A Trip to Russian House

During the Olympics last month, there were around twenty or so hospitality houses from the different provinces, countries and a few major Canadian corporations (tho I'm not sure if the Mint qualifies as a corporation) and only a few of the Canadian houses are sticking around during the Paralympics. All of them had massive queues to get in, particularly the ones with a liquor licence -there was usually a three hour wait to get into Irish House which was in a tent next to a pub downtown. Since I was refusing to wait more then fifteen minutes in a queue, I only managed to get into one house during the two weeks, but I might try to get into a few houses on Friday.

Since Russia has the Winter Games next, I thought that I should make an attempt to stick it out and get into their House and I was in luck and only had to wait ten minutes on the afternoon that I went down there.

The Sochi organizers had taken over Science World as their pavilion for the Olympics, but they only had it open to the public from noon to just before 5 PM every day, which was rather odd. I had not been to Science World, which looks like a giant silver ball, since elementary school when we would be taken on field trips to check out it's cool Bill Nye science-y fun stuff.

I order to get into Russian House, you had to pass through an airport metal detector and the bouncers might search your bag. The bouncers, you can see one of them in the above photo next to the digital clock, were actually, IMHO, KGB agents. I say that they were KGB because they didn't talk, showed no emotion, wore matching suits and black overcoats, looked like they were armed under said coats and the older ones looked like they had killed people. I would have taken a picture of them, but I was afraid that I would disappear in the middle of the night. I have since talked to classmates who also went to Russian House and they also thought that it was the KGB. Did anyone else who watched the Closing Ceremonies think that it was strange to see images from Stalin's propaganda films included in the Russian presentation or that they have gone back to using the old Soviet anthem music as their new national anthem?

Once inside the house, you were greeted by this creepy holographic Russian couple, giving some trivia about Russia and their upcoming Olympics. I didn't know what to think of the hologram, since none of the other Russian representatives would speak to anyone without a media pass. But it would have been nice to talk to a human.

There actually wasn't a lot to do in Russian House
They had a massive model of Sochi and it's Olympic venues. But it was too large. Imagine the size of your living room, it was about that big.
There was also a continuous performance by these lovely ladies and their traditional band. They were my favourite part, but reminiscent of light entertainment on a cruise ship.

But I did take two short videos of their performance -just wait for it to fully load before watching.

Everything else was just geared for the media. Like this poster for an Olympic University. I wanted to know what an Olympic University was, but there was no one to ask and no leaflet to take.
There was a video of the high speed train being built in Sochi, but no mention of the war going on at the moment in the Caucasus Mountains which is where Sochi is.
There were also some random hot air balloons advertising a Russian bank for some reason, along with several other presentation alcoves with flat-screen television sets and lots of bright and shiny colours to promote various Russian and international corporations (like BMW) to members of the media and businessmen but not the visitors.

The only free stuff available were a giant basket of animal crackers and a girl handing out very hot tea in the cheapest and smallest paper cups available. I tried to drink it, but the tea softened the cup too quickly and burned me. There was also a bar, but it was closed to the public, which was the worst part since I wanted to sample the vodka and iced wine.
The only nod to the Olympics being about the athletes was a small display of hockey memorabilia, including the above jersey from the 1972 Summit Series where Canada beat Russia.
And finally there were some cardboard cutouts of I think Russian athletes with the Olympics mascots. Only this lady looks like she is scared but the plastic faced doll who is trying to kill her.

That was about it. I was only there for about half an hour and then I got bored and walked to nearby Chinatown to buy some candy.

And The Winner Is...

And the winner of my first ever givaway is... #3 Miss Ivy Black! Just send me your address to jej_wkrp [at] hotmail.com and I'll send your gifts out right away.

I shall plan another giveaway for sometime in the late spring/early summer. Any suggestions as to what to include?

What did everyone think of the Closing Ceremonies? I liked the part with William Shatner, Catherine O'Hara and Michael J. Fox and Michael Buble's Wayne and Shuster-style musical number, all of which were things that should have been in the Opening Ceremonies. Since Canada doesn't have a national identity, why not showcase Canadian talent and humour and make fun of every stereotype about Canada.

Daily Outfit

For the duration of the Olympics, my classes have been cancelled (you wont it if I told you, the answer as to why is quite stupid) and so I don't have much to do. Does anyone have any requests for Vancouver and Olympic related photos/information/historical background?

In celebration of having over twenty followers on Google (I really must sign up for bloglovin') and the nearing of the 100 posts mark, I shall be announcing a giveaway tomorrow!

Cardigan: Gap

Skirt: Plum

Blouse: thrifted

Belt: thrifted

Tights: Hue

Shoes: The Bay

I went down to have a look at the flame today. It's beside the new billion dollar convention centre that was built, next to the old and still in use convention centre, just to house the international media for the Olympics. I have no idea as to it's function after that, but probably not much since it is quite ugly.

Here are the photos I was able to take after pushing people out of the way:

That's right, you can't get anywhere near it. And the photo-op at the security barrier was clearly not designed for short persons like me.

I'm not dreading the Olympics

Allow me to digress from writing about vintage-related matters to talk about my views on the Olympics, seeing as there's less than an hour to the start of the Opening Ceremonies.

Over the past few days, there have been several news articles making their way round the internet saying how Vancouverites are either dreading or ambivalent towards the Olympics and are generally grumpy for the entire month of February. Actually, the majority of Vancouverites have an attitude of accepting indifference with a small amount of bitterness beneath the surface.

In the seven years since Vancouver got the Olympics, I have seen first hand the amount of fervour and corruption that have been leading up to a two week party held mostly for people who don't live here. Since finding out that we had won the bid, my feelings towards the Olympics have been (in order): excitement, sarcasm, annoyance, anger, frustration, rage, indifference and finally since the House of Commons was shut down, bitterness.

Now, my bitterness is not towards the Games or the events going on around town, but instead of the past seven years of build up to the Olympics. And here are the basic reasons why:

1. Before the bid was won, VANOC (the City's Olympic committee and in charge of everything) said that the Games would cost $660 million with a $10 billion return. The Olympics have now cost between $6 billion and $10 billion, a lot of which went to bribes and to entertaining foreign businessmen and gaining corporate sponsorship in the hopes of stimulating investment here (Vancouver is now being promoted as a world class city or the Toronto of the Pacific Rim) and I shall be paying this tab for the rest of my natural life and I cannot even afford tickets to any of the sporting events.
2. Vancouverites have often referred to the Olympics as a Five Ring Circus. This is because the preparation for the Olympics have been so heavily mismanaged that no one was really surprised about that dreadful accident today on the luge, since we expected something like that to happen, though no one will admit to it. The construction contracts were handed out to anyone who could build things for the cheapest labour and equipment available.
3. The Canada Line, the first rapid transit line from downtown to the airport in North America. This cost over a billion dollars and five years to build. In order to do so, Cambie Street, one of the major roads here, was shut down for so long because the contractors decided against using the normal method of tunnelling and instead dug several huge holes at the major intersections and drilled down to build it. The resulting effect put dozens of established small businesses out of business and caused traffic jams for the better part of four years since no one could access Cambie Street, let alone shop there.
4. Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Stephen Harper (he's the one who looks like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in a bad wig) has not been in Parliament since October, when he decided that instead of answering questions about his failure as hypercritical Prime Minister, he ought to go on a grand tour of Asia and mention "Olympics" in every other sentence. On New Years, he announced that he would prorogue the democratically elected Parliament for three months until March so that MPs could focus on the Olympics (which only last two weeks) and on the economy. He also put a lock on the doors to the House of Commons. The real reason why he decided that he wanted to become a dictator was so that he could avoid questions about torture in Afghanistan, cancel funding to public services and the military, stuff the Senate (the Upper House or the House of Lords) with even more Tory party members and avoid a vote of confidence which would have toppled his minority government and force an election close to the Olympics.
5. The amount of money spend on preparing for the Olympics could have been spent on eliminating homelessness in Vancouver. Like almost every city, we have a huge homelessness problem in Vancouver, centred around the Downtown East Side. This problem has been on the rise since Expo '86, which was the last time we had a world event here. The reason why it is such a huge problem here is because Vancouver is such a small city (only 2.5 million people in the entire Metro area) which serves to only amplify the problem.
6. That Logo. I have no idea why it was selected since the inukshuk is used by the Inuit and they don't live here, they live thousands of km north east from here. I also think that not only is it insulting to the First Nations who live here (the four local Nations are already pissed off because they aren't being compensated for the Olympic events being held on their land) but also a creepy smiling inukshuk doesn't reflect Vancouver, an orca or an umbrella would have been a better choice. I know that there is an inukshuk here, but that was built for Expo '86 and the fisheries ministry released a report early last year stating that the rocks that the artist had chosen to build it react badly to the rain and is now leeching poisonous substances into the ocean and killing the fish.

Those are the major reasons why I'm bitter about the lead up to the Olympics. I'm quite excited, however, for the Games themselves. Or at least for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies (which I fear will be an embarrassing spectacle) and for all of the free events that will be happening around town. I'm not looking forward to the huge crowds of tourists coming here or the riots if Canada looses both of the gold medal hockey games.

I do however hate the Olympics for one thing and that is that they will be mediocre. You see, over the past seven years, the glory and opportunity of the Olympics have been so heavily promoted within BC that I am expecting, not unreasonably, that the clouds will open and candy and Starbucks gift cards will rain down upon me and unicorns will hand out medals during the awards ceremonies. Since this will not happen, I will find the Olympics to be disappointing and the past seven years to be for nought.

That all being said, I have polished my shoes, bought extra batteries for the camera and will promise to be on my best behaviour for the next two weeks. What I would like to ask of you dear readers, is how Vancouver is portrayed on your local coverage of the Olympics? I'm dying to know what you think of our little town.

Hey look! It's a Streetcar!

Last weekend, Dad and I went to check out the free Olympic Line streetcar that's here for a month, on loan from Brussels, and runs from the Athlete's Village to Granville Island (2km or 7 minutes travel time sayeth the Map of Google).

Vancouver stopped using streetcars in 1957, although most of the tracks are still in place and the City has been teasing fans of streetcars for about ten years that they may or may not reintroduce them and the Mayor said that the Olympic Line is a test to see how people like them (and if there's enough money left in March to buy any, which there wont be).

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This is what the streetcars here used to look like. Starting in 1998, volunteers have run two restored streetcars along the interurban tracks from Science World (when you see pictures of Vancouver, it's that big silvery ball near BC Place Stadium) to Granville Island from May to the middle of October. And the price for the enjoyment of a pleasant afternoon ride, suspend just for a moment in a piece of living history: $2 for an all-day pass!

This is what they are using though. Yes, it's very, very narrow. And it doesn't have the ring-a-ding bell or the clacking across the tracks. I knew that this was what we were getting and I was fine with that, after all people like things that are new and shiny. But I was disappointed with the experience. Why? Because it went at about the same speed as the heritage streetcars go and wasn't any fun at all to ride, as I felt like I was commuting and not going for a novelty pleasure trip. I also thought that a better tourist attraction would have been to use the heritage streetcars, because there's no other remnant of old Vancouver being utilized for the Olympics.

This is what the interior of a restored streetcar looks like. This isn't the actual streetcar that's used every summer, but one in a museum in Burnaby. But you get the general idea.

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This is the inside of the new one. It's narrower in person then it is in the photo. Yes, that's real leather on the seats. Yes, there's also no feeling of personal craftsmanship once inside.

About halfway through the trip, I looked out the window and saw one of the streetcars that is being restored. It looked so sad, sitting out there all alone and forgotten by the shed.

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In preparation for the Olympic Line, the City stopped the Historic Railway from running last summer and spent $8 million restoring part of the interurban tracks. I know nothing about train tracks, but aside from some new wood, I can't tell the difference.
Since we were already there, we had a little toddle around Granville Island. All those glass buildings there are in the False Creek and Yaletown neighbourhoods. If you have a lot of money and like living in see-through boxes then this is the place for you! Actually, it's one of the most sustainable neighbourhoods in North America,
just look at the water:
See that building with the green roof. That is a fishing lodge from up North. Some businessman had it barged down for his friends to stay in during the Olympics.

We also had a look at the outside of the Swiss Hospitality House, which is located inside a restaurant. My tights matching the potted plant was unintentional.

It's free to get in, so I'll be going back as soon as my classes end. But I did fake a trip to the Alps.
The Athletes were just starting to arrive, but no one is allowed into the Village. See, it has two volunteers in vests, orange cones and a cop guarding it. Of the three, Canadians obey the cones the most.
But I did find a neon sign that I hadn't seen before.

We then took the Canada Line part of the way home. The Canada Line is a rapid transit line from Downtown to the Airport that opened at the end of August. And look, it coast $2 billion (not including lawsuits from small businesses) and it's already leaking. Isn't that special.
I also saw by the Cambie Street Bridge, next to the Village, a sewage treatment plant, largely uninteresting, but the green-friendly smoke stacks had put some lights on top, which looked quite pretty with dusk approaching.