Working The Night Shift

After four days of early shifts, I switched to the late shift today. It was a great day to do that.

I slept in this morning but mid-morning received a text message invitation to lunch. Friends from university who now live in Grimsby, Ontario were in town for the Games. I headed downtown to Yaletown and met them at a restaurant with an outdoor patio. We had lunch, caught up (none of us could remember exactly when we had last seen each other--obviously a sign of our aging Math brains), and watched the Games on TV. We were fortunate to be able to see Christine Nesbitt win Canada's third gold medal. We agreed to try to get together again for dinner once my wife arrives on Saturday.

At Workforce Check-in this afternoon I took a look at the map that allows volunteers at BC Place Stadium to add a star to show where they are from. It's a bit hard to see from this photo but there are people from all over the world at the Stadium. I think it reflects the general mix of people that are currently in Vancouver.

Since the morning shift in the Venue Communications Centre had been relatively slow, it was decided to send us outside again in shifts to help direct people and answer questions. I volunteered for the first team to go outside as I knew that there was an important hockey game coming up and I wanted to be back in the VCC in time to watch the Victory Ceremony and see Christine Nesbitt get her gold. Also it was a gorgeous day outside and I knew once the sun set it would get colder. It was a good strategy.

Outside I was positioned between Concord Place (where the Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan pavilions and Canada Hockey House are located) and the entrance to the security gates for the Stadium and Canada Hockey Place (the arena). There was a steady stream of traffic and questions. It was a lot of fun to help people as, generally, people are in such a great mood.

As there was a Canadian hockey game starting within the hour there were lots of scalpers working where I was standing. After the game started and they thinned out I had people coming to me looking for a person to buy a ticket from. Later scalpers were asking $70 for the $22 ticket for tonight's Victory Ceremony as Canada was getting both a gold and a silver medal.

Again it was absolutely amazing to see the people going in to the hockey game dressed in their Team Canada jerseys, hoodies, scarves, and flags.

I helped lots of people from all over the world: Russians, Americans (Texas seemed to win today), Austrians, Italians and, of course, plenty of Canadians. It was not uncommon to hear Vancouverites express their excitement about seeing their city in such an party atmosphere.

Today seemed to be celebrity siting day. While I only saw the CEO of Roots Canada (they supplied the Olympics uniforms for Canada and the U.S. at the Salt Lake City Games) one of my colleagues in the VCC saw Stephen Colbert over at Sochi House (the Russian pavilion) and another was at Starbucks downtown and backed up in line only to step on the toes of Meredith Vieira from NBC's Today show.

We also had a celebrity on our team today as there were Olympic event tickets given away randomly yesterday as volunteers checked in and one of my colleagues was one of the winners.

I got back into the VCC in time to see the last period of the Canada/Switzerland hockey game. There was lots of tension in the room as the Canadians were unable to get anything past the Swiss goalie and the game ended in a tie at the end of three periods. It was only after overtime and a four attempt shoot-out that Canada won when Sidney Crosby finally put the puck in the net. There was a huge cheer in the building and an even larger sigh of relief. One of my colleagues joked that the rule should really be that the shoot-out must continue until Canada wins.

We then switched the TV to the Victory Ceremony. We all applauded as Nesbitt received her medal and we all stood and sang O Canada when it was played as the flag was raised inside the Stadium.

After the Victory Ceremony we watched a bit of skeleton and the end of the men's figure skating. Our Olympic Broadcasting System feeds do not have any commentary so we all tend to provide our own. Someone remarked that she will never be able to watch the Olympics the same again after our humorous and honest amateur commentary. It was suggested that we were all going to have to get back together for the next Olympics. (Someone on our team did tell us today that she has applied to be a volunteer in London for 2012.)

After we closed the VCC I headed down to LiveCity Yaletown to see the fireworks show. At the end of a concert by a group called Marianas Trench, there was a great show with fireworks, lights, and water cannons. On the big screens, and on the spray of the water cannons, video highlights of the Games were displayed to music. It was a grand display that obviously gets updated every day based on new event results.

The mornings have been slow in the VCC so it was decided today to open at 11 am rather than at 8:30 am. I have only one more morning shift next Monday so it really doesn't affect me too much. They are just doing this informally so that we don't lose the right to a meal ticket if our shift is too short.

After working for eight shifts, watching events on TVs around town, and seeing lots of this Olympic city, now I'm ready to attend some events. I can't wait for next week.