19th of Feb; NWT day

I started the morning off quite early to be near the front of the line for LiveCity Yaletown when it opened at 10am. There were lots of people and it took about 45 mins to get into the site. Lots of people were arriving for the concert that evening (Deadmau5) since the site closes when it gets to capacity! I first headed to the Coke tent. They gave a history of Coke and its involvement in the torch relays. They showed a movie on the torch relay. They mentioned that coke picked 4500 of the 12000 torch bearers, and I was one of them. Later I asked how many people applied, but they didn't know the answer. They then gave us some free coke. Then you could play different games; catching digital bottles flying from the sky in recycling bins or wearing the funky furry mittens and pawing to make your ''bear'' move forward on the screen in a race. Then at the end you recycle your bottle and it shoots through this cool tube into a big recycle bin.

After I went to the Panasonic pavilion and saw a 3D movie on a 103'' screen, pretty cool technology. But I find it would be kind of annoying to have to wear the special glasses if you are watching TV at home. After that I went to the Vancouver city house. They had on exhibit on ''green capital'' talking about people involved in different industries or programs in Vancouver that make it a green city. They also had what they call a ''Laneway house'' a model of a small home that can be built on the back portion of a lot, the house is small and has a very small impact on the environment. It was a neat house where I could see myself living, it was about the size of a 1 bedroom apartment but with the bedroom on a 2^nd floor loft.

Then I went to the Samsung pavilion. It wasn't very exciting, you could try some of their different phones. Or play different games on touch screen monitors. At the end they gave you a little thing to wipe your cell phone screen.

After I went to the Acer Pavilion. They had lots of their computers & laptops that you could try different games on or watch the Olympics. I tried this game that asks you a bunch of questions called the ''body machine'' then tells you what your winter Olympic sport and I was ''Ice Queen in figure skating'' wow they are good! When I exited the pavilion there were tons of people sitting on the ground in the plaza soaking up the sun and watching the Olympics on the large screen.

Then I headed to the International pavilion outside the Edgewater Casino. I had to get myself some food before my volunteer shift and I couldn't bring a picnic since you aren't aloud to bring food into LiveCity (since they want you to buy their stuff or course!). I got some Indian chickpea curry with rice, a samosa and a small piece of naan, yummers. I sat in the sun with a view of the Olympic village to eat.

Then I checked in for my volunteering shift. I was in the Australia group, and was going to be part of the team Perth that manages the golf carts that transports people needing assistance from one end of our security compound to the other. But then I got taken away from my group and shifted to Chicago, USA, we are pacers. Pacers are the people that work with the security personal in the ''mag & bag'' we stand at the metal detectors and let people know when they can go through. So we have to watch the guy with the wand and make sure he is watching as the people walk through. Everyone must empty all their pockets. I was at one of the express lanes, so only for people with bags smaller than a loaf of bread, that security people can quickly search. There are other aisles with x-ray machines for the larger bags and a special section for people in wheelchairs or that cant get through the normal detectors. Lots of people forget stuff in their pockets, like a cell phone or change and then have to get wanded (ie scanned with the wand) which slows everything down. There was one smaller boy that forgot his large belt buckle, change and his camera when he went through, so he had to get wanded! Quite a few people had Swiss army knives or other knife type things, that of course aren't aloud through, they had to either be confiscated for the people had to bring them back to their car/home/place of origin to get into the site. After a dinner break I went to work at a different station. People were now arriving for the Finland-Germany hockey game. After a while I went up closer to the entrance of the site to make sure people where at the right place and direct them through the metal detectors to the hockey game. I was working with a bunch of other people and we joked with the crowd asking them if they were here for the volleyball finals or the shot put or javelin. It was funny. At one point we heard that Canada one the gold medal in skeleton and started cheering. Some people with Mega phones where announcing the gold medal and then the crowd would start cheering too, lots of fun. It isn't that cold luckily, but when you are outside for many hours it gets cold. And a volunteer brought us all hot chocolate from the break room, just as we were starting to get chilly, it was great.

There were some fans dressed to either cheer on the Finish or the Germans, but most people had their Canada gear on. If you walk through the streets of Vancouver on any given Olympic day, the most popular gear is definitely the mittens. After that I would say it is the hockey jerseys or any version of the jersey logo (on t-shirts etc). In third place I would say is the black hoody jackets with Canada written in red across the front. You see Canada gear on everyone, from tiny babies to the older crowd. The line up for the Olympic Superstore is always very long (at least a block) even late at night! It is open from 8am to midnight!