Pacific students in Turin

2006-03-03T04:18:00.000+01:00

I am finally beginning to recover from the jet lag. The way over was no problem but coming back, well that has not been easy! It was quite a trip and learning experience. From a sport management perspective there were certainly some issues, that is not to say things did not go well or run pretty smoothly. Part of our learning experience is to note any problems, and see if there are ways to improve them for future events.

First was the language barriers, French was pretty much left out of the Olympics and it is an official language of the games. The volunteers all spoke either English or Italian (some both but mostly Italian). This made things a bit difficult sometimes as we always had to have a speaker of each language on duty especially since only Italians seem to speak Italian. This was frustrating for the athletes, coaches and spectators who we were trying to help. It also would have been helpful if the volunteers had badges that indicated what languages they spoke. We noticed that the counter crew at McDonalds had utilized this method to aid in communication, so it must be effective.

Another complication was budgeting. They ran out of some pretty neccessary items but over did it on others such as our uniforms. We were given a long sleeve t-shirt, two fleeces, a jacket, snow pants, boots, gloves, a beenie, a backpack, and ear bags; these things were wonderful, but where we were working we did not need such warm weather gear and really only wore the fleece. The venues alone can drain a nation's funds and any unneccessary spending should be avoided.

Thirdly, travel was difficult due to a lack of signage and again, language barriers. If you did not know exactly how to get somewhere, you could get pretty lost. The trains and buses were easy enough to understand but getting the right shuttle could be hard.

There were some other minor issues, but to me these seemed to be the most important. Overall the Olympics were good and I think Italy did pretty well; especially since it is such a large event and it is not as if they have put one on in recent history. Each nation that takes on the Olympics starts fresh. To know exactly what to do is not possible and so it is expected that there will be some complications.

The Olympics were a great experience and I am truly thankful for the opportunity. I would like to thank a few people that made the trip possible and enjoyable. First Sarah and Dr. Lyman, thank you so much for working so hard to get us in as volunteers. The University of the Pacific, thank you for making this a class and allowing us to leave during the semester to work this amazing event. The Stockton Record, your support has been marvelous; I really appreciate you hosting this blog and informing the community about our work. Mrs. and Mr. Perata, I can't tell you how grateful we all were for the shuttle to the airport it made life so much easier! My classmates, even though our conflicting work schedules kept us from spending much time together, I enjoyed getting to know you all a little better. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents; Mom and Dad, there is no way I could have gone on the trip without you and your support. I love you and I hope you know how much this meant to me.

2006-03-03T03:43:00.000+01:00

I'm back home and (somewhat) unpacked. There are so many things and so many people that I have to catch up with. Working at the Olympics and being in Italy was such a great experience. I was lucky enough to have worked with Guest Pass Services and learn how maintaining a number of guests and media was organized. I would love to go back to Italy and travel around the whole country.

A big thank you to Nicole's parents who arranged for a shuttle to the airport! It was greatly appreciated.

Ciao!

2006-03-03T03:20:00.000+01:00

I am home! The last two days weren't bad, I felt like I was back on schedule withno problems, but this morning came around and I am so tired! The three naps today just haven't made a difference, but I am hoping that I will be back to normal shortly. All in all I wouldn't haven't changed it for the world, a couple of days being tired is well worth the great experience I had for over two weeks in Torino.

I feel so lucky to have gotten the experience to see theory put into reality at the biggest sporting event there is. I am even looking forward to discussing it in the class room and being able to see what everyone else learned and noticed. I think every group got to experience different insights into the Olympics and being able to share the different perspectives will be very informative.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am home safe and sound and getting back into the swing of things. Our blog will be active for a while so be sure to check back soon for more on our experience and more pictures. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to my trip in any way shape or form, and a special thank you to the Record for hosting this blog, I liked being able to share with everyone what was going on in Italy.

From back in America,
Nicole!

2006-03-02T20:36:00.000+01:00

This trip was so amazing, I can't believe that it's over! I feel that I got the most out of this trip that I could have possibly gotten. Not only was this an experience of a lifetime but I became closer to 8 other people that I didn't know all that well. I felt as our group became a family and actually got along really well. We all learned, grew and experienced this trip together.

From a learning perspective I learned so much about event and risk management. I learned about what did not work well for the city of Torino and what could have been done differently so that the Olympics could have run more smoothly. Such as having more signs so people would have an easier time getting around, making sure that the official languages of the Olympics were used (French and English) because most things were in Italian. Having more hand rails at every venue. Especially at the mountain events because it was so slippery and there was nothing to hang onto. I learned things that I will be able to apply to my future job.

Overall I did have the experience of a lifetime. I went to 8 events and 1 medal ceremony. I met so many people from other countries and made some new friends. I saw the sites of Torino and what the beautiful city has to offer. I would definitely consider volunteering for the Olympics again. But for now it is time to find a job and enter into the real world.

Before I say my final goodbye I would like to thank some people. First and foremost I would like to thank Linda and Sarah for setting up this trip. Without them it would not have been possible for us to have done this. The Record for letting us set up the blogg so we could tell everyone about our trip. The group that I got to experience this tip with because without them I don't think that I would have had this much fun! Last of all Nicole's parents for getting us a shuttle to the airport. If it wasn't for them we all would have been sleeping at the airport. Which would have been one last adventure but I don't know how many of us would have liked that one. This is something that I will always remember! So until next time, ciao ciao.

2006-03-02T16:01:00.000+01:00

If I could have scripted this trip, I would not have been able to create the teaching/learning experience that it turned out to be. When everything is done perfectly, interns and volunteers never get to understand how something got done. In this case, the training and staffing volunteers, signage, security, and other important operational aspects were done in what some called the "the Italian way." Hence, there were many teaching moments. Some of the students have not had an event management class so it will take a while for them to realize what they saw and learned. For others, we had non-stop conversations about what could have been versus what we saw and experienced. But the Italians did the best with what they had to work with. They were way overbudget and will be paying for hosting the Olympics for years to come. Which begs the question, is it really worth a country, a state, a region to go millions of dollars in debt and have recently built facilities that will never be used to put on sport event? Should we be rotating the Olympics to cities where the facilities were built for previous Olympics?

These students (and all others in sport management around the country) are being trained to do their research before offering an event, building a facility, redeveloping a city around a sport facility, etc. I remind them that the days of "if you build it, they will come" are over. There are too many sport and recreation/leisure options. Hopefully students like ours will be conscious of the balance between the focus on sport in our country and the other social needs in society. It was sad to see the Italians worrying about providing enough blankets to the athletes because of being over budget. The original intention for the athlete housing was to provide low income housing. Yet, they will be selling over half of the apartments to try and recoup some of their losses. What these students experienced and saw will be with them for the rest of their lives. I hope that they use this experience to provide volunteers, clients, fans, sponsors, and those who pay taxes with a product that is fiscally responsible in all areas. I also hope that this experience helps them analyze situations from a global perspective, not just an American perspective. Because the world is getting smaller and I believe that the 2008 Olympics in China will be economically and politically a turning point in the world.

This has been an experience that I will never forget. I am already trying to figure out a way to get to the Olympics in China with students. I would like to volunteer at the Vancouver Olympics to compare to Winter Olympics back to back. Again, I would like to thank Yasmin, Lauren Hartel, the Peratas for the shuttle, Marissa Kelley for approving the trip, and all of the parents of the students. I hope that we helped all of you that kept up with the blog see the Turin Olympics from a different perspective than NBC. Take care and CIAO!

2006-03-02T08:09:00.000+01:00

Here I am back in the States. The trip home was very long, most of it was spent sleeping and watching movies. I think total flying from Torino to Newark and Newark to San Francisco we were in the air for over 15 hours! I'm still catching up on sleep a little bit but jet lag didn't hit me that hard. Now the fun of catching up in all my classes begins, I do have spring break to look forward to in a week and a half though.

There are plenty of people that I would like to thank for supporting myself and my classmates on this amazing experience: the Stockton Record for setting up this blog, my parents for supporting me and helping pay, Nicole's parents for paying for the shuttle ride to the airport, Linda, Sarah and Ryan for setting everything up and making things run smoothly, and all of our loyal readers of our blog. Thanks again!

2006-03-02T07:05:00.000+01:00

Well we've made it back safe and sound. Looking back at the trip, it really was an amazing chance to see the realities of the biggest sporting event in the world. I really feel lucky to have had the chance to be a part of it. I feel like we all had the chance to see what worked and what did not. It will be interesting to see what Canada will do differently in 2010. I feel that I gained lots of perspective on both the issues facing the Winter Olympics as well as the differences in the business culture between Italy and the USA. There are many people I'd like to thank for putting this trip together-my parents for all their support, Linda and Sarah for putting the trip together, everyone in Torino for allowing us to volunteer, Nicole's parents for paying for the airport shuttle, The Record for their coverage of our trip, and all those who have been reading our blog. Thanks!

So, I finally got around to putting some photos up from our trip. On here I've a group photo at the USA women's hockey game, a nice sunset shot at the bobsled track, and two very big reasons while curling is, in fact, not cool.

For now, Ciao!

2006-02-28T10:57:00.000+01:00

It is 1:54am and I am trying to decide whether to go to bed or stay up until time to go teach. We got in 2 hours late because of the weather in San Francisco. By the time, we got to Stockton it was almost 11:00pm and I had to spend time with the dogs. Stacey came home with me for the night. She is asleep in the motorhome. I am beat but want to be ready and able in the morning.

Except for the delay in Newark, the trip home was great. Mike and Kim Perata paid for a shuttle bus to get us to the airport. It picked us up at a bit before 5am. We arrived at the airport at about 6:45. We checked in about 8:00 and then went to our gate. People went in shifts to do more shopping, just walk, or eat. The plane left a bit late. I sat with Nicole and we slept almost the whole 9 1/2 hour flight. We did wake up to eat. Then we cruised through customs and waited for our delayed flight. Most of the students ate some form of meat. The Italian cuisine seemed to lack the amount of protein we are used to here in Stockton. The next leg of the trip got us to SFO around 9:00pm. We all thanked Nicole's parents and met her grandmother. Bri's soon to be husband picked her up and Joe's girlfriend took him home. The students will be blogging during the week about how they view the trip now and about things they learned.

Again, I would like to thank Nicole's parents for their donation of the shuttle. I would also like to thank the Record for all of their support. Without them, no one could have kept up with our experiences. My hat is off to all of the parents of the students that accompanied me on this trip. They were great. You should all be very proud of your sons and daughters. Don't tell them. I am very proud of them and feel blessed to have been able to accompany them. They made this trip one I will never forget from both a personal and professional standpoint. I will blog again sometime this week to give an update on how I use my experiences in the classroom and how the students have impacted the discussions in their courses.

2006-02-26T13:10:00.000+01:00

This is my last blog from Italy! It's been great, but I'm happy to be heading back home. Thanks for everyone who supported us! Ciao!

2006-02-25T18:47:00.000+01:00

Great news everyone! We are not sleeping in the airport. Although I was a it perturbed when my mom called me at 8am when I planned on another hour to snooze, I was glad she called because she had awesome news. Her and my dad decided that to help make our trip come to a better end then our night of sleeping in the airport, they wanted to get us a shuttle from our apartment to the airport the morning of our flight. After a bit of RESEARCH we found a place and booked the shuttle. This means no sleeping in the cold airport, no arriving 14 hours before our flight, and no Lyman holding us captive telling us about our research paper (although I'm sure we'll get it at some point). I think this will be a more satisfying end to the great trip I have had so far. I am so thankful for getting to go on this trip and getting the international experience while learning so much.

Tonight is my last night at work, it is sad to leave the people I work side by side with through the cold and rain, but I am sure we will keep in touch. It has been a great experience communicating with people about their lives, their experiences and their views on many things including the Olympics. One guy that worked here has worked at seven Olympics now! It has been such a great learning experience, I am so glad I was able to come.

I want to say thank you to my classmates and Linda, I have had a great time and it wouldn't have been the same without you all. Thank you to everyone who helped me get here in any way, shape or form, and to the many who contributed to my warmth with all of my Christmas and birthday gifts. Thank you to those who have read my blog during my trip especially Mrs. Perata's and Mrs. Gorman's classrooms and Grandma Jay and her coffee friends! I have connections, I know who is reading! To those of you at home reading, I'm coming home, see you in a couple of days! Take care everyone, and thanks again.

Look for a post when I am back in the states,
Nicole

2006-02-25T14:25:00.000+01:00

Last day of work! I am actually a little bit sad. Last night we had sort of a going away dinner at Valeria's boyfriends house. I finally had the type of food I would expect from Italy! It was great we had trays of cured meats, chunks of parmasian, and gorganzola with hazelnuts. Later we had ravioli stuffed with roast beef served with a mushroom sauce. For desert we had Torino's specialty these tiny bite sized cakes in varying favors, some with cream and orange, or cherries wrapped in pastry and baked and a million others. It was so amazing. So why did I have to wait until the very end of the trip to find out about these things?! Michele (Valeria's boyfriend) gave me 2 bottles of wine to take home. They have been very nice and welcoming I will miss them a lot.

I am all packed and the apartment is coming together. Tonight is our last night in the apartment. Tomorrow we will be sleeping (or at least trying to!) in the airport. I have weighed my bags and they are under the 70 pound limit thankfully. I am so excited to see my family and fiance again! This has been a great trip but I think I am ready to return to the States, I am not looking forward to a 16 hour and 45 minutes plane ride.

Ok well all I have work but thanks again for reading!

2006-02-25T14:21:00.000+01:00

This is probably going to be my last post from Italy. This afternoon is my last day at work and then tomorrow we leave in the evening for the airport. I spent this morning sleeping in and also packing. I'm glad that I packed an empty duffle bag in my suitcase because I needed it to pack all of the Olympic stuff that we were given. Last night was a lot of fun. We ended up not going to the church because it was very rainy and overcast outside. I guess from this church you can get a very good view of the whole city but you can't see anything when it is overcast. Last night did turn out to be a lot of fun though. Ryan, Bri and I went to Valeria's boyfriends house for dinner. It was by far the best meal that I have had since I have been here. There was so much food, I could barly move after the meal.

After work tonight we are all going to go out to dinner as a group one last time. This trip has been such a great experience, I'm sad to see it come to an end. Well I hope everyone enjoyed reading this blog about all of our experiences. I'll write again when we get home. Ciao!

2006-02-25T14:11:00.000+01:00

Well yesterday was our last day of work, I am sad to be leaving and wish the time had slowed down a little. The time has gone by fast but it has been an amazing experience and I have filled every dream and more. I have learned a lot about running events and have met a ton of people from all over the world. We have listened to people's stories about why they are here and just about their lives at home. Sport Management as a profession and a education option is becoming very popular over here, which is really exciting to hear because if grad school is in my future it might be an option to study overseas and gain a better international perspective.
Italy has been amazing and I am lucky that I get to come back in a little more than a month to see more sites and places during my spring break. I am also excited to go back in Sevilla and start practicing my Spanish again.
Tonight we spend our last night together, it will be nice to be all together because for most of the trip we have all had different schedules and I never get to see some of the people on our trip. I hope everyone has enjoyed the trip. I have to give credit to Linda because if she had not fully supported this idea of going to the Olympics, the trip would have never gotten off its feet.

2006-02-25T13:01:00.000+01:00

This is my last blog as well. It's bittersweet. I have more than enjoyed my time here in Torino and at the Olympics. It's been an invaluable experience. I'm so glad that I got to share it with people through our blogs and pictures. Thanks to Linda for taking us, Sarah for setting it up with the school, my parents for funding the trip, and the Stockton Record for setting up the blog so we can share our experience with so many from home! The last count I heard was 2,500 unique visitors with 5,000 total hits on the site. I can't believe it!

This is the random igloo we found while exploring Torino Friday morning before work. We have no idea why it's there, but we deemed it picture worthy, so here it is. It's the first igloo I've seen.

This is an example of the Olympic souvenier display in all of the store windows. The only problem is that in the stores, none of it is for sale. It's all for looks. This is just an example of some of the merchandise that has been sold here in the village and in sparadic places throughout Torino. Now, however, most of the stuff is all gone!

Here is my first snow angel!!!! I did this as Lauren, Nicole and I were leaving the freestyle alpine skiing venue the night the competition actually happened. We were leaving and I realized I hadn't done one yet, so I climbed the side of the mountain and fell down to make this. It was more difficult that I imagined because the snow wasn't fresh; it was actually quite icy which made it difficult, but still enjoyable! All the people around were laughing at me on the way out, but I didn't mind!

I took this picture on top of a mountain at a church/museum. The view was breathtaking. I felt like I could see the whole city. The tall building in the center of the picture is what the Torino Olympic logo is based on. Not in this picture, but off the to left in the far distance we could pick out the Olympic flame and the giant red arc over the bridge in the village. I am VERY glad I didn't miss this part of the city!

Below is a picture of the Olympic flame and it's torch. The building behind it is where the Opening and Closing ceremonies are held. I really wish I would have been able to see the inside, but it's not open for viewing or anything like that unless I was willing to pay 600 euros to see the closing ceremonies. To the left, but not in the picture is the Palasport where I watched all of the ice hockey games. This area is only about a 15 minute walk from where we have been staying for the past two weeks.

2006-02-25T07:07:00.000+01:00

Today is my last day at work. I will be glad to sleep in tomorrow. No one is around this morning. The Russian contingent was packing up. Most athletes have left our village. This is the first morning that I have not run into athletes partying in the bar across the street from the village. There are fewer volunteers showing up for their shifts. Those who do not study sport are very disappointed that the athletes are not staying for the closing ceremonies. They are miffed why they would not want to participate in the gala. Those of my generation remember when the amateur athletes participating in the Olympics were thankful to be participating and not made to feel like not medaling was failure. Even with 4 days of sickness, I will never forget this experience. Seeing the events, the city, Italy, and the village through the students' eyes has been phenomenal. I always say they keep me young. If I am still at UOP in 2008, I would like to start planning a trip to the Bejiing Olympics that focuses on understanding the sport and leisure culture of China through sport sociology and sport management. Becky Beal and I have already done some bantering back and forth about the unlimited possibilities.

This trip has been better than I could have ever expected for both myself and the students. I am academically trained as a sport sociologist so it is very important to me that the students learn to embrace and respect people's differences, not judge them. When I first came to UOP, most of the sport management students were taking sign language because they just wanted to satisfy the requirement. They did not understand the importance of communicating with the majority of those that may be your clients or that the world is getting smaller from a business stand point. The American way and English are not going to be enough to compete in the world today. More importantly, we must in our teachings help students move beyond the American ethnocentricity that plagues our country. This experience has truly met my goals in that area. Even when judging the merits of how things have been done in Italy, the students qualify their assessment with statements about "cultural differences." I never worried about them being able to bridge the gap between their academic training and "reality." What I was concerned with was their judgements based on the American way is the only way. They have moved well beyond thinking that there is our way and their way. I am so proud of this group of students. They have worked 8 hours a day while taking another 6 or 7 hours a day to experience Torino and Italian culture. They are beat and yet, they want to take it all in. They have exceeded my expectations of them at every level. They have been responsible, mature, inquisitive, thoughtful, empathetic, and most of all a joy to be with. I want to thank their parents for allowing me the opportunity to have this time with them.

The next few days are going be very hectic. We have to clean the apartment and have it inspected tomorrow morning. Then off to take pictures together in the village before we go to the airport and camp out for the night. Our flight is at 10am on Monday and it is going to be a zoo so we are not taking any chances. With all of the goodies we got from our volunteer jobs and the souvenirs, some of the students have an extra bag or two. Hence, it will take 1 taxi per person just to get to the train station in Torino. We will keep you posted on our travels home. Little do the students know that I will be discussing the upcoming research paper while I have them ALL captive in the airport for hours:).

2006-02-24T18:08:00.000+01:00

This last week has been wonderful! It makes me sad that our time here is coming to an end. Since my last post, I have seen USA's women's Ice Hockey team win a bronze medal, watched the preliminary round of women's freestyle aerial skiing, watched a Czech Republic vs. Slovakia Men's Ice Hockey game, slept a little and I have done a bunch of sightseeing.

The bronze medal game was my second US women's game, and I enjoyed the second more than the first. I had never watched ice hockey before, and now I would like to see some more! A lot of the players come into the Guest Pass office and they are ALWAYS so friendly. I am now a big fan!

Round two of the freestyle aerial skiing went a lot better than the first. We got there so early we basically got to see the competition twice because of all the practice runs! That was so amazing to see in person. With all those twists and turns and flips I would surely get lost in the air before I crashed to the snow. Attending that event really reminded me how talented all of the Olympic athletes are.

The men's ice hockey game was a lot of fun. The stands were packed full of crazy people with painted faces, loud noise makers, and large flags. It was so much fun to be there. I just wish one of the teams meant something to me so that I could have been as excited as everyone else seemed to be.

I did get some much needed extra sleep one morning this week, but that night and the next day it was go go go again. Lauren, Nicole and I woke up early two mornings ago and did a lot of exploring down by the river. We visited some churches with gorgeous architecture, and went to the one on the hill where I could see the whole city. I couldn't stop taking pictures because the view was so breathtaking. I promise to visit the internet cafe tomorrow where I will be able to post some of those pictures. It was fun to stand up there and pick out the many different places throughout the city that we had already visited. I could even see the Olympic flame and the giant bridge that links the Olympic village and the biggest mall I have ever been into.

Tonight after work a lot of us from the Guest Pass Center are going to dinner to spend some time together before we all go our seperate ways. I'm looking forward to that! Also, tomorrow one of my best friends from high school who is studying abroad in Rome right now is coming to visit me for the day. I am hoping to show her around the city center before I go to work where I get to show her around the village.

That means all day Sunday we will finish packing, cleaning the arpartment and then we will leave for the airport in Milan to begin the adventure home. See you all soon!

2006-02-24T17:51:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it is almost time to go home! In some ways I am ready and in some way I never want it to end. The past few days have been kind of crazy, sorry for not writing in so long. Since my the post before my picture post I have seen three more events.

I am proud do say that our second trip up to the mountain was a success! The event was so much fun but it was pretty cold. We got there nice and early so we got a primo spot to stand and caught all of the action of the women's freestyle aerials. We also went to the Women's bronze medal hockey game featuring the USA and Finland. I was so excited to see the USA win the bronze medal. Then through the ticket fairy we got more free tickets, this time it wasn't to curling, although that was loads of fun, it was to a men's hockey game between Czech Republic and Slovakia. That was a sight to see for sure! Talk about some avid fans.

We have been winding down to an end other than that, today I finished up my shopping at my favorite place in Turin, the little market down the street from us. I love being immersed in the local culture and I have been eating breakfast there practically everyday. I have made a few friends there. Joleen, Lauren and I have done some exploring lately. I think we have pretty much seen the city now, what a beautiful place. I have been to Rome, Florence, Venice and some other cities in Italy with my family, but Turin is a totally different atmosphere. I have enjoyed what they have to offer, and although they have some kinks here and there, for a small city catering to an Olympic crowd, I think they have done a decent job.

Last night I was introduced to to local rock bands that are friends of our supervisor. They played here in the athlete village and although I couldn't understand a word they were saying I really liked the music. Tonight most of the volunteers from my area are going out to dinner for a farewell dinner because most of us are leaving soon. It will be sad to leave them, I have made some good friends and they have taught me a lot.

I will try to post again before we leave, but if not I will post another when I am back in Stockton. I am sad that this experience is coming to an end but it is something that will stick with me for a long time.

Until next time,
Nicole

2006-02-24T16:38:00.000+01:00

I really hate buses. They are slow, almost always late, and confusing. Don't get me wrong, I like public transportation. Trains are always good fun and normally offer nicer views than you get in a car. Trains, however, run on a track which means you know where they are going and where to find one. The same cannot be said of busses and certainly not of the busses used to get people to the mountain Olympic venues. Once you get off the train at the station where all the busses gather to take people to the various events that day you run into a few problems. Firstly, there are no signs saying where you need to go for each sport. Secondly, the busses wait in two different parking lots. Which one do you go to? When you try to find this information you run into problem number three, volunteers who speak only italian and a little english. I understand I am in Italy and no one should be expected to speak english. However, these are the world's Olympics, not the Italian Olympics. I can only imagine the problems fans would face if they did not speak either italian or english.

The end result of all this is a large number of very tired people who are unsure if they are going to see the snowboarding event they have a ticket for or if they will end up in the parking lot for the luge event. I feel all this hassel could be fixed with a few cheap signs. Hopefully China and Canada will remember to go to Kinkos and make a few.

2006-02-24T13:36:00.001+01:00

Well only one day of work left! Today has been a long one and it is only 1:30 here. This morning Joe and I got up at 5 to get to the train station to catch a 6:10 train to Oulx. Then we had a 50 minute bus ride to the venue in Sestriere. We saw the womens Giant Slalom. It was a lot of fun and thankfully quick because it was snowing! 65 skiers in all about 58 made it down the hill and as of the end of the first run an American was in first place! They should be just about done with the second round (medaling round) now.

Today we are supposed to go to the church on the hill but it is raining and is very foggy. I doubt we will be able to see much but we will see what Valeria wants to do. Tomorrow is designated as packing and cleaning day! I am still hoping to make it to the chocolate factory though!

Last night I did an interview on live air for Capital Public Radio a home town station. It was 11 pm here (as you can see I did not get much sleep!)

Well this has been a great trip and I don't know if I will be able to post again before I leave. I would like to thank everyone for reading the blog! Also I am very thankful for this incredible opportunity. I think it is really rare and I am very appriciative of the University for allowing us to take off so much school for this class. So much real life experience is hard to come by. This has definitely been a highlight of my college career!

2006-02-24T13:36:00.000+01:00

I was finally able to take advantage of the 3 Euro tickets today. For the past few days the ticket offices in the village have been selling tickets to some events for only 3 Euros. Most of them have been hockey games but yesterday they had tickets to the Women's Giant Slalom. They are really good tickets too, A seating which normally would sell for 80 Euros. So this morning instead of working we got to go watch another event. Bri and I woke up at 5 AM to catch the 6:10 train to the event. We met up with Sara, one of our supervisors at the train station and were at the venue by around 8 AM. The event didn't start until 9:30 so we had breakfast and then found our seats. There were 65 athletes in this event and it was over within an hour. It went by so quickly. It was really cool because an America came in first. So today will be a long day but so far it has been good. This afternoon Ryan, Bri, myself and our other supervisors, Valeria are going to go on a tour of a church and then out to dinner.

Tomorrow is my last day of work and then it's time to start packing and cleaning our very messy apartment. That will be what most of Sunday will be spent doing and then it's off to the airport on Sunday night. We have to stay in the airport overnight as our flight leaves early on Monday morning so there are no trains that could get us there early. After sleeping in an airport and flying across the Atlantic and the US I should be good and tired by the time I get home.

2006-02-24T11:18:00.000+01:00

Only a couple days left to spend in Turin soaking up this amazing experience. Tuesday we had work at 6am and after work Stacey and I went to Canada vs. Czech men's hockey game which was really fun and a totally different experience than the women's games. It was a sold out crowd and somehow Stacey and I had seats right behind the penalty box for Canada. After the game we went straight to the short program for women's ice skating! We have been so lucky with tickets and partly people have just not been buying tickets. We bought the tickets day of and there were more free seats in the stadium when we got there. It seems attendance is less for these Olympic games than others, whether it has to do with world controversies, bad publicity, or money issues the turn out has not been even average.
This past week Stacey and I have been getting up at 5am for the 6am shift and as we work more days I have started to realize when organizing an event you must have a good security system... Especially something as important as the Olympics. Everyone who comes into the village must have a credentials pass or a guest pass. You walk in and go through the metal detectors and after that your credentials might get checked once more. Anyone can walk throughout the entire village and even go into the buildings of where the athletes live. No one keeps track of who is coming in and out as long as they have a pass around their neck your invited in. At no point have I felt unsafe, but it just seems that there could be better precautions for keeping the village safe. Everything is a learning experience for what to do in the future when putting on an event, so even if some issues aren't working perfectly its good to start learning what areas need more attention.
The next couple days we are going to try and see everything that we haven't been able to see because of our working schedules. On Monday when I get back to Spain I will upload pictures from the two weeks.

2006-02-23T20:07:00.000+01:00

Four days. Three events. Two venues. One USA medal. The craziness of the past four days was worth my minimal hours of sleep. Joleen, Nicole, and I bought tickets for the women's freestyle skiing semifinals and the women's hockey bronze medal game. At the time, we had no idea who would be participating. We just wanted to see events.

The first event was the women's freestyle skiing on Sunday. We rode the train up to the mountains for an hour then rode a bus for another 15 or so minutes to get to the venue. At 6:30 the competition was supposed to begin, but an announcement was made that the snow fall was too heavy and the event would begin at 8pm. At 8, though, the weather was still not clear enough for the competition to take place so it was rescheduled for Tuesday.

Monday was the women's hockey bronze medal game. I was happy to find out that the game was USA vs. Finland (even though I would have loved to see Team USA go for the gold). It was an amazing game! USA played much better than before and won 4-0! I'm hoping I get to see more USA women's hockey in the future.

Tuesday came around and it was time to head back up to the mountains for freestyle skiing. It was a really beautiful day and the weather was perfect for competition. The two US skiers didn't make it on to the final round, but there were a lot talented women. When it comes to the Olympics, the fans are crazy! Not only are there the usual flags and painted faces, but a group of Swiss fans had a machine that had a microphone, played music, lit up, and served drinks. They added to the entertainment of the evening =).

I was finally able to sleep in and relax before working the afternoon shift on Wednesday. That night, though, one of my bosses Elena, got free tickets to the men's hockey game between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. A group of us left work about a half hour early to see the game. The fans made the whole experience so much fun and being there boosted my love for sports.

Since Joleen, Nicole, and I were able to get a decent amount of sleep, this morning we decided to go to the market near our apartment and get our usual focaccia bread and cappucino breakfast.
We were also able to go to the main Olympic store and purchase a few things. We then continued walking around and visited a few sites near the river Po. I was able to get some nice panoramic photos and video of the city from a church/museum on a hill. Our final stop before work was to get some lunch at a cafe. I ate a sandwich and we had some gelato topped with coffee. It was soooo good. I love Italian food!

Four more days then I'm back in California!

2006-02-23T19:51:00.001+01:00

Hello all! I wanted to quickly explain what it is that I do in the village for those of you that do not know. Joe, Ryan and I work the information booth and lost and found in the main Olympic village. The work that we do includes documenting lost items within the village, returning found items to their owners, calling for taxis for athletes, coaches, trainers, etc. and answering questions about the village and the Olympics to those staying in or visiting the village.

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! My shifts make it difficult. So two nights ago Ryan, Joe and I went out with a coworker and her friend from Paris. We went to this nice little cafe down by the river. All I can say about that area is wow! It was so beautiful. There is a castle down there and this huge round church. Everything was all lit up. According to our friends this is special for the Olympics. There are also lights strung across the streets. These were apparently left up from Christmas.

Yesterday I had wanted to head back down to the River but that did not work out, however, I did go with Joe today! We went and saw the river and the castle. It is Turin's medieval castle and is quite breathtaking. Then Joe and I went to the cinema museum. It was fun they had some very interesting things there including the bike from ET and Superman's cape. It was a lot of fun. Tomorrow my supervisor Valeria is taking Joe, Ryan and me to the church on the hill where you are supposed to be able to see the whole city. I hope it is like today - sunny and warm!

I have certainly been enjoying my travels with Ryan and Joe (my office buddys!), they have been great. I do wish we had been able to see more but you can't see everything! This town has a lot to offer in the way of culture and scenery. Saturday I may even be going to a chocolate factory! Turin has the greatest chocolate!! Three days left in Turin, then over night at the airport in Milan and then we will be back to our normal lives. I can certainly say this has been an experience and not one I am likely to forget.

2006-02-23T19:51:00.000+01:00

So Ryan and I had a very difficult descion to make yesterday. We had tickets to the Women's Ariels Freestyle gold medal competition that started at 6:45 PM. Then while we were at work through our connections within the village we were offered tickets to the USA Men's hockey Quarterfinal game against Finland for only 3 euros. It was quite the decision because the Freestyle event was about an hour train ride away while the hockey game was very close. We finally decided, after much debate, to go to the Freestyle competion. So after we got off work at 3 we took the train to the event and it was very foggy. We arrived at 6 and stood around hoping that the fog would clear. At 6:40, 5 minutes before things were scheduled to start the fog magically lifted. We were happy until 10 minutes later when the fog returned. The event finally started about a half an hour late and there were probably about 2 delays because of fog. In the end though it was a really cool event. Did anyone watch it on TV?

Well only 3 more days of work and then it's time to come home. It seems like we have been here for much longer than 2 weeks. It has definatly been worth all the money and long plane rides that it took to get here. This has been such a great experience.

2006-02-23T08:08:00.000+01:00

Well, the trip is winding down to an end. You can tell because the village is getting quieter and I see the athletes leaving. Sarah and I are going to our last event today... aerial skiing, its the men's finals. I think it will be exciting to see the skiers do the flips and twists in person but its going to be a cold night. Counting tonight Sarah and I will have seen a total of 7 events. One of our events was really unexpected because we got tickets the day of to see the ladies figure skating short program. It was really exciting but its too bad we can't go the the free skate tonight and see the finals.

Yesterday, was a bit crazy at work. In my area of work as the residence center crew, there is a lack of communication. It especially showed yesterday when there was a mix up about the place of a meeting. It was a little crazy because I did not know what was going on and no one else in the center knew except one lady. She would not tell us what she was doing because she was busy helping set up for the meetings. I just felt that I was left in the dark about what was going on and I didn't know how I could help. Our supervisor didn't even know what was happening. It was a bit confusing but I helped in any way that I could. After all of the mix-up it got solved and things got better. I think the hardest part of the situation was that everyone had their own ideas of doing things. No one was working as a team, they were all trying to use their own ideas instead of trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I learned that even though I am working with a lot of adults, they can be pushy. I would have though as adults they would have wanted to work together and fix the problem as a team. Instead people were getting mad at others for not doing what they wanted you to do.

Last night after work I went shopping to try and buy some souvenirs. Well, who knew that I should have bought everything the first day we got here since the super store was out of almost everything and they aren't getting more stuff in. Isn't the fact that it is the super store it should still have most everything? Then we also found out yesterday that we could not buy any US clothing here. So if anyone wants anything they have to order it online or get it at home. During our little shopping excursion we ran into a lot of people traffic. We had to walk by medals plaza and since an Italian won the gold for speed skating. Everyone was lined up to see him. Bad idea trying to get through. It was a mob of people that were blocking the sidewalks so no one could get through. People were pushing people to get all the way through the mess. I felt as if I was on a ride just getting pushed by everyone else since I couldn't control where I was going. I think last night I pushed more people than I have in my whole life.

Now back to work! Have a happy day

2006-02-23T06:42:00.000+01:00

Well I went to the Polyclinica here in the village yesterday. What an experience! I go in and no one speaks much English. How do you explain indigestion problems with a language barrier? With your hands, or at least I thought so. I tried to explain what had happened since Saturday but I was not getting across. They asked me if the spaghetti was good. They also wanted to know if maybe it had fish in it. Then they took my temperature, pulse, and I believe the guy never could get the blood pressure contraption pumped up. Then they came in and felt my stomach and colon area. It was very tender. They never asked if I had been drinking or anything else. So I got dressed and they said they would give me some medicine to take for 3 days. It would help the tenderness.

Then he said eat McDonalds...Good for Americans. I said I don't think so with my problem. He said that what you eat has nothing to do with gastro problems. I began to wonder what I was being treated for. So I went off with my medicine. I went to tell Ryan and Joe I would be going home to sleep. Their supervisor said that the medicine I got was a muscle relaxant and that was just superficial not fixing the problem. So she went to the clinic and pretended to have the same symptoms to a different doctor and got the prescription she believed I should have gotten. I gave her some money and she went out of the village and bought me the medicine. I went home and took the medicine and slept. I woke up ate crackers and tried a bit of apple. I dozed off and on for a few hours and Sarah came home and slept while I went out and took pictures of the building and other signs for the students to have for their scrapbooks. I was getting tired of 4 days cooped up in the flat.

I ate more of the apple and drank some more water. Stacey and Sarah talked me into trying to go to the Canada house, the Superstore, and the river walk with them. I held up for about 2 hours. I found a store that had some couscous mixture and went home while they went off to find a restaurant. I watched some of the Olympics and went to bed. I am happy to report that I actually feel human today and have eaten some bland cookie like things. I am happy with that right now. In a few days, I will get back on and give you an assessment of why this trip has been so valuable for the students. We must leave Turin on Sunday to get to Milipensia on time for our flight on Monday morning.

2006-02-22T13:22:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures, enjoy them! This is me infront of... something old and partialy broken! I will have to look up the name of it later! Thisis when Ryan and I went on our walking tour of Turin.

This is Stacey after a long day at work, isn't she precious?

Yes, Ryan passed out in his jacket and scarf, but he did take his shoes off! This was after we all went out together and explored the city after our training day. This was just day number two in Turin.

This is my new friend Marco, and old Italian guy who doesn't speak English, but he is funny and we "made" a picture together!

This was our second day in Turin, trying to find out way to the village for training, we walked so much this day, so I decided to put a picture up of us walking! Don't we look cute in our little uniforms? I think Bri is the only one who likes these shoes, they hurt most of our feet!

I will post more later and rite more too, but I am at work so I have to go. Ciao!

P.S. Jeff, why don't you ever leave me a comment?

2006-02-22T13:17:00.000+01:00

Everything about this experience has been amazing. I can't tell you how lucky I am to be here. Here are some more pictures from the last couple days. I thought I got one of me making my first snow angel on here, but somehow it disappeared. Oh well. I'll try to get some more on tomorrow!

This is a view of the Alps from the Freestyle Aerial Skiing venue. I took this yesterday before the competition started. The sky was clear and everything was so beautiful. It was cold, but we layered up and had so much fun watching the competition.

This is Lauren and Nicole bundled up in I don't know how many layers and a plastic disposable poncho trying to keep dry and warm Sunday night when the Freestyle even got postponed to Tuesday night. The sky is not gray. The snow fall was so heavy, it made it look like it was gray outside.

This picture is of Sauze D' Oulx where we traveled to on our day off. It was also clear and beautiful that day. I love the way the snow coats everything. This town is tiny! There are a bunch of little mountain towns like this all around the competition sites.

This is the competition site from the view that Lauren, Nicole and I had. We got there two and a half hours early to make sure that we were in the front row. The extra time was worth it because most of the athletes practiced for the entire time, so we essentially got to see two shows. I really enjoyed it! The only problem was we could not see the women take off from the top of the mountain, but there was a video monitor to the left of the venue where we could watch the athletes take off and then turn our heads and watch the acrobatics. It was AMAZING what they could do.

2006-02-22T07:41:00.000+01:00

I am only at work today to go to the first aid clinic in the village. As I reported earlier, I did not feel well after my special spaghetti. I thought after a day off work I would feel better. But on Monday I got nauseated after an Egg Mcmuffin and ate only crackers and plain noodles. I came to work yesterday and then I felt fine so I ate a Big Mac and all night anything and everything I have eaten left me. I finally found some imodium in Nicole's bag and after 6 hours of up and down to the toilet, I could at least just lay down. I ate an apple at about 7 and some crackers. I dozed for about a half an hour and then watched the ladies figure skating. Joleen, Nicole, and Lauren came back from freestyle skiing at about 11:00 and we visited and finished watching Sasha Cohen place first in the short program. Stacey and Sarah were at the event. I could not fall asleep until about 3:30 so I did not get up to got to work at 5:00. But I woke up at 5:30 and could not go back to sleep so I came here at 7:00. As soon as I feel better, I will walk to the clinic and then go home. As you can see, I am not having the same adventures as the students. I think I am just taking hits for all the stress of the semester of getting my file ready, getting everything ready for the trip, and what may be coming in the future. So, I am hoping that in a few days I can report that I went to a few museums and saw a few more sights. But I can tell you from the conversations that we have had every night about what the students are assessing about the operational and logistical aspects of the venues and events, if I were sick the rest of the trip, it would be more than worth it. This trip has bridged the gap between academic theory and "reality" better than I could have ever hoped for. Ciao

2006-02-21T07:35:00.000+01:00

Things in Turin have been very busy. On Friday night a group of us went to a 3€ hockey game. The US played Sweden and it ended in a shootout. Sweden won which meant they went on to play for the gold and the US would play in the bronze medal game. We had a bit of a celebrity sighting at the game... Katie Couric and Brian Williams from NBC were both sitting in front of us!
On Saturday Stacey and I went up to the mountains to watch the bobsleigh competition. We had seats for the event which meant we could walk all the way up to the top of the track and watch the event from the starting point. Let me tell you it was quite the hike! Stacey and I kept slipping on the ice and I wasn't sure we were going to make it all the way to the top. Once we got to the top we got to see all the teams preparing to go down the mountain and then see all the teams take off. That night we didn't get back to our apartment till really late, and for some reason Stacey and I seem to do pretty ridiculous things so the next morning we were up at 6:15...
We had decided that we wanted to go to Medal Plaza to see the medal ceremony for Sunday night. After the ceremony there is a concert and Whitney Houston was scheduled. So we went down to the city center and waited in line from about 7am to 10am to get a number. Then we had to go back at 2pm and stand in another line to wait to get the tickets. I don't know if they have figured it out yet but there system for the medal ceremony is probably one of the worst I have ever seen. We both got two free tickets, so at 7pm we dragged Linda who was really sick and Ryan out in the falling snow to the medal ceremony. It was well worth it, the US had won gold and silver in men's 1000m speed skating so we got to watch the US flag raised and the National Anthem played. The Italians had also won gold that night so the crowd was going crazy. Then Stacey and I stayed for the concert in the freezing cold and snowing weather. The concert was fun, Whitney Houston was a little sick and it was so cold that she had a little trouble singing but Stacey and I tried to help her out by singing along, especially because she sang all the old classic Whitney songs!
Monday came very early with a 6am shift and after the game we got to go to the bronze medal US women's hockey game and watched the US take bronze over Findland.
It has been a very exciting couple of days and we still have almost a week left!

2006-02-20T15:32:00.000+01:00

Forget Las Vegas.

Until Saturday night I held the belief that Las Vegas was the place to go if you wanted to see the largest number of people walking around a city in the middle of the night. I was wrong. The true winner in that sport is Torino which on Saturday held its twice-a-year "white nights". White nights is a time when shops are open well past midnight and many museums are as well. Some stay open until 5am and all the museums are free on this particular night. That, at least, was how people from Torino explained it to me. They forgot to mention that every single person (regarldess of age) from Northern Italy would be wondering the streets well past 3am. Streets were no longer for cars or buses but giant freeways for the massive foot traffic the city was seeing. Cars had little chance and busses even less. People would start to yell for no reason and everyone on the street would join in. It was madness, yet it was amazing and a good time was had by all. I've never had so much fun just walking around city streets with nothing to do.

What about the museums you may ask? Well one negative side effect of the free museum policy is that everyone in the world is trying to go. We only managed to get into one-a modern art museum. Now modern art............I don't get it. Then again, I don't think there is that much to get when a room full of mold, a broken mattress, and a cardboard box holding up a tv showing a horse grazing is considered art. (I'm not joking these were all exhibits). Oh well, there is always the auto museum.

2006-02-20T14:38:00.000+01:00

I just got back from curling and I actually had a good time. I was fully expecting to be bored out of my mind, but I sat with a great group of people from Japan. They had me wear one of their crazy colorful hats with a bird on top and we cheered a lot. Japan beat Italy. It was really exciting but very long, maybe 10 ends is too much!

My job is still great I am meeting so many people. I am now working the night shift with Joe so I finally have had some time to see the city in the day light. Now only if we had some sun maybe I could get some decent pictures! Yesterday I saw the Shroud of Turin (well, the replica) with Joe. We also found the elusive number 1 series of the Olympic posters. I only have two more series to go till I have the complete set.

We went up to the Alps for our day off and it was very pretty, still nothing compared to when I went to see the skeleton...all I can say is wow. Nothing is more breathtaking than the Alps at dusk with a beautiful town in the valley below all lit up. It was so amazing I actually had tears in my eyes.

As a recap, I have now been to see the skeleton, women's ice hockey, curling and team speed skating. Pretty good! I think I would have loved to go to the bobsled and luge but that's ok - I can save thoses for 2010!

2006-02-20T14:33:00.000+01:00

Since my last post I have gone to two events, Men's Ice Hockey and Curling. I was very lucky and got to go to the USA vs. Slovakia ice hockey game. It was so much fun, the seats were great. The only bad thing is that USA lost but it was still a great game. I just got back from Curling. It was a little boring, I think I would have liked it more if I cared about the teams. There were three different games going on at the same time but I watched the Japan vs. Italy one. It was actually a pretty good game, very close and it came down to the last stone. Japan ended up winning.

On the 18th, our day off we went to the Alps and checked out a couple of small towns. Linda has some friends from grad school that are here so we met up with them. That is actually how I got to go to the ice hockey game. The Alps were pretty cool, I took a lot of pictures but I'm not really sure how to post them on here.

Work has been going very well. I've been meeting a lot of athletes, yesterday Bri and I met some of the Men's Italian Curling team. Well on that note I'm off for work. Ciao!

2006-02-20T10:44:00.000+01:00

So, it's been an interesting past couple of days. Following our trip to the Alps most of us went out for White Nights. That was an experience. Twice a year, the museums and some of the cafes stay open late. The museums offer free admission, so lots and lots and lots of people (I think all of the people who love in Torino and more who don't) were out exploring the city. Unfortunately we got a late start and the museums that we really wanted to see were either closed or waaaay too crowded to get into. We did get into one, and it was beyond interesting. Refer to Nicole's most recent blog for some details. The best part of that was the random loud cheers in the middle of the street at 2 in the morning for no reason. It was an experience at the very least.

The morning after that, we had to be to work at 7am which proved to be a difficult after little sleep. Right after work, Nicole, Lauren and I began our 9 hour aerial freestyle skiing adventure. We left work and went straight to the train station. Just before we left Torino it started snowing, so we knew if it was snowing here, it would definately be snowing in the mountains. We were right. It was snowing HARD! After a one hour train ride and a 15 minute bus ride, we walked to our standing room only area and waited for an hour before an anouncement that because of the weather conditions, the competition had been postponed an hour and a half to 8pm. So, lots and lots of people started leaving and we were able to get a very good place to stand and we held our ground there. At 8, there was another announcement that the competition had been delayed "until further notice" but they still wanted us to stick around because there is no reentry. It wasn't for another 15 minutes that there was an announcement that it has been postponed to Tuesday night. So, we started to leave the venue by walking to the top of the hill where the busses usually pick people up. Once we reached that area, there was another announcement that because of the heavy, heavy snowfall and all the cars, traffic was stopped. It was going to take over an hour for busses to travel 3.5km which works out to be about 2 miles, and they were recomending that people walk down the mountain. So the three of us started our journey. About half way down, we see a bus with only four people on it, so we flagged it down and got on. We never did find out why there were only four people on the bus, but it worked out well for us. That bus then stopped again and picked up another group of 15 or so people who did not speak any English or Italian, but it was entertaining. The bus took us to the train station in Oulx where we were to catch a train back to Torino. When we got off the bus, we discovered there was a train ready to leave on the tracks, so we ran the length of the trainstation, underground across the tracks and then to the only open door at the opposite end of the train - all with backpacks and full snow gear on. It must have been quite funny to watch! We ended up getting back to Torino around midnight - thus our nine hour snow adventure with nothing to show for it! AND......we're doing it all again tomorrow!! I checked the weather and it said cloudy so hopefully we won't have the same misfortune. Wish us luck!

Tonight the US Women's Ice Hockey team is in the Bronze Medal game against Finland. We'll be there cheering them on!

More pictures to come soon....

Joleen

2006-02-20T06:55:00.000+01:00

I have had a great first week in Torino!!! This weekend was a lot of fun especially having 2 days off in a row. On Friday I went to the women's hockey game US vs. Sweden. Boy was that exciting for only paying 3 euros. Going in to overtime and then having a shoot-out, what a great game. Let alone having Katie Couric sitting in front of us and chatting with us the whole game. If anyone wants to know she is as nice as she is on television.

Saturday Sarah and I had 2 man bobsledding. Boy did we get a workout that night. We were all bundled up in our ski clothes and hiking all the way up the mountain. Our seats were at the start of the race which was really neat to see the athletes get ready to go. It was fun, cold, and a good butt workout but never will I hike all the way up to the top. Next time I will probably just get tickets standing so that I don't have to go as far.

Yesterday, Sarah and I were a little ridiculous. We got up at 6:30am to get medal ceremony tickets. They did not hand out the numbers until 10am. So it was a long morning standing in line. Then we had to go back at 2pm to get the actual tickets. This system is crazy because all you do is stand in line and wait for most of your day. Buy it was well worth the wait because we got tickets to the ceremony and Whitney Huston was performing! We were so excited and glad to get tickets but I'm definitely not doing that again this trip. The ceremony was great and it was even more exciting to see a American win the gold and here our anthem. It was so beautiful out last night because we were outside at medal plaza in the snow watching the show. It was something that I will never forget; the excitement, the pride and the joy of uniting as a country.

This morning back at work. It was a bit of a struggle to get up and open my eyes. I don't think I could really open them until now when I'm typing this. Hopefully it will be an exciting day at work. See you all soon!

2006-02-20T06:28:00.000+01:00

As you all know, we have been qute busy working and exploring Italy. I was sick on Saturday and Sunday, hence, I missed work yesterday. It snowed in Torino yesterday. I tried to go to the medal ceremony with Sarah, Stacey, and Ryan but I could only stay for about an hour so I missed the Whitney Houston concert. Some of the students have been disappointed that they do not have positions with more responsibility. But it is very clear that one must be bi or mult- lingual to be effective in communicating important concepts and information. Hopefully, this will help in my quest to get students to take a language that will help them compete in our global business world. The signage here has not been good at any of the mountain events. One could easily get lost. The students are taking everything in about different cultures. I believe that everyone of them has made at least one friend from a different country.

I met a very dear friend on the mountain on Saturday. She is the sport psychologist for Alisa Camplin the Australian freestyle skier. She and I were students at Michigan State where I got my doctorate. Randy had tickets to the USA men's hockey game and I was going to accompany him. But the only food I found to try and calm my already very sick stomach was pizza...that did not work. So I sent Joe with him in my place. The Alps are beautiful. The students have been fantastic. They watch out for each other. They share experiences. And they are so easy to be with at work and home. They have represented UOP very well. You can tell that this experience has truly bridged the gap between theory and reality in that they can identify what is being done well and what needed to be done better. They will have a lot of information to contribute to the rest of their classmates in all of their business and sport management courses. For me, to see this experience through their eyes is incredible.

2006-02-19T12:30:00.000+01:00

Curling, USA Hockey, Katie Couric, a lost German man and white nights; so much I have to catch everyone up on!

We went to free curling the other day, I will give it to you in a nut shell. It was a long train ride, there were crazy Swiss fans, and I still don't get the sport, but it was free! There you have it.

We got the chance to see a USA hockey women's game for only 3 euro, it was great but unfortunately they lost. Something fun happened though, Katie Couric sat directly in front of me, she even took a picture with all of us and she part way on my lap and part way on Stacey's lap! I'm never washing those jeans again, just kidding. But she was a lot of fun, she a nice and perky lady.

As for the lost German man, that's a fun one! I took two years of high school German two years ago now, and I have not used it since then, so needless to say, I am not all to great anymore. But my services were needed to help out a German fellow who was lost and spoke nothing but German! To make matters even better, I had to listen to him, think about what he was saying to put in English and then translate that into my concoction of Spanish/makeshift Italian. I don't know exactly what happened but I think I solved world hunger. No, I didn't do too bad but luckily someone from the office I work in strolled along who knows German very well, she worked together and things were solved. That was definitely a fun excursion!

Last night was a night in Torino called White Nights. I heard that they only do it twice a year, but they added another this year for the Olympics. This is a night where some museums stay open much later, as late as 5am along with various stores and cafes. Ryan, Bri, Joleen, Lauren and I decided to bear the cold and explore what Torino's late night museums had to offer. We made it to two, well got into only one. The line for the cinema was too long and we were tired so we went home instead but I have to tell you about the first museum we went to. Admission was free, that is one of the perks of White Nights, but it usually would cost 12 euros. It seemed like a cool place, they had loud music and it was very much a modern/contemporary looking place. It was nice to have a change from the old time buildings and cobblestone streets. So we start to check out the place and I think we were all a bit overwhelmed. There was a spaceship looking crash thing in the middle underground, there was a picture of a statue in many different places, there was various pictures of I don't even know, labor camps perhaps? And those are the normal things! There was a coat rack with a coat hanging on it and a stool underneath, there was a sleigh type contraption with a cardboard box on top of it with a TV playing a video of a horse eating grass. In one corner of the place there was a broken blue mattress. There was a room with one giant picture of water in it, and a random map nailed on a while in another room. All very weird stuff and all the while there is creepy loud music playing in the place. But to top it off, there was one room devoted to mold. An "artist" really took a room and created an environment where mold, mildew and fungus grew wild. It looked and smelled disgusting, after I went in I stopped to read the sign explaining it, and saw the warning sign that it could be bad for people with allergies and asthma! Yeah, I'm a smart one. But yes, this place really had an art exhibit of MOLD! Some people probably like that stuff and good for them, but I just don't get it I guess.

Other than that creepy place White Nights was fun, I don't know if there was a single person in Torino sleeping besides a few from our party! It was like Mardi Gras minus the beads in this town and it was still thriving at 3am when we finally made it home!

I am having a really good time here, I have seen a lot of athletes at work. I have seen a lot of the USA Women's hockey team and tomorrow Joleen, Lauren and I are seeing them compete for the bronze medal against Finland, check out the game, you might see me! Tonight the three of us are seeing Women's Freestyle Aerials, they should be awesome.

I have to go, sorry this blog is so long, but I had to make up for lost time! I miss you all, but you know you are in my thoughts, I'll see you all soon, take care.

Ciao!

2006-02-18T20:57:00.000+01:00

So...curling...about that...the venue was nice. On that note, we were actually able to get tickets to see the US women's hockey team play Sweden last night. They were really good tickets too! 13th row, center ice. We lost by shootout, but they still get to play for the bronze. Joleen, Nicole, and I have tickets to the game and the US will be playing Finland. Keep an eye out for us on TV - Monday probably on some NBC channel. Oh yeah, Katie Couric sat in front of us at the game. She was really nice and we all had a great time at the game!

Today was our day off so most of us went up to the Alps. The towns in the mountains were really nice especially covered in snow. We walked around the shops, ate some pizza, and, of course, had some fun in the snow. Linda has a friend who is the sport psychologist for some players on the Australian ski team so we spent a little time with her also. Pictures to be posted soon!

I'm having a lot of fun here, but it's starting to hit me how much I miss my home at Alpha Phi. Miss you guys!!!

Until next time...

2006-02-18T20:46:00.000+01:00

Today was amazing. The entire group had the day off so we did a little exploring. Linda, Lauren, Nicole, Bri, Joe, Ryan and I all went to the Alps to look around at some of the little towns. There was soo much snow, and when we got off the train from Torino, it snowed on us. We had a lot of fun, and hopefully we will be able to get some pictures of our adventure up soon!

Hey guys, thought you might enjoy a few photos......

Lauren, Nicole, and yours truly with mascots Neve and Glitz. I found it very interesting that the Olympics had a mascot, but apparantly each Olympics has something different. These two are very fun, and I see them all the time around the village.

The bridge at night. It connects the athlete village with a HUGE mall in the Torino. I'm not sure of the significance of the arch, but I know there is something. That arch is in the official stickers on all of our accredidation passes. From the bridges highest point there are some amazing views. It also makes it very easy to see the Olympic flame which is across town.

Torino 2006! I don't know the name of where this is, but it's huge up close. A couple of us went and stood by it in the daytime and we looked sooo small! There's water around it which runs off and on over the white part behind the rings. It's beautiful in person.

Yeah, that's right, Curling. Ryan would be proud! This is a picture of the inside of the curling arena. Four games are played at one time, so it can get difficult keeping track of all the action. It is about an hour long train ride to this venue from Torino. Lauren, Nicole and I were given free tickets by our supervisor and the day off, so we enjoyed ourselves.

Now that we know where we can load pictures, hopefully there will be more soon!!

~Joleen

2006-02-17T14:04:00.000+01:00

So Speed Skating was pretty cool. It was so neat to see people from all different countries represented at the event. A big difference that I noticed at this Olympic event compared to an American sporting event like baseball or basketball is that the fans would cheer the same thoughout the race. They would cheer just as loud at the beginning as they would at the end even if there was no chance for their team to win. In the States most people will leave late in the game if their team is losing. It was a great experience.

I decided after watching Speed Skating that I would like to watch some other events other than that and Curling. So last night I bought tickets to Women's Arieal Skiing and Men's Biathlon. Both are Gold Medal events so that will be cool. I'm also exciting to see an event outside as both Speed Skating and Curling are indoors. To be honest I had forgotten about the Biathlon until yesterday when I was deciding what to go see. I remember watching it on TV during the 2002 Winter Olympics and thought it was pretty cool. I don't really know how they came up with skiing and shooting together but it is interesting to watch.

Tomorrow is out day off which I am looking forward to. Going to the Alps should be a lot of fun. Alright well it's time for work. Ciao!

2006-02-17T13:22:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I worked the night shift and today I worked the morning shift. It was a little bit of a struggle for me to get my butt out of bed. I know that I will never start work at 6am when I get a job. It was dark and cold when I got here but now its warm and sunny. It is such a beautiful day that I'm glad that I have the rest of the day off.

This morning all I was waiting for was my McDonalds breakfest. I think that is the best meal they have plus I'm getting sick of McDonalds lunch and the cafeteria food. I need some variety and am for a change. Well my hopes were all lost when I couldn't get my McDonalds breakfest. They did not open up the McDonalds to the volunteers until 11 and by the time we went they would only serve lunch. I was so dissappointed. I was really looking forward to food I actually wanted. So more cafeteria food that isn't so great. The food is free so I eat at the athlete village everyday but tonight I'm looking forward to a meal with good food I want.

Work has been the same as usual a lot of sitting around but always ready and prompt to help the athletes when they need something. I have seen a lot of the Olympics on television when we have down time. It is nice that everyday the Olympics puts out their own paper called the village, so I pick it up and read it. Everyday there is a Sudoku in it and I'm starting to get addicted to the puzzles.

Tomorrow and the next day I have the day off. I'm going to 2 man bobsledding with Sarah and probably goiong shopping (time to spend some money!!!) Then the next day I am determined to go to the medal cermony, so Sarah and I are waking up early to stand in line to get tickets at 7am when the ticket office doesn't open till 10am. So we are hoping to get some tickets. Plus we want to see Whitney Huston.

2006-02-17T12:46:00.000+01:00

First day of working at 6AM... Had to catch the 5:30 bus just to make sure we would be on time to work. No one in the entire village is awake but Linda, Stacey and I are all sitting at the Residence Center incase anyone needs anything for their rooms. Somehow at 6:15 Linda is loud and full of energy, while Stacey and I are half asleep watching replays of yesterdays events. The day has gone by quicker because Linda has been entertaining us and we are working with new volunteers.
As I work more at the village I have learned a lot about running events and being a manager in a sport setting. Volunteers are crucial to the event running smoothly, but if you do not have organized work for the volunteers to do things can start to crumble. We have certain task and assignments that we are supposed to do everyday, but then when there is too much relax time most of us start to feel a little restless. I believe that its not so much bad planning but just too many volunteers for the job. I feel like I am nagging my supervisors just to find out if there is more work to be done. Hopefully as the weekend starts people will be moving out and new athletes will be coming into the village and then the work pace will pick up.
This will be the first afternoon I have had off since we started work. I am going to go into the city and do a little sightseeing and possibly a little shopping. Then tonight some of my friends that I have made in Spain and in other parts of Europe are supposed to be arriving into Turin. I hope I will be able to meet up with all of them and possibly all of us will be able to go to an event together.
We have been watching the events today and it is snowing so much in the mountains that some of the events have been delayed and the snowboard event today has been extremely slow because of all the new powder on the course.

2006-02-16T20:18:00.000+01:00

This morning I got up and did a little walking around the city with Joe, Lauren and Nicole before my shift started at 2pm. We went to a huge market and took some pictures. I got a pair of pink slipper things. They are kind of rediculous, but I like them. Work today has been enjoyable as always. Have I mentioned I love the people I work with? My mom wants to know what events I am going to so here it is:

2/17 9am - curling (these were free from my supervisor. I would never pay for curling tickets, but I'd never pass up free ones either. Fortunately Lauren and Nicole also got tickets from him, so we should have fun tomorrow morning.)
2/18 my day off! The entire group actually has the day off, and we are thinking about getting away from the Olympics and travelling to the Alps to do some exploring on our own
2/19 - freestyle alpine skiing. I'm really looking forward to this. I love seeing the amazing tricks the athletes can do in the air.
2/20 - Women's Bronze Medal Ice Hockey - we don't yet know who is playing, but it should be a good game considering it is for 3rd place in the WORLD! I've never seen an ice hockey game, so I am very excited for this as well.

I got some good news today! One of my friends from high school is studying abroad in Rome, and I think she is going to be able to spend Saturday the 25th with me in the athlete village. That would be so much fun, so I really hope it works out!

Also, when I go to the skiing event, it will be the first time in my lifee seeing real snow in large quantities. It snowed once when i was VERY young in my hometown, Fort Bragg, CA, but it didn't stick, and I don't remember. What's the first thing I am going to do? Make snow angels for sure!!

Still loving every minute!

OH! And I can't forget to publicly say HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY to my little brother Jake!! Love you!

2006-02-16T20:07:00.000+01:00

So an ironic story...

As Linda has previously posted, we make fun of curling. Since we've been here, I have said many times that I will never pay money for curling tickets because curling is not a sport (no offense to anyone). I still hold true to that statement, but there is a young woman that works for the NOC-USA that comes through Guest Pass every day. She gave our crew a bunch of curling tickets and our boss, Enrico, told us to take the day off so we could go and watch it. Go figure when I say I would never pay money for curling tickets, I end up getting them for free =P. I just thought that was the funniest thing ever.

Today, Nicole, Joleen, Joe, and I did a little sightseeing around the city before our shifts. We walked around a couple of markets and picked up so breakfast. We visited Porta Palatina, a brick ruin-like structure that I saw in one of the brochures. They are planning to turn the land around it into a park so it should look really nice in a few years. Near the structure is the Cappella della Sacra Sindone (Chapel of the Holy Shroud) where the shroud of Jesus is kept. The real thing won't be displayed until 2025 or so, but they have a replica inside the church. The whole church is beautiful and the artwork is so detailed. We then stopped for some coffee and headed to work.

It was another normal day at work. Oooo, I did see Katie Couric today though! She came in and got a guest pass.

That's all for today!

Ciao!

2006-02-16T15:51:00.000+01:00

Today I decided to walk to work instead of taking the bus, it was a good relaxing walk before I had to start work. I work in Resident Services in the main athlete village. We have three different buildings where we are on call for any of the athletes. If the athletes need anything for their rooms they come to one of the resident centers and we will either give them what they need or we make the call to have the problem fixed. Sometimes I don't feel that important but today I have already had about 10 different groups of athletes from all different countries come in and ask for things so I feel as though I am making a direct contribution. A normal day so far has been working from 2PM until 10PM and next week Stacey and I will start working the morning shift which starts at 6AM and goes until 2PM. I am glad I brought along my alarm clock!
The past two days the weather has been a bit colder and when we watch the events on TV it seems to be snowing a lot in the mountains, which is good for the mountain events. I am still waiting for the snow to fall in the city! Hopefully I will get to see the snow fall at least in the mountains when Stacey and I go to a bobsleigh event on the 18th!
This weekend we have a day off and a group of us want to go to watch the Medal ceremony in the city center so I will be getting up early to stand in line for the free tickets and going to the medal ceremony and the performance for the night will be Whitney Houston, so it should be a fun time.
As Linda said she was sick of McDonalds, I would have to agree with her! I don't usually ever eat McDonalds, but it is part of our free meal so I have been eating the fries and a salad for the past three days! It is probably the most days in a row I have ever ate the stuff! So as of today I am going on strike...

2006-02-16T06:25:00.000+01:00

Oh, wow, early mornings on the bus and late nights talking to the students. Well for all of you that read Ryan's post you know that there may still be a question about curling. For my students, I contend it is still a sport!!!! However it is not my sport:). 3 hours of curling is a bit much. But the precision and strategy are to be commended. I have been working in the center where Russia comes most of the time. I have made friends with volunteers from Italy, Estonia, Portugal, India, England, and many other countries. Yesterday, my volunteer groups' picture was in the Olympic Village News. There is a young woman doing her comp test for her University in sport sociology. Another doing an ethnography on the athletes for Anthropology, and a student doing her thesis on sport marketing from Rome. She is getting credit for an internship while being here.

Today, Ryan, Brianne, and I go to watch the skeleton. The venue is over 2 hours away. This should be big fun. Of course the whole trip has been fun and educational. I spoke with my son and my border collie puppy has dug a hole in the sheetrock in his room and cannot seem to stay penned up. My Scottish boy has been full of vim, vigor, and attitude ever since he flew in from Scotland. On the 18th, most of us are going sightseeing to the Alps. We may meet up with an NBC commentator that David Lerner helped us get in touch with. Some people here have already signed up to volunteer in China and Vancouver. I would recommend for faculty and students alike that they consider such an opportunity. You learn so much about the cultural differences in time management, prioritizing, etc. Well, I better go turn on the TV, clean the floors, and take some pictures of my new friends. I think that I will be sick of McDonalds by the time I get home. We will try to download some pictures on the blog in the next few days.

2006-02-15T20:39:00.000+01:00

Hello again everyone! Sorry to report, but I haven't really seen too much more of Torino yet. I got the chance to go back to the Piazza Reale in the City Centre yesterday morning and took some pictures. We tried to get on the Today show, but it wasn't on in New York yet. Hopefully I can do some sightseeing before my afternoon shifts in the days to come.

Okay, so funny story...well just random. While Nicole and Joe went into a shop at the City Centre, Joleen and I waited outside and talked about the Valentine's Day decorations in the window. A Korean (I think) athlete came up to me and put his cell phone on my ear. My first thought was "What are you doing?" He said that he didn't understand and he wanted me to translate. I think he heard Joleen and I speaking English and thought I'd be able to understand the "non-existent number" message that was recorded by a woman with an Italian accent. It was really strange.

Well, I am hungry so I'm off to dinner...

2006-02-15T20:20:00.001+01:00

So this is draft number two for this blog, I apologize but the first one was boring me! I didn't want to put you through it too, so here goes! I am having a blast, the city is great and work is fun too. I am meeting a ton of people, and learning a bit of Italian too. It is interesting to see the different police forces working hand in hand to make this place as secure as possible, I have seen five different forces, and I am sure there are more around here! Things are interesting around the city, many different types of people, and interesting sights aside from the buildings. We have seen three car accidents in the four days we have been here! That is including the one where the train that we were on hit a car, everyone was fine, we just had to get out and walk the rest of the way! The apartment is better than we expected, but we only have one shower that has warm water so mornings are a race for the shower, it can take a while to actually get out of the house. But all in all the place is wonderful, we have experience the Italian culture and I am loving every bit of it. I miss you all, keep in touch and I will see you in the states!

2006-02-15T18:30:00.000+01:00

Ciao everyone! Today was nice for the first time I could catch up and get a little bit of sleep. Now hopefully I'll be refreshed for the rest of the trip. Today was another day working as part of the redsidence crew. It was an exciting day walking around to check the washing machines for the athletes to make sure that they were all working properly. There is always so much going on. Seeing all of the athletes walk around and get ready to do their events. Today has been overcast and colder than the rest of the days. For the past few days since we have been here it has been sunny during the day and about 40°F, which hasn't been too cold.

Yestday Sarah and I booked another event to go and see the #1 hockey team Canada. Now we are going to 4 events and I can't wait. It is so great to be able to see all of the events live and be able to feel the Olympic spirit that everyone has. It seems to make the whole world come together.

I can't believe that we have only been here 4 days and so much has gone on. Everyday I get to experience new and different things. I feel as though I learn at least 1 new thing a day. By being able to hang around so many different people from different countries makes this whole experience well worth being here.

2006-02-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

Hello again! I've had a few interesting experiences and learned a few things since I last posted. Fortunately I work in an office where I have daily access to a computer. One thing I have learned is that Italians are very into lapel pins. They are everywhere!! Everyone who has access to the villages (athletes, volunteers, security, etc.) has accredidation cards that go around your neck. Some people have pins covering the entire lanyard that goes around the neck. I have collected a couple, but not nearly as many as some people. I figure they are fun little souveniers.
I experienced real Italian gelatto for the first time two nights ago. It was amazing. I can't wait to get some more. I have also experienced a lot of public transportation since I have arrived in Italy. I went from living in Fort Bragg for so long where I never used it, to owning my own car, so I have never had to rely on it. Now, I am grateful for it so that I don't have to leave an hour before my shift starts to walk to the village. Sometimes the busses are so crowded we barely have room to breathe. Along with this, I have learned that Italians like to walk A LOT. I haven't walked so much in a long time, but it's good for me. It allows me to see a lot more of the city than I would have in a car.
Two days ago, Nicole, Lauren and I got an extended tour of the city as we got on the correct bus going the opposite way we wanted to. We didn't get off because we anticipated it making a relatively short loop around to our stop, but that short loop turned into just over a two hour busride. Oops!
I love spending time in the village. Everyone is so fun, and the atmosphere is wonderful. It's fun to see the athletes from all around the world. I just wish their uniforms said which event they are participating in.
I was involved in my first car crash two days ago. The tram I was on hit a car. Fortunately we had just taken off from a red light, so the impact was minimal and there were no injuries, but everyone who was on the tram had to evacuate, and I even snapped a couple pictures as the people around me looked on.
I have been downtown a couple times already. The architecture is so beautiful. So far, I've done more window shopping than actual shopping, but I am going to change that. I just have to remember that I only have so much room in my bag.

Until next time.... Joleen

Oh! I got an email yesterday that said there have been over 2,000 hits on the blog so far! That's incredible, and it is good to hear that so many people are enjoying our experience with us!! Thanks for all the comments everyone. Keep them coming....we love them!

2006-02-15T15:15:00.000+01:00

So its day five and I just finished my shift. I will be heading to speed skating with Joe at 5pm. This will be my first event and I am very excited about it!

Last night (valentines day here) I spent the evening by myself; everyone else was working or at curling. I was going to go to the city center and go shopping (those leather boots are calling my name) but I stayed at home so that our landlord could fix our hot water...hopefully it was taken care of this morning. So minus a few minutes here and there I slept from 7:30 until 6:30 this morning when I got up for my shift!

I am looking forward to exploring the city more tonight with Joe and Linda, Duran Duran is the concert tonight and maybe we will see them!

The last few days have been good. The group of Italians I work with are amazing; they are just so nice. The city is getting easier to understand and I am beginning to get the way they drive! Pedestrians simply do not have the right of way as Joe and I found out our second night here when we were nearly hit by a car! Its ok though we just need to not follow Linda blindly!

Well I am loving very second of our trip and we are meeting so many people from so many different nations! The info booth is definitely the place to be!

until next time,
Brianne

2006-02-15T15:08:00.000+01:00

I just got done with my third day of work. It has been a very interesting experience, it is so great to interact with some many different cultures. Everywhere you look there are people from Italy, Germany, Russia, Canada, USA, etc. So far my first three days have been good. I've gotten to work with a lot of different people most of whom are Italian but know English very well. I work in the Information and Lost & Found office.

I am very excited for tonight as Bri and I are going to go see men's and women's Speed Skating. Speed Skating is my favoriate Winter Olympic event. I also have tickets to go see Curling on the 20th. I really did not know anything about Curling until I got here but it is actually quite interesting. I've learned the basic rules and am kind of looking forward to going and watching. From what Ryan has told me it sounds boring so I guess I'll find out soon.

During the hours that I have not been working I have spent a lot of time in the city center in downtown Torino. There are a lot of interesting shops that stay open late for the Olympics. One of the things that I have been looking for is a fake Olympic Gold Metal. I just thought it would be a cool souvenier. So far I've only found a choclate gold metal but I'm still on the hunt. I've also had the plessure of experiencing gelatto or the Italian ice cream. It is very good but not quite as good as mine and Leslie's favorite place to get ice cream, Cold Stone.

Ciao!

2006-02-15T14:10:00.000+01:00

Let's talk about Curling, shall we. The venue for curling is about an hour from our flat so it took some work just to get there. Linda and I ended up with tickets to last night's women's curling matches. I say matches because in the first rounds here there are 4 different games o'curling going on at the same time. You would think that with 4 different games going on at once that there would be too much to keep track of, but you'd be wrong. As far as I can tell, curling is really just giant shuffleboard played in teams on ice. There are long periods where everyone stands around talking about what to do next, then they push the stone down the ice to a nice position only to have the other team knock it off. So after about 10 minuets we arrive were we started with nothing on the ice. You would think that it would be slow enough with all that but then they take breaks, time outs, and a halftime where they eat cheese with their coach. A halftime!

I tried to keep an open mind for this thing I really did. I realise that it takes lots of skill and that I would never be able to do it well, let alone at the Olympic level. I should say that I ended up having a good time when I started rooting against Denmark for no good reason. Still though, it is a knock on a sport when the most entertaining thing is the large group of fans from Japan with noisemakers and hats shaped like curling stones. Photos to follow later.......

2006-02-14T19:51:00.000+01:00

This is an experience of a lifetime. The village where we work is amazing, so many people from so many different places. We have been working for three days so far and I have met people from all over the world, including China, Estonia and Serbia. There are a lot of people working at the village in Turin to prepare for the 2008 summer games and the 2010 winter games, talking with these volunteers has been really interesting to see how they are preparing for the games in their cities.
Yesterday Stacey and I got a little tour of the village and we were able to see the Olympic Torch at night while standing on a bridge. It was a fabulous site to see. Yesterday we also went to watch the women's snowboard half pipe. I kept telling Stacey "can you believe this!", it was really special and I was so glad to do it with one of my best friends.
Working in the village is really fun because we get to see the ins and outs of how this large event has been put together. I have never been at an event like this and trying to understand all the preparation without attending the event would be almost impossible. All the volunteers are really nice and are always willing to explain or help us, especially because I don't understand Italian. I thought that being able to understand a little Spanish would help, which it has a little but not as much as I would like.
Hope everyone back at home, in Sevilla or at school are doing well and enjoying the Olympics!

2006-02-14T16:20:00.004+01:00

Today Sarah and I went to try and get medal cermony tickets but we were too late. Then it was time to head to work. The athlete village has been very busy with so many things going on. I have met so many new people from all over the world. It has been a great experience so far and I hope it gets even better as the time goes on.

Yestday was our first day of work and we were there to assist the athletes and coaches and help them with whatever they need. In the morning Sarah and I went to see the woman's half-pipe competition. It was so great to see the action up close. It was a long ride to the mountain. It took us about an hour and a half but it was well worth the trip.

2006-02-14T07:57:00.000+01:00

I gave up today and took the train. Yesterday I walked for my first day at work from 5:00am to 5:45am to the village. But this morning was sooooo cold I waited for the bus. Yesterday was very enlightening into how they run resident services. Most of the people I worked with spoke both Italian and English. I was the only one that did not speak Italian. We handle all of the issues that the athletes have with their housing, meetings, etc. I am working directly in the athlete village. Every where you go there are athletes from every country. All the buildings with the exception of a couple have the country flags flying. I have asked what they will do with the apartments when they finish. They will sale 1/2 to cover expenses and use the rest for low income housing. One Italian from Turin told me that until the last week, Turin was viewed as the Detroit of Italy. It is beautiful. I am going down in the next few days to take pictures of the beautiful city buildings and the river area. Today, Ryan and I are going to curling. Yea...it is REALLY a sport:).

This is a great opportunity to visit with other volunteers from other countries and find out why they are here and what they think of Americans and Italians. The young Italians working with us have us help them with their English. I met a young woman this morning who is taking a sport sociology class which is what my PhD is in. We are having great conversations. Last night 6 of us went into Torino to eat and see more of the sites. Most of the students are working the 2-10 shift today. I will never be able to match this teaching experience with any other. The students are learning about the difficulties of coordinating, scheduling, and keeping volunteers motivated. I am seeing this experience through the eyes of my bright, intelligent, wonderful companions on this trip. It will either keep me young or by the time I get back the 6am shift with the late nights with the students will do me in. Hi to Jeff, Opie, Indy, Mauree, Blaze and my family.

2006-02-13T15:34:00.000+01:00

Today was my first full shift. Yesterday Ryan and I trained. The Italians we work with are amazing. I cannot believe that I am having so much fun while working! We are attempting to learn a bit of Italian from our coworkers.

Yesterday after training for about 4 hours we went to the city center. That is where the action is! The sponsor village is there and we wandered through it for awhile. Then we saw part of the medal ceremony. Following that we went to the Olympic super store and did some gift shopping. There is not much need to get things for ourselves as the Olympics has given us a lot including a ski jacket and boots! We have gone to 2 restaurants and the food has been absolutely fantastic. We are all drinking wine or beer with our meals because water and cola are the same price or even more with no refills! Thankfully with our meals in the village we can have 2 drinks and can take them out with us so I am managing to stay hydrated.

The buses and trains are free with our accredition but we are still working on understanding the lines. I hope we figure it out soon because today was a 45 minute walk to the village from our apartment; it was quite cold but very pretty I truely enjoyed it. I cannot wait to get out and take pictures of the city in the day because everything is so lovely. Torino has done a great job in dressing up the streets.

Well I better go and explore this wonderful city!

2006-02-13T15:25:00.000+01:00

Greetings from Italy! So I'm a little behind the times but wanted to make my first post since coming across the pond. The first thing I should report is that Joe's little problem has been worked out as he made his first appearance at the village today.

As you have gathered from everyone else, all is going well here. The flat we are renting is amazing and we were even greeted by a group of small kids waving flags as we approached the building the flat is in. How cool is that? Torino is an amazingly beautiful city full of covered walks and intersting stores which all seem to sell chocolate in some form or another. As a group we took a walk through the city center last night and the way the city is lit at night is something special.

As for our volunteer work, that has been just as good. Bri, Joe and I are working the information booth in the dead center of the Olympic Village. Our supervisors are wonderful people who always take the time to explain what is going on in English. The village itself is a bit unreal-it has a bookstore, general store, hair salon, florist, bank, post office, travel agent, photo processor, mcdonald's, museum,dvd lounge, entertainment area and three gyms. Throw in housing for 2,500 and you really have something unique.

Now I think it's time for me to try and learn some Italian.

2006-02-13T14:35:00.000+01:00

So it's nearing the end of our work shift for today. Working for guest pass services isn't too difficult and there are a lot of nice (semi-English speaking) people. I haven't seen any American athletes that I recognize yet, but I keep running into our hockey team.

Last night after we visited the Village for the first time, we went downtown and walked through the Sponsors Village. The Coca-Cola section was fun and we took a picture of the polar bear :o). Oh! We got to see Kelly Clarkson performing at the medal ceremony! Well...we didn't actually have tickets, but our volunteer passes got us to the gates and everything is clear so I have some of it on video.

We're going to get tickets to see the women's hockey bronze medal match. I'm not sure what we're doing for the rest of the day, but I'll let you all know what other exciting things I see!

2006-02-13T13:59:00.000+01:00

I feel so accomplished! My first real flight was just fine. I slept over the entire mid-west on the first flight, and on the second I missed the entire Atlantic Ocean. I'm glad I got that rest because as soon as we landed in Milan, it was go-go-go! Like most have said, we got our accredidation and uniforms on the first day, and on the second we went into the Olympic Village to meet with our supervisors. Lauren, Nicole, and I each work for the Guest Pass Services. We have an office in the village that we take care of and make sure the people on the pass list get the proper pass. Within the village we also have 5 locations that we control. At each we either check people in or make sure that they are headed where they belong. The work is fairly simple, but very important.

Yesterday the three of us met with our supervisors Elena and Enrico. They are AMAZING! They are both very funny, friendly, and very hard workers. Enrico is very animated. I find myself laughing with/at him constantly. Also, almost all of the people in Guest Pass Services that I work with speak English which makes it very easy to communicate. Today, I have done a little work in the office, and I have also shadowed people at each of the 5 locations that we are in charge of. Tomorrow I will be working by myself at the locations and probably in the office as well.

Last night we walked downtown to where the sponsor village and the medal ceremonies are. Following a medal ceremony, Kelly Clarkson previewed her upcoming European Tour. We didn't get tickets early enough, so we had to stand outside, but we could still see her on the large screens and on the stag, but there she was only about 4 inches tall. Sometime next week, Whitney Houston is scheduled to perform at the medal ceremony, so I am hoping to get tickets to that one. Before we get off we will be working out our schedules around tickets we are hoping to buy. Currently we are looking at the female bronze medal ice hockey game, and maybe freestyle skiing.

We got lucky this morning with the bus to work. It is only about two blocks from our house (which is fabulous) and it dropped us off about ten steps from our entrance to the village. It was perfect, especially at 6:20 in the morning.

I am having the time of my life!!!! I will post again soon, and hopefully then I will have pictures to share with everyone.

2006-02-13T12:45:00.000+01:00

Day Three, well it started at 5:50am, after going to bed around 1am... It was a good almost 5 hours of sleep, wish I could sleep like that all of the time. I swear my head hits the pillow and I am dead to the world, which is a god thing with a snoring room mate, oh Stacey, you crack me up. I am working hard and having a blast. I have meet some really cool people from all around the world, and most of them speak English which is very nice, and I am picking up on the Italian! I have seen many athletes and even spoken to a few. One asked us if we spoke English, and when we told her that we did she said "Score" and then asked where the gym was, I actually knew the answer too! But we laughed at her saying score, it reminded me of home. I have seen a lot of women's hockey players and I think we are going to try and get tickets to one of their games. I think that will be fun. I should go, I am only supposed to use the computer at work for a little bit. Take care everyone, I will see you when I am home!

Ciao,
Nicole!

2006-02-12T16:41:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to do a quick blog because we're leaving. All is well and it looks like our volunteer area at Guest Pass is going to be relaxed and fun. I'll write more later!

2006-02-12T15:55:00.000+01:00

Well, we just met our supervisors. We are sitting in the internet place accross the street from the athlete village. Joe had to sit here 3 hours by himself because of a passport mixup. He did not register with his given name so they have help up the credential process. Hopefully tomorrow he will be able to get his uniform and credential. It has been an interesting day. They gave us directions to our assigned area and it was about 2 miles out of the way. Some of the students did not plan on walking so much. I love walking so this has been great. The weather has been great. You barely need a fleece. I start at 6am tomorrow in residence services. We will be giving out towels, sheets, soap, and whatever else the athletes need. We are working right below the Swiss Olympic Team. This has already been a great education for the students. We had to figure out how to get every where because they did not have enough information about each area.

We will try and go to a few medal ceremonies so that they can see the management issues related to the concert and medal combination ceremony. I am truly enjoying seeing the students reactions to all of our initial trials and tribulations. One of the things that we did not do well enough was learn Italian phrases. Most of the people we have encountered have not spoken English. So we have been lost more times than not. We asked at least 4 different people about getting connected to the internet and each sent us somewhere else. We are about to go learn the route home from our credential gate and then go into the City Center. We have not really seen Torino. Everyone seems to have more energy than I expected but we went to bed by 10:30 last night and everyone slept until 9. Tomorrow the fun begins; Trying to get tickets to events around our schedules, coordinating the key situation (2 keys for 9 people), and cooking for 9. I am ready for anything.

2006-02-12T13:12:00.000+01:00

Wow! Do I have a lot to update everyone on, I'll try and keep it short but that probably won't happen. So we left Stockton at 4 AM on the 10th for the airport. Our plane left at 8 AM and we arrived in Newark at around 4:30 PM. We ate dinner and then left for Italy at 6 and arrived at 8 AM the next day. It was a seven and a half hour flight plus a five hour time change. I slept for most of the flight and also watched In Her Shoes. It was either that or Elizabethtown, both chick flicks. Anyhow when we got to Italy we all exchanged money and then decided if we wanted to take the bus or the train to Torino. We settled on the train as we figured it was the most direct route. It was about a hour and a half train ride and then about a 10 block walk to our apartment. The apartment is amazing, very big. The best part is the 4 bathrooms so I won't have to worry about those all being taken up by the girls, haha. Franco, his wife and the landlord showed us around the apartment and give us tips about where we should and shouldn't go in Italy. They are all very nice. There were also, as promised, 9 beds, 6 in one room and 3 in another.

After we had settled in and decided who was sleeping where we went exploring for lunch. We found a small cafe that served sandwichs which was good because we were all very hungry. After lunch we went back to the apartment to wait for Sarah to arrive. We only had to wait about a half an hour until she arrived. By this time it was after 4 PM so we decided to go get all of our Olympic gear. It is all very nice stuff, the only problem is that I couldn't get mine. Apparently I gave them the name Joe instead of Joseph which is shown on my passport. So they made the changes in the computer and now I have to wait 24 hours until it will go through. Everyone else got there stuff which is really nice. We all realized that we didn't need to bring as much stuff as we did because they gave us so much. Included in our Olympic gear bag: A jacket, 2 fleece sweatshirts, an olympic t-shirt, snow pants, gloves, hat, ear covers and boots. I think that is everything I'm not sure because I haven't got mine yet. When we work we have to wear all of that stuff no matter what.

They eat dinner closer to 8 PM here so that is what we did after getting our Olympic gear. We found a nice pizza place, it was great. The best part of my day came after dinner though, sleep! I was exhausted and it was great to finally sleep for longer than an hour or two.

We woke up at 9 this morning and were out the door by 11. It took awhile getting ready as only one out of our three showers has hot water so we all had to cycle through. After walking for quite awhile we arrived at the Athlete Village where we will be working. That is where everyone else is right now. I can't go through yet because I don't have my pass. It's kind of frustrating but I guess it's my own fault for putting Joe instead of Joseph. Hopefully I will be able to get my pass and Olympic gear later today or at the latest tomorrow morning. We plan to start work tomorrow and I'm hopeful to get the shift from 6 AM to 2 PM. It is very early to wake up but most of the Olympic events happen at night and I really want to go to some of them. We are going to try and get tickets for speed staking, bobsleding and others. I can't wait!

Until next time... goodbye from Italy!

2006-02-11T22:21:00.000+01:00

They made it to Italy! Linda's post about the trip, the apartment and first impressions of Turin.

2006-02-10T00:34:00.000+01:00

I am finally done! I just finished my Sport in America test, I did my Spanish yesterday, I am all packed up and my stuff is by the door. It reminds me of that song... All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm standing here outside your door, I hate to wake you up to say good bye... blah blah blah... I'm leaving on a jet plane... blah blah blah, you get the picture. So the song isn't true to me, but nonetheless the situation reminds me of it! You should just be lucky you didn't have to experience me singing it! But I am really am leaving in T-minus 50 minutes to go home to spend some time with the family and my boyfriend before mom takes me to the airport in the morning. I am not really looking forward to the 5 o'clock arrival to the airport, but it is worth it. I have everything I need, I think. Warm clothes, tickets, music, and most importantly, the coolest thing ever, my photo album that brought me to tears that my roomie Rosie made me with the help of Brad, his family and my family, those sneaky kids! I think I ready for the adventure of a life time. Stay posted, I will be providing you with probably the most random Olympic updates around!

Until I'm in Italy,

Nicole.

2006-02-09T18:16:00.000+01:00

I've just finished taking my Marketing Management test and now I'm ready for a nap, but I have one more class.

Yesterday turned out to be a productive day. I did all my laundry (somehow got two free loads) and learned some Italian, courtesy of Gina. My favorite phrases that I forsee saying a lot: "Non parlo Italiano" and "Parla inglese?" I'm sure you can guess what they mean.

Goals for today, besides packing...learn to say "I'm lost" and spend time with my awesome roommate Megan, the other half of my brain, Julie, and the owner of the computer that needs to be thrown out of the window, Lindsey. Hehe. I've just realized how much I like plugging names so I will throw in a final plug for a sister, MIA, who works at RazorGator :o)

Weather update in Torino: 30 degrees.

18 hours and counting...

Lauren

2006-02-08T16:25:00.000+01:00

Well, it is a bit after 7am. I did not get to bed until 2am because I needed to get ready for classes and make sure that I had assignments for the classes while I am gone. Yesterday, I taught all day and dealt with my bank account. On Monday, I found out that someone had compomised my checking account and stolen $1700. The bank closed my account and I spent over 2 hours trying to get things straightened out. Yesterday, they were calling all day to clarify outstanding checks, etc. I am just hoping the money I spent on a rush order for another card makes it here by tomorrow. I was not even angry. Right now, my first concern is getting my school obligations in order and making sure the students are ready.

Today, I have a doctor's appointment. I need to go to the pharmacy and get prescriptions filled for the trip, teach, pickup my son at the airport (taking care of the dogs), finish planting my roses, attend to all paperwork we need when we get to Turin, and lots of other details. Then tonight the Sport Management Club is having a get together at a local pizza place so we can just visit and talk about our upcoming conference that we host in April. Today will be head spinning and probably will be when it really hits me that we are going. I know the students are a bit stressed also because they have to take tests early, do sections of assignments earlier than the rest of their class before they go, and most of them work 10-20 hours a week on campus. I have a feeling we will all sleep for hours on Friday morning when we leave. I just want all of the parents to know that I will treat your sons/daughters as I would my own. Thank you for trusting me with one of the most precious members of your family. This is going to be an experience of a lifetime for all of us, personally and professionally.

2006-02-07T22:14:00.000+01:00

As Joleen reminded me last night, I still needed to add to the blog so here it is!

I attempted to pack last night, but that just meant having my suitcases sprawled over my floor :-). It still hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to be at the Olympics! The last time I was in snow, I was a 6th grader visiting Boston. Apparently it's record snow in Torino right now so that should be an experience in itself. It's a good thing we have Gina (who just came back from studying abroad in Torino) to help us plan our trip!

I need to get ahead on some homework so it's not too overwhelming when I get back. Keep checking back for updates!

USA ALL THE WAY!!!

Until next time...arrive derci, au revoir, good bye!

Lauren

2006-02-07T08:47:00.000+01:00

Hi! I'm Joleen. I'm a sophomore at University of the Pacific in the Sport Management program from Fort Bragg, CA. I am almost the last one to say a few words before we leave the states, but better late than never! The million dollar question seems to be if we are excited. Of course, the answer is YES!!! But, that's only one of the many emotions I am currently feeling. I think when the countdown hit 4 days, it really sunk in that I am leaving the country for over two weeks on my dream vacation. We will be learning sooo much in Turin, and I have never been this eager to go to school. In essence, this is the ultimate classroom. It doesn't get much more real than this.
This is actually my first time traveling anywhere. I flew once six years ago from LA to Oakland, and I hardly remember the flight. This will also be my first time seeing real, live snow. So, this trip to the Olympics is a definate milestone for me. I've got my digital camera ready with a 1GB memory card. I just hope it's enough! And on that note, while in Turin, we are all hoping to post PiCtUrEsof our adventures, so look out for those!
It's time to return to homework, getting ahead in all my classes, easing the worries of my parents, and packing. Did we mention we are leaving at 4am?! Looks like we are sleeping on the plane.
Until Turin......

2006-02-07T07:40:00.000+01:00

Salve! My name is Stacey and I just graduated from Pacific this past December. Currently I am living back home with my parents in Oregon. Right now I'm employed at Nordstrom, which has nothing to do with what I majored in but I love fashion. I have worked there previously so it was easy to go back. I have delayed finding a job because of this wonderful opportunity to go to the Olympics. It would have been hard to find a new job and take the time off to go to the Olympics. My parents want me to find a job that has to do with my major but since I have this opportunity of a lifetime to volunteer at the Olympics, I have delayed finding something permanent. I know this experience will be worth putting off finding a job. I have been so busy working lately that I haven't started packing and I have so much to get done before I leave on Thursday.

I am flying down to Sacramento on Thursday and leaving with the group on Friday. I'm so lucky that Linda likes me because she is letting me stay in her motor home on Thursday night. Mostly to make sure I'm up at 4 am (ahhh way too early for me) to leave for the airport. I'm so excited to leave and by the end of this week I will be in Torino!

a piu tardi (see you later)

2006-02-07T02:33:00.000+01:00

I am getting so... excited?

It seems to me, that excitement just doesn't fit into my schedule at the moment. I went home and packed this weekend, I am ready to go, but I still have jobs, classes, friends, clubs, and maybe a little bit of sleep here and there if time permits. Don't get me wrong though, it is all worth it, I might be in debt to myself for a while, but the bank account with regain it's strength eventually after I return.

I can't wait to meet new people, see the sights, and I am even excited to see how 9 people living in one apartment is going to go! I think it is going to be like the Real World, but no cool house, fake job, staged fights, and MTV's support, it should be interesting.

This will be the longest time away from my parents in pretty much my entire life, and definitely the farthest away, but I think it will be an experience that I will not regret one bit. It will be tough to be away from them, miss two weeks of class, not be with my room mates, friends and my boyfriend, but I try and look past those factors to the village of athletes that is calling out my name to service their guest passes... whatever that means!

2006-02-06T23:48:00.000+01:00

Hola! My name is Sarah Freeman and I am a junior at the University of the Pacific and my major is Sport Management. I have been working and planning this trip for over a year and now there are 5 days until I will be in Torino!

Currently I am living in Sevilla, Spain and will be spending the semester studying in Sevilla and traveling to many different places in Europe. I have been in Spain already for 5 weeks and the time has flown by. During this time I have already traveled to Madrid, Barcelona, Granada and Cordoba with other students in my program. Each place brings new and exciting experiences and the Olympics are only going to bring more.

As the weeks go by in Sevilla, there is more and more news about the Olympics. Every morning I ride the bus to school and the buses have news TV's inside of them that give updates about the Olympics from the Spain perspective and talk about all the new crucial snowfall in the Alps.

I am very excited to see my Pacific friends in Torino. I have made wonderful friends in Sevilla and we have shared things that can only be experienced when going abroad and now I have a chance to share that with 7 fabulous old friends. We are all going to freeze, but it will be well worth it!

2006-02-06T22:57:00.000+01:00

Hello my name is Brianne and I am a senior sports management major at Pacific.

There are four days until we leave. I am packed but I will probably pack three more times before I go. I have a huge list of little things left to gather together still too; getting ready to leave for 17 days can certainly be draining. That is probably part of why I have such a horrible cold (which I hope will go away prior to our departure!)

I am so excited right now but I am a bit sad leaving my fiance Bryan behind especially for Valentines day. I am going to try and spend as much time as I can with him this week but his midterms are making that a little difficult. I am sure I will be so busy at the Olympics that I won't have time to dwell on missing him and home.

This will be my first trip to Europe; I am very much looking forward to the archetecture and history of Turin. I don't think there could be a more exciting trip. To travel is one thing but to go and work the worlds largest event it is incredible.

I will be working with the boys in the information booth we are being called information specialists. I have been in a fair amount of contact with our supervisors and I can't wait to meet them. I really want to see an event or two but I feel that the luge is too far away maybe I will see hockey or figure skating and I really love watching speed skating all of which will be held in the Turin Olympic Village where I will be working.

2006-02-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

Well, I can’t let Joe and Linda have all the fun-I think its time for me to give this blog thing a go. Like everyone else going I’m currently trying to get loads of things accomplished before we go. Likely I will get very little of it done, but that tends to be how things go. To give you an idea of what last week was like and what this week will be like consider the following: I have three on-campus jobs (Pacific box office, Pacific Athletics marketing, and the extremely time-consuming student government gig at ASuop), a sport management conference to plan, classes with homework, applications for Graduate School, a student club meeting (sport management group) that needs planning, a student trip to the Big West Conference basketball tournament in Anaheim to organize, a car that needs to go to the repair shop, and this trip to Italy to pack for.

Ok, so if I can just get through that list I’ll be fine. If not…………stay tuned.

Despite all of this, I am extremely excited to be working at the Winter Olympics. This is the largest and most complex sporting event in the world. I hope to have a career in international sport one day and what better place to see international sport management in action than the Olympics? This should be an amazing experience and I am grateful to Sarah Freeman and Dr. Linda Lyman for getting this whole thing set up.

2006-02-06T08:07:00.000+01:00

My last weekend before leaving was a very good one. As I will be missing Valentine's Day my girlfriend and I went to San Francisco for a day to celebrate a little early. I still can't believe that we leave on Friday. It seems forever ago that our group discussed the idea of going to the Winter Olympics. This next week is going to be very eventful. I have quite a bit of homework that I need to finish up before I leave so I can not worry so much about it. I would rather not spend my time in Italy doing homework but that might be unavoidable.

Anyone else watch the Super Bowl? It was a terrible game. The refs should be fined for calling such a poor game. It just seemed to me like they were out to make Seattle lose. Alright, sorry to vent about the game, I'm done now.

Only 5 more days!!

2006-02-04T09:28:00.000+01:00

Today I hit a wall. I have been short with lots of people. Even though the top thing on my mind is making sure that everyone is ready for the trip from paperwork, to extra memory for their digital cameras to having all of the professors on board for them missing two weeks of school, I still have to teach, meet with GM's from sport teams, and get ready for our annual sport management conference. I am lucky to have such a good group of students going on this trip. The extra work and responsibility is truly worth what I believe is going to be a great experience for all of us.

This trip is just as exciting for me as it is for the students. I was at the Munich Olympics on site during the Munich tragedy. I was only in my 20's at the time and I lost my belief that sport was just a game. I am hoping that this trip will be the Olympic experience that I missed out on in 1972. Now back to making "In case of emergency cards" for everyone in the group.

2006-02-03T07:37:00.000+01:00

Hello, my name is Joe Rugo, I am a Sophomore at University of the Pacific. I am a part of the Sport Sciences program at Pacific with my main focus in Sport Management. It is through this program that I have been given a once in a life time opportunity, the chance to volunteer at the Olympics.

I have been overseas before but have never had the pleasure to visit Italy and am very excited at this wonderful opportunity. We will be leaving on February 10th and coming home on the 27th. During these two and a half week we will be volunteering in the main athlete village. I will be working along with Ryan and Brianne in Communications/Information. One of our main goals as young Sport Management students is to observe how the ultimate sporting event is put on. Not only will this be a fun trip but it will also be an amazing learning experience.

Through out the course of our stay in Italy we will provide updates on our experiences and adventures. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have and we will try our hardest to answer them.

2006-02-03T03:38:00.000+01:00

Pacific Sport Management students majoring in Sport Sciences at the University of the Pacific are leaving on Feb. 10 to volunteer at the Winter Olympics in Torino. The eight students and their professor will arrive in Torino on the 11th, train for their jobs in the main athlete village on the 11th, and work 8 hour shifts from the 12th to the 26th.

The group has been divided up into 3 different areas in the village; credentials, information, and resident services. They will work 8 hour shifts either from 6:00am to 2:00pm or 2:00pm to 10:00pm. The group consists of 4 sophomores, 2 seniors, 1 junior, and a recent graduate of the program.

They have rented an apartment in Torino which luckily has 9 beds.

According to the person they are renting the apartment from, they will be able to walk to work. They will get a uniform which they will get to keep.

They are taking Pacific sweatshirts and t-shirts to give to all of the people in Italy that helped us make this experience happen.

If you have questions or comments about this project, please contact me or their instructor, Linda Lyman.

Buono viaggio!
Lauren Hertel
Online Editor
The Record