Why No USA House?

Posted by Cynical Sarah on February 19, 2010

On my adventure downtown today to check out some more of the Olympic craziness, I made a point to note where the USA House was supposed to be. I’d already heard it isn’t open to the public but that they had a retail store area that was, so I thought I’d go check out my home country’s goods.

I figured it would be sort of “on my way” since I was going to walk through the Lunar Festival art exhibit set up on Granville Street. After a walk through that it would just be a block east from there.

I put my plan into action and even made it out of the crowds on Granville Street alive with all my goods. (Take that! evil pickpockets the skytrain system has warnings all over about.) But when I get to the corner of Seymour and Nelson where the USA House is supposed to be, there was nothing to indicate where it is at all.

I could certainly see the giant line-up for the Irish House set up at the pub, but the building for USA House is suspiciously inconspicuous. I ran into an older couple from the USA who are also looking for the building and together we found an unmarked door that wasn’t locked.

A group of us walked in only to be disappointed by a young lady who told us there is absolutely no public access at the USA House. They don’t have a public display or public area at all, and the retail store is just an Internet rumor.

So my question is why?

There’s a Ukraine House, Switzerland House, Irish House, Italy House, Russia House, Scandinavian House, German Fun Festival, Korea House and more. All these countries would have had to haul stuff much further, plan things from much longer distance away, and still pulled off creating a space to highlight their culture and give their nation’s athletes and visitors a place to hang out. Granted, the best thing I saw at Italy House was a stack of wheels of cheese, but still, they made an effort.

All the USA would have to do is truck some stuff across the border. Washington state isn’t even more than an hours drive from here.

As an American living in Canada, I was kinda looking forward to checking out the USA House and seeing what kind of cultural exhibit they would be showing off. Even knowing it might only be a retail area open to the public, it still would have been a chance to sort of be on home soil even if it meant just being amidst over-priced USA Olympic garb.

There might have even been the slim chance that someone from Team USA might be hanging around, and I’d have a chance to see one of the athletes I’ve been cheering on for the past week.

I’m disappointed the U.S. felt the need to hide away in a corner at the games. With the Olympics right next door, they had to know they’d get a strong turnout of Americans coming to Vancouver for the games. They had to know there’d be interest in people checking out the USA house both from their own country and others.

I’m sure it has something to do with “security risks” and the US being such a prominent target of bad feelings around the world and whatnot. But this is the Olympic Games people!

The Olympic Games are supposed to be about nations coming together in camaraderie and peace to compete. A closed off USA House gives me the impression their ok with coming to compete, but screw the let’s-all-be-friendly part.

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Tags: 2010 Olympics, usa house

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