Editor’s note: Christina MacLean is having the experience and opportunity of a lifetime, volunteering at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler.

Born and raised in Shelburne, where she has family and friends, she’s a resident of Brampton, where she and husband Ian have two children, Ben 16 and Molly 9. She works with the Region of Peel in waste management.

I have absolutely the best homestay in all of Whistler. Dufferin, meet Nancy and Angie her Portuguese Water Dog, my homestay host.

Nancy and I met through a mutual friend Lesley who also works and lives in Whistler. Nancy and I started emailing sometime in the early fall of 2009.

Nancy lived in Ontario many years ago, so is familiar with many of the places that I would chat about in our e-mails. I had mentioned to Nancy in a previous e-mail how difficult I was finding it to pack; she told me not to bother about a housecoat as she had one I could borrow. The housecoat is white and very thick – like the ones you find in a hotel. I checked for labels and logos; she didn’t pinch it from the Hilton or Westin Hotels.

Nancy has two sons that also work and live in the area. One night on my way home I dropped by where they work and introduced myself as their three-week adopted sister – Nancy’s sons have a good sense of humour.

Nancy lives in a duplex; a mere 10-minute walk to Whistler Village. I can look out the living room window and see the mountain as well as the lights from the Whistler Sliding Centre. As I sit typing this article I can hear Feist, who is playing at the Whistler Ceremony Square. I may be missing the live action of the big screens and the energy of the people; but I certainly am enjoying the music.

When I told Nancy I would be doing an article about my homestay; she suggested one paragraph on her and five paragraphs on Angie. I didn’t know there were such things as Portuguese Water Dogs. No offence, but when I first saw her I thought she was some kind of poodle. Little did I know she is in the poodle gene pool.

This breed of dog is known to have great personalities, even human like, great with kids and Angie is most definitely a clown. She loves to be around us; sits on the couch and crosses her front paws. She even gives you “the look” when you tell her to move. She sleeps with her piggie and tonight she grabbed my slippers and cuddled them. I think I’ve officially been accepted to be her pal.

On my first day, Nancy told me to treat her house like my own home. This invitation was most welcoming and I knew we’d have a great time together.

Each night after I get home from a long day; Nancy and I grab a glass of wine and plop ourselves down in front of the TV to watch the Olympics coverage. Nancy reminds me of Mom when it comes to watching any Canadian Olympian. For example, last Tuesday morning we were watching men’s curling (against Norway) and it went to an extra end. Nancy said “I don’t think I can watch; this puts my stomach in knots”.

When she said that I started to laugh as I know if I called Mom she would be saying exactly the same thing. Later that same day we watched skating and the same thing, Nancy said “I know this sounds awful but, if this fellow landed a jump on two feet that wouldn’t be so awful”. Too funny.

When I get home the first thing Nancy wants to know is how my day was and how many pins did I trade. I’m adding 2-3 pins every day to my collection. Through our chats over wine when I get home or bedtime tea; I’ve learned that Nancy does a lot of volunteering. When she lived in Toronto she volunteered with the CNIB Library as a braille transcriber. While living in Whistler she’s volunteered with the local school assisting with their literacy program; at the Whistler 2010 Information Centre for the four years; is a member of the Whistler Public Library Board and will be volunteering with the Paralympics.

Nancy is excited about the new English as a Second Language (ESL) program that their library is offering to landed immigrants. She is currently working with a gentleman from Philippines who is married with two young children. They meet Sunday mornings at the library and have lessons to improve his English.

Right now I’m fighting off my usual winter sinus attack and thank goodness Tuesday was my day off. Nancy told me she was pulling a “mother,” telling me to put socks on my feet and drink lots of water. I asked her if slippers were okay and ran off to get them like a good daughter. The weekend of Feb. 13- 14, I met Nancy’s brother and his family from Vancouver. They did some skiing and took lots of pictures of the men’s downhill that they shared with me.

Nancy and I attended the men’s and ladies' qualifying runs for the Skeleton last Thursday afternoon. also given me a list of “must sees” while in Whistler including their new library and the Aboriginal Centre. Nice place to stay; good food; good company, of course, that’s why I’ve dubbed Nancy’s the best homestay home in Whistler.

My job: Women’s Alpine

It’s officially race day! We finally got a break in the weather and the course crew and slippers have been working through the night to prepare the mountain for the big day. It’s an early rise of 3:30 a.m. to be up, dressed to the mountain in time for a 5:00 a.m. upload to the women’s start.

As I jump on the bus to Whistler Creekside and do the morning ritual of going through security and checking in, I am excited that I have the privilege of being placed at the women’s start for the day. I’m going to be able to see the athletes, coaches, ski technicians and media up close and get a feel for behind the scenes before they make their way to the starting gate.

In order to get the starting gate, I have to ski down to the chair lift in the dark. What an absolute cool feeling! My three teammates and I have head lamps on and we pass by the occasional generator with lights on them. I look up and the sky is clear as a bell the stars are shining brightly and I can see the mountain peaks with a light glow. We make our way to the starting gate and put up the “B” netting that acts as fencing to keep out the spectators as well as provide a secure place for the athletes to place their equipment and prepare for their big race. I watch the sunrise over the mountains as its going to a glorious day to have a race.

In total there are approximately 40 Stewarts. Each as assigned to various points along the race course to monitor accreditations as who can gain access at that specific location. I am one of three Stewarts assigned to the access gate and we begin checking the accreditations.

In order to gain access into this field of play; each person must be wearing an accreditation that has their name, picture, venue, position and some are required to be wearing bibs or arm bands identifying their position. There’s the Jury that inspects the course to ensure it meets the necessary requirements and they are followed by each teams assigned course inspection person. Then the media gains entrance as they must be in place approximately one hour prior to the athletes entering.

One my fellow stewards yells over, “Did you see him?” “Who did I miss?. The reply is Brian Stemmle. Missed him skiing by; wouldn’t have had time to haul out the camera anyways. I can see the ski technicians coming towards us with one or two pairs of skiis on their shoulders and a huge backpack with extra gear. They enter the compound and place the skiis on the snow and begin doing the fine tuning of waxing and sharpening. It’s most interesting to get a glimpse.

Now it’s getting exciting... it’s time for the Olympians. I see several from the Swiss, Italian, Slovkia, Russia, USA, Austrian and French teams. On the other side of the line up to enter goes a Canadian girl, then another, I can’t remember if we have three or four girls racing today.

A crowd is beginning to gather, everyone wants to get a peak at Lindsey Vonn. The area in which the crowd is gathering also provides access to get down the mountain so I go and ask some of the worshippers to move in closer to the the netting as we don’t want them to be taken out on a stretcher for getting nailed by a skier making their way downhill.

While I’m at it I also get a few more pins, one that is especially cool is the 50/60 pin from Squaw Valley – it’s been 50 years since the 1960 Olympics. Wow!

Back to my post. I haul out the camera and begin snapping pics. Pictures of the ski techs prepping skiis; a pic of Lindsey Vonn, a pic of a French Olympian speaking with her coach, a pic or two of our Canadian girls. I notice on the far side by the warm up tent is a close line that holds all the bids 1 through 48.

I’ve been asked to relocate down to just in front of the starters tent, apparently some media and excited spectators are trying to creep their way in past the netting. I put on my skis and off I go. I am able to watch the beginning of the race as the skivers get into position, bang their poles together, place them on either side of the starter posts and then off they go.

Unfortunately I was able to witness a French Olympian who hardly got out of the start. It appeared that she skied over her pole, then trying to correct herself caught an edge and wound up approximately 20 feet in front of me with what I think was some kind of knee injury. Usually they medivac the injured out bringing in the helicopter but today they put her in the sleigh and out by snowmobile. It was completely heart-wrenching to see all your hard work and training go up in smoke.

There’s a delay in the race due to a major crash close to the finish line. When you’re on the mountain, you don’t generally get many details of such until you get home and watch the previews on the news.

I hear an announcement on the radio that a forerunner is going to go first. There are usually eight forerunners, identified by alpha letters. Up is “G”; it’s Benjamin MacLean – yes, spelled exactly like our Benjamin MacLean. I snapped a couple of pics. Won’t Ben be excited to know that he is an up and coming racer. Go Ben!

The 48th racer finally goes and the day is done. Now it’s back to the starters compound. We now do a hard close so that no public can gain access as we need to preserve this area of the paralympics that will begin in a few short weeks.

It’s been a long day, so we all head to Weasel House for a beer. The tent is rocking with the excitement of pulling off a good day. I haven’t even found a chair to sit when an announcement comes over, stating that Britt Janyk who finished 6th, is here along with her coach Todd Brooker. Off I go toward the stage with my camera – it’s a Kodak moment, pics of Britt and Todd. Later I get Britt’s autograph as well as a pic with Todd and his autograph too. I’m thrilled. On the way home, I call Ian to share with him what I scored today.