Spending three weeks in a town of about 10,000 people you get to learn a lot about a place

For one thing I didn't know Australian was an official language here.  Every time I went for a meal I was greeted by an Aussie accent and "How ya going?"

The ski resorts here, I'm told go and recruit Australians.  So they work the lifts, the slopes... everywhere.

Nobody seems to have an official count of how many there are here--let's just say a lot. I think they must bunk ten to a room so they can afford to be here.  It ain't cheap.  Thank god I had the Corp paying for me.

That's just one of the many things that makes Whistler unique.

I'll miss the people in the local coffee shop who asks for your name when you order and smiles at you.

Now that's civil.

And walking the village stroll has made me feel young at heart.  More than half the people are between 20 - 44.  Most are single.  Many settle here from all over Canada.

Some come for the lively party scene - there are nightclubs and rocking bars open quite late.  And people staggering home afterwards.

Others are attracted here because they simply want to live. People such as Emily who is 27.  She came from Vancouver and juggles four different jobs, mostly in the evening.  She works that way so she can play during the day.

Attracted by the white peaks all around, she likes to get on them during the day to ski in the winter or bike in the summer. To see what she's talking about I get on what feels like an escalator ride into the sky - the gondola that takes you far up to the Peak to Peak .

It offers breathtaking views as you cross between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain.  No wonder people come here and never leave.

Another day, I meet a young guy from Ontario on the gondola who talks to me about the more relaxed lifestyle here.  He's carrying his snowboard   He's an instructor who runs a website where people can download his manuals to learn how to do serious tricks on their boards.

This guy - he's fairly young - is hoping to make enough money this winter so he doesn't have to work this summer.  Must be nice. Then he gives me a bit of lesson on Whistler culture.

In Ontario he tells me, people always ask what you do for a living and at that moment I imagine him flipping the bird to people back home.

Here it's where have you been?  What countries have you visited?  What have you been doing with your life - not what work do you do?

The accent is on doing.  Experience.  Living.  You do work, but you're more defined by how you play.  Interesting that this guy has Olympic accreditation so he can go to almost any event.

But he's not interested in watching that kind of play.  The biathlon--or skeleton-- boring he tells me.  Now if the Olympics had half pipe on skis, he'd go.

This is exactly the demographic the Olympics is having a hard time connecting with right now - not that surprising.

From another generation, Whistler's mayor says the Olympics is a culmination of 50 year dream.  That's when the town planners started to build these beautiful and right now financially challenged ski resorts.

The town started to dream one day it would host the world.  The Mayor says with 3 billion people watching the games the global exposure over the last three weeks has been priceless.

And for a town reliant on tourists for the resorts, city officials say the big corporate world of the Olympics has been the perfect fit.

But not everybody agrees.

Lauren tells me she like many had mixed feelings about the Olympics coming to town.  Some people were keen to keep their nice small ski town as it is.  Others worried about the inconvenience of having all the parking spaces in town off limits for the duration of the Games.

And some businesses have been suffering because during the Games many people have stayed away to avoid the Olympic craziness, even the ski hills.

Lauren says in the end though, the Olympics has been a fantastic experience with visitors bringing a special vibe to the town.

She tells me she doesn't mind sharing with all these strangers.  Still in the next breath she says she kind of likes living in a small town.  That's why she came in the first place.

You get the sense she doesn't want this town to change too much.  I'll drink to that. 

Thanks for the memories Whistler.

(Photo top left of our reporter, Teddy Katz.  Photo top right of the beautiful Peak to Peak gondola ride, by Teddy Katz)