First part of the day
Today we have reached to quarter finals in beach volleyball. This means that the first game starts at 16:00, therefore I needed to be there at 14:00.
The first part of the day I spent walking along the beach, went past the Rio official shop and I bought a volleyball. I hope to get it signed by both male and female winning teams, but we will see how that goes. 😀
The weather was amazing and maybe even a bit too warm and sunny, as I was thinking about standing on the tribunes grilling in the sun. 😀
Second part of the day
Today at check-in we received a present. A pin to add to our collections. 😀 It was nice of them, although I was hoping to get a beach volleyball pin, but we didn’t get that. It’s probably too valuable. 😀 (costs 30 reais in the shop = around 60 DKK or around 8.4 EUR)
I helped around in the venue media center until at 15:00, when we moved to the tribunes. The first game was Brazil vs USA men and as usual we expected a lot of spectators. The only tiny problem was that I was alone at the upper tribunes.
So, as there came a lot of thirsty journalists, I had to run up and down to fill the water supplies, hence I got quite some stair training today.
I was just glad that the sky was cloudy by this time and there was a nice breeze, then I wasn’t cooking.
Gone with the wind
In the middle of the game, a really strong wind picked up. All of our table covers and monitor covers started flying around. Eventhough, we had tied them well. There are some ropes that have disappeared or untangled so they are impossible to tie and these covers were now flying and disturbing the journalists.
At this point, I had Mark (press tribunes manager) and another girl helping me, but the covers are really vicious. I got slapped a lot when they just flew into my face. 😀 One time the cover decided to just hit me in the head. 😀 Funnily enough, it happened at the exact moment when Alessandro (press operations manager) came to ask me how I was doing. 😀 Not so well at that point, but otherwise great. 😀
The wind also affected the flags and light poles. They had just put up the flags again this morning (after taking them off in the preliminary games due to heavy winds) and I felt sorry for them, thinking that they have to take them down again, because all flags were coming loose. Well to be honest, everything was waving in the wind… also the posts with projectors.
Today a camera fell on top of some spectators in the Olympic stadion, hopefully we won’t have projectors falling at beach volleyball. 😀
The wind was strong enough that they evacuated the upper tribunes during the second game. All spectators were moved to the lower tribunes, I stayed with the journalists and right after the game they all also ran away. 😀
Not all of the journalists took their stuff with them. Two journalists left their computers and bags on the table and went down to interview the players. We waited and covered the tables until they returned and were happy to find their stuff still there.
But really bold of them for leaving their stuff just like that, without telling anyone.
The games today
USA vs Brazil men (Brazil won 2:1) – Very exciting game. USA gave a great battle to the Brazilian team, but were defeated.
Netherlands vs Netherlands men (Netherlands won 2:0) – It is funny with two teams from the same country. It is weird to choose a side to cheer for. No matter what one team from that country will still get further to semi-finals.
Evening
After emptying the tribunes, I went to the media center to see when the dinner time started. Today I was working late enough to get a a dinner ticket instead of lunch. Dinner started at 18:30 and when I went there, I waited in a long line. I have not seen that big of a line before, but that was probably because no one was allowed at the tribunes.
Dinner is kinda like lunch. Still dessert, salad, main course. But with the difference that there was also soup. I didn’t take it – it was Asparagus soup. It haunts me even in Brazil. 😀
And desserts here are unbelievably sweet.
After dinner I went back to the media center. It was planned the at 19:30 they will take a picture of all volunteers on the tribunes. But as no one was allowed there, that didn’t happen. 😀
I got home a half an hour earlier and I was happily walking until it started raining. 😀 The weather was not my friend tonight.