Last Volunteer Day (?)

After a weekend of being a "civilian", I was back in my Smurf outfit again today. It felt good. Of course that meant I was available again for answering visitors questions and getting brought in to conversations with strangers. It happened as soon as I got on the SkyTrain this morning and continued on the street tonight as I left work and on the SkyTrain and bus heading home. For me it has been one of the best and unexpected aspects of volunteering.

Today was my last scheduled shift as a volunteer at the Stadium. I have never had a last day at a job before, but I found myself taking an extra long look at the everyday things behind security that I figured I would not see again after today. The signage, the "look of the Games" banners, the bulletin boards, the people.

At Security and Workforce Check-in this morning they were as friendly as always. There was a smile and "Good morning" from everyone.

At Check-in I told the volunteer that it was my last shift. (Our time recording card that we wear with our accreditation indicated that the last day was a gift day just like days three, six, and nine.) As most volunteers won't have their last shift until later this week, this weekend, or after the Paralympics, he was a bit flustered as to what to do. He asked for assistance. Quickly one of the other volunteers went into the office and returned with a gift. She gave it to him so that he could present it to me. He sincerely thanked me on behalf of VANOC for my volunteer work and presented me with a special Swatch watch in Vancouver 2010 blue. (My manager later told me that it was an Olympic tradition that had started in Salt Lake City.)

There was no Victory Ceremony scheduled for this evening in the Stadium. It had been left as a dark night so that the day could be devoted to a practice for the Closing Ceremonies inside the Stadium. The performers have been rehearsing for the closing in tents on venue, but this was the first time they could rehearse in the Stadium. They will only have one more chance next Saturday.

With a dark Stadium (therefore no spectators to move and take care of) and only two women's hockey games at Canada Hockey Place, it was anticipated that this would be a very quiet day in the Venue Communications Centre (VCC).

Four of us showed up at our new 11 am start time and monitored the channels through lunch. We watched the Canadian men beat the U.S. in curling followed by the team ski jumping. After lunch our manager told us that he had been given permission to run with a skeleton staff as everyone with a radio was going to move to their regular more limited night-time channels. He thought that we could probably handle the afternoon with just one operator so that the others could head home if desired or enjoy a beautiful day outdoors. One of my colleagues has an RFP due on Friday (at Xap we know what that is like) so she asked to be excused. The other two said they didn't care but wouldn't mind being outside. I volunteered to stay as it was my last shift.

It seemed appropriate that I could "fly solo" after nine days of training and experience. I monitored all eight channels by myself. Occasionally multiple people talked at once but it was manageable. My manager backed me up for pee breaks. We also had the operator for Urban Domain monitoring the SkyTrain stations and street-based information volunteers.

There were few challenging calls. An international, accredited VIP who was off-venue wanted a VANOC car to take him to the General Hospital. After several calls and confirming, after our incorrect assumption, that he was not ill but was going to the hospital to visit an athlete, we learned that the proper response was that if he was entitled to a car he would know how to get one. By the time we figured out how to tell him that nicely and we called back, he had decided to take a cab. It is nice when problems solve themselves.

In the afternoon I watched the U.S. women beat Sweden in hockey and Canada beat Sweden in women's curling. I really love the Olympic Broadcasting System feeds with their lack of commercials, lack of commentary and complete coverage of an event.

By the end of my shift my manager had spoken to me about Sunday when the men's gold medal hockey game will be played at Canada Hockey House (where every single Canadian knows that Canada will be playing) followed by the Closing Ceremonies at the Stadium. It will be a very busy day in the VCC. He told me that if I was available I could help. So, after all my extra work  inhaling the experience of my last shift, it may not be my last shift after all.

When the evening shift came in everyone wanted to see my watch. We are now talking about all the VCC operators getting together as a group for a drink after the Victory Ceremonies on Thursday. It would be great to see everyone in a social setting--not that our work hasn't been social. They have all been a great, friendly, helpful and fun group to work with.

Today in the paper it was reported that there are 150 people in Vancouver from the Sochi 2014 Games organizing committee. Their president said that he was most impressed by the Canadian friendliness. He told his team to study then emulate the Canadian hospitality. I think we'll be a tough act to follow.

On my way home on the SkyTrain I snapped a picture of the public art that was installed at my station last week: the front ends of three florescent orange bears. Given the amount of orange around town on visitors from The Netherlands, I think they are Dutch bears.

Leena's sister and her husband from Toronto have come to town for Olympic events this week. We met them and our nephew and his wife who live in Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) for a nice dinner at a restaurant across the street from the Vancouver City Hall.

It has been impressive how so many of the restaurants that I have been in across the city have installed extra televisions for patrons to watch the Games. There should be a lot of barely used flat screen TVs on sale across Vancouver after the Games.

Televisions didn't quite fit the ambiance of this restaurant so it was the waitress who told us to look across the street and see the lights flashing in a pattern on the Vancouver City Hall because Canada had won another gold medal in ice dancing. Woo hoo!

Tomorrow is a sightseeing day before Leena and I head to Whistler on Wednesday for our first sporting event.


P.S. My apologies to morning readers. I have not posted on the last two nights as I have been in the habit of doing for a few weeks now. Please remember: I do have a wife now. I see that so much reading is in the morning and I have enjoyed the e-mails from people who say that they read my blog in the morning. I'll try to go back to evening posts. It should be easy as we have a few really early mornings coming up this week. Thanks again for all the comments and feedback. I love the fact that this is a two-way method of communicating.