My Olympic Photos

 

The Olympic coffee (decaf of course) courtesy of db, our resident barista. He called it the Whistler Blackcomb coffee.

We didn't get to visit the city on the weekend as I had hoped, but went on an evening after work. We were a little concerned because the men's hockey was that night, which would determine who would go to play for the gold medal. However, we timed it well so that by the time we did our route, the game had just finished and we were one our way home. 

 

The broadcast centre.

 

The cauldron as seen through the fence. 

And through the gap in the plexiglass. 

The Vancouver Art Gallery was not only open for free to the public, but was also screening short art films on an outdoor screen.

Near the outdoor skating rink. The steps to the gallery. 

Granville St.

  

First Nations Pavilion. 

We saw a few spheres outside of pavilions that were projecting images. It seemed like a popular idea to give this sense of place on a global shape. 

The Quebec pavilion, however, was cube shaped. It was a glowing blue cube.

The cube also projected images from La Belle Provence. 

We had to go in the Quebec pavilion (db is from there). The interior also had projected images. There was a band playing some blues on stage, and there was a Quebec beer being sold that intrigued db, but at $10 a glass we decided to pass, and wait until we're actually in Quebec this summer to sample it.

 

View from near the Science Centre (also known as the Russian pavilion during the Olympics). 

The orb is the Saskatchewan pavilion. 

Sunday at Whistler Olympic Park, we went to the men's 50k cross country skiing. Here's the start line. 

 

  

We had a view of them on the trail up above going into a downhill section. 

  

And then just in front of us after climbing an uphill section. 

And again there they are on the outer track. 

db and I both agreed that this guy had too much cow, and not enough cowbell. 

 

The Norwegian fans were about to see a great finish.  It was very exciting to watch Petter Northug do his thing. He sprinted to the finish and took the gold. 

Devon Kershaw, the Canadian skier, had a great race. He was near the front for the entire race, and came so close to a bronze. Very exciting.

I became a real fan of this sport over the 2 weeks. I only hope to take it up myself next year. We'll see.

Yet more Olympic grammar

Here's another one I missed. I've never heard the song because I've been avoiding the "I believe" campaign. When the song came up during the ceremonies (I think that's when it occurred), I hit the mute button. 

Does the Olympic Theme Song “I Believe” Have a Grammar Error?  

 

More on Olympic verbs

Here's an article I found on podium being used as a verb. I thought it was kind of interesting.

On Language

 

Podium

 

By BEN ZIMMER

Published: February 7, 2010

A triumphant verb retakes the Olympic stage.

Olympic verbs

I did not go into the city yesterday. db and I assessed the situation, and given that it was Canada/USA hockey day, we decided that it was probably best to stay close to home and avoid the surging crowds. We're probably going to go on Friday evening. I'm sure the crowds will still be crazy, but we'll take our chances.

Yesterday I heard a reporter who was covering the games use the word "podium" as a verb. "She didn't think she was going to podium." Ack! I'm pretty open with popular culture's use of grammar. "I'm lovin' it", for example I will let slide, but let it be a lesson to you that if McD's is as sloppy with their food as they are with their grammar then you probably shouldn't eat there, which is one more reason why that place should be avoided at all costs. I know I make all kinds of grammar errors throughout my day, and am always struggling with improving it, but I can't accept nouns turned into verbs when it is unnecessary.

I was speaking to my mom, who is an ESL teacher, last night and brought this very issue up with her. She also reminded me of how the same thing has been done with the word "medal." "He is a strong contender to medal." Is it so difficult to put those extra words in? "He is a strong contender to win a medal?" That wasn't so difficult.

Does sports broadcasting seem particularly guilty of this to you?
Have you noticed any other nouns becoming verbs when they've never been used as verbs before?

Do I need a holiday? Or maybe I should say, I need to holiday.

just curious

I think I might venture downtown tomorrow and see what the party atmosphere is like.

I thought I'd avoid the whole Olympic thing as much as possible, but I have to say that curiosity is getting the better of me. I don't want to line up for hours for zip lines or ice skating or to approach the viewing platform for the cauldron. I just want to see what it's like in the downtown hub with people milling about, streets closed to traffic, and get a sense of the general vibe. There is supposed to be lots of buskers, and public art to view, so I think it'll be worthwhile.

The biggest draw for me is that the art gallery is free until the end of the month, and I'd like to see the Da Vinci sketches, which are here until May. They are also screening art films on one side of the building.

I think I should go.

Get in line for the line up.

We went to the women's hockey on Saturday to see Canada and Slovakia. When we got our tickets last year, we only knew we'd be going to an early round women's hockey game, we had no idea it'd be Canada. So, we got lucky. However, after seeing a women's hockey game for the first time ever, I would have been happy to see anyone play. It was so great to see women's hockey! I loved it.

What I did not love was getting into GM place, or BC place or whatever it's called now. The game was at 5pm. We got off the skytrain at 3:30 pm, and got to our section just as the women were skating onto the ice. Why did it take us so long? Can you imagine why? Olympic insanity was the reason.

There was no one at the exit of the skytrain to direct people to the entrance. Usually you come out of the skytrain and just cross the street to enter GM place, but with the fencing surrounding the area, there seemed to be no entrance anywhere, and no one to tell us where to enter.

There were people everywhere looking completely lost and confused. I finally asked a cop on the other side of the fence where we could get in. He gave us several options. As we walked to one entrance, we got to an area where the sidewalk was closed. We asked another cop. He said that the first one didn't know what he was talking about because he was probably from out of town, and that we needed to go the other way. db and I headed back. Finally, one solitary blue-jacketed volunteer called out that this entryway was closed and we needed to go down this street to get in line for the entrance.

Hmm...

I started to regret not bringing a book along. 

db and I stood in a line that was merging with another longer line from another street. Once we all merged into one big happy line, we shuffled forward to an opening in the fence. This was the entranceway to the security zone. The entrance was the size of a regular doorway. So we bottlenecked through this little doorway into a holding pen, where we lined up again to get into the line ups for the security zone.

After we mazed our way through that, we were told we could go into the express security line if we had a purse and not a backpack. I just had my camera bag so we zipped into the "express" lane. I use quotations around the word express because from what I saw, our line did not move any faster than the regular lines. In fact one of the regular lines was moving much faster!

Finally, we made it to security. It was like going through security at an airport. They looked in my bag, and I walked through the metal detector. I should mention that no one had yet asked me if I had a ticket or not. I walked right up to the entrance of GM/BC place without anyone ever asking me for proof of a ticket. If you wanted to sneak anything in on your person that could make it through the metal detector you could. Almost a billion dollars spent on security, and I felt like anyone could walk up to the venue and do a lot of damage. Fortunately, no one did.

We finally made it to our seats just before the puck dropped, but many didn't, and had to wait in the section doorways until the next whistle blew.

The upside? I enjoyed the game. I also know that by the time we go to the men's 50k cross country skiing on the last day of the Olympics, that many of the kinks will probably be worked out so that moving people into venues will go a lot more smoothly. I'm definitely taking a book with me next time.