Starting to feel like home ...

We are now just over half way through our Olympic experience and our time in South Korea.  “Time” is a strange concept when you are at the Olympics.  It seems to both stand still and fly by.  It feels like only yesterday we were all arriving and excited at the start of the tournament … yet we also seem to have all settled, with ease, into a daily routine, that makes it feel like we have been here a long time, and as if this is our normal life.  With all the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) staff, council and associated people, staying at the same hotel, we have quickly become like a family.  Seeing each other every morning at breakfast and then throughout the day at the venues, and in and around the hotel.  Normal life for the last 10 days has been about being part of this extended hockey family.  Heading back home and leaving our hockey family and routine here in another week or so will be tough. 

With each new day there are Olympic hockey games to be officiated, video to be clipped and feedback to be given to officials.  Everyone has a role at the Olympics and there is a daily buzz as we all go about our tasks in a routine fashion.  There is however nothing routine about what we are doing here.  It is the Olympics … what feels normal and has become part of our daily routine right now, will feel like a dream again as soon as we go home.   For the next few days it is fun to live a life where each day brings excitement.  Everything is done with high energy and fueled by adrenaline.

We have also adapted to our surroundings.  Some things we found bizarre on arrival, now seem normal …

Getting money out of the ATM in Korea

ATM Bus parked at the front of our hotel

As most of you will know, visa is the official sponsor of the Olympics and this means that only visa cards are accepted with-in Olympic venues and at the Olympic Parks.  If you want to spend money at the Olympics, you either need a visa card or you need cash!  As seasoned travellers, most of us here brought with us some South Korean Won, and then planned to use our debit/credit cards to take more cash out of ATMs when we arrived.  The execution of this plan however hit some challenges.  A lot of the ATM do not seem to accept foreign cards and also even at the Olympic store, the card machines sometimes reject foreign visa cards.  This was a frustration early on but as with everything here we have found a solution and now it seems normal for a card not to work and to have to try it several times before it is approved.  The main solution for our problem however is that an ATM bus is parked at the front of our hotel which opens each day and is a place where you can take money out or exchange money.  The phrase “I’m going to the bus to get money” has now entered our consciousness and seems perfectly normal.

Finding restaurants

Eating at an Olympics is crucial for the on-ice officials (and for everyone really)!  Many of the officials will have a set eating plan they follow at home that compliments their training and helps them keep in shape and be at the top of their game.  As I explained in a previous blog – we are technical officials and therefore do not stay in the Olympic Village.  With so many variables at an Olympics a lot of officials like to keep to their same diet and the same pre-game meals as they would have at home.  At each Olympics we are in a hotel along with dignitaries and staff from the IIHF.  Of course, the hotels are always well equipped and serve food, but this isn’t without challenges.  The food on offer needs to suit the needs of both on-ice officials who need fuel and meals appropriate to help them work games, as well as meet the needs of the other hotel guests.  This is a delicate balance.  It also needs to be served throughout the day.  Unlike a team, who have the exact same daily schedule with regards to ice practice, meal times and game times, #teamstripes is divided into game crews and eating times will depend on what game they different officiating crews are working.  Our hotel provides meals for all the officials and supervisors at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The officials need to coordinate eating the meals during the time windows available that work around the times of their games. 

I’ve always thought that the success of an international tournament for the officials on the logistics side of things, is to make sure the transport works, and the food works.  The food seems to be working for the officials – the hotel has a standard buffet for lunch and dinner which has the same variety of food on offer each day.  It can get a bit repetitive, but our officials are at the top of their game and many of them have with them the snacks and pre-game food they know they need.  With the schedule having just two games a day they also have the flexibility to find restaurants to eat in and explore outside of the hotel if they want something different from what is served at the hotel. 

Barbecue restaurant Kim took us to that we didn't get to eat in

The food challenge for the supervisors is a little trickier.  We are at the rink for most of the day and so we miss the lunch time window for food at the hotel.  In addition for many of the days we also don’t get back to the hotel in time for the dinner time window.  Late at night we are able to order snacks from the bar menu, and probably at 1am, snacks are the most we should be eating anyway.  However, whilst we are not on games and don’t need the food for fuel, it is a bit tough to go with just snacks each day!  We have worked it out so that most days we manage to get out from the rink to eat between games – we found a great Korean restaurant outside the back entrance to the rink which serves fantastic rice and noodle dishes.  However, dinner has been more challenging - our attempts to go to restaurants have been a comedy of errors. 

Tom's Bistro - across the road from the hotel

Kim heard about a Korean barbecue restaurant which sounded amazing.  He led the supervisor team there one evening, only to find out when we arrived that they had run out of meat.  The owner spoke enough English to tell us that we needed to make a reservation if we want to eat there.  She didn’t have a business card but with the help of google translate she typed the number into her phone and then translated it into numbers that I could key into my phone.  I saved the number and we left with the idea that we will call and make a reservation for another night.  Our team hosts called the restaurant for us and found out that they only take reservations for more than 4 people, and we would also need to go before 8pm, otherwise they will run out of meat.  Given the timing of games we would not be able to make it earlier than 9pm most evenings for dinner and so we needed to find another option.

We found an Italian restaurant just on the street outside the hotel - Tom’s Bistro.  The food is good, but it can take a good hour to come after ordering and isn’t always exactly the food that you think you ordered.  At first this was a bit frustrating, but now we don’t sweat it.  We watched as a group of locals came to the restaurant, sat down and ordered their food and then left.  After about 40 minutes they came back and then their food arrived.  We deduced that this was clearly the way to do the ordering and so we use the time between when we ordered to when our food arrives to do the paperwork and plans for the next day of games and meetings.

Card for a local restaurant

The search for another restaurant continues.  We heard that the ice technicians went to a good restaurant and so asked them where it was.  They gave us a card they took from the restaurant.  We have no idea what type of food it serves, what it is called or really where it is – but we will go to try it out for sure – that is part of the fun of being here.

Phone technology

As I have mentioned in almost every post – this is the Olympics of technology and with each new day there seems to be a new element of technology which impresses me but also quickly becomes part of everyday life here. 

Korean Alert Messages light up the phone

It is standard practice at top level IIHF championships for the organiser of the tournament to provide the IIHF staff and referee supervisors with local phones (just to be used for the duration of the tournament and then handed back at the end).  For the Olympics this is done by the ‘Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the Olympic Games” (POCOG). On arrival at the hotel, everyone working for the IIHF in any official capacity was given a special Olympic branded Samsung Galaxy.  Each phone was already programmed with everyone’s number so if we need to speak to anyone who is working across the tournament we can contact them with ease.  They also had the Pyeongchang Olympic application downloaded and set-up for us to get live updates and buy tickets etc.  All the phones are also set with their ringing tone as the theme song for the Pyeongchang Olympics – “Let everyone shine”.  When the song starts playing everyone goes to their pocket to find their Olympic phone.  I’m sure I’ll have the theme song downloaded and on my playlist for when I am back home – hearing it constantly here has become part of life.  

Speed skating oval at night

The other part of daily life here related to phones are the alerts which are sent on a daily basis.  The first time it happened everyone wondered what was going on.  The phone buzzes and an alert message in Korean comes up – this is for any phone – local or foreign.  We asked our hosts what was happening, and they told us the alerts are weather warnings sent out by the government.  In the space of the next few days, several messages a day came through and we understood them to be warning us about wind speeds, cold temperatures, an earthquake and a sand/dust storm.  Our phones are full of the alerts and whilst we have no idea what they say, we have figured, if we don’t see any locals running out of the building in a panic when we all receive an alert, then we don’t need to worry too much.  Receiving a weather alert by phone is pretty normal here – it is a good job we don’t have weather alerts in England every time it rains … our phones would run out of battery they would be buzzing so much!

Being at the Olympic Park

Hockey Venue at night

Now the men’s hockey tournament is in full swing we are traveling back and forth between venues as we try to catch a glimpse of the late evening men’s game at the Olympic Park.  We have access to the park and both hockey venues with our accreditation and so walking in and out and being in the Olympic Park is a daily occurrence and something that it is easy to take for granted.  The Chinese New Year began on 16 February and there was a national holiday here.  This meant the queues to get into the Olympic park alone were extra-long.  As we walk in and out of the park and go to the hockey games it is easy to take it for granted, but I know as soon as I’m back in London I’ll wish I was back at the Olympics and walking around the Olympic park.  At night time all of the venues light up. They are majestic against the night-sky and just looking at them you feel humble and privileged to be here.  These buildings aren’t just arenas, they are where dreams come true.  They provide the platform where some of the greatest sporting moments will happen in the next few days.  I plan to visit a few of the other sports and venues when I get a chance – I want to see what the other sports’ Olympic dreams are about!