British Student .ca

Midterm exams and classes are over for two weeks (I have my midterms after the break), we no longer talk about marks but medals! On Thursday the Olympic flame made it’s way across the UBC campus, which was covered in police and campus security.

I went out on my bicycle so if boredom struck I could just cycle on somewhere else. I don’t see what’s so exciting about the torch, with all the crowds most of us could just see a flame as it went past the Forestry and Computer Science buildings. Yet everyone ran to try and catch up with it, how many of them even knew who was holding it? I casually cycled on, using some roads parallel to Main Mall to get ahead of it.

The Old Bus Loop demolition/construction/turfing finished just last week and formed a centre for celebrations. Some student clubs lined the pedestrianised street and to the side a stage was set up with some bands playing. I saw the torch go down the car park before the bus loop and then tried to cross the crowd. I knew I wouldn’t see it at all down the bus loop, but I caught glimpse of 4 cycling police officers and wondered where they were heading. They went the other side of The Knoll (a grassy construction heap that had expected to have protesters on) and around the SUB. There are lots of steps around here, but I know some cunning little step-free gaps and paths that clearly the police didn’t know. Turns out they were only getting to the traffic lights to see the torch leave the campus. I missed the UBC Torch Flash Mob but I’m not really bothered, it had so much organising and choreographing while pigging backing on another event, it was more ambush marketing than flash mobbing.

Last night (Friday) was the opening ceremony and torch cauldron lighting. I didn’t really think ahead for this and so didn’t arrange with anyone to go anywhere. I kind of suck at getting people together and going out anyway, I should be part of a group of people that can do that. So I ended up watching it in the floor lounge on TV with a few other people. I sat with my laptop to be able to research teams on Wikipedia despite the network port not working and a weak wifi signal. I wanted to watch the BBC coverage but their iPlayer stream of BBC2 wasn’t working.

After seeing most of the ceremony I actually missed Great Britain walk round the stadium. This was soon forgotten when we saw the mess up of part of the indoor cauldron not lifting up, so one of the 4 sport stars didn’t get to light it with their flame.

Later in the night, about 1am, the fire alarm in the building went off. Those that weren’t out partying, or staying in bed, went next door to the Commons Block. In the TV room they were watching a repeat of the ceremony, and I got to see Great Britain this time.