Morning

I am glad that I am not the only volunteer in the room. We were 2 who had to wake up early today. So it wasn’t just me receiving sleepy mad faces 😀

But, I woke up at 06.30 and was supposed to be at the arena 07:30, as it was the first day. It didn’t really go as planned. 😀 At 7:15 I was still at the hostel and finishing my breakfast, then I was in a rush.

Although, I was also thinking that I have already seen the venue, so I wasn’t running. 😀

The morning was really nice and calm, but already really warm. So it was shorts weather. When I got to the workforce entrance, there was a long line of volunteers waiting to get in. So, I actually got into the venue a bit past 8.

Not that anyone noticed. 😀 As it was the first day, everyone were running around trying to fix some last minute things.

My first stop was the Venue Media Center, there I found the Press Operations manager and my other team members.

It did take us about half an hour of waiting until we got to the tribunes. Then it turned out that we were supposed to be 6, but only 3 showed up. We were a little low on staff you might say. 😀

My workplace

I work at the press tribunes where the photographers are and written press (people that come there to actually take notes and write their stories).

That is my view. 😀 Not bad!

As today was the first day, we needed to plug in the screens on the tables and also remove the protective plastic from the tables.

When working with the screens, we found out that the weather is not their friend. Almost all the screens look like that:

But almost all were still working. Yeei! 🙂 Although all journalists were amused by them. 😀

Our job is to make sure that the press is able to write their articles. We also supply them with water. (Our water supply is on the ground floor and we are usually high up, so it is a nice training.)

We don’t have a fridge up on the tribunes, so we only take 1-2 packages at a time. Otherwise, the water will get warm and that’s not good.

First games

The games are divided up so that there are 4 games (lasting up to 1h) and then there is a longer break (around 1h 30m) and then they start again.

The first four games were:

Italy and Austria men (Italy won 2:0)

Brazil and Canada men (Brazil won 2:0) – It is amazing to be there when Brazil is playing. The venue is full of people and they go crazy when Brazil scores. Also when it was Canada’s turn to serve, they were really loudly shouting out, “BOOOOOOO”. It was brutal.

Australia and Costa Rica women (Australia won 2:0) – The first half of the game the score board said that it was men that were playing.

Spain and Argentina women (Spain won 2:0) – The crowd was once again crazy, but couldn’t make up their mind about who to cheer for 😀

It is really awesome to see the emotions and skills on the field and tribunes. It is hard to describe.

The first 3 hours was clear blue sky and sunshine. It was really really hot. Water and shade were our best friends. Also, when it is that warm, people tend to need more water. That means more training for us. 😀

After the first 4 games, I went to have lunch. Every morning, we go through a check-in process where we get a lunch ticket, water and sun cream. We have to show these lunch tickets to the catering staff and then we have a buffet. The food is really good and there is a lot to choose between. Win!

My lunch today (already managed to eat some before I thought about making a picture):

Afternoon

Before the next set of games, there were some samba dancers to entertain the audience. I saw them next to the Venue Media Center, getting ready.

My shift lasted until 17:00, so I only saw one and a half game more. Surprisingly, most of the press tribunes were empty. Maybe they came later, but after lunch we didn’t have much else to do than watch the games.

We did not complain. We had amazing seats. 😀

My last games of the day were:

Brazil and Czech republic women (Brazil won 2:1) – This was the first match that actually went further than 2 games. It was a really exciting match, the crowd agreed. 😀

USA and Qatar men (USA won 2:0) – The USA team was clearly better than the Qatar team. 🙂

Tomorrow again at 8 am 🙂

Here are some pictures of the games today: