Day 13: The Party Never Stops

After a late night on the slopes today included a much needed sleep in. From there we heard and saw the buzz of excitement as everyone was posting about the men's hockey teams being in town. But most excitingly was the two new medals we won first thing in the morning. A gold and bronze in women's skiing slopestyle. This is the first year that women have been able to compete in the event and Canada represented very well. Dara was our gold medal winner and Kim our bronze. A pretty successful showing for such a strong freestyle team.

We all worked evening shift at the COH but on the way to work Mikaela used her main press center pass to get into the men's hockey opening press conference. There were four players (Benn, Marleau, Weber and Bergeron) and assistant coach Claude Julien. The room was packed and there were many reporters and camera men ready to ask the tough questions. The Russian team had held their press conference in the morning so there were many Russian reporters in the room asking how the Canadians felt and if they were prepared for a Russia and Canada gold medal game. All the players handled themselves well and now it will all matter with how they do on the ice.

Being in Canada house was also very exciting. There were two medal ceremonies at COH, one for Charles Hamelin and one for Alex, Mikael, Dara and Kim. The ceremonies are nice because it gives friends and family time to celebrate but there is also media available for a more informal interview outside of the press conferences. We were all pretty busy and got even busier as all the media arrived and many patriotic Canadians. Celebrating three gold medals in one night is something pretty remarkable and we were all honoured to be a part of it. 

Day 12: Déjà vu

What an end to what started as a normal day in Sochi. Mikaela and Stacey both worked morning shifts at the COH. It was pretty quiet around the house with families hanging out with their athletes and enjoying some time together. During our shift, another one of the volunteers said she was just given three tickets to the men's moguls finals that night and asked if we wanted to go. We said yes without hesitation.

The trip to the mountain is not the fastest or simplest. You must take the train from the Olympic park stop. While the stop is just outside the main gates of the park, it takes about twenty minutes to get there from the COH. The train was packed with fans heading up to the mountains for events and we managed to get seats by pretending we were staff, who wouldn't believe an English speaking girl decked out in Canada gear. From the train we had to take a bus all the way to the top of the mountain. Its the same route we did before the games started but with hundreds more fans its much more difficult to get to the top.

Because we weren't planning on attending any mountain events when we left the house in the morning and didn't have time to drop by after work, we weren't as bundled as we should have been. Which basically means running shoes and five hour skiing events don't mix overly well.  But once you walk through the gates and in to the venue, you forget how cold you were and are just taken aback by what surrounds you. The moguls run was insane and so neat to look at. Except for brief moments of cold when Mikaela put her mitts on her feet and Stacey wrapped hers in toilet paper. 

We had standing tickets which are technically considered lesser than the assigned seating tickets but to us it was the only place we would have wanted to be. After the last round of qualifications there was a two hour break before finals. The crowd thinned out and Stacey went to grab some snacks while Mikaela inched closer to the front. By the time Stacey returned Mikaela was chatting up a storm with Mikael Kingsbury's family. Thank you parents for the name Mikaela as that was how the conversation started when Mikael's mom saw the accreditation.

We had a blast with them for the rest of the competition. Mikael's uncle taught us all about the sports and how the runs were judged and Mikael's mom kept telling us not to move as we were her good luck charms. As I'm sure most Canadians can relate, those were some stressful runs. Now try watching the jumps with one of the athletes families! Pretty positive we didn't breathe for half of the final round. But as we all know it paid off for Alex and Mikael as we for the second time this week brought home gold and silver in the moguls.

The Olympics are a time when all Canadians become even more patriotic. We were wearing Canadian flags as capes and were decked out in red and white. Everyone was congratulating us on the way out and asking to take pictures with us.  A moment to be proud and we were lucky enough to witness it and share with our country. And being spotted on TV a couple times was pretty cool as well.

Day 11: And the medals keep on rolling...

Another successful day here in Sochi! The Canadian team figure skating finished in second place behind Russia to win another silver for Canada!

For us the day was a little more normal except for Doug who had tickets to attend the men's ski jumping in the mountains cluster. Him and Lisa worked at COH in the morning and then he embarked on his trip up the hill. Fortunately he found some friends to go with because we were worried he may get lost on his own. Stacey and Mikaela were fully expecting a call from Moscow with Doug on the other end saying he got on the wrong train. But I guess we should give him more credit as he is back home safe and sound after what sounded like an unreal night.

Stacey was on bar during the night shift and was there to witness a full house of friends and family waiting to welcome and celebrate our medalists from day one. After every medal won by a Canadian, there is a celebration at COH. This is a time for friends and family to gather as well as a chance for media to come in and speak with the athletes.  And for everyone at COH they will tell you that the snowboarders and skiers know how to party.

Mikaela was at the MPC working with the Canadian media and getting ready for days to come. Since our medal was won later in the night there was no press conference to be held. The world of communications at the Olympics relies heavily on medal performances. Its can go from dead quiet to pulling an all nighter with one single event.

#wearewinter #sochi2014

COC volunteers with Scott and Tessa at COH

Repping Canada by the black sea

New mural in COH put up overnight after the opening ceremonies

Patriotic ladies watching the opening ceremonies 

Canada vs Russia 

Torch in the park finally lit!

In front of the rings

Proud to be Canadian. Inside COH

Costal cluster rings 

CBC studios at the IBC 

Patrick Chan press conference 

Touring CBC studios

Finally seeing snow in the mountain cluster 

Checking out some luge tracks 

Day to the beginning. Day one in the park 

Thor doing some celebrating

Official sign in COH

Welcome to the Olympics 

Official Sochi mascots

First view inside the COH

First ones to get accredited

Day 10: Success on the Slopes

Oh Canada! What a day today was for Canadians. For everyone at home the day isn't over yet but for us here is Sochi it has been an action packed day.  Day one and already three medals, and one of each kind none the less. This is the way to start the Olympics with a bang!  Congratulations to Mark McMorris on his bronze medal performance in men's snowboard slopestyle and to sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe on their gold and silver medals in women's moguls.

All of us worked in the COH today. Mikaela was working communications and media, Stacey was selling the goods and the Canada store and Doug and Lisa were setting all the friends and family up with their accreditations. It was an action packed place this evening. From the women's hockey game to the figure skating to the fantastic performance at the ladies moguls.  Bring at Canada house was nothing short if impressive. If this is any indication of what's to come it is going to be one heck of a party!

With so many friends, family and athletes at the house it is difficult to contain all the excitement but they are all just there to relax, grab some beers and spend much needed time together. Jennifer Jones and the Canadian curlers were hanging out tonight watching the hockey game and some of the girls came over after the game to celebrate with loved ones. Even our impressive flag barer, Hayley Wickenheiser, stopped by to check things out with her family.

It has been an exciting and eventful first official day and there is guaranteed to be more to come.  Its another day here in Sochi and fingers crossed for more medals when everyone wakes up in Canada!

Day 9: Let the Games Begin!

Well there is never a dull moment in Sochi and with the game now officially underway I'm sure the party is just beginning! But I guess before we get into all that we should catch everyone up on the last couple of days for the Algonquin crew. Starting all the way back to Tuesday...

Tuesday: Doug went into Sochi to pick up the event tickets he ordered back in Canada.  He had a couple extra seats and it was a fight over who got to attend with him. Luckily everyone was happy in the end and all body parts are still intact. Mikaela was back at CBC for her last day and what a day it was! Since the Canadian team has been arriving all week, Tuesday was a big day for opening press conferences.  The morning started off with the Canadian cowboys' alpine skiing team who are really enjoying the Olympic experience and playing some shinny with the women's hockey team. In the afternoon we had the pairs figures skaters followed by the men. It is a pretty cool atmosphere and when Patrick Chan is talking the room goes silent. After working on some solo interviews with the skaters after the press conference, the long track speed skaters arrived. What a big team that is! There were many onlookers in the room but the most excited by far to see the team was Clara Hughes , who is working with CBC for the Olympics. There was also a chance to tour the CBC studios and take some pictures posing in Ron Maclean's desk.

And if the day wasn't exciting and surreal enough, Mikaela was offered a ticket to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies for that night as a thank you for the work put in. To be one of the firsts to see the biggest spectacle of the Olympics?!? Yes please! The ceremony was awesome! Some pictures were slyly taken until a large security guard saw and yelled loudly in Russian that pictures were not allowed. And now that almost everyone has seen the opening ceremonies, how cool were those giant mascots?!? Pretty realistic!

We will skip Wednesday because other than being minor celebrities on the boardwalk and everyone asking for pictures of the Canadians, it was a pretty low key day.

Thursday: after a week of waiting we finally had our orientation and started our Olympic experience at Canada Olympic House (COH).  We went in the morning and got our uniforms and had a tour around the house and learned some important information. Stacey will be working bar, Doug and Lisa are working access and accreditation (because naturally they are the toughest ones ;)) and Mikaela is working communications. It was a jam packed day and after the first part of orientation we ate some lunch. Not only was it lunch, but it was lunch prepared by Stephen Harper's chef. The Canadian team borrowed him for the month. So we will be eating like "royalty" all month long!

At 1:00pm was the official ribbon cutting and opening of COH.  Many important people spoke and if you look closely in some of the pictures and videos you can see some of our heads poking through in the background. There were some athletes at the opening including Scott and Tessa , who even took a picture with all of the volunteers.

The rest of the afternoon was individual team meetings and gearing up for a commemoration ceremony for French broadcasting legend Richard Garneau who covered 23 Olympic games for Canada. He passed away last year and the IOC was honouring him with a medal. Only 15 have been given out in history and he is the first journalist to receive it.  The event was well done and many members of the media were there to celebrate.

Friday: Opening ceremonies day!!!!!  Excitement was in the air as the opening ceremonies started off the Olympics. We planned on finding a restaurant to watch the ceremonies which proved more difficult than we imagined it would be. Not many places were showing the ceremonies, a completely different feeling than if we were in Canada. After about an hour of searching we went back to our favourite pizza joint to watch the ceremonies. It was a small but packed restaurant and everyone was pretty happy to be watching the ceremonies. We cheered patriotically when Canada marched out and everyone in the restaurant followed, cheering and clapping for Canada. We instantly made some new friends. We returned the favour and cheered when Russia came out.  The ceremonies went well and we all had a good time watching Russian TV with our new friends. A lot of what was happening we didn't understand but we discovered pretty quickly why everyone burst into laughter and cheers when one of the torch bearers come on. Turns out its Putin's girlfriend. It was as funny to us as everyone else in the room.

Tomorrow everyone starts official shifts with the COC and the true chaos begins. Happy Olympics :)

Day 6: The Adventure Continues

Things have been pretty busy and crazy over the last couple of days. On Saturday we met up with some fellow Canadian COH volunteers and headed up to the mountain cluster. We are fortunate as volunteers because we get free access to public transit with our accreditations. We took the train up to the mountains and worked our way from there. Finally it felt like the winter Olympics. There was snow in the mountains and although we have suspicions it wasn't all real it still gave us the feeling of being at home.  It is a pretty big change from the palm trees down in the costal cluster to snow in the mountain cluster.  We were also fortunate that we were up in the mountains on a sunny day. The first one we have seen so far. It wasnt as cold as expected and made for an enjoyable day.

We went up to the Rosa extreme park where they will be doing the snowboard half pipe and where the mountain COH is located. It was pretty surreal to see everything set up and ready for the competition to start. While we were up there, there was an NBC crew on site and Mikaela got interviewed about thoughts on the scenery and atmosphere. So if anyone happens to be in San Diego during the Olympics, you could see a smiley Canadian on TV.  From there we went up to the sliding center where the bobsled, luge and skeleton are taking place. That was by far the neatest part of being in the mountain. Its something that isn't commonly seen at home so it was interesting to see it first hand.

The mountain cluster is similar to the coastal cluster in that many of the buildings are not complete. We like to describe them as "functional" but not done. There are three massive hotel-resorts along the train tracks arriving at the mountains. It appears that only one of them is complete and the other two are still in progress. That means many more spectators are about to be displaced.

On Sunday the group separated a little bit and Mikaela went to volunteer with CBC while Doug , Lisa and Stacey went to check out Sochi.  For those who don't know, the Olympics are actually being held in the town of Adler, a city in the region of Sochi. There is also a city called Sochi and it is about an hour from Adler. During the trip to Sochi it was evident where all the money went to. Sochi is done up with all the bells and whistles and ready to welcome visitors.

Mikaela was able to volunteer with CBC at the IBC, which is a great and educational experience. A chance to experience the broadcast side of sport. While at CBC Mikaela worked on documents for the opening ceremonies for the French radio-canada broadcast. And other than the office being the same temperature as an iceberg, it was a lot of fun.

Evening festivities included Doug and Stacey pulling an all nighter to watch the Superbowl. The game started at 3am Russian time and although they described it as the worst Superbowl they have ever seen it was an enjoyable time for sure.

Today was back to CBC for Mikaela to continue work on the opening ceremonies binders. There is a buzz around the studio and its growing with every moment. More and more reporters and crews are arriving and everything is coming together. Tomorrow night is a run through for the opening ceremonies and everyone is getting last minute details in order. Mikaela toured around the studios and saw where all the athletes would come in for most victory interviews. Neat to see all the behind the scenes action after watching the Olympics for many years.

Today Lika also arrived. She was in our program last year and is from Russia. Lika was able to get a volunteer position with COH as well and we'll be staying with us for a couple of weeks. It was nice and helpful to have a native Russian speaker by out side and sorry everything out for us. Its a full house for the next couple weeks but we are all excited to start orientation on Thursday and get the games started Friday!