Blogs from Gangwon-do, South Korea, Asia - page 2

I'm still sick. On Tuesday I called the USOC boss and she told me to come in to see the USA doctor. Unfortunately that entails a 40 minute bus ride on a "too warm" bus. Going from a warm dormitory to cold air to a warm bus triggers my coughing every time. The USA personnel examined me and felt it was better to see the other doctor at the other village (GVL - back closer to where I live). Apparently the doctor at PVL is an ortho doctor and wouldn't be there till the afternoon, and the doctor at GVL is internal medicine, so off I go for a 30 minute bus ride to GVL, and another coughing fit. The doctor at GVL did a thorough exam and wanted some tests done. He did a throat ... read more

I want to explain how we get to live at a university dormitory for such a long time. The Koreans have January and February off, so there are thousands of volunteers occupying 3 universities. Living in a dormitory has it's challenges though: dormitory etiquette, food, and transportation. My roommate Sabria & I changed rooms because we were with 2 Russian women that liked to stay up late. Now we are with Stephanie from China & things are much better. Unfortunately there's no lobby or area to hang out & talk, so people end up talking in the halls. And then there's the food. We used to get our food here with a paper meal ticket. Well, they changed that. Now we have to sign up on a website by 18:00 for the next day. This caught ... read more

You know it's cold outside when even the Russian volunteers from Moscow are complaining about the cold. How cold? Here in Gangneung where we are living it has been -14C (Tristan, your homework assignment it to figure out how to convert from degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit. Also, at what temperature are the Celsius and Fahrenheit the same?) (I'm giving my grandson homework assignments while writing this blog.) In PyeongChang, in the mountains it was -20C. There is a high pressure system over western China that is supposed to ease soon. Wednesday, Jan. 24 We continued our training with an all day session. Many of us will be driving (me included) and we had to get our US driver's license, International Driver's license, and passport copied and sign forms for driver responsibility. The insurance is covered by ... read more

In 2 days I will be on a flight to South Korea to volunteer for the Winter Olympics. My role is a National Olympic Committee Assistant to Team USA. My duties are (this is an excerpt from my acceptance letter): - assisting their assigned NOC/NPC delegation with translation, driving, office work and other related duties from the day of their arrival to departure; this could be from as early as the Pre-Opening of Olympic/Paralympic Village(s) to no later than the Closing of Olympic/Paralympic Village(s). - assisting the NOC/NPC Service Team to help the operation of the NOC/NPC Services Centre(s) in Olympic/Paralympic Village(s). - assisting NOC/NPC Assistant Team with the management of the NOC/NPC Assistant Programme. They refer to teams as "delegations". Basically I'm a Personal Assistant to Team USA. Many people have asked me how I ... read more

Today is day we go to Pyeongchang(hometown of Halahbujee, Harmonee and Ann). While most of the Lee and Hwang families are in Canada now, we have a few family members, Pyeongchang Aunt and Uncle, who still live in Pyeongchang so a visit to Korea wouldn't be complete without a trip back home. (Pyeongchang Aunt is cousins with Halmonee. Halmonee's mother and Pyeongchang Aunt's father were brother and sister.) We took subway to Gangbyeon Bus Terminal to purchase tickets early this morning. We didn't account for the long weekend* and tickets were sold out for morning and afternoon buses to Pyeongchang. The last train at 4:30p had a few seats open so we figured better late than never. *Monday Aug 15th is a national holiday in Korea - Gwangbokjoel - known as liberation day, the holiday marks ... read more