Fairmont, Olympic Family, and Cupcakes

On Wednesday morning I arranged for myself a tour of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler. I was taken around the property by a young woman from the Sales Office named Andrea. She apologized that she could not show me any guest rooms because they were at full occupancy, but that's great news from a hotel standpoint. I was able to see one function space, the dining and retail facilities, and the health club/spa. Fairmont even has a Mountain Adventure Club where lift tickets and ski rentals can be purchased. There's a chairlift out the back door, making the hotel an ideal accommodation for skiers. The Fairmont even has their own bobsled in the lobby!

On the bus back to Athlete's Village last night I rode with the mother and sister of American bobsleigh bronze medalist Elana Meyers. Her mom was telling us that Elana used to be a softball player but softball is no longer an Olympic sport, so Elana turned to bobsled. "I personally think she picked the craziest sport she could think of" her mother joked. The sad part of the story is that Elana's family never received any accreditation, nor did the families of any other American bobsled athletes. This has created a lot of hassle and frustration for the families, who have had difficulty gaining access to the Athlete's Village, the Sliding Center, and the special Olympic Families areas. Mrs. Meyers didn't seem to be putting the blame on VANOC, but rather on the U.S. Bobsleigh Team for not arranging the necessary credentials.


The other night when Holly and I got off work, we had a clear mission in mind: cupcakes. Holly said she knew of a place that sold really good cupcakes that she wanted to try. Scott dropped us off a the Gondola Transit Exchange and we walked along the road on the outside of the village until we got down to the Bus Loop by Blenz. Holly could have sworn the cupcake place was in that area, but all we could find was the creperia that she also wanted to try. Not sure we had enough time for crepes, we asked some VANOC volunteers if they knew where the cupcake place was. One guy did, and directed us up to the Visitor's Center. We hurried up there, but it was a longer walk than we had anticipated. When we finally got there, we were dismayed to find that is was closed for the evening (it was, after all, 9:30PM). Pressed for time, we hurried back to the bus stop. The number 10 bus had passed us on our way up, and it was imperative that we didn't miss the next one if we were to make the 10:15 Cleanevent shuttle. When we returned to the bus stop we were the only ones waiting for the 10. Knowing that we had a few minutes before the next one arrived - and that when it did it always sat for a few more minutes - Holly took off jogging to the Starbucks, which she suddenly remembered sold red velvet cupcakes. She returned triumphantly just a moment before the 10 rounded the bend. We decided that it was actually the ideal situation because if we had gone to Starbucks in the first place we would not have gotten the exercise that we did on our fail first attempt. Since Holly purchased both cupcakes, we agreed that we'd have to go again on my treat...

More Medals, More Music

My buddy Steve came through for us again! I was one row back from the front of the mosh pit fence for the Medals Ceremony and The Fray concert. I'll let the pictures tell the story

This is Fred, who played a hilarious role in the movie A Guy Thing (starring Jason Lee and Julia Stiles - it's a great movie). His job is to entertain the crowd before the ceremony begins. He does trivia and reads his "Top 5" list of events and results around the Games.

Team Russia took gold in Biathlon Women's 4 x 6km Relay, France took silver, and Germany took bronze. There were three Russians in the crowd directly in front of me who cheered and sang loud and proud.

The medalists for Men's Alpine Skiing Giant Slalom. Kjetil Jansrud - NOR (left), Carlo Janka - SUI (center), Aksel Lund Svindal - NOR (right)

The medalists for Men's Nordic Combined 4 x 5km Team. Team USA - silver (left), Team Austria - gold (back), Team Germany - bronze (right). I love Germany's uniforms - blue for boys, pink for girls!

Isaac Slade, lead singer of The Fray

Isaac and lead guitarist Dave Welsh, with Ben Wysocki on drums in the back left corner. He makes weird faces while he plays.

Isaac sat at the piano...

...and sang on the piano

Someone threw a Canada scarf onto the stage and he wore it for the rest of the show

This photo is not zoomed at all. That's how close I was to the stage!

I Love Information

Yesterday we toured the Media Center, which is housed in the Whistler Convention Center in the center of the town. We saw the public press areas in the front, and nearby there were rows and rows of documents of information organized alphabetically by sport, and then labeled according to the topic of the document. My eyes went straight to the Luge section, which still had papers sitting in the cubbies despite the fact that luge competition had ended last week.

Excited by the potentially valuable information those documents contained, I got our tour guide (a Cleanevent team leader) to snag me one of every document we dared to take, since we weren’t sure if we’d get in trouble if caught. The pieces I took contain lots of background information about the sport and the Sliding Center, as well as some Games News. I ranked the Flash Quotes and Press Conference transcripts lowest on my list of priorities, so we abandoned those in favor of quitting while we were ahead. I might ask Sara to get some more next time she goes to work…

The most interesting document, i.e., the one containing the most random facts, is “Luge by the Number”. The following are some highlights.

•    153.93 – top speed in km/h reached in Men’s Luge on the Whistler Sliding Center track
•    104.6 – cost in millions of Canadian dollars to build the Whistler Sliding Center track
•    65 – number of Olympic medals won in Luge events [out of a possible 108] by German competitors since 1964. Twenty-nine were won under the banner of East Germany, 10 by West Germany, and 26 as Germany (GER).
•    46.808 – time in seconds of the Men’s Singles Luge course record at the Whistler Sliding Center, set by Felix Loch (GER) during a World Cup run on February 21, 2009.
•    14 – a total of 14 different Luge competitors at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games have a relative also competing in a Luge event.
•    8 – birthdays celebrated by four females and four male Luge athletes during the Vancouver Games
•    2.5 – average thickness in centimeters of the ice on the Whistler Sliding Center track. Depending on the turn and the sport, the thickness can range from two to five cm.
•    -5 – temperature, in degrees Celsius, that ice makers try to maintain for the Whistler Sliding Center track, the ideal temperature for achieving the fastest speeds with the most consistency.

Okay, I understand that you aren’t all as obsessed with Luge as I have become, so I’ll add some more photos from my tour of the Media Center.

A floor plan showing part of the building and where each media broadcaster is housed. Some of these offices, such as Canadian Olympic Committee, have leather couches and refridgerators.

You cannot imagine the sheer volume of cords that run all through this place. The cages had to be built to sustain the weight, and this isn’t even one of the thickest bundles!

We got to sit at THE press conference table! Some OBS guys came in and out while we were there, but they couldn’t have cared less.

There is no assigned seating in here – all the media just comes in and picks whatever vantage point they want.

I got to stand outside NBC’s room!

"Don't Do That"

Bus 10, “The Games Express”, is really my favorite bus. Not only is it the quickest way to get to Blenz – I mean, the Whistler Village – it is also frequently used by athletes since it terminates at Athlete’s Village. We usually head straight to the seats in the back of the bus, and the other night two young German athletes were sitting across the back as well. Sydney and Charlotte Sarah were the closest to them, and this is really their story.

As the bus zipped along through the dark, it made a couple of stops at which no one got on or off. Sarah picked up on this and, nudging Sydney, pointed to one of the German guys who had his arm wrapped around the yellow cord. Each time he moved, the “stop requested” light lit up and the driver pulled over and opened his doors.

Sydney turned to the kid and, in a surprisingly serious voice, said the most obvious thing she could think of: “don’t do that”. The kid looked at her with a shocked expression on his face, unwound his arm from the cord and placed it in his lap as she burst out laughing in his face. Suddenly a sense of realization overcame him. “That,” he pointed to the cord, “open door?” “Yes!” Sydney nodded, and soon both Germans joined in her laughter. It was hilarious.

Whistler's Live Music Scene

This past weekend featured some extraordinary live music around Whistler. It began after the medal’s ceremony on Saturday night with a band I had never heard of called Stars. Almost instantaneously after the conclusion of the ceremony the back wall of the stage rotates around, bringing the band out with it.

The instruments were covered in floral arrangements, and at first I thought they were tacky silk flowers. Not too long into the show, however, the guitarist dressed head to toe in spandex grabbed some of the flowers and hurled them into the crowd. They were real roses! I caught a white one that was in full bloom. Sydney and someone else caught roses as well.

My beautiful rose! Too bad it's perishable and can't come home with me.

On Sunday after horseback riding I took the bus to Creekside for another delicious lunch at Samurai Sushi and then went back into town. Unsure of what exactly I was going to do, I got off the bus at the top of the village and walked down through the congested streets. There was a huge crowd in the Village Square listening to a concert at Whistler Live. After navigating across the two slow-moving lanes of pedestrian traffic, I stood at the edge of the crowd to listen. The band was awesome! I asked someone next to me what the band it was, and a girl told me they were called Sam Roberts Band, a Canadian group. Not only did I love their music, they put on a great concert complete with crowd interaction. The lead singer, Sam Roberts, made a point of acknowledging the accomplishments of the athletes, which I really appreciated. When they were finished, I promptly headed to Blenz to download their CDs from iTunes.

On the way down to Blenz, however, I made a few more stops. First I watched some speed skating with French commentary at the Omega bobsled, and was entertained by a marching band of middle school aged kids. I also received a cool gray hat that says Omega - Official Timekeeper and has the Olympic rings on it in white.

I paused again on my way to Blenz to listen to an acoustic cover of Wonderwall outside The Brewhouse right before the duo moved inside to escape the onset of dropping temperatures. What you cannot fully appreciate is that the space between Whistler Live, where Sam Roberts was playing, and The Brewhouse is only a few city blocks and in that space I heard three very different live performances. I understand that the frequency of free outdoor concerts is not a normal Whistler occurrence but rather due to the presence of the Games, yet Whistler does traditionally host live music performances in their many bars.

As I continued my walk toward Blenz I called Steve Ernst, the VANOC employee who had escorted us into the mosh pit for the Medals Ceremony the night before, to see if he could get five of us in to Medals that night for the OneRepublic concert. “Regrettably” (his words, so sincerely Canadian) he had the night off and he apologized that he would not be able to get us in, but he encouraged me to hang onto his number and call him for any other shows we wanted to get in to.

Fortunately, as we watched the end of the Medals Ceremony (including Bode Miller’s gold!) we saw that the Plaza was quickly emptying after the conclusion of the ceremony. We listened to the first OneRepublic song from our perch on the wall at the playground, then made the decision to enter the quickly moving standby line. By the end of the second song of the set, we were inside the Plaza. We moved our way up towards the front and enjoyed an awesome performance by one of my favorite bands. They played a good mix of new and old stuff, and I downloaded the new album the first chance I got.

Just as the Sam Roberts Band did, OneRepublic put on a great show including giving respect to the athletes and interacting with the crowd. The lead singer, Ryan Tedder talked about walking around Whistler and noticing that the whole town smelt like maple syrup. He joked that he wasn’t sure if it was because of all the Canadian flags featuring the maple leaf, but then explained that they learned a local business had been handing out maple candies to all the kids running around.

I also have to give props to OneRepublic’s music for incorporating instruments such as the cello (which I LOVE!!!), the viola, and the glockenspiel (similar to a xylophone). They’re from Colorado, so hopefully I’ll get more chances to see them when I move out there this summer.

 OneRepublic cellist / base guitarist, Brent Kutzle

OneRepublic violist / lead guitarist / backup vocalist Zach Filkins.

Yesterday Steve Ernst went out of his way to call me to again apologize for not being able to get me in to the mosh pit for OneRepublic, and to let me know he was working the rest of the week. I was so touched by this, and reassured that he was genuinely happy to get us in. He said the only concert that might be an issue is Usher, which I wasn’t planning on going to anyway. I will, however, be calling him tonight to get us into The Fray!

Pemberton, Eh?

I spent a clear blue-skyed Sunday morning on horseback with a mumbling Canadian named Bob.

Bus 99 to Pemberton was a beautifully scenic journey, marred only by the filth coating the large glass windows. Mountains towered above me, still bearing scattered spots of snow towards the peaks. Rivers in deep ravines hurried past, not impeded by the smattering of boulders large and small. No more than three men rode on the mid-morning bus with me simultaneously for the half-hour duration; all of us were silently lost within our own minds.

I disembarked the bus alongside the railroad tracks, and had the faintest feeling that I had stepped back in time to an Old West cowtown. With a blue sign reading "Trail Rides" as my guide, I turned off Frontier Street at the edge of town. Not seeing the large log cabin as promised, I approached the nearest two men, who were loading supplies into the back of a pickup.

As I stated my inquiry one of the men turned around, causing me to do a doubletake. He was average-looking man in his mid-40's, and my mind raced from thought to thought trying to place him. He certainly was not from home or school, nor could I link him to Camp Cleanevent. "You work at the Sliding Center, right?" he asked, also puzzling over seeing me out of context. That was it! He works for Kelly doing mechanized snow removal and is often in the large shared portion of our office trailer. How strange it feels to have been here long enough to randomly bump into people that I know outside of the capacity in which I know them!

Following the direction of his finger, I continued down the road until it abruptly terminated at the log home. A tall cowboy named Bob came and greeted me warmly, speaking his Canadian mumble just as he had on the phone, eh? As we headed inside the garage / tack room / craftsman area, three friendly black Border Collies with sleek gleaming coats scrambled out to welcome me. In a flash I signed a liability waiver, strapped on a helmet, and mounted a Quarter Horse named Honey.

Honey's stride was much shorter than that of the lead horse Pacha, but I didn't mind the smooth trot she employed to keep up the pace. We ambled through the village, observing the townspeople out for a Sunday stroll with their dogs and/or kids. Before heading into the shaded woods we even climbed over a snowbank in someone's backyard and passed Kelly in his truck.

From my unique vantage point I could see the tracks of moose, deer, and some sort small wild cat weaving to and fro beside the riverbank, as well as staggering mountains that failed to shield the brilliant late-morning sun. We plunged belly-deep into the brook and crossed up behind a Swiss cow and cheese farm. It was here that we cantered down the snowy lane with sun at our backs.

Words don't do horseback riding justice. There's something intangible and indescribable about the bond between horse and rider. It's quite humbling to trust another living being so deeply, especially considering the superiority complex we arrogant humans have. This ride was a refreshing reminder that magic lives beyond the Olympics, and that I will find it wherever I seek it.

Feeling Like VIPs

Saturday morning I had an opportunity to switch out to the Athlete's Village and work with Sydney instead of working at the Sliding Center, so I took it. I was only there a few hours but Craig Madigan, Cleanevent's Project Manager, was there filling in for the Village's venue manager and I was able to ask him lots of questions.

First, I was able to learn what some of the acronyms scattered around these Games mean. At the Sliding Center, for instance, we get lots of calls from two women who work for "VCC". They usually tell us about issues that someone else told them, and now that I know that VCC stands for Venue Communication Center, that makes so much more sense! He explained that OBS stands for Olympic Broadcast Service. These people are take all the footage of the Games and then sell it to the various networks around the world. Their snowsuit uniforms look a lot like Italy's, and I think Romania's too.

My conversation with Craig was scattered throughout my browsing Cleanevent's Manual for the Village. It's confusing enough that there's Whistler Village (the center of town) and Athlete's Village (about 15 minutes outside of town in a highly secure area housing competitors and their crews). The abbreviation for the Whistler Athlete's Village is WVL, for Vancouver it's VVL, and on a 2nd Part Pass that allows access to both, it's just VL. Looking over this book, however, I saw a document containing meeting minutes from October that referred to the venue as OVW, for Olympic Village Whistler.

I commented on this to Craig, and he agreed that it was confusing and explained that various groups throughout (and during) the process refer to the same place in a slew of different ways. The construction team may call something one thing, the Overlay department another, and the venue manager still another. From my position at the Cleanevent Help Desk, this jumble of terms is often difficult to unravel. When Vicky or Lisa from VCC call with an issue, they can only describe the location as well as the person who told it to them, and then I have to gather as many details as possible so that I can ensure my team knows where to go. Each (or most, anyway) trailer at the WSC is labeled - for instance, ours is 7-2 because we are the second trailer in Lot 7. I was surprised to find, however, that the Sliding Center is the only venue labeled as well as that. Apparently it was at the venue manager's discretion. Craig expressed frustration about this, and then proceeded to show me on CE's database how well the Australian Formula 1 labels their venue. Every single location, down to individual porter toilets and propane gas tanks, is micromanaged with a sticker on it that says "Problems with this facility? Call ______ and site #----". In CE's system each number is attached to all important information about it, including what area it's located in and who is in charge of handling problems. Rather than receiving calls such as "The portapotties near the Workforce Break Tent need toilet paper" and then making Jan check 12 toilets, we would be getting calls like "4014 needs toilet paper". If it was something more complex than that and we had follow-up questions, the contact's name, phone number, and email would be attached to that reference number. That would make our lives so much easier!

So far this post has nothing to do with the title, eh? I'm getting there...

I went to Blenz in the afternoon, the home-base for all the interns. I'll have to do a blog spotlighting Blenz, complete with pictures. I love this place!

After getting my internet fix I met up with the rest of the girls, who were buying awesome bags at great sale prices. I get bored with shopping exceptionally easily, however, so I asked Colleen if she wanted to go check out the Jamaican House a few doors down. I had seen a T-shirt in the window that I instantly fell in love with, and we had heard that members of the 1988 Jamaican Bobsled Team were signing autographs. (If you haven't seen Cool Runnings, go watch it. Now. If you have seen it, watch it again. Love it.)

We headed down into the basement of The Savage Beagle, which has been turned into the Jamaican House for the Games. First we stopped at the Jamaican team's sponsor table. MoneyGram, a service like Western Union, had giveaway baggies that included a small Jamaican flag, a lanyard, a keychain, a signed poster, and a book-on-tape about the '88 team. The girls there then directed me to another table where the shirts were sold. I got a green one with a shield on the back and a small logo on the front. It's awesome! (Photo to come).

From there we headed upstairs, where Devon Harris was hanging out signing autographs and posing for pictures. We had to wait our turn a little bit, but then I introduced myself and asked him to sign my shirt. We chatted with him the whole time, and it turns out he's now a motivational speaker. He gave me his card and I'm going to try to bring him to JWU this spring! He also wrote a children's book and has another book coming out soon. I told him I worked at the Sliding Center and asked if he'd be at the bobsled competitions later this week, but he said he didn't have tickets. "I can get you in!" I exclaimed, then reason caught up with me. "Do you have accreditation?" He didn't, so I explained that if he did I could have gotten him a 2nd Part Pass but without the initial accreditation it was worthless. As it is, he's leaving on Wednesday for a speaking engagement. All in all, this was an EPIC athlete encounter!

Me and Devon Harris - a legend!

That evening Craig Madigan was taking all the interns out for a drink. He told me this earlier in the day at WVL, to which I said "Oh." When he and the other girl in the office just stared at me I explained "I don't drink, but I'll still go". We hadn't been there long when the maintenance guy, "Super Dave" Brown, offered to take anyone who was interested to the Medals Ceremony. All of us from the Providence campus, plus Charlotte Sarah (an honorary Prov girl) jumped at the opportunity and grabbed our coats to follow Dave down to Medals Plaza. He has a buddy (Steve) who works for VANOC, and all we had to do was hop in line, no tickets required. We went through the metal detector before anyone even asked us for tickets, and then we gave our instructed response "We were in the Standby line". Those six words were enough to let us glide right in. Once we crossed that threshold, Steve quickly ushered us up to the front and into the Mosh Pit, directly adjacent to the Olympic Family area. SO AWESOME! We felt like VIPs!

We were so stoked to be there!

The guy you can see in the screen on the back said his name was Fred and he was the emcee before the ceremony began. I turned to the group and asked if anyone had seen the movie A Guy Thing. Only Jessie had, and she agreed that he looked like the guy from the pharmacy who ends up cooking the rehearsal dinner. I just IMDb'ed him, and he is!

The first medals presented were for Women's Skeleton. I watched heats 1 and 2 on Thursday, but had to work from 12-10:30PM on Friday and couldn't watch the finals. Brit Amy Williams took gold, the first individual gold medal for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics in 30 years. Two Germans finished behind her, Kerstin Szymkowiak earned silver and Anja Huber took bronze. While the British national anthem played, I continually glanced away from the flags and back at the athletes, watching Kerstin become completely overwhelmed with emotion. It was already a magical night.

Kerstin - GER (left), Amy - GRB (center), Anja - GER (right)

We were quite close to the stage, as you can see.

The next medals awarded were the biggest deal of the night. The first Canadian gold in Whistler was awarded to Jon Montgomery for Men's Skeleton. Late on Friday night I could hear the cheering in the spectator areas all the way from my office in Lot 7. Canada was pumped! As I mentioned before, we were standing right next to the Olympic Family section, so his family were all gathered there. As the athletes make their exit across the stage, many of them throw their bouquets into the crowd; Jon threw his perfectly into his mother's arms. Not long after, Colleen received a text from her mom saying that she saw us on T.V.! We'll be going again on Tuesday (now that I have Steve's number) so watch for us!

Martins Dukurs - LAT (left), Jon - CAN (center), Alexander Tretyakov - AUT (right)

Jon Montgomery's family after he threw the bouquet

The next medals awarded were for Ladies' Super-G, in which American Lindsey Vonn finished 3rd behind Andrea Fischbacher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia. The other girls screamed "Yeah Lindsey!!!" a few times and she waved right at them!

Lindsey Vonn getting her bronze medal - this one's for you, Prof. Zacchilli! I know it's not an autograph, but it's the best that I've managed so far

Tina - SLO (left), Andrea -AUT (center), Lindsey - USA (right)

The last medals awarded were for Ski Jumping, Long Hill Individual. The Swiss Simon Ammann won gold, and he was the happiest person on stage that night. Something about his smile radiated positive energy that outshone all the other athletes before him. I can't explain it, but I could just feel his joy so strong. It was truly touching. He seemed to be besties with silver medalist Adam Malysz of Poland, which was also really cute but I felt like bronze medalist Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria was a tad left out. Even still, it was a great group to close out the medals presentations with!

Adam - POL (left), Simon - SUI (center), Gregor - AUT (right)

All in all, Saturday night was one to never forget.