The Olympics

Well the dust has settled and our city must move on, but not before we bask in the glory of what we shared with the world.  To recap; post Olympic and Paralympic games, the weather was amazing, the Canadian athletes were more amazing and the people of our city were even more amazing!  Going downtown during the games was great instead of the usual tension filled streets with drunks roaming around our streets were filled with revellers singing a common theme; GO CANADA GO!  For the first time in my life the streets were filled with the sounds of our national anthem, the entire mood of the city was electrifying.  We billed the restaurant out as the "Canadian Embassy" and decked it out with Canadian flags, on the inside we had all 12 of the men's olympic hockey country's flags hanging and we symbolically closed them as they were eliminated.

The games at the Embassy started with a party on the opening night and we were turning people away, we had a large birthday party in the back, the energy was fantastic!  Since our chance to see the torch relay run past us on the drive was cancelled due to a bunch of protesting idiots, we decided to have our own torch relay up and down the street after the opening cerimonies with the birthday boy running the torch into the restaurant and lighting our cauldron.  You'd think we just won the men's hockey gold with the cheering that went on here that night, but it was only the beginning.

We showed all of the games daily and had a crowd for every event.  We had people from all over the world show up at Fets.  We had a group of Americans that visited us twice daily for over a week, They were here to watch their daughter; Erika Lawler of the U.S. women's hockey team, and had rented a house in the neighbourhood. These people were great!  Everyone enjoyed their company, the staff, the locals, the regulars.  They were from Fitchburg, Massachusetts and were welcomed into our community with open arms, when Canada wasn't playing we cheered for the Americans with them, we knew however that we'd be meeting them in the gold medal game and beating them. Never a doubt.

Through out it all, everyone was waiting for one thing, the big game, the gold medal final and it couldn't have worked out better Canada versus the U.S.!  We arrived at Fets at 9:30 on that Sunday morning to see a line of people waiting anxiously, they didn't all get in.  We screamed and yelled and nearly cried, but we had a secret weapon on our side, actually we had 2 secret weapons; we had Sidney Crosby at the rink and we had one of the people who designed the medals, our medals, in the restaurant. We couldn't lose and we didn't.  It went into overtime and we all got a little quiet but when the puck dropped in the overtime period we came alive again, we persevered, us at Fets I mean, and when Sid the Kid popped the 5 hole we erupted, we screamed, we yelled, some cried and we of course broke out the cowbell and the national anthem again.  It wasn't done yet we had an introduction to make, everyone had to know who we had on our side, they had to know about our secret weapon, they had to know how close to all of us these medals are, and they had to know Corrine Hunt the aboriginal artist who disigned the medals.  She is a vefy humble person and was trying to sneak out after the game with out any fanfare at all but no way we couldn't allow that to happen, everyone had to know.  Wow you'd think the hockey team had arrived with the ovation and cheering she got!

But wait there's more, we had to close the flag of the last country to be eliminated and with the coveted team Canada flagged hockey stick and to the cheers and screaming of everyone from here to Moncton we closed the U.S. flag.  It was officially over we had truly won the most important game on Canadian soil ever, it was now time to take to the streets and we did.  With horns honking, cowbells ringing, flags waving and people yelling the party spilled to the streets.

Allura and I started the Olympics at our restaurant and we finished the olympics there as well.  When everything had calmed down, Allura and I sat down, had a drink - not the first one - relaxed and reminisced about the last 17 days and waited for the closing cerimonies.  The restaurant filled again as we watched the closing cerimonies, we weren't the only ones that had spent the day here, a number of tables that came for the game ion the morning stayed for the closing.  We had our second party of the day.  At the end, when all of the fireworks went off we watched them from the front windows and cheerd once again.

In the days and weeks that followed we slowly came down from our Olympic high, and sobered up a bit, the talk was all the same; it was great, I loved it, where did you watch the game? I'd have them every year.  It just never ended and it still hasn't, here I am, a month since they ended, still reminiscing.  Even many of the nay-sayers changed their outlook on the games.  But we still had the paralympic games. 

The paralympics weren't as big in Vancouver as most of the events were up at whistler.  However the effort and enthusiasm of the athletes and their supporters were by no means any less.  To those athletes I salute you and marvel at your accomplishments and achievements that you make daily. You certainly paved those hills with gold.

What good is an embassy without a passport or a uniform?  This question came to mind in the days leading up to the Olympics.  We came up with a plan; we disigned a logo, 2010 asportsodyssey, and had t-shirts made up (still got some for sale) we created a Canadian Embassy passport with a daily schedule of each days Olympic events.  Here's how it worked; everyday you came to Fets with your Embassy Passport during the games you got a stamp on that page, we had a different Canada theme stamp for each day of the Olympics.  For each stamp you got you got an entry ballot to win a Fets prize package.  To get your passport you donated $5 with all proceeds going to the Vancouver chapter of the Special Olympics.  With your help we donated $500! Thanks for everyone's support!

Until next time; have fun, play hard and eat well