First day at work

The bus ride out to Krasnaya Polyana is long, about 50 minutes from the main media centre, but it definitely has it’s perks. The rolling hills soon turn into the Caucasus Mountain range, and all I have to do to enjoy is sit back on the comfortable bus and gaze out the window. From my residence, it takes a solid 1.5 hours to get to work. Sounds long and tedious, but I am one of the lucky ones. As a press volunteer, I have access to the media transportation system. After speaking to volunteers outside my function who have told me it can take 2 - 2.5 hours, I am grateful to be where I am.

The first thing I noticed in the mountain cluster was the lack of snow. The mountain peaks were covered in the white stuff, but I was surprised at how brown the rest of the topography was. The most stark difference from these mountains to the Rockies in Canada is the lack of evergreen trees. Deciduous trees dominate the landscape. In the middle of winter, their naked brown branches make for an almost depressing sight. Fall is probably an amazing time to see these mountains. Right now however, like the rest of the country, brown is the dominate colour. 

On the other hand, our uniforms make up for any lack of colour elsewhere. Another volunteer coined the term ‘walking bag of skittles’ and it describes the garments perfectly. The design is a patchwork quilt of all the local patterns from across the country. I am most excited to hit the slopes back home next winter knowing probably no one else will have the same snow suit. We were given everything we’d need for the cold weather of the mountain cluster, including thermal underwear, snow boots and heavy duty winter gloves. Thank you Sochi 2014 for the most unique souvenir a girl could ask for!

Orientation at the Sanki sliding center involved a powerpoint (about an hour long), completely in Russian. On my team of 13, there is only one other native english speaker - a gent from Britain. We both sat through the entire presentation without any translations available. Thankfully some of the photos were self-explanatory. I guess if it was really important, they’d let us know? 

My crew at Sanki - Press Assistants

View from Sanki

Sanki - Gondola connects all venues

The Sanki media centre can hold 280 journalist/photographers, and we’ll have 6 press assistants on per shift (two shifts per day). Tomorrow it all begins at 5 am. A quick breakfast of porridge and blini (russian crepes), followed by the three buses to my venue and a 5 hour shift. I’m grateful to have the mountains as my backdrop for the Olympics. While the sea is beautiful, my heart lies in the mountains. 

Dinner of borscht

Breakfast of blini