Canada's Gold Medal Game from Afar . . .

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For the last couple of weeks, Canada has been hosting the Olympic Winter Games. I’ve had so many mixed emotions. The continual footage and news from Canada really makes me want to be home while everything is going on. But compared to regular life on the ship, it’s really exciting right now. I constantly have the games on in my teen club. It’s nice to have news from Canada for a change. The fact that my name tag says I’m from Canada has so many more people striking up excited conversations with me. I feel like I really have the chance to be uber-patriotic and that everyone else is happy about that too.

I have however been very disappointed with the US coverage of the games. There are so many events I wish I could see that are not aired. Especially the lack of hockey coverage has been disappointing. I did not get to see Team Canada play a single game - until today. And what a game to see!

My sister, Melanie, and her boyfriend, Andrew, are cruising this week. Today we’re in Manzanillo and we went out on tour. The game started while we were out. On the way back to the ship, our tour was stopped in traffic waiting for a train to pass. Our guide sang a Mexican song. Then he spoke to the woman seated in the front and asked where she was from - Canada. He asked her to sing a Canadian song. She started the national anthem - and the rest of us (more than half of the tour) joined in. Of course, then the Americans on the tour had to sing their anthem. The woman seated next to Andrew couldn’t handle the suspense of wondering what the score was and texted someone back home. We got the news that Canada was ahead 2-0 at the end of the second period. We went nuts - and we weren’t even watching the game!

When we got back to the ship, Mel, Andrew and I literally ran along the pier and up the gangway. We went to the lounge where they were playing the game. It was so much fun! It was tense in there - a mixed crowd of Canadians and Americans. The few crew who came by found the whole thing entertaining.

I am always going to remember the moment when Canada scored the winning goal. Every Canadian in the room jumped up and went absolutely crazy! Meanwhile, the Americans all sort of slunk out of the lounge . . . We all sang the loudest most off-key rendition of “O Canada”. Everyone was hugging each other. A group of guests had Canadian flags that they were waving around. They were letting people - including us - borrow the flags to take photos with. One of those guests asked me if I worked on the ship; when I said yes he said that he wanted me to have his flag. It’s now hanging up in my cabin - along with all my other Vancouver 2010 gear!

The Canadian patriotism around the ship is so incredible. Tonight when we went to dinner in the guest dining room - I’m not sure what happened to get it started - but the national anthem was being sung again. Tonight was the ship’s big deck party. I wore my Canadian mittens and every Canadian wanted to high-five me and every American admitted their defeat.

Being on the ship during the Olympics has given me some pretty big doses of homesickness. But if I couldn’t be home for the event, I don’t think I’d rather be anywhere else right now.

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