2008 Madrid JGP
As some of you already know, in 2008 we had in Madrid a Junior Grand Prix event (the first time that an important FS Event landed in Spain) and I thought "I MUST be there" so I signed-up as volunteer. There's where I met westwinter irl.
It was such a crazy, tiring, but unbelievable week, picking-up skaters in the airport, translating, helping, but above all, watching lots of FS.
TBH I wasn't the crazy stan that I'm today, so I didn't know any junior skaters, but it's cool to see them shining in senior events now.
Let's start with the picspam!!!!!!!
This is the ice-rink where the event was held, it's into a mall so it's a lot cooler than any other ice-rink you know.
The stands looked better when the final groups of the Men's LP started
That's our corner! we spent there almost the whole week. Between our tasks we had to open the ice-rink doors for the skaters. Seems easy, but if you opened them 5 seconds before the correct moment, the ISU officials looked angrily at you.
Other of our tasks was helping in the ice-surfacing. That's me with Patricia, Sonia Lafuente's sister (a flawless human being, I swear)
westwinter even helped as a Time-Keeper for the Men's event \o/
The funniest moments for me were those "translating moments". Very few of the volunteers spoke english, so the skaters, team leaders, etc, always looked for those who could understand them. And I was one of them.
I remember when one of the german ice-dancers (who just spoke german) was sick and she went to the doctor (who just spoke spanish). We made a strange language-chain that was: "Skater speaks in german, her chaperone translates into english, I translate into spanish, the doctor understands"
It was awkward but funny. Priceless moments when the doctor asked me to translate impossible medical words xD
But my favourite moment is when I was working in the skating lounge, where the skaters, team leaders and other VIPs could eat a bit between competitions, and the Chanadian Team Leader came to me and said: "Sorry, one of our skaters is VERY allergic to peanuts, she can't even breath the air close to them, so please, could you remove them?"
In that moment my brain couldn't process the word "peanuts" IDEK why, I was thinking in "pinos" (pines) but I kept on repeating to myself "We don't have trees here" so I cleverly asked to the team leader "could you please show me where the peanuts are?" then she pointed out a huuuge plate with peanuts. I removed them while one of the organizers couldn't stop saying "OMG we bought 5 kilos of peanuts!!!" LMAO
Translating fails aside, I also got to meet some skaters... some of them aren't famous now like this italian couple:
Or the Greek one (Ok I fell in love with Graham Hockley who is canadian and looked a lot like Zack Morris of "Saved by the bell")
Some others are more or less famous right now, like the american Kristine Musademba, who won the ladies event and was the whole week asking me things as I was the only english-competent-volunteer she knew:
the japanese Tatsuki Machida (he won the silver in the 2010 4CC) always shiny:
My beloved Kanako Murakami:
SuperJavi (right after his amazeballs LP that made him finish in the 4th position after a not so good SP):
The amazing Armin Mahbanoozadeh, who was very polite and cute, and won the men's event
And we broed around with some people you should know:
They're completely flawless, amazing, polite, lovely, sweet, and Salome even talked a bit of Spanish ♥____♥
Even a love-story started :P
And here we have some podium pics taken by me:
1- Kristine Musademba 2- Becky Bereswill 3- Kanako Murakami (Ksenia Makarova finished in 4th)
1- Armin Mahbanoozadeh 2- Artur Gachinski 3- Tatsuki Machida
1- Riazanova/Guerreiro 2- Shibutanis 3- a random ukranian couple
This is a pic after the gala, you have the top-4 of each category and the spanish skaters
westwinter and I thank you for your time (notice Mishin in the background proudly taking pics of his BB Gachi)
BEST VOLUNTEERS EVER
It was such a crazy, tiring, but unbelievable week, picking-up skaters in the airport, translating, helping, but above all, watching lots of FS.
TBH I wasn't the crazy stan that I'm today, so I didn't know any junior skaters, but it's cool to see them shining in senior events now.
Let's start with the picspam!!!!!!!
This is the ice-rink where the event was held, it's into a mall so it's a lot cooler than any other ice-rink you know.
The stands looked better when the final groups of the Men's LP started
That's our corner! we spent there almost the whole week. Between our tasks we had to open the ice-rink doors for the skaters. Seems easy, but if you opened them 5 seconds before the correct moment, the ISU officials looked angrily at you.
Other of our tasks was helping in the ice-surfacing. That's me with Patricia, Sonia Lafuente's sister (a flawless human being, I swear)
westwinter even helped as a Time-Keeper for the Men's event \o/
The funniest moments for me were those "translating moments". Very few of the volunteers spoke english, so the skaters, team leaders, etc, always looked for those who could understand them. And I was one of them.
I remember when one of the german ice-dancers (who just spoke german) was sick and she went to the doctor (who just spoke spanish). We made a strange language-chain that was: "Skater speaks in german, her chaperone translates into english, I translate into spanish, the doctor understands"
It was awkward but funny. Priceless moments when the doctor asked me to translate impossible medical words xD
But my favourite moment is when I was working in the skating lounge, where the skaters, team leaders and other VIPs could eat a bit between competitions, and the Chanadian Team Leader came to me and said: "Sorry, one of our skaters is VERY allergic to peanuts, she can't even breath the air close to them, so please, could you remove them?"
In that moment my brain couldn't process the word "peanuts" IDEK why, I was thinking in "pinos" (pines) but I kept on repeating to myself "We don't have trees here" so I cleverly asked to the team leader "could you please show me where the peanuts are?" then she pointed out a huuuge plate with peanuts. I removed them while one of the organizers couldn't stop saying "OMG we bought 5 kilos of peanuts!!!" LMAO
Translating fails aside, I also got to meet some skaters... some of them aren't famous now like this italian couple:
Or the Greek one (Ok I fell in love with Graham Hockley who is canadian and looked a lot like Zack Morris of "Saved by the bell")
Some others are more or less famous right now, like the american Kristine Musademba, who won the ladies event and was the whole week asking me things as I was the only english-competent-volunteer she knew:
the japanese Tatsuki Machida (he won the silver in the 2010 4CC) always shiny:
My beloved Kanako Murakami:
SuperJavi (right after his amazeballs LP that made him finish in the 4th position after a not so good SP):
The amazing Armin Mahbanoozadeh, who was very polite and cute, and won the men's event
And we broed around with some people you should know:
They're completely flawless, amazing, polite, lovely, sweet, and Salome even talked a bit of Spanish ♥____♥
Even a love-story started :P
And here we have some podium pics taken by me:
1- Kristine Musademba 2- Becky Bereswill 3- Kanako Murakami (Ksenia Makarova finished in 4th)
1- Armin Mahbanoozadeh 2- Artur Gachinski 3- Tatsuki Machida
1- Riazanova/Guerreiro 2- Shibutanis 3- a random ukranian couple
This is a pic after the gala, you have the top-4 of each category and the spanish skaters
westwinter and I thank you for your time (notice Mishin in the background proudly taking pics of his BB Gachi)
BEST VOLUNTEERS EVER