WOW

What a day yesterday! The usual early morning start, bus ride, security, check-in, briefing, marshaling of course but with a tinge of sadness and satisfaction added to everything we did. We were given an IOU for our last shift gift - a Swatch. Somehow they couldn't figure out how many volunteers were at the site so didn't have enough shipped in. It will be mailed to us. Our race had a mixture of great joy at Devon Kershaw's great result - oh so close to a medal - and disappointment - no opportunity to cheer on Brian McKeever. George Grey finished a respectable 18th. Alex and Ivan had their difficulties but both still have one or two more Olympics in them, I'm sure. The biggest disappointment was the non-race of Brian McKeever on top of the non-race of Brittany Webster on Saturday.
There were no fancy good byes within our team at the end of the race because many of our team members were anxious to get on the road or to the Blue Rodeo concert in Whistler. We grabbed our lunch (we finished just after noon instead of the scheduled 1 p.m.) and headed to the bus so that we could get home for as much of the hockey game as possible. Leaving the bus we knew that Canada had a 2-1 lead and made it home in time for the third period and overtime. Frankly, I could have done without the drama of overtime! The house was full of friends and it was a great way to watch this game. There was one American amongst us who took the ribbing in good stride. (He left the room when the Americans tied the game so that we wouldn't see him celebrate! Give him credit - the day of the first Canada vs U.S. game he said whoever lost that one would win the Gold and he was right.) After a quick BBQ we all settled down again to watch the closing ceremony. I was in stitches at the humourous sections and, if I hadn't been in a room full of people whom I don't know well, I would have probably have succumbed to the emotions I was feeling. (I know - that is no surprise to most of you.) I was very pleased at the public thank you to the volunteers by both Mr. Furlong and M. Rogge. I don't remember that happening at other Olympics (but then maybe I wasn't paying attention). The music at the end wasn't to my liking but the 'party' was for the younger generation and the rest of the show was grand. I thought Harper looked a little bored but Premier Campbell was sure pumped! I guess Michaele Jean had a better offer.
When it came time for Diane - the other volunteer who stayed here - to leave I started to tear up again. She is a very good friend of our hosts and loads of fun.
Life is getting back to normal in Squamish - the special Olympic buses are no longer running, Kyla is back to school, etc..
We've started packing, throwing out the mounds of paper we accumulated - daily newsletters for volunteers, daily schedules with position assignments, course maps, start lists, information from VANOC that doesn't matter anymore (like bus schedules). We're going to dinner with our host family this evening - their choice and they haven't decided where yet - possibly one of the golf clubs.
They will drop us at the Adventure Centre for our bus (ah yes, one more bus ride) to Vancouver Airport where we are meeting my sister (and her husband if he isn't working) and our nephew and his significant other for dinner before our red eye flight home. But there's no rest for the wicked - we'll be on site at Highlands Nordic on Friday to help with the Ontario Midget Championships! It is a slightly smaller event than the Olympics and we won't have to get up before 6:30 a.m.!
So...unless something really exciting happens to add to this monologue or we get a bunch more pictures worth posting, this will be the final post from Vancouver 2010 by Debbie and Richard (well, mostly Debbie). Hope you have enjoyed a bit of the inside story and I'm sure we'll be happy to talk about our experiences for some time to come.
Take care all. Get out there and stay active!

So much has happened...where to start...

These are the first 3 of 5 flights of stairs leading from the lower compound where our break tent was located to the stadium and race courses. They were very steep and I didn't like them much!





Here's my best Olympic buddy at position 32. Photo by Scott Campbell.

First - some clarification - my last post was started on Feb 25th and completed on the 26th but shows the date as the 25th so I haven't missed 3 days, only 2!

Saturday was a MISERABLE day to be standing outside watching a 30 km race but it must have been even more miserable for the athletes in their thin suits that would have been soaked in no time. Kudos to the forerunners who were out throughout the race to keep the tracks clean. They were real troopers. We only had 2 racers - one finished top 20, the other....well we won't dwell on that. This was supposed to be Brittany's race but....no comment. The weather became quite nice later in the day. My gloves - for the first time in all the rainy days we had - were soaked right through and still weren't dry on Sunday morning. Fortunately, I was a Girl Guide so I was prepared with spares! After the race on Saturday, there was a bit of a reception for the volunteers and we did a group photo as well which was fun in itself (try to get some 200 people organized when you are taking them away from their beer). As a special token of appreciation we were all entitled to an Olympic race bib. These ones were pristine - never used. They ordered more than ended up being needed and since they can't be used for anything else because they don't have complete sets, they decided to give us a special memento. I also have a bib actually used in a race - from the racer who made me famous. (In case you aren't aware, at most races athletes do not keep their bibs but at World Cup and Olympic events, the athletes do not return their bibs. They are popular in Canada as fundraisers at clubs and or to frame as special gifts. Richard and I were given such a gift - an automgraphed, framed World Cup bib - by a group of skiers who stayed at our home for a week when they held a training camp two years ago.)

We went out for dinner with Jim and Diane to what had become my favourite restaurant (it was our 5th visit) but were so disappointed - they had live music which started just before our meals arrived and it totally ruined our meal. We could not have any conversation at all so we ate as quickly as we could and skedaddled to Starbucks for coffee.

It is getting late and I'm drained after an exciting race day, the hockey game and the closing ceremony so I'll post more tomorrow about today.

Our experience is almost over and it has been a fine one.

P.S. Richard's cold appears to have disappeared so perhaps it was only some allergies after all (since it was almost spring here).

Only Two More Races

Hi ho, hi ho - it's off to work we go! One of our favourite team members snapped this as we made our way to our morning positions earlier this week. If our positions are near each other we walk over together and we start each shift with a kiss.





In case anyone was wondering about "facilities", these are the 2 portapotties outside our briefing trailer. Someone with a sense of humour has labelled them. The one on the left said something about tightening the harness which may be a reference to the rocking movement of the unit! The other one says "Life vest under the seat" or something like that. There are hundreds of these units throughout the site. I haven't used any on the spectator side but the ones on the workforce side have been kept clean and well supplied with toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Bus drivers: There are hundreds of drivers (and buses) here from all over North America and they have been pretty good. They take their driving seriously but also have been in good humour. We travel to WOP in comfortable coaches and some of the drivers waste no time getting us there and back. Some will make extra stops to save us the extra bus connection but that is not consistent so it is always a bonus when it happens. Logistics people have been adjusting service as they figure out the flow of people so our experience has improved since the first day. Local Squamish Transit is OK but the drivers seem to be having less of a good time. The shuttle drivers that get us from the security checkpoint up to the venue have been really friendly. We've heard stories of not so nice drivers but we haven't had a bad experience.

Police officers: Some of the officers have been here for 6 weeks already and are looking forward to going home but they are still in good humour. They started out searching all venues and have been doing long shifts at the venues since early February. The presence of these officers has actually been a very positive experience. They seem to be in a great mindset of being visible but not oppressive. They have been there the few times that we have needed them. Two examples: A few days ago, a man with lots of stuff on his accreditation tag but no bib came towards the Field of Play (FOP) . The marshal on duty refused him entry and he ws getting quite belligerent. She held her ground but it wasn't easy. One officer came over and just stood behind her and off went the official to get a bib issued by the race office. It has been obvious that some men from certain countries do not take direction well from women. The second example was yesterday when Richard was contending with some inebriated fans who kept trying to cross the fence onto the field of play while the Nordic Combined race was underway. (Beer is served from about 10 in the morning on competition days and the NC race was scheduled for 1 p.m. but delayed until 2 p.m. because the jumping portion was delayed due to wind conditions. More drinking time = unruly fans) Assistance was requested and although Richard thought one or two would be sufficient, they sent up 8 or 9 officers who were delighted to be on the FOP rather than just wandering amongst the spectators. The inebriated people dispersed. So...a BIG thank you to Canada's police officers from all over the country who have kept us safe and proud. (Collecting a list of police forces represented has been almost as much fun as pin collecting. )

Pin Collecting: I'm not a very good pin collector (and Richard hasn't even tried). I've given out two Highlands Nordic pins, both to bus drivers. I received a pin from one of those drivers (Brampton Transit). That's the extent of my pin trading. Other people are walking around festooned in them! We were told that we couldn't trade while on duty and couldn't wear them on our uniforms so my trading opportunities have been limited. (Not everyone is following the rules but you know me.) I should have asked for lessons from Larry.

Following the rules: I have to admit to a bit of rule breaking. I've written already about our long trek from the briefing trailer to the FOP because we don't have a '2' on our accreditation cards (2 provides access to the athletes' compound). We've been getting through however with a "'nudge, nudge, wink, wink" from the stadium marshal at the briefing trailer end. We don't bother anyone in the compound and it cuts our 'trudge' by a good 15 minutes. Other than that, I have been following the rules.

I was 'lucky' enough to be picked for 'mag and bag' at security yesterday. Richard still leads with 4 selections.

We received our 12th shift gift yesterday - a white leather luggage tag. We won't make it to 15 so our last shift gift will be on Sunday - everyone gets a watch on their last shift.

Thursday was a very weird weather day but our uniforms are doing yeoman's service in keeping us dry. I've only used my poncho once (well, it is a clear plastic bag with holes cut out for the neck and arms - provided to us after our 4th day of rain last week) and it didn't seem to make much difference so I didn't bother with it today. I had two pretty good positions today especially for the Nordic Combined race this afternoon. It wasn't a good day for Canadian skiers - our women came last, our nordic combined skier (son of Ken Read) also came last. On the plus side, the women's hockey team just won gold and both curling teams are guaranteed either silver or gold so not a completely disappointing day.

Had a really nice bus driver on the way home yesterday - he made extra stops so we didn't have to wait for the local bus. We needed to stop at London Drugs anyway as we need Dristan. Richard has come down with a mild (so far) cold and has used up what we brought with us. My throat was feeling a bit scratchy but I'm hitting the echinecea.

It is taking awhile to get this post done as the Olympics on TV keeps grabbing my attention so I'll end this one.

This is one of two million dollar robot cameras at XC skiing. The drivers go beside the skiers to get some great shots. Very quiet machines that don't spew fumes at the athletes. They do this at only one section of the course that is straight and has enough width to accommodate the machines, the athletes and coaches (just before the athletes return to the stadium).

I'm having a little trouble getting this post typed as the dogs are demanding attention. I think they've been alone most of the day as our hosts have tickets for two events today. The dogs wander over every few minutes for a scratch. You know....if they didn't smell so much and I could be guaranteed a dog with the temperaments that these 3 have, I might consider having one!

We've been watching quite a bit of the Olympic coverage and enjoying many of the commercials! We like the talking cars, Wonder + with all the twins, the Bell bobsleigh sofa and, of course, the Tim Horton's tear jerker.

Speaking of tear jerkers - how about Joannie Rochette?

Hurray - we have no more 7 a.m. shifts! Richard was "mag and bag" checked AGAIN today (#4 out of 11 shifts). I have yet to be stopped. The funny thing is that I was pointed towards that wicket but went over one so that Richard wouldn't bump into me so I think it was going to be me.

We were supposed to be on course by 7:30 a.m. (30 minutes before the course is open for training and wax testing) but training was delayed until 9 so we went to the break tent until 8:30. The delay was due to FRESH SNOW which made grooming went on longer than originally planned. Great day for Sweden, Norway and the Czech Republic. France was happy with their 4th place finish. Canada was 7th which was OK but I think they expected better of themselves. Hope they have time to recover for Sunday's 50 km. The women's team relay is tomorrow and we have 2 sick athletes (out of 6 women) so it will be interesting to see who we put on course. Brittany is expected to be back for Saturday's 30 km race. Perianne is sick as well but wants to ski tomorrow.....

Nothing else to report.....except that Canada is beating Russia by 7-2 in the second period! Phew....

Take care all.

n=

R & D on the Ski Jump

Here's some of the swag/uniform pieces we have. Background is our fleece vest. Top right is the participant medallion which all volunteers received this week. Top left (I know, hard to see) is a silverplate keychain from Birks which we received at the beginning of our 9th shift. Just below that is the pin we received at the CCC receoption and below that is the pin we received for reporting to our third shift. Our 6th shift gift was a small stuffed mascot which I have already mentioned we gave away - one to fellow marshals who are staying with a family with 3 children and the other to a fellow volunteer whom we don't know who put out the call that he needed some extras so that he could give one to each of his grandchildren. The last item is our all important accreditation and shift card. I guess I should have tried to zoom in a bit. A photographer I'm not!

So - how's our form? We both landed the jump which is exceptional for Richard in particular since he (as many of you know) doesn't like heights.

What's wrong with this picture? (1) I'm wearing glasses. I continue to have some trouble keeping my lenses in and can't afford to have a problem while I'm on duty so have only been wearing my contacts while not on duty. They have been fine for the last few wearings so I hope whatever was the problem is gone. In 30 years of wearing contacts, I've never had trouble for this long. I did go to the eye doctor before we left to be sure I didn't have an infection but he said everything was fine. (2) We didn't have time before our shift to change into our jumping suits!

Curling is on now. Our women's team has certainly had some nailbiter games! It was such a pleasure to watch the ice dancing last night. I have to admit that I enjoyed the replay this morning of Moir/Virtue more than the live performance - nerves, I guess. I liked the U.S. team's performance as well and I didn't like most of the costumes on the other teams. Way too garish!

Tomorrow is women's Team Relay - another potentially exciting race. Our 4 person team will be named today. Each woman will do 5 km, two will skate, two will do classic. For the men's relay on Thursday, they will do 10 km each.

Well, I don't want to babble so that's it for this post.

Training Day then Team Sprint

One of the ice sculptures on site. This one is near the stadium. I haven't seen the others yet because we haven't taken a walk along the spectator route but apparently one of them is a tremendous totem pole.

Training day (Sunday) - It was catch the biathletes day. They are using our course to train on but they aren't supposed to so we have to get them off the course. They aren't very happy with us. Reasonably quiet day, skeleton crew. I was at 34 during training then moved to another location at course closing to make sure everyone was off the course so that the groomers could get to work. Richard had a busier day at position 2 - people coming from all directions. More bib checking required - access to the "Field of Play" (FOP) is limited to those with valid bibs. Big kurfluffle today when a Russian big shot didn't like being told he had to leave the FOP and our marshals didn't back down. When a rather large police officer showed up, he backed off and went to get the appropriate bib but complained loudly. Unfortunately, representatives of certain countries don't appear to take direction well from Canadian females. This isn't the first instance we've had. We have heard that bibs ARE being withdrawn for infractions so perhaps word will get around.

Today was another great day for Canadian XC skiing. No medals but we were SO close in the men's race. Devon and Alex finished 4th (and were leading at one point). Sara and Dasha were 7th but apparently had not been expected to advance to the final so hurray for all four of them!

It was amazing in the men's race how close the 10 teams were throughout the final. Even the fellow who fell caught up with the pack.

We had another glorious weather day but that appears to be it for a few days - we are expecting precipitation and colder temperatures. We've been basking in +12C but will be facing +3C tomorrow. In the shade it has still been cool but once the sun gets over the trees, we are all removing layers. Might not be able to do that tomorrow! We are off tomorrow. Richard will be catching up on some office work again and I'll find something to do. We'll both sleep in a bit, I'm sure! I brought a disposable camera in for developing so I'll pick those photos up tomorrow. (I decided not to bring my camera but regretted it so picked up a couple of disposables.)

So...other than the photos and another satisfactory result in XC, there isn't much to report. We do have some more photos to download so I'll do those tomorrow as well. Stay tuned!

Canada's Best Results Ever in Men's XC!

This is the day lodge which is currently the athletes' lounge right in their compound. We don't get much closer to it than this right now although we did have access at last year's World Cup. It is also base for the First Aid people. Photo by Scott Campbell of Nova Scotia - another member of our team whom we first met when we took our Level III Officials' course in March 2007 at Mont Ste. Anne.


Photo by Scott of Squamish Falls taken from the ship.








Remember the lonely day I had at Position 15? Well...other members of the team obviously had the same problem but used their time well - creating this chair and footstool. Cathie built it, Len sculpted it a little more.
Photo by Scott Campbell



Mona Lisa on the smokestack of the Mona Lisa. Photo by Scott Campbell.
Things we are hearing about the ship - no alcohol can be brought on board (they are searched) but you can have a Coors Light in a can for $6.50 from their bar. Draft beer in Whistler at the Brewhouse was $5.95 a pint. For security reasons, once on board the residents can only leave when the shuttle comes to take them to town or to the bus hub and you can't board unless you have a special pass so no visitors. They can't even go for a walk.




Kylie, Cathie and Debbie (what's with all of the "ie" names?) on the blue course spectator bridge at the end of one of our first shifts way back when - well OK only a week and a half ago. Photo by Scott Campbell.

Oh, friends, it was another glorious day on the weather front (+12C!) but more important our Canadian men had a fabulous day on course. I saw the President of Cross Country Canada afterwards and he was SO pleased. We had the maximum number of skiers permitted (4). Starting numbers were 15 (Ivan),24 (Alex), 31 (Devon) and 41 (George). Our "boys" finished 5th (Ivan), 8th (George), 9th (Alex) and 16th (Devon). Devon was in a photo finish for 15th. I actually had tears in my eyes when I heard that we had 3 in the top 10. ALMOST as good as a medal. Our best result at the Olympics prior to this (for men) was a 15th in 1988 (despite what Brian Williams said on TV tonight). It was so thrilling to see them move up throughout the race. This will give them such confidence and bodes well for the Team Relay. I was on Feed Station duty . It is a requirement that any race over 15 km must have a feed station provided by the organizers. There were 5 of us assigned and since most racers will only feed from their coaches (special mixtures), I moved to where the coaches were providing "feeds" just before the racers returned to the stadium and retrieved the bottles that the racers throw away after drinking. Some end up in the middle of the course. The rest of my group handed out a total of 4 bottles of fluids (water or sport drink). Richard was stationed on the freestyle course so he is now watching a podcast of the race since he wouldn't have seen much of the race and wouldn't have been able to hear the PA either. They skated the upper (red) course for classic and the lower (blue) course for free style (skate) - a total of 8 laps x 3.75 km. We were only due to be on duty from 11 a.m. but on the way home last night we looked at the early morning shift and realized that since training was going to be the same today as yesterday, our team was short some bodies so we contacted our supervisor and were on duty for 9:30. Our shift tomorrow shows us reporting for briefing at 9:30 and then immediately going on a 1-1/2 break (!) so we aren't going to bust our buns to get there for 9:30. Richard let the supervisor know that we'll miss the briefing. I'm scheduled for position 34 which is in the boonies and gets little activity. Because there is no race tomorrow, I don't even get to interact with the spectators. I did alot of that today - we were on station and ready almost an hour before the race so I went up and down one part of the course with a start list so that people could find out the bib numbers for their favourites. The information booth had run out of start lists so people were quite appreciative. I even helped one fellow by providing some 30 sunscreen! I must try to get a photo of the Swiss cowbells - it sounded like a cathedral's bells as a group of Swiss fans walked up to pick their viewing spot. We will also try to get shots of some of the ice sculptures (or I'll see if Scott has some - he's much more interested in photography so is spending quite a bit of time setting up shots - he comes in ahead of his shift so that he can get some shots).

Back to my Olympic Moment from yesterday - my brother has provided a URL of the race (THANKS, David). Thanks also to my cousin (also David) who sent me some NBC photos. Click on Replay, go to time marker 23 minutes, 30 seconds (CTV feed).

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/cross-country-skiing/results-and-schedules/event=ccw815000/phase=ccw815101/replay.html

Go to www.ccski.com/Olympics/Debbietv.pdf for a collage prepared by my brother. And that will probably be the last about my 10 seconds of 'fame'. Before we left, Richard said if we made it to TV that would be bad but this wasn't so bad except for the skier. i.e. I didn't do anything wrong! I've been told that I sounded very calm and professional on the radio.

By the way, thanks to everyone who has posted comments or sent e-mails to say you are reading (and enjoying) the blog. I sometimes wonder if I'm getting too wordy but if you get bored, you can always exit.

Special message to Bo - I don't think I'll try your suggested Ukrainian. I don't want to create an international incident!

Take care all! More tomorrow if I have a good story or some photos. Since there is no race tomorrow it will likely be a slow day for us.

It is Spring in Squamish

Here's the start to the Women's pursuit race. Sara Renner wore bib #28 which means she probably started in the 4th row (assuming 7 start lanes - I couldn't see from where I was). Sara ended up in 10th so she did well to move up that much. The second shot is just at the bottom of the first uphill. I was at or near that position all day. Richard spent the morning at one of the outermost positionz on the lower (blue) course but spent a little time relieving someone for break right in the stadium for the start. It was another gorgeous day and we noticed

people golfing and playing tennis in Squamish. I havent seen any yet but apparently some flowers are blooming.

I had my moment in the spotlight today. For anyone watching the live feed of the race, I was the volunteer who ran up the course just after the first uphill when we heard that there was a skier down on the second classic lap. A coach was with her when I arrived. (Coaches are allowed at the side of the course to give split times and hand off a pole if needed.) Richard was in the break tent eating lunch and looked up to see me on screen. They might edit it out for tonight's coverage but our friend, Al, has already let us know that he has it recorded so I can check it out when we get home. The athlete withdrew from the race and left the course under her own steam - she injured her shoulder. She (a Norwegian) was quite distressed as she was ranked 10th for this race so had a chance at a very good result. I hope she has another race and that her shoulder can recover in time.

We had a great day really- someone offered us a lift to the bus, the bus to WOP left early so there was no rushing to get to briefing, Richard did NOT get stopped at security (and neither did I), the bus home filled up so left ahead of schedule.

I'm getting photos from our friend, Scott, but the first transmission didn't work so I'll ask him to try again tomorrow. He's already taken more than 600 shots - but don't worry, I only asked for 5 or 6!

Tomorrow is our LATE shift - we are only due to start at 11 a.m. but we are going in early because we discovered today that more coverage is needed during training before the men's pursuit race. For the race, I'm at the feeding station (organizers are required to provide a feeding station for any race over 15 km) so I may be on TV again depending on camera location. The station is near the end of each of the loops - right after the last uphill and before the last downhill into the stadium. The men will pass by 8 times (4 times on classic skis and 4 on freestyle also know as skate). There are two different courses but this section is common to both loops. Most athletes will have coaches on course to give them predetermined nutrition but we will be there for the smaller countries who do not have enough support staff.

Nothing else to report. Stay tuned.

Ahh, a day off and some photos

This is the Webster family - LtoR - Mom (Christine), Dad (Fred) and Brittany's sister Lindsay (or is it Lindsey, I forgot to ask which spelling she uses). That's Brittany in the background. While several members of the team attended the CCC reception along with coaches and wax technicians, Brittany stayed away as she is "on the mend" from a sinus infection. The banners are from the Canadian Pacific sponsorship and say "We Train, You Train" at the top. I thought it was a great slogan. (Hope everybody gets it....) There is one for each of our 15 athletes at the Games.

This is the entertainment at the CCC reception We half expected to be asked to yell out "Ricola" at the end but we didn't have to (only joking - they were great). Their first song was a traditional one and then they did "Amazing Grace" - one of my favourites on any instrument (although my absolute favourite is Joan Baez's a capella version. Jokes were made comparing the difficulty of transporting skis and poles versus these little puppies!

This is from our day at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Notice the on snow entertainment! Lead singer had a lovely voice. Local band.... You can see how close we are able to get to the track. There are extra barriers in some places due to camera placement.

What is it about the red serge that gets us all excitedl? I couldn't resist having my photo taken with a Mountie. We're seeing many RCMP on venue but the Kevlar* vests and blue uniforms just don't cut it.

There was no time for a posting yesterday because we went from the venue to a reception in Whistler (stopped to shower and change in between) hosted by CCC (Cross Country Canada) - the national association for XC skiing. It was at Canada House which is the new Whistler library. They've removed all books from the main floor for the duration of the Olympic . Canada House is open to all Canadians from what I can tell but especially for former Olympians (our friend Ed who was in the summer Olympics in the 1960's received his invitation so that's how I know that) and families of current Olympians.

I was at a pretty lonely spot yesterday morning and was composing the blog in my head....I should have writtten it down! I was quite eloquent at the time! The morning was for training prior to the sprints but I was on the upper course amongst the trees and that course had not been groomed (on purpose) and was closed to skiers. I was to redirect any skiers that managed to get around the fence after position 13. (There is a wax test area at 12/13 but they aren't supposed to go beyond the fence.) One Ukrainian came through and wasn't very pleasant but I don't know what he said because I don't speak Ukrainian. The same athlete was asked to leave the course at another closed section. He is the exception...most athletes and coaches follow our direction. While enjoying the great outdoors, I heard a bird call that I haven't heard back east. Sorry Wendy - I can't describe it and couldn't see the bird but it was close and it was pleasant. Other wildlife sightings - 2 voles (or maybe the same vole twice). A vole is smaller than a chipmunk but moves just as quickly. The only other activity at position #15 was snowmobile traffic and that was mostly OBS (Olympic Broadcast Service) personnel setting up for subsequent races who don't wave back. An RCMP officer came by but figured it wasn't worth staying around since nothing was happening. The position is up a steep climb so I called on Transport for a ride up so that I wouldn't get overheated and then chilled once I arrived. Getting the helmet on proved to be very entertaining as I forgot that I was wearing glasses, then I had trouble doing it up. Unfortunately, no photo as Richard wasn't around at the time. It was quite cool in the morning and the sun never did reach that position because of the mountains and trees but I could tell it was beautifully sunny elsewhere. Richard was in position #1 (again) so he could see the whole stadium and was up close (but not personal) to the athletes. He later moved to position #2 which was at the top of the first climb out of the stadium so you might have seen him on TV. I was scheduled for a 2 hour break but cut it to one hour so that I could fill in at an extra spot requiring monitoring near #2 and was able to see most of the qualification rounds. Yesterday's weather was PERFECT - blue sky, no clouds, no wind - a perfect day for skiing and for marshalling. For the quarters, semis and finals I was able to come down to the womens' corner (where they turn back towards the stadium) so I did see some of the afternoon's activity. The men's heats were much tighter than the women's. Unfortunately, Canada's results were not on the podium. Four of 8 Canadians (2 men/2women) qualified (top 30 in the morning) but none advanced to the semi-finals. Apologies yesterday to Perianne Jones for not mentioning her as one of our skiers in the sprints. Perianne is from the Ottawa area - the Nakkertok Ski Club - and is a real crowd pleaser there.

Richard had the good fortune (!) to be stopped at security for the third time in three shifts (3 out of 6 in total) for the "mag and bag". It is random so everyone thinks he should buy an extra lottery ticket! Yesterday was our 6th shift which meant we received our second gift. (Our first was a pin, yesterday's is a small stuffed mascot) I chose Quatchi who is a baby sasquatch and Richard picked Mica (the black and white one). On the bus back to Squamish we sat in back of two of our fellow marshals who are in a homestay with 3 young children so we gave Mica to them so that they would have one for each child. They were very appreciative that they didn't have to try to find another one! Their 6th shift is today so they can complete the trio required.

The food at the reception was very nice - some great smoked salmon and another smoked fish that was even better than the salmon. I also liked the chicken tandoori and chocolate covered strawberries. There was a minimum of speeches. The team members, coaches and wax techs were introduced and a few presentations were made. CCC had been running a programme (sponsored by Canadian Pacific) called Sea to Sea to Sea which was a challenge to ski clubs to make up teams of 10 who recorded their ski kilometres on a map with an 8000 km route across Canada. Four clubs were honoured last night for completing the trek and they will be receiving a keeper plaque with an aboriginal carving to post at their respective clubs. I think the programme is still running and I know that our club - the Highlands TrailBlazers - is trying to complete the trek but I don't remember when the deadline is. (No...I'm not being paid by the TrailBlazers to mention them as often as I can.)

The walk back to the bus was fun as Whistler Village was bursting with activity including snowboarders jumping through burning rings, fire throwers and muscial entertainment. Our trip back was in a double decker and the driver made an extra stop near our homestay (drivers are staying at a hotel nearby so if there is a driver on board that needs to get off we are able to disembark as well) so we were able to walk a couple of blocks instead of waiting for the bus at the hub.

Richard is getting some office work done this morning and shortly I'm going out to do groceries as we are the chefs tonight. The menu is honey mustard chicken with curry, couscous, vegetables. I'm going to make an apple cake and lentil soup as well. (Thanks Pat McRae for that wonderful soup recipe which I use so much I've memorized it and to Mom for the easy apple cake recipe which I have also memorized and to Caren and Doug for the chicken recipe which we have been using for over 30 years. If anyone wants any of said recipes, I have them on my computer.) Our host needs to go downtown anyway so has offered me a lift which is great as I can go to the grocery store that has the better meat selection.

Later the same day......we went to Quest University for lunch with our hosts. The view from there is beautiful and we had a bit of a tour of Squamish on the drive. Quest is only in its 3rd year of operation. It is a self-contained campus which is brand new and is the only private university (no government funding other than the original land grant) in Canada. Tuition is in the $30,000 per year range including being in residence. Yikes! I know that is nothing new to any American residents reading this. The cafeteria is usually set up for gourmet buffet but we discovered that during the Olympics since it is home to volunteers the kitchen has been changed over to "short order" status.

I've spent the last couple of hours in the kitchen - cake and soup are done and chicken is ready to go in the oven (well - as soon as Richard finishes removing the skin from the thighs). No big plans for tonight - more Olympic viewing, I'm sure. We saw today's gold medal race in women's speed skating. Imagine only .02 seconds difference! Our 4th place athlete was also SO close to a bronze medal.

I've just reread this document and my Grade 7 English composition teacher, Mrs. Smith, is likely cringing or rolling in her grave as I have jumped all over the place. Mea culpa!

Will make another posting tomorrow if there is anything of note - otherwise I think you have the idea of what a day as a course marshal is like. Tomorrow is the first of 4 shifts in a row - which means 4 days of racing since we are not working on anymore non-race days. The people who started later than we did are getting those shifts now. One of our shifts doesn't start until 11 a.m.! Luxury - we only have to leave the house at around 9 a.m.! (I'm not complaining about our shifts - even 2nd shift is usually fairly early.)

Take care everyone.

Our Day as Spectators

What a great day! Well, except for a bit of rain initially. Out of the house by 9 a.m. and after meeting Peter & Dorothy at the hub we boarded the 98 bus to Whistler (just missed a ride on the double decker bus). We strolled through the village and met up with P&D's friend Jeff (father to Simon who is one of the full time groomers at the Whistler Olympic Park). We had met him last year when we were here for the World Cup. He has a wad of tickets mostly for cross country ski events but had also been to the men's luge so he was able to let us know where the good viewing was. We all spent the day together and it was nice to share the experience. Every once in awhile we'd go off in our own directions but eventually all met again. We rode the Excalibur Gondola up to the Whistler Sliding Centre (WSC) and very smoothly passed through the ticket scanning, security and up to the track area. (Well - we practically had to strip at the security point - OK that's a bit of an exageration but I did have to take off my belt, my jacket and fleece and explain the contents of my backpack. Richard kept beeping on the magnetometer and he finally found his memory stick in one pocket. Dorothy had her bottle of water confiscated because it was open but Peter was able to keep his because it was still sealed. We spent the first round of runs for the day in "the bowl" in front of one of the grandstands. It is right at curve #16 (called the Thunderbird). This is when they are at their fastest (130-134 km per hour!) and just before the finish. It is also where the big screen was so that we could watch them from the top and also watch the results. There was an hour break between rounds and a 15 minute break halfway through the second round so that the course could be checked and 'watered'. For the second round, we went up to curve #7 (the women were starting just about curve #6) to get a different view. We worked our way back down the course after every few competitors (27 of them) so that we could experience each curve. At these points, we could get very close. They just whiz by and the noise is not as loud as I thought it would be. The most amazing thing (other than that they have the chutzpah to shoot down the track feet first on little sleds) is to be at the outrun just after the finish. We stopped at three spots and they are still going incredibly fast GOING UPHILL for a very long way. A Canadian was in first place for a little while but since the last run is slowest to fastest we knew that it would take a miracle for her to remain in first place. Our return to the village was on foot as we decided that although the line for the gondola was moving reasonably quickly, it was still going to take some time to board. Figured that we had had enough bus rides in the last week so decided to walk back down beside one of the chair lifts. It was a little steep and soft but we made it in about 15 minutes and headed to the Brewhouse for a pint (not me - I had my usual ice tea) and dinner. We were joined for the beer part by a couple of Jeff's friends. Jeff went off to the medal ceremonies and Peter, Dorothy, Richard and I decided that we were feeling the effects of so many hours outside and on our feet so headed back to the bus exchange for the wonderful bus 98 back to Squamish.
Wednesday is another 4 a.m. wake up, out of the door by 5 a.m. in order to make it to our 7 a.m. briefing. A very exciting day tomorrow - men and women sprints - and we have some power there. Chandra Crawford was our gold medal winner in Turin in this event but there are two differences this year. (1) Chandra is a better free style sprinter than classic and this year's race is classic technique. (2) Chandra missed all of last season due to injury and who knows if she has recovered well enough. BUT we're going to think positively. We also have Sara Renner and Dasha Gaiazova competing - both of whom can excel at this race. Dasha is skiing so well this year.
Sidebar:
HURRAY - Canada just won against Germany in curling. My mother is surely glued to the TV for that! Our fellow volunteer who is also staying here is at the game so I'm sure we'll hear some good stuff about it tomorrow.
Return from Sidebar:
What isn't so exciting about tomorrow is where I've been assigned. In the morning (qualifying round - top 30 advance to the heats in the afternoon), I'm (once again) nowhere near the actual course. At least yesterday, I was near the pedestrian walkway so did have to make sure that people didn't try to get onto the course but I haven't figured out what I'm supposed to be marshalling way out in the boonies. I guess I'll find out in the morning. In the afternoon, I'm a little closer to the action but still not on the actual race course and won't be able to see anything because of some trees. I hope I can at least hear the commentary! Richard, on the other hand, has scored 2 prime spots in or near the stadium. In the morning he monitors who gets to the start and in the afternoon he just has to make sure that no spectators or other unauthorized people try to sneak onto the course and he'll have a great view of the stadium (start/finish) and a fair amount of the course. Since Richard can follow what's happening better than I can (I can't really see well enough to tell who is who) I'm glad he has decent views. (I know we are here to work not spectate but.......). Tomorrow evening, we are attending a reception in Whistler (oh boy - another return bus trip on the 98) hosted by Cross Country Canada. We are invited because Richard is on the board. There will be key sponsors and, we hope, some athletes. Must make sure that Richard gets some photos.
Richard took some shots at the luge today but the only one that has a competititor is blurry - it takes some practice to get these shots right! Jeff was able to gain experience at the men's event so he managed some pretty good shots today.
Well, tiime for some shuteye! 4 a.m. will arrive far too soon.
Hope you are enjoying the coverage of the Olympics on TV - you actually get the best seats and you don't have to take a bus to get there! Good night....

Finally - a race!

On duty by 7:30 a.m. Richard had a great position for both races - in the stadium. I thought I was going to miss all of the action but I was wrong. The morning race was for the women and they did 2 laps of a 5 km course which did not pass by me at all so my position was quiet especially since they hardly allowed any training prior to the race today. Conditions are not great so they were trying to preserve the course for the race. We only had one Canadian in the women's race and she finished 51st out of 78. There were 3 others who decided not to race - one due to illness (Brittany) and two because they want to save themselves for the sprint. We're hoping that Brittany will be well enough to race in the team relay and the 30 km. The men's race came by my station (2 laps of a 7.5 km course). Boy...the top guys look good! We had two in the top 20 with 2 others in the middle of the pack (total 96 racers). My job today was mostly to be sociable with the spectators walking by on the pedestrian walkway. Everyone seems to be in such a good mood. Many people were new to the competition side of the sport so I became a bit of a teacher explaining how interval start races work and pointing out the Canadians as they came through the corner. (Side note: I don't like our race suits - black/red/yellow combination. I took pictures of some of the more interesting spectators - strange hats mostly - but I'm still using real film so they will have to be developed and scanned before I can share them with you (probably post Olympics). Richard took some shots but he says none of them are worth sharing. I left my position at 1:30 so that I wouldn't miss lunch (open from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. daily). I'd been on my feet on position since 7:30 with no break so it was nice to sit down. The only time I wasn't on my feet was just after I arrived on position and was asked to pick grit out of the race course. While the conditions weren't the greatest for the course and the competitors, it was pretty nice for standing around as a course marhsal! I didn't even wear any gloves today and it didn't rain AND the sun came out for awhile!

When we get home, we watch Olympic coverage. I wasn't sure that I'd be seeing very much of the other sports but we've been keeping up with things. This evening we invited our hosts to join us for dinner with Peter and Dorothy. (For those of you who are not in our skiing circle, Peter and Dorothy are close friend who work with us at competitions. We've shared the road the the Olympics with them - sharing a condo the other two times we were out here for competitions. Peter used to work for DuPont/CSC.)

Up to Whistler tomorrow for the 3rd and 4h runs of the women's luge. We watched some of the first 2 rounds today and are disappointed that they shortened the women's course as a result of the tragedy last week. We understand shortening the men's course due to speed issues but the women don't go as fast to start with. Their start now is more difficult because they go immediately into a curve and if they don't leave the chute exactly right they lose alot of speed. But, I guess all of the women are in the same boat.

Well, this hasn't been a very exciting post but I guess for some things - you just have to be there. Stay tuned.

We were tourists today

No words required?























One of the many entertainment pods throughout the village. Note the groovy base drum....




















A comedy act in the village. Two tough hockey players on stilts. Hard to see but their numbers are 20 & 10 - 20's name is Witless and 10's is Luongolong. The referee was having a tough time controlling them.






Richard checking out a bobsleigh. His comment - not much padding in these things!

Debbie inside the Olympic rings at Whistler. Note the flowers and stuffed animals on the base - tributes to the Georgian luge athlete
The narrative begins....

Ah...sleeping in - that felt good! Actually, we were up by 8 a.m. but it still felt good to get up when it was light already. Richard did a couple of hours of office work - what DID people do before e-mail? I did laundry and tried to read a bit but kept getting absorbed in the Olympic coverage. Speaking of which - I'm thoroughly disappointed with the tone that CTV put on Jennifer Heil's magnificent silver medal. She did all she could and yesterday the American did that much better but CTV made it sound like Jennifer was a big disappointment. We could all see how disappointed she was but she was also very gracious. I was very excited for our other mogul competitor - bodes well for 2014 in Moscow.

We headed to Whistler just before noon. (Thanks to our hosts who dropped us at the bus hub instead of having to take the local bus.) We walked around a little bit before it really started to pour so we decided to duck in for lunch. Richard the optimist was right - he said that it would stop before we needed to go out again. The rest of the afternoon was sunny and very pleasant. We didn't even need hats or mitts. We checked out how to get to the luge event on Tuesday and wandered the village. The Olympic Store is humongous (spelling?) and is carrying quite the variety of clothing and other items. We visited twice - the first time was just to wander around and the second was a good place to watch the Canadian women skate the 3000 metre race. There are TVs everywhere - inside and out with the CTV coverage including commentary so you are never far from exciting moments. (By the way, it sure is nice being in the same time zone as the Olympics!)

On the bus trip to Whistler we had a nice conversation with a very pumped bus driver from Brampton Transit. He's having a blast. Been here since the end of January (for training) and will be here until just before the end of the Olympics. He's taken all of his vacation, lieu days and traded 5 shifts to be able to be here. He's handing out Brampton Transit pins to anyone who wants one and pens to drivers only. There are drivers here from all over Canada. Ditto for security - aside from the expected RCMP, we've seen officers from Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and on and on and on. They are all in very good humour, love to chat but always looking around. Our venue is crawling with them and we're told that although we haven't SEEN them, our armed forces ARE there.

Dinner with our hosts tonight - lovely salmon.

Back to the venue early tomorrow - as I said in yesterday's post, finally a real race instead of just training. We are expecting 4 athletes in the Men's 15 km freestyle (also called skate for those who don't XC ski) - Alex Harvey (son of one of our best skiers in the 1980's - Pierre Harvey), Ivan Babikov (immigrated from Russia and can finally ski for Canada in the Olympics - in Turin he wasn't yet a citizen so he skied for Russia), George Grey (the 'old man' of the team - winner with Alex Harvey of a bronze medal at a World Cup here in 2009 - we were there!) and Gord Jewett (a Toronto boy who was a member of an independent ski team in Canada who stayed at our house for a Fall training camp - so if he does well, we can put up a plaque that say's "Gord slept here"! BTW we could do that for our guest room in Toronto since Beckie Scott slept there!) As mentioned, my assignment tomorrow will keep me away from the action but I hope I can get to the flower ceremony.

We're pretty soggy....

Another rainy day as Richard has already told you. The good news is that as we were leaving the venue the rain was turning to snow. Our race course will be in use tomorrow by the Nordic Combined skiers but since we have the day off, we won't see it. It will be nice on Monday to FINALLY be part of an actual Olympic event with medals and all. We just looked at our Monday schedules and Richard has a pretty good location on Monday to see the action but I'm not as fortunate. Oh well...

We received a list today of all the members of our marshal team - including the 2 supervisors, we are 45 strong (actually only 43 until next week when the last 2 arrive). Not at all surprising that we have 2 supervisors for two reasons - they need to float around the course checking all stations and it is quite a bit of territory to cover plus they are both putting in incredible hours and do need some time off! Our shifts start as early as 7 a.m. and end as late as 4 p.m. and one of them has to be there earlier and probably last to leave. So far the only advantage I've seen to being a supervisor is that their accreditation includes access to the athletes' compound. We don't need to speak to the athletes but since our briefing trailer is at the south end of the compound, going through it is the shortest route to getting to most of the course. If we can't go through, then we have a very roundabout route that includes a mean set of metal stairs. They are trying to get some "upgrade cards" which will allow holders of one of them and a valid accreditation card to go through the compound. They are transferrable so can be given to marshals going to positions near the start.

Richard and I were given a special assignment this morning. We inspected one of the spectator pathways for holes (where the snow has melted away) that might trip up someone. We only found 1 today but also found a part of the course that was missing a piece of fencing.

We arrived home to wonderful cooking smells and were invited to join the family for dinner. The "Homestay" programme requires that the host family provide a bedroom, bathroom facilities and continental breakfast. Being invited for dinner is the hosts' perogative. Providing laundry facilities is not mandatory but our hosts have told us to go right ahead so I'll be doing a load or two tomorrow before we head to Whistler.

Going through security today, Richard was 'lucky' enough to be picked for "mag and bag" which means that once they had scanned his accreditation, he had to go through the magnetometer and have his bag checked. I went ahead because we were already getting close to being late. Hard to be on time when the bus leaves Squamish 10 - 15 minutes late. It appears that they've miscalculated how long it takes the bus to make the round trip so the buses aren't returning to Squamish fast enough.

That is about it for today - it was much like the first 3 days but as I said our next work day is a medal event day.

Short Post from Richard Sat. Feb 13

Richard tried to post this from his BlackBerry but it didn't work so here are his musings for the day. No pictures - not good enough weather.

Saturday afternoon standing in the rain. It is a training dat but most of the athletes have the good sense to stay indoors. It is very quiet at my position. I am near the Biathlon stadium but not close enough to be able to understand it clearly. Mainly crowd noise.

Sure hope my Black Berry is waterproof or else I will find out how good my extended warranty is.

Day off tomorrow. I have a couple of work things to check but after that we are going to go to Whistler for the day and see what is happening there.

First race is Monday. Looking forward to that.

Let the games begin! We are watching the opening ceremony. The team from Georgia has just entered the stadium - so brave of them after today's terrible event. We are supposed to attend the women's luge on Tuesday.....

Quite a different buzz today at the bus hub as spectators were there for the first time. They were on their way to see the qualifying round on the 'small' ski jump. Things still moved smoothly at the site - spectators go through different security and are on different buses until we are in the secure area. We had a quiet day - everyone behaved at our positions. We ended up having our lunch break at the same time and just as we finished it started to rain. When we called in to get our next assignment, we were told to return to base and go home early - the athletes didn't train in the rain so we weren't needed. We watched some ski jumping and then headed home.

Random thoughts:
To my DuPont colleagues - The Olympics have more acronyms that we could every imagine!
To our ski family at Highlands Nordic/Highlands TrailBlazers - talk about karma - the bus we take from our home to the bus hub is the 202 HIGHLANDS!
Why are the male country name carriers fully dressed and the female ones are in mini-skirts?

Back to the ceremony...they are up to New Zealan and the excitement is rising......Who will light the flame? My choice is Nancy Greene.....

8 a.m. shift tomorrow whi h means a 5 a.m. wakeup call.

Phew - we've been BUSY!

Hello from Squamish! This is me at the bus stop near our "home" at 5 in the morning! I just read Richard's post so I'll try not to repeat anything he has said. Here's me at the bus stop at 5 a.m. yesterday! Boy - that was early!

I tried to do a post yesterday but we socialized with our Homestay family instead! So much has happened since Sunday. We had a very smooth travel day - the flight left right on time and arrived at YVR 40 minutes early. All pieces of luggage appeared reasonably quickly. We had enough time to pick up something for dinner which we knew we would have to eat on the run (on the bus to Whistler). The drive to Squamish was estimated at about 2 hours but traffic was good and we arrived at the Adventure Centre in 1-1/2 hours. Very shortly thereafter, we were registered and our hosts arrived to whisk us to their home. We visited briefly then booted it over to the Squamish Transit Exchange (STE) for the bus to Whistler. With a little bit of trouble we did finally find the right bus and once in Whistler there was a bit of an adventure to find the accreditation centre. To our delight, (we'd been on the go for quite awhile by this time) there was NO line up and we were through the process in about 1/2 an hour. We are quite happy with the uniform. I won't describe it because you will likely see many "blue jackets" on the TV coverage. All pieces will be very useful after the games. Miraculously the mountain pants (their name for insulated ski pants) are NOT too long on me so I didn't have to do a new hem. We finally made it "home" at around 8:30. We unpacked, found our way around the kitchen and packed it in at around 10 p.m. (remember that is 1 a.m. Eastern time and we had been in transit since 9:30 a.m.). The bad news is that we had to wake up at 4 a.m. to make it to Whistler Olympic Park (WOP) for our 8 a.m. shift. We've spent quite a bit of time on the bus. The venue looks great with all of the Olympic bunting and the myriad of uniforms. Japan has great jackets. Quite a few volunteers went to Vancouver for the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal (we were all offered one free ticket) and they were abuzz with how exciting tomorrow's event will be. BUT they were all sworn to secrecy so we really don't know any details. Even those attending were shown some screens that said "A surprise will be inserted here" or something like that. Diane - the other volunteer staying at our Homestay location - said that it was still very emotional even though it wasn't the real thing. The actual entertainers and most of the special guests were there. We decided not to go because (a) tickets had to be picked up in person in Vancouver and that wasn't going to be practical for us (b) we didn't finish our shift until 3 p.m. so would not have been able to get to Vancouver with our bums in the seats by the 4:30 deadline and (c) we found out later that we couldn't get there from here! There was no transit back to Vancouver as Peter and Dorothy found out when they tried to make the trip. Sounds like the volunteers who did go were locals who could drive.

Homestay is the programme of locals opening their homes to volunteers from across Canada. We are very comfortable with our family - Sam, Laurie, son Kodi, daughter Kyla, dogs (Striker, Jake and Simba) and cats (Bob and Twinkles). Note to dog lovers (particularly David, Maureen, Anne and Kevin): Striker is a golden retriever. Jake and Simba are Belgian Shepherds. The schools here are closed for the next 2 weeks so Kyla is going to Ontario to see a friend who had moved from here two years ago. She'll be back on the 23rd. Kodi has graduated from high school and has an Olympic related job in Whistler with one of the transportation companies. The pay is good but unfortunately he doesn't qualify for the free transit (you need Olympic accreditation for that) so he's trying to pin down a ride so that he doesn't have to pay $10 each way.

Other volunteers are on the cruise ship "Mona Lisa" in Squamish Harbour. You can look it up on Wikipedia. It was built in 1966 and refurbished at least once.

There is a copy of the Mona Lisa painting on the smokestack but we weren't allowed off the bus so we couldn't get a picture of it.

We've heard mixed reports on this location - from wonderful to mediocre. The biggest frustration is that there is no internet connection there and they are not permitted to leave the ship except by bus. The plus side for them is that they are the first stop for the WOP shuttle so they don't have to take any other transit to get to it AND they always get a seat on the first bus! (We had to wait for the second bus today.) It looks like most people there are 'singles' while couples have been placed in Homestay. Others are staying in Whistler and some even travel from Vancouver for each shift - that is dedication because that would be in excess of 2 hours commute in each direction! Here's Richard at the bus stop today at 6 a.m.

Have figured out that I should be in better shape when we leave than when we arrived as we do lots of trudging through "mashed potatoe" snow to get to our positions, some climbing (there's a mean set of metal stairs from the Workforce Break Tent to the "field of play") and lots of standing.

We are looking forward to a later start time tomorrow. We don't have to wake up until 6 a.m., on the local bus at 7:10, the WOP shuttle at 7:40! Unfortunately, we have 4 shifts that START at 7 a.m. so we have some very early mornings coming up!

It has been nice to meet up with friends we made at the other two events that we attended here (2008 Nationals, 2009 World Cup) and we have been talking with loads of other people as we wait for the bus, eat our lunches, ride the bus, stand around. Richard has already talked about the police. They seem to be caught up in the joviality of the place as well - quite talkative. Most people are very "up" for the coming events. The most common questions are "Where are you from?" and "What is your position?" The most interesting answer to the latter so far is "Ski Jump Decorator". We saw them at work yesterday putting the green Olympic rings and the lines into the landing area. It is VERY steep and they are on ice with crampons. Oh - and I saw some jumps today. Those 'boys' are CRAZY! At one of my stations today (access control to the stadium) I spoke with a young South African woman who was on access control to the athletes' compound. She's in Canada for 6 months and soaking up the experiences here with plans to visit other parts of the country before returning. There appear to be lots of Aussies and Kiwis around as always!

Food - We (actually Richard) are making porridge every morning, we get a lunch ticket every day and dinner will vary. In the Workforce Break Tent we can always get coffee, tea or hot chocolate as well as a cookie. Lunch is a choice of 2 soups, a choice of 3 sandwiches, a fruit, granola bar and a drink. Last night, we met Peter and Dorothy (who are at a homestay nearby) for dinner at Boston Pizza. Tonight, we joined the family for a terrific chicken stir fry. They are off doing this and that right now. I'm going to make dinner for the family one night next week. (And in the family tradition I'll fill you in on the menu - but in another post!)

Tomorrow we should be home in plenty of time for the opening ceremony and we can go up to Quest University to see it on a big screen with a big crowd. More likely, we'll watch it on the flat screen here so that we can get to bed right after it is over. I think we have an early shift on Saturday!

Stay tuned....I hope all are well. BTW - I'm a little tired so please forgive any grammar and spelling mistakes. I've tried to catch them but.....

Enoy the Opening Ceremony. A Ski Jump event takes place during the day tomorrow so the first medals will be presented even before the official opening. (Correction Feb. 13 - this event was a qualifying round only, the medal round was today not Friday.)

bus trup home Thursday afternoon

This entry has now been edited by Debbie because she hates typos!
On the bus using my BB. Pretty quiet day today. Everyone was well behaved. It might be a bit busier tomorrow once all of the teams have arrived. This is an easy group to marshal. They are pros and know the process a lot easier then domestic races. (Comment by Debbie: There are always some who ignore us. This time they all seem to be from one country which shall remain nameless except it isn't Canada.)

It snowed a lot today. Very wet snow but much needed snow. While they have a good base the snow is old and it has been groomed so many times that it doesn't stand up. This fresh snow once it has been groomed in will really help. The forecast is snow \ rain for Whistler but that hopefully will only be snow at the cross country venue. (Comment from Debbie: This is for the benefit of our ski friends who understand the complexities of waxing for snow. I'm not one of those people.)

Getting lots of practice with my French chatting with Montreal police. There are 75 here and another 75 in Vancouver. Lots ot Toronto. Peel Ottawa Police as well. We see police from all over the country. With the number of cars we see pulled over that the RCMP must have 0 tolerance. And there are tons on the road. Nice that we don't have to worry about driving. On the other hand it is about 2 hours transit each way.

Up at 4AM yesterday and 5 today. Tomorrow we get to sleep in until 6 Yippie.

We leave on Tuesday!

I can guarantee that there will be no medals from us but we certainly hope to witness some Canadians on the podium at Whistler Olympic Park. Our personal favourite is Brittany Webster who is a member of our ski club. We don't know which events she will be in yet but we'll keep you informed.
Our adventure began around 2007 when we completed our Level III Officials' course and decided that we would put our names into the volunteer pool. Because we were applying through our sport and were considered 'specialists', we were pretty sure that we would be accepted. We asked for positions as Course Marshalls because that puts us right on course for all races. Training brought us to Whistler Olympic Park in March 2008 for the National Championships and in January 2009 for a World Cup. We were able to see Alex Harvey and George Grey win a bronze medal in the team sprint. Now we are finally only a week from the Opening Ceremonies!
One of the stressful aspects of this experience has been waiting for information about our accommodation. We finally received this about a week ago. We will be billeted with a family in Squamish along with one other volunteer. The family has two teenagers, 3 dogs and 2 cats (and Mom and Dad). The e-mails which I have exchanged with Laurie make me feel that we are going to have a great time with them. (For one thing, we can compare renovation stories!)
Aside from actually getting there the next big step is getting to Whistler to pick up our all-important accreditation and uniform. No accreditation - no bus to our venue - no entry to the site! It also gives us free transportation even on days when we are not working.
Our schedule: February 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28. February 10 - 13 are training days and the rest are race days.
Watch this space for more - including photos.