Here I am again in the internet cafe with my sigarette and frappe. My first day was great. I arrived at 11.00 and Helena picked me up, but dropped me after one minute again at a parking. Ouch, this was quite a little disappointing, after all the great stories of Roberto I ended up as king of the parking I thought.
A guy called John from Canada was explaining what to do, he had a list with busses and were they go and I should make sure that the athletes would be in time on the bus. That didn't sound too exited, till the first busses arrived and all the athletes came. I did my job and made sure they would get the right bus, but also talked the entire day to all possible athletes. Great stories, great fun (also with my collegues).
On my platform there are four people working and I can assure you, when the Brazilian women basketbal team arrived, no one was paying attention anymore to the weightlifters.
As Roberto has got a real schedule, I was wondering what schedule I would get. Well, they explained to me that I was a volunteer, so no shedule for me. I thought they were joking so I tried to ask everyone but everyone came with the same answer. So instead of the shifts which are normally from 07.00 till 15.00 and from 15.00 till 23.00, I have decided I create my own Rene's holiday schedule. When I'm feeling fit I will go from 11.00 till 17.00 and after a hard night I will go from 13.00 till 20.00 (yes that's zeven hours, but after 21.00 no busses leave anymore and in the last hour all those paid people may do the job).
After "work" I also made a walk through the Olympic village. This gave me really the feeling to belong to the biggest family in the world, the first athlete I recognised was Leontien van Moorsel (and after that some name of her husband which I forgot) but that wasn't as impressive as all those smiles on the faces of all people comming from all those countries.
Tomorrow the Olympics start, as we don't have tickets for the opening we have decided that we are going to watch the opening in the Heineken Holland House, which will probably mean I am going to start my job on Saturday at around 13.00.
Yesterday I didn't really understand Roberto screaming that he was planning to book his ticket to Beijing but from my experience today I can reccomend everyone to volunteer at such an event once in your live, it is amazing.
Rene
P.S. Today I got a call from my girlfriend somewhere in the bush (no not da Bush) in Thailand, she had made a two day jungle trip and was experiencing the trip of her life. Climbing waterfalls, discovering new species of animals etc. From here in Athens I would give her and her girlfriend Fleur with whom she is a big kiss !! As from tomorrow I'm afraid the only jungle I will see is the Holland Heineken House and all the athletes are allready new species to me (I saw a guy going to the training of the modern Penthatlon or something, what kind of sport is that ????)
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