Deaflympics 2007: Monday: 2/5/07

 

This is when I got tired....

I worked today and for some reason working is less exhausting than watching Curling.... weird... oh well, my art class has been canceled and I am going to watch stuff afterwards. More pictures tomorrow mooring.

Today I get to the Steiner Center at about 5:30pm. I have no idea what's going on cause I lost my program with the schedule but I figured I'd get to see some curling practice and the medal ceremony and hockey. Nope. Nothing happens until 7pm. And i's the medal ceremony and curling. Whilst waiting though I started talking to a couple from Switzerland. I can't remember their names but it wasn't Bob and Jane, it was more unpronounceable. I mostly talked to the wife, she was really sweet. She was waiting for curling, apparently hockey isn't very big in Switzerland but they had time to kill too. She taught me some Swiss SL, just some simple stuff like man, woman, kid, spouse,family, etc. It was really cool. Lets see, we talked about... she was one of the Swiss Delegates, here supporting her team. Her flight here was something like 14 hours and had several lay-overs that were long. I think she said that her and her husband live in a town near the Alps, she drew a map so I understood that part. I told her about watching hockey yesterday with the players beating the crap out of each other and how it was cool picking up the different sign languages. She didn't have any kids, was just here as a delegate and a fan.... I told her that it was recommended to me to find a husband here cause all the athletes would probably be close to my age, she thought that was funny. She worked as a seamstress making clothes but is retired (I think) as it eventually started hurting her neck and back. I was wearing my sweater that I embroidered a trinity knot onto and told her that I do sewing too but mostly embroidery. I'll bring some pictures next time, so hopefully she understood me. I can't remember everything we talked about but it was really cool. I was trying to get them to tell me more Swiss SL but was having a hard time communicating that. I told her I speak a little French and was kinda mouthing some of the words I could remember to help her get some of my gesturing. Also, I thought hockey was kinda violent and so did they, they told me that the players all wear a lot of padding but Sunday they were practicing and hitting the puck at the wall and I could feel the wall vibrating each time it hit. Ouch.

After a while I watched some official presentation of Curling, and it as a new competition in the Deaflympics so there was a big ceremony with bagpipers. That was cool but man they must have been freezing their kilts off cause the Curling Arena is really really cold. Afterwards they scrape the ice to prepare for the game. I meet some interesting people, one of the Slovakians won gold for something and she is only 16. How cool is that? I was pretty unmotivated at 16. Also the Finnish team for who knows what keeps jogging around the hockey ring, I want to talk to them but they seem kinda busy plus I am a gigantic chicken. What would I say? You look tired, cause you've been running around my mind all day... yeah I have all the good pick up lines, 'hey, want a green card?' 'Did it hurt when you fell from heaven, cause it looks like you landed on your face'. Maybe not.

I ran into the german official again, we were comparing stories of cold, he said that once in some small town he was visiting, they got a foot of snow so fast that cars were stopped on the highway right on the road. The snowplows couldn't plow because of all the cars and they were stuck for about 7 hours. I told him and his friend that every year me and my friends go to Park City during the Sundance Film Festival and eat pizza and watch all the skinny actresses who don't know how to dress for winter, in their mini skirts, very clearly freezing their asses off.

I'm really trying to get into the Curling, but it moves so slow so I go back to hockey and take pics whilst swearing at my camera cause the batteries keep dying. At some point I become allergic to something or someone in the building because my eyes water and I start sneezing really bad and have to go home. It was fun though.