by Stan Kochanoff
My work has been centered at the Main Transportation desk of the Westin Bayshore Inn dubbed as the nerve centre of the VANOC operation. All the IOC and NOC dignitaries are housed here and are job is to ensure people get transported to the various venues.
Celebrity sightings include, Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, former IOC president, Dick Pound, former WADA (drug agency) head, Princess Anne, the King of Denmark, King Frederick, the former deposed King of Greece, King Konstantine and a couple of princes from Jordan and William of Orange from the Netherlands.The place is a locked-down facility with heavy security and tons of police all around! Everyone that enters has to go thru security just like the airport.
The volunteers were given a free pass to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony and it was awesome! You must have seen it and it must have made you proud to be a Canadian.
Haven't found very many Nova Scotians who are volunteers. Ran into one from Halifax who just retired from the athletic department at SMU. Also met three people from Halifax who are paid employees working in accreditation and security. Most of the people I'm working with are from the Greater Vancouver area and Victoria.
Everyone here have been very nice and I've been fortunate to stay with an old school body and his wife who have shown me super hospitality.Managed to get a few hockey tickets, one for the men(USA vs. Norway) and the other for a woman's game (Canada vs Sweden). Tickets for any of the preliminary men's hockey games are all $250-300 each, I was fortunate to get one for $100. For the play-offs the prices soar to $600-700 and the gold medal game $7500 to $72,000 for a pair.
