Syracuse.com - Syracuse graduate at Sochi Olympics: Day before opening ceremony 'bizzare'

HuntingNY-News · February 7, 2014

The rumors circulating here are that the Russian band t.A.T.u. will perform at the opening ceremony as a show of Russia's tolerance to homosexuals.

A 2013 graduate of Syracuse University who is pursuing a master's in Information Management, Brittany Legasey is currently working as a volunteer press assistant for the International Olympics Committee at the XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

By Brittany Legasey | Contributing writer

The day before the opening ceremonies here in Sochi was bizarre.

They completely changed up the security protocols and were having trouble staying organized.

For instance, they moved all of the private bus stops for workforce/volunteers/athletes so that you now need to go through a security check point to get on the bus. Many of the main bus routes were delayed yesterday for special reasons

My two hour commute home took me 4 hours. My bus and the rest of traffic was stopped on the main route from the Gorky media center back to Olympic park. After 20 police cars and several fancy black Audis drove by us, traffic picked up again.

My theory was that they shut down the entire road because ( President Vladim) Putin had arrived. Putin has a home up in the mountains near Endurance Village, so there is an incredible amount of security up and around there.

Here's five interesting funny things to know on the eve of the opening ceremony:

1. A number of athletes have been using dating applications to meet people. I know this because I've been using them and have been talking to about six of them. I was really surprised that they would be using them and be so interested in hanging out with non-athletes.

2. The Fisht Olympic Stadium seats 47,000 people. During the opening ceremony the audience will be given these special pendants that will light up or have some special effect. This will include the audience in the presentation. During the rehearsal I went to last weekend they handed out the pendants but did not employ the special effect.

3. The rumors circulating here are that the Russian band t.A.T.u. will perform at the opening ceremony as a show of Russia's tolerance to homosexuals. t.A.T.u. is one of the most famous Russian bands and it has been publicly participated in gay pride demonstrations in the past. Even if t.A.T.u doesn't perform their music will still be featured in the ceremony. During the rehearsal when all of the teams were presented the Russian team went last. t.A.T.u.'s song 'Not Gonna Get Us' was the soundtrack for the incredibly hyped up presentation of the Russian team.

4. There were a number of errors in translation during the rehearsal that I attended. The speeches to be given by Putin and other officials were explained quite differently in English and French than the meaning inherent in their original Russian. During the rehearsal the French pronunciation of 'Putin' was incredibly wrong, so wrong that it sounded like the French word meaning 'whore', putain. A number of French volunteers sitting close to me thought this was quite amusing.

5. A surprisingly few number of the staff who work at the Games speak English. In my experience, transportation workers, food service workers and even some of the hospitality staff speak little to no English. The opening ceremony will be delivered in three languages: Russian, French and English.

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