sarah's blog

John shared this video with me on Google Reader and I thought it was worth blogging. It’s a time lapse video of the Winter Olympic set up, rehearsal, opening ceremonies, victory ceremonies and closing ceremonies in BC Place Stadium. It is incredible to see how many times they practiced, opened and closed, set up and tore down. What a four months that must have been.

Look for the light griding that appears on the floors and screening occasionally, that is the planning of all the graphic design and effects we saw. The dates and events are in the bottom left corner so you can follow what is going on.

I was amazed at how they had to take down and set up the victory ceremonies over and over every day because they were rehearsing the closing ceremonies at the same time. And bless their hearts, look how many times those cauldron arms went up and down without a hitch before the big night!

I was going to write three. But it seems life has picked up where it left off before I took an Olympic timeout, and has even sped up a bit maybe.

I’m not saying I have a super busy life, I don’t, it’s just that things are moving along and new stuff is happening and I can’t be two weeks behind on blog posting or I’ll never catch up.

All that being said, let’s do one last post about my Olympic experience and move on. If I posted about more I’d just end up rehashing everything you already read elsewhere and blabbing on about identity and national pride and the like.

However, for a really beautiful description of an Olympic experience, by a self-described non-sports fan (my friend Claire) this is a must-read. Reading her short post made me live it all over again. Go there just to see the picture if nothing else.

As for what else I have left to say about the Olympics, it’s really about the extracurriculars. (more…)

There is just so much I would love to post about when it comes to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, if I hadn’t been so busy soaking up every minute of it I might have been smart about it and posted throughout the two weeks.

But I didn’t.

I let it all collect in my brain and now I have to sort it out and decide what’s worth telling, how to even describe it and make sure it’s not just a rehash of what you already read on ctvolympics.ca. Or nbc.com if you’re in the States. (more…)

While I gather my thoughts post-Olympics and decide how I am possibly going to sum up the experience in a blog post, let’s start with this. I recommend fast forwarding to 1:00 and just being patient so you can get used to what the water sounds like before the city explodes.

I’ll be back.

The other day I got to go pick up my Paralympic Winter Games volunteer gear. I was so impressed with the setup by VANOC and whoever they had contracted to handle the outfitting of volunteers. It was an easy process and they had many people on hand to answer questions, guide you along and generally provide a pleasant experience.

I just followed the coloured tape lines on the floor and weaved around a massive warehouse space getting my picture taken, receiving my accreditation, trying on uniforms and picking up my giant bundle of clothes and swag. I was able to get everything in extra small except one of the long sleeved shirts which was only available in large (how does that happen?) and even got my mountain pants in petite! (more…)

Found a few fun games on the ctvolympics.ca site yesterday, including this: my hockey twins.

Based on our answers to a set of questions I am matched up with a Canadian mens, womens and sledge hockey player.

Turns out I like the same things as these people. (more…)

Today was Valentines Day as well as Chinese New Year and Day 3 of the Olympics. Poor Vancouver, walking through the mall I can tell the stores are having complete marketing overload. Good thing red is the colour of all three events.

We celebrated with John’s sister Janna, sister Adrianne, her husband Gordie and our nephew with some Chinese food from Mr. Ho’s at our place. Add a bowl full of chocolates, some egg tarts and Chinese tea and I think we had the holidays covered.

John took care of ordering and picking up the Chinese food. He also gave me a hilarious card, the orchids you see below and helped clean up the house. What more could a girl ask for on Valentines Day?

Maybe a gold medal. (more…)

As a perk of volunteering for the Paralympic Winter Games I got a free ticket to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies dress rehearsal and the option to purchase one for a guest. We’ll see the show exactly as they plan to do it for the real thing because they need a full audience to gage temperature, sound, lighting, timing, etc.

I went with my fellow volunteer and friend, Beth, to pick them up today. On the way out we got our first bit of volunteer swag: a commemorative bottle of Jackson-Triggs merlot (the official Vancouver 2010 wine supplier. No joke.). I was so excited for the fancy freebie. But it was still awkward riding home on the train with a bottle of red wine in my purse. (more…)

There’s a new album out by an artist I love, Matisyahu. If you’ve never heard of him he’s “an American Hasidic Jewish reggae superstar” who writes songs about his passion for his faith and for God. Yep.

He sings from the Psalms a lot, or (and I might get the spelling wrong so blame Wikipedia) Tehillim‎, תְהִלִּים, or “praises”. I like to imagine that if King David was born today his songs might have sounded like this. Don’t say no right away, just think about it.

This is what Matisyahu says about King David at once of his concerts before he sang the Tehillim, Refuge. (more…)

Let me think back now, need to catch up on the next couple days of eating down the fridge. Because we didn’t have a lot of meat in the house when we started we have very quickly hit a roadblock of not having much to work with. I predict I’ll be at the store by tomorrow getting something to help us make it through the week. I think I could be a vegetarian but because I haven’t been I don’t know how to feel full without some meat in my diet.

Saturday’s meals were a bit altered because I had an all-day training for volunteering at the Paralympics. I’m going to post separately about the day but it definitely saved some money on meals for me.

Let’s get to the facts: (more…)