When I was little, we used to play a game with my dad before bed that we appropriately named "I'm not ready". This game consisted of me and my siblings jumping on my parent's bed and my dad had to grab us, but he wasn't allowed on the bed. When he caught us, he would throw us over his shoulder and bring us to bed, one by one. Just so you know, even though I'm the youngest, I almost always "won" by being the last one left jumping on the bed. I don't really know why, but this seems like a good analogy for what's going on with the Olympics right now, so I'm going to go with it for now.
The Olympics are inevitable. They can't be postponed or negotiated, but they are set in stone, just like my childhood bedtime. Outwardly, to the untrained eye, Vanoc looks ready, just as I had my pajamas on and teeth brushed before playing the pre-bedtime game, and to anyone who wasn't my parent, I appeared ready for bed. But on the inside, I was not ready, and neither are they. This job is so disorganized. Hopefully they get their act together before the world gets here.
This job is through the co-op program at school, and although it has almost nothing to do with my degree aside from that it is connected to the transportation for the olympics, which is sports-related, and kinesiology is sports-related too. It is also designed to help us with direction for what career path we intend to take in the future. I am confirming I am not cut out for office jobs. I hate being stuck behind a desk. It is so dull and boring and I feel so sluggish. I think I get more exercise being in school, because I don't sit for a whole 8 hours in class. I've been considering the PDP program for highschool education at either SFU or UBC, but it scares me. I was a bit of a brat to teachers in highschool, and I wasn't near the worst one, and I think my antics would annoy myself, if that makes sense. Maybe I can learn to deal. I don't really know many other options with a kinesiology degree. Seeing as I graduate soon, I need to start figuring this out...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Bored
So I finally started "working" now, which is good, but everything is still so disorganized, it's driving me nuts. I put working in quotations because I'm not exactly doing anything right now.
I got hoe from a wedding reception on Saturday night, and decided to check my email because I was supposed to have heard something from Gameday regarding my start date and schedule. Sure enough, I got an email, and when I opened my schedule, it said I start 10am on Sunday, and that I needed to check in to my hotel and then wait for my supervisor to come and train me. So, I showed up and checked in without having anything because I had no time to pack. I'm staying at the Quality Inn in Surrey at least until March 5. There are 2 other RAs at my hotel, and we have to share a room, which has a main, typical hotel room, with a second bedroom with 2 beds in it, so 3 beds in total. We also have a kitchenette, with microwave, kettle, stove and fridge. It's all tiny, but functional.
So I check in, and one of the other girls showed up, and we just hung out in the room getting acquainted and waited for some direction. A manager finally showed up at around noon, but he didn't have much more information for us as he hadn't been told anything either, except that we had a few drivers showing up who needed to sign an agreement that they would behave at the hotel.
So between the 3 resident advisers at my hotel, there are 3 different shifts each day; one person covers midnight-8:30am, one person 8am-4:30pm and one 4pm-12:30am. I got lucky and scored the 8-4:30 shift, 6 days per week. The downside is, since we are all sharing a room, people are constantly coming and going at weird hours, so I think sleep will be limited. What a gong show this all is. Crazy.
As for right now, I'm sitting on a couch in my hotel room, trying to occupy myself with things to do till 4:30. There really is nothing. So I'm getting paid close to $18 per hour to hang out at a hotel.
I got hoe from a wedding reception on Saturday night, and decided to check my email because I was supposed to have heard something from Gameday regarding my start date and schedule. Sure enough, I got an email, and when I opened my schedule, it said I start 10am on Sunday, and that I needed to check in to my hotel and then wait for my supervisor to come and train me. So, I showed up and checked in without having anything because I had no time to pack. I'm staying at the Quality Inn in Surrey at least until March 5. There are 2 other RAs at my hotel, and we have to share a room, which has a main, typical hotel room, with a second bedroom with 2 beds in it, so 3 beds in total. We also have a kitchenette, with microwave, kettle, stove and fridge. It's all tiny, but functional.
So I check in, and one of the other girls showed up, and we just hung out in the room getting acquainted and waited for some direction. A manager finally showed up at around noon, but he didn't have much more information for us as he hadn't been told anything either, except that we had a few drivers showing up who needed to sign an agreement that they would behave at the hotel.
So between the 3 resident advisers at my hotel, there are 3 different shifts each day; one person covers midnight-8:30am, one person 8am-4:30pm and one 4pm-12:30am. I got lucky and scored the 8-4:30 shift, 6 days per week. The downside is, since we are all sharing a room, people are constantly coming and going at weird hours, so I think sleep will be limited. What a gong show this all is. Crazy.
As for right now, I'm sitting on a couch in my hotel room, trying to occupy myself with things to do till 4:30. There really is nothing. So I'm getting paid close to $18 per hour to hang out at a hotel.
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Truth Comes Out
Watching the Winter Olympics has been one of the highlights of my university career. I remember back in first year, winter of 2006, Torino Italy, cutting classes to watch events with Jackie. TVs were propped up around campus with crowds of people huddled around watching whatever happened to be on at the time. I don't like crowds, neither does Jackie, so we managed to discover a lecture hall in the Computer Science hallway with constant Olympics coverage projected on the wall, comfortable seating, and no one else in the room. Every chance we had, we would sit in that room and watch everything from curling to bobsleigh. When I found out the Olympics would be here in 2010, I couldn't wait for this year to come. It seemed so far off then...
When the opportunity came up to get a job with the Olympics, I jumped at it. It seemed too good to be true. For those that don't know, I was offered a job as a resident advisor. I didn't know what that was, but I was told I'd be living at Olympic Village for free, get a bunch of free clothing, and it was going to be great. I was so excited for this opportunity to rub shoulders with the athletes.
I had a training session today, and some of my dreams were shattered. Apparently I don't know how to speak Vanoc-anese - let me explain. It turns out that "Athlete's village" actually means "random hotel at some location in the lower mainland", "free clothing" translates to "black and orange coat", "athletes" means "bus drivers", and "resident advisor" is really "hotel concierge". Basically, I am going to be living at a hotel for 2 months, but they haven't told me where yet, and send bus drivers on their way to their shuttles to take them to the bus depot. I get to give out meal tickets, make sure they have their cell phones, and contact hotel front desk if a bus driver is being a tool and needs something. I get money for food. And I am going to be nowhere near Olympic venues. Not exactly what I had in mind.
When the opportunity came up to get a job with the Olympics, I jumped at it. It seemed too good to be true. For those that don't know, I was offered a job as a resident advisor. I didn't know what that was, but I was told I'd be living at Olympic Village for free, get a bunch of free clothing, and it was going to be great. I was so excited for this opportunity to rub shoulders with the athletes.
I had a training session today, and some of my dreams were shattered. Apparently I don't know how to speak Vanoc-anese - let me explain. It turns out that "Athlete's village" actually means "random hotel at some location in the lower mainland", "free clothing" translates to "black and orange coat", "athletes" means "bus drivers", and "resident advisor" is really "hotel concierge". Basically, I am going to be living at a hotel for 2 months, but they haven't told me where yet, and send bus drivers on their way to their shuttles to take them to the bus depot. I get to give out meal tickets, make sure they have their cell phones, and contact hotel front desk if a bus driver is being a tool and needs something. I get money for food. And I am going to be nowhere near Olympic venues. Not exactly what I had in mind.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Olympic Woes
Year 2010 has begun like no other in the history of my life. First off, over Christmas holidays, my mom got a herniated disc and has been a little out of commission since. That, however, has not prevented her from traveling to the other side of the world with my dad to go to Seoul Korea for a wedding. They left yesterday morning. I guess my mom is tougher than I thought. ;)
My opa fell on New Years Day, bringing him to the hospital with a broken hip. He had surgery the same day and is recovering in the hospital.
I was supposed to start work with VANOC on Jan. 4 as a resident adviser in athlete's village until after the Paralympics. VANOC hired another company, Angus One, to run the co-op students (which includes me), and the process is taking longer than they expected. So, I found out Jan. 1 that the start date would be Jan. 8 and we would get more information before then. Today came, and still no word, so I emailed Angus One asking for some info. They said they're behind schedule and training wont start till next week because nothing is up and running yet.
This has been the most stressful pre-work experience I have ever had. I really hope the job isn't this stressful. So now, I get another couple days of holidays...and I'm starting to get bored.
My opa fell on New Years Day, bringing him to the hospital with a broken hip. He had surgery the same day and is recovering in the hospital.
I was supposed to start work with VANOC on Jan. 4 as a resident adviser in athlete's village until after the Paralympics. VANOC hired another company, Angus One, to run the co-op students (which includes me), and the process is taking longer than they expected. So, I found out Jan. 1 that the start date would be Jan. 8 and we would get more information before then. Today came, and still no word, so I emailed Angus One asking for some info. They said they're behind schedule and training wont start till next week because nothing is up and running yet.
This has been the most stressful pre-work experience I have ever had. I really hope the job isn't this stressful. So now, I get another couple days of holidays...and I'm starting to get bored.
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