I started walking towards the Art Gallery and along the way, I began seeing a pattern, there were large lines everywhere. I walked by the Hudson Bay Company Superstore and there were lots of people lined up. Then as I crossed Robson Square, I saw more lines for tickets. Then I saw yet another long line for the Zip Trek. I began becoming curious and asked the 1st person in line for the Zip Trek how long he had been waiting with his kids. His response: 6am. I was floored by the dedication since the Zip Trek did not open until 9am!
I finally reached the doors to the Art Gallery to be told that the venue did not open until 10am. I thought they might be open from 9am since I saw that posted somewhere and arrived at 8:30am. Not wanting to wait hours to get into the Art Gallery, I decided to head towards the places I knew were close by and would be open early: The Olympic Cauldron and the Kla-howya: Aboriginal Village at the Pan Pacific.
I wanted to go see the Olympic Cauldron after I saw The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, carry the Olympic Flame out of the stadium at the opening ceremonies. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get a glimpse of the cauldron before it got busy. Also, there have been so many complaints about the cauldron being locked up that I wanted to get a picture before flame is freed up, if VANOC decides to do so.
I took a photo with the chains and the linked fence with the cauldron. Then I took a photo through one of the holes in the chain and got a great picture of the flame with the security stationed there. I thought I was going to be told not to take pictures of the security personnel but was offered the opportunity to have someone take a closer picture. So I took the offer and thanked the security for being a real Canadian for trying to make things better.
As I walked to my next destination, the Kla-howya: Aboriginal Village across the convention centre, I noticed that there were a lot of people selling, trading and buying pins. I stopped to take a look at them and found that some pins were very old and very unique. I heard about people trading pins but had never seen so many Olympic related pins together.
When I arrived at the Pan Pacific, I proceeded to the Village. Once there, I saw beautiful aboriginal artwork. The display was small but had many colourful and intricate pieces of art. I was fortunate enough to meet one of the artists, Pat Bruderer, and her son, Jadeon. Pat is one of only three First Nation artists that can create masterpiece designs with her teeth by a technique called birch bark chewing. Pat use to live in the Mosakahiken Cree Nation Reserve in Manitoba but moved to BC 4 years ago. While I was there Pat was interviewed by NBC and I learned a lot about the history of the art and learned about how people shoot TV footage. Pat and Jadeon were extremely nice and patiently taught me about the artwork. I hope to see the interview in the near future on NBC.
After leaving the Aboriginal Village I decided to head over to the Royal Canadian Mint where I returned to my earlier theme of long lines. The Mint had two lines, one was three hours long, the line where you were able to see the Olympic medals, and the other was about 30 minutes long. I decided to get in the short line and was in 35 minutes after lining up. I saw the $1 Million dollar coin, held some bullion, learned a bit about the history of coin development, and ran into my friend Chantal who was working there doing some children's activities.
I headed over to the Hyatt Hotel where I heard Korea House was located. When I arrived I was greeted by a nice host but once inside I was disappointed. They had some technology they were displaying but when I tried it, it did not work. Also, it seemed everyone with the exception of two or three staff members had gone for lunch. However, even if they had not gone for lunch, it would not have mattered because it seemed the House lacked anything interesting. Perhaps this is the reason why there was no lineup.
I continued my day and headed over to CTV, the official Olympic broadcast network, and was surprised to see so much activity happening there. Indoors they were selling merchandise and they also had a few people selling and trading pins, like I had seen earlier in the day in front of the convention centre. I learned that CTV unveils a new coke bottle with a different aboriginal design each day during the Olympics. The bottle of the day was “The Awakening” and I received a free magnet to commemorate the occasion. Outside there was a booth which you can line up and play the role of a television anchor.
As I walked across Robson, I realized that I was back at the Art Gallery so I went to check the entrance just to find the longest line of the day. So I decided I would check out the northeast side of the Georgia Street Plaza which features Coast Salish artists demonstrating their creative skills. I really enjoyed watching a totem pole carved by the aboriginals.
By this time in the day I started feeling a bit tired but kept going and ended up in Alberta House and just in time to watch the snowboard cross and Canada win a silver medal. I had not realized what a nice place Alberta had for the Olympics until I visited them. That topped my day off.
As I prepared to call in a day, I ran into a native who was dressed with full aboriginal gear. She was talking about her lineage which intrigued me and which led me to the Haida Gwaii display which is located near Alberta House on Beatty, just off Robson. The house was small but very colourful with lots of helpful people. They had a video that kept looping that was interesting. Best of all there was no lineup here.
I felt good. I was able to cover lots of ground in one day and my appreciation for aboriginal art and culture just keeps building.
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