My call time is not until 9:00 this morning, but since I'm still on Knoxville time, I didn't fight waking up early to get a bright start on my first day working in Whistler. To clarify, I'm not actually in Vancouver, I'm in a little town 3 hours north called Whistler. That's where all of the skiing/biathalon stuff is happening, not to mention the Whistler Medals Plaza where I'll be working as a camera assistant.
Last night I didn't really get to touch on my experiences once I arrived in Whistler, so here it is.
While I was on the bus to Whistler, I needed to contact my logistics manager to let him know that I would be arriving and to find out when I would need to show up for work the following morning (this morning). I needed to find out where to get my credentials so I could tell the bus driver where to drop me off. When he told me that he didn't have my information in any of his things, I decided the best course of action was to go straight to the hotel, where I knew I had a roommate and a room with in my name.
The bus dropped me off outside of my hotel, but because of the set-up of the suites, I soon realized that I needed to walk all the way around a little maze of sidewalks to get to the front door - that what I thought was the front of the hotel was actually the back! Thus begins my navigation blunders of the night. But more on that later.
The first Asburian I saw was Rachael Woodward - a fellow "new hire" like myself. She had been there a few days already, and was able to tell me everything I needed to do. It was totally weird to walk into the empty hotel suite and see someone else's things scattered around - I felt like I was breaking in somewhere I did not belong! My next goals were to find the accredidation center (I had heard several different names/locations for it along the way), and find somewhere with internet so I could stay up-do-date on details for the trip. I left a note in the card slot outside the door to let my roommate, Julie, know where I was and how to contact me. Then, I headed off to explore the town of Whistler!
Whistler is a resort town, so there are resort hotels, shops, and restaurants at every turn. I like to think that I'm an excellent navigator, so I attribute my utter failure to the sun already setting, and the fact that basically every building looked like the next. I would be so sure that the path I was headed would take me where I wanted to go, but because there wasn't too much light, the path I thought I was on was not the path that would take me where I needed to go - true to life, is it not?
After more walking than I care to relate (and countless wrong turns), I got my credentials, picked up my uniform at my boss' s apartment, found friends, went to dinner, and bought groceries for breakfast and lunch. I have a feeling I'll be in great shape when this is all said and done!
A note: pin trading is highly popular at any Olympic Games. So far, I've collected pins from my friend at USA Today and Visa pins from the pizza cafe where I had dinner. I hope to trade these pins for all sorts of exciting ones while I'm here!
I'm signing off here, it's time to get ready for my first day of work!
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