Yep... Just hang out in the olympic village
Saw Medvedev and had a chat with Mr Lamothe, prime minister of Haiti.
All in a day s work ;-)
Saturday 28 July 2012
Thursday 26 July 2012
Zab the Flagbearer
Yeaaaahhhh that's me!!!
So last night was the second and final rehearsal of the opening ceremony and after enjoying the show on Monday i got to be part of it!
Seriously one of the best nights EVER.
The NOC Volunteers ( 2500 volunteers allocated to the National Olympic Committees from around the world, like your humble servant) were asked to impersonate the Athletes last night in order to rehearse the oh-so-famous Athletes's Parade. And to be as "real" as possible, we had to follow the exact schedule and itinerary of Friday with each country leaving from their point of residence at a specific time and walking to the the Olympic Stadium, regrouping in specific areas etc...so it built up quite a bit of anticipation and energy for the actual entrance....and then we were off into the stadium...and WOW the sensation. Music beating, thousand and thousand of dancers, lights flashing...the buzzz is just unreal. You feel like you are standing in the middle of world and everybody around you is just ecstatic, smiling and dancing.I'm not even sure how to describe it, it is so exhilarating.
We did 2 loops and second loop i was a Flag Bearer for Lebanon ( one for you Jean Tyan :-). How cool is that???
I've got plenty of pictures but because i want to #savethesurprise i won't publish them just yet....just watch this space come Friday night...
Off to my next shift now...wooop wooop!
So last night was the second and final rehearsal of the opening ceremony and after enjoying the show on Monday i got to be part of it!
Seriously one of the best nights EVER.
The NOC Volunteers ( 2500 volunteers allocated to the National Olympic Committees from around the world, like your humble servant) were asked to impersonate the Athletes last night in order to rehearse the oh-so-famous Athletes's Parade. And to be as "real" as possible, we had to follow the exact schedule and itinerary of Friday with each country leaving from their point of residence at a specific time and walking to the the Olympic Stadium, regrouping in specific areas etc...so it built up quite a bit of anticipation and energy for the actual entrance....and then we were off into the stadium...and WOW the sensation. Music beating, thousand and thousand of dancers, lights flashing...the buzzz is just unreal. You feel like you are standing in the middle of world and everybody around you is just ecstatic, smiling and dancing.I'm not even sure how to describe it, it is so exhilarating.
We did 2 loops and second loop i was a Flag Bearer for Lebanon ( one for you Jean Tyan :-). How cool is that???
I've got plenty of pictures but because i want to #savethesurprise i won't publish them just yet....just watch this space come Friday night...
Off to my next shift now...wooop wooop!
Day 3
Yesterday was another crazy day with the Team Welcome Ceremony and the second Opening Ceremony Rehearsal.
So we've worked out a shift pattern with the guys and we re going to try to stick to it. The next challenge is to get advance information from the Chef de Mission, who is quite laid back about everything and then suddenly needs us to do 20 things in the next half hour or when we re no longer available...Super difficult to preempt problems and we go from periods of low to high activity in a matter of minutes. So we're trying to find a way around this.
Near disaster yesterday to illustrate :the Team Welcome Ceremony. Every Delegation gets a 45 min Welcome Ceremony to officialise that they have arrived and are now part of the Games. Smaller teams like Haiti ( mine) are grouped with other delegations for time sake : with 209 countries to welcome over 6 days, there is quite a tight schedule. And naturally you'd think that every delegation would be looking forward to this, as there is a gift exchange, their anthem played and their flag is raised. You'd think everybody would make sure they know what is happening when and who be ready well ahead of time. Well, think again!! Although my team were bossing them around like crazy, delegates decided to take a shower 15 minutes before the start and we literally almost missed our slot by about 5 seconds, with me (!!) and the last athlete sprinting across the village tying up his shoelaces on the way, CRAZY. Welcome to Haiti :-).
So the project managers in me and Nathalie are climbing the wall. But it does make some great anecdotes, right!?! The evening debrief between the 4 of us is turning into the best storytelling experience ever. I won on Monday when i explained that one Haitian, not residing in the Village, came to London without booking an hotel (!!!!!!!!) and so i was looking for one ( bearing in mind he has a very tight budget) frantically calling one place after the other with rising panic, when i glanced at his computer and realised he was updating his profile on matrimonial sites.....
The least you can say is that it takes you out of your normal life and shifts all your references around.
I'll write up the second rehearsal in the next post, or this is going to become a book.
So we've worked out a shift pattern with the guys and we re going to try to stick to it. The next challenge is to get advance information from the Chef de Mission, who is quite laid back about everything and then suddenly needs us to do 20 things in the next half hour or when we re no longer available...Super difficult to preempt problems and we go from periods of low to high activity in a matter of minutes. So we're trying to find a way around this.
Near disaster yesterday to illustrate :the Team Welcome Ceremony. Every Delegation gets a 45 min Welcome Ceremony to officialise that they have arrived and are now part of the Games. Smaller teams like Haiti ( mine) are grouped with other delegations for time sake : with 209 countries to welcome over 6 days, there is quite a tight schedule. And naturally you'd think that every delegation would be looking forward to this, as there is a gift exchange, their anthem played and their flag is raised. You'd think everybody would make sure they know what is happening when and who be ready well ahead of time. Well, think again!! Although my team were bossing them around like crazy, delegates decided to take a shower 15 minutes before the start and we literally almost missed our slot by about 5 seconds, with me (!!) and the last athlete sprinting across the village tying up his shoelaces on the way, CRAZY. Welcome to Haiti :-).
So the project managers in me and Nathalie are climbing the wall. But it does make some great anecdotes, right!?! The evening debrief between the 4 of us is turning into the best storytelling experience ever. I won on Monday when i explained that one Haitian, not residing in the Village, came to London without booking an hotel (!!!!!!!!) and so i was looking for one ( bearing in mind he has a very tight budget) frantically calling one place after the other with rising panic, when i glanced at his computer and realised he was updating his profile on matrimonial sites.....
The least you can say is that it takes you out of your normal life and shifts all your references around.
I'll write up the second rehearsal in the next post, or this is going to become a book.
Wednesday 25 July 2012
More impressions....
I think everything is going to come out in a disorganised fashion so this blog is going to resemble a diary but hey, bear with me readers!
So on Monday after the DRM ( First meeting of the incoming delegation, where they check athletes profiles, accreditation, entitlements, authorisations, etc...in the minutest details), we met up with our Chef de Mission ( Person responsible for the Delegation), Gerald Fong who a really really nice guy, with the warmth and welcoming you expect from someone from the Caribbean Islands and much more interested in chatting about life in general than actually assigning us tasks. But Harry and Nathalie ( more about them later) are really good people and we managed to organised sort of a schedule and things to do the next day...which happens to have been completely changed afterwards but hey, this is part of the game.
I then wandered off to the Technical Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and boy that was amazing but as Danny Boyle requested, i am going to save the surprise, otherwise it s like Christmas, when you already know your presents.
more coming up...so much to say so little time!!
So on Monday after the DRM ( First meeting of the incoming delegation, where they check athletes profiles, accreditation, entitlements, authorisations, etc...in the minutest details), we met up with our Chef de Mission ( Person responsible for the Delegation), Gerald Fong who a really really nice guy, with the warmth and welcoming you expect from someone from the Caribbean Islands and much more interested in chatting about life in general than actually assigning us tasks. But Harry and Nathalie ( more about them later) are really good people and we managed to organised sort of a schedule and things to do the next day...which happens to have been completely changed afterwards but hey, this is part of the game.
I then wandered off to the Technical Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and boy that was amazing but as Danny Boyle requested, i am going to save the surprise, otherwise it s like Christmas, when you already know your presents.
more coming up...so much to say so little time!!
First impressions
My third day shift starts at 13.pm today but i wanted to capture a few of my first impressions of the 2 last days
Day ! : Monday 23rd
Because i hadn t done any venue visit before i went up to Stratford at 1pm ahead of our 3pm meeting with Nathalie and Harry> and well i 'm happy i set out early at the whole Olympic Park is barricaded off with only a handful of access points, the Olympic village ( where i work and the Athletes reside) is in the Park, and has it s own second row of barricades and thus security and checkpoints. So it is a massive maze and as the whole thing is gigantic ( literally it takes a good 15 minutes to get from one side of the Village to the other and about 25min to get to any of the Sports venue in the Park from the Village), well you need to factor in time for everything, including getting lost.
this happened to my 2 teammates, who got royally confused and lost and got to the Village about 2hours later than they had expected.
So yes, you need to get your bearings...and fast, as your delegation has even less of a clue than you of where things are and how things work
For all the training we've done there is just so much they couldn t prepare us for as you need to constantly be thinking on your feet.
ANYWAY, IT S FANTASTIC. All these athletes and volunteers are walking around the Village in really the best of spirits: everybody is helpful smiling and generally positive. It is really such a change from work or from a normal holiday. I think every one is aware that they a small part of a big and wonderful thing and it really brings out the best of humanity.I've had more conversations with random strangers in the last 2 days than i have in the last 6 months, just because being in the Village or wearing the uniform opens up chats very naturally.
So even though i m exhausted and have a few frustrations points i'm wearing a smile all the time.
I've got pictures but i'll put them up in the next post!
See you there and let me tell you, my iife is AMAZING.
Friday 20 July 2012
3 days to go...
So here we are with 3 days to go...i'm officially off and it feels great.
3,5 weeks off ...how good does it get.
I'm very aware that i haven t been as assiduous on my blog in the last month, truth is, i haven t has any more training, as the VST ( Venue Specific Training) just didn't work with my work travels and the Driver training part 2 got cancelled.
But with 8 days to go to the Opening Ceremony (whoopwhoop) and 3 days to go til my first day working i thought an update was necessary
A couple of things of note :
- Opening Ceremony Technical Rehearsal
I've got a ticket to the full run through in the Olympic Stadium on Monday...just as good as the real thing in my mind, even better as i get to see before everybody so that makes me feel quite privileged!
- Torch Relay
Last week in Basingstoke, ( as in each and every little village in the UK over the 70 day event, i get the feeling), i saw the Torch relay! taking itself much too seriously in my humble of opinion, with big branded trucks, overload of security but hey it still made the whole thing feel real. Not sure how the video looks though.
- Everybody is doing it.
Seriously. It feels like every one i speak to, either knows someone involved in the Olympics or is actually involved. So cool. An actually many more people getting into the spirit than i thought. Where are all the cynics?? ( except the media, who is looking for every gritty story it can find...why be happy about it all after all? bad news sells more right ?).
- It s raining. and has been for a while
Now that is probably really the biggest point of potential failure ( bigger than transport for me). Please please please, let it not rain.
Anyway i'm excited!! I need to do some work to make i m competent over the next few days, but i keep thinking i could wing it...no discipline whatsoever.
Watch this space, i will try to update it regularly.
3,5 weeks off ...how good does it get.
I'm very aware that i haven t been as assiduous on my blog in the last month, truth is, i haven t has any more training, as the VST ( Venue Specific Training) just didn't work with my work travels and the Driver training part 2 got cancelled.
But with 8 days to go to the Opening Ceremony (whoopwhoop) and 3 days to go til my first day working i thought an update was necessary
A couple of things of note :
- Opening Ceremony Technical Rehearsal
I've got a ticket to the full run through in the Olympic Stadium on Monday...just as good as the real thing in my mind, even better as i get to see before everybody so that makes me feel quite privileged!
- Torch Relay
Last week in Basingstoke, ( as in each and every little village in the UK over the 70 day event, i get the feeling), i saw the Torch relay! taking itself much too seriously in my humble of opinion, with big branded trucks, overload of security but hey it still made the whole thing feel real. Not sure how the video looks though.
- Everybody is doing it.
Seriously. It feels like every one i speak to, either knows someone involved in the Olympics or is actually involved. So cool. An actually many more people getting into the spirit than i thought. Where are all the cynics?? ( except the media, who is looking for every gritty story it can find...why be happy about it all after all? bad news sells more right ?).
- It s raining. and has been for a while
Now that is probably really the biggest point of potential failure ( bigger than transport for me). Please please please, let it not rain.
Anyway i'm excited!! I need to do some work to make i m competent over the next few days, but i keep thinking i could wing it...no discipline whatsoever.
Watch this space, i will try to update it regularly.
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