Things have been pretty busy and crazy over the last couple of days. On Saturday we met up with some fellow Canadian COH volunteers and headed up to the mountain cluster. We are fortunate as volunteers because we get free access to public transit with our accreditations. We took the train up to the mountains and worked our way from there. Finally it felt like the winter Olympics. There was snow in the mountains and although we have suspicions it wasn't all real it still gave us the feeling of being at home. It is a pretty big change from the palm trees down in the costal cluster to snow in the mountain cluster. We were also fortunate that we were up in the mountains on a sunny day. The first one we have seen so far. It wasnt as cold as expected and made for an enjoyable day.
We went up to the Rosa extreme park where they will be doing the snowboard half pipe and where the mountain COH is located. It was pretty surreal to see everything set up and ready for the competition to start. While we were up there, there was an NBC crew on site and Mikaela got interviewed about thoughts on the scenery and atmosphere. So if anyone happens to be in San Diego during the Olympics, you could see a smiley Canadian on TV. From there we went up to the sliding center where the bobsled, luge and skeleton are taking place. That was by far the neatest part of being in the mountain. Its something that isn't commonly seen at home so it was interesting to see it first hand.
The mountain cluster is similar to the coastal cluster in that many of the buildings are not complete. We like to describe them as "functional" but not done. There are three massive hotel-resorts along the train tracks arriving at the mountains. It appears that only one of them is complete and the other two are still in progress. That means many more spectators are about to be displaced.
On Sunday the group separated a little bit and Mikaela went to volunteer with CBC while Doug , Lisa and Stacey went to check out Sochi. For those who don't know, the Olympics are actually being held in the town of Adler, a city in the region of Sochi. There is also a city called Sochi and it is about an hour from Adler. During the trip to Sochi it was evident where all the money went to. Sochi is done up with all the bells and whistles and ready to welcome visitors.
Mikaela was able to volunteer with CBC at the IBC, which is a great and educational experience. A chance to experience the broadcast side of sport. While at CBC Mikaela worked on documents for the opening ceremonies for the French radio-canada broadcast. And other than the office being the same temperature as an iceberg, it was a lot of fun.
Evening festivities included Doug and Stacey pulling an all nighter to watch the Superbowl. The game started at 3am Russian time and although they described it as the worst Superbowl they have ever seen it was an enjoyable time for sure.
Today was back to CBC for Mikaela to continue work on the opening ceremonies binders. There is a buzz around the studio and its growing with every moment. More and more reporters and crews are arriving and everything is coming together. Tomorrow night is a run through for the opening ceremonies and everyone is getting last minute details in order. Mikaela toured around the studios and saw where all the athletes would come in for most victory interviews. Neat to see all the behind the scenes action after watching the Olympics for many years.
Today Lika also arrived. She was in our program last year and is from Russia. Lika was able to get a volunteer position with COH as well and we'll be staying with us for a couple of weeks. It was nice and helpful to have a native Russian speaker by out side and sorry everything out for us. Its a full house for the next couple weeks but we are all excited to start orientation on Thursday and get the games started Friday!
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