Day 1: Arrival/Housekeeping

It has been a very... very very... very very very full day.

This morning, I was out the door at 6am and on my way to the airport. At check-in, as stated in the last blog, my flights were consolidated so I only had 1 stop in Denver before arriving in Vancouver. While this was a great benefit as far as travels are concerned, part of me thought that I would somehow not be ready to arrive in Vancouver that soon. Silly me.

While waiting on my flight at the Knoxville airport, I was fortunate enough to sit near a woman who struck up a conversation with me. She had actually worked as a volunteer in the Atlanta Olympics of 1996 as a doctor. So that was my first round of encouragement after watching my parents (dad mainly) jumping in the air, waving his arms and cheering - typical. :)

On the plane to Denver, I was seated by a gentleman with curly, red hair and glasses. He was on his way to Santa Barbara CA to attend classes for his Masters of Psychology. We had a good conversation and I was able to share a little of my faith with him which was cool. The thing about plane witnessing is that you never really get to see the results of witnessing (until heaven, I would imagine), but that's just fine with me.

I wish my lack of energy did not affect my eloquence as it seems to do now. Then, I could bring you into that moment when I left the plane in Vancouver and stood in the massive baggage claim room. All of the decor in that airport was clean, artistic, and somehow related to the Olympics. Very classy. My goal was to get money and credentials. When all was said and done, I boarded the bus to take me to Whistler with neither. But all was well - in fact, the bus was probably my favorite experience of the day. It was a charter-type bus minus the TVs, with only 10 people on board - all Olympic media personnel. The man that I talked to for basically the entire trip (when I was not taking pictures out the window) worked for USA Today. I sometimes forget how big a deal the Olympics is and that whenever I am in "media" areas, there are bosses and executives from large media sources all over the place! Most of them, with really awesome accents. :)

THE MOUNTAINS HERE ARE ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING. Had I not been able to get on the earlier flight, I would have missed the scenery on the bus ride entirely! Again, pictures to come :)

After about 3.5 hours on the bus, we arrived in Whistler Village, where most of the Asburians (including myself) are staying in various hotels. The Lord is good! At the venue where I will work, we will not be fed meals by a catering company, so we've got $15/day for food. That means I need to make my own meals or fork out $7 for a small sandwich every day, but not to fear! My hotel room is equipped with an entire mini-kitchen (including a fridge, microwave, oven/range, and water heater! Not to mention a living area with a flatscreen TV and fireplace! AND... a washer and dryer. Asburians - please don't hesitate to come use our facilities. Pictures to come. :)

Well I'm afraid that's all for now. My contacts are about to explode. At least that's what it feels like.

I nearly got lost in Whistler, but it's all good. Yes, it's all good!