You gotta be there...cause I won't be.

So it's four days and Olympic fever has officially set in. It's been a long time coming for Vancouver since we won the Olympics and I remember thinking to myself "Man, I wonder what 2010 will be like?". Well, it's here and many things have changed in my life since the day we beat out a number of countries to win the honour of hosting such a prestigious event. Unfortunately, while my home is truly west coast, I am living in Central Canada in the glorious province of Ontario while I write my thesis. Some would say that's a good thing and I tend to agree.

Our transportation infrastructure, transit systems, etc are clogged to the max (is that 80s?), for sure! I have friends living in and around the GVRD (that's Greater Vancouver Regional District) who are frustrated beyond belief because their every day routine that includes commuting to and from work, starbucks, hockey games, concerts, bars, pubs and local eateries has been shaken up, stalled, rerouted, due to the excess number of people in town for the Olympics. For those who couldn't give a thumb twiddle about the Olympics are simply fed up already and just want it over. Even those who are into the games are probably getting toward the fed up side. They already started road closures and ski hill closures awhile back. I suppose the most frustrating thing for local residents is that while we (and I mean property owners/business owners/people working in BC) will bear the burden of paying for the $6 billion dollars in upgrades to the city, we do not get the luxury of affording to even attend an event. The costs are ridiculous and some have felt residents should get a break. It's become a political show-off of our beautiful province but we get shafted...we being the people paying for this and putting up with the residual effects of the games. Not to mention a host of other issues regarding local First Nations, our homeless who are being "looked after" and put into housing (temporary albeit) just to clean up our streets. Essentially we're sweeping the dust under the rug so the world doesn't see our "dust" problem.

Vancouver has a huge drug/mental health problem on its hands which became "inconvenient" when hosting the world here. Who knew? Of course we have pretty decent weather all year long so homeless survive out the winters here so we do have a higher number than many other city's per capita. However, this stems back to so many mental health cutbacks. Essentially all the mental health cases have ended up on the streets, turn to drugs and alcohol and we've now created a problem that is hard to fix without upsetting someone somewhere...safe-injection sites? Temporary housing? What do you do? There is no shortage of opinions, let me put it to you this way.

And in the lead-up to the opening ceremonies I don't want this post to put a damper on things; however, it's to serve as a reminder that all is never as it seems and while I wish our athletes the best (as a friend put it yesterday, we've spent more on our athletes in the last 10 years than we've ever paid before so if we don't medal we want our money back!), we should keep in mind that there are real issues and the world doesn't just go "on hold" for 2 weeks. And while Vancouver and the West Coast is the best place on earth to me, it still has its share of problems that will be hidden while the world watches.

And thus I bring you this video. It won't show the problems, of course. No different than when my sister and her husband recently went to Jamaica and landed the day of the earthquake in Haiti--no one at the resort mentioned it to them because guests at a luxury resort don't really want to know, right? The world doesn't want to know.

However, I want you to know that although we have problems, we also live in one of the cleanest, greenest, most stunningly beautiful parts of the world that I am so thankful to hail from. I am so proud of my country, my people, and my home that the thought of returning to it for good, so soon, makes my eyes well up. Between the mountains, the ocean, the valley's, the desert, to the boreal forest, the west coast old growth trees, the rivers, and lakes and the glorious coast line--BC has it all. And I wouldn't give it up for all the money in the world. Or George Clooney. Yes, even him.

So we welcome the world to our beautiful province. If you plan on coming to the city I recommend a few places just comment if you're interested. I love talking about my home.