11-Feb-2006

Holy wow the Olympics are here. Yesterday I did the last part of my volunteering. It wasn’t anything overly exciting, we got to start packing up the whole team processing center. There were a lot of people so I got to leave early and I made it home just in time to try and get on the Today Show which is going to be in Torino everyday for the next two weeks. My friends from the UP, Anna and Mandy, made a sign that said, “Say ya to da UP eh!?” and they definitely made it on TV. Not only once, but twice! It was pretty exciting to see the stage set up for the show and hear everything in English.

Right as that was getting done, everyone lined up for the torch! So I got to see that too! Didn’t get as many good pictures as I would have liked, but definitely got to see it and have proof. There were tons of people milling around and trying to get as close as possible, so it was a pretty tight packed operation.

While all this was going on I found out that they needed someone to help out at the Canada house for the party that evening. My friends had all done it and gotten about 80 euro each time so I was more than willing to get a piece of the pie. Seth and I both decided to do it and made our plans to head over around 7pm. The party they were throwing was for the opening ceremony and they had humungous big screen TVs set up so in addition to working, we got to see the ceremony in English! I am quite amazed by this English translation since we’ve only seen things in Italian up until now.

We worked all night, and I had blisters on my feet because I borrowed some shoes L but it was a good time. When the end of the night came, the people we were working with hooked us up with some tickets to come back but didn’t make any movement toward getting us money. I asked them when we would get paid and they acted surprised! Like they had never even heard of that notion. So I’m not thinking this is a super shady deal and I’m getting less and less happy by the second. But they gave us a phone number of a lady to call and they were supposed to tell her what was going on. Fast forward, I called the number and it doesn’t work. So, I’m going to talk to my friends who have been working closely with them and get to the bottom of this.

On the up and up, Al arrives today! I have to pick him up from the airport at 2:15pm. How exactly this whole process is going to work, I have yet to figure out, but I think I have a pretty good idea. I think he’s pretty nervous about getting here and having people speak in another language. So I’m really going to torment him and take him to the market where he’ll have no idea what is going on. Yay for me! J Nah, we’ll have a good time and I hope we figure out some sort of travel plans so I don’t feel like the loser who didn’t travel. That would be no good. So I’m off to think about going for a run, notice I said think J

Non fare cosi! (You don’t have to worry, also another favorite slogan)