Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

I figured with all the Pacific NW GCers, I'd get responses quickly.

http://www.vancouver2010.com/mascot/en/

You rang? LOL. I do want to go watch the Olympics (cuz I live in the 'Couv), but I haven't really thought about it that much. I should sign up for the emails so I am kept current.

As for the mascots, my favorite is Miga. The top of her head reminds me of the soft-serve ice-cream that you get at McDonalds with the loop-de-loop. I think Miga is supposed to be a bear, mixed with orca whale (i.e. in "old skool" terminology, the orca was called killer whales)

[Thetagirl218]

Originally Posted by CutiePie2000

I like the mascots....but not feeling the logo....Is it supposed to be something?

I am still angry at my parents for refusing to take me to the Atlantic Olympics because they didn't want to deal with the crowds. I was in middle school and wanted to go SO bad - and I grew up only six hours away from Atlanta. BOOOOOOO.

Ditto^^^
I was only 10 when the games were here, but I wanted to go soooo bad!!!!!! My family are huge fans of the games, so I still have no clue why we couldn't have gone! It was probably too expensive!! My uncle went though and brought me back some cute pins and stuff!

[DreamfulSpirit]

Yeah...I was in middle school during the Atlanta Olympics, living here in NC, and I really really wanted to go! One of my the guys I went to school with went, I was very jealous...as was everyone else!

When I was living in Arizona, I wanted to go to the Olympics in Salt Lake City since that was really close too! Oh well...it'll happen one of these days! I really do want to go to Vancouver, as it is Canada, and being that I am Canadian...it would just be double special for me!

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

I like the mascots....but not feeling the logo....Is it supposed to be something?



Ditto^^^
I was only 10 when the games were here, but I wanted to go soooo bad!!!!!! My family are huge fans of the games, so I still have no clue why we couldn't have gone! It was probably too expensive!! My uncle went though and brought me back some cute pins and stuff!

Re the logo, see this thread:

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=65848

I think the tickets are really expensive. Looking at the Vancouver website, they promo that many of the tickets are $25, but they're not necessarily to the popular events. The ceremony tickets are like $300 for example. Figure skating is pricey too.

I think the orca/bear thing is so cute. I guess it's a traditional native spirit symbol, from what I've read. I love the sasquatch one too. soooooo cute!

The tickets draw for Canadians begins October 3 and runs through early November. I don't know much about how the US system works - I haven't read the email they sent me after I signed up for the list. *fingers crossed* that I'll get them.

For my family, I think the turnoff about Atlanta was really more driving into the city, dealing with people, etc. etc. We're country folk (I grew up in NC too Dreamful Spirit). LOL. I remember I even got the ticket request form (at that time it was a paper thing, oh, the days before pervasive internet) and they wouldn't let me fill it out. I wanted to SO BAD. Making things worse, my dad's first cousin lives in Athens and kept sending me memorabilia, which was really sweet of her but just made me want to go even more.

Salt Lake City I wanted to go to but I was kind of out of it that year - I was in college and pledging Pi Phi and very busy, and didn't really have time to watch it. Even though I had a TV in my room, I missed a lot of the competition. Although... maybe part of it was over W&L's February break and I caught that? I do think I tuned in for Michelle Kwan's performances (love her).

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

I like the mascots....but not feeling the logo....Is it supposed to be something?

The logo is supposed to be an "inukshuk" (it's not a Transformer...LOL, although some of us jokingly call it that). Yeah, we didn't love it either...sigh, but we are stuck with it.
To read on what an inukshuk is, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk
There was some backlash on it here: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...clogo0426.html


London 2012 isn't that great, either, IMO. Oh well.

[breathesgelatin]

CutiePie2000, I've got to say that I think Vancouver's logo is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than London's. At least it evokes native culture/the Pacific NW to me. London's doesn't really evoke anything to me at all except the early 90s and neon fanny packs.

I lurk at Olympic discussion forums and the consensus is that the London logo is one of the most hated ever. Especially by those from the UK. The worst part is that some animation from the London Olympics website revealing the logo back in June 2007 evidently caused seizures in some epileptic individuals. Here's a rundown:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Olympics#Logo

So I think Vancouver is definitely sitting pretty with their logo.

Other notable logos... hm... I really liked Sarajevo's, Nagano's, Seoul's, Atlanta's (though it now looks particularly dated to me), and ESPECIALLY Athens's.

The worst thing of all by far though, was Atlanta's awful, awful, awful mascot Izzy.

Fun graphic of Olympic mascots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Olympicmascot.jpg

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

The worst thing of all by far though, was Atlanta's awful, awful, awful mascot Izzy.

Fun graphic of Olympic mascots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Olympicmascot.jpg

Cosign, Izzy sucked eggs. I like Schneemann!

[PeppyGPhiB]

BF and I are going to try to go to the Vancouver games. I've been a subscriber of the emails for a while now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I had read on the Web site, the organizing committee was encouraging hotels not to book ANY rooms yet while they tried to figure out a solution to the vendors/scalpers situation. The exception to that was Whistler...I know people with cabins there that have rented them out for a bundle!

One more suggestion: consider looking at hotels across the border. It's not far of a drive, but I'm sure there will be a TON of busses going into the city, too.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

BF and I are going to try to go to the Vancouver games. I've been a subscriber of the emails for a while now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I had read on the Web site, the organizing committee was encouraging hotels not to book ANY rooms yet while they tried to figure out a solution to the vendors/scalpers situation. The exception to that was Whistler...I know people with cabins there that have rented them out for a bundle!

One more suggestion: consider looking at hotels across the border. It's not far of a drive, but I'm sure there will be a TON of busses going into the city, too.

But keep in mind that by then you will need a passport to travel back and forth by land.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

BF and I are going to try to go to the Vancouver games. I've been a subscriber of the emails for a while now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I had read on the Web site, the organizing committee was encouraging hotels not to book ANY rooms yet while they tried to figure out a solution to the vendors/scalpers situation. The exception to that was Whistler...I know people with cabins there that have rented them out for a bundle!

One more suggestion: consider looking at hotels across the border. It's not far of a drive, but I'm sure there will be a TON of busses going into the city, too.

After a re-read of the website I think you're exactly right - they're not booking ANY rooms to ANYONE. Although the website also seems to say that 30% of the rooms will be reserved for "members of the Olympic family," which I assume doesn't include little ole me.

Renting is a good idea. I have a passport that expires in late 2011 so that shouldn't be an issue.

I could definitely check the US hotels but I wonder if they are all already booked!

I am sure I could Craigslist stuff already too. I notice the website has a disclaimer about renting from people individually and stuff.

The thing is I don't want to worry too much about accommodations until I know more about my ticket situation! I signed up for ticketing emails from both the Vancouver site (although that's not super-useful since I'm not Canadian) and for info from CoSport, the US vendor... but I haven't got so much as a peep from them, not even a confirmation that they got my info.

[Taualumna]

Originally Posted by CutiePie2000

The logo is supposed to be an "inukshuk" (it's not a Transformer...LOL, although some of us jokingly call it that). Yeah, we didn't love it either...sigh, but we are stuck with it.
To read on what an inukshuk is, just go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk
There was some backlash on it here: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...clogo0426.html


London 2012 isn't that great, either, IMO. Oh well.

The 1980s just attacked!