I just wanted to let everyone know that a good friend of mine Jewels that I know from culinary school interviewed me for her monthly radio show about my olympic experience.. The show will air on March 26th. The station is WNTI 91.9 and it served Northern New Jersey. If you do not live in that area you can go on their website http://www.wnti.org/ and listen live. The show is on at 8:00 am. Also if you do not want to get up that early or forget they archive the shows so you can go online anytime after the 26th and listen.
Hope you tune in
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Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
At the airport
Well I guess this is time for a retrospective of the last month.
It seems like yesterday I was kissing my family goodbye and heading for an adventure, not knowing what exactly the job I would be doing entailed, not knowing who I would be rooming with or if we would all get along, not knowing how a 42 year old American would be greeted by our Canadian neighbors, and just generally wondering about the whole situation.
Well I can say with 200% certainty that, next to having children and getting married this has been the single most exciting, enjoyable and awe inspiring experience of my life. I am flying back to the USA and New Jersey with a new view on life and the world, this experience has changed me both inside and out. I never would have thought, back in December when I said to my wife "I have an idea" and she responded like she usually does when I make such a statement saying "uh oh", that this would make such an impact on me, especially considering the fact that the idea was originally only to earn some extra money during our slow winter months.
There is nothing about this experience that I can say was negative, even when things sometimes became frustrating, I thought to myself, who cares I am at the Olympics. From day one when I arrived and picked up my Olympic Credentials ( I thought I was soooo cool walking around with them around my neck, until I realized every other person had them), to meeting my room mates, to my first day working, to my first Olympic event, to the first athlete I saw walking around the village, to the first 3:00 am night of partying with the 20 year olds ( there were many of those), to watching the USA hockey team play and win, to watching Americans such as Bode Miller and many others accepting their medals live, to just walking around the village and looking at people.
On My first day of work the owner of Whistler Cooks who I worked for said to all 450 of us employees, at some point during the next 4 weeks you are all going to have your "Olympic moment" and when you do you will know it. Well it seemed I was having those moments every 5 minutes.
I am so, so glad my wife was able to come out and share the experience with me. It was only for 3 days and was definatly not easy to get there and get back for her. In the end though we shared something very special that I do not know will ever be duplicated.
At my job in the end, working out of trailers, we served the ticketholders, press, media, volunteers, Vanoc, Kings, Queens and other dignitaries over 500,000 meals in 3 weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, quite an accomplishment.
I know in reality the 3 weeks of the Olympics is not real life, in real life Isreal would not walk into an arena next to Iran, and other countries that have waged war against each other in the past and present would not be drinking in the same bar, but this is what happens for 3 or 4 weeks during the Olympics. It would be great if this was real life.
I want to thank everyone at home, Reg for taking care of the business stuff, my wonderful children for just being, my mother for helping out with the girls and entertaining my wife, my inlaws for the financial support, Krystal and Wendi for holding down the fort at work. Without you guys this trip never would have been a reality. I thank you and love you all.
Click here to view our Twitter page and please re-tweet us
Click here to view the official DRJ Catering website
It seems like yesterday I was kissing my family goodbye and heading for an adventure, not knowing what exactly the job I would be doing entailed, not knowing who I would be rooming with or if we would all get along, not knowing how a 42 year old American would be greeted by our Canadian neighbors, and just generally wondering about the whole situation.
Well I can say with 200% certainty that, next to having children and getting married this has been the single most exciting, enjoyable and awe inspiring experience of my life. I am flying back to the USA and New Jersey with a new view on life and the world, this experience has changed me both inside and out. I never would have thought, back in December when I said to my wife "I have an idea" and she responded like she usually does when I make such a statement saying "uh oh", that this would make such an impact on me, especially considering the fact that the idea was originally only to earn some extra money during our slow winter months.
There is nothing about this experience that I can say was negative, even when things sometimes became frustrating, I thought to myself, who cares I am at the Olympics. From day one when I arrived and picked up my Olympic Credentials ( I thought I was soooo cool walking around with them around my neck, until I realized every other person had them), to meeting my room mates, to my first day working, to my first Olympic event, to the first athlete I saw walking around the village, to the first 3:00 am night of partying with the 20 year olds ( there were many of those), to watching the USA hockey team play and win, to watching Americans such as Bode Miller and many others accepting their medals live, to just walking around the village and looking at people.
On My first day of work the owner of Whistler Cooks who I worked for said to all 450 of us employees, at some point during the next 4 weeks you are all going to have your "Olympic moment" and when you do you will know it. Well it seemed I was having those moments every 5 minutes.
I am so, so glad my wife was able to come out and share the experience with me. It was only for 3 days and was definatly not easy to get there and get back for her. In the end though we shared something very special that I do not know will ever be duplicated.
At my job in the end, working out of trailers, we served the ticketholders, press, media, volunteers, Vanoc, Kings, Queens and other dignitaries over 500,000 meals in 3 weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, quite an accomplishment.
I know in reality the 3 weeks of the Olympics is not real life, in real life Isreal would not walk into an arena next to Iran, and other countries that have waged war against each other in the past and present would not be drinking in the same bar, but this is what happens for 3 or 4 weeks during the Olympics. It would be great if this was real life.
I want to thank everyone at home, Reg for taking care of the business stuff, my wonderful children for just being, my mother for helping out with the girls and entertaining my wife, my inlaws for the financial support, Krystal and Wendi for holding down the fort at work. Without you guys this trip never would have been a reality. I thank you and love you all.
I have a few more pictures I will post when I get home, until then thank you for listening the last month.
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Saturday, February 27, 2010
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Well 2 days left, now it is starting to get sad realizing that all the great friends I have made will soon all go back to their own lives as will I. I have met so many great people this month, I will miss them all very much.
Yesterday was pretty uneventfull, people watched for a few hours, saw a great band play in the village, and then went out clubbing with my friends.
Today we catered a party for the Vancouver Organizing Committe (VANOC) or also known as the smurfs, for 800 of the volunteers who work at our venue. It was a fun party, simple and a very nice night.
I have some pictures of the village and various people as well as the smurf party and the crowd at biathalon and some pictures of our work compound check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/UntitledAlbum02
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Bobsled and Friends
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Well I am in the home stretch, I had today and Thursday off then 3 last days at work and then home on Monday. I will be very glad to see my kids and wife, but will miss this place and the people alot, it has no doubt become part of who I am. Went to see the final 2 runs of the womans 2 person bobsled and got to see the USA take home a Bronze Medal, it was pretty cool and the first time I have witnessed firsthand a USA medal win. The bobsled is so exciting to watch and got to see a few flips ( no one got hurt though). Hopefully thursday night I will get tickets for the medal ceremony and see them get their medal and also maybe a USA medal in the Womans Giant Slalom Combined which will be run during the day Thursday. Here are more pics http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Womans2PersonBobsledFinal
Went out tonight for some Sushi (sorry family) and then out to party a bit as this town was going nuts with the Gold and Silver for Canada in the 2 woman bobsled and also Canada winning medals in speed skating, short track speedskating, and a local from here in Whistler winning the Gold Medal in Womans Ski Cross along with the Canada Men winning their hockey game against Russia.
Thursday is a huge day with the gold medal game USA vs Canada for womans hockey. It will be insane around here, and the anticipation is growing for a possible showdown in mens hockey USA vs Canada on Sunday.
And finally and album of friends having fun. http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Friends#
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Videos are working
It seems as if my videos are up and running again on the blog so check them out, they are a few posts down.
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Ski Jump
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2 Cross Country Skiiers from Japan.JPG)
These 2 pics are the front of the house night crew I work with, what a great group of people from USA, Australia, France, New Zealand and Canada.
This pic is of Josh (from Canada) on the left who works with me during the day and night and Pedro ( from Angola and Portugal) and Jessie ( from Canada) who both work the morning and lunch shift.
I watched some of the medal round on the large ski jump hill and all I can say is wow. These guys fly over one and a half times the length of a football field, amazing. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, and in the high 50's so there are a few interesting pictures in my photo album from today ( you will know them when you see them).
There are also pics of some cross country skiiers ( I have know idea who they were other then some were from Japan).
And lastly but not least there are some pictures of some of my co workers and new friends who work the dinner shift with me, represented are USA, Canada, Australia, France and Portugal/Angola. Check them all out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/LargeHillSkiJumpingAndWorkFriends.
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