I’m moving on. I abruptly published part two of the previous post to get the damn jury duty case out of my mind.
These days I’ve been glued to the Winter Olympics taking place a couple hours north in Vancouver, Canada. It’s fantastic to see Canada in the limelight. In the last twelve years of my life I’ve worked with Canadians on an almost daily basis. I enjoy seeing a modest country and its citizens embracing its world spotlight. I was truly moved by the opening ceremonies.
In 1986, Vancouver hosted the World’s Fair. Remember those things? What happened to World Fairs anyways? They were big deals back in the day and it’s what placed my hometown on the map. I’m sure it’s a key reason my family left California in 1970, eight years after Seattle hosted its own World Fair in 1962 thus the existence of the swell Space Needle and monorail. 47 years later, Seattle has matured into a cosmopolitan city complete with light rail and a swanky downtown library.
Our family went north of the border to attend Expo 86. It was kind of a big deal since I got my first passport. We seldom did adventures as a family unit since seven kids don’t travel well. It was really fun to explore the world in a Canadian city. Personally, it was like being in a dream. We watched fireworks, toured the fairgrounds, Vancouver, and sampled foods from all over the globe. I felt at home in the foreign land many like to mock.
A love affair with foreign languages was cemented and Canada was on my radar. I know I should be more productive during these two weeks, but Vancouver has a grip on me. Job well done Vancouver!
I appreciated your entire recount of your jury experience, though I’m sure it wasn’t always a good thing to relive it by telling the story.
I couldn’t agree with you more about how well Vancouver and Canada as a whole have done with the Games. Vancouver was the very first Canadian city I traveled to and I loved it immediately. Through blogging and running I’ve met many more Canadians than I ever expected and I’m better for it. Good stuff, that Canada!
The Olympics have had my attention these past two weeks as well. Mainly the figure skating, but I’ve enjoyed the skiing and snowboarding as well. So exciting!
Sadly, I’ve never visited Canada. I know quite a few people who live there (both in real life and through blogs), but have never made it up there. Even though I’ve been obsessed with the country ever since I watched Anne of Green Gables when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Someday…
Canada loves you, too!
LesleyG – glad you like the recount. I got to the point I felt I had to blog about the entire event and couldn’t think about anything else. I need to move on and blog about other fun things because stuff is happening all around me.
I think Vancouver is doing a great job. I read some cheeseball article on Yahoo! Sports about how nothing is going right. If you want to see the bad in things, sure maybe it didn’t get off to the best start. I thought the opening ceremonies were spectacular. Anyways, great Games and an even better city to visit. Oh, the nightlife in Vancouver is tops in the Northwest, which doesn’t say much.
SM – I love the snowboard cross event. I think it’s pretty cool how much ground some of the boarders can make up in the air. You’ll get there someday. I watched some of the figure skating last night and was happy to see the Canadian woman, Rochette, get the bronze. What an amazing feat given her mom’s recent death.
Jaichan – thank you very much. I’ve had wonderful interactions with your people. They’re nice folks and know how to make visitors feel welcome.
I love Vancouver. LOVE. I’m also jealous of Vancouver. Vancouver sort of makes me feel like that geeky kid in 8th grade with braces, who sits next to the stunning elegant mature woman in class. Vancouver being that woman.. you get what I’m sayin..
Golden – Seattle isn't too shabby either. What I do prefer about Vancouver is the nightlife, ability to get French radio/TV, Sky Train, its parks, the hotties, restaurants, diversity, and Seymour Street.
Every neighbor should be as good a neighbor as Canada. I spent only a hiccup in Vancouver but have been to Toronto and throughout Nova Scotia – I have family in Edmonton and of course there’s that Fava girl
Canada is nothing short of impressive…
As for the Olympics, I’ve watched a pretty good amount – I think I am most fascinated with the purity of most of the athletes – who invest their whole lives for the sake of the sport and the competition, it too is quite impressive.
Chris – we agree on something, a mutual love for Canada. Fava is a pretty cool Canadian too.
The athletes are rather impressive. There are so many different types of athletes in the Winter Olympics from curlers to boarders to the bobsledders. Vancouver is the bomb Chris. So so much to do there and a booming movie scene. Every other movie that isn't porn is filmed in 'couver.