Meetings and Close Encounters

After breakfast at "Sophie's Cosmic Cafe"--a local favourite--we went to Richmond to see the men's 1000 m  long track speed skating event.  We took the new Olympic Line streetcar to the new Canada Line train straight to Richmond-terrific Olympic infrastructure that will benefit Vancouver for years.

The train was full of Dutch skating fans, decked out in orange prepared to cheer their skaters—a total of four in the event.  Once we were off the train we weren't sure of the route to the Olympic Oval so we simply followed the orange beacons.  The Dutch are VERY dedicated to speed skating.  In line we spoke with a Dutch couple who were neighbours of one of the athletes.  They told us that they were hoping for a 1-2-3 finish for Holland.  Interestingly, they told us that they had been to the 2006 Olympics in Turin and in their view the Vancouver Olympics were much better organized.  They were very complimentary about our country and spoke of the deep ties between Holland and Canada.

Security into the venue was a bit of an adventure for Kim.  Each venue has security that is comparable to airport level---metal detectors, security men with wands and X-ray machines for your bags.  Today Kim set off the metal detector.  The man came to wand her and was told by a more senior supervising security officer that we had to wait for female security officer to be available, in case there had to be a pat down.  Thousands of people were being delayed behind me.  Kim said that if it was a consent issue, she was fine with a male security officer doing a pat down.  The supervisor relented and she was wanded again.  However, the supervisor was not satisfied with the throughness of the wanding and insisted that Kim be searched again.  At that point the junior security officer said to Kim "are you hiding anything, 'cause if you are I can't find it."  That was when the junior officer was taken off of wand duty and Kim was waved in.

Once in we were able to appreciate just how long the long track oval really is.  It's a big, bright and beautiful ice surface.  We soon realized we were seated about 100ft from Catriona Le May Doan; Kim is pretty sure that Elizabeth Manley was sitting in the fancy lounge only 10 ft behind us.  Later, Stephen Colbert arrived and we were about 50 ft from him (we have pictures of both, including ones of Colbert hamming it up).  The Dutch brought their own omm-pa-pa band and the orange-filled seats were rocking.

We watched the event and, unfortunately, the Canadian competitors did not place as well as hoped.  Sadly for the Dutch, none of their four skaters medalled either.  Stephen Colbert was not disappointed, however with the USA placing first and third.

We then headed downtown to soak up the atmosphere.  The city is alive.  Music is playing everywhere, the streets are full of people and CTV is broadcasting from a booth in the middle of the road.  We saw the cauldron (beautiful!) and the Olympic rings in the Bay.  We have pictures, but no photo can capture the energy that was in the air around us.

We had an obscenely inexpensive Japanese meal and then got in line to go to the Bay.  That's right, we waited about an hour to shop at the Bay!!!!!!! It's the International Olympic Store and almost everything we actually wanted was sold out.  But we met nice people in line—a mother and two daughters from Victoria (although the older daughter is living in Vancouver and going to UBC).  We swapped Olympic stories---theirs was awesome.  The daughter's boss had signed up to billet people for the Olympics.  Nobody took the boss up on the offer until one week before the Olympics when he got a call asking if he could put up an athlete and his coach.  At that point the boss said it was not enough notice and the house was not ready.  A little while later the boss got a call from Patrick Chan's coach saying that the request was for them—Patrick did not want the distraction of staying in the Olympic Village and didn't mind if the house was a mess.  The boss is now hosting Patrick Chan.

While in line Paul was able to make someone's day by giving them our tickets for the women's super combined in Whistler tomorrow—we can't go because as a result of a cancellation it now conflicts with the women's half pipe.  The guy was thrilled.

We're back home now, pumped for tomorrow's event at Cypress.

With Olympic flame in our hearts,

The Entity

Kim Boara Alexander

Paul McCulloch Alexander