Day 171: Last day of the Olympics

I have never been more proud to be a Canadian. The most gold medals won for a host country. Third in overall medal count. I had to sing O Canada every morning in grade 3 because my teacher made us. That practice I put to use these past 17 days. I sang O Canada an average of once a day. (Today about 4 times because Canada won the gold medal in men's ice hockey.)

I started the morning waiting in line to go into a pub. We had to be there early to get good seats to watch the gold medal men's hockey game. I got to the pub at about 9am and there were already people in line. I have never seen lines ups at pubs that early in the morning. We had a blast waiting in line. We did the wave. We cheered every time when people honked at us. The pub finally opened at 10:30am. In our group, there was 18 people. We were the noisiest but it was a blast. We cheered every time Canada hit the puck into their zone. We cheered every time Canada got the puck away from the US. We cheered even louder when they scored. It was a nail biting game. At the end, Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal. We cheered until our voices were sore. We sang O Canada a few times. It was a fantastic vibe. We left the pub and walked into downtown. Everyone on the streets were cheering and yelling. The cars were honking. Everyone is proud to be a Canadian today.

I left downtown and was on Commercial Drive for a bit. The vibe was more toned down. There were still people yelling and screaming. The cars were still honking. There was even a pick up hockey game in the middle of the street between traffic. There were a few guys just running into the street waving the large Canadian flag at one intersection. Once I left Commercial Drive, there wasn't much celebrating. It was so quite that you would never know anything happened.

I watched the Closing Ceremonies on TV. It was so fun and entertaining. I like the way it started. In the Opening Ceremonies there was a glitch with one of the torch arms not elevating properly. Catriona Lemay Doan's arm was the one that didn't come up in the Opening Ceremonies. In the Closing Ceremonies, it came up and she got her chance to light her arm. The athletes then came out in no particular order, except Canada. They went last again. There was the formal speeches and passing of the torch to Sochi, Russia for the Olympics in 2014. After all the formality items, it was one large party. There was also a parade of items that represented Canada like beavers, mounties and mooses. It was quirky and fun. There was short 'monologues' by famous Canadians: Michael J Fox, William Shatner and Catherine O'Hare. They had Canadian musicians each sing a song or two. There was Neil Young, Nickelback, K'os, Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne, Hedley and Michael Buble.

Overall these past 17 days was unbelievable. There was so much patriotism and love in the air. There was so much to see and do. There was a party every night in downtown. I wish it is like this every weekend after the Olympics.