My “Olympic Blackout” Experience
So the course went dark for 2 weeks during the Olympics and I figured I would use that time to “catch-up” or “get ahead”. Boy was I wrong. Either I couldn’t remove myself from the couch as I was captivated by everything Olympics or I was done town soaking up the atmosphere.
I went downtown 5 times – twice with the kids; twice with my wife (sans kids); and once right after Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner. The thing that impressed me the most was how well-behaved everyone was. Every year we have the fireworks downtown and it always seems to get out of hand. I stopped going years ago because I no longer felt safe. My personal safety never became an issue during the Olympics.
As far as events went I had a couple of cool experiences. First there was the men’s downhill and Super-G. I teach at Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver and Robbie Dixon’s mom teaches at our school. Almost the entire school was in the large gym to watch him race. It got so loud when he entered the start gate and unfortunately got so quiet a few seconds later when he crashed (both events). I personally felt so bad when they showed Tracy (my colleague and Robbie’s mom) at the bottom of the hill – she looked so crushed! That being said the energy and excitement in the school was nothing short of awesome!!
The second event that I got to experience was in mens hockey. Team Canada vs Team USA (round robin not the final). My buddy phoned me up a few hours before the game to say he got VIP tix to Molson house. We got to watch the game in style! White leather sofas, 50″ plasma TV’s, free drinks, free “gourmet” meals, Wayne Gretzky, Yvone Cournier, Pat Quinn, Tiger Williams, Maelle Ricker, Women’s Team Canada, Cam Neely, the celebs went on and on. The game was an obvious downer but after the game we got to go over to the “club” side of the building for more VIP treatment. Needless to say it was an experience I will never forget.
Now I am one that is a huge sports enthusiast. I was all for the Olympics no matter what it will cost me, my kids, my grandkids, etc. But I had no idea what I was in store for. To see the passion, the support, the love, the pride, etc. was just amazing.
So thank you UBC for the extended break. I am having a hard enough time balancing my life and keeping up. I definitely would be lost if this course hadn’t gone dark for 2 weeks.
Go Canada!
~ Ryan
March 8th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Me too–and I’m glad you managed to squeeze the Olympic sponge a fair bit! I managed to get tickets to the round robin CAN-USA men’s hockey game for my family (Americans, 10 of ’em) visitors–but declined going with them. “it’s just a sport to you…it’s a religion to us” was my explanation. Afterwards they were amazed at how gracious we Canucks are.
I think this city experienced something truly magical–because of our athletes, but also because we embraced the best of the Games. I dragged a couple of colleagues to a victory ceremony the first weekend–one of them very reluctantly. Once caught up in the energy they all thanked me–and all managed to get a few tickets to bring their kids to an event or two.
If UBC hadn’t given us the extended break, I dunno what I would’ve done…seriously. Was. Not.Gonna. Miss.This.