Athlete's Village

Yesterday was a day that I was in Vancouver for the whole day! It felt really nice, the sun was shining and it was a perfect day to go athlete hunting. My fellow report Samaah and I decided to go to the Athlete's Village and see if we bumped into any athletes. I did not think that we would run into any but I was proven wrong. We met a Turkish Figure Skater, the full interview is on Samaah website which you can find of http://www.studentslive.ca/. We hung around the athlete's village entrance for about two hours since we could not go inside.

While I was waiting I had to take pictures of the city, the view from the Cambie Street Bridge is break taking. I think I will let my pictures do the talking. Unfortunaly blogger is not letting me layout my pictures. So I will make a collage and then post it!

We wandered around and saw some huge solar panels. There were posters of information so we decided to go and take a look. I just realized that I did not clarify where we were, we got off at Olympic Village from the Canada Line. Back to the poster that I was reading, they were showing how Vancouver was a "green city". I personally knew this was true because when I first moved here it seemed that everyone was green. Vancouver is a city that recycles everything and charges a recycling fee on everything. Not that I am complaining I am pro green! The posters were about how the athletes village was green. The village uses the energy from sewage and turns it into energy that can be used for everyday things. The energy is converted into electricity that they uses to heat water, heat houses and many other things. The False Creek area including the Athletes Village has a Platinum LEED rating. This is a very high rating in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. Vancouver is a green city and its 2010 Athletes Village is green too.

I went to my very first hockey game after that!! The Students Live team is so amazing they got last minutes tickets for everyone that could come. I just want to thank Chris Kennedy, Audrey Hobbs, Gary Kern and Christina Adams for creating this program. My first ever hockey game was an Olympic game and I was amazed! Post will be up by tonight!

PICTURES

My Collage of 2010 Winter Vancouver!!

My Day Downtown

After I had finished looking around in the Yaletown LiveCity I decided to hop on the Canada Line a go to the heart of the 2010 Olympic Games. Downtown Vancouver was jam packed with thousands and thousands of people. It made me feel so globally connected because I was standing next to a guy that was from Sweden or Russia or a country that I have never ever heard of! There are so many people in Vancouver from all around the world and it makes Vancouver busy but it also helps show people our stunning city. I spoke to some people that were visiting Vancouver and they are impressed by our city; the love what they are seeing and I think some are thinking of coming back!

The first thing of my list of things to do in the city was go to the Coke Cola Pin Trading Centre in the Olympic Superstore to get two things. I needed the last pin of the CTV pin collection and I was hoping that someone had it and they were willing to trade. I had food poisoning the day they were giving out the pin so I could not get it. The second thing I want was a pin with my picture on it! Unfortunate you had to line up to get inside the Olympic Superstore, and the line was very long. I could not wait in line for that long, it was just way to long for me. Disappointed I walked to West Pender and Granville street.

If you are wondering why I walked there, that is location of the Canadian Mint Pavilion. There was a line to go inside the pavilion but it was medium sized so I waited in line. It was much shorter than the line that let you go and see the 2010 Olympic Medals! If you were willing to wait around three hours you can go inside and touch and see the Olympic medals. I was not that interested and frankly did not have that much patience in me. While waiting I line I started to talk to a couple from Victoria, BC. They did not have any tickets to the Olympic games but were enjoying all the other Olympic items that Vancouver had to offer. They had to leave and still was about half way to the entrance. So I started to talk to the American couple in front of me, they were wearing American jerseys. ☺ They were from North Carolina and had a couple of tickets to the games. They were enjoying their time in Vancouver.

Once I got in the Pavilion I walked around and saw all the different types of coins that the Canadian Mint had made. There was also a video playing on how exactly they make all the different type of coins. I looked around and then found a line of people waiting, they were waiting to take pictures. I joined the line and found out that it was line to take a picture or make a 30 second video of why you are the best Vancouver fan ever. The winner will get a trip to Ottawa to see the Mint, get their face on a coin and other prizes. I decide to take a picture, there were many options to choose from for the picture. I picked one I thought was good. What do you guys think? After that I went to the Gold room to see the 1 Million dollar coin, I did not know that this existed. I was stunned to see a huge pure gold coin weighing 100 kilograms. It looked really pretty, but no longer is worth 1 million dollars. It is now worth around 3.5 million dollars!! ☺☺ WOW! Along with the coin there were other gold coins and items that the mint had made. A very special thing that was their was a real gold bar! Yes, they ones that they show in movies, you can go and take a picture with it. The only catch was that you had to wait in line, but it was short and it was worth the wait. The gold bar is heavy, I could lift it up only for a couple of seconds!

I exited the mint with a new pin and a 2010 circulation quarter, they were trading quarter. I am also collecting the quarter but I am just getting them from my change. I decided to walk back the the Vancouver City Centre skytrain hoping that the line for the Olympic Superstore was now shorter. When I got there the line was much shorter and I was in the store in 15 minutes. The store was full of people buying up all the 2010 Olympic merchandise. I skipped all that and rushed to the Pin Trading Centre. I asked a couple of people did they have a the last CTV pin but sadly no one had it and if they did they are not trading it. So I got my picture in a pin which was fun. I think it turned out good. Don't you?

Tomorrow I will be Downtown again! Hoping to see the BC Pavilion and LiveCity Downtown!!

Yaletown LiveCity

Today I was not in school for most of the day, I was in Downtown Vancouver taking in all the Olympic excitement. My tourism teacher decided that our class would be able to come to the Yaletown LiveCity venue as a field trip. It was a day that a lot of school in the lower mainland were invited to come and see some educational Olympic items. There were different athletes that came and talked to the us, the children were from elementary all the way to high school. There was a performance by a group from the Yukon! They performers were amazing, I loved how they told their way of life in the Yukon all year round. I visited all the sponsor pavilions while I was in the venue.

The Acer Pavilion is really nice, and it doesn't usually have a long line to get inside. Waiting in line is something that I did alto of through out the rest of the day. Inside the pavilion there are Acer computer and many different interactive things to do. The Samsung pavilion is the next thing I waited in line for, it was not a long wait maybe only twenty minutes. Nothing compared to the wait at the Coke Cola pavilion. I am glad I had already gone inside the pavilion before. When inside the Samsung pavilion you get a passport and you can get stickers of the mascots by playing different games. After playing at least one game you receive a scratch and win card. What ever you get on you card is what you win and the top prize being an Omnaia II cellphone, everyone gets a cellphone screen cleaner no matter what. I got the third prize which was a Samsung umbrella, and a cellphone screen cleaner that is coming in handy! Then it was off to the last pavilion the Panasonic which was showing a full 3D movie but I had no time to watch the movie. Instead I made my eco card which gets sent the to the Panasonic website. Check it out at http://eco-ideas.net/

Women's Curling

Yesterday was my 17th birthday, and to celebrate it I got to go to an Olympic Event with my church group. I won my ticket by a little Olympic Trivia, which I am now a pro in. So I am all ready to go to a Victory Ceremony at BC Place when I realized that we were leaving way to late for the victory ceremony. It turned out that I won tickets to Women's Curling at the Vancouver Olympic Centre. It was a pleasant surprise for me and I enjoyed myself! It was a fun experience!

There was three curling games going on at the same time, Great Britain versus Sweden, China versus Switzerland and Russia versus Denmark. The winners of the match was Sweden, China and Russia. I had no clue about curling but by the time I was out of the Centre I was full of knowledge. I was looking confused when a nice Canadian gentlemen asked me if I needed help understanding the game. I knew he was Canadian because of his Canadian jacket! He explained the game to me and then I really got into the game! I was getting fixed on the Swiss vs. the Chinese, the Swiss cheering squad was in the back ringing cow bells! Their cow bells were HUGE! The game was really intense but at the end China won, but the Swiss played really well. A bunch of American guys were in the stadium trying to get everyone pumped up and excited by doing the wave! It worked, and the stadium looked really awesome!

I went downtown today and went to LiveCity Yaletown with my tourism class and then wondered around. Will have a post about that in a little bit! The medal count for Canada right now is 3 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze!!

2010 Cauldron

After the victory ceremony I went to the outdoor cauldron, Downtown was so busy! The street was filled with many people and everyone was showing off their own country!! I walked from the waterfront station to the cauldron, I did not know where it was so I asked the volunteers. They are really nice and they pointed the way to the cauldron. Many people were wanting to see the cauldron and it was a sea of people. When I reached to the cauldron there were gates! Gates were around the cauldron and to make it worse there was a banner! You could hardly take a nice picture of the cauldron! Aah it annoyed me because this is something that people want to take a picture of! I got up to the front pressing my camera lens through the fence and got a couple of pictures. Some one had ripped off the banner in the front so people can take pictures.

Even though the the Cauldron was covered it was an amazing sight. It was massive and it burned strong! This was also the same night that Alexandre Bilodeau won the first gold medal on Canadian soil! Go Canada! As of today the medal count for Canada is 1 Bronze Medal, 2 Silver and 2 GOLD!! Today Maelle Ricker won GOLD!! So excited!! Victory Ceremony tomorrow!!

Pictures of Victory Ceremony!!

Pictures of Victory Ceremony!!

Pictures of Victory Ceremony!