Vancouver Olympics Get Underway

Olympics Opening Ceremony
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony was held last night at BC Place Stadium. Anyone living in Vancouver who did not manage to score tickets watched it on TV. I must point out that today I discovered the coverage on US TV was not the same as in Canada: the commentators were different; Matt Lauer and Bob Kosta in the US, as opposed to well known Canadian broadcaster Lloyd Robertson and Canadian Olympic athlete Catriona Le May Doan up here north of the border. Also, from what I have gathered from the bloggers and news feeds today, the actual presentation of this event in the US was different. Most notably there were no close-up shots of k.d. lang during her excellent rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", causing American viewers to wonder at the either age-ist or homophobic nature of US TV.
Well, I have no comment on that. Neither is it my place to say.
Transit in Vancouver mid-day Saturday
What I want to describe is my voyage today from my house at the edge of UBC to just a tiny bit down the hill, needed to run some errands, and back. That was earlier today. If that was all I would not bother to make a post, but just now in the early evening I stepped out to my local supermarket, Safeway, and must say .. . . things have changed! In a big way.
First, catching the #99 B-Line down to Broadway this afternoon was an experience in itself. I expected this adventure to be no big deal since the UBC campus is, as of Friday, on a combination of Reading Week and Spring Break for two weeks. So I thought the transit system would be relatively normal. Well, it is NOT normal for a #99 bus eastbound to be crowded upon arriving to Point Grey at mid-day on a Saturday afternoon.
I squished on and was immediately absorbed in various conversations of people trying to figure out how to get to "Canada Hockey Place". It's GM Place people, where the Canucks play! Some unfortunate folks with four maps were massively confused until someone explained that the two arenas are the same place. If the Olympics organizing committee felt the need to rebrand GM Place for the Olympics they would have done well to make it plain to people that that is Canada Hockey Place. Luckily this set of travellers had already noted that downtown really isn't that big so getting off at the wrong stop is not a big deal.
While at the corner of Alma and W. Broadway I was distracted by another #99 bus, proclaiming itself "Bus Full, Please Take Next Bus". Upon investigating the official schedule I now discover that Women's Hockey, Sweden vs. Switzerland, let out at 2:30. Lucky me, I blindly chose to go out at 2:38! By the way Sweden won 3-0. Looking around the bus I had been on there were a significant number of people headed directly to . . . oh my goodness it's women's Canada vs. Slovakia and at this moment, 6:25pm Vancouver time (second intermission) it is 13 - 0 Canada. Goooooo Canada! you better kick butt because you have to face the Czechs, Russians and Americans yet.
So I guess people have bought blocks of Womens hockey tickets.
Coming back from my errands, which didn't take long, I was nervous about being able to catch another #99 B-Line, westbound, up the hill. In this town, usually if there are extra buses put on one way you wait a long, long time for a bus coming back. But it was OK, a normal wait. And the bus was almost empty, yay.
Just Getting to the Store is an Adventure
A bit later I go to get, you know: soy milk, beans, vegetables, maybe some tea if the kind I like is on sale, just regular stuff at the Safeway two blocks from my house.
Before I even get there I notice people seem to have forgotten how to drive, but don't much pay attention since I am on foot and alert, therefore perfectly able to jump out of the way of a wayward vehicle.
A vehicle I see pulling out of the parking lot without its light on does not escape my attention. I point, from my spot on the sidewalk, what I THOUGHT was the universal signal, and mouth, "You're lights aren't on". The driver seems to take no notice so I turn it up a notch, putting my hands together and twisting, again mouthing, "You're lights are NOT ON!".
The car stops -- in the middle of the intersection no less -- and the passenger rolls down the window. A woman asks, "What's the problem??" I said, "You're lights are not on." At this same moment the driver figured out how to work the car and the lights popped on. The woman said, "It's not our house . ... car!" and laughed. I just laughed. I guess this is one of the many, large amounts of people who have laid out serious money to live in my neighbourhood during the Olympics, while the owners evacuate to less exuberant areas of the globe.
Grocery Shopping in Vancouver Early Saturday Evening
I enter the Safeway and need a moment to confirm where I am. Am I in the Twilight Zone, perhaps? Even the staff is different. I can't resist chuckling to myself, with a jaded attitude, as I pass the "impulse buy" presentation aisle suddenly loaded with all manner of maple syrup and maple syrup products.
People, DO NOT buy this crap. It will taste like Aunt Jemima's, I promise you. Those maple syrup jars shaped like a maple leaf are by far the worst, it is not even maple syrup its sugar syrup. You could make that stuff at home, just add some molasses. Don't buy it, don't don't don't. There are no hardwoods out here in BC you see, those species grow in eastern Canada, particularly Quebec. Like Vermont and such, if you want maple syrup don't by it in . .. . Maryland!!
As I blaze through my store, heading exactly to the right part of the right aisle to get just what I need I navigate through singles, couples, and families from around the world wandering around in a daze. I'm not sure if they are just blown away by this experience or if they are confused by our Canadian grocery-store layout.
Usually when I got shopping I know exactly what I want, what I need, but also usually there is something that I have a taste for but am not quite sure what it is until I am in the store. Today, upon arriving, I realized I had an overwhelming need for bean and cheese tortillas.
A dash down the deli aisle for fresh salsa proved disappointing. I don't buy the bottled stuff, gross me out man. The space for salsa was almost empty except for three pathetic MILD containers. Mild?? In this neighbourhood it is invariably the HOT that is left behind. Not to worry, I told myself, I have my bottle of hot sauce I can add. It's not as good as actual hot peppers but will do in this case.
Where have the tortillas gone?? By now the security guard is taking interest in me; I am like a bobble-head going back and forth between the areas where these vaunted items are normally available in abundance.
Must gather myself. Is there a sudden influx of South Americans to this very neighbourhood that I don't know about?
Never fear, I know where there are more tortillas, by the bread aisle. I stop for the refried beans, get some frozen corn (its on sale! yay. Hey, why does Grean Giant corn have the Olympic logo and Maple Leaf on it suddenly??), and fresh lettuce.
The whole time I feel like some kind of Ambassador. I begin to suspect that it is perhaps the lights, and the sheer quantity of food, that is confusing people. I dodge various children's heads/grocery carts/people not looking where they are going/other grocery baskets in what is usually an extremely smooth and efficient shopping experience. Its not that the store is crowded, just no one looks like they know what they are doing.
I'm back by the deli aisle, by now the security guard has forgotten about my earlier whirling dervish-type behaviour (at the empty salsa rack, remember?). He is talking to a friend, in some kind of Russian-like accent. I know this guy I have seen him many times but never actually spoke. Anyway he is recounting how he was up at the luge event yesterday morning when that poor young fellow from Georgia lost his life and what actually happened. I cringed and covered my ears exclaiming, "Oh no! It's awful!" before moving on.

What I can't figure out at this moment is where all these people are staying. This neighbourhood is small, quite small, and mostly families. There are way more shops and stores and services down at Alma St so there is no reason for anyone staying down there to come shopping UP the hill. Either UBC has opened up large amounts of space for people, or this is just a small sampling of visitors who ended up getting caught in the vortex of the classic North American shopping experience: too many choices.
"Bread! I just want bread! why is there literally 16,000 kinds of bread to choose from!!" haha. I don't know. But I will find out as the Olympics goes on.
PS: the womens hockey game is now in the third period, 18 - 0 Canada, OH! Canada. Gotta go, the Ducks are playing the Flames in Anaheim. Life goes on, don't you know!