nothing ventured, nothing gained

Today was a fun day. I've gone more than 3 weeks without a haircut, which for me is a really really long time. It's been driving me crazy, but finding a barber has probably been one of the biggest challenges here, though I did find a couple on google maps (with no info other than location) that were in the "downtown" of the small town near the Olympic Stadium. I finally made it up and out early enough to venture down there today and successfully got a haircut (even if the first shop refused.) Even better, I still had about an hour left to wander around. One of my favorite things about Olympics is the chance to be out and about with local people near the events and feel their pride and excitement about it all, so that in itself was fun for me. As much as I wanted to browse the restaurants and stands that lined the streets, I had also seen a snow park of big snow sculptures on my way to the barber earlier, so I headed back to that. I popped into the snow park and discovered a beer stand (yes, please) and food court (which I skipped, due to time) along with a tubing hill and the huge snow sculptures. There were lots of people out and about, so it was fun just to see everyone having a good time. There was a separate admission to two thirds of the park that was mostly just sculptures. Even with only 15 minutes left, I plunked down the $3 and strolled through it. These are pretty huge sculptures, and the korean temple at the far end was easily the highlight - until I discovered the tunnel to the ice bar, with not just ice sculptures, but tables and the bar itself all made of ice. At that point, I was out of time, so I just snapped some pics and marveled at it all, and was then on my way back to find a shuttle to work. There's often a day in every Olympics where some unplanned adventure (while accomplishing something) just puts me in a good mood and makes my day. Today was that day.