Canada welcomes the world

I've just completed my first shift at the Vancouver Olympic Village. Today brought with it an onslaught of wonderful emotions, so I will try to recount a few...
Emotion 1: Sleepy. I awoke minutes before my 5am alarm following a night of minimal sleep. At 5:30 I hopped in the car for the dark, drizzling drive to the village. I couldn't help but admire my beautiful blue, crisp, clean uniform. Sleepiness was quickly replaced by excitement as I went to my first volunteer briefing session, still two hours before any sign of daylight. After a tour of the gorgeous village, I was ready to meet the rest of my team and start greeting the day's visitors.
Emotion 2: Heightened Canadian Pride. I am so excited to see the Olympics take place in a city and country which mean so much to me. I. LOVE. CANADA. I also happen to love Vancouver and the Olympics! Perfect.
Emotion 3: Glee. I don't know about you, but I love barcodes and scanning things. Even after a 9 hour shift, I wasn't tired of scanning people through the security checkpoints. Buh-beep! Green box around their mugshot, and the correct symbols on their accreditation badge. "Thank you! Go ahead!" Perhaps at this point you're wondering why I felt gleeful, of all things. Greeting people is just that much better when you're greeting members of international delegations who have just arrived from all over the world. New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA, Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, Poland, Germany, to name a few...
Emotion 4: Gratitude for Canadian athletes. They are so down to earth! The Canadian speed skating team came through to pick up their accreditation, and in addition to my excitement in seeing them, I was so impressed by their casual, unassuming behaviour. I find it so refreshing when world class athletes, especially those in their own country, can exhibit such a modest demeanor. I love Canada.

the first entry

Along with the beautiful freedom which currently graces my post-university life, there comes a feeling of imminent, inevitable adventure. Part of this feeling undoubtedly stems from the fact that I happen to have several "planned" adventures for the coming year. I have also been encouraged by several friends to start blogging. In short, this seems like a suitable time to begin collecting my experiences and impressions somewhere that they can be shared and enjoyed. As with all "planned" adventure, there comes the even more exciting spontaneity of everyday life - both at home and abroad. It is this unexpected adventure that I most eagerly anticipate.

I've always felt that every blog that's worth reading (or writing!) should have a concrete goal or theme right from the outset. That's not to say that there can't be some variation in content, but I'm personally a fan of maintaining a common thread. To ensure that I don't run myself into any corners, I've taken the liberty of making my theme broad enough to accommodate any number of experiences :)
One of my favourite quotes (attributed to Denis Waitley) reads, "Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude." It is with this idea in mind that I set out to see the world as it truly is: full of love, grace, and gratitude.