I had an 8 am start this morning. It put a smile on my face to see how the Workforce folks were thinking about all of us volunteers. At Workforce Check-in this morning not only did I get the standard warm, smiling reception but there were Valentine candies too. At the Plaza of Nations building where we work, the common areas were all decorated with pink, paper hearts.
I received my day three gift one day late. It was a special Team 2010 pin to add to my pin collection.
Tonight is the first Victory Ceremony at BC Place Stadium. Each Victory Ceremony is honouring one of the Canadian provinces. Tonight is British Columbia night. At the Victory Ceremony, the province will give a half hour presentation followed by the presentation of the medals for events yesterday and early today. The evening will conclude with a concert by a performer or group associated with the honoured province.
Just one end of the Stadium with 20,000 seats is being used for the Victory Ceremonies so the Stadium needed to be reconfigured after Friday night's Opening Ceremonies. Of course, all the changes will need to be reversed for the Closing Ceremonies on the 28th.
Generally it was a relatively slow day in the Venue Communications Centre (VCC). That was just fine with me. I still monitored the Ops1 channel but it was quieter today than it was during the dress rehearsals last week. We had our regular run of fire trucks showing up at the gate where no one knew why they had come, toilets turning into fountains, questions about lost and found, medical issues, and people needing to talk to people who we couldn't find. We're all getting better at our jobs including solving problems.
We had lots of time for socializing today including sharing stories from our "other" lives.
One of my colleagues today told us that the company she works for did lots of electrical work during construction at Whistler Olympic Park up at Whistler. She said that after a few incidents, they had to install trapdoors in the floors of their office trailers at the site because bears were breaking down the trailer doors to get in. The staff had to escape through the trapdoors. And you thought that you had challenges at your work?
My colleague Nancy from Ohio has obviously been in Canada too long--or perhaps we have been showing her a great time. She told us that she was late for the start of the Ski Jumping event yesterday because Vice President Jo Biden's entourage held everything up on the road to Whistler. "Damn Americans," she smiled.
We also had time to watch the Games. We have access to all these special channels that are the official feeds to the networks. Not only to we get channels from all the venues but we get "beauty" cameras too. There are beauty cameras showing the Olympic Cauldron, the Vancouver skyline from several angles, Whistler Village, and even one on the SeaBus as it goes back and forth across Burrard Inlet. As we flipped channels today we noticed both NBC and CTV (in Canada) using these feeds of the cauldron and the Vancouver skyline when fading to commercials. Watching the beauty channels is like watching that fireplace burning channel or DVD at Christmas--about 30 seconds is long enough.
When our Deputy Manager arrived for the late shift, she arrived with a huge, heart-shaped box of chocolates for the VCC volunteers. The early shift helped ourselves as we ended our day and left the balance for the late shift.
I spent a while wandering around downtown after work. As I was still in my uniform, the experience is quite different than walking around in civilian clothes. My wife can attest to the fact that people come up to me and ask for directions as two women did it while I was talking to Leena on the phone. Many people give me a second glance and then a big smile. Just like on the SkyTrain, people don't hesitate to talk to me on the street. As I walked by a fire hall, some of the firefighters where standing near the sidewalk and they made a point of talking to me. It is such a wonderful experience.
You really get a sense of the worldwide visitors as you watch and listen as you walk around downtown. I guess it is one advantage of having a solo experience.
Because of my friends from Ottawa visiting last night and leaving early this morning I only had about two hours of sleep last night. Combined with the long lineups to get into everything I decided to call it an early night tonight. (As I passed the Mint pavilion, I heard them say that it was a three hour wait. There was a five hour wait to go on the free zip line trek six stories up across Robson Square.)
Since I've worked two more days that means tonight is Olympic laundry night again. I'll watch the highlights from today as Canada won its first ever gold medal in Canada.
It's not the first Valentine's Day that my wife and I have been separated over our more than 28 years together. I really miss her and can't wait for her to get here next Saturday so that we can share these experiences together.
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