Saturday 22nd

The alarm clock rang very early this morning too: 6.05am! Just a couple of biscuits and apricot juice for breakfast, and then I went to Palavela with the 7am shuttle (I was the only person on the bus! well, besides the driver, of course :p). After a 20-minute drive around Torino's sleeping streets I got to the arena, had first to go to the volunteers' check-in, and then I was ready to start! The other volunteers at the info desk were there since 6am, but when I arrived there were still no athletes at all around. That meant, I had nothing to do. So I went to the sport office, to see if I could be of any help. They told me to call someone on a list and ask for a telephone for the info desk, but when I did so, the person who answered was quite rude, saying that it was impossible that the info desk had no phone, as he had already put there one... Yes, but I'm not stupid, if I'm calling you maybe it's because we have already checked that the phone disappeared >__<

Anyway, sometime later the first skaters arrived, wow, it's a mirage!! Finally there's something to see! (You can't imagine how boring it is to stay in an empty icerink!!) There was Paolo Bacchini, and also Kus, from men practice group 4, who should have started training at 9.00. The Polish guy was also the first one to have problems with his skates, as after practice he came asking when the skates repair opened, because he had a problem with a hook.
Trifun Zivanovic was the only one from group 5; his coach was quite chatty that morning, saying how the weather in Torino was like the one in California the previous week. But I assured him that some very cold wind was going to blow soon in the following days! Zivanovic too had a problem with a hook at the end of the practice, so I told him that the man from the skates repair was going to be there only from 1pm, and then I called Giovanna, that was in charge of that area too. It was funny because she tried to convince Zivanovic to leave his skates there, so that he could directly get them back repaired, but there was no way to convince him!! Giovanna told him that also another skater (Kus) had done that, and Trifun asked "Did he really leave your skates to you??", he couldn't believe it! And as also his coach was trying to persuade him, he went on "These are _my_ skates, you know...". Maybe he was worried that someone was going to steal or do something strange with his skates :p So at the end he decided to come back himself at 1pm ^^;
As there wasn't much to do as dressing room attendant, I was then employed as a translator :p One of the results runner didn't speak English at all, so he couldn't communicate with the German man who had to explain him his job, that's why I offered to translate (first from German, than from English because it was easier for me ;) ). We did a tour of Palavela, stopping in every place where the results runner had to leave starting orders, results (all those blue, green, yellow and pink papers) and other communications.
After men practice it was the time of icedancing; I was sure that the O's would have been there (the only from group 1), because the night before at accreditation they had asked me for the practice schedule and the groups list. Everybody coming to practice today was kind of a hero for us ;)
During one of my several tours around the rink I spoke with a guy working as monitor, who was enthusiast about Palavela, because he had more or less seen its birth; I said that ok, it looked nice, but also that some things could have been better - when I mentioned "there's no room to hang banners!" as a big problem from the fans' point of view, he stared at me as if I was crazy ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;
While on my way back to the info desk area I saw Golovina & Voiko, who had just arrived and were wandering around looking for the dressing rooms, so I just told them to follow me!
It was about 12.00, and I was starving! I took a break to have lunch at the cantine, with another girl working at the info desk; then two other volunteers, a man and a girl who I had met that morning working in the sport office, joined us. We started a discussion about which discipline we think is the best one, and of course I was explaining why my favourite is icedancing, trying to convince the others :p Then we changed subject, and don't remember how I got till the question "Marcella De Trovato does train here in Torino or in Milan?" and the man started smiling and answered "She's my daughter!" ... "Ah!" ^^;;;;; I didn't know it!!!!!!! I hadn't read the name on his pass! Now I could understand why he didn't agree with me about icedancing :p (note: De Trovato is one of the most promising Italian single skaters).
Back from lunch I stopped watching dance practices; group 3 was the one with the Italians, but unfortunately Fede & Massi were not skating :( Aureli & Vaturi were there though, and I noticed that Alessia was wearing one of Barbara's costumes; she's a lucky girl, having the chance to wear such beautiful dresses! ;)

As my shift at Palavela was ended, I took the shuttle back to Majestic, I went in just a few seconds to say hi to friends working there (and saw Delobel & Schonfelder busy filling in forms...) and then I went to my hotel to take a rest (but couldn't sleep a lot as I kept talking with Sara :p). I had set the alarm clock at 5.45pm, but when it rang I was still very tired, so I just decided to go on sleeping for one hour more ;)
Still half asleep, at 7pm I was back to Majestic, ready to work at the athletes' registration, at the welcome desk - like yesterday! -, this time with Pierre.
Among the first to arrive was Joan Slater, then the Swiss dancers (who could also speak Italian! but I don't know why, I kept speaking in English ^^;;) and the French team. According to our schedule Dambier and his coach should have arrived the next day, but they were here _now_ too!! That meant, we didn't have the papers with their names ready, and had to look for them among maybe 200 other sheets... help!! And, I didn't know that Annick Gailhaguet has now changed her surname in "Dumont", so I couldn't find it ^^;;
One of the most frequently asked questions of the day was "In which hotel should we go?", because coaches were not at Majestic but in a nearby hotel, but no one had explained it to them ^^;
In a quiet moment Massimo came to say hi, he's always very nice :)
Then the welcome desk became suddenly crowded, lots of teams arriving from the airport all at the same time!! Swedish, Finnish, Ukranians and also the Kerrs! John came towards the desk, and said "John Kerr", and me "I know!" so he looked at me and exclaimed "Oh hi! I didn't realize it was you!" #^^# I greeted him and Sinead, then proceeded telling them to prepare musics and passports :)
Also some friends who had just arrived in Torino - Laura and Francesca - came to Majestic to see how things were going, and about 10pm I left and went back "home" to eat a "delicious" sandwich, because I hadn't had dinner yet. I was hoping to sleep early to recover from the day, but when Sara came back we started talking again and went on till 2am O__o Luckily the following day I had the morning free ;)
 

go to day 3