CHEESE!

With the Olympic Hangover easing now (i hate using that word because it sounds way too cliché and overused), maybe i'll just make a metaphor to describe how people might feel after Olympic Games.Living through the Games as a spectator is incredible, you live EVERY moment with the athletes, every single high and low impacts you in some way. for me it was even before the games had started. Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian Luger who tragically lost his life at the whistler sliding center on the day of the opening ceremonies was the first moment for me. I never met him, never even saw the accident (my choice) but i felt as though someone i knew had passed. it was the scariest thing to hear about it struck me way to close to home. my thoughts are still with him. Following this extremely sad moment the opening ceremonies were the complete opposite, even being on the same day it was a complete celebration of canada. it made me feel incredibly canadian and extremely joyous. this roller coaster ride of emotions kept going through out the whole games, knowing that some athletes missed the podium, or the gold medal by fractions of seconds and points was tough, and being an athlete i know what that feels like. that moment plays its self over and over in you head for days, nights, even months. you keep telling yourself that if you had that moment back you knew exactly what you had done wrong and that you'd fix it. but thus is the beauty of sport. it is that singular instant in time, that fraction of a second, which makes athletes, athletes. the ability to act without thought, but with full intention, to put everything you have learned and practiced to one goal. Gold.

for every near chance, we, as a country managed to put gold on the podium. this blew my mind. i will allude to my previous post and say that after the rocky start, we proved that we could own the Podium. 14 Golds! incredible. toping this incredible medal haul, on the last day was the mens gold medal performance where as with Bilodeau (the PERFECT HERO), someone, somewhere, wrote the golden moment for Canadian hockey. Canada's Golden Boy, scored the golden goal. Sidney Crosby is one of those athletes. where, when the pressure mounts (overtime, after blowing a to goal lead) they find a way to do what has seemed impossible for so long. score on the best goalie in the tournament!

following this incredibly emotional 16 days (both up and down) came March 1st. and this was as if your heart got broken by the love of your life. it was a low beyond lows. the village was empty, the busses were gone, the police officers at every corner were gone, and the driving restrictions were gone. i almost wanted all the hassle to come back. it was as if any second i'd wake up and everything was back to normal (Olympic busy), but no. it was over. Olympic Hangover? i think in whistler thats just from all the partying. olympic withdrawal is different, you don't feel sick, noxious, or dizzy. you feel as though you were left on the side of the road in the middle of no where with your heart broken.

but as with everybody else. i am just fine! here are a few pictures to keep motivated for four years from now!

the title is cheese, for no related reason other than i had delicious cheese this morning which my mother sent back with me from Ottawa. it was very good!

enjoy the pictures!

C