Kalina at the Olympics

August 9- The Antique Market

Xin Qi Tian, Ba Yue 9
Sunday, August 9
The Olympics has started! Today, you could really feel it. I was working in transportation at the hotel, and it was another crazy day! We ran the schedule that is now going to be more of a normal day. We sent off buses to different venues, continuous shuttle [...]

August 8- Opening Ceremonies!!!

August 7- The Guests

Xin Qi Xin Qi Si, Ba Yue 7
Thursday, August 07
               One day!!! Tomorrow is opening!! I just can’t even believe it… it really is here. For over a year, I have listened to my mom talk about 8-8-08, yet, I never thought that it would actually come! Today was another crazy day… with guest arriving, [...]

August 6- Tying up the loose ends

Xin Qi San, Ba Yue 6
Wednesday, August 6
            Two days until Opening Ceremonies!!! And today, it is so much more apparent that the games are about to begin. Throughout our offices, everyone is just running around preparing their department for the arriving guests, going to meetings, briefing people, briefing some more people, and most of [...]

August 5- Scouting out the City

August 4- The Olympic Green

Xin Qi Yi, Ba Yue 4
Monday, August 4
Today I got to go out to the Olympic Green. The Olympic Green is where all the main stadiums and attractions are, including the hospitality tents. I went with the food and beverage team to have a look at all the hospitality tents and a tour of the [...]

August 3- The Transportation Team

Xin Qi Tian, Ba Yue 3
Sunday, August 3
Today I got “drafted” to a different department. For the past few days, I have been working on the amenities team, but starting today, I am part of the transportation team as well.
This was their team’s first day of training, so I sat in on that. When I [...]

August 2- The Warehouse… Round 2

Xin Qi Liu, Ba Yue Er
Saturday, August 2
This was a very crazy day, yet, nearly nothing interesting happened! I went out to the warehouse again, but this time it was with the local staff on the amenities team. With their help, the job was so much easier. On the amenities team, what we had to [...]

August 1- Out with the Locals

Xin Qi Wu, Ba Yue 1
Friday, August 1
            Today, the staff had a break between orientation and their first day of work. Two of the local girls that I had been working with the past few days offered to take me out to see the city with them. They were both 20 or so, yet, [...]

July 31- Staff Orientation

Xin Qi Si, Qi Yue 31
Thursday, July 31
Today was staff orientation day. In order to run the program smoothly, there were about 150 local staff hired. Most of these people are in college here in Beijing and are nearly fluent in English and Chinese… or can at least understand English. From these staff, they are [...]