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
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