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...

Tea, Ghost Busters, and Interesting Items

I had a long conversation with an Aussie girl (I'm telling you, Aussies are all over Whistler!) while my laundry was drying the other day. I learned that Australians call dinner "tea", so when they say that they're going to "take tea" they're not sipping flavored hot water with biscuits, but rather are consuming a substantial meal. When I pressed the girl about it she shrugged and said "If we can shorten something to three letters, we do". Interesting, eh?

Tonight I got a call on the helpdesk from a German man who wanted to borrow a vacuum overnight. I ended up having to turn the call over to Scott (who, fortunately, was sitting right there) because I wasn't sure if we had protocol on something like that. In the end Scott told him to come on down and pick it up. He arrived not long after and Scott handed the vacuum to the German. "This is, very cool one...is like, Ghost Busters?" he marveled, clearly in awe of the vacuum that straps onto one's back. "Ghost Busters!" he exclaimed, picking up the contraption with a big grin. I think we just made his night.

Currently on our wall we have a list of "Most interesting thing found on-site". My personal favorites are:

        Found by                   Item                                          Location
#3. Scott/Culley    Dead, possibly sleeping, raccoon*         OBS Compound
#11 Ina                 1 cent :) very rich now!                          Middle section
#13 Culley             Jono's personality                                Lot 9**

*There is a blue sticky note on the list that reads: "Do you mean to say you may have thrown out a SLEEPING raccoon??!??"
**Scott wrote in today "found in a big pile of bear shit".

It's fair to say that I have fun at work.

Fires, Time, and Athletes

When we got home the other night, someone told us that one of the bathrooms had caught fire. I saw a maintenance guy in the closet by the small women's washroom and I asked him about it. He explained that it was just a small fire in the closet of the large women's washroom. They think the broom got too close to the water heater. A couple of girls who went to the bathroom at about 1:30AM found it burning, and it's a good thing they did because it would have spread to the whole trailor! Here's a photo of the scorched patch of floor.

It still smelt like burning.

On Monday evening the girls and I went to see the movie Valentine's Day in a local cinema. When we emerged from the theater and into the Whistler evening, Charlotte Sarah asked if anyone else had forgotten where they were for a minute. "Yes!!!" I agreed, because it was so true. Being here is truly like being in another world. Days on the calendar don't have the same significance as they do back home - there are no Monday Relay For Life meetings, no Tuesday CHS meetings, no Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays. It's as if time and space are frozen here. I'm not looking ahead more than a day at a time because each day holds enough excitement to capture my attention. I'm trying to remind myself every moment that this is an extraordinary experience, and not to let it feel commonplace just because I've nestled into some semblance of a routine here. Each day is to be savored.

This morning we toured Creekside, host of the alpine skiing events. We weren't able to see too much of the venue since we could only go up as far as the base of run, but competition was going on during the tour. We got up to the finish line just as Lindsey Vonn finished her downhill run of the Super Combined event (unfortunately she fell during the Slalom portion and didn't medal). Our 2nd Part Passes didn't get us into the main spectator area because we weren't in uniform, so I couldn't get close enough to get any good pictures of the skiers crossing the finish line, but I could see fairly well. Here are some photos:

We watched from up where those people are at the bottom of the photo

There was a great sushi place just outside Creekside - Blaire and I were so happy!

After that delicious lunch we had some time to kill before our class and didn't want to go back to camp just yet, so we called Sydney and she brought us 2nd Part Passes to the Athlete's Village (I still think it's so cool that we can do stuff like that!). Our mission: accumulate pins! I hadn't been asking people for pins because I didn't have any from Dalton or Mass or USA and I thought the idea behind it was an exchange, but apparently it's acceptable just to ask people for pins. Some people have had good luck from the police officers or other employees at various places. We, however, wanted athletes.

Blaire is determined to get a USA pin, so we stood in WVL near where the athletes go to the dining tent, since it was around lunch time. We spotted some guys in USA jackets right away, and stood awkwardly near them so that we could pounce as soon as they finished their conversation. Soon enough two of them walked toward us a few moments later. "Hi! Where in the US are you from?" Blaire asked. "Actually, we're foreign" a heavily-accented man said. "Oh, well do you happen to have any pins?" she continued. "No, but that guy usually does. You should chase him down," he told us. Glad to have permission to stalk someone, we hurried off after the man our foreign friend had been chatting with. After a few "excuse me!"s he turned around, as did the young guy he was with. We opened again by asking where in the US he was from (Lake Placid, NY) and then I asked the kid he was with "what's your sport?" (which feels a lot like asking "what's your sign?"). He was a luger! We talked to him for a little bit, and he handed Blaire one USA Luge pin - which I want! She said I could have it if she got another USA pin. Let's pray that she does! I had forgotten to look at his accreditation to get his name, but I checked on the Vancouver 2010 website and found out his name is Chris Mazdzer. I'm going to keep my eye out for him at the Sliding Center, because he said he was going to be around for the rest of the Games!

Chris Mazdzer's official photo for the Games

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...)

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.