Scalpers, DUIs and Smokos

A few quick notes:

Walking down the street in the Whistler Village today, we saw a guy who had written with reflective tape "I need tickets to Men's Downhill" on the back of his jacket. I have yet to see any scalpers, but that guy probably has the right idea - he can bring scalpers discretely to him and hopefully not get caught!

Did you know that if you have any sort of DUI or misdemeanor, in any country, there is no way you'd be allowed to work or volunteer at the Olympics? They aren't taking any chances here.

New lingo: the Australian word "smoko" developed from a smoke break to just any kind of break, so when the shuttle drivers are walking around waiting to take us to Function Junction, they sometimes slip out for a "smoko".

Do you remember my pre-departure post in which I talk about the weather? It costs $25,000 PER HOUR for the helicopters to bring snow to Cypress Mountain. Can you imagine!?!?!

Right outside the Medals Plaza, where there will be live concerts, there is a little park. Here are some of the girls playing on the round on the round swing. We'll probably try to grab a seat here to listen to the awesome bands (including OneRepublic, The Fray, Usher, Feist, All American Rejects, Our Lady Peace, etc...)

Bars of Soap

Today Holly and I were in charge of the Helpdesk at the Sliding Center since Nikki was in class. Thankfully, our team does their jobs exceptionally well so our phone hardly rings. A few things of note did happen today though, and some were quite humorous (at least to us).

This morning as we waited to get our 2nd Part Passes to enter the venue two of our guys were speaking in French, then Charles turned to Jan, a Czech, and asked if "glowing" was the same thing as "shiny" (the motto of the 2010 Vancouver Games is "with glowing hearts"). After thinking for just a moment, Jan explained that "glowing" was like light coming from within, whereas "shiny" was reflected light. I turned to Jan and told him that I was impressed with his explanation, and that I didn't think I could have put it that well. Language has always fascinated me, so it was interesting to see how a non-native English speaker conceptualized vocabulary that is second-nature to me.

Later that day a woman from VANOC Transportation came by the office to explain some ice concerns she was having and wanted us to take care of. She was quite chatty, and started talking about the raccoons and coyotes. Then she launched into a thing about bears coming out of hibernating. My favorite line was when she said "If I can smell the earth, the bears have been out for 2-3 weeks". Oh, how I love Canada!

Holly and I got to see a couple of women practicing on the luge track today! Before our lunch break we went up to the track lodge to use the "flushies" (flush toilets) and we heard announcements about the practice beginning. Unfortunately, both of us had neglected to bring our cameras, and my phone was not quick enough to catch the athletes. We went up after our shift, but when we got there a Romanian woman had been knocked out. She was going around Turn 16, the "Dog Bone", and went up over the lip. They had to take her out in a stretcher - I'm going to be checking the news to see if she's okay.

Medical personnel assisting the injured athlete

Our main entertainment for the day was a call I took that I didn't even think was that funny until everyone started freaking out about it. A woman called to tell me "there's an apple core in the waterfall". She said she tried to get it out but didn't want to fall in, and asked that we get the 'nipple grabbers' to get it out. I wrote down all the info, and as per protocol I repeated the information to ensure accuracy. When I got off the call a guy who works in the other half of our trailer poked his head in and said "Did that really just happen?!"

Holly 10-4'ed (radioed) Whitney, who is up at Men's Start where the waterfall is, and asked her to take care of it as our venue manager Scott came in and everyone cracked up laughing. Whitney 10-4'ed back a few minutes later and in a mock-serious voice informed us that the apple core had successfully been removed from the waterfall. As a joke, we logged the issue as high priority, and made wise-cracks about it the rest of the day.

 This is the waterfall up behind Men's Start

Nipple-grabbers, in case you were wondering, are mechanical claws on sticks used to pick up trash. I model them, as well as some other gear we had laying around, here below:

Cleanevent ran out of anything smaller than an X-Large in all parts of our uniform, so my coat swallows me.

Wondering about the title? That one is courtesy of Jono, the hyper Australian supervisor. At the end of the day he and Scott were looking over the roster for tomorrow and they were noting the new additions to our team. They try to strategically assign people to the different areas, and Jono made a comment that "these new people could be bars of soap for all we know!". I found it hilarious, but I guess it's no different than our expression "dumb as rocks".

120,000 Hours of Work

Following our first venue tour, we had our first session of Cleanevent Academy. Those of us interns – from University of South Carolina (USC), JWU Providence, JWU Denver, and the one girl from JWU Charlotte – have been mixed up into three groups which will each have 5 days of class. In addition to the venue tours and lectures from Scott Williams, we will have at least one guest speaker per session from Cleanevent. Our special guests from VANOC and IOC have not been finalized yet.

Today Craig Madigan, Cleanevent’s Project Manager for all 7 mountain venues, came and spent about an hour with us.

One thing we talked with Scott about before Craig arrived was the reading assignment for the day, about In-House versus Contract services. Craig explained that VANOC looked two separate modules for contracting cleaning services – one for the city of Vancouver, and the other for the mountain venues of Whistler. When looking at it from this perspective, the main difference is that just about every mountain venue had to be built, and most are temporary, whereas the city venues were previously established with existing staff.

Stemming from the consideration of staff, which –  let’s face it – is huge in the event industry, Vancouver also had a larger pool of workers that made it easier to simply bolster the venues’ existing cleaning crews. The local population in Whistler, however, was drastically different. Whistler locals’ lifestyle was simply not reliable enough to be compatible with Cleanevent’s needs. This is a wealthy area driven by the ski slopes, so the kids here aged 18-25 don’t need to work and would rather skiing or snowboarding all day.

Based on those considerations, it made sense for VANOC to contract out almost everything in the mountain venues, essentially buying a solution to the complications presented here.

We also talked about resident perception of the Games. In Whistler, for instance, most of the locals wanted a way out because of concerns over things like safety and traffic. They also had the option to rent out their businesses to VANOC, rent out their residences to spectators, and take off on a month’s paid vacation. Scott admitted that hosting the Olympics is financially an endeavor that just doesn’t work, but if the community is willing to do it they can have a lot of fun.

Our next topic of discussion was some of the function teams involved in putting on the Olympics. Staying with Cleanevent right now is a Russian guy named Maxim who is representing the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. He is on what’s called the Overlay Team, whose responsibility is to design all the Olympic buildings in CAD and then supervise the custom-building of all the venues and support buildings. The Overlay Team owns and controls the venues for about three years before the event, and in a short period of time before the Games they turn it over to the Operations. During his time at these Games, Maxim is looking at all the short-comings of the planning to see how Sochi can avoid the same mistakes.

There is also something called the “Look” department. These people are in charge of dressing everything in banners and flags and drapes on the scaffolding. They also worked out all the ultra-specific colors chemes and uniforms and other visual marketing. Scott kept referring to all this as the “frosting”.

The last group we talked about were the Wayfinders. This crew is in charge of all Olympic signage/directions/arrows to direct the spectators with all the knowledge they need to get to and around within the venues. They must do the majority of their work from Overlay’s CAD design, and then only have a couple weeks to make last-minute adjustments, sizing, extra considerations.

In the last 2-3 weeks leading up to the Games, a lot of the planning must be adjusted as unforeseeable circumstances rear their ugly heads. For example, when Look designs and sizes their grandstand drapes, they plan for a certain height of snow – which just isn't here in Whistler. The Wayfinding team also has to make adjustments as people begin to come to the venues and report oversights in the signage.

 This is a good example of a calculation that the Look department made when creating the signage - they were counting on a few inches of snow to cover the bottom of the fencing.

A lot of things have to happen really fast around here. On our initial tour Joey was pointing out entire buildings that were not there just a few days before. The Media Center, which overtook the Whistler Conference Center, was not even made available to VANOC until January 3rd. Craig was telling us that 12 months of planning for an event like this is ideal, but he didn't get here until May of last year.

The last thing Craig talked about was working for Cleanevent as a whole, including the other large events they work for. They are currently bidding for the contract for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi; they submitted the bid around 212 days before the game,  but they would have liked to have had that done 300 days before that! The Commonwealth Games are one of the biggest event for Cleanevent, managing 50 venues and requiring 1 million manhours of work. The Summer Olympics require 1.7 million, the Winter Olympics need 120,000, and the Asian Games take 650,000 manhours to clean the venues throughout the entire period. It's quite difficult to imagine, wouldn't you agree!?

Venue Tour – WOP

Welcome to WOP!

The inukshuk at the bus stop at the Ski Jump

Our first venue tour as part of Cleanevent Academy was the Whistler Olympic Park, better known as WOP. This site has four different areas – the Main Transportation Area (non-competition), Ski Jump, Cross-Country Skiing, and Biathlon.

Map of Whistler Olympic Park

Spectators will come to the Main Transportation Area either by BC Transit bus or by car, the latter of which must be parked in one of four lots outside the security checkpoint. From the security line, a coach bus (different from the BC Transit bus) will take people up to the Ski Jump area and drop them off. From there, they can either walk into that venue or take one of two other buses to see either Cross-Country Skiing or Biathlon.

We visited the Cross-Country Skiing site first. Five years ago, it was just the heavily-forested Callahan Valley. The majority of the trees had to be cleared, trails had to be blazed, and the course had to be built. After the Games, all the buildings will be taken down and trees will be replanted, but the trails will remain open to the public for use as part of the “legacy” of the site. In addition to skiing in the winter, the trails will probably be used by mountain-bikers in the summer.

Our second stop was the Biathlon course. This is an interesting event that I’m just beginning to understand a little more about. The athletes first do several laps of their cross-country skiing course, then stand to shoot their rifles at targets the size of baseballs. They proceed to do some more laps, then lay on their stomachs to shoot targets the size of golf balls. The catch is that for every target they miss, they have to ski another lap.

What makes biathlon even more difficult is what happens to the athlete’s body. Obviously cross-country skiing is a physically demanding sport and it therefore increases the heart rate. For shooting, it is ideal to have a slow heart rate, steady breathing, and a clear mind to focus on aim. Biathlon competitors don’t have the advantage of the first two elements, which makes the third all the harder to achieve.

The Ski Jump venue was last on our agenda. This competition will be the first event, yielding the first medals of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Games. Each skier gets two runs off the jump – just two runs to prove their ability.

Despite what it looks like on T.V., skiers do not get launched up into the air in ski jumping. The top part of the run has groves for the skis to rest in, and then right at the lip of the jump there is a 10 degree declining slope; the skiers don’t go up, but rather the ground just drops away, creating an optical illusion. We were lucky enough to be able to see some women practicing their runs.

At the foot of the ski jump during a practice session

Volunteers are packing down the snow on the ski jump between runs. The dots crossing the path are the meter markers

Our Cleanevent Academy instructor, Scott Williams (not to be confused with the WSC venue manager, Scott Parnell), stressed to us how cool it will be to see events happening here – either in person or on T.V. – after having seen the behind-the-scenes action before the venue was opened to spectators. The camp and the employee break rooms at all the venues have T.V.s that will be broadcasting the coverage, so I hope I get to see some of each event throughout the Games.

So, Where Are We?

I’ve mentioned the buses a few times, but I want to give you a better idea of where we are living in relation to where we’re working. Whistler RV Camp, home of Camp Cleanevent, is located about 15km south of Whistler Village. Going North on Highway 99, there is a turnoff on the left that takes us up a steep, exceedingly winding road to the RV Park. Once through the security gates, we drive past all the RV parking spots to the very back of the camp, where all of our containers are located. Since we have to go up and around so far on our driveway, we are far from the sounds of traffic and civilization, so camp is quite peaceful (as long as the drunks aren’t around).

To get to work we first take the Cleanevent shuttle north towards Whistler, but our normal shuttle runs no longer take employees straight to the Village. Instead they drop off at both the Athletes’ Village, on the right, and Function Junction, just across the street. From here we take the public buses. The shuttle ride and bus ride are each about 15 minutes.

In order for our van to gain access, the dashboard has to bear a sign with the infinity symbol, ∞, and the first line of security waves the van through. Once we get off the shuttle, our accreditations are what get us free rides on the public buses.

Different buses pick up and drop off in various locations around the Village. One thing about Whistler we noticed right away was that a great many people walk around in ski/snowboard gear all the time. One of the main bus stops is located by the gondola I take to work, and I watched a guy literally snowboard down the mountain, stop at the bottom, unstrap his bindings, and hop on the bus. Transport really is as easy as that in Whistler!

While the half hour of transportation time might seem long, we really have great deal. CE’s competitor, who has the contract for the housekeeping services in the Athletes’ Village, did not square away their housing far enough in advance and are stuck about an hour and a half down the mountain, much closer to Vancouver than Whistler. Gabby, from our camp office, explained that they will have to worry much more about traffic and weather delays, and she hopes they don’t make it to work on time so we can win back the contract.

Other volunteers are about 50 minutes south of Whistler, living on a cruise ship docked in the harbor of a town called Squamish (where the Wal-Mart and other such stores are). We were also told that the housing for security at the Games is really tight quarters, without much space between the bunks. As I mentioned in a previous post, VANOC volunteers were on their own for housing, and may have ended up either paying exorbitant amounts or living way out of town. I learned very quickly that perspective is very important when scrutinizing our situation, and I refuse to complain about how Cleanevent runs their camp.

Another logistical concern, besides transporting all the workers/volunteers required for a successful event, is feeding everyone. Cleanevent had to purchase meal tickets months ago, for $18 a pop. Someone from FAB (Food And Beverage; I prefer the – American? – F&B) stamps the date and meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, overnight) on the tickets and hands them out for the week. At WSC the Employee Break Tent is in Lot 7 with our office, and that’s where we go for our catered meal.

The break tent offers coffee, tea, cocoa, and cookies at all times. Lunch is a choice of two soups, one of three sandwiches, a piece fruit, a granola bar, and a Coke beverage (Coke, Dasani water, Minute Maid orange juice). I’m not sure what dinner will bring, but I’ll let you know.

As I said, Cleanevent had to purchase these meal tickets about 6 months ago. My first day, we had about 9 extra meal tickets, which already had the date and mealtime stamped on them, so we each took an extra sandwich, granola bar and drink so as not to waste the money already spent. Nikki and I counted ahead the meal tickets we got for the rest of the week, however, and when compared against the number of people we have rostered (scheduled) there are days in which we are one meal ticket short. I’m interested to see what CE does about this.

Russian, Russian, Russian coach, Holly, Russian…

The other night we hopped on a very crowded bus #10 from the Athletes’ Village. Not only was it standing-room only when we boarded, more and more people piled on as we got closer to Whistler Village, and we were forced to walk further and further toward the back of the bus to accommodate the other passengers.

The next thing I knew, Holly was seated in the very last row of the bus, squished between the shoulders of a coach and player from Team Russia. I wanted to sneak a picture so badly because the sheepish look on her face was priceless, but I want to practice good etiquette around the athletes and so I refrained. On the same trip, Colleen was bumping elbows with a Norwegian athlete, and I think some Japanese competitors were sitting a bit further up.

The same night, once we got to town, we took pictures with the fake Olympic rings. Later we saw some athletes in red and white track suits climbing up into the rings and posing dramatically for pictures. We were all impressed and excited until one guy and his snowboarded toppled out of the ring and off the platform. There was a collective gasp of concern from the crowd that had gathered, but he got up and seemed unharmed. The two girls stayed in the rings posing a bit more, but the guy didn’t get back in.

The JWU Providence girls in the Olympic Rings

Tukes, Snipers, and Waste

In addition to providing some daily updates and extended stories, I'd also like to share some miscellaneous tidbits that I pick up from keeping my ears open around the Games.

It was estimated that about 80% of the employees at the camp are Australian, due in large part to the fact that Cleanevent began in Australia. A couple of our roomies are Australian, and we were chatting with Jacinta the other day about assorted things, like conversions between American measurements and metric. Fun fact: while Aussies use the metric system for almost everything, they still refer to their own height in feet and inches, and when babies are born their weight is given in pounds and ounces. Every other distance and weight measurement is given in metric. We're also learning dialectic lingo. For instance "tukes" are what we'd call beanies or skull caps (in both Canada and Australia). Jacinta also calls flashlights "torches".

Paul Lovett, the brother of Cleanevent founder Craig Lovett, mentioned in our meeting last night about the five levels of security at the venues. The front lines are volunteers, who direct us to venues and scope out our accreditation. Next are the local police, followed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then the Canadian military. Apparently there are also many Secret Service snipers hiding in the hills, and helicopters circling constantly. While the idea of snipers is a bit unsettling, at least I know that VANOC is taking every safety precaution!

At work today a woman from VANOC's Snow Cleaning and Waste department explained to us about the Games' sustainability goal in terms of recycling. The Games are aiming to divert 85% of the waste generated at the venues from the landfills. All the paper plates, utensils, and coffee cups are made out of compostable material (corn) and can therefore be thrown into the same receptacles as banana peels and muffin crumbs. Someone keeps track of the percentages, and the venues are ranked in how well they are meeting the standard. Currently WSC is only diverting 58% of the waste, and are ranked 9th out of the 17 overall, but 5th out of the 7 mountain venues. One of the Cleanevent girls today was working on making fool-proof signs to show crew and spectators alike what trash goes where.

I snapped this photo before Jessie could tape the Coke and Dasani bottles to the left of the red recycling symbol. Coke one of the three major sponsors (along with Visa and McDonalds) so only Coke products are sold.

Sitting in a cafe with free WiFi tonight, I chatted with a guy named Ryan from Saskatchewan who is volunteering with VANOC. We've all been pretty jealous of VANOC's awesome uniforms, so I was curious as to what other cool things volunteers got out of the deal. Apparently they don't even get housing or any real access to events, so I am no longer as envious of their materialistic superiority and I am more grateful for all that Cleanevent has given me. 

I Take A Gondola To Work

Today was FINALLY my first day of work, at the Whistler Sliding Center (WSC). I took the 7:00AM Cleanevent shuttle to Function Junction, then hopped the #2 bus up to the top of Whistler Village. From there we had two options to get to the WSC, but bus #77 was certainly not as appealing as taking the gondola (glass-enclosed ski lift) up the mountain. Already, I loved my venue.

From inside my gondola, looking at another

Interns from University of South Carolina have already been here for a month, stationed at each venue, and are responsible for training us. Nikki is the intern at the WSC, and she is basically the assistant to the Cleanevent venue manager, an awesome laid-back American named Scott.

Our main responsibility is manning the Helpdesk at our assigned venue. This is where calls relating to our cleaning / snow removal services are directed; we answer the phones, gather information about the cleaning need, and then radio the employees assigned to that part of our venue and instruct them to take care of the situation. At the WSC, there are five "areas", but our team is generally broken down into three groups. Area 1 is the top of the venue, where the Mens' and Womens' Start are. Areas 2, 3, and 4 are the mid-track, including where the Finish Dock and Olympic Family Viewing Tent are. At the bottom are Lots 7 and 8 - Lot 7 includes our office and the Worker Break Tent (where we eat), and Lot 8 is home to the Media Center and storage shed for the athletes' equipment.  

After dispatching our employees to take out the trash, vacuum the rug, shovel a walkway, or whatever else the caller might need, we enter the details of the "issue" into the Cleanevent database, so much of my training today was how to use the CMS system (I believe it stands for Cleanevent Management System). I was also able to walk around with Nikki to the Finish Dock, and later in the afternoon we took the shuttle up to the top starting area, which is about 1.5 miles up an extremely steep mountain (hence the need for the shuttle).

There will be two other interns working at the WSC besides myself and Nikki, including Holly from JWU Providence. Since that's more staff than is really necessary, on Friday we're going to work out our schedules around what competition events and concerts we'd like to go to. Each site is issued a certain number of 2nd Part Passes to the venue, and when there are extras other CE employees/interns have the opportunity to get into the venues for the events. Also since we will have extra interns on our venue, we'll be able to each take about 30-45 minutes to walk up and check out the action while on shift.

One other thing I enjoyed about the WSC today was the international diversity of the staff. At lunch today there was an Australian guy, a German girl, a Swiss girl, and a couple of French guys. There are a few more Australians, another Frenchman, and a Czech that I know of who are assigned to our venue as well, and I think the employees will be shifting around during the Games a bit according to the need of a particular venue on any given day.

Tomorrow I have a venue tour of WOP - the Whistler Olympic Park (cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, and nordic combined), followed by class. Thursday I'm back at WSC, but Nikki has class so Holly and I will be "in charge", after one day of training each! Should be an adventure...

Here are a few shots of the venue that I got today. I saw a few athletes around, including some Italians, a German, and a bunch of Czechs, but not in great picture range.

The official emblem in the ice at Mens' Start

One of the turns

Looking down the track

This is down by the finish. The athletes get going so fast that in order to slow down, they have to loop around and go back uphill quite a ways before they lose enough momentum to stop, so they actually come up from the bottom of this picture.

Wait for it...wait for it...

(Written on Monday 2/8 - my internet is spotty!)

I wish I could explain to you the exhilaration that’s building and bubbling inside me, and make it as tangible for you as the Official Olympic Accreditation that now hangs around my neck.

I woke up multiple times during the night on Sunday, mostly just because I was too excited to sleep. Despite going to bed at 1:00AM, I got out of bed at 6:40 after laying awake since 6:00. I am so ready to begin!

At 10:00AM we met the shuttle bus and were taken to get our accreditation, which is our credentials / access pass. We were told that our accreditation was our lifeline – without it we would not be able to gain access to anything, and therefore were required to wear it at all times. All we had to do was show our passports, and the documentation had been preprinted for us per Cleanevent.

My general accreditation. I need a "Second Part Pass" to access particular venues.

After asking a few people, we determined that OCOG stands for Organizing Committee Olympic Games. In addition to getting us into venues, this accreditation gives us free transportation on the public buses, two of which have been set up especially for the Games.

After gaining our accreditation, a guy from the camp office (Joey) gave us a walking tour of the Whistler Village, which is the town center (not to be confused with the Whistler Athletes’ Village, which is the residential area for the competitors). We were able to see things like the Medals Plaza, where nightly concerts will be held, and there was a ski lift right in the middle of all the shops. Our credentials will also get us discounts on rentals and lift tickets, so I may look into that…

Walking around the Village was fascinating, and I plan to spend most of my free time hanging out there, people watching and soaking in the experience as much as possible. Olympic fever is certainly omnipresent here in Whistler.

We ate lunch in town, then walked to a bus stop where we hopped on one of the public buses to Function Junction, another hub of activity and one of two pick-up/drop-off spots for the Cleanevent shuttles. The other is across the street at the Athlete’s Village.

In the afternoon we had an orientation to the camp, and our academic adviser came to speak with us about “Cleanevent Academy”, which is the educational program the company has set up for the student interns. He created a binder with extensive information on topics such as Event Production, Facility Operations, Risk Management Operations, Revenue Sources, and the list goes on and on. He asked us to read the section on In-House Versus Contract Services for our next “class”. It was also confirmed that we will have guest speakers from VANOC and IOC, among other organizations.

The entire day, as we kept hearing more and more about all the amazing experiences we would have over the next three weeks, I was practically jumping out of my skin in anticipation. The wait to find out my schedule and the venue I would be assigned to was excruciating!

FINALLY, at about 8:30PM, I found out that I was assigned to the Whistler Sliding Center, the venue for bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge – my ideal location since finding out that interns are not being placed at Cypress Mountain (due to the long travel time). I was ecstatic! Fortunately I was able to start there the very next day, whereas some interns had “class” before ever going to their venue.

It took me quite awhile to quiet my mind enough to go to sleep and get some rest before my first day working at the OLYMPICS!

"We're Living In Containers"

As my departure date grew closer, people began to ask more logistical questions, such as what my living situation would be. At first I’d laugh and say “I’m pretty sure it’s a trailer park”. Some of my friends then corrected me that the location we’re staying at is Whistler RV Park, which sounds a little better.

We were all a little off the mark…

When we arrived we got off the shuttle van and entered the “office”, which looks like a portable storage unit. From there an intern from the University of South Carolina, who has been here for a month already, gave us a mini tour on the way to our room. First we passed the dining car…I mean hall. I was beginning to feel a bit like the Boxcar Children books. Then there was a similar structure that is the girls’ washroom. It has four showers and four toilet stalls. Next to that there is a “building” (I use that term loosely) that has the boys’ bathroom and showers as well as another girls’ shower and two toilets.

Off to the right another “building” was the rec room, which has a projector and screen, DVD player, Wii, etc. Behind it there was a bonfire and a lot of the male staff had gathered around it, watching Kings of Leon being projected on the back of the white outer wall. Right next to the rec room is our home sweet home.

It’s a storage unit. In the main room there are five bunk beds. To the right of the entrance is another room with one bunk bed, and two girls from the workforce have been living there for a while now. To the left of the door is another small room, which currently has no door and a few scattered items in it. There’s one barred window in the main room, with a sticker that says “Accurate Alarms”. I don’t think we’ll be opening it.

I was worried about being cold, but now I doubt I’ll use the comforter that I brought. It’s so hot in our room! While we unpacked and got settled in we kept the door ajar, but we closed it overnight. Our room doesn’t lock, but we don’t have much of a choice but to trust the other staff. We were told there was a room with lockers and I had brought a padlock, but last night I just slept with my computer (my only thing of real value) on my bed.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, here are some photos I took this morning.

Camp Cleanevent Office

The backside (entrance) to the large women's washroom

Laundry room (far left), men's washroom (middle), women's washroom (far right)

Our "building", K

The View

I have to say, I continually reminded myself in the days and weeks leading up to this trip to not glamorize it in my mind. I’m focusing on being grateful that my housing and living conditions are clean, safe, warm, and dry. We’re going to be working very long days and the camp is accommodating around 200 people, so there will always be things to do and people to meet. I’m not concerned about being bored or stuck in the room. It meets my basic needs of a place to sleep, and that’s all I can really ask. I understand that it’s such an expense for the company to run this camp, and I’d say they’ve done alright by me so far.

Sitting in the dining hall this morning, Sydney was reading someone's horoscope and it mentioned something about containers. She laughed and said "that's funny, because we're living in containers". As long as we can all laugh about the situation and focus our minds on more important things, I know we'll be fine.

Clearing Customs

I arrived in Whistler last night! The internet wasn’t cooperating so the post is only going up now.

It was a fairly uneventful day of traveling. I was flying solo because my dad’s airline miles were on United, whereas my friends all chose American Airlines. I left Providence at 7:15AM EST and finally arrived at the Cleanevent Camp at 10:30PM local time, or 1:30AM EST. Then it was time to settle in, meet people, clean up, etc. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

The only thing of real note between my two flights were the gates I boarded in: C15 in Boston and B14 from my layover in Chicago. Fourteen and fifteen are my two lucky numbers, so I smiled to myself at this friendly omen.

When I arrived at the Vancouver airport it was quite a trek to get to customs, but I can’t complain because along the way there were beautiful aboriginal exhibits, complete with extensive water features. If I hadn’t been alone and anxious to clear customs, I would have stopped for a few photo opps. Perhaps on the return trip.

I had expected long lines at immigration, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the only passengers there were the ones who had disembarked just before me from my flight. Line 15 caught my eye and I patiently waited my turn. The man behind the counter wasn’t openly smiling, but he had kind eyes and a gentle demeanor.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of my friends (Marc) had been denied at the border crossing the day before, but I was careful to hide the twang of nervousness that tickled the back of my brain. After handing over my passport, the customs agent asked the purpose of my visit and I responded as instructed: “I am a volunteer intern for a company called Cleanevent in Whistler”. When he requested documentation to that effect, I presented the letter I had received via email that morning. I apologized for its wrinkles, and after reading through the pages briefly he said “Okay, have a nice trip”, and I was free to enter the country.

Once at baggage claim I received a text from Marc asking me to let him know when I got in. Assuming that he, too, was at the airport to wait for the shuttle I called him back expecting to meet up soon. Unfortunately luck had not been on his side today, as he was again denied entry into Canada. He told me he would stay the night in Seattle and try again, and expressed his frustration at the unfairness of the situation. I have to agree with him there – why is the same document permissible for me, yet not for him?

Luggage in hand, I headed upstairs to the foodcourt where I enjoyed sushi and free wireless. The football game was on, and whenever I heard wild cheering I turned to watch the screen. I kept hearing cowbells, but it wasn’t until after the game had ended that I saw where they were coming from. A group of Canadians were decked out in bells and other metal that added to the cling and clatter. One even had a giant Canadian flag. They walked around cheering, not at the game, but out of excitement and patriotism inspired by the imminent Games. While the racket wasn’t pretty, I appreciated their enthusiasm.

Time at the airport passed quickly and soon the other five girls joined me. We lounged at the Fairmont briefly before our shuttle arrived. Don, a older Irishman, loaded our many bags into the van and I hopped in shotgun to help with the navigation. Though hired as a driver for Cleanevent, it was Don’s first airport pickup and the quickly descending darkness complicated things.

I helped Don scout out the signs along the road to find our way. There were sections with many meaningless signs and stretches with minimal signage, but what was frustrating was that even main route numbers were not clearly marked. There are no bright blue interstate signs here, which made choosing the right route more like a scavenger hunt.

The other thing Don wanted me to watch for were changes in speed limits. It was sometimes hard to pick them out amongst the sea of other signs, and Don also had to concern himself with translating the kilometers per hour from the signs into the miles per hour that were marked with large numbers on his speedometer. Police officers were everywhere, and he didn’t want to get pulled over for speeding.

I learned that night that there is only one road from Vancouver to Whistler. To increase efficiency on Highway 99, two lanes became three. Yellow stakes with reflectors on top were placed in the road to create a middle lane, which sometimes flowed toward Whistler and other times away. There were signs on the side of the road to let you know the direction of the middle lane, but it changed based on the time of day and the exact location of the stretch of three lanes.

Another effect the three lanes had was to push the outer lanes towards or sometimes into the shoulder. There was also a bike lane, but I hope nobody risks that perilous cycling trip with the extra Olympics traffic on the road. There were stretches of road with profound darkness, which made the glare of oncoming headlights and the glow of the reflectors particularly unpleasant. The stakes in the road also cause shadows when the cars passed such that once I thought a person was trying to cross the road.

During the ride I began to casually ask Don questions, unable to quench my innate inquisitiveness. Some he was able to answer, some he wasn’t, and some he didn’t elaborate on because he was concentrating so hard on the road ahead.

Supposedly the views would have been spectacular had there been daylight to see by. We hugged a steep rocky face on our right, but we were told that the black abyss to our left was at times a another steep drop, at others a harbor. Again, the trip back may be the time to enjoy this.

After what seemed an eternity of anticipation (which had begun in October), we arrived at the place we will call home for the next three weeks…

Assurance

I woke up to some relief this morning!

In my email I found a letter personally addressed to me from Cleanevent that I was able to print to present to immigration upon entering Canada. A friend of ours who is also going had some troubles at the border crossing last night, but this letter should clear that up.

We also received 13 other documents that outline in detail the educational program components we are to receive. It looks like everything is coming together!

It's time now to leave for my bus to the airport! My next post will come from Canada!