9 days to go to the Olympic Winter Games!

So sorry for neglecting my English blog, but the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster for me. Long story very short, work has been totally crazy after we have returned from the new years break and because recruiting is still in process I worked between 50 to 70 hours a week. VANOC is now on Operational Time and that means working 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm (there's supposed to be a shift system to avoid people working more than 10 hours a day, but it didn't really work for me, I still worked 12 hours to get everything done). Anyway, three days ago I had the pleasure of looking at the MOC, VANOC's Operations Centre with representatives from each function in and ouside of VANOC. The MOC responds to everything happening in regards to the Games and whenever there's a crisis or something that needs to be dealt with (competition delays or postponements, snow issues, traffic problems etc) the MOC is reacting accordingly. There's also the TOC, the Technical Operations Centre with I don't know how many computers monitoring EVERYTHING. Also the Helpdesks, Timing and Scoring for the competitions and computer geeks are located there.

Last Saturday I had my job specific training at the Pacific Coliseum, where we had the chance to practice with X-Ray machines, wands and mags and get the teams to work together for the first time as so far every function of the team has had their own trainings. This time, Screeners, X-Ray Operators and Supervisors for the first time worked and practised together what they have learned before in their training sessions. From my point of view it was far from perfect, but there is heaps of time to practise during quiter hours at work and to get up to speed with the whole process.

Today I attended my venue familiarization at BC Place / Canada Hockey Place, which is my assignment for the Games. An impressive venue and I am quite excited about being stationed here. To give you a quick overview about the upcoming events, Canada Hockey Place will host all Men Hockey Matches and all Hockey Medal Matches (Men and Women). BC Place is the venue for the opening and closing ceremony for the Olympics and the opening ceremony for the Paralympics, also all victory ceremonies at the end of the competition days. A busy place not only with all the athletes, spectators and media but also the 9500 people strong workforce team including 950 GSS security people (that's me) and 500 police officers from all around Canada.

Compared to Whistler, Vancouver will be reasonable quite during the Paralympics as most of the competitions will take place in Whistler and only the sledge hockey will be hosted in Vancouver. For me that means that I won't be needed for the Paralympics. First of course I was disappointed, had I counted with more shifts to work to earn more money, but hey, that's life. You should always have a back up plan and that fell into place quickly. In no time had I registered to volunteer for the Paralympics in Whistler, had assigned myself a job in the Athletes Village and organized a bed to stay as well - one of the many bonuses of working for VANOC. I am particularly excited about this opportunity for many different reasons; the chance to finally see Whistler, to stay there for more than just a few days/nights and being able to work alongside many of my fantastic VANOC colleagues; can't wait for this awesome experience!

And more news to come. After having worked so hard over the last few months I think I deserve a break and boost of motivation to start my new job in April (it's all wrapped up and papers signed) so I will go on a road trip with two good friends from work. We are thinking of hiring a car, driving to Calgary, Banff and Jasper National Parks, back to Vancouver in 2 weeks. I am so looking forward to seeing the Canadian Rockies and I guess my camera will be happy too, to be taken out of the closet and being used again!

Alright, that's it for now, enough news and information to take in. I try to give as many updates during the Olympics as possible but I have no idea how busy or tired I will be. But let's start it off with loads of good intentions!

Let the Games begin!!!
Katja :))