Vancouver Morning!

Where there's a will, there's a way.

When I saw the schedule of medals ceremonies, I knew I would not be getting a day off. I was a little disappointed to think that I would be so close (relatively) to Vancouver yet not be able to spend any time there. When call times became later, though, I began to craft a plan. Leaving at night immediately after the concert would put us in Vancouver around 12:30pm - if we spent the night at our professor's apartment, we could wake up early and have time to see the city, catch the 12pm bus, and make it back to Whistler in time for call time at 3pm!

So that's exactly what we did!

We had no plans, just the desire to see the IBC (International Broadcast Center), the Olympic torch, and get some bubble tea. Being the plan-oriented, ask-for-directions as a confirmation, overly-prepared person that I am, this was definitely a growing experience for me. The two friends I went with were definitely the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type, so I decided to try out the whole up-for-anything mentality. I did not focus on what I needed to get done or where we were going - instead, I just put myself on the bus with them in conversation, I put myself in Vancouver as we were walking around, and I didn't worry about where we were going or what was going on. It was weird, but kind of nice.

We boarded the bus at 10pm last night, and arrived in Vancouver at the bus stop at midnight. I had a piece of paper with very basic directions scribbled, as well as my professor's cell phone number to let him know we had arrived safely. We would find the train station from the bus stop, and from the train, walk to the apartment. All went well, and we were welcomed to Vancouver by a swarm of Canadian hockey fans (they had just left the hockey venue where Canada had won I believe). Thankfully, we were only on the subway for 2 stops!

Our professor welcomed us kindly, and we headed to bed after we could manage to take our eyes away from the incredible 30th floor view.

The "plan" for the day was to tour the IBC with Dr. Owens, then get some bubble tea on the way to walk around Stanley Park (a gorgeous river walk around the city). As it turned out, none of the bubble tea places were open until noon, so we settled for frozen yogurt as we quickly headed back to the bus station. It was fun, but I would have really enjoyed a longer visit. Better a short visit than no visit at all, though! :)

Because we had to wake up so early, I spent a bit of the bus ride resting, and part of it finally getting some reading done for my Spanish Linguistics class that I'm missing. I'm a bit anxious about the details of my film, but I hope to get that worked out tomorrow.

If you would like to see more pictures, check out my facebook. Love!