We celebrated the opening of the Winter Olympics last night at a reception hosted by the Canadian Embassy. Getting to the event was an Olympic feat in itself as the traffic in DC was amongst the worst the city has ever seen (although not quite as excruciating as the headline of today's Washington Post which read 'Nightmare on L St...'). I arrived at the party forty minutes after Simon, having given up on a taxi and tramped through several feet of snow along the sidewalk to make it to the metro. However, I timed it brilliantly and appeared just as he hit the front of the food queue (where we sampled that quintessential Canadian dish...pasta). Sadly, I had missed the synchronised skiing trampoliners, but I did arrive in time to witness the beginning of the Opening Ceremony on the big screen.
It felt very atmospheric looking out onto the snow-covered Mall, with the Capitol Building gleaming in the distance, surrounded by revellers in winter weather gear and wearing Olympic mittens. (This was the first reception I'd ever attended wearing hiking boots as opposed to heels, and I enjoyed my comfortable footwear so much that I am planning to recommend to the British Embassy that they adopt this new dress code for all future events with immediate effect.) Olympic challenges laid on for guests included ice sculpting, Wii skiing, beer-drinking and shot-downing. Who needs to go to Vancouver for the Olympics when we can get it all here in DC - especially when we have the added bonus of actually having snow in our city.
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