Canada wins Gold!

Hi everyone!

So I know I should be writing about Vic, or life as a Vic student, or something along those lines. However, this is just too good an opportunity to pass up. And it was probably my favourite thing to occur at Vic so far, so I’m just going to go ahead and write about it.

Canada, as you all know, won gold in Men’s Hockey at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. And what a game it was! And what an atmosphere we had in The Cat’s Eye! We decided to just start promoting it the day before, so we expected to draw maybe 35 people. I went to pick up pizza before the game, and came back into the Cat’s Eye to witness that about 140 people had shown up! The Cat’s Eye was pushing capacity on this one, and we had people decked out in flags and face paint and uniforms and everything. There was one lone American fan — not even an American citizen, I hear, but nonetheless wearing the Confederate flag as a cape and running around cheering whenever something good happened for the States.

Anyway, so we packed 140 people in The Cat’s Eye and opened up the bar. Despite the game being at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, the bar actually did exceptionally well and returned some of the best figures we have all year. The turnout and bar figures were about a million times better than the Superbowl, in fact! But there was one huge hiccup: With 2 minutes remaining in the game, the projector overheated. The audio was still on, so everyone fell eerily quiet to listen in on the game. Panic was in their eyes, since they of course expected Canada to win 2-1 and they were afraid they wouldn’t actually get to SEE it. I ran up to check up on the projector, and realized it had overheated. When it has overheated in the past, it has taken anywhere from 20sec to 20min to recover. Not wanting to rob anyone of their moment to watch Canada win gold on home ice, I said “The projector overheated” to the silent crowd. They looked at me, looked at each other, sat there stunned for about 2 seconds, and then all at once STAMPEDED out of The Cat’s Eye. I’m sure it was unsafe, but at least I know that the people at Vic are in no danger if the CE ever catches fire. I’ve honestly never seen an exodus quite like it: 120 or so students streaming like lunatics out of a single door, all dressed in hockey uniforms and waving Canadian flags and with maple leafs tattooed on them. It was like the Scottish Highlanders at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, except this time French Canadians and English Canadians alike were trying to achieve the same objective. And other Canadians, too, before someone comments that I was horribly exclusionist in that sentence.

Anyway, everyone piles into the nearest residence. I’m sure the people working at the front desk were very confused and frankly concerned. We got the projector working about 20 seconds later, so the exodus was for nothing but was a great story. The Americans scored, the Cat’s Eye “aww”ed, the guy with the Confederate flag did a victory lap. In the 3rd Intermission I went and did a round to find everyone and for the OT the Cat’s Eye had about 110 people or so. When Crosby scored it went INSANE. I can’t even explain it. I’m sure it will be a moment everyone in the room remembers, and I’m happy they’ll remember that they were in The Cat’s Eye. We then all went and joined the amazing party at Yonge and Dundas, and if you missed out I’m very sorry to hear it. I’d frankly go on at complete length and recount the party, but I feel this entry is wordy enough already. Ask me about it in person sometime, it was sick!

Here’s a photo I took of The Cat’s Eye during the second period. Note that there is also a huge swath of people who are off to the side and couldn’t fit in the picture. Unfortunately most of the decked-out-in-Canada-gear people are in the back and can’t be seen; I reckon it’s because that’s where the bar is!

Well, see you all around!

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