Well it is now Monday FEB 17 th and it is Family Day so I hope everyone back home spends some time with there family as I FaceTimed my families earlier. The Olympic experience continues to be just an amazing as the moment it started.
When I came to Sochi I wanted to go to see Canada play hockey and I managed to get tickets to all three prelim games. The first game was Canada vs Norway and as I expecting it was a tune up as it was there first together. The second game was vs Austria and just before the game and I had the opportunity to go to Canada House. Just before we were to leave to head to the game PRESIDENT PUTIN walked in and I was able to get right to the front. As he was holding a pair of Canada mittens I said "put them on" and the chanting began. Then the most amazing thing happened I reached out my right hand and the next then you know I was shaking the hand of the PRES of RUSSIA. After this it was off to the hockey game and where I saw the Canada team play a much better game and won over Austria.
I have also seen luge, skeleton, and speedskating which have all been great. The luge was great but the Latvia beat out Canada for bronze medal. The speedskating was great to watch from the second row as it is my son Jeff favorite sport. It has been time filled with work, events and hanging with new friends and little sleep so guess what...I got a cold......but I didn't let it slow me down for the big game on Sunday.
I got up on Sunday and a few of us decided that we would head to Russia exhibit where we could learn a lot about Russia. Wearing out Canada gear and all my pins got a lot of attention including a lot of personal one on one info on the different parts of Russia. It is truely amazing how Russia landscape is like Canada's in many ways. I will attach as many of the photos as possible to Facebook. Afterwards we headed over to Coke pravillion where we were able to take our picture with the Olympic torch....holding the last two winter olympic torches has been great.
The last event of the day would be highlight as it was the last game of prelim and determine 1 st place in pool. A stop over the Coke cafeteria to purchase a fee pre- game drinks and chat with a number of Canada fans...Once inside you quickly realize that both players and fans knew that this was a big game. My friend Brenda and I decided to enjoy this game with a few Finnish fans from about 6 rows from the ice. A great location for pictures and getting into the game.( see Facebook). The game was back and forth and ended up going into OT where Canada would come out on top.
I will update everyone in a couple of days....Go Canada..
Monday, February 17, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Olympic Opening Night and the Olympic Spirit.
Well a couple of days have passed since the rehearsal and opening of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and I am still in awe of the experience. Prior to the opening I had the opportunity to go to the rehearsal for the opening and to be there with 40,000 people and see the many people demonstrate what looked would be a great opening. I watched in an amazement as the many Russian people cheered and I so wanted to show my Olympic spirit. So I decided to do what every great Canadian would do …….I got 40,000 Russian people to do the WAVE and support there country. When it came time for the Canadian flag bearer and pretend Canadian athletics enter the stadium about 200-300 people around me got up and started clapping. What a feeling…...Well on the way home on the bus and at work the next day I was greeted with a Thumbs Up.
On the day of the opening I decided to take my Latvian roommate and a few friends to bar where I had a steak and beer(it was nice) and then we went over to the live site next door. It was a great experience that I will never forget as I watched the show on a huge screen while I used FACETIME to talk my family back home at the same time. The beer was great and it was so nice to FaceTime home as the people around me waved to my family as they watched. When then made our way into a Russian only party next door, however it seems that Russian truly do like Canadians or just my outgoing personality. See the history of USSR/Russia unfold was nice, however some of the young Russian were upset with the old Russian parts as many want to move forward. The Russian vodka and friends were great =, however 5 AM does come early so it was off to Vesoyle.
The next day it was a bit rough as I arrived at work as like many Russian I spent the night enjoying celebrating a wonderful opening, even with a bad snowflake…:)…Well upon arriving at work I was advised that I would be TEAM LEADER of my group on this date. Well if you are the leader to be a good leader it is important to surround yourself with great people to make you look good so I made sure I picked one of the Russian young ladies that liked to translate so if I had any issues they could have me. I have taken the time to teach many of the young people that a good smile and even say "Good Morning" in english will look nice.
As many of you who know me will admit I have an outgoing spirit that can be a bit contagious and as such I have used that with my other team mates. As each day goes by many of the Olympic teams come up to me as probably 90 % speak english and say "Where are you from and say you are not from Russia". I tell them from Canada and they tell me it is so GREAT to hear your voice and see your contagious smile. I have been given so many Olympic pins as it seems to be a regular occurrence to drop by and have a look. If you ar on Facebook drop by and have a look at the picture of all the pins that I have.
On my day off my roommate and I headed over to where the two cruise ships were docked to meet a man who i had bough CAN vs FINLAND tickets. After receiving the tickets the man stated he had tickets for 1 man Luge so as I have never seen it and my roommate is from Lativian I decided $36 CAN was a good price for last minute as he is a huge luge fan. The luge event was great and we met a few friends and had a great time even with out cold beer…
Well on Feb 10 th it was back to work to meet to meet with the people of the OLYMPIC NEW CHANNEL as I had been told the night before that all the paperwork had been completed for them to come into my work area to interview me. It has been my dream to come to Russian since I was a young teenager and since I have been here I have done nothing but demonstrate what a Canadian smile will get you. I sit and wait as out supervisors do there morning briefing and surprisingly I am beginning to understand a bit. At the end there are a couple of tickets given out and I was advised that I was going to be given to one for my hard work and being so nice to the various teams.
I was so appreciated by the kindness, however I had to tell them that I could not go as the OLYMPIC NEWS CHANNEL were almost there so I said given them to the my team mate who help make our team run so well.
Well ONC finally arrived and I learned that they had been told that I had come from all the way from Canada and they had been told about my Olympic spirit. So I was asked to explained why I wanted to come to Sochi, my travel from Moscow to Sochi and to speak about my experience in Russian. I hope to get an opportunity to watch the clip so if while you are watching the Olympics and you see me please tape it and let me know as I hope CBC picks it up as well.
For the Youth of Today …..If you reach for a dream and you don't reach it just get on your toes and
reach a little higher I am sure you will each your dream.
Check Facebook for some pictures…….Have a look for my picture of Canada helping Russia
On the day of the opening I decided to take my Latvian roommate and a few friends to bar where I had a steak and beer(it was nice) and then we went over to the live site next door. It was a great experience that I will never forget as I watched the show on a huge screen while I used FACETIME to talk my family back home at the same time. The beer was great and it was so nice to FaceTime home as the people around me waved to my family as they watched. When then made our way into a Russian only party next door, however it seems that Russian truly do like Canadians or just my outgoing personality. See the history of USSR/Russia unfold was nice, however some of the young Russian were upset with the old Russian parts as many want to move forward. The Russian vodka and friends were great =, however 5 AM does come early so it was off to Vesoyle.
The next day it was a bit rough as I arrived at work as like many Russian I spent the night enjoying celebrating a wonderful opening, even with a bad snowflake…:)…Well upon arriving at work I was advised that I would be TEAM LEADER of my group on this date. Well if you are the leader to be a good leader it is important to surround yourself with great people to make you look good so I made sure I picked one of the Russian young ladies that liked to translate so if I had any issues they could have me. I have taken the time to teach many of the young people that a good smile and even say "Good Morning" in english will look nice.
As many of you who know me will admit I have an outgoing spirit that can be a bit contagious and as such I have used that with my other team mates. As each day goes by many of the Olympic teams come up to me as probably 90 % speak english and say "Where are you from and say you are not from Russia". I tell them from Canada and they tell me it is so GREAT to hear your voice and see your contagious smile. I have been given so many Olympic pins as it seems to be a regular occurrence to drop by and have a look. If you ar on Facebook drop by and have a look at the picture of all the pins that I have.
On my day off my roommate and I headed over to where the two cruise ships were docked to meet a man who i had bough CAN vs FINLAND tickets. After receiving the tickets the man stated he had tickets for 1 man Luge so as I have never seen it and my roommate is from Lativian I decided $36 CAN was a good price for last minute as he is a huge luge fan. The luge event was great and we met a few friends and had a great time even with out cold beer…
Well on Feb 10 th it was back to work to meet to meet with the people of the OLYMPIC NEW CHANNEL as I had been told the night before that all the paperwork had been completed for them to come into my work area to interview me. It has been my dream to come to Russian since I was a young teenager and since I have been here I have done nothing but demonstrate what a Canadian smile will get you. I sit and wait as out supervisors do there morning briefing and surprisingly I am beginning to understand a bit. At the end there are a couple of tickets given out and I was advised that I was going to be given to one for my hard work and being so nice to the various teams.
I was so appreciated by the kindness, however I had to tell them that I could not go as the OLYMPIC NEWS CHANNEL were almost there so I said given them to the my team mate who help make our team run so well.
Well ONC finally arrived and I learned that they had been told that I had come from all the way from Canada and they had been told about my Olympic spirit. So I was asked to explained why I wanted to come to Sochi, my travel from Moscow to Sochi and to speak about my experience in Russian. I hope to get an opportunity to watch the clip so if while you are watching the Olympics and you see me please tape it and let me know as I hope CBC picks it up as well.
For the Youth of Today …..If you reach for a dream and you don't reach it just get on your toes and
reach a little higher I am sure you will each your dream.
Check Facebook for some pictures…….Have a look for my picture of Canada helping Russia
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Olympic Park, Opening Ceremonies and the Moose
Well a quick follow up to my last date before I start my new blog. I arranged to meet a couple of police officers and I can say I had a great time. I discovered that officers here in Russia deal with the same type of issues that we do back home. It was great to hear how that Russian police are taking the security of volunteers and fans here very serious and are working to make the games truly a safe games.
I had an opportunity to take a day and tour Olympic Park and I want to tell everyone of you reading this blog that you truly will be amazed by the wonderful sites that will host the games. The games slogan is HOT COOL YOURS and I want each and everyone of you that these words do reflect the Russian natural character. HOT represents the heart of sport passion that the games will bring. COOL needs no explanation as the nation of Russia is associated with its frosty, snowy winters. Finally YOURS is a reminder that the Olympic games are for everyone.
I took one of my days off and went down to the Coastal cluster where I saw all the wonderful stadiums and rinks that will be used for the games. Standing in the middle of the Olympic park and looking around and see all these wonderful structure was one of the first things that made me speechless. We walked around the park and the centre piece of the park is the Olympic Flame certainly was the centre piece and nightly light show from the base made the day. One of the rinks there is Ice Cube which will be the host of the curling events and after the game will be taken down and moved to another town in Russian. The stadium is one of the smaller ones as it only holds 3,000 people.
The next place I went to was the Adler Speedskating arena and I can say that this place was amazing from the outside and some day I would love to see my son Jeff skating here. The arena has two tracks as well as a training track. I look forward to hearing the Canadian national athem coming from inside this arena many times.
The two hockey rinks that will be used by the men and women are the Bolshoy and the Shaybe arena and I am looking forward to watching the Canadian hockey games from here. We did our touring around the Olympic Park in the late afternoon and the lights from these building were brilliant. The Bolshoy is complex that is a spherical dome and the lights on the top change frequents and makes a wonderful array of lights on the top.
The Coastal cluster is made of the Fisht Olympic stadium which is the host for both the opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium holds 40,000 people and from there the fans can see the spectator mountain peaks to the north and the wonderful Black Sea to the south. A little research and I was able to learn that the structure resembles a rocky crag which blends perfectly into the panorama of the Caucasus Mountains. On January 28 th I can say I got one of the best calls I have had in a very long time. My roommate Jinsong called and told me that I got selected to go to the rehearsal of the Opening ceremonies. The show was great and will be something that many will truly enjoy it. The rehearsal was great, however the best part was when I was able to get 40,000 people to stand up and get them to do the wave. As a result of my personal style it was even better when so many Russian people stood and cheered with me when the cheered for the Canadian when the flag was brought into the park.
In the last day or so things have truly reached the next level up at Endurance Village. All the athletics walk by my Info booth and the bag storage area daily and I have had a great time talking with them and even collecting a few pins along the way. Many of the young Russian are truly enjoying my unique style when dealing with the athletes and I make many of them smile.
One of the highlights of the weeks was yesterday when I took the time and visited the Mountain Village which is where may roommate from England works. The two villages are very unique in there own ways. While my friend talked with a co-worker I took the time to take the long walk to visit the residence of the Canadians and I was not disappointed as I turned the corner and I saw a huge wooden container out front. As I got closer I was amazed to see that the CANADIAN MOOSE had arrived. The CANADIAN MOOSE was decorated in its fine Canadian colours. I was a great moment when I took a picture while inside the actual container.
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