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.)