The weekend has arrived

It is Saturday morning and I had a glorious sleep-in until 10:00. Not late for some of you, but to me - 8 is my regular time on Saturdays. So today, I am vegging, doing laundry, sorting suitcases to get ready to head over to Margaret's tomorrow.

I owe you a couple of pictures - seems I only attached one - argh! bear with me, if you are under 35 you totally get this technology, if you are of a somewhat more mature age like me - it takes a bit of trial and error! The picture on my last blog was of the Patullo bridge which the skytrain crosses from Surrey into Vancouver.

The first picture here is snapped from the Surrey central station to prove that there is indeed snow on the mountains around Vancouver, so all is nto doomed for the Olympics.

Now let me introduce you to Mimo - the cute little kittie who is getting used to me. She is very shy, a little skittish and as light as a feathe'; and loves to be scratched under her chin.

The next few are from my colleagues on my Thursday evening shift. First, Swedish Carina and Russian Andrey.  Then in the second one, Brazilian Carolina has joined Carina and me. The language crew has dozens of different languuages, of course with "beacoup de francophones".

Yesterday's shift saw the beginning of the arrivals of the reall Olympics people. The Swedish cross coutnry team arrived and although Carina was off shift, Swedish Monika. And at the same time, the Ukranian assorted ski teams arrived and amidst a sea of yellow blue from head to toe ( no kidding - yellow toques with blue trim and blue puffy boots) and I meandered around, welcoming them and offering assistance. They were for the most part, weary and focused on making sure all their bags arrived. However, I managed to break their stoic Slavic glares into smiles when I welcomed them in Ukrainian. So I hope they will have good memories of their arrival in Vancouver. We also welcomed the Dutch speed skating team and a few random IOC committee members and media.

All of this is really getting everyone into the spirit of the games. In random conversations with airport staff, you can pick up the buzz, the excitement and the pride of the Vancouverties. They are eager and ready to welcome the world!

Ciao for now,

Irene

Week one and I have survived and acclimatized

It's been a whole four sleeps in Vancouver so I have adjusted to Pacific time and now ready to tackle the next series of adventures. This week has really been focused on getting back into a "working girl" routine, understanding how the transit system works and feeling out the terrain at YVR.

The brain has kicked into gear and I can defintiely confirm that an airport is an airport is an airport, CBSA is CBSA and airport authorities face the same challenges the world around! YVR has kicked in a whole lot of customer service for the games to greet the incoming onslaught of athletes, spectators, tourists, ICO members, media and others, from the Green Coat volunteers (who were already here) to students, language line staff (that's my crew!) of hireds and volunteers, to all the Vanoc folks, passengers are being welcomed, hello'd and bonjour'd by a cast of hundreds with smiling faces. So whether the uniform is pale palm green or sea/sky blue you are welcomed when you arrive. I've put in a couple of pics of my colleagues from the Thursday evening shift.

Although the first few days were pretty slow, it's expected to start getting very busy starting this weekend. Gloriously I will be off and refreshed and ready to face the crowds come the crack of dawn on Monday. Yes I will be working a day shift that begins at 0630 and if you know me, you know mornings just ain't my thing so should be interesting! The folks at Starbucks international departures already know me and my tall, non fat, extra foamy latte was being poured as I walked up to the cashier. Ah, I am home.

Larraine and Scott, hosts number one have been fab - will get some pictures this weekend because of course, I am sleeping when they are up or out when they are in so I hardly see them. Larraine is a gem and patient with me - i have mastered the alarm system and no longer trip it up when I get home at 1230. Scott has picked me up at the train station the one night he was home so I really couldn;t ask for nicer people. And Mimo, the little kittie (she's about 1/14 the size of Fonzie! if you haven't met my cats - he's the 11.5 kilo lump of fur). I did manage to snap a couple of photos of Mimo before she scurried under Larraines bed.

Vancouver is still warm - 8 degrees today and the sun keeps trying to peek out through the clouds. but there is snow on the mountains - as you can see from the skytrain shots I took - at least if you zoom in on the photos you can see the snow. Forecast is for temp to drop so if it doesn't actiually snow, they'll be able to make some.

So all is good so far, except the commute. Surrey is the furthest point I'll be staying and this Sunday, I will be shifting to Margaret's which is much closer to the airport. Right now, I am spening around three and a half hours a day commuting, so have not had a chance to get into the city and explore. But I needed the time to recoup, adjust to time xchange, and to working so it has worked.

More this weekend. Be well and happy,
hugs,
Irene

Arrived safe and sound

I arrived yesterday to a typical Vancouver rainy day after a pretty good flight - friendly staff, lots of empty seats so I could spread out. And I watched two movies - Amelia Earhart and Lave Happens, which both had a somewhat prophetic impression - but more about that in a later post. Today is just a quick one,, since the brain is a bit jet-lagged and I need to save the smart parts for my training at YVR this afternoon.

This morning, I woke up to beautiful sunny skies around and started out full of energy. Larraine, my first host, had put on a pot of coffees and left instructions for where things were. How easy it was to feel at home at her place - warm, welcoming, chatty and best of all - she's a red wine person!

I start my first shift at 2:30 so am heading out at 12 - the commute wiwll be long - about 85 minutes, but I also want to elave extra time for my first trip. I will also send you notes on the fabulous transit link they have here later. TTC could learn a lesson or two. And i will also take some pics tomorrow of the route so watch for those coming in a couple of days.

As I said - today is just a quick check-in and I am heading off to the bus stop very shortly so chat more soon,
Irene

My first entry

OK - after all the promises to friends and family that I will start a blog, I am finally getting around to it. Today I offer you Chapter 1 of my early non-retiring retirement.

I cannot believe how the time has flown since my last day at work on December 9th. Of course the rest of the month was tied up with getting ready for Christmas and visitors. I hosted the Hawrylyshyn family at my house on December 25th - a change from usually doing the Ukrainian Christmas on January 6th. In fact this is the first time in about 15 years that I have had family dinner at my houseon the 25th thanks to all my fabulous relatives, especially those nieces and nephews who are carrying on family traditions.

Getting ready for Christmas forced me to do something I have been avoiding for the last few years; organize the house - after all there would be 11 or possibly 12 of us sleeping here, plus a dog and two cats. If you haven't been to my house, a small (1,000 sq. ft). three bedroom semi near downtown TO, with tons of furniture and boxes from past houses and a collection of Corrinnes clothes, papers and paraphernalia on top of mine. So I dragged out the garbage, recycle, and goodwill bags, pretended I was being bossed around by that woman who has the Neat show on HGTV and got to work. I've always known I was a pack rat, but don't think I realized quite how much, yeesh! Well, three recycle bags full of papers and magazines, six bags for goodwill and four more for garbage later, I could see the futon in the basement again and had made room in the smallest bedroom/office for a double size blow up and I was ready for the crowds. But what really astounded me was how cleansed I felt. All these years of collecting and storing things that I really didn't need. Wow getting rid of it was so uplifting - I was ready to tackle anything now!

And then the call came in from Vancouver. If I was willing to work for slave wages they would be happy to hire me as a Bilingual Customer Care Host at Vancouver Airport to work during the Olympics and Paralympics. Yay - I get to go to Vancouver and experience Olympic fever for the first time in my life. I cannot describe how excited I was to hear I was in.  Then the panic began to set in - where would I stay; what would I do with the cats, and the house; how fluent was my French; should I ship the car or rely on public transit; my mind swirled on and on. I started my To Do list and it grew and grew. How could I possibly manage all of this in less than three weeks!

Well, I've managed to get many things crossed off the list or at least scheduled to be done before I go. A friend of Corrinnes, Mark, will be house and cat-sitting, my teeth are cleaned, the nails will be poslished and in five more days I head out to Pearson as a passenger and arrive at YVR as an employee.There will begin the second chapter of my early non-retirement.

How life has its shifts and turns.