Day 9 & 10 - Alpine adventures

Day 9 was my last day at work. In the morning we had practice sessions, in the afternoon a mixed-team competition. There was also a speed skating competition, and funnily enough an Austrian girl, whom I had a short chat with in the bus the day before, won the bronze medal along with her team in short track speed skating!
Day 10 was the day of the closing ceremony. A couple of day before, an email was sent out to all volunteers, saying that they still need 90 people to guide the athletes from medals plaza (venue of the closing ceremony) to congress innsbruck, where there'd be a party. Of course I took the chance and asked if I may join. I then received an email saying where we'll meet for a short briefing at 7pm.
As I didn't have anything else to do until 7 pm, I decided to watch the ice hockey finals. So I went to the stadium, but couldn't get in :( Only people with special hockey finals accreditation cards or entrance tickets could get in. Too bad... it's not like I was working for two weeks for free in that ice stadium. But okay >.o Instead I decided to go on the Nordkette (mountain range in the north of Innsbruck). The sports presenter from figure skating, Christian, joined me and we met at congress innsbruck to take the train/cable cars up the mountains. It was somewhat cloudy and cold, and a couple of days ago it snowed a lot in Innsbruck. So you can imagine what it looked like up there :D Just outside the station building is a little platform.

You can see it in this picture. The snow on the platform was okay, you could still walk normally, but as soon as you went up the mountain, there was a shitload of snow. One step, and my foot was covered in snow up to my knees. xD Amazing! It was difficult to walk, especially as my shoes (as I found out...) aren't exactly good for alpine terrain. ;) There was a sign just a few meters from the door that was covered in snow. We knocked on the sign so the snow fell off, and read that it was apparently really dangerous to trespas it as there was a high risk of avalanches or whatever. Quite frightening, but I wanted to go on top of the mountain anyway! First we went to a little... I don't even know what it is. It's like another platform, but it wasn't open for tourists. We got on it anyway, took pictures, and saw that just next to it an avalanche had gone down because there was a difference in snow level of around... 2-3 meters I'd guess? It had gone down either naturally, or due to a controlled explosion. They do that - you can hear it in town in the morning ^^ Innsbruck is exciting like that. Anyway, you could also see breaks in the snow where the avalanche already had gone down. :) Pretty neat stuff! We then left that platform and started walking up to the summit. The height difference between the station and the summit probably wasn't more than 50 meters, but it was still cool because of all the snow. The snowlayer was untouched, it looked pretty natural. There are three different trains/cable cars. One to get you from the city centre up to the "Hungerburg", then one from Hungerburg to Seegrube (where most people seem to get off), and the final cable car from Seegrube almost up to the summit of Hafelekar. We were pretty much alone up there. Two people went up with us, but they didn't walk up to the summit. They just took photos and went down the mountain again.
As I said, my shoes aren't made for mountain tours, so I had problems when it got icy and slippery. The snow was alright for my shoes, at least. The closer we got to the summit, the stronger the wind got. I could see large clouds coming from the other side of the range, approaching Innsbruck, so I wasn't sure whether we should go to the summit or not - after all, I have no experience in this and I've never been in such terrain before, but I wanted to walk up to the summit anyway. It took me a while, Christian was making fun of me <.< ... but in the end we got there xD

Those aren't my picture, of course. Everything was covered in snow, including the wires of the cross. Perhaps I'll post my pictures later.
When walking back to the station, Christian made even more fun of me :D But at least I wasn't wet as I wearing ski-pants, whereas he wore jeans ;P Haha.
Back in Innsbruck, I went to Maria-Theresien-Straße to meet up with the other volunteers working at the closing ceremony. In the morning I was sent a text saying that they need me two hours earlier as I'll be a flag bearer. :) Cool, right?
There were two stages. A stage in the front, and one in the middle of medals plaza. Us flag bearers had to stand around the middle stage, facing the audience around us, not the stage itself. So there was one side who could see the front stage, two sides who could partially see it if they turn their head, and then there was my side, that was facing the olympic fire. >.> The front stage was behind me, so I couldn't see it! :( Whatever... I was holding the flag of Morocco. After the closing ceremony, us flag bearers walked to congress innsbruck along with the athletes, and that was probably one of the coolest things I have done in Innsbruck. xD It was so much fun! We were waving our flags, there was great music, the athletes were walking with us. Neat stuff. :)
And today is my last day in Innsbruck. I received a little medal and two certificates. :) I don't know what I'll do today, but I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy, I have enough ideas! Stay tuned!

Day 7 & 8 - Winter wonderland

The second part of day 7 also had a "highlight" that I'd like to mention! So, I was sitting in the ice stadium, being the sports presenter for the practice in figure skating from 18:00 - 23:10. As expected, not a lot of athletes felt like practicing this late at night, so some athletes simply didn't show up. There is a special practice start list in figure skating. There's usually 4 people in one practice group, so after the warm up time, I have to say which athlete is going to skate, and who has to get ready as they'll skate next.

Next athlete to skate: XY from Z. ABC from DEF, please be prepared.

But as not all athletes showed up, we usually didn't have all four athletes of a group on the ice. What you should do is announce the missing athlete, say that the athlete is not present and that you'll wait for two minutes. I didn't know that. In this special case, the first athletes were missing, so instead of announcing the athletes, that should be first, I started with the second pair. When I announced them, the coaches of the third couple protested, saying they're third and not second. So I ran over to them and explained the situation to them. (I won't name the nations involved here) The coach of the pair, that's second on the list, explained to me that this is wrong, so I told her that I understand and apologised. But right after that, the coach of the third pair on the list walked to me and the coach I was speaking to and started shouting at me in a really rude way. Basically, like this: "WE ARE THIRD! YOU SHOULD WAIT TWO MINUTES AND THEN CONTINUE WITH THE NEXT PAIR!" She shouted, was reaaally angry and rude... I mean, come on, I'm a volunteer, I am working for free to make these games possible, and I also don't understand how this changes anything. Their total practice time doesn't change, they just have their music played earlier... it pissed me off a bit, but I apologised and stayed nice. ;P Afterwards, the angry coach kept speaking to the athletes of the nice coach, I have no idea why. They're from different countries and speak different languages. Either she was also angry at them, or she was hating on me together with them... xD I don't know, but later that evening, we have had the same problem, just that I knew how to handle it. :)

Day 8

My day off! I wanted to go to Kühtai for the ski cross final that was scheduled for today. On the photo, it looks really cool. That village is above 2000m sea height, how cool is that?! xD Obviously I was pretty excited, but the weather was bad (it was foggy and raining/snowing). Nevertheless I got up in the morning, showered, got ready and went to the Olympic village to catch my bus, Y20, to Olympiaworld, and then change to line Y50 to Kühtai.That was the plan, but when I arrived at the village, I read on the sign showing the waiting time that due to the weather conditions, no bus can get up to Kühtai, and that the event was cancelled. Great, right? I took my day off just to see that. I also wanted to see the snowboard slope style final, but, for the same reasons, it was held yesterday... whatever. I decided to get on bus Y20 nevertheless and go to the Tirol-Shop for souvenirs. As soon as I got off the bus in the city centre (IOC Hotel), the rain turned into snow. Literally. All of a sudden it was snow, not rain. xD Afterwards I also checked out Congress Innsbruck and got two pins! This is something I haven't mentioned yet. At Olympic games, the athletes apparently get pins of their own team that they can exchange. There are people who collect those sport pins. At congress, for example, I met a pin collector who had pins from the Beijing 2008 games, for example. This doesn't seem to be a new YOG-thing, and I think it's really neat! :) Volunteers don't get pins they can exchange, but if you're nice, you'll eventually be given one by one of the athletes. I have a pin of team USA from my roommate, a EYOWF 2011 Liberec pin from the security lady I mentioned in a previous blog entry, a pin from Team Japan from an athlete with whom I was waiting for a bus yesterday at 11pm after the training, a pin from "Sun valley" (USA) from a nice lady in my hostel, and two pins that I got at Congress Innsbruck today. I'd upload a pic of them, but my phone's battery ran out of energy!

As I had a day off, I wanted to use it. There was an alpine skiing medal event scheduled for today, so I decided to just go there instead, to Patscherkofel. The second run was scheduled for 1pm, so I made sure to take bus line Y30 to Patscherkofel and arrive on time. What happened was that, AGAIN due to bad weather conditions, the second run started half an hour earlier than planned, so when I arrived, I could only see the two last skiers. -.- Hooray. As I was there, I wanted to look around. I can't ski, so all I could do was walk up the mountain, and that's what I did! xD I was walking somewhere near the race track. It was snowing and there was no one else around. It was a bit tiring, but fun! And I got to take a few photographs. The picture shows me somewhere on Patscherkofel. :) I also look around the Olympic sliding centre, which is also on that mountain, and then went back to Olympiaworld. I watched the hockey games Russia - USA (men) and Austria - Germany (women). Russia won the first game, and Austria the second. Pretty cool ;) Austria is in the final round of women's ice hockey - this is our very first Ice hockey medal at Olympic games!!! It'll be either gold or silver, we'll see. ^^
Afterwards I went to medal plaza, cheered when an Austrian got his gold medal... yes, I sang the anthem - no, I did not sing "Töchtersöhne" ;) And now I am here, at the volunteer centre. Tomorrow are our last three competitions in figure skating, and I'll be the sports presenter for tomorrow mornings training session - I expect a few more athletes to show up. ^^ It's still snowing here, since tomorrow morning, so the competition in Kühtai won't be held tomorrow either! Looks like we'll have an exciting last day of the games on the 22nd. ;) We'll see! Good bye and stay tuned!

Day 5-7 - Cooold!

'been a few days since my last update. I'm not sure if anything exciting happened on the 17th, because I can't think of anything. :) So I'll start with the 18th of January. We had practice sessions in figure skating from 7 am until 2 pm. I was the sports presenter, and was sitting in the ice hall with just the sound assistants. We should arrive half an hour before the start of the training to play music, but when I arrived, the sound assistant hadn't arrived yet. On my second day, I believe, I was told to "look around" to get to know what my team is doing, so I went to the Omega-room (Omega is the official time keeper at olympic games), where the sound assistants and scoreboard operators had their job trainings, and therefore, more or less, joined the sound assistant training. I never used the music computer programme, but it's also not complicated either. So as the sound assistant yet had to arrive, I was playing around with the equipment a bit until I got the music to work. That's when the first assistant had arrived, a minutes before 7 am. xD Whatever, it's not a biggie, she didn't know she had to arrive earlier.
It was the day after two medal competitions (on the 17th), so most athletes apparently didn't feel like training. Nobody showed up for the first practice session from 7-8 am, but in the second session from 8:10-9:50, we had a few couples practicing. And one of them was the gold medal winner from the day before... it's not surprising he won the medal, eh? ;P
At 2pm, my shift had ended and I went home. As there was no competition/training in the evening, I had the chance to go to medals plaza and watch my figure skaters get their medals. :)) And at 10pm I was also going to meet colleagues in the city, so I would have gone there anyway. So I took the Y20 to Congress Innsbruck, walked past the golden roof and went to medals plaza, where the olympic fire is burning.

The medal ceremony was really nice. :) Most Asian athletes didn't really show their emotions - if they felt anything anyways - except for a figure skater (gold) and a Korean boy (silver). The coolest moment probably was when France got a silver and gold medal ceremony in the same event... the French team was there and they've gone crazy xD It was a party!

It's pretty cold in Innsbruck in the evenings, so after the ceremonies, I still had two hours untill I'd meet my colleagues. Going home wouldn't pay off, so I was looking for a warm place to wait, and right behind the Olympic fire, there was a little tent where you could get free tea xD Some kind of promotion for GE, but the tea was good and the best of it: They had heaters there! xD So I was sitting by the heater, drinking my tea for a while and asked when they'd close. 10pm the girl said... so I decided to sit there for two hours xD I started to chat with the girls working there, had three cups of tea, and then Silja, one of my colleagues, joined me. I was still quite cold, but Silja didn't want to wait in the tent anymore, so we left :(( and I was freezing :(((((((( I mean, right next to that tent, there was another one where the entire tent was warm XD and they had pillows to sit on, even better! But Silja didn't let me sit! :((((((( She showed me where the merchandise shop was instead. On our way, I saw a woman standing in front of a shopping center, wearing the cap of the Austrian youth Olympic team. I was about to ask her if she had bought that cap as she wasn't wearing any other parts of the Austrian uniform, but yeah, I didn't want to bother her. Instead, when we were walking back after Silja had shown me the shop, we stopped at that shopping centre as she wanted to throw something in the bin. The woman with the cap was still standing there, and then approached me, asking where some building was. I told her that I'm not from Innsbruck, that my friend could perhaps help her, but then I was thinking that I've heard that voice before. And her face also looked pretty familiar. And then I got it! I was like "Oh my God! Are you...?!" and she was just "Yeah, I am. :)" It was Mirna Jukic! A really successful Austrian swimmer xD I took a picture with her and we went to the golden roof to meet the others.
It was quite difficult to find a nice bar... there was some kind of football match so every bar we went to was full :( We decided to stay in an Irish pub, but I didn't stay there for long. The football fans were annoying me, and I wanted to sit. I left not even 2 hours after I had met up with the others. I walked to the Y20 station Congress Innsbruck, but saw that the Korean team there was entering taxis. For a good reason: I just missed the last bus. -.- I only use the Olympic buslines, so I was a bit lost. I had to find a nightline bus (N3), but I had no idea where to go! The nightline map also wasn't very useful, as it just said that all nightline busses leave from the main train station.... ironically, I'd use the Olympic line Y20 to get there, but well... -.- So it was really cold and I had to find a bus in a city I don't really know. Even better: The nightlines drive once per hour. I posted my situation on facebook and walked towards medals plaza, hoping I'd find a station there: Nooo! I then asked a security guy guarding the medals plaza. He was actually from Vienna ^^ His colleagues told me where to go, but I also didn't find a station there. I then asked a really nice guy, who was trying to find the station for me, but failed, and then my phone rang. Apparently Ines, who also works at Olympiaworld, read my facebook status, and decided to guide me to the station. The problem was that I had just 10 minutes to get there, so I decided to run (wearing my winter shoes <.<). She guided me well, because I got to the bus just in time. :) Didn't have to wait for an hour, yaay!!

January 19th
This morning I went to Seefeld to watch the biathlon mixed team relay. I'm a biathlon fan, so it was really exciting for me. :) And Seefeld is also pretty amazing, you have no idea how much snow they have there.... :O Insane. The results of the biathlon could have been better, but whatever! After the race, I decided to go to the volunteer centre and update my blog... and here I am. :) Today's shift will start in 2 hours, I'll be the presenter for the practice sessions again until 11pm. Yay ;P But as I don't work at all tomorrow, so I can see an event in Kühtai (ski cross... also wanted to see the snowboard slope style event, but due to bad weather conditions, they decided to hold that event today, at the same time as the biathlon race... whatever, tomorrow I'll still get to see ski cross!) Stay tuned!

Day 3 - Job switch!

Ok, I'm still in my old job at figure skating, but I was given the possibility to try out my colleagues jobs! Sooo, my young sport presenter let me do the presentation of a group of athletes during the official trainings! :))

My text was similar to this:
Next group in this practice session: Warm-up group 3!
<Name of the athlete - Nation>
...

Your warm up time is 6 minutes.
There is one minute left in this warm up session. <Name of athlete #1>, please be prepared.

First skater in this practice session: <Athlete 1>; <Athlete #2>, please be prepared!

(After athlete 1s training): Your music time was: <length of the song>. Next athlete/pair is <Athlete 2>, <nation>! <Athlete 3> from <nation>, please be prepared!

And so on... should roughly give you an idea of what this job is about. It's actually a lot of fun ^^ Seeing how I'm an attention whore, I enjoyed it a lot xD And tomorrow I may do it again. :) What a career, eh? ;P My applications for jobs at local radio stations all failed, but instead I get to speak at a major international sport event. xD Loved it.

Other than that, I was also taking care of our ice stadium a bit. :) The figure skaters  damage the surface of the ice, so after (or during) trainings/competition, the ice machine would resurface the ice. Figure skaters, however, with all their jumps etc., also drill holes into the ice, which need to be filled. That's what I did. :D I was given a bucket of snow, walked around the ice and filled the holes ^^ Sounds silly, but I also enjoyed it. I mean, how many people get the chance to walk on olympic ice?! I sure do! ;) It's actually the jobs that sound really boring/unnecessary that I enjoy a lot here. My dream job here would be wiping the snow off the mats biathletes lie on when shooting in the prone. Anyone can do that job, but for some reason it's still special for me.

Today, I think I also improved my personal skills. The "soft skills" I learn here will definitely be of use in the future. I worked in an office for 9 months, and all I did was do what those above me in the hierarchy wanted me to do. I never got the chance to use my brain and solve problem myself. Here I do! :))

Tomorrow is our very first medal event and mascot ceremony. I hope we'll do fine. ^^ Oh, besides, Austria won two gold medals today :d So yeah, stay tuned!

Day 1&2 - Michi and the olympic fire

Yesterday, January 13th, was the official first day of the 1st Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck!! :) The day began at 5am for me - had to get ready for official trainings in figure skating, my new area, starting at 6:25. As the Y20 bus (special YOG-busline to Olympiaworld, IOC-Hotel, Main Train Station, Congress, Innsbruck exhibition center [where I am :)], Youth Olympic village (near which I live) and back to Olympiaworld) was late... or really, it was me being too tired to actually care about being punctual ;) ...I arrived around 6:40.

It was a normal training session, relaxed, not much to do. Did my daily tasks of getting meal vouchers for my team, daily report sheets etc. in the morning, but this time I also tried to get starting lists for the trainings. This is actually one of my duties, but my team always gets those itself somehow :P I mean, the competition office isn't far away, but still! I'd rather bring them the lists so I know they have them and can start to work.
Around 9am, my new assistant, Caro, arrived at OWI. :) I gave her a tour, introduced her to my team, explained her what she needs to do/know... nothing special, did it before when Manuel had arrived in Innsbruck. ;P
At OWI, there's a lot of security. Nearly at every door, there's a security wanting to see my accreditation. I'm accredited to access all venues (including Seefeld and Kühtai), Berg Isel Stadium, Medals Plaza and the Youth Olympic Village. In addiction, I can also access the sport competition areas at the venues, and the athletes preparation area. My accreditation is still the sports production assistant accreditation... as I'm a coordinator now, I should, in fact, have access to the Main Operation Centre instead of Medals Plaza, which makes handing in my daily SP report difficult at times ^^; Anyway, most security guys are nice (one isn't, *cough*), but there's one who's especially nice. She's guarding an entrance to the ice hall, at which I work. From time to time we have a nice chat, and that day she told me that she's reaally like to see the opening ceremony with her kids, but there's no more tickets available. :S Volunteers get free tickets, but she is an actual professional security, not a volunteer, so she doesn't have access to the volunteer tickets. As I was planning to go to the volunteer center at innsbruck exhibition center (IEC) anyway, I told her I'd ask for tickets.
My shift at OWI ended at 2pm due to the opening ceremony at Berg Isel Stadium (BIS). That is when the real "fun" started! Thing is, along with 3 other assistants, I had to pick up the international federations (in this case FIS, ISU, FIBT, IIHF) at their hotel at the other side of the street from OWI, and get them up to BIS. Maria (Sports production Coordinator responsible for all the volunteers in this functional area) had sent us eMails with informations regarding the transport, but as I don't have a computer at my hostel, I couldn't check. :D Thank God there's the workforce coordinator, Ines, who's responsible for all the staff at OWI. I printed the mails there, hoping for a list of the people we had to transport. There was a list, but I wasn't sure whether it was complete or not. We were told that we'd get a list at the volunteer center, so after our shifts had ended, me and Caro went there, to innsbruck exhibition centre. We got the lists, but were still a bit confused, so a vounteer got a woman to answer our questions, and the woman was Julia! :D She's the person responsible for all the Volunteers and I had mailed with her before the games, regarding my volunteer application etc. Funnily enough she actually recognised me xD Along with Maria and Wiebke, she's one of three people I had mailed with before the games. I wanted to meet them all in real life, and I did. :) Yaay, I get to know people!!
Anyway, I was still a little confused, but more than that I was hungry. I was asking for tickets to the opening ceremony for the security woman, but, as expected, they couldn't give me any. I also didn't get one as I'm accredited for Bergisel Stadium anyway and can walk in and out.
Around 15:30, Caro left me to go home, we'd meet again directly at the hotel at 16:45. Near OWI, there's a grocery shop, so I took line Y20... from IEC one station to the youth olympic village, where I was kicked out... I was told the lines would stop their service due to the opening ceremony. Great, eh? I'm not from Innsbruck, had 30 minutes to get to the hotel and buy myself something to eat. I mean, a volunteer in the bus told me which public transport lines I need to take, but it cost a lot of time. I arrived at 16:35, 10 minutes before I was going to meet with the IFs. -.- The stress and hunger made me feel somewhat sick actually, so I still went to the shop and bought myself bananas and something sweet for the bus ride.
When I got back, some IF people were already waiting for us. The only IF wearing a (extraordinarily looking? :D) uniform was the FIS, where men were wearing lime green jackets, and women pink ones. This would become quite handy later. ;P As the FIS representants staying at that hotel were so easy to identify, they were the first ones we let enter the busses. We checked off the names of those entering the busses... though not all of them were on our lists. We wrote their names down. Okay, got all IF representants waiting in the lobby into the three provided busses, and realised that a lot of people were missing :D So we decided to simply send two of the busses up to Bergisel and wait additional 5 minutes for those not on time. After that, the third bus departed and took us up to BIS.
On the way to BIS, a group of people asked if they could get onto our bus. The busses were reserved for IFs buuut, as we still had enough seats available... ^^ When we arrived at bergisel, it turned out that the group we let in apparently was the security lady with her kids, who were wearing torch-relay toques. :D She managed to get opening ceremony tickets somehow and was really thankful we let her ride with us. ^^ The IF people are really nice and relaxed, they didn't mind at all we took them with us. Actually, I think they would have minded if we didn't. :)
We were walking up the hill, to the ski jumping area.. for those not familiar with it, here's a photo:

There were a lot of people heading for the OC, so we weren't sure where most of the IFs were. But as I stated previously, the FIS jackets were quite handy! All me and my 3 colleagues had to do was follow the FIS ^^ A security guy almost didn't let us into the VIP area, but after we explained who we were, he finally let us in. As soon as we arrived, the pre-show started. :)
The show itself was so cute. ^^ I took a lot of photos and even made videos. Innsbruck is the first city in the world to host olympic games for the third time, so the sight of three olympic fires was spectacular. Too bad I didn't have the time to get close to it, as I had to guide the IFs back to the busses... :/ The fires no longer are burning up there as three large fires require a lot of energy and go against the principle of environment friendly games.

This was an amazing moment for me. In 2006 I started to play with the thought of getting involved in olympic games, and yesterday, on the 13th of January 2012, this idea became reality. I saw the olympic fire in real life. :) The fire is still burning, of course, but not on bergisel, but on medals plaza in the city centre, where the athletes get their medals. ^^
Edit: DAMN!!! How could I forget. When an Austrian athlete spoke the olympic oath, she forgot her text... it was silent for a second, and then she said - live on TV - "Scheiße!" (Shit) XD The entire stadium was laughing. AND! After her, an Austrian official (I think?) also spoke the oath, and also forgot her text... xD That was a historic moment of the olympic games xD Here it is on youtube already! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGb7-s6p1BA
The way back to the hotel was similar to the way from the hotel to BIS. We got the IF representatives to enter two busses, that left on time, and the third one was waiting for those who're late. It worked well. I was working for 15 hours that day, and I felt less stressed than the previous days, where I had very little work... :) Unforgetable, this experience.

Now for today. The first competitions in figure skating! My assistant took over the morning shift, so I actually got to sleep for more than 5 hours this night. ^^ Today was unspectacular, nothing comparably to yesterday. Again, I had little to do. I watched the figure skating trainings and competitions, and decided to come here to IEC to update my blog. Tomorrow I'll work from 8 am to 8 pm. :) Another competition, but still no medal event! The first medal event in figure skating will be on monday. I was told that the results of two competitions in one discipline of figure skating will determine the winner. We'll see! I'm afraid Austria won't win though... we're too far behind in points (rank 1 currently has twice the amount of points as our Austrian figure skater for the men's short programme), but I still think he is amazing. They're all amazing! You should visit Innsbruck and see it yourself. Everyone who's been here agrees: Figure skating on TV is boring, but in real life it's really spectacular. :)

Day -2 - Getting started

Hello from Innsbruck!! :)

I arrived two days ago and only now find time to post... sitting in the volunteer centre after an interesting day. I'll try to sum the previous events up:

9.1.
Arrival in Innsbruck. As soon as I arrived, me and a fellow volunteer from Slovenia went to the Innsbruck exhibition centre (where I'm right now!) for our uniforms and accreditations. I am (or was...) a Sports productions assistant, so I'm in the lucky position of having access to all competition venues, as well as to the Bergisel Stadium (opening ceremony), medals plaza (medal ceremonies, concerts and closing ceremony) and the Youth Olympic Village.
Afterwards, we took line Y20, which is a special bus line for accredited staff, to get to the YOV (youth olympic village). My hostel is quite near. :) It is a simple 6 bed room. At this point, I was sharing the room with an American and another Austrian - both Volunteers. After my arrival, I quickly had to rush to Olympia World Innsbruck (OWI) for a dress rehearsal. I was basically watching medal ceremony rehearsals for 2 hours, untill I asked my functional area manager if there's any point of me being there as I'm not part of the ceremony team... she gave me a briefing of my duties as a sports production assistant, and then sent me back to the hostel. :)

10.1.
First day at my venue! I got a tour through the stadium (Ice hockey hall, short-track speed skating and figure skating hall, as well as the olympic speed skating oval (outdoor) and the athlete areas). Afterwards, the sport productions coordinator Maria gave us sport production volunteers a briefing of our duties, answered questions etc. I am the first contact of the international federations (in my case the ISU - international skating union), supervise and brief the mascot teams and help with the medal/mascot ceremonies (making sure the mascot and the IF representant are at the right spots, showing the mascot volunteers where the media zones for interviews are etc.) As today was a day with inofficial training opportunities only, there were no IF representants or visitors at OWI, meaning that I spent the day getting to know my team.

11.1.
Today. ;) Basically, the previous two days were not that spectacular. Had nothing to do. Today I still didn't really have much to do, but I was quite busy nevertheless. As soon as I arrived at OWI, my team's coordinator called me. He had arrived in Innsbruck yesterday and was told to call me so I show him around, give him an introduction to his duties etc. Basically, he coordinates the sports production volunteers for the speed skating oval. He makes sure we get the information we need, brings us warm drinks if we can't leave our work places etc. He also participates in venue meetings, if there's the need to hold one, and takes care of IOC members (I believe... not sure there).
So I showed him around, his name is Manuel, and we spent the morning watching the speed skaters train. Still no official training or competition today, so it was quite relaxed, until Maria (the coordinator of all sport production volunteers at all venues) told us, that the figure skating coordinator (responsible for the sport production volunteers for the figure skating events) didn't show up. Us volunteers at OWI have the problem, that some of our colleagues don't seem to take their duties serious at all, as in not showing up, not doing their work. So far everything has been really chaotic, and this doesn't help either. Manuel, Roman (SP coordinator short-track speed skating), Lisa (SP assistant short-track SS) and I joined Maria at the workforce area to discuss the situation. It turned out that also the SP assistant for figure skating didn't show up... so out of 4 people, 2 were missing in that team. A SP team consists out of following people:

SP coordinator (team leader)
SP assistant (responsible for IFs and the tasks of the coordinator, should he be busy/ill/not here)
SP sound assistant (basically the DJ making the background music)
SP scoreboard assistant (responsible for the scoreboard and big screens at the venue... assisting the official timekeep - OMEGA)
SP young presenter (moderator assistant)
SP presenter (professional moderator)

The figure skating team doesn't have a scoreboard assistant. So basically, we were discussing the situation and came up with the following solution: I will take over and be the SP coordinator and SP assistant for the figure skating events at OWI. The SP assistant of the STSS events Lisa will help me if necessary, as well as the other two coordinators of speed skating (Manuel) and STSS (Roman). We're 3 coordinators and 1 assistant, two people too little. We contacted the workforce coordinator and there's a chance we may get new team members as some people are still interested in joining the volunteer team. You cannot apply for a volunteer job the normal way anymore, of course, the application phase ended a year ago I believe. But in this situation, those interested may still have a chance to get themselves an accreditation and help us. I mean, it's not like it's a catastrophy and the events are in danger. It's just that, for example, on friday (opening ceremony day), I will have a shift from 6am until 10pm. Originally, I would finish at 2pm, but before I changed to the FS team, I'd work as a SP assistant at the opening ceremony, which I was looking forward to... :D So I said that I'll also do the opening ceremony job, in addition to the FS events. Perhaps one of the others will take over the early morning shift, because I'm no longer sure if I can survive a 16 hour shift... xD Especially this one, where I will have to coordinate the transport of the ISU to the Bergisel stadium and back. We'll see. :) With Manuel, Roman and Lisa, I have a great team. We'll help each other, take over shifts etc. to handle the situation better. I didn't have a "normal" shift yet, so I can't judge how stressful it will be. I hope it'll be alright, even though a couple of FS events end at 11pm... actual medal events, meaning that if I don't find a SP assistant, I will have to stay until the end to guide the IF representants to the meeting area for the medal/mascot ceremonies. But it'll be alright I guess. :)
After todays shift, I explored the city centre a little, visited the golden roof, and now the volunteer centre. Tomorrow is the first official training - the first time IF representants may be present and the first time my work phone could ring if the IFs have problems. No visitors yet, no actual competitions, but still. We'll give our best (the workforce manager already complimented us OWI SP-people ^^ saying that we'll get an especially good review) We aren't professionals, this is the first time most of us are working at sport events as large as the Olympic games, but I'm sure it'll go well!
This was it for now. I'll try to keep you updated. :) Until then, stay tuned!!

P.s.: The wallpaper of this laptop in the volunteer centre actually is the same picture I'm using in this blog for my background picture.. xD

Day -5 - The last night in Vienna

I'm excited. ;)

Tomorrow I will arrive in Innsbruck. My plans for tomorrow:

15:51 - Arrival in Innsbruck
15:51 - Trying to find my hostel? xD And perhaps pick up my accreditation and uniform
18:30 - Dress rehearsal at Olympiaworld Innsbruck.
After 18:30 - Pick up my accreditation + uniform if I haven't yet. ;)

What is my job title during the games? I'll be an "international federation services & sports productions assistant". :D I don't know exactly what I'll have to do, I just know that I'll be the contact person for international federations and brief/supervise the mascot team.
I'll work at the Olympic speed skating oval (OSO) at Olympiaworld Innsbruck (OWI). Here's a map!

The speed skating oval is an open air venue, so perhaps I'll work outdoor all day long? x) I'm kind of affraid to fall ill during the games. Whatever! My job training is scheduled for tomorrow from 15:00 - 16:00 I believe - I'll be in the train then! So I was told that I must ask my colleagues what my tasks are.. I guess I'll do so after the rehearsal? ;) I'll see tomorrow!