The Jetpacker

We didn’t get much sleep last night.  I want to say it’s because we were so excited about going to today’s Team USA hockey game.  But really it’s because we feared contracting a flesh eating virus from the unsanitized apartment we stayed in.  When I did get a few snores in, I was dreaming about being enveloped in a cocoon coated with Purell.

There’s one good thing about our slop house: it’s only two blocks away from efficient public transportation… something we don’t have in Southern California.

Even better is that use of the SkyTrain is free if you have tickets to an Olympic event.  We missed a train as soon as we arrived at the station, but no less than a minute later, another one arrived.

View of downtown Vancouver from the Skytrain.

We squeezed into a train car full of people clad in Team Canada hockey jerseys, hats, scarves and anything else that a maple leaf can be stitched on to.  In less than five minutes, we were a short walk from Canada Hockey Place.

Stephen Colbert was filming an episode of his show right along the waterfront near Sochi House, the Russian Pavilion designed to promote the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.  That date sounds too futuristic.  Hopefully we’ll have hover cars or teleportation by then.

Bands were warming up the large crowd surrounding the stage and cameramen were capturing the whole thing.  The crowd was boisterous and everyone sang along when an instrumental band from the Netherlands played songs like “We Are The Champions” and “Sweet Caroline.”

We wanted to stay and join in the fun, but we heard about long lines outside the arena, so we left without catching a glimpse of Stephen Colbert.

Turns out we could have stayed and watched.  By the time we got to the security checkpoint, there were about 20 lines, half of which were completely open.

Security is as strict as an airport, however.  Jackets, bags, purses, everything has to go through an X-ray machine, we had to walk through a metal detector, and I had to get my shoes inspected because metal set off the alarms.  Always causing problems.

Showing up at the game early gave us time to walk around the arena.  The coolest thing we saw was a wall with red LED lights in the shape of a Canadian flag.  We watched kids walk up to the wall and scream into a microphone where the sound waves would flick on the lights.  The louder the yell, the brighter the lights.

When we took our seats for the game, a friendly Canadian father and son introduced themselves as if we were new neighbors.  Coincidentally, the son was also an Anaheim Ducks fan.  When I asked how he became a fan, his dad joked, “Ah, there’s always been something wrong with him.”

We had a while to chat while the teams were warming up.  They told us about things to do at the Olympics and how this overwhelming Canadian patriotism didn’t arise until just a few days before the Games.

Everyone has been like that here… so hospitable and quick to share information and welcome us to their country.

The game itself wasn’t as exciting as it should have been.  Looking at the box score, you’d think a 6-1 win by the US over Norway would have been a blast.  But most of the goals came early and late in the game.

When Norway was actually giving the US a run for their money in the second period, chants of “Let’s Go Norway” echoed through the arena.

We were confused at first because there only a few sporadic Norwegian flag.  Then the father and son leaned over and laughed, “Those are all the Canadian fans.”

The arena was filled with more people in Canada gear than US and Norway combined.  And since the USA and Canada obviously have a healthy rivalry, all the Canadian fans wanted to pull for Norway.

Their support worked.  Norway was tough competition, and when they scored their lone goal, the arena erupted.  Canadians sprung out of their seats and cheered on Norway partially because they like rooting for the underdog and partially because it was enjoyable to watch a lesser team exploit a weakness in a strong US team.

To counteract the Canadian support for Norway, people dressed as Captain America, President Lincoln and Lady Liberty would try to start chants of “U-S-A!”

After the game, we went to a drug store near our apartment because we heard they had a lot of Olympic merchandise.  Unfortunately, all of the gear had been shipped downtown.  But we spent some time talking to a friendly clerk who basically abandoned her job for a solid 15 minutes to tell us about the city and ask about our road trip.

While I was finishing my conversation with her, a lady walking out of the store stopped to talk to Ashley and Jackie.  She said she was a bus driver for the Olympics and she was one of the people driving the buses brought up from California.  We had seen a few of the buses earlier — they still have California plates.

We love how sociable Canadians are.  It’s not like in America where we adopt the “mind your own business” mentality.  Canadians love to strike up conversation with just about anyone, especially tourists.  And it always goes like this: “Hey!  Are you American?  How do you like our city?  Isn’t this weather great?”

We were craving Tim Hortons again, so we ate soup and sandwiches and took a box of doughnuts back to the apartment to watch men’s figure skating and the too-close-for-comfort Canada vs. Switzerland game (Canada edged the Swiss in a shootout).

The suburb we stayed in gets quiet around 10pm, but there was a small but trendy Chinese restaurant down the street that was packed with people.  The food was cheap, hot and good… the food eatery trifecta in my opinion.

The restaurant said it stayed open until 1am, but they started turning people away just after midnight.  We noticed that the expression “last call” means two different things between our countries: in America, “last call” means “hurry up and get more drinks before the bar closes”… but in Canada, “last call” means “were already done serving but thanks for stopping by.”

Then it was back to the dust bowl we call our room.  Tomorrow we’ll dive into a pool of disinfectant and move on to a better (and hopefully much cleaner) apartment closer to the action downtown.