Today I don't have any volunteering, just some tickets to go see some wheelchair curling at the Vancouver Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest (which is right beside Queen Elizabeth park, a gorgeous garden on a hill in Vancouver). So I head off to the games in the morning. The first set of games start at 12:30 and when I arrive there are tons of kids! VANOC sold/gave away many tickets to school kids, which is a great idea in my opinion, so they can be exposed to different sports. The stands inside Hillcrest are temporary metal stands and when you have hundreds of kids in them cheering and stomping their feet it can get very very noisy! I had a good ticket though. I was in the first row, near the middle on one side of the sheets. When you watch the round-robin portion of the curling, there are 4 games going on at once. I see Great-Britain (4)-Korea (7), Norway(4)-Sweden(6), Japan(2)-Canada(13) and US(8)-Italy(2). Its weird to be watching 4 games at once. When I first arrive they are prepping the ice for the competition, then all the teams get a warm up. When their warm-up is done they get to throw one last rock at the ''house'' and this determines who will get to throw the last stone during the game. So the first set of 4 teams warms up, then the 2nd set (and they watch each others practices) then they all leave the stadium and re-enter as teams, lead by a bagpiper and a drummer as they head towards their sheets. Unlike normal curling, wheelchair curling doesn't have any sweeping, so the throws must be very precise. Each of the 4 players throws 2 rocks to throw the 8 rocks for each end. And there are 8 ends played. There tends to be 3 players at one end throwing the rocks with the ''captain'' (I cant remember the more curling appropriate name) at the other end giving instructions and throwing the last 2 rocks usually. The games can be quite exciting and a lot can change with the throwing of 1 rock. When a player throws a rock, they use a stick and another player holds the back of their wheelchair so they don't slide. They also have to make sure their stick doesn't cross the hog line when they throw. When the games are done, I head out for a little walk. I end up walking on Commercial Dr. and find a sushi place for some dinner. Yum! Some yam tempura rolls, California rolls and spicy tuna rolls. Then I head back to Hillcrest to see some more curling! I had bought the noon game tickets but got tickets to the evening game for free when I was volunteering at the Paralympic opening ceremonies. As I enter the security compound I meet...Sumi!!!! I am quite excited, it is the first time I see a mascot and have the opportunity to take a picture with them. Luckily there is a volunteer there to take a picture of me and Sumi! Yippeee!
Then I head inside the arena and take my seat (which happens to be 3 rows above and a bit to the left of where I was earlier today. I chat a bit with another volunteer there (that also got free tickets at openings) and another couple from Maple Ridge that are becoming paralympic super fans, they are going to see as many sledge hockey and wheelchair curling games as possible, which is keeping them very busy! We also chat a bit with the girlfriend and sister of Jimmy Price, one of the curlers on the American team. This evening the games are; Germany (3)-Switzerland(9), Great-Britain(7)-USA(8), Korea(6)-Norway(9) and Canada (4)-Sweden(8). Sadly Canada lost its game, due in part to some bad throws near the end of the ends. And during the extra end it came down to the last stone thrown by the American team to decide the winner. The last end was quite exciting since it was the only game on (instead of 3 other games also happening!). The crowd was alot smaller for the evening game (no hundreds of school kids) and you could hear different groups cheering either for G-B or USA.
It was really fun to attend the curling games since I have never watched curling live before and though it is a fairly slow game, it is still very exciting. I am glad I had the tickets.
After the game I head home on the skytrain and bus, then head to bed, its an early morning of volunteering tomorrow!
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