Canada Strikes Gold!!!!

The end has come for Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics. But what a way to end! Yesterday's hockey game between Canada and the US for gold proved to be every bit the nail biter that I thought it would be.....and more! Jonas and I opted to watch the game at home, and I think we shook our entire apartment building up with our screams, yells and cursing. I have been trying to stay as calm and relaxed as possible during this pregnancy, but I think little baby may have gotten a jolt from her mommy with all the yelling and jumping up and down that I was doing. It was a glorious victory for Canada, a perfect way to end the Olympics!

Oddly though, I feel a bit of melancholy that the Olympics has ended. It has been an amazing two weeks, and I'm a bit sad to see it end. Although people on the bus this morning were still feeling golden from all of our gold medals (yes, all 14 of them!!!), I could tell that the mood was slowly returning to 'business as usual' for Vancouverites. But I think what we got to take away from it, and the experiences we had will always be remembered. Everybody dressed in their red and white gear, were smiling and happy. Everday when I took the bus home, I would always see tourists taking in the beautiful scenery as we crossed Burrard Street bridge and craning their necks to try to capture a picture of the ocean. The long lineups at our infamous Japadog always left me scratching my head (who would wait over 90 minutes for a hot dog with Japanese condiments??) but people seemed more than willing to wait for one of Vancouver's culinary delights.

Everyday for the past 17 days, I felt such a level of pride and patriotism for not only our country, but for the beautiful city that we live in. I think sometimes, people forget how fortunate we are to live here, and it did remind me of how lucky we are. I feel proud of Canadians, to be a Canadian and to raise our child as a Canadian (Chinese Canadian). And when I look around our beautiful city that so many people across the world came to see, I know that there is absolutely nowhere else on earth but Vancouver, that I would want our baby to be raised.