So today, we have discovered that we probably have too many staff on… Everyone wants to work hockey. So we’ll be looking at the schedule and changing it up tomorrow (or at least I hope my counterparts do this)… I have a Dano story to share – just for those in Calgary that know him… Apparently, I should be working the later shifts so that I can partake with the staff as they went to the Sochi House last night. Sochi, Russia is where the next Olympics are held so there is a very large house here. Dano now has a picture on his computer (he’s in the background) that shows Dano’s true smile and his own fashion, he did the responsible thing and slept in his car last night. I’ll let you fill in the details between when they left UBC and came back this morning. I think he use to get a better sleep under the desks in the U125 office where at least it was warm.
Well, not much to report today – I did get to go and watch some of the Canada vs Swiss game and was sitting close enough to the Swiss fans to hear them chant – “Hop Swiss”. That was cool as I haven’t heard that chant since the World Cup in Germany. In today’s picture gallery is a lot of pictures from today’s game so I hope you enjoy them.
The other interesting discussion we had in the room today was the need for each team to have warm up space. The way the teams warm up has changed so much and so many of them do a dynamic warm up now, they need the extra space. The reason that the UBC venue didn’t provide any additional warm up space to the teams was because they don’t have any extra space at CHP. It’s an interesting perception when one venue (supposedly the lesser venue) provides a better space to the athletes. As we do have athletes travelling to both venues they wanted to make sure that the venues were as similar as possible. But the teams do take whatever room they want, outside our office, in the hallways, pretty much any larger space. So far, I’ve seen Team Finland, China, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and USA warm up as a team. Team Canada today – Wick had her headset in and warmed up on her own, about 6 other players played soccer outside our office door and the others were on the bikes. I think the players like to play psychological games with each other as at the end of the warm ups, the teams warming up as a team always cheer at the end of warm up and the cheers have been getting louder and our set up in the rink makes everything echo so any other player in that area will hear them.
I’m going to enjoy the next couple of days off, hopefully play some golf with Cheryl and then spend one day going to the free events around town… I still need to get some pictures of the cauldron and no, I don’t have a cauldron at my venue. Oh ya, and get some MRU work done….
As for watching the game today, the Swiss goalie was excellent and the players gave Canada a good battle. The score doesn’t quite reflect on the Swiss team as well as it should. And the crowd is simply amazing – the sea of Red is alive and well in Vancouver.
We are also planning a staff night to one of the country houses on the 19th as we don’t have any games at our venue. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
The best part of today – just having a great team to work with. All the volunteers are so happy to be here and so willing and helpful to do pretty much anything.
The worse part of today – Missing out on seeing the blue sky today – I came to work in the dark and I’m heading home in about the same color so I missed the sunshine today – I will try and make up for that tomorrow.
