Yellowknife- Day 3 Update

Friends,

Successful first day of assessment. Tony and I hit the venues and did much better than our/my conservative estimates.

Quick notes

• You'd be amazed at the size of the Asian population in Yellowknife. There are many Japanese tourists, but many more live here. There are Muslim cabbies, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Japanese.
  
• These games are very inspiring. You know I am cynical, but Tony and I were impressed with the sportsmanship. facilities, and volunteer dedication. Money is being well spent, and the athletes are all enjoying themselves. This is big for them.
  
• Rick Mercer is in town, and you can expect something on Monday Report next week. He actually called up our favorite spot last night (Bullocks) while we ate. He demanded they stay open after nine, and they rejected him. They claim his response was "But I'm Rick Mercer" They said he could come the next day and that was that. Pretty Funny.
• There are athletes from Greenland, northern Alberta, Alaska, Nunavut, NWT, Nunavik Quebec, Russia and Sammi (a collection of northern people from Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish). The Sammis are fascinating, and I hope to survey more of them tomorrow.
• The Alaskans were great to deal with, and I met their President by accident. Very cool key.
  
• People have been offering me their teams pins.. very nice gestures and unexpected.
• We ate at a great "taste of saigon" restaurant. Highly recommend it.

It was a long day with a lot of walking. It was about -15 to -20. Going to have to cut this short to ensure a successful day tommorow. I say that knowing I will look at my Olympic stuff right now.

Miss the Jitty.