1st Canadian Gold!

I know people think of Canadians are quiet and laid-back, and they're right. But let me tell you, when one of their countrymen is competing, especially on home soil, they exhibit as much passion and pride as New Orleans fans at the Super Bowl.

Tonight at Cypress Mountain Alexandre Bilodeau took the gold in Men's Mogul Freestyle Skiing. Holly and I were eating dinner in the Workforce Break Tent at the Sliding Center during the final dozen runs, and I couldn't help but grin as the entire tent erupted into cheers as each Canadian took his run. I cheered quietly for Bryon Wilson, the American who won the bronze, and received a few glances from those around me. When the Canadians landed impressive jumps and flew across the finish line, however, it was as if there were no other competitors in the running. I know I've said this before, but I can't stress enough that there's some unwritten rule that at the Olympics everyone is free to express their joy, share their excitement, and relish in the glorious moments that they are a part of simply by being present. It truly is a beautiful and inspiring thing.

Also today were the final two runs of the Men's Luge. In between runs 3 and 4, I gave a tour of the lower portions of the track to Maxim, a Russian representative of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics who is staying with Cleanevent to learn more about snow, cleaning, and waste at an event of these proportions. As we trekked around through the pouring rain, I explained everything I knew about the Sliding Center and Cleanevent's role in keeping it clean and clear for both the athletes and spectators. One of the things I asked him about was if he had connections with other parts of the Games, besides Cleanevent, and he made a good point that if he talked to VANOC they would only tell him the positive things, whereas we are much more likely to tell the truth as we see it.

One of the other things I was interested to learn from Maxim is that Russia doesn't have the luge specialists that VANOC currently has to successfully maintain the ice of the track. The track staff  work hard to make sure the conditions are just right, whether it be scraping off ice or watering the track down. It looks like finding that kind of experts may be a challenge for Sochi, but their track isn't even built yet and they have four years to find a solution.

Our period of miserable rain soon ended, and the sun shone for the final runs of the luge. I was able to head up the hill a bit to watch the final five runs on the big screen from behind the track. I stood on the access road by the Track Lodge surrounded by five men, four of whom had countries names displayed proudly on their jackets - the Swiss and Norwegian chatted amicably, the Latvian stood quietly to my left, and the Kiwi showed up just in time to see the final run. While no one cheered during the runs of the final athletes - the world's best lugers (the final five runs each placed in the top five) - I knew that each one of us appreciated the feat we had just witnessed.

During the course of writing this blog post, I chatted extensively with the kid next to me at the Blenz Cafe window counter, overlooking the Whistler Medals Plaza. I saw some flags raised and some athletes receive their medals on the big screen, culminating in a fireworks display. There really is never a dull moment here, as long as I keep my eyes and ears open.

Let The Games Begin

Competition began at the Sliding Center today!

I got to watch some of the practice session this morning, during which I took these photos from inside Turn 16.

 

This last one I did crop in close. It is currently my desktop background

I was also able to watch some of the actual competition after I got off work. I saw some of the men's second run of the night. They will have two more runs tomorrow.

The excitement within Turn 16 was almost tangible tonight every time a Canadian luger got set to make his run. Cowbells clanged constantly, the cheering grew deafening, and red mittens warmed most hands. It was an exciting atmosphere to be engulfed in, and I was right in the action at the bend of Turn 16.

 

 

Bars of Soap

Today Holly and I were in charge of the Helpdesk at the Sliding Center since Nikki was in class. Thankfully, our team does their jobs exceptionally well so our phone hardly rings. A few things of note did happen today though, and some were quite humorous (at least to us).

This morning as we waited to get our 2nd Part Passes to enter the venue two of our guys were speaking in French, then Charles turned to Jan, a Czech, and asked if "glowing" was the same thing as "shiny" (the motto of the 2010 Vancouver Games is "with glowing hearts"). After thinking for just a moment, Jan explained that "glowing" was like light coming from within, whereas "shiny" was reflected light. I turned to Jan and told him that I was impressed with his explanation, and that I didn't think I could have put it that well. Language has always fascinated me, so it was interesting to see how a non-native English speaker conceptualized vocabulary that is second-nature to me.

Later that day a woman from VANOC Transportation came by the office to explain some ice concerns she was having and wanted us to take care of. She was quite chatty, and started talking about the raccoons and coyotes. Then she launched into a thing about bears coming out of hibernating. My favorite line was when she said "If I can smell the earth, the bears have been out for 2-3 weeks". Oh, how I love Canada!

Holly and I got to see a couple of women practicing on the luge track today! Before our lunch break we went up to the track lodge to use the "flushies" (flush toilets) and we heard announcements about the practice beginning. Unfortunately, both of us had neglected to bring our cameras, and my phone was not quick enough to catch the athletes. We went up after our shift, but when we got there a Romanian woman had been knocked out. She was going around Turn 16, the "Dog Bone", and went up over the lip. They had to take her out in a stretcher - I'm going to be checking the news to see if she's okay.

Medical personnel assisting the injured athlete

Our main entertainment for the day was a call I took that I didn't even think was that funny until everyone started freaking out about it. A woman called to tell me "there's an apple core in the waterfall". She said she tried to get it out but didn't want to fall in, and asked that we get the 'nipple grabbers' to get it out. I wrote down all the info, and as per protocol I repeated the information to ensure accuracy. When I got off the call a guy who works in the other half of our trailer poked his head in and said "Did that really just happen?!"

Holly 10-4'ed (radioed) Whitney, who is up at Men's Start where the waterfall is, and asked her to take care of it as our venue manager Scott came in and everyone cracked up laughing. Whitney 10-4'ed back a few minutes later and in a mock-serious voice informed us that the apple core had successfully been removed from the waterfall. As a joke, we logged the issue as high priority, and made wise-cracks about it the rest of the day.

 This is the waterfall up behind Men's Start

Nipple-grabbers, in case you were wondering, are mechanical claws on sticks used to pick up trash. I model them, as well as some other gear we had laying around, here below:

Cleanevent ran out of anything smaller than an X-Large in all parts of our uniform, so my coat swallows me.

Wondering about the title? That one is courtesy of Jono, the hyper Australian supervisor. At the end of the day he and Scott were looking over the roster for tomorrow and they were noting the new additions to our team. They try to strategically assign people to the different areas, and Jono made a comment that "these new people could be bars of soap for all we know!". I found it hilarious, but I guess it's no different than our expression "dumb as rocks".

I Take A Gondola To Work

Today was FINALLY my first day of work, at the Whistler Sliding Center (WSC). I took the 7:00AM Cleanevent shuttle to Function Junction, then hopped the #2 bus up to the top of Whistler Village. From there we had two options to get to the WSC, but bus #77 was certainly not as appealing as taking the gondola (glass-enclosed ski lift) up the mountain. Already, I loved my venue.

From inside my gondola, looking at another

Interns from University of South Carolina have already been here for a month, stationed at each venue, and are responsible for training us. Nikki is the intern at the WSC, and she is basically the assistant to the Cleanevent venue manager, an awesome laid-back American named Scott.

Our main responsibility is manning the Helpdesk at our assigned venue. This is where calls relating to our cleaning / snow removal services are directed; we answer the phones, gather information about the cleaning need, and then radio the employees assigned to that part of our venue and instruct them to take care of the situation. At the WSC, there are five "areas", but our team is generally broken down into three groups. Area 1 is the top of the venue, where the Mens' and Womens' Start are. Areas 2, 3, and 4 are the mid-track, including where the Finish Dock and Olympic Family Viewing Tent are. At the bottom are Lots 7 and 8 - Lot 7 includes our office and the Worker Break Tent (where we eat), and Lot 8 is home to the Media Center and storage shed for the athletes' equipment.  

After dispatching our employees to take out the trash, vacuum the rug, shovel a walkway, or whatever else the caller might need, we enter the details of the "issue" into the Cleanevent database, so much of my training today was how to use the CMS system (I believe it stands for Cleanevent Management System). I was also able to walk around with Nikki to the Finish Dock, and later in the afternoon we took the shuttle up to the top starting area, which is about 1.5 miles up an extremely steep mountain (hence the need for the shuttle).

There will be two other interns working at the WSC besides myself and Nikki, including Holly from JWU Providence. Since that's more staff than is really necessary, on Friday we're going to work out our schedules around what competition events and concerts we'd like to go to. Each site is issued a certain number of 2nd Part Passes to the venue, and when there are extras other CE employees/interns have the opportunity to get into the venues for the events. Also since we will have extra interns on our venue, we'll be able to each take about 30-45 minutes to walk up and check out the action while on shift.

One other thing I enjoyed about the WSC today was the international diversity of the staff. At lunch today there was an Australian guy, a German girl, a Swiss girl, and a couple of French guys. There are a few more Australians, another Frenchman, and a Czech that I know of who are assigned to our venue as well, and I think the employees will be shifting around during the Games a bit according to the need of a particular venue on any given day.

Tomorrow I have a venue tour of WOP - the Whistler Olympic Park (cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, and nordic combined), followed by class. Thursday I'm back at WSC, but Nikki has class so Holly and I will be "in charge", after one day of training each! Should be an adventure...

Here are a few shots of the venue that I got today. I saw a few athletes around, including some Italians, a German, and a bunch of Czechs, but not in great picture range.

The official emblem in the ice at Mens' Start

One of the turns

Looking down the track

This is down by the finish. The athletes get going so fast that in order to slow down, they have to loop around and go back uphill quite a ways before they lose enough momentum to stop, so they actually come up from the bottom of this picture.

Wait for it...wait for it...

(Written on Monday 2/8 - my internet is spotty!)

I wish I could explain to you the exhilaration that’s building and bubbling inside me, and make it as tangible for you as the Official Olympic Accreditation that now hangs around my neck.

I woke up multiple times during the night on Sunday, mostly just because I was too excited to sleep. Despite going to bed at 1:00AM, I got out of bed at 6:40 after laying awake since 6:00. I am so ready to begin!

At 10:00AM we met the shuttle bus and were taken to get our accreditation, which is our credentials / access pass. We were told that our accreditation was our lifeline – without it we would not be able to gain access to anything, and therefore were required to wear it at all times. All we had to do was show our passports, and the documentation had been preprinted for us per Cleanevent.

My general accreditation. I need a "Second Part Pass" to access particular venues.

After asking a few people, we determined that OCOG stands for Organizing Committee Olympic Games. In addition to getting us into venues, this accreditation gives us free transportation on the public buses, two of which have been set up especially for the Games.

After gaining our accreditation, a guy from the camp office (Joey) gave us a walking tour of the Whistler Village, which is the town center (not to be confused with the Whistler Athletes’ Village, which is the residential area for the competitors). We were able to see things like the Medals Plaza, where nightly concerts will be held, and there was a ski lift right in the middle of all the shops. Our credentials will also get us discounts on rentals and lift tickets, so I may look into that…

Walking around the Village was fascinating, and I plan to spend most of my free time hanging out there, people watching and soaking in the experience as much as possible. Olympic fever is certainly omnipresent here in Whistler.

We ate lunch in town, then walked to a bus stop where we hopped on one of the public buses to Function Junction, another hub of activity and one of two pick-up/drop-off spots for the Cleanevent shuttles. The other is across the street at the Athlete’s Village.

In the afternoon we had an orientation to the camp, and our academic adviser came to speak with us about “Cleanevent Academy”, which is the educational program the company has set up for the student interns. He created a binder with extensive information on topics such as Event Production, Facility Operations, Risk Management Operations, Revenue Sources, and the list goes on and on. He asked us to read the section on In-House Versus Contract Services for our next “class”. It was also confirmed that we will have guest speakers from VANOC and IOC, among other organizations.

The entire day, as we kept hearing more and more about all the amazing experiences we would have over the next three weeks, I was practically jumping out of my skin in anticipation. The wait to find out my schedule and the venue I would be assigned to was excruciating!

FINALLY, at about 8:30PM, I found out that I was assigned to the Whistler Sliding Center, the venue for bobsleigh, skeleton, and luge – my ideal location since finding out that interns are not being placed at Cypress Mountain (due to the long travel time). I was ecstatic! Fortunately I was able to start there the very next day, whereas some interns had “class” before ever going to their venue.

It took me quite awhile to quiet my mind enough to go to sleep and get some rest before my first day working at the OLYMPICS!

"We're Living In Containers"

As my departure date grew closer, people began to ask more logistical questions, such as what my living situation would be. At first I’d laugh and say “I’m pretty sure it’s a trailer park”. Some of my friends then corrected me that the location we’re staying at is Whistler RV Park, which sounds a little better.

We were all a little off the mark…

When we arrived we got off the shuttle van and entered the “office”, which looks like a portable storage unit. From there an intern from the University of South Carolina, who has been here for a month already, gave us a mini tour on the way to our room. First we passed the dining car…I mean hall. I was beginning to feel a bit like the Boxcar Children books. Then there was a similar structure that is the girls’ washroom. It has four showers and four toilet stalls. Next to that there is a “building” (I use that term loosely) that has the boys’ bathroom and showers as well as another girls’ shower and two toilets.

Off to the right another “building” was the rec room, which has a projector and screen, DVD player, Wii, etc. Behind it there was a bonfire and a lot of the male staff had gathered around it, watching Kings of Leon being projected on the back of the white outer wall. Right next to the rec room is our home sweet home.

It’s a storage unit. In the main room there are five bunk beds. To the right of the entrance is another room with one bunk bed, and two girls from the workforce have been living there for a while now. To the left of the door is another small room, which currently has no door and a few scattered items in it. There’s one barred window in the main room, with a sticker that says “Accurate Alarms”. I don’t think we’ll be opening it.

I was worried about being cold, but now I doubt I’ll use the comforter that I brought. It’s so hot in our room! While we unpacked and got settled in we kept the door ajar, but we closed it overnight. Our room doesn’t lock, but we don’t have much of a choice but to trust the other staff. We were told there was a room with lockers and I had brought a padlock, but last night I just slept with my computer (my only thing of real value) on my bed.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, here are some photos I took this morning.

Camp Cleanevent Office

The backside (entrance) to the large women's washroom

Laundry room (far left), men's washroom (middle), women's washroom (far right)

Our "building", K

The View

I have to say, I continually reminded myself in the days and weeks leading up to this trip to not glamorize it in my mind. I’m focusing on being grateful that my housing and living conditions are clean, safe, warm, and dry. We’re going to be working very long days and the camp is accommodating around 200 people, so there will always be things to do and people to meet. I’m not concerned about being bored or stuck in the room. It meets my basic needs of a place to sleep, and that’s all I can really ask. I understand that it’s such an expense for the company to run this camp, and I’d say they’ve done alright by me so far.

Sitting in the dining hall this morning, Sydney was reading someone's horoscope and it mentioned something about containers. She laughed and said "that's funny, because we're living in containers". As long as we can all laugh about the situation and focus our minds on more important things, I know we'll be fine.