Today was quite an exciting day. I went downtown at 10am this morning with my cousin Vince and his wife Tami to catch the gold medal hockey game of Canada vs USA in what was sure to be an epic showdown. Unfortunately all the bars and restaurants that had a tv already had long lineups outside already. We wandered around for an hour and a bit to find a place to watch. We even headed to Ontario house by Concord Pacific to try catching the game. We were told by the workers outside “Don’t bother if you’re lined up around the corner, we’re almost filled to capacity” We finally ended up going back to Vince’s friends office to watch the game on a large screen tv with about 25 other people. It was quite an eventful game, we couldn’t believe that the USA tied it up with 24.4 seconds left in the game. It silenced the room, I’m sure it silenced Canada. We went into overtime. Oh what an overtime it was. Sidney Crosby hadn’t scored in nine periods but he made up for it. MADE UP FOR IT LARGE WITH THE GAME WINNING GOAL! It was an incredible and poetic end to the game. Luongo did a great job for us and its great that it was Vancouvers goalie that helped us through. Who am I kidding, all of Team Canada did us proud! It was one of the greatest feelings I’ve had to watch us win.
The aftermath of the game winning gold.
Nothing much to say right now, I’m too pooped from being out almost every night. I’ll let my photos talk.
International Broadcast Center
Today was a big day for Vancouver and Canada. On a gorgeous Sunday February 14th; it was Valentines day and also Chinese New Year. Kristina Groves won a Bronze today in the 3000m speed skating. Finally Canada got its first gold on home soil tonight when Alexandre Bilodeau won it in men’s moguls! I was having Chinese New Year dinner at my parents with my family and when we won gold and I think the neighbors in the next province could hear us cheering. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR ATHELETES! It was a tear jerking moment seeing Alexandre Bilodeau hug his older brother Frederick Bilodeau at Cypress after he won gold.
I was at the Richmond Ozone today to see the sights and enjoy the events on the two large screens.
The 2010 Winter Olympic games have started, last nite I waited for 2 hours to get into LiveCity Yaletown and braved the cold and the rain in my Canada hoodie. It was quite a feeling when Team Canada walked out during the opening ceremonies, the crowd exploded in cheer! Congratulations to Jennifer Heil of Canada for bringing home the Silver medal in moguls! Canada is proud of you!
Vancouver City Hall lies in the background
After work today, I took transit to downtown in hopes of catching Michael Buble run the torch down the Burrard Street Bridge and along Pacific. Well I got there 2 hours before he was supposed to run through since I was anticipating a crowd. I anticipated too well since there was hardly anyone around at the time. That left me time to get some food and by the time I got back to my spot, crowds were starting to form. After an hour, there was several thousand people lining the streets of Burrard and Pacific. It was quite enjoyable to be part of the crowd! Unfortunately Michael Buble didn’t run the torch down, or at least we didn’t get to see him. He was quite personable and took the time to take photos with many spectators as well as letting people rub the Torch for good luck! It’s like…an Olympic Torch Buddha!
*Correction, Michael Buble did run the torch in, the crowd I was in managed to miss him still grrr*
