Morning

My morning started again with a nice walk along the beach. I think it is amazing how many people are running in the morning. I am amazed, because even my 2 km walk to the arena makes me a bit sweaty, as it is already around 24 degrees at 7 am.

Today, there wasn’t a line at the entrance, so it took me just 2 minutes to go through security (bag check) and check in.

First stop was once again Venue Media Center to meet the team (we were once again only 3) and then climbing stairs to press tribunes.

It was, once again, a very nice morning with sun and warmth. 🙂

Our first task was to set up the press tables. Removing the protective covers, tying them up and turning on the screens.

Tying up the covers is not as easy of a task as it might sound. The people, who tied them to the table, clearly had not thought of the poor suckers who have to tie them up. The piece of rope left for that is really tiny and it is branching off. It is a quite difficult task.

We were ready exactly as the journalists started arriving – great timing.

The tribunes are apparently placed so far up that the cleaning crew can’t make it before the first game. It is not our job to clean the press tribunes, but as the cleaners hadn’t arrived half an hour before the first game, we did our best to make it look representable. (they finally arrived during the first game and then bothered all the journalists. Not cool.)

The games today

Brazil vs Russia women (Brazil won 2:0) – Once again, the crowd was going wild when Brazil got points. Didn’t see many Russian supporters, but there was one journalist. 😀

Poland vs USA women (Poland won 2:1) – A very exciting game. Also attracted a lot of USA fans.

Mexico vs Italy men (Mexico won 2:1) – Once again very exciting game. Mexican team won in the end, but Italy didn’t give up easily.

Holland vs Chile men (Holland won 2:0) – This was a fun game. The Dutch fans were amazing and always in the big screens dancing and cheering. Also, Dutch players were really tall, so they were really good at blocking. There was also a shouting competition between the Chile and Holland fans. 😀 Great game.

Canada vs Holland women (Canada won 2:0).

USA vs Tunisia men ( USA won 2:0) – This game was fairly short. USA was clearly better.

There was once again samba dancers and a band during lunch time.

Lunch and afternoon

We had lunch after the first 4 games and it wasn’t as amazing today as it was yesterday. But it wasn’t bad. There was still a whole lot to choose from. Just the green salad was a huge bowl of Rucola with bunch of cherry tomatoes thrown on top.

My teammate was also looking for coffee and we did find a machine on the way out. There was only a small problem, the cups were really tiny. 😀 She just kept filling the cup and drinking and filling the cup. 😀

After lunch it had got really windy. It blew loose one of the Rio 2016 banners and flags were also highly unstable. They decided to remove them. 😀 Then, one side of the venue had no flags. 😀

We also got shades to the computer screens on the tables – they did not like the wind either. They blew in all sorts of directions. And then, it threatened to rain.

This meant that we needed to untie the covers and put them back on the tables. 😀 We did this tying an untying game all in all 4 times. 😀 At least it wasn’t boring.

There was also a guy drawing the venue. His sketch looked really cool, although I couldn’t get a proper picture of it, sorry.

End of my shift

It finally started raining a bit right as I was about to finish my shift. Lucky me, because I did not bring my rain coat.

The way back to the hostel was really cool, the sky was kinda purple and together with palm trees looked amazing. Even though, it was getting dark, it did not feel creepy to walk home alone. Well, of course until I heard loud bangs, shots or something behind me. That was a bit scary, but no one reacted, it was probably nothing 😀

I made it back to the hostel alive. 🙂 It’s not that that bad here, at least it hasn’t been so far.

Tomorrow is my day off. Time to sleep and wash my uniform. 😀 We did get 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, but with the amount that I am sweating while standing in the sun and running up and down the tribunes, it will not be enough. 😀