it's called a puck....do something with it

{2am Sydney time, the bar's reaction to Canada winning Gold.}

My favourite quote of the weekend.  Quite possibly my favourite quote of the year.  "It's called a puck.  DO something with it!!"

And with those words I was instantly transported back home.  Any pub in Canada, any given night hockey is on the tv.  I promise someone will be yelling something similar to that, and people will rally in agreement.

I've never been a huge hockey fan.  My parents are such big followers that the family joke is that being a synchronized swimmer, and being uninterested in hockey, was my form of teenage rebellion.  But let me tell you, take me out of my home country and suddenly there's not much more important to me than watching hockey in a pub.  Wearing my jersey, holding a beer and yelling at the screen.

This was my weekend.  4am Sydney time Canada played the US.  11pm Sydney time Canada played Sweden in the gold medal game (and won 2-0!).  And this, so far, was my favourite weekend of the year.  It was all so familiar to me, and I felt ilk eI was back home.  It's the little things like this that suddenly become not so little when you're an ex-patriot.  It's a point of cultural reference that resonates so deeply within you that you can't even begin to explain it to an 'outsider'.

And being with at least a couple hundred ex-pat Canadians this weekend, doing something so inherently familiar, felt so SO good.

Well done, Team Canada, well done.