Well, it's been more Olympic exploration for me here.
It started with another early wake-up call on Wednesday to see the live taping of The Colbert Report. The comedic genius Stephen Colbert was in town to give Vancouver some "much-needed" ribbing about the Games and to squash Canadian pride.
Well, the taping was due to happen at city park at 10AM and I thought if I got there at 8AM, it would give me a good enough spot.
Morning sun over the city and Athletes Village
There was already about 1,000 people in line at that time, however. Looks like Canadians can't get enough of Colbert and everyone had the same idea that I had.
However, despite the cold temperatures and having to stand in one spot for hours, I had a wonderful vantage point. Actually, I had several!
Colbert was hilarious. Did lots of flubs which was funny but the crowd's energy was insane. He had a pre-taped interview with one of our local politicians which he played for us, but many people didn't notice that the politician was watching the show WITH us!
The always good sport, Ujjal Dosanjh (Indian man at bottom)
Colbert also sported someone with an Olympic Torch, to which he said "Can I please have that? I'll give it back. I promise, I promise."
As soon as the torch was in Colbert's possession though, he cackled, "You're NEVER getting this back!"
After that we started chanting "smoke it! smoke it! smoke it!" since he already made a marijuana joke about our "budding" city and that the torch DOES look like a joint. To that he called us "chanting whores" which only started off a chant of "Chanting whores! Chanting whores!"
His first guest was Burnaby boy Michael Buble who was a great sport as well, defending Canada as much as he could against Colbert's hilarious barbs.
We also started to chant "RIDE THE MOOSE! RIDE THE MOOSE!" to which he shook his head. Later though, NBC host Bob Costas DID ride the moose!
Funniest part was Buble and Colbert singing "O Canada" to the tune of "Star Spangled Banner" (annoying laughs aren't mind and fast forward the Youtube video to the 0:30 mark!)
You'll see the show on The Colbert Report on Feb 22 I think...can't wait!
Athlete's Village
After the show, I wandered around the city, visiting the "provincial houses" nearby. In the Saskatchawen Pavilion I got autographs from George Reed and a few other footballers from the Saskatchawen Roughriders. I don't even like football which is why this was hilarious and they all thought I was from out-of-province, but they did pose with Quatchi which means they were uber cool.
Also cool? The Mounties who posed with Quatchi. Again, they probably though I was some hapless tourist. Gotta tell you, wandering around your home city - alone - during the Olympics is FUN!
I guess I wasn't alone. I had Quatchi. We looked at the pricey Molson Canadian Hockey House before going in the Quebec House where I had ice wine with Mike Patton and watched an indie-hipster Quebec singer perform.
Afterwards I wandered up to the German House and watched the women's hockey game and ate tastty Bratwurst and drank $9 beers. EEK. Made friends with some Australians though - gotta love the friendly Olympic spirit!
Then I took the Canada Line to meet my bf after work. We went to the Richmond OZone where we wanted to get into the Holland Heineken House but the line-up to get in was already three hours long! I'll try again next week and get there SUPER early.
So we settled for beer and mulled wine in a beer garden before we watched Hawksley Workman put on a very good show. However, the near-freezing temperatures meant we couldn't stay as long as I would have liked.
BTW there has been so much negativity in the press, especially from the rude UK media which has been slaughtering us...enough so that they have pissed off our entire country. Thankfully, this Calgary newspaper had a very good rebuttal:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/2010wintergames/Gold%20whining%20goes%20British%20reporters/2575644/story.html
And this article - from the New York Times no less - also came to our defense:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/allez-canada/?8ty&emc=ty
OKAY! Off to watch Team Canada take on Team Swiss in Hockey :) Party, party, party, GOLD, GOLD, GOLD!
And tomorrow, heading into the city again to explore The Russia House...line was too long yesterday but now I've got a game plan!
