In the first period of the game, the Russian women dominated the play with a 3 to 1 ratio of shots and 2 goals.
But something happened in the second period to fire up the Slovakians. Maybe it was the contingent sitting to my right that held up Slovakian flags and posters like
Slovensko- Do Toho which I assume means something good (not 'the refs suck') in Slovakian
Maybe it was the crowd cheering on the underdog. Maybe they just got their wind. Whatever the reason, they made a hook shot goal that brought us all to our feet. Such a different atmosphere than figure skating. The jumbo screens show the Olympic mascots exhorting us to make noise, clap our hands. At one point they played a song that went like this "Put your hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air, put your hands up in the air" Hilarious and totally fun.
The game became more fierce each period. The Slovakians made one more goal before finally losing 4-2.
But our hearts were with them.
The buzz-watch the Canadian-US game today at 4:30. I'll be watching my rarified ice dancing, but may go downtown to take in the action afterwards.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
More travel stories
The Skytrains are bright, clean, modern and CROWDED. On Friday night I hadn't yet experienced the crowds because the venue was nearer to where I am staying and easy to get to by bus. Just stepped off the skytrain, followed the directions of the friendly volunteers and that was it.
But on Saturday, I ventured downtown to pick up the rest of my tickets and found out where all the people are. Thousands of them, streaming on the streets, eating in outdoor cafes, watching street theater. I got a bit turned around and found myself walking to a different station than I had anticipated, thinking it was a few blocks away.
Wrong. The walk was about a mile, but this was a fortunate detour because I would otherwise never have found the Expo Center and the rock sculpture area by the water. THe path wound its way to the Science Center station, which actually was a good place to be because the wait was only 30 minutes on the Expo line not 1 hour like the Canada Line. The line snaked around the park and folks from the Salvation Army handed out hot chocolate. WE moved rather quickly, and of course we all chatted about the games we had seen, we were from.
That wasn't it though. After the Skytrain ride, we all piled out to wait again for the bus that would take us to the UBC Arena for the hockey game. Stuffed into buses, I finally found out who was playing in the game:Russia and Slovakia. A woman shared how to say, "You skate like a girl" in Russian. we all laughed.
Very ironic, since we were about to see a Women's hockey game!
But on Saturday, I ventured downtown to pick up the rest of my tickets and found out where all the people are. Thousands of them, streaming on the streets, eating in outdoor cafes, watching street theater. I got a bit turned around and found myself walking to a different station than I had anticipated, thinking it was a few blocks away.
Wrong. The walk was about a mile, but this was a fortunate detour because I would otherwise never have found the Expo Center and the rock sculpture area by the water. THe path wound its way to the Science Center station, which actually was a good place to be because the wait was only 30 minutes on the Expo line not 1 hour like the Canada Line. The line snaked around the park and folks from the Salvation Army handed out hot chocolate. WE moved rather quickly, and of course we all chatted about the games we had seen, we were from.
That wasn't it though. After the Skytrain ride, we all piled out to wait again for the bus that would take us to the UBC Arena for the hockey game. Stuffed into buses, I finally found out who was playing in the game:Russia and Slovakia. A woman shared how to say, "You skate like a girl" in Russian. we all laughed.
Very ironic, since we were about to see a Women's hockey game!
Women's Hockey-the prologue (pics)
Let's get it straight from the start: The Olympics are in Canada! If you had ANY doubt, you only have to look at 95% of the people on the streets, on the SkyTrain (Vancouver's elevated and subway system), the buses, the arenas, the streets, and cafes to see every variation of Canadian clothing, paraphernalia, backpacks, pins, facepaint. If I were to take a picture of each of these, my camera would be full 10 times over. I will include just a few in the next few days.
I will need to work backwards, inside out and upside down to write about this day, one full of spirit (I went to the Jewish Renewal synagogue in Vancouver), exercise (I walked and walked, sometimes farther than I needed to), wonder (I saw an amazing stone beach filled with hundreds of hand made sculptures), long yet enjoyable travels (lines to get on the Skytrain, lines to get on the bus, a 45 minute bus ride to the stadium), a fast paced game (when do we ever get to see Women's hockey in the US) and finally meetings and greetings as everyone is happy to talk about what they have seen and done here at the olympics.
I will need to work backwards, inside out and upside down to write about this day, one full of spirit (I went to the Jewish Renewal synagogue in Vancouver), exercise (I walked and walked, sometimes farther than I needed to), wonder (I saw an amazing stone beach filled with hundreds of hand made sculptures), long yet enjoyable travels (lines to get on the Skytrain, lines to get on the bus, a 45 minute bus ride to the stadium), a fast paced game (when do we ever get to see Women's hockey in the US) and finally meetings and greetings as everyone is happy to talk about what they have seen and done here at the olympics.
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