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Post by Titia on Feb 12, 2010 20:57:07 GMT 1
Oh....the opening of the whole event is coming close now!!!! Just in a few hours the Games will begin!!! Robert and I wil be at the HHH this afternoon. Think we will leave at about 3 to get ourselves a good spot in front of de biggest screen we can find over there. So that I can see Kevin with the flag and to see Jenna smile and grin and laugh! And ofcourse the see the gazillion speed skater from the NL!!! My brother will join us after work to have a couple of beers Anyway, we still don't have tickets yet to any competition. Seems to me that it will be just practise on the 15th for me (men/pairs) an sitting in front of the tv at home or the big screen at the HHH. Meeting with the AS girls in town after men's SP would be awesome! There is a nice restaurant near the Lansdown Shopping Centre in Richmond, right next to the station of the Canada Line Skytrain. So Kat (swissmiss) it would me nice to meet you! But...have to ask Robert about that first because I don't think he will like it me being gone all the time FS and AS related (he's a guy you know... ) I will let you know how the opening ceremonie was like on big screen with fireworks outside on the O-Zone venue. Right now I'm going to the gym! (yeah a gymnast has to stay in shape, even during vacation...)
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Post by Titia on Feb 12, 2010 21:18:23 GMT 1
Well, thank you very much *grins* Although the weather isn't that bad today, it's almost...dry ROFLOL!!!!! Still I don't get it because Whistler is more to the north then Grouse Mountain (so it should be colder up there) and at Grouse Mountain they are able to make snow themselves with snowguns. They tried the same in Whistler but it didn't work. Weird. 28,5 to be precise! So true! Back at home they also can't get rid of the winter. We're so done with it! (bad roads, unable to cycle, many many broken bones...)
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Post by Mireille on Feb 12, 2010 23:25:18 GMT 1
think we're more used to the rain than the snow, lol, so for Titia it will be like being home I am being lazy by asking this.. what time does the opening start for us here in Europe? I answer my own question.. 3 AM. LOL Gonna do an attempt to watch it.. at least some of it.
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Post by Titia on Feb 13, 2010 9:28:56 GMT 1
I just got back home from watching the opening ceremonie live at the Holland Heineken House on the O-Zone in Richmond.
Right now I'm a little too overwhelmed to tell you guys/girls all about it. But I can tell you: Olympics IS MAGIC!!!
I'll be back in the morning to tell you all about it!
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Post by Mireille on Feb 13, 2010 21:14:00 GMT 1
I just got back home from watching the opening ceremonie live at the Holland Heineken House on the O-Zone in Richmond. Right now I'm a little too overwhelmed to tell you guys/girls all about it. But I can tell you: Olympics IS MAGIC!!! I'll be back in the morning to tell you all about it! (not so patiently) waiting... So curious if you could see the fireworks.. and what about the lighting of the fire outside?
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Post by swissmiss on Feb 13, 2010 22:59:27 GMT 1
Meeting with the AS girls in town after men's SP would be awesome! There is a nice restaurant near the Lansdown Shopping Centre in Richmond, right next to the station of the Canada Line Skytrain. So Kat (swissmiss) it would me nice to meet you! But...have to ask Robert about that first because I don't think he will like it me being gone all the time FS and AS related (he's a guy you know... ) It would be good to meet you, too! We'll be meeting down by the First Aid station (the Swiss flag on the map of the arena ) after the SP. It'll be some of us from AS plus some Stéphane fans from Japan and Korea. Robert's welcome to come along, too! My hubby (also named Robert ) doesn't mind hanging around with us skating fans, even us screaming Stéph-fanatics. Hope to see everyone there! sm
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Post by Titia on Feb 14, 2010 2:43:18 GMT 1
It's me again! When we first arrived at the HHH there were two lines. One for people with a Canadian passport and all other countries. And one for people with a Dutch passport. Ofcourse we took the Dutch entry and guess what? Our line was like zero meters and the other one like....twice a football field? All these people were looking at us like: shit...born in the wrong country... Anyway, before you get inside they check your bag with a scanner. After that, you're free to go where ever you want. So we walked around a bit, walked back to the entrance (don't ask me why ) and walked back in. First there is this information desk. There's a screen that shows the tickets that are still available for some competitions, max two days ahead. But for speedskating the organisation ATP is still trying to get tickets. If there are ticket available, there will be a lottery. Too bad the people who win the lottery, still have to pay for the tickets So we looked at the forms and decided to fill out several forms for every speed skating competition. Hey, don't blame me for doing that. The rules didn't say you can't fill out as many forms as you want! Sooooo...we walked around a bit more, looked at the HHH shop, found another desk where you can join a small quiz to win some other tickets or to win a daily gift package. And so we Dutch answered some questions, several times ofcourse You should have seen us! Ofcourse we didn't know the answer to any of the questions but there are manu internet-point, so I read a question, ran over to find the answer (thank the Lord for those who invented Google and Wikipedia) and ran back to tell Robert the answer. We are taling this waaaay to serious! *ROFLOL* Then we went to the main hall where the big screens are. The party already started. Lot's of beers walking around with people (or is it people walking around with beer? Couldn't see the difference ), Canadians and whatever nationality there was walking around, eating our so famous hotchpotch (mashed potatoes with vegetables, sausage and bacon as one of the girls explains to non-Dutch people just about....10 times a minute. It is so funny to see all these people enjoying themselves in "our house". The tables and chairs are in white with Delftware prints on it, huge signs with Heineken (I'm surprised they didn't use "Serving the Planet"), orange colors everywhere (walls, desks, clothing...) and ofcourse our apres-ski Dutch music. It was almost 6 o'clock so we went to find ourselves a nice spot in front of one of the screens. My brother made it in time to be there before the Opening Ceremonie started and so we joined eachother. And then...it begins.... And suddenly I am no longer in the Holland House but in the Canadian House. The exitment, the vibrations, the proud, the emotions...it was all there and it was all Canadian. Watching the Opening Ceremonie over there was almost like being in the BC Stadium itself. Jacques Rogge's speech was so true, I couldn't agree more. And when the Olympic Fire was lightend, I became a little emotional and overwhelmed and had to take a deep breath and a big sigh in order to keep my teers inside. This is what the Olympics is all about: All the sports, athletes and countries coming together. Being proud of the country you come from, cheers for those who are your favourite, make big a party together wherever you're from, it's overwhelming and making people emotional, being more of everything than you normaly are. It's Citius, Altius, Fortius, IT'S MAGIC!!!! I wish all the people in the world the best Olympics ever. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!! After we got a great show from Dutch band "De Coronas" who played whatever song the audience wanted them to play (well..allmost every song) and after that a DJ continued the party with great music and some really Dutch songs, like (Dutchies now what I mean) Guus Meeuwis, Jeroen van der Boom and many more. Really the best party I've ever been. Next time I have to make sure to drop my coat at the cloack (or however you spell that), cause dancing around with a coat in your hands...not the best idea . A couple of beers later we decided to go home. Still exited, yet exhausted I fell asleep right after my head touched my pillow... (At the moment I am writing this, day two of the Games is coming to it's end and we Dutchies got our first gold medal, yay!! More about that later, gotta go to the HHH again! (just had dinner at home)).
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Post by nike2010 on Feb 14, 2010 15:47:47 GMT 1
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Post by yukiusa on Feb 14, 2010 16:25:04 GMT 1
Jacques Rogge's speech was so true, I couldn't agree more. And when the Olympic Fire was lightend, I became a little emotional and overwhelmed and had to take a deep breath and a big sigh in order to keep my teers inside. This is what the Olympics is all about: All the sports, athletes and countries coming together. Being proud of the country you come from, cheers for those who are your favourite, make big a party together wherever you're from, it's overwhelming and making people emotional, being more of everything than you normaly are. It's Citius, Altius, Fortius, IT'S MAGIC!!!! You can say that again, Titia! Thanks a lot for sharing all these tidbits!! Love how you describe your Olympic experience here
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Post by Nadin on Feb 14, 2010 19:55:54 GMT 1
And when the Olympic Fire was lightend, I became a little emotional and overwhelmed and had to take a deep breath and a big sigh in order to keep my teers inside. This is what the Olympics is all about: All the sports, athletes and countries coming together. Being proud of the country you come from, cheers for those who are your favourite, make big a party together wherever you're from, it's overwhelming and making people emotional, being more of everything than you normaly are. It's Citius, Altius, Fortius, IT'S MAGIC!!!! Aww Titia, that almost made me tear up. That's exactly how I see it, it's pure magic
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Post by Titia on Feb 16, 2010 8:23:55 GMT 1
So, where was I. Oh my dear ***!!! I have to fill you guys in about the last three days! Gotta hurry then! Well, Saturday was a great day. We wanted to watch the mens 5000 at the HHH so we got up a bit earlier then we did the last few days. Still I got up at 9.30 The competition started at 1 am so we wanted to be there at noon. Since the O-Zone is just a 20 minute walk from where we are staying according to the signs (or shorter, depending on how fast you're are walking : we decided to go there by foot. And yep, it was just a 15 minute walk, it was raining you know so we walked pretty fast The line to get into the O-Zone was short, but the line for Dutch people to get into HHH was a bit longer than it was yesterday. Still it was 20 times shorter than the line for "whatever you nationality is" line Once we got in we went to the information desk to fill out some forms for the ticket lottery. Did I tell you guys about that yet? Can't remember Anyway, the Dutch ticket agency is trying to get tickets for the remaining speeds skating events. And when they do they put the tickets in a lottery. If you get lucky you get max two tickets. You still have to pay for the tickets, but it's a lot cheaper then getting tickets through the fan-to-fan listing on the vancouver 2010 website. So we decided to sign up for all the competitions. We filled out several forms for each competition (typically Dutch I guess ) and hoped for the best. Then we went to the main hall to get ourselves a nice spot in front of one of the big screens for the 5000 men. Oh and yeah...left my jacket at the cloakroom this time, remember? Again there were a lot non-Dutchies in the house. And since Vancouver is multy-cultural there was always somebody chearing for one of the skaters. But the best part started when "our" Sven Kramer had to skate. He got a "bad" drawing, being the first to skate of the favourites. But he did a great job! All the Dutchies were chearing really hard for the guy, some were even going balistic! And then it got quiet in the hall. We were all hoping for the best, as Sven did too. He did do a great job, but still he wasn't too sure about his time. But then it happened. One after another could beat Sven his time and so......WE DUTCHIES WON OUR FIRST GOLD!!! And it was so overwhelming, the atmosphere in the hall. Right after Sven knew he had won gold, he ran over the ice to the audience, found himself a way over two boarding, running up the stairs falling into his parents arms and right after that into his girlfriends and sisters arms (girlfriend is Olympic Champion 2008 Hockey). Really, I had tears in my eyes too. It can imagine what it's like pracitising so so soooooo damn hard for four years to achieve your goals. He went so deep during that race. Everything he put in it the last few years during all these hard training sessions, finally came out. There can't be more satisfaction than that. I see him pretty often in town since we live in the same town. Always busy, always focused on what is has to do next. No time to say hello to familiar people walking by. 24 hours thinking of one thing: gold in Vancouver. And he did it! I am soooo proud of him and I have huge amount of respect for the guy, I really do . I was having tears in my eyes when he ran over to his family to celebrate with them. I felt all of the emotion. It's hard to describe all of it, hope you guys can imagine what it felt like. Oh and it even gets better! During the ice resurfacing I checked my phone a got a message from the Dutch ticket agency, we got two tickets to the ladies 3000 of tomorrow!!!! How funny, this is crazy!! We filled out a couple of forms yesterday and now we already got picked!!! We went to the information desk right away to get the tickets and ofcourse....we filled out some more forms. If we can get lucky once, maybe we can get lucke twice!! Hahahaha!!! Ok, well right after that they, ofcourse, played the song "we are the champions" in the hall. We Dutchies all sang as hard as we could, party-ing and celebrating all together. Some time later we decided to go home for a while. There would be a big party later that night, also with Sven on stage, but since it was still afternoon, we decided to go home to have dinner there. And how surprising, it was still raining outside. We saw a Dutch guy on a bike and we were like: oh ofcourse, we can get those for free!!! So we went back inside, filled out (again) some form, got ourselves a pass and went outside to get ourselves a free rental bike. And there we go! We Dutchies on a bike, how Dutch can it get? ;D Did you already notice how much proud I am of being a Dutchie, especially here in Vancouver? Well, now you know We got home in just 5 minutes, go to **** with your 20 minute walk ;D At home we made dinner, but....what was it again? oh yeah something with chicken. Anyway, after dinner we went back ofcourse to the HHH. This time I was really laughing when we entered the O-Zone (on our bikies) because people were leaving the O-Zone complaining about the HHH being closed and only letting Dutch in. Ehhh...sorry...tonight is OUR night We returned our bikies and went inside (yeah yeah, left jacket at the cloackroom). The party was yet going on. Tons of orange colored people dancing around, beers flying through the air They planned on having Sven on stage by 9 and they did. He was jumping up and down on the stage, he was sooo happy! This guy asked him a couple of questions, he got a trophy from Erica Terpstra (important lady back in NL, former Olympic Champion swimming) and from the back of the audience a big fake gold medal got towards Sven since he had to wait for his real medal until the ceremony on Sunday. And then ofcourse he left again. He has more races to skate. You go Sven! Than there was a small concert of Marco Borsato (great guy back in NL), the whole audience was going crazy. After that we decided to go home again. It was getting late and we were getting tired. Robert had to go to the toilet and so I checked my phone to entertain myself. It appeared that my brother was in the HHH too since Sven his celebration and he send me a message to ask me where we were standing. Didn't check my phone tho Poor guy, had to celebrate all on his own. Or maybe not that much on his own since he was surrounded by a lot of celebrating Dutchies. Anyway, now that my brother was there we decided to stay a bit longer. The Corona's were on stage again, playing request songs like they did yesterday. Great guys, they are really awesome. After that we were all tired, having sore feet. Took a couple of nice pictures together and went home (yeah yeah, didn't forget to take my jacket from the cloakroom again ) This time we went home walking, the free bike rental is until 9 in the evening so... At home...went straight to bed Oh Svencouver, I looooove being here
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Post by Titia on Feb 16, 2010 8:27:15 GMT 1
Have to tell you guys about Sunday and Monday later. It's getting late, had only 5 hours sleep last night and my brother made me drink several tequille sunrises, soo...
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Post by Magdalena on Feb 16, 2010 12:09:31 GMT 1
Thanks for your report, Titia I'm glad you're having such a good time. Hopefully you'll get lucky again and get more tickets. And congrats to all Dutchies for Sven's gold! (Sweden has a gold too )
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Post by Titia on Feb 18, 2010 7:59:08 GMT 1
The story continues... Last Sunday there was the 3000m ladies competition and we went there because we got the tickets . But before that I supposed to meet with Helena for my men/pairs practise ticket for Monday, yay!! So we supposed to meet between 11:30 and 11:45 in front of the tickets box at the Richmond Oval. And somehow, don't ask the both of us how, we totally missed eachother . I was just standing and sitting down over there, but no Helena. At least, I didn't see here. But since I was wearing my Olympic Blue jacket, about 5 of 6 people came to me to ask me questions like "are there still tickets available for today" or "do you where I can find...". First time was funny, the second time made my eyebrows raise, the times after that it became anoying . I kept telling people "sorry, I'm not from the organisation" but I have must looked pretty official because they just kept coming. And so after I didn't find Helena I had to join Robert at the line. He already lined up sinse the line to get through security was veeeeery long. And when we got our bags checked another woman behind said to me (she was a Dutchie) "do you have to go through the security too?" And I was like .....NO NOT THE "YOU LOOK PRETTY OFFICIAL TO ME" again! But yup, that's what she said ;D. Oh dear this happens too me all the time. Once when I was with Mireille in Torino for Euro's 2005, at the official skater hotel the employees thought I was an athlete! Well, yes I am, but not a figure skater. To be hounest, I think I wouldn't be able to skate around just one round without falling on my *** for at least fives times ;D Anyway, we got in but first we took a picture with Miga and Quatshi. Hugged with Miga too, he's so cute! :chuipa. We went inside the rink, walked around a bit, Robert bought an orange t-shirt (ofcourse ) and went to our seats. This lovely voluntering ladie took a reaaaly nice picture from the two of us inside the rink (thank you for that) with on the background the band "Kleintje Pils" from the Netherlands. To translate it, the bandname is "Small Beer". Weird huh? We sat down and waited for the competition to start. And ofcourse it did We Dutchies did grate but our Ireen Wust could catch the gold as she did four years ago. She started to fast and got really behind in the last two laps. She did what she could, but it just wasn't enough. Too bad for her, really. But we did have a great afternoon afterall. After that they wanted us to get out of the building as soon as possible. We walked back home and entertainend ourselves with tv, games and internet. On Monday morning I had to get up very early, like 6.30 in the morning! But not just for some sightseeingm, NO for men's and pairs FS practise, yay!! The night before I figure out how to get the the Passific Coloseum. So I took the 7.20 train to Waterfront and the first 135 bus eastwards. I asked to busdriver to let me know when I had to get off the bus and so he did. I got out and followed some other people who were going there too. I was waiting for green light to cross the streets as Helena came running towards me "Titia Titia!!" and so FINALLY we met!. She was having a coffee to wake up. And so we walked towards the venue (hell, what a walk...) and talked and talked and talked Inside we sat down right away as practise already started at 7.00. First I wanted to be there at 7.00 too but then I asked Kevin at what time his practise was. He told me it was at 10.20 and then I was like: than I won't be there at 7.00!! Helena agreed (Sunday evening by mail) and so we were at the venue at about 8.30. Practise was great. First I got really happy (since I'm always a little moody in the morning ) from the music. Happy music, nice beats, but above all: great skates!! Most of the men skated their short program or at least a big part of it. And as you al; FS fans know, watching FS live is so different than watching it on tv. The moves looked a lot better, more energetic, the spins a lot faster, the jumps a lot higher. Being there makes you feel the athmosphere, makes you "feel" the skaters. The only thing I really noticed was that it happened a lot that one skater was making speed to do a jump and then another got in the way. At least, it seemed to me that way. And ofcourse I noticed it with Kevin. Head in the back, shoulders down, head down...not the way he likes to practise. But he got good directions from his coach Yuri (Bureiko) and the performed two perfect 3A (after he doubled the first). Moves looked great, spins were fast. I just loved the practise , I just loved Kevin Thank you Helean for making this happen! After men's practise, there was pairs practise. Sorry for those who love pairs, I didn't pay attention all the time. Made great pictures tho. Well, maybe I was paying attention, but not that much to details. Can't tell you anything noticeble about a pair in particular. The thing I really liked about this practise was the combination of men's and pairs. First you got the individuals, the jumping machines. And then you got the pairs, teamplayers. There are the lifts, the thrown jumps, the deathspirals, the steps sequinces. Totally different, real fun. After practise we got thrown out right away and hooked up with some people form FSU and some not FSU people. We walked down Hastings Street for a while and got ourselves a seat for lunch. Most of us got the "all you can eat Indian". Real great food. Except for one thing. Take something that is just too hot and spicy. Multipkly it by four and then add a taste you really don't like. And then you get youself something....really grose . Totally stuffed I had to say goodbye to all of these fine people and to Helena, 'cause Robert wanted me to join him at the HHH for the men's 500. And so I did. First took a bus to get Downtown (totally packed...), then a train to Lansdown Richmond, went home to change and to get some stuff, then went back to the trainstation and got on the train to get to the next (and last) stop (well, don't blaim me for not walking, my ticket was still valid ) and met Robert at the entrance of the HHH. We sat down on the floor in the main hall and watched the 500m. Dutchies did a nice job, not a medal though... OH and we canceled two tickets for the ladies 500m for Tuesday. We got picked again!!! We never expected that too happen and since it's another 460CAD or 320Euro, we cancelled them (in secret: we hope to get picked for the mens 10000 ) Took a nice picture of Robert with Barbara de Loor (great former Dutch speed skater) and went home again. Had some very late dinner, played some X-box game and went too bad. I was exhausted. Really, haven't had much sleep last night and went through a lot of excitement! Loooooved today...let's see what's for tomorrow!
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Post by Magdalena on Feb 18, 2010 19:33:31 GMT 1
Wow, Titia, what an adventure! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us, it's a very entertaining read Can't wait for more!
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