Blame it on the mittens

"I'm only watching this game because of the Blackhawks players." 

At the Olympic torch relay in our town...Louis is still wearing his White Sox hat! He's very loyal regardless of where he is...

We've enjoyed living here in Canada during the Olympics. Admittedly though, it gets confusing from time to time remembering that we're from the USA, and of course we should be cheering on our country. But when we're in a bar with a bunch of Canadians and before we know it we're singing "Oh Canada" with them (or the first line or two anyway), it's hard not to feel Canadian. (When we pay our Canadian taxes, it's definitely not hard to feel Canadian). We can blame it on the mittens. When you're wearing THOSE mittens it's easy to feel Canadian. We've been wearing our mittens since we attended the Olympic Torch relay in our town before the holidays.

But today it's all about the U.S.A. and hockey. Although, Paul is ready to take a hockey stick to the TV because he has had enough of the Olympics. "I'm only watching this game because of the Blackhawks players," he says.

We have Special Olympics skiing today which ends right when the game starts. We decided instead of watching it with a bar full of Canadians we are going to race two hours home, without the radio on, which will inevitably be broadcasting the game on most stations, walk in the door, flip on the PVR and watch the game from the beginning, hopefully without hearing the score. Our flag is out and we are proud. Our feet are in Canada, but our hearts are still in the U.S.A. Hopefully no one pour maple syrup in our yard today. We'll always have the mittens. GO U.S.A.

Curling is not that bad

It's both good and bad that curling is finally over. Good, because there was oh so much of it on television. Bad, because it took watching the gold medal game tonight for Kish to discover that this John Morris guy from Canada is a mighty fine curler...and not too bad to watch. For our single friends out there, he's been named one of Canada's most eligible bachelors. He's been curling since he was five! You can read more about him here.

He can come to Montreal and sweep our floors whenever he wants. He can even use a Swiffer. And wear his Gold medal.

Here we go again

Oh Canada crap, here we go again. As mentioned in an earlier post, being in Canada right now can be compared to being a Green Bay Packers fan walking into Soldier field on game day. Is this what Archie Manning feels like when he has to watch his sons play each other?

One Canadian response to the loss to the USA last week

It's no doubt going to be a big game and a perfect ending to these Olympics. 

Here's another commercial we've been watching on Canadian TV. It's funny, but oh so true. In our case though, we get searched coming back to Canada. We're just Americans trying to smuggle  pay realistic prices in the States and avoid 14% sales tax for dog food, laundry detergent, printer ink and Patron.

These dudes are serious

This hockey stuff is serious.


A friend of mine works in Washington, D.C. doing some sort of engineering job having to do with the defense department. She's one of the smartest women I know, and one of the funniest. She happened to spend her grade school years in Toronto so she understands Canadians.


When I sent her the link to the curling blog from the other day, she wrote back with this hilarious story...

One of my friends works in a NATO office for the US Navy.  When the Canadian naval officer showed up, ashamed and embarrassed after the defeat to Team USA, some one asked  him, if Team Canada could go to the volcano and sacrifice some curlers in exchange for a hockey win, how many curlers would they throw into the volcano?  The Canadian began to explain how important curling is to Canadians, then stopped and said, "all of them."

We get to see Super Bowl caliber commercials during these Canadian Olympics. This Coca Cola ad says it all...not sure if you see this is the U.S.A. Lots of hockey today...could we have another U.S.A. and Canada match up on Sunday?

In other Olympics news...how about those Canadian women? Quebec is beaming with pride following Joannie Rochette's bronze medal in figure skating. And the women's hockey? Those girls can play! What's been really cool to watch is how many of the Canadian athletes are staying in Vancouver cheering on Team Canada instead of hitting the talk show circuit back in the States. Yes, Canadian athletes can ink sponsorship deals after a medal win. Most will agree though that it's not at all as lucrative as it is for U.S. athletes. I'm just saying...it's the Olympics. Stick around and cheer on your TEAM. 

Bobsleigh or Bobsled?

Living in Canada during these Olympics has enabled us to view the television and newspaper coverage from the Canadian perspective. With that comes some differences, even though we're not that far from "home." So when the bobsled coverage started and we were watching the story on CTV and they kept saying "bobsleigh." We were all, "Huh? It's bobsled! Bob Costas and Al Michaels have always said "bobsled." Why are the Canadians saying bobsleigh?"

From a quick google search it appears as though the term is interchangeable depending on your mood. Sort of like that whole "you say tomato, I say tomato" debate. Not much of a difference.

After watching hockey and the USA take on Switzerland (we got to see the entire game on several channels) and then Canada take on Russia, seeing the Canadian women take gold and silver in the bobsleigh was really cool. What made it even more nostalgic was seeing the Americans join the Canadians the podium. Such nice neighbours, or shall I say neighbors?