Paralympics in Whistler and a whole new experience

The thing that really strikes me about anada is the people's willingness to dedicate their time to a good purpose and volunteer for all sorts of things. When I worked for VANOC and interviewed all those people and heard their stories and volunteer history I was deeply impressed. That would not happen back home to such an extend since people are too busy working their paid job to earn a living.

I was determined to do my share as well and since my security job finished with the Olympics I was available for a new adventure. While still working for VANOC, I had signed myself up as a volunteer and scored a position in the Whistler Athlete's Village in resident services. I felt very priviliged as I was entitled to sleep in the village, too; next door to all the Paralympic athletes and delegates.

The pace of live and work was so much different up here than back in Vancouver during the Olympics and I first struggled to adjust to not having much to do, just sitting around being approachable to volunteers and athletes and trying to make everyone's stay at the village at comfortable as possible. But you get used to it very quickly and I enjoyed the winter time with my fellow volunteer budies. We were seen reating artwork in the snow, starting snowball fights with everyone rossing our path, exploring the village and using the athlete's video lounge to watch DVDs ourselves. Almost everyday we made it into Whistler to explore the township, go shopping, go for a coffee, see the Paralympic elebrations, see competitions and the victory eremonies and much more. I loved being up there for about 3 weeks and get to see Whistler from a different point of view most tourists and visitors won't get to see. I also tried my luck skiing with my friend Kate but we are no ski bunnies, that's for sure. It took us ages to actually get off the mountain again safely and when I had finally made it back into Whistler township I wouldn't wanna touch skis again!

To finish off our Paralympic experience, we watched the closing eremony in the Amsterdam pub in Whistler as we couldn't get any tickets for the event. The athlete's parade passed right outside the pub before entering the stadium to commence the show. What a great way of saying goodbye to the world. Once the show was over we were all just sitting there in disbelief. No way our efforts to organize the Olympics and Paralympics had come to an end! A relief but also a scary idea. What comes next?!?!