The Olympic Flame (pic)

Like all of downtown, the area around the flame is very crowded. There is this obnoxious fence around it, so you can't actually get close. All the more reason to hang out with folks and have them take pictures with me. Here is the Canada/US spirit.

more crowd pictures

Every country has a different jacket. You can see the Dutch a mile a way in orangeAnd then there are the Americans

 

But Canada has them beat

The crowds (Pics)

What can I say?  The downtown streets are closed off to traffic to accomodate the thousands and thousands of people making our way around the Waterfront, Granville, Vancouver City Center. Volunteers guide us well to popular areas near the Olympic Flame, Yaletown, and Robson Street. There are street events all over town for free, pavillions from many countries,  the Canada Roots store for all things Canadian, or you can just wander up and down the street people watching. Its rather exhausting actually, especially on the weekend, so I hope that during the week it will be less so.

Bravo to Canadian Ice Dancers - #1 (pic)

The buzz around town was the US vs Canada hockey game, but I was glad to be sitting in the 7th row next to the judging area to watch a brilliant Original Ice Dance performance. Again there were 23 pairs, each doing an original 'folk dance' routine. There are several required elements including two lifts, simultaneous spins and foot work that shows off their ability to use the inside and outside edges, and some dance work.  The couples could choose any country, so it was quite funny that there were two cowboy and cowgirl routines, one from the US and one from Great Britain.
The Japanese couple did an elegant routine that was well received by the audience, so when the scores were relatively low, the audience booed for the first time since I've been here. THat is the magic of this 'sport'. Here we are watching beauty and art, AND we get to boo and eat French fries.