A rainy afternoon, hold the photos.

This morning was really rainy and cold, so I wondered what the day would hold for me. As I mentioned in my last blog, today meant a meeting for the first time with my old friend whom I have known online for 9 years. 9 years! That’s a really long time. A third of my lifetime actually! I didnt want to drag my camera out and freak him out with a load of blog shots, so unfortunately I have no photographic evidence but it happened!

I finally got to go to the Museum of Anthropology -which was really great! So many cultures and nations and artifacts, so many stories and lessons.

Then we did the typical Vancouver thing of watching the Canucks hockey game at Boston Pizza with a few of his friends. He teased me about my accent and so I teased him about his. I had a lot of fun and everyone was great. Many adventures were tossed about for the future, so we shall see!! I’m excited though! It’s funny when you have known someone for such a long time and then you meet them properly for the first time you arent sure what they’re gonna be like. I have to say though that he was… well just as great as I thought he’d be. Oh and I saw another squirrel, this time it was black! hahaha.

A night with the Canucks

Phew, what a crazy night!! Well I am back from my first every hockey match (or ice hockey as we aussies would call it) and I am a little exhausted.
Having never watched a match in my life I was a little unsure of a) what to expect and b) what was going on, but i went with it and it went well. To those of you who dont know, the canucks are the local team for Vancouver and to say that they are passionate about their team would be an understatement. It’s like – imagine there is only one AFL team for your state and the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne (Melbourne is better btw hehe). I got there early (that should be my middle name) and waited in the line for a while. It was COLD!
And then I entered and saw the ice.


And then I asked the lady to take my photo. Hello Mum! hahaha.

First off the teams come onto the ice to have a practise hit/run.

And then these machines come out to melt the ice? I presume to make it easier to skate on.

You’ll have to forgive my explainations as I really have no idea what I’m talking about. I asked the lovely woman beside me (her name was Robyn and she was there with her brother) to explain a few things.. and I accidently called the puck a ball. Hahahaha. Oops.

So, then the players came out and everyone stood for the american and canadian national anthems. The crowd went off for the Canadian one naturally.

Then the match begun, and all I was basically waiting for was the Canucks to put the puck in the net!

I couldnt believe how rough the sport was! They were always getting smashed into and hit and elbowed and clotheslined and at one point a Canuck threw an Avalanche team member over the stands and into the Canucks team bench area. HILARIOUS!
Everytime the Canucks won a point (or made a score) the crowd all stood up and cheered! It was crazy! I also like the fact that they play good music inbetween important plays! Hehe.
So after much “oooooh” and “aaaaah” -and some “boooooo” and “luuuuuuuu” the scores stood at 3 all in final time. SO what was next? Overtime! But no-one scored in the overtime at all! There were a few close misses for the Canucks though! By the way – the Canucks is pronounced Canahks and not Canoooks like I thought hahaha.

Anyway, so after the overtime came the penalty shootout!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.. we lost. Ah well! There’s always Saturday. I really enjoyed it though, the atmosphere was great and these weird blue men appeared out of nowhere. I think they must have been special supporters but I dont know how they could see or breathe wearing those – which they wore for the whole game!!

Speaking of lost – guess who got majorly lost on the way home? Yep, me. Luckily I brought a map with me because I got the wrong bus (I knew it was the wrong bus but I thought it was going to the same place after overhearing someone else). And once I got off and realised where I was – by asking someone – I ended up walking in the wrong direction for a few blocks before asking someone else. Luckily the petrol station was really helpful and a customer told me to get on a bus – I ran for it and made it and then got home safely!
PHEW!
Time for bed. I wonder what tomorrow will bring 🙂

Hockey gold!

Just a short snippet to say how happy I am to hear that Canada won gold in the ice hockey! For a host nation who loves that sport so much it couldnt have a more fitting end to what has been a wonderful winter olympics!