The O-Word

People have been jesting for months now about the Olympics coming to town, calling it "the sporting event that shall not be named"....maybe for a legitimate fear of using the official name without being an official sponsor. I don't want to get into the political and social debates over the money being spent and the homeless people all of a sudden being given these convenient little tents, but I do want to note the change in atmosphere downtown. It's getting kind of exciting. Tourists are slowly starting to trickle in. Just this afternoon in class, a couple of wide-eyed tourists were staring into our classroom in amazement. One side of the class is all windows and they were pressed against the glass, looking at us expectantly.

"Look honey, it's a school of Canadians! How fascinating. They look so still..."
"Don't tap on the glass Herb! It disturbs them..."

The downtown campus (which I attend) of Simon Fraser University has been rented out to Germany for the duration of the winter games. The Olympic committee has been making plenty of cosmetic changes over the past couple of weeks. Stainless steel recycling bins....new laminate flooring...strange track lighting hanging in the entrance of the main building...repainting....it's like when you clean your house and put on a cocktail dress when some special new friends are coming over. "This old thing? I just threw it on. Yeah, our place always looks like this...I generally have about 5 different arrangements of fresh flowers in the apartment at all times." Vancouver is dressing to impress, and why shouldn't it? The whole world is coming over for dinner!