Go World, Go Baby 2010!!

Your birth year is a special one for your birth country of Canada, baby. I am going to tell you more about Canada in a later entry, but this year is the second time that Canada has hosted the Olympic Winter Games. This is where the best athletes in the world all get together to see who is the best of the best. Time around because it's being held in Vancouver, where auntie Shanna lives.

It's extra fun for your Mommy and I, though, because she is from a different country than I am. We are having lots of fun cheering for our own countries for different events or, whenever possible, cheering against the United States of America because everybody likes to beat them in sports.

What's the most fun is how your Mommy and I understand all the sports differently from one another. Most of our conversations about the sports we watch really show how we are from different cultures. Below are some examples of how this works for us:

Hockey

Hockey is Canada's Sport. By the time you read this, you will likely know what I mean but Hockey is to Canada like sand is to your shorts: it gets into every part of you whether you want it to or not.

I never played hockey officially or anything, but if I wanted other kids to talk to me when I was younger, I had to learn to skate and shoot a puck. Your mother didn't have this experience growing up, so she is always surprised by how big it is here.

Me: Canada is going to measure its success at these games by whether or not we win gold in the Men's hockey.

Your Mom: That's ridiculous. I can't believe that it's even in the Olympics. It's a team sport...

Me: You're so Dutch.

Curling

This one is a stretch for your Mother. Whereas hockey can reasonably be defended as an athletic competition, curling is one of the only Olympic sports where alcohol could be considered a "performance-enhancing drug."

Your Mom: Look! (After seeing Kevin Martin's face on the screen) Old men can do it! It's not a sport!

Me: It's totally a sport! Do you know how hard it is to get those rocks down there?

Your Mom: It's just a lot of rubbing the ice to me.

Biathlon

Biathlon makes sense to me in principle, so I am surprised we disagreed on this one. It is the one winter sport that seems tied to the original spirit of the Olympics because it is actually a competition in some useful skills. Cross-country skiing and then accurately firing a weapon could have had some very practical uses in northern countries.

Your Mom: What the heck is this sport about?

Me: It's biathlon. You ski and shoot targets. It's really hard to shoot if you are huffing and puffing.

Your Mom: It looks so silly.

Me: Animals don't care what you look like when you are hunting them.

Speed Skating

This is a big one for your Mom. The Dutch didn't send a big team to these Olympics, but the ones they did send can skate.

Me: Why are you guys taking all of the speed skating medals?

Your Mom: Well...that's what we have...there are no mountains to ski on in the Netherlands. It literally means "Low Land."

Me: Are there lots of rinks to skate in?

Your Mom: No, but in the winter, if it gets cold enough, you can skate on the canals between eleven different towns.

Me: Wow. You guys are hard-core.

There are lots more sports that we watched, but these are the ones that gave us the most fun talking. You will be interested to know that you really like the I Believe song and lots of the music at the figure skating. You actually kicked when Sven Kramer (the speed skater in the picture above) won his record-setting gold medal for the Netherlands. And you really kick when Canada scores goals in hockey. You are the best parts of both of us.

Thanks for watching these games with us.