So many tars

Welp, I'm unemployed! Work officially finished on Friday, after a week of wrap-up around the IBC. We had a lot of take-down and I had no more days off after my Whistler trip for my final week. Our wrap party was a success Sunday night after the Closing Ceremonies, and I must say, it should be illegal to schedule work the day after a party is thrown for 2,300 people, with over $100,000 spent and 11,000 drinks consumed. Pretty awesome time, to say the least.

The rest of the week had a bit more work than we've had recently, and was filled with our final goodbyes to coworkers. Starting Monday, people's contracts were ending and people were heading back to their homes with no job (me included, soon).  It's pretty depressing to think about going back to Minnesota after having such a fantastic time up here. I've been in Vancouver a bit over a month now, I'm finally getting a feel for the city and getting to know the friends I've made, but now boom, work's over, and I have to say goodbye already. Not to mention, the work I've been doing has been amazing!

My sister and mom are coming up to Vancouver next Saturday so I will be spending this next week bumming around till they arrive, hopefully getting some applications in for back home. I am quite excited to see them though! I have been assigned to create an itinerary for our plans next week. Any suggestions?

Here's a pic of most of my fellow runners and me. I will miss working with them so much!

That's all I have for now, just gonna be stuck on the couch for the rest of the night, watching the Academy Awards. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for Meryl!

Peace, love, and Oscars,

A

I love Jim Halpert

The Ganes are over!!! Canada just beat the States in the final hockey match for the gold medal! I actually found myself cheering for Canada instead of the USA at the end; I think they deserved to win on home ground. This week has picked up at work, but today is pretty much the last of the excitement, since the Closing Ceremonies are tonight and we are having a sort of sendoff at the IBC afterwards. Most people at work's final days are sometime this week and I can hardly believe that I am finished working with OBS after Friday. It's pretty depressing, actually. I've grown accustomed to "working" these long days with these amazing people and being able to witness the fantasticthings going on with the Olympics firsthand.

I went back to Whistler yesterday with my friend Alicia and we were able to make it to the 4-men boblsedding final, which was awesome because USA won!!! It was such a close race and we beat out Canada and Germany on the last slide down. We got sooo close to the ice, and the venue looked spectacular. It's really incredible to see how fast these men go by! Alicia and I went to the top of the sliding center to watch the flower ceremony and it was packed but we got a few good photos and even one with the Olympic champion cutie Steve Mesler.

Usher was playing at the Victory ceremony that night, so we of course got in, no problem, with our accreditation. That's another thing I'm going to miss when I get home - the ability to get into sick places with just the wave of my pass. The concert was pretty cool, he sounds exactly the same as on his albums, and obviously, his dance moves were awesome. I was on such a USA high after watching the Americans win gold, so I was pretty much going up to every person wearing red, white, and blue gear and raging about our victory. It was actually the best part of the night, because one of the groups I decided to attack were not just random Americans watching Usher at the victory ceremony, but random American Olympian athletes from the bobsledding and skeleton teams! We hung out with them for most of the concert, and I've now spent most of my day today online trying to track the names and photos of the guys. Totally rad.

A few other tidbits of fun that I've been able to do this week was hold the Olympic medals and snap some photos, and I went to a free Girl Talk concert on Friday night, which was uhh, awesome! Here's a pic of me winning my gold in women's curling.

I think that's all for now... getting too tired to type. Party tonight!

Much love,

A