Words I know in Chinese: 14. I learned “I Miss You” :)
Current Olympic athletes I can identify by looks alone: In gymnastics – 3 (do the Hamm brothers count as one or two?) Other Olympians – 25 (do horses count? If so, then 35, hehehe)
Favorite quote so far: "I am a beautiful melon person" - Ted trying to say, "I am an American" in Chinese, but he apparently got it a bit mixed up.
Yes, I’m sorry for the delayed post. Since the last update (not the traffic report), we’ve begun training, and it takes up a good portion of our time. The rest has been spent trying to work on my project, which I’ve been falling a bit behind on, and working on some panoramas, which can be seen here.Last Tuesday, the first day of official ONS training. By the way, if you’re good at spelling, try to keep up with these acronyms. There must be at least 2 dozen for the Olympics committees/groups, like ONS (Olympic News Service) and ISS (Infostrada Sports, the online technology and data supplier). Then you have the venue names (NIS is the National Indoor Stadium, where I work). Then you have job titles (FQR, Flash Quotes Reporter and SIS, Sports Information Specialist). Then the country names (RSA: South Africa, PRK: North Korea, etc). Then, finally I hope, are the events (GA: Artistic Gynmastics). Hehehe. I’ll be using some of these as I go along, so if you get lost and I forget to put what they mean, just ask me for a glossary or something :)
Ok, where was I? Oh, venue. While the NIS may not be quite as cool as the Water Cube or the Bird’s Nest, it’s still pretty spiffy. Plus, we got to take photos for ourselves, something the other venues can’t necessarily say (security risks or something). The Chinese are definitely taking the Olympics seriously. We have to pass so many detectors and gates just to get into work. And next week we’ll have yet another notch up with actual x-ray machines and pat-downs, hehehe. Even to get into the Green (main Olympics area), you must either have accreditation or a ticket. And you can’t go into any venue otherwise. Like, I can’t go into the Cube. Ever! At least I work near it though. People who are volunteers at venues outside the Green can’t even come past the first gates. I do feel a little safer I guess.
Home of the NBC Today Show, once finished. They have a great view. You'll see. -->It’s an amazing area (check out the pano if you don’t believe me). I can’t wait to see it full of people. They really outdid themselves with artwork and architecture. Sometime this week we’re hoping to stay past dark and see everything lit up. Even inside NIS though, with the sunlight streaking through lights in the ceiling, it’s amazing at first glance.
As far as training, the Chinese have a different philosophy than the west. We believe that you get in, get out, and get to work. They feel that it’s better to be there 8 hours a day, whether you need to be or not. They also believe in 3 hour lunches with naps, and in lots of "morale boosting" games. So, we volunteers have begun bringing books and cards with us. Not that the job or training is boring. Believe me, we have our work cut out for us. But still, 1 hour is all you need for lunch, hehehe.
My official job title will likely be a FQR. We will be taking a typing test tomorrow to select a few volunteers to be copytakers (after an FQR gets a quote from an athlete in the MZ – Mixed Zone – they run it back and tell it to a copytaker to type out). If I’m a FQR, I’ll either be working in the broadcast MZ or press MZ. They have their advantages. In the BOB (Broadcast area), I can’t ask any questions. And if you see me on TV, I’ll get fired, hehehe. You think I’m kidding. In the press area, it’s a scrum to get to the athletes, with 100 reporters and FQRs in a tiny itty bitty area (photo below). But I do sometimes get to ask my own questions, and it’s closer to my real line of work. We’ll see. I’ll probably switch between all areas.
<--The print Mixed Zone (MZ), called that because the press and athletes "mix" together, only separated by the gates of course.
As far as training, the Chinese have a different philosophy than the west. We believe that you get in, get out, and get to work. They feel that it’s better to be there 8 hours a day, whether you need to be or not. They also believe in 3 hour lunches with naps, and in lots of "morale boosting" games. So, we volunteers have begun bringing books and cards with us. Not that the job or training is boring. Believe me, we have our work cut out for us. But still, 1 hour is all you need for lunch, hehehe.
My official job title will likely be a FQR. We will be taking a typing test tomorrow to select a few volunteers to be copytakers (after an FQR gets a quote from an athlete in the MZ – Mixed Zone – they run it back and tell it to a copytaker to type out). If I’m a FQR, I’ll either be working in the broadcast MZ or press MZ. They have their advantages. In the BOB (Broadcast area), I can’t ask any questions. And if you see me on TV, I’ll get fired, hehehe. You think I’m kidding. In the press area, it’s a scrum to get to the athletes, with 100 reporters and FQRs in a tiny itty bitty area (photo below). But I do sometimes get to ask my own questions, and it’s closer to my real line of work. We’ll see. I’ll probably switch between all areas.
<--The print Mixed Zone (MZ), called that because the press and athletes "mix" together, only separated by the gates of course. Other than that, I don't know if I can tell too much about training. We’ve been told we can’t talk much about specifics of the job, at least during the Olympics. Don’t know what "details" I’d want to share anyways. You’d just get bored, and it’s going into my masters project anyways. Read that if you want to know more – whenever I get it done.
Oh, we did get our uniforms, and starting today, we must wear them EVERYDAY we are in training or work. They’re ok I guess. They don’t breath as well as you’d expect, but they are noticeable. And I love the shoes. Whatever adidas did in them, I want another pair! My roommate and I joked that I could probably write a whole blog about just the amazing-ness of the shoes. The opposite could be said about the bucket hat the girls get, but I don’t have to wear that (it’s too small anyways).Anyways, training starts again early tomorrow, so I’ll sign off here. Let me know if you want to know about anything specific. Never know what exactly people want to hear about. :)
