Vancouver 2010 - Final Part

As I'm sure you've all (hello? is anybody out there? echo...) been waiting impatiently for another Olympic post, here's the final part of my Vancouver 2010 saga.

The last event I've attended was also the last Victory Ceremony, during which Newfoundland and Labrador were presented. The performer was Great Big Sea, the main reason I chose this ceremony. They did not disappoint, but more about that in a bit. Medals were given out for Men's Aerials and Ladies Parallel Giant Slalom. (Medals for a few other events were awarded that day as well, but not at the Vancouver Victory Ceremony.)


And look! Mounties!


Great Big Sea got everyone on their feet and dancing in front of seats, in aisles and anywhere where the old lady volunteer wasn't looking ("clear the aisles please, so people can pass").


And I don't believe I've shown you the Olympic torch and rings yet. The color of the rings alternated between bronze, silver and gold, representing the medals Canadian athletes had won that day. The picture below shows the rings in gold.


During the following two days (and last of the Olympic Games), Canada won six gold medals and now holds the record for the most gold medals ever won at a Winter Games by a single country. Towards the end, I became so emotionally involved that I refused an invitation to watch the men's hockey final with a group of colleagues because I knew there would be Americans present. To think that just over two weeks ago I wasn't even a hockey fan! Francis and I were so happy with the win that we actually stood in front of our couch during the Canadian hymn.

We also watched the Closing Ceremonies at home, and afterwards went for a walk downtown. It turned out to be a long walk because buses were no longer going in that direction. Indeed, the streets were full of happy Canadians wearing flags on their backs and giving high fives. The closer to the center of downtown we got, the harder it was to advance and the more proud I felt of being Canadian. It was amazing to see people with and without turbans, people of various colors wearing and waving the Canadian flag.

I know it's been said all over the media, but I truly felt it here in Vancouver during the last two weeks and especially on Sunday night. These Games have brought us closer together, have bridged social, financial, cultural gaps and have provided Canadians as a people with a healthy boost of confidence. I am happy and proud of what Canada has achieved during these events, despite the pervasive controversies. Yes, we've invested more money in these Olympic athletes than even the US has during the last four years, and the most important achievement of this is not to have shown the world what Canada can do but to have shown ourselves what Canada can do. Although some might disagree, I believe we strongly needed this.

The city feels empty now and I am almost sad that the Games are over. The Paralympic Games are coming up but their impact will unfortunately be less noticeable. I am not sure yet whether I will go to any Paralympic events, mostly because they will take place during the week before my next Ph.D committee meeting. But the significantly cheaper tickets (compared to those for Olympic events) are a good incentive...

And now back to regular life, with glowing hearts :-)

Vancouver 2010 - Part 3

I've been to the German Fan Fest, had my free sausage and beer, watched the final 20 minutes of the Canada - Switzerland game and cheered with the crowd (pretty much all Canadians or at least pretending to be) and got out alive and in time to pick up the first of three guests that were to arrive last Thursday night. That's because I promised to talk about the GFF.


No live ski cross for Francis and I due to our cancelled standing tickets, but guess who got $25 (and that's cheaper than what VANOC sells them for because I didn't have to pay fees and taxes) tickets for cross-country ski relay? That's right, I grabbed four tickets for $100 off craigslist because I wanted to see an outdoors event very badly. To my credit, there wasn't much left for sale on the official website except for some pricey tickets for a couple of hockey games.

I went with Francis and my mom, and sold the fourth ticket to an eager asian guy who took the train from Seattle to Vancouver and hung around the city from midnight to 5am when I met him at the bus station just before leaving for Whistler (where the cross-country ski events take place). He wanted to pay me in US dollars so I even made a little profit, assuming I spend them when the US dollar is high...
In any case, we had an a.m.a.z.i.n.g. sunny and warm day in Whistler Olympic Park on Monday. Miga and Quatchi thought so too:


You can't tell from the picture, but I got the biggest, fluffiest hug from Quatchi just before it was taken.

A team of Romanians participated in the men's cross-country ski relay event but they didn't do very well. Neither did the Canadian women, although they did qualify for the final. The Canadian men's team was rather lopsided, as Alex Harvey was able to go from sixth to first place during his last round (he's first in this picture, near the end of the round)

but his partner lost the position when he took over for the final round of the relay and finished fourth. Germany, Norway, Sweden and Russia owned the podium during this event but we had the best value for our money nevertheless, what with the great weather and exciting race.

Today Canada got four medals, all from women's events! Did you know that we have a medal in women's snowboard cross, women's ski cross AND men's snowboard cross? What about men's ski cross, you ask? Well, we would have had a medal there too if Cristopher Delbosco hadn't crashed and burned while in third position just before the end of the course. I should not tease because this guy has been through a lot, but ... the symmetry! So close.

And now, a little something I've been meaning to mention since the first olympic post. It's easy to tell who's a volunteer at the Games because they wear sky blue jackets with the Vancouver 2010 logo. While travelling by public transit during the Games, I've noticed a lot of passengers starting conversations with volunteers on the bus. People ask them how their day went, what kind of tasks they have to do, what the perks are, and the volunteers are more than happy to oblige with detailed answers. This may not seem out of the ordinary, but when you consider that in Vancouver people pretty much never talk to strangers (and if they are asked anything they do their best to answer briefly and indicate that the conversation is over), this is quite remarkable.

As I expected, it's been difficult to post regularly since we try to get out and about the city as soon as we can every day and we've been having evening plans daily as well. Before I sign off, I'd just like to draw your attention to Joannie Rochette's figure skating performance tomorrow. She is an extremely talented skater and currently ranks third (after the short program). Her mother passed away suddenly on Sunday, right after arriving in Vancouver to watch her skate. Most of you probably know the story by now, and it's very inspiring that Joannie pulled off a great short program yesterday despite this. Let's all wish her all the best for tomorrow!

Vancouver 2010 - Part 2

The day of the opening ceremonies had a shaky start to say the least. I watched the ceremonies at a friend's place, and although we spent most of the time joking and explaining what was going on to the two americans in attendance, I think the event succeeded in lifting the mood of the spectators. The mishap of the pillar that wouldn't rise (because the trap door wouldn't open actually) was partially offset by Wayne Gretzky carrying the torch through downtown and nearly getting mobbed by surprised and excited fans.

At this point I should mention the helicopters we can hear almost all day and night, and sometimes jet planes as well. Last week while biking I could still hear one when I was halfway to UBC. I worried that if it started raining and someone pulled out a dark umbrella the wrong way, they might get shot!

I haven't gotten around to submitting a Vectorial Elevation design, but here are some highlights of my Olympic experience so far:

Saturday evening saw us attending a Mes Aieux concert at the Place de la Francophonie on Granville Island. There are concerts in French every night during the Games. Here's a video that might ring a bell. Every now and then you'll notice the pouring rain that did not manage to disperse the crowd. Despite the rain, and although half the audience did not understand French (the band took a poll), I was pleasantly surprised by the successful request for an encore.



On Sunday Francis and I saw a women's hockey game: Finland vs. Russia. Most of the crowd cheered for Finland who of course won 5 - 1 (Russia's only goal, which was also the first, took a few good minutes to be confirmed). Some visual evidence:


The Fins (in white and blue) spent most of the game on the offensive, even during power play.

Finally, on Monday the 15th I used the figure skating ticket that travelled to Germany and back to watch the four-hour long pairs free skate event. I had an incredible time, and the disappointment of seeing almost each pair take at least one fall was offset by China's silver-winning nearly flawless performance. The only reason Pang and Tong did not take the gold (Shen and Zhao did) was their comparatively low score in the short program. I was sitting quite high above the rink and this is all my compact camera could accomplish:


I can't remember which country the couple in the top picture was representing, but it doesn't matter because they did not do very well. Neither did the Swiss (second picture). The last photo is of one of the several perfect figures executed by the silver medalists.

During another short trip downtown last night, we joined the crowd celebrating local Maelle Ricker's gold in snowboard cross. I finally bought a canadian flag so I could cheer and be patriotic. The aim of the trip was to purchase a couple of Olympic themed items at The Bay, but the 300-m long lineup discouraged us.
More on the celebrations later, perhaps after I attend the Deutsche Fan Fest tomorrow!

Finally, Francis and I are among the 20 000 disappointed spectators whose tickets were cancelled due to knee-deep mud in the standing room area at Cypress mountain. We got our men's ski cross tickets through the lottery and this would have been the third and final event I would have attended, and the only one taking place outdoors. I watched snowboard cross online and it looked like so much fun, so I was really really looking forward to it. I am very disappointed that they did not make more of an effort to remedy the situation. The girlfriend of an officemate is a volunteer and she says they have more important problems to deal with.
I am enjoying the Olympics in Vancouver and I keep cheering for Canada, but it is hard not to acknowledge that these Games are having a lot of issues. Ten more days to go, so hopefully things will go uphill from here.

Tomorrow I will go pick up my mom at the airport and try to have my picture taken with Sumi, Miga, Quatchi or Muk Muk (my favorite!). Check out the link and place the cursor over each mascot. Watch the Muk Muk video too!

More updates are coming soon, as we discover the city, Games and celebrations more in depth with our guests.

The Winter Olympics, (almost) live from Vancouver, Part 1

If I was ever to write something here again, the Olympic Games in Vancouver seemed like a good reason to do so.
Let's get to it.

If you draw a North-South line passing through downtown Vancouver, and an East-West line passing through the UBC campus, I live pretty much at the intersection of these two lines. Until this week I would not have been able to guess, during my daily commute, that the Games were starting this month. There was no visible increase in population, no unusual noise or lights in the area between my home and the university. A few exceptions:
Flags of various countries could be found glued to the sidewalk just a couple of blocks away, but in a direction opposite to the one I normally take. The numbers and routes displayed on buses alternated (and still do) with "Welcome World" messages. Every time I saw one, I looked around but could not see the "world".

However, this week everyone suddenly realized the Games are starting (today!) and began to act accordingly. On Monday, while cycling home, the Vectorial Elevation searchlights were being tested. Rolling down a long hill, I had to make a conscious effort to bring my eyes back to the road. A friend I was talking with the next day had the same "problem". They've been on every night this week, forming designs submitted by anyone who cares to do so.
In fact, I'm thinking of submitting one in the next couple of days. You can too, for free and in just a few minutes, at http://www.vectorialvancouver.net/. If I lie down on the couch, I can see them from my living room!
So far, no aliens have landed.

On Tuesday Francis and I went for a walk downtown, where Games celebrations were much more present. Here are some pictures:



The first picture was taken near the waterfront. In the second, Francis stands on Granville boulevard among trees whose "leaves" are drawings made by school kids and rolled into cylinders. Then another picture of Granville boulevard and finally the Robson Square skating rink, which has been open (and free to use) since November 2009.

There were lots of excited tourists (and likely locals as well) posing with cardboard athletes. The Olympic store was open at 10pm, which is exceptional for Vancouver because on weekday nights not much is open past 6pm. In fact, other than the Olympic store and bars, this was still the case.
We did get a bit of excitement not typical of Vancouver when we noticed a lady posing outside the store, wearing ONLY fishnets and completely painted in red and yellow. I didn't take any pictures.

And finally, on Thursday evening the Olympic torch passed by UBC. I'd never seen the campus so crowded! The torch passed and was followed by a mini concert by a UBC rock band I'd never heard of. I saw a total of one protested holding a sign, and he didn't seem very motivated in the midst of all those excited people. Here's a video of the torch and its carrier during one of the UBC stretches:

Conversations en Remonte-pentes

En un effort vaillant, la tortue que je suis se lève pour entreprendre la rédaction du premier billet de l'année. Je dis la tortue car il y a longtemps que Camille m'a battu en termes de nombre de billets publiés. Cependant le lapin semble sommeiller depuis quelque temps, je pourrais peut-être en profiter...

Il y a deux semaines, j'ai fait l'école buissonière pour aller skier a Owl's Head (pour $15 les mardis et mercredis!). J'en ai profité pour prendre quelques photos car la journée ensolleillée mettait superbement en évidence la vue sur le lac Memphrémagog. En voici une:



La plus lente du groupe, je me suis vite séparée de mes compagnons pour skier en solo, ce qui m'a valu plusieurs remontées avec des inconnus. Avant de poursuivre, je dois spécifier qu'en plus d'être joliment colorés en rose et mauve, mes skis sont aussi du vieux modèle droit (gracieuseté d'un "package deal" à $250, il y a de cela sept ans). Voici donc quelques fragments de conversation auxquels j'ai eu droit à ce sujet:


Madame anglophone: Have you guys seen the skis at the store? They're so wide.
Monsieur anglophone: Yeah, they are pretty wide. It must be the new style. They didn't seem to have any more normal parabolic skis.
Madame anglophone: It's like they're made for powder, like at Whistler. We don't get much of that here.

Monsieur avec skis paraboliques: C'est quoi ça, des skis de course?
Moi: Ah, non, c'est l'ancien style, c'est juste de bons vieux skis droits.
Monsieur avec skis paraboliques: Je vois. Tu sais, ça veut dire que tu skies mieux que nous autres (il englobe ses amis d'un geste de la main), parce que c'est plus dur en skis droits.
Moi: Mais non, mais non, c'est un peu plus dur pour les virages, mais j'suis pas si bonne skieuse.
Suit une conversation sur sa profession (ingénieur civil), mes études (la physique, à quoi il répond que ce fût toujours sa passion secrète) et comment se fait-il que je suis en train de skier un jour de semaine.
Ami de monsieur avec skis paraboliques: Comment on dit télémark en anglais?
Moi: Telemark.
Les trois monsieurs: Ah.

Gars blond avec lunettes cool (et skis paraboliques): C'est cool, tes skis. C'est pour la course?
Moi: Non non, c'est juste le vieux style.
Gars blond avec lunettes cool: Ah, ok.

Le fragment qui suit ne porte pas sur les skis, mais je trouve qu'il mérite d'être présenté quand même:

Madame anglophone 2: No, I don't really feel old. Well, until recently it didn't bother me that I was 40, but a couple of weeks ago it really hit me: I'm 40. I mean, I do sports and I'm in shape but still, I'm 40.
Monsieur anglophone 2: Well, I don't feel like that, I mean, I stay active...
Madame anglophone 2: You're closer to 50, right?
Monsieur anglophone 2: Yeah. So I stay active, I hang out with guys who are 35, play hockey, go out with them. I never did have my mid-life crisis thanks to that, you know, I just keep busy and I don't think about it. Some people have nothing to do and they just stay home and start thinking about getting old, but me, I'm not going to have any kind of crisis. You just got to stay active.

J'ai remarqué que, peu importe le sujet de la conversation, les anglophones ne m'y ont jamais incluse, contrairement aux francophones. J'ai aussi remarqué que je dois m'acheter de nouveaux skis.

C'est la mode aux "boardwalks"

Que ce soit pour découvrir un petit trésor ou pour éviter des rencontres fâcheuses, il faut toujours marcher sur le boardwalk. Au parc des Hautes Terres du Cap Breton, si on descend du boardwalk, attention! On risque d'assurer le repas d'un ours noir, voire un ours polaire, on sait jamais, faut être prudent! J'exagère, mais vous comprennez le principe. Pourtant, s'il faut en croire notre petite expédition à travers ce domaine si périlleux, nous avons plutôt failli marcher sur une famille orignal - monoparentale, certes, mais pas moins potentiellement dangereuse!



Remarquez la gueule ouverte, menaçante, et le petit derrière qui regrète que ses bois ne sont pas plus imposants.

Mais il ne faut pas s'inquiéter, la photo a été prise avec un zoom 4x. Voici une indication plus réaliste de la distance qui nous séparait des ces bêtes dangereuses, auxquelles nous avons quand même réussi à échapper.



Cela dit, si vous êtes un petit animal, il vous est fort recommandé de ne pas vous approcher du boardwalk.



Plus loin, un autre boardwalk était censé guider nos pas vers une superbe vue de l'océan et du ciel, séparés par une frontière presque invisible. D'où le nom du sentier: Skyline. Abandonnez le boardwalk ici et préparez-vous à une aventure à la Pinocchio dans le fameux Monde Marin (aka "Derrière les Fanons").



Il faut spécifier qu'il y avait un peu de brume ce jour-là, mais vous voyez la frontière invisible, n'est-ce pas?

À Percé, en Gaspésie, nous avons demandé s'il y avait un moyen de se promener sur la plage. On nous a répond "Oui oui, bien sur, voilà, ici sur la carte, vous voyez, il y a un boardwalk..." Nous sommes sortis du centre d'information, très bien informés. Nous avons décidé d'éviter le boardwalk, question de minimiser les risques d'un accrochage avec un maquereau particulièrement intrépide.

Nous nous sommes tout de même hasardés sur le quai de la petite ville, pour observer le trou dont Francis doutait l'existence jusqu'à ce moment-là.



Sur l'île de Bonaventure, quitter le boardwalk équivalait une mort affreuse par coups de becs de fous de Bassan.



Heureusement, notre dernier rendez-vous avec un boardwalk nous a permis d'admirer cette jolie cascade, dans le parc Forillon.



Prochainement sur "Czech Film": les boardwalks favorisent la bonne entente entre randonneurs et plantes carnivores.

2000 images are worth 1000 words

It seems astronomers are also photography enthusiasts. For your viewing pleasure, here are
Krzysztof's pictures
Mariangela's pictures
Karla's pictures
and my pictures.

Today I ran a program that lasted about five minutes. All my previous programs ran for only a few seconds. I'm starting to feel more like a scientist.