Only one volunteer shift left

So I’ve been away for a few days…  busy with doing some social activities and then driving to and from the venue. With driving, I don’t have a set time for the writing so I’m trying to catch up tonight.

Our venue has been relatively quiet – all the teams practicing although, I have to say the four teams playing for 5^th through 9^th have a much higher level of noise in the building. The players have been playing more soccer in the hallways. Logistically, tonight is a nightmare but fortunately, the paid staff are taking the lead on the movement of teams. When I say movement, I mean movement. The top four Women’s teams are moving out of our venue and going to CHP. Complete with most if not all of their equipment (picture dressing room, coach’s room, equipment room and an additional storage area). The problem is that the women’s teams can’t move until all the men’s games are done. There will be three men’s teams moving up to UBC for the next 3 days (until the 24^th) but who it will be won’t be decided until after the directorate meeting tonight which will take place after the last game (SWE vs FIN). So it will be a late night for the team staff, transport, and athlete services. Thankfully the sport information desk didn’t have to stay open.

However, tomorrow morning will be a gong show with three men’s teams in the building. Personally, I was hoping for CZE as I’ve heard that Jagr is a rink rat (comes to the rink in the am and stays). No matter what, everyone will be pumped to have the men’s teams. I wish it was different, but the fact is that there are NHL players on these teams and that will attract attention.

One cool thing we did in the venue on Friday night was to take some pictures on the ice. I’ll put some of these in the gallery…  Also in the gallery, you’ll see the wooden inukshuk that is in the neighborhood. I saw this being created one day and now that it’s done, it was a good day to stop and take that picture…

And finally in the gallery, there are some pictures of the views around Vancouver. On Friday, since I had some time to kill, I decided to go and walk around campus. I ended up going down NW Marine to the first beach. What a beautiful spot. There were tons of people walking their dogs including this black lab that was digging in the sand (barking and growling at nothing). Too funny.

The only other news I have is that I got a gift from the IIHF, from Rene Fassel himself. All of the supervisors in the venue got the gift so that was kind of cool…  As volunteers, we also have been given gifts on days 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15…  and then one extra gift which was a silver medallion. It’s been a good motivator for some as we’ve been quiet but the volunteers have still come to work to get to their next gift shift. There is a final venue party after the last game on the 24^th but I’ll be back towards Calgary and back to reality again.

So, I know that one of the most talked about things tomorrow will be the CAN – USA game…  so if you need to rant, feel free to post a comment. I got to watch most of the game and thought Miller was the star of the game…  One of the comments around our table was that the Canadians were playing a very individualistic game and that’s something I’ve always questioned about the NHL players coming to the games without really practicing together as a team.

So, the best part of the last couple of days – having some fun with my co-workers, Krista for getting us home, taking pictures on the ice and taking Irene and Uwe to a great little bistro.

And the worse part of the last couple of days – having the alarm go off way toooooo quickly and realizing that this is almost over. Tomorrow is my official last shift, giving myself a day to clean up and do any last Olympic type things, a couple of days to visit my Mom and brother and then it’s back to Calgary. I really hope that the snow is gone or I’ll be the guy crying in the snow commercial….

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