On the road again

With less than two weeks to go before the Opening Ceremony here in Vancouver, Coca-Cola has entered the final sprint of preparation.  On Tuesday, I worked 18 hours...a new record for me!

What do I even do, you might be wondering, as one of Coca-Cola's interns.  Well, my duties seem to evolve over time, but for the time being, I consider myself the official courier of Coke's Olympic Pavilion Team.  In the past couple of weeks, I have driven all around Metro Vancouver picking up supplies for the Pavilion, then dropping them off at LiveCity Yaletown (where our Pavilion is located).  Here is a list of most of the places I've visited, with a map below with red asteriks in those designated regions.  Though there is no scale, the longest trip was between LiveCity Yaletown (near the top left side of the map, just south of North Vancouver), and Port Coquitlam, clocking in at about an hour's drive with traffic.

North Vancouver - Wal-Mart, Michael's

Richmond - Coke's Olympic office headquarters, Micheal's, Ikea, Home Depot

Burnaby - Metal Supermarkets, Home Depot

New Westminister - A timely errand
Port Coquitlam - ditto, Home Depot
Delta - Plastic processing plant

As you can see, Home Depot has made the list multiple times.  I feel like it's my second home now.  Though the feeling of overwhelmed emotions overtakes me each time I enter Home Depot (there's so much stuff to find your way through...it's intimidating, quite frankly!), I persevere nonetheless.  And, in my humbled opinion, I'm becoming a bit of a handyman myself!

The true wonder of the week occurred on Friday, when I partook in errands without a GPS.  Just me and good ol' Mapquest.  I definitely fell into a flurry of frustration as I tried to find my favorite Vancouver-based Home Depot amidst a plethora of new street closings and no GPS simply saying "recalculating" and figuring out a different route.

However, I do think the experience strengthened my overall knowledge of the city of Vancouver, and I definitely had that euphoric feeling similar to winning a race when that giant orange-colored superstore came into view.

As the Pavilion gets closer to completion, I begin to embark on the next chapter of this experience: being a promotional representative for Coca-Cola's Pavilion.  We had staff training on Sunday, and let me just tell you...it was awesome!  We have people from around the world and of all backgrounds that will be working together to put this amazing event on, and I can honestly say that I am absolutely pumped to be living positively and opening some happiness with these people.

I'm out,
bodie