So they're over, although the closing ceremony happened while I was at school, and the gold-medal hockey game happened while I was sleeping/while I was eating breakfast/while I was traveling to school. Apparently ice hockey does not have enough of a profile to get on the main TV channel here, only the auxiliary channel - which we don't get. I did watch highlights (in Japanese) when I got home.
The Olympics were big news here, though. Whenever I met someone and said I was from Canada, the next word they said was almost inevitably "Vancouver." I would patiently explain I was not, myself, from Vancouver. If I had my map with me I'd show them where Edmonton is in relation to Vancouver, which causes most people to go "oh, close." Trying to explain the sheer size of Canada is one of my challenges.
At my elementary school last week they wanted me to include some Olympics in my lesson, since I am from Canada. I had posters of all the Olympic sports, so I would hold them up, have the students practice pronouncing the sport, then ask "who likes ____?" Most got a medium response, but being the consummate showman that I am, I saved figure skating for the end. That got a big cheer, then one boy asked me if I knew the Japanese "player". I said I knew the woman was Asada. This resulted in the end of my class being a bunch of fifth graders roaring "ASADA!" I hope they took a silver medal better than Canadian hockey fans would have.
-Jason
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