gilligan, and the skipper too....

Monday was the big day...we got our uniforms. Now, before any of you ask, no I do not have a picture yet. How is that possible? Well, we actually started to work and by the time we get home we just want to get out of the things so...I PROMISE by then end of the day tomorrow there will be a photo of me in my DAZZLING uniform, complete with the Gilligan hat, water bottle, and fanny pack (waist pack or hipster whatever your preference). It was on Monday that we decided the official theme song to our trip is the opening song to Gilligan's Island. We even gave people parts...sadly I did not warrant one. I am a guest star.

Day one was pretty low key. I am pretty much in love with our managers. There is Krystyna. I have mentioned her before; she is from Australia but has been living in London for the last seven years. This is her third Olympics. In Athens she was a journalist, able to go to any game and any venue. I can't remember what she did in Sydney, but she was there. Now she has moved up in the ranks and is ONS manager (Olympic News Service Manager). She is so wonderful to have as a "boss" because she is very lax (kind of like the ones I have at Purdue) and doesn't believe in having us there if there is nothing to be done. Paul is our Chinese ONS manager and just the sweetest person ever. He is always smiling. And, I don't know how, but knows all of our names already and can even identify us from the back. That impressed me. He is usually running about working on other things.

Then there is Ernst. He is from Holland and has been working for Infostrata. This is the company that deliver stats to the media and write stories for most of Europe and Australia. He used to be an editor but we found out he has transferred over to the stats department. Amy is also from Australia. She knows everything about every sport. On top of being a reporter, she is a member of the Australian Women's Baseball team. No not softball, baseball, which is so incredibly cool. I think she knows every person who will ride a bike and their back story. We have one final manager coming Andy. I don't know much about him, but he is from America. He is coming off the Tour de France. These people are pretty much living my dream life. Working in sports and traveling around while doing it. I can only hope I can one day do the same thing. I think before I leave here I really am going to love cycling. In any event, all four of these people are pretty much amazing. They are MORE than willing to help us with anything and as any expert does, they love to talk about cycling.

So that is the crew. Other than the 10 of us Purdue students, there are only 3 other people working on flash quotes for cycling. So if you hear a cycling quote, I know the person! Yeahaha! Hopefully I will be able to catch a good one that you all can read! Like I said Monday was spent getting better acquainted with the venue and people. Amy told us what all the lines meant on the track and explained each race to us. I was still a little lost, but she did her best to provide a mini demo, sans bike, which helped a bit. We got to walk out on the track a bit...that was probably the last day I could do it because the athletes are starting to come and training starts next week. (AHHHH!) We then played on the Olympics Facebook. Actually it is a computer program with everything you could ever want to know about the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It has a biography for every athlete, information on the venues, event history, Olympic history...seriously EVERYTHING! We spent an hour or two just looking people up. I love playing with it! There is even a Jahrling in the rowing history!

We ventured home on the train with huge uniform bags in hand. The people on the train were not happy with us for taking up so much space with our bags, but what could we do. The rest of the evening was spent goofing off. Our room hosted movie night again. Andrea and Lauren decided to recreate the Peking Opera make-up (pictures to come later). It was HILARIOUS and pretty well done. I passed out watching Grey's Anatomy.

I don't have any really deep thoughts about my day. There was nothing overly interesting or out of the ordinary to comment on. I promise to have those pictures to you soon, complete with photos of the velodrome.