My Free 2010 Winter Olympic Games Loot

Now that the 2010 Winter Olympic Games are over, it's time to reflect on pleasant memories and the highlights from February 2010.

For me, besides the general camaraderie among strangers was visiting the various free pavilions located through downtown Vancouver. Most pavilions visited offered some sort of free souvenir to memorialize the Olympic games.

Here is a list of the free loot that I got during the festivities.

1. Northern House Pavilion: Up Here magazine. 104 colour pages all about Canada's great white north. Two lovely Northwest Territories postcards. One Nunavut postcard featuring a dog sled team. One Yukon post card.

2. Manitoba Pavilion: One postcard of Winnipeg at night. One foam white polar bear. Enter to win it says. I still haven't. One absolutely huge Manitoba pin. Umm, thanks.

3. Canada Pavilion: One rather large Canada pin, but not as large as the Manitoba pin. One Canada Pavilion postcard.

4. Burnaby Torch Relay: One souvenir black bottle of Coca Cola, complete with Torch Relay flames. No, I haven't opened it. One paper Canadian flag.

5. Korea Pavilion: One yellow and white hand made paper calendar. This is one of my favourite souvenirs, and I've already hung it on my wall. I can't really read it, but I think it now says April. One Korean Delegation pin. I traded an extra Royal Canadian Mint pin for it. Good thing we lined up for three hours for the Mint Pavilion and hounded the Pin Lady for more pins! One Endless Possibilities Winter 2018 PyeongChang brochure. Korean hand therapy accupressure sheet. Press your hand in the right spot and your headache will go away! I think I'm not doing it right, however. One round Visit Korea pin.

6. Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion: One Paralympics quarter. Not entirely free, I had to trade an old quarter for it. Cardboard holder for quarters. One white glove to hold the Olympic medals with. One Royal Canadian Mint Outside Pin. One Royal Canadian Mint Inside Pin. The pins are my second favourite souvenir.

7. BC Hydro block: BC Hydro Power Smart light up pendant on green ribbon necklace. I think I was the only one out of a thousand people that even knew that it lit up. One BC Hydro pen made out of recycled paper. Pen doesn't work too well, so was likely the waste of a tree, root.

8. Italy Pavilion: One Consorzio Del Formaggio black ribbon thingie. What is it?

9. British Columbia Pavilion: One yellow ribbon with BC Pavilion card. If there were any free pins, they were long gone.

Well, that's it. As I said earlier, the best gift was the Korean hand made calendar. The one that sucked was the Italian house black thingie majig. The Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion pins were really nice, with a space theme. Definitely my second fave souvenir.

I'm not sure yet if I will place my gifts in a shadow box, or if they will fit in a scrapbook album. For now they reside inside a blue reusable bag that I got when I bought some Olympic t-shirts. It's great to have some souvenirs of this monumental event, and I'll look back and remember all the wonderful memories I had of meeting people from around the world and standing in long line-ups.