Wednesday Feb 17)

No pictures today!

I spent the morning helping the boys and Mike pack up. Then Mike drove me to YVR on their way home, as I was picking up our last athlete. She's awesome! Very sweet. She and I came back up to Whistler on the athlete's bus, and I helped her check in and get to her home away from home! I left the house at 10:15 am and only got home at 9:00 pm.

I'm tired tonight! But I have to poll y'all: She wants to trade jackets after the games. Do I give her my volunteer jacket in exchange for her Andorran jacket? It's beautiful and warm, and pretty unique. It's not the sweater you saw them marching in the Opening Ceremonies; it's a heavy winter ski coat. White and black. Hem Haw what do I do? I've EARNED my volunteer coat, but there will be a million like mine around Vancouver post-games. How many Andorran coats will there be?

I am feeling way more confident in my French after tonight. I was getting desperate, feeling pretty useless sometimes as I have struggled to understand my crew. ESPECIALLY on the phone. Ay Ay Ay. But I could always understand one of the athletes, and I can now understand the new girl perfectly. So I am feeling better about it all now. The others, with their accents and dialects, give me a bit of a headache. But it was easy to talk tonight! So whew.

Off to Ladies Super Combined tomorrow. Hope to be able to post tomorrow!!!!

Day 5 (Tuesday Feb 16)

Our big disappointment today was that the Men's Super Combined (downhill + slalom) was postponed. It was doubly disappointing because we had tickets, and my two Andorrans were competing today. But they have now rescheduled it for Sunday, so Mike may be able to come back to Whistler and enjoy it anyway!

The reason it was postponed was because of a huge dumping of snow. So we played in the snow today. Ethan got nailed by a snowball - action shot! Mike and his dad built a fort with tunnels in the courtyard. The boys LOVED it!
And then we went to the village and played around a little there, too! This is in front of the CTV broadcast. Can you see whats-her-name's back, behind the boys? We needed a picture in the bobsleigh of course! We were in the village when our girl won Canada's second Gold medal of the games. It was so exciting! Crowds were gathered around outdoor screens all throughout the village, and we were all watching her last run with baited breath. Snowboard Cross is pretty exciting, and we all cheered when she won the Gold! It was a very cool atmosphere.

Tomorrow I think the boys are heading home, so we'll be back to self-portraits and a lot less noise in the cabin. But I know I will miss them desperately once they leave! I have an airport pick up tomorrow,so I'll be heading down to Vancouver for a moment or two before returning to Whistler. Enjoy watching the events on TV!

Day 4 (Monday Feb 15)

Most. Awesome. Day. Ever.
Translation of this morning's Andorran conversation:

So Tamsin - can you drive me to Creekside?
Why sure!
Oh by the way here's your upgrade accreditation.
Whaaaa?
Meet you at the chairlift!
Um, ok!
Here's your seat in the VIP area. Here is your view for the day; is this going to be ok? Yes, I think I am very comfortable; thank you!
Would you mind videotaping our boys when they race?
Sure! It was a very cool day. I was so proud of the boys; they finished 47th and 48th!

Meanwhile, while I was hard at work :) Mike and the boys were celebrating Whistler.



And SOMEBODY is bugging me for more Swedish shots, so here you go, courtesy of Mike. Satisfied? :)

Day 3 (Sunday 14)

Happy Valentine's Day! Gung Hay Fat Choy to anyone celebrating Chinese New Year today! And Happy Olympics to us all!

Mike went to the Luge today with Aaron. They got some great shots!
***Update; had to take some pictures down. I realized I'm not supposed to include competition shots in my blog. VANOC rules!***

This is a picture of the German guy who won the event. Apparently, he was the only one who was warming up before his runs - guess it paid off!
The boys and I got up to no good: Well, they got up to no good; I was the one trying to get them to BE good. Futile. Completely futile.

Day 2 - Feb 13 Report

Yesterday Mike and I got to go to the Ski Jump, Normal Hill event. It was awesome! It was the first day I haven't worked with the Andorrans since Feb 5. It felt a little odd, not being on call! But it was great.

We had to get up super early to catch the 6:30 am shuttle from the Whistler Day Lots (now known as WTM, or the Whistler Transportation Mall). And since I'd been working until 10:40 the night before, both Mike and I were grumbly and exhausted. But we boarded the bus no problem and arrived at Whistler Olympic Park (with the unfortunate acronym of WOP) by about 7:15. Isn't it beautiful in the Callaghan Valley? It's a sleepy, snowy valley high in the mountains where they have awesome cross-country ski trails, snowshoeing, and now the Ski Jump venue, the Cross Country stadium and the Biathlon stadium. The bus dropped us off at the security screening, then we had a 500 metre walk up a snowy trail, fork in the road, then 400 more metres up to the Ski Jump venue. Because we got there early (other people were smarter and took a later shuttle!) we got an awesome place right at the fence. This was our view: Here we are on the jumbotron; can you see us? I circled & pointed to us in red...

As we were right on the fence, they would soar through the air on the jump, land and ski right past us. ***Had to take some pictures down; can't have competition shots up on a blog! VANOC rules*** Then they would take off their skis and trudge past us on their way to the lift. Here's the Swiss skier, walking past us just after his first jump. He would go on to win the competition! Here's me and the Polish skier who got Silver: Can you tell I got up REALLY early? We were standing with a large group of Polish supporters, so we found ourselves cheering loudly for Adam. Glad he won Silver!

Here's Simon Ammann, the Swiss skier, just after he found out he'd won Gold:The Swiss were happy!The Austrian with the really long name got the Bronze. He was exciting to watch, too!

I'm not going to rant too much about the transportation "Issues" to get us out of there. I am going to assume they are working out the first-day kinks. AHEM. I believe they knew ahead of time that 12,000 of us would be leaving at the same time. I also believe that they knew that there is no other way out of the Callaghan other than by bus. I know I would have put those two facts together and prepared the buses to be waiting for us. That is all I can say on the issue other than although I was out of uniform, and it wasn't my role, I stepped up and got our Whistler spectators onto the right buses. Just sayin'.

It was awesome anyway! And we got home in time to spend the afternoon with the boys, who I hadn't seen in forever. There was a LOT of cuddling. :)

Day One (Opening) a Day Late

Yesterday was Kuh-Ray-Zee.

I got to WVL at 8:30 am and didn't get home until 10:40 pm. We started off in a flurry of last minute plans. The Alpine Training schedule was all moved around, and for a short while we thought that would mean our Ladies Alpine skier would not get to the Opening Ceremonies on time. Luckily, she did - and I hope you saw her beaming face on the screen last night!

Of course, the giddy frenzied mood of the morning turned sombre pretty quickly when we learned of the luge accident. There were lots of tears in the village yesterday at the loss of such a young competitor. Everyone's thoughts were with the family and teammates of Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia. When the Georgians came back to the Vancouver Village after their march in the Opening Ceremonies, everyone stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads as the athletes passed by. It was very moving. As you probably saw, all athletes at the ceremonies last night had black armbands to honour this young man's memory. Everyone at the village felt just horrible yesterday.

It was hard, though, to dampen the enthusiasm these athletes felt at representing their country by marching in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games. As we herded them all out of the house yesterday, our Andorrans stopped for a group picture at their residence. Gulp. I'm just so proud of these guys, who I've only known for a week! Thanks so much to Shelley, who was at the Ceremonies last night and captured the Andorrans!

It was crazy trying to get all the athletes on the bus. I think we transferred 1500 from Whistler yesterday? Then of course, just as we all breathed a sigh of relief as the buses pulled away in the police convoy, we heard that some athletes had missed the bus. So we scrambled and searched the village for the stragglers, got them on another bus, and sent them down. Then I got in the Andorran VANOC car and drove to Vancouver Village to wait for my guys. Since two of our athletes were scheduled to compete this morning, they opted to bail out of the opening ceremonies just after the parade of athletes. So my job was to race them back to Whistler so they could get to bed as early as possible.

I'm glad they left early; turns out the rest of the convoy got back to WVL after 12:30 am!

Anyway, there were seven of us in the car and I don't believe I have ever made the trip that fast! One of the coaches was driving and turns out he'd had some training as a race car driver... yep, I could have guessed that! It was quite a fun trip up, I must say.

I got back to the cabin at 10:40, and Jack was still awake so I got kisses and hugs from him and Mike. Ethan got kisses and hugs from me, too, but he didn't really notice as he was snoring away. It was an emotional, sad, fun, long day and I'm so happy I got to be a part of it!

One day left until Opening!

I thought I was all finished work last night but I got a text just before 11 pm about a potential problem that needed to be fixed before the village to village courier left this morning at 9:30 am. Luckily, it only took until just after midnight to fix it. I still had to make sure everything went ok, so I was up again at 6:45am and got to the athlete's village early. (Is it ok if I start using the VANOC acronym for the athlete's village, WVL - it would make my tired fingers a lot happier!) I was just grabbing tea at the WVL dining hall on my way to the courier desk when I got the text that she'd followed my instructions and all went well! So I was only there about 20 minutes this am.

Next I met up with a fellow assistant to hand over some papers, and then met our third team member. We spent the day planning the logistics behind tomorrow's opening ceremony. It's a lot of this: OK, so athletes A, B & C will be here and will go there at this time. Athlete D and Coach A will be here with Assistant A... and so on and so forth. With any luck, we will get all of our delegation to the Opening Ceremonies tomorrow!

Whistler village photos of the day:

OK I have a headache and the morning will come too soon, I just know it! I doubt I can blog tomorrow, so watch your TVs for the Opening Ceremonies, and remember - cheer for my Andorrans! - T.