So much for rainy and aloof.

What I love about these Games is how my friends and neighbours are having such a great time. On the buses, in the grocery lines, and on the street, I have never seen so many Vancouverites chatting with each other, laughing and smiling.

The sun always draws us out in this city. What’s different now is that we’ve come out to join the crowd. I’ve seen far more locals streaming into downtown — in goofy red and white getups — than riding off on their bikes alone.

A month ago, much of the talk I overhead, and took part in, was about how these two weeks would be a big pain in the butt. All those crowds — ugh! We talked about how we might escape or how we might just hide at home. Those same people are now having a blast, including me.

It really hit me when we squeezed into the packed Canada Line train downtown one day last week. You’d think everyone would get irritated, crammed up against each other, but they clearly weren’t. We laughed and rolled our eyes and made room for each other — all in the same boat. People chatted up the transit cop and compared stories about long lineups.

Suddenly, the cops are part of the fun? Who knew? And we’re watching hours and hours of sporting events… on TV… together? Even the ads? Wow.

The tuned-out people with white cords dangling from their ears seem to have faded into the woodwork. I don’t know a single person who has actually left town. We’ve hosted three guests from Ontario, who all said they didn’t really want to leave.

Before now, people I know who moved here from elsewhere often had the same complaint — that it’s a beautiful city (yeah, yeah, of course) but it’s just too hard to connect with the people. Everyone seems to be part of a clique — or off in their own world of fresh air and yoga. Even when you do make new friends, they tell me, it’s frustrating to get everyone together — because Vancouverites are so fickle and vague about their plans.

The flipside to this city’s stand-off-ish reputation is how we actually get right into community events, every year. Christmas is two months long. Halloween is a major production — with fireworks on front lawns and pumpkins everywhere. Even Valentine’s Day is a big deal. Any excuse will do.

My first clue that we would be more into the Olympics than I thought came more than a week before the Games, when we went to Canadian Tire to buy a flag for our balcony. I thought we’d be ahead of the crowd. Instead, the store was cleaned out. We got the last one.

I should have known better. We have fireworks every night during these Games because, although we might not always admit it, people in this city just love a good celebration. It will be interesting to see if any of this giddy feeling lingers after the world goes home. I think I’ll really miss it.