Oh, Those Canadians, Good Luck Athletes, and Did Someone Say Official Olympic Auction??

I think Joelf mentioned in a previous post that I had spent a lot of time perusing the Olympic website and all things Olympic on the internet. This is all true. I found all sorts of fun facts and games on the Vancouver 2010 website, including lists of what we could and could not bring into an olympic venue, that all public transportation in Vancouver would be free the day you have tickets to an event, that we would need to take a chartered bus to Whistler to see the bobsleigh, and that Vancouver had the CUTEST MASCOTS EVER. EVER.

See? Adorable.

I also discovered links to Vancouver's public transportation system, which had PDF maps of the metro area, links to the Washington department of transportation's border webcam, and links to Vancouver 2010's Fan-to-Fan marketplace, where ticketholders could sell their tickets and the general public could purchase them. This was the first official Olympic ticket-resell marketplace, and I think it was a great idea. Sure, many people were trying to sell their tickets for much more than they paid for, but not everybody, and at least the transaction was guaranteed by VANOC.

I signed up for Vancouver's email newsletter, and one of the newsletters invited people to join this funky virutal stadium. As far as I could tell, the virtual stadium was a huge swirling webpage where people from all over the world were uploading a photo of themself and their first name and location. I thought, why not. So go ahead and see of you can find me. (Or not--it looks like the stadium is closed.)

Today, I received an email from the Canadiam tourism board, thanks to that virtual stadium I was a part of. That's not so bad, as I can unsubscribe, but the email linked up to this webpage called "Locals Know." It is all about the best kept secrets of Canada, like an Ice Hotel in Quebec City.

And THIS:

The website says it is

a combination of hockey, skiing and boardercross, Red Bull Crashed Ice is the fastest sport on skates set against North America’s most spectacular backdrop, the historic streets of Old Québec.

HELLO, how cool is that? Those French Canadians. They are crazy.

So when are we going?

Oh, and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic games began today. Good luck to all the athletes!

Okay and hello--this is why poking around the internet is awesome--The Official Vancouver 2010 Auction!!