Blogs from South Korea, Asia - page 13

Saturday, February 10 Sabria & I decided to go to Gangneung Olympic Park (GOP) today. We took the TC5 bus from CKU campus, did the security check, and we were on our way to explore. The Olympic Park has lots of interesting things to check out, and if you don't mind standing in line like at Disneyland, then you can do some fun stuff & get cool stuff. Unfortunately we were there on Saturday & many families were there and the lines were long. We did a few things like the Coca Cola photo, then you # it on social media & get a pin. They have a McDonalds here (also with a long line), Korea & Japan hospitality houses, Samsung, North Face, & the Super Store where you can spend a Super amount of money! ... read more

Don't jump to conclusions - I didn't go to the Opening Ceremony. We went to a viewing party at the Holland Heineken Hospitality House. I'm not feeling totally well yet but I wasn't going to miss this one. The HHH is one of many hospitality houses from different countries. Some are open to the public, some not. Here's an article about the Hospitality Houses. I apologize for where the photos end up - I have no control over that. Ken Hanscom Your guide to everything PyeongChang 2018. Olympics planning, tickets, sponsorship, & experiences. In South Korea Feb. 7–25. Contact: kenh@ticketmanager.com Jan 15 Olympic Hospitality House List for PyeongChang Winter Games — Ultimate Guide to PyeongChang 2018 Visiting the Olympic hospitality houses are one of the favorite activities for fans and event planners att... read more

The map is to show you the travel route via bus that I take every day to get from the dorm to work at PVL. Unfortunately dormitory living is conducive to the spread of viruses and bacteria. Right from the beginning (for me Jan. 22nd) people started getting sick. I avoided them, wore a mask, washed my hands, used hand sanitizer, got alot of sleep, drank lots of fluids - but the big bad virus got me anyway. On Friday I felt sick so I asked Kang, the Korean volunteer on Team USA, for help with the clinic. He made phone calls to see if I could avoid going to the clinic at GVL (I would need to take a bus). They told him I could go to the clinic at the hockey rink nearby our ... read more

All of this blog was written months ago on my last trip but have only just got around to publishing. Since then iv'e returned home for nine months and am now back in Japan. Will update from that trip again soon. Hell's teeth its cold here. Arrived on my flight from Tokyo late afternoon and took the train into town followed by the subway but all of that just connects up via tunnels so i'd never actually been outside. Once outside the subway in the real world I made it 100 yards of the 200 hundred to my hotel before i was delving in the bag for my hat, gloves and scarf, even that didn't make much difference by the time i arrived i was frozen. Checked the weather report and it was a bone numbing ... 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