Canada is in the Village

Of course we've been in the Village since August 2nd, but we are not "officially" in the Village until the Welcome Ceremony where we march to the Flag Plaza and our flag is raised. We coordinate if with the Team Canada Pep Rally. Basically everyone has Canada paraphernalia and shouts, makes noise, cheers and let's every other country know that we are here. A big group march down the main road in the Village attracted a lot of attention from all other countries and all volunteers. Many other country members and athletes were taking pictures of our noisy red gang heading to the Plaza.

Getting hyped up

This is a warm up for the big hype which is the Opening Ceremonies. People are getting also energized as competitions start tomorrow. I have been anticipating a crazy Opening Ceremony with Canada getting cheered so loud as we enter that the stadium will shake...but the focus is on competition and performance and 2 of our big teams have decided not to march in tonight and rest as they compete tomorrow. It's quite tiring to get ready for this. Canada, as we are the host, will enter the parade of athletes in last position. This means we can leave the Village last. Some countries, Argentina being the first due to the alphabet, will likely have to spent many hours "waiting" as they get ready around 12 or 1 and head over to wait their entrance. Some teams see it as too tiring to wait all that time and try to return to the Village in a chaotic parade of buses. It will create a visibly smaller Canadian swarm as we enter the stadium .I thought the bigger the group,  the noisier the crowd will be. It will still be crazy loud when we enter. I have marched with Team Canada in various opening ceremonies at other major games in other countries and the cheer our team gets when we enter is impressive. The fact we are entering a stadium full of our own Canadians will make it thunderous. I can't wait.

Things are quieter from a work perspective which is a big relief for me. It is now feeling more "normal". We are busy taking care of things but the flow seems better. It is sometimes difficult to deal with an athlete when my phone rings 3 times and I receive 2-3 texts though. It seems there's always something that requires some of my attention but now things appear much more manageable.

Hope all of you can catch the Opening Ceremonies on CBC tonight. For some great pictures from our dedicated team photographers, please visit www.paralympic.ca, go the the news/events and scroll to pictures. There will be a steady addition  of great action shots of the athletes and team members. You can also go to the Canadian Paralympic Committee Facebook page.

Here are a few of mine from yesterday.

With the men's basketball team...why is it when I ask someone to take a picture with my camera, they can't get it in focus....?

It's hard to get the Canadian flag in the right alignment with the  CN tower

A string of Canadian Flags held by 2 hockey sticks. It doesn't get more Canadian

Even got to hold onto the torch

Hard not to act silly with Darrell around