it's all over

Venturing several hundred kilometers north of Athens I have now arrived "home". Things in Bulgaria have not changed much as evidenced in the local paper where one of the nation's top politicians is introducing legislature to "use local strongmen as paramilitary groups to control the rising criminal behaviour of the Roma". I suggested that they call it the "Peace Corps"... which kind of has a paramilitary sound or we could send the Peace Corps in to fight them... you know to secure... umm... the peace?

The Olympic swimming events wrapped up on a great note. I am lucky and happy to have been apart of it. On the last day of events, athletes traded shirts and clothes to get their hands on these very fashionable volunteer shirts. I am not sure I understand it nor did i believe that anybody would actually want these shirts (despite all my greek counterparts claiming what a collectable it was). Sure enough on the last day of events I exchanged two of my shirts for a Brasil and Spain shirt... very cool.

For the remaining days of the events, I found myself as an "extra" volunteer. Which means that I just had to "hide" myself, so I found a really comfy seat high above the athletes with great views and sat back and watched all the events. The bummer of all this is that i got no camera time. Even on the today show, I admitedly backed out when I saw all the mid-western us flag toting americans screaming "hello oklahoma from Athens... I love you Jimmy-bob". Sorry I just couldn't get up the steam to do it although Tricia did manage some good camera time but she's from colorado so maybe that's why ;) (Speaking of which I have added some great shots of hers from the Track & Field events)

I did get a picture with Gary Hall... he was actually quite nice (all because he loved the attention)... asked me what the hell I was doing in this dangerous part of the world (honestly).. I told him I was a PC volunteer in Bulgaria... he gave me a big thumbs up and told me to keep up the good work... I think I want to be a Peace Corps Volunteer the rest of my life now! Actually, he was nice. Also a nice guy was Aaron Piersol who took time to take a picture with me also when he was late for a team meeting... everyone else told me no.

The best part of the whole experience was that all of the athletes were humanized for me (is that a word?) and the experience was actually tangible, just like any old swim meet. They were just human beings, athletes... subject to the same emotions that a high school athlete might... not always social... angry and upset when things didn't work out... and exuberant when victorious...can you imagine dedicating your life to this then to fall short (particularly for the younger ones)? It seemed that most were professionals who understood losing/winning but even the best are subject to unbelievable pressure (Crocker)... and I make mention of this because I also had the opportunity to watch the NBC coverage (through the Air Force Network - want to talk about propaganda commercials? ask me about this one)... where everything was overdramatized... events I watched the night before I would watch the next day and find myself crying at the magnitude of what some athletes accomplished... for example... the 4 * 200 freerelay was "the greatest race ever"... everything was a show... additionally (sorry, i'll only be on the soap box for a sec) I am amazed that all they show is american. Another great thing about getting some other coverage was that I could actually watch some non-american events and learn some of the athletes' names from other countries.

Oh... one more thing, courtesy of Eric, the guy from the embassy, got to attend a Cuba-US matchup in women's volleyball... those Cuban's are crazy! They outnumbered the american spectators by 3 to 1 (but you would all be proud to know that I was waving an american flag). They were chanting the whole time! Of course we won and at the end some of the americans down in the 1st row got a little crazy and starting waving their flags at the cubans (most of them were young - in their teens or twenties). One cuban girl, with every ounce of energy was screaming at them... "F*%# you USA, F*%# you USA"... I quietly put my flag away and got out of there.

And what's up with protesting against Colin Powell?

So, now I'm desperatly catching up on email and preparing my stuff for home. I head home on the 4th of September. I am both a little nervous and very excited. I look forward to seeing most of you!

Brian


Also, got a shout out on Scott Goldblatt's web site... http://www.goldblatt.info/blogarchive/2004_08_08_archive.htm

he also has some good stuff (charity, olympic coverage) on there to check out.

Me and Gary after his boxing match 

The Volunteer Crew 

TCNJ Connection 

the big race 

Is Ian gay?

Wow. Well I feel much better about continuing to send emails, thanks for all the support and I won't take too much advantage of it, I promise.

Before I begin I need to answer some questions...

1) Is Ian gay? Well, I know that he wears a woman's suit and is definately a pretty boy (or a metrosexual depending on what decade you are in) but I am pretty sure that he is not gay (unlike our ex-NJ governer). The women are all in love with him (although that doesn't prove a thing) and he seems to eat it up.

2) Was I really on tv? My sister has made the claim that I was on tv the night of the big 200 freestyle event. Based on her description of exactly where I was I'm not sure it was. For the last two nights (the big phelps-thorpe match-up and the loss in the 4X100 relay) I have been on deck, next to lane one, right at the backstroke flags, opposite side of the starter, next to the camera pit. I am the only one usually sitting there. I will fight my way down there on thursday, friday and saturday as well (well at least one or two of the nights).

3) Who's this Trish girl? Trish is a friend from Peace Corps who signed up for the olympics too. When we found out that we both were going we decided to look for places together. It was her idea that we put an ad in the US Embassy newspaper and because of her we are both here...

Ok... now that we have that straight, check out my quickly brought together web site at http://jbrianmurray.blogspot.com/ - there are some pictures and I will be adding some more later.

As for the dissappointing swimming start, I just have some words. There is just too much pressure on the US team to win everything. It sucks! It sucks so much they don't even have fun like all the other teams. Between the Greeks (OLE, OLE) and the Japanese victory celebrations, we just look like a bunch of dead beats... sitting solemely, dissappointed with 2nd and 3rd places. We seem to rarely cheer... I'm not really setting any blame just making an observation that we just don't seem to put too much pressure... wonder where that comes from...

The Phelps 200 free was an awesome race. Got to give Thorpe some serious credit for kicking ass, I honestly didn't think he had it in him after he collapsed the night before after his 400 freestyle (in the warm up pool). The air around the event was really electric and I am proud that Phelps stepped up to this race knowing that he could have opted for lesser challenges.

South Africa was fast....

Oh... small possibilty that I might be on the Today show tomorrow (wednesday morning). :)

Ashu

Brian!

The Bronze medal... I was standing that close... on deck... next to photographers 

Raising the roof 

A few days before competition 

The Velodrome 

Evening sets on Athens 

Olympic First Impressions

Just some random highlights and thoughts...

First day of competition (today-saturday) and I was scheduled to work the preliminaries so chances are you won't see me. My job was exciting and I got the best seat in the house. I was battling to get a spot on the deck managing the photographers but got moved at the last minute (dissappointing my australian buddy "pete" who was trying to hook me up)... my new job is managing the athlete section (where they watch the events). I spent most of my time kicking all the slicksters who have been pretending like they were talking on cell phones when they cruise by me.... My spot was right above the pool next to the US swim team which was pretty cool... watched Phelps cruise this morning... and was amazed by his fluidness in the water... as well as Thorpes. Tomorrow night, and for the next 3 nights, I will be working the night sessions so I will be able to watch the Phelps-Thorpe-Hackett matchup in the 200 free which should be pretty amazing.

I learned that I am Greek. I have heard this before (from a Greek priest) but now I am convinced he might have been on to something. Everyone, and I mean everyone tries to talk to me in Greek... now I just start laughing at them. Maybe its the long hair... I don't know... but according to the Greeks, they populated the world...

Being back in the swimming world has been kind of strange. I forgot that respect is only gained by what you have done in the pool, which is kind of a bizaare way of judging people. When you are in that world you just get caught up in it as well. So standing on the outside looking in, I miss it and I don't miss it. there are many aspects that I miss about it but I am happy to have gotten away from it because it can be down right addicting and consuming.

The people that Tricia and I are staying with have been downright amazing. Eric and Lacey and their daughter Ember have been really outstanding and have opened their door to us. We feel in good hands and feel incredibly lucky. Trish was fortunate enough to work at the opening ceremonies and has managed to get on the main press platform. Our jobs are very similiar but we both feel fortunate that we have the views that we have.

Finally, you can look for me in the stands when they pan the athletes but I doubt you will see me.

Thanks for all the letters, I promise to get back to everyone when I have more time.

From the Olympics - Opening Ceremonies

Definitely didn't think I would writing this quick but things seem to be flying at me and if I don't start writing now, I will forget most of them by the time it comes to wrap this party up.

I arrived in one piece after a very quick 12 hour bus ride from Sofia to Athens. The bus was half full of Bulgarian older women going down for work and a lunatic Greek bus driver who knew two words of Bulgarian (which required constant translation from my Bulgarian bus buddy, Maria. All the Bulgarians spoke Greek so I was at a disadvantage. The ride wasn't so bad except for the hour we sat at the border getting bombarded by mosquitoes. They were running constant kamikaze missions and I am still feeling the effects now. Maria (the 55 year old woman) feel asleep and was drooling on my shoulder for part of the trip but because she was such a big help I didn't wake her. We arrived at 6 am and I went straight to the Olympic facility to get accredited and get my uniform. I was early and so spent 2 hours at a coffee shop studying some Greek (efheristo, kalimera, kala, ena, dio, etc.). This has turned out to be quite a waste of time since most people speak English anyway (except for taxi drivers).

Anyway, got my uniforms (3 shirts, 2 pants, 3 socks, jacket, fanny pack) and headed to the pool which apparently I made quite a retarded entrance with all of my shit and not dressed in uniform. But it was sorted out and I met my "boss" Alexandros who swam for Greece in Barcelona. I felt a little out of place as it turns out all of the other volunteers are Greek and have been working for quite awhile. Alexandros explained our "duties", to keep all unauthorized people off the pool decks. So, easy enough or so I thought. But it seems a little crazy. There are all these crazy badges with infinity signs, or VIP signs, or all these numbers and colors that have different meanings... plus if they have a "NOB" escort, they can go anywhere. And everyone tries to violate the rules... especially the damn greeks! They strut around like they own the place. Anyway, besides that the job is real low pressure. I made an Indian friend (who has lived in the states, london and now in Paris) who will be doing the medal awarding stuff. Me and him hang out and do as little as possible.

The cool thing about the job is that it gives us front row seats to everything. I have met some coaches from team USA and have watched all the swimmers train and prepare... Phelps, Hall... and I don't think any of you know any others. I am the only American volunteer in the swimming events as far as I know so they have been pretty cool to me. Also, I have met Davy Bisllik who is swimming for Aruba. He swam at Trenton State for a couple years and we chit chatted about things back home. I am also looking forward to meeting Scott Goldblatt who swam for Scotch Plains. I remember the name and he was a couple years younger than me at the time when we swam them... i think i beat him... or maybe avoided him... i forget... we'll have to ask Weber on that one.

Ok... so enough swimming talk. Last night, they gave me a ticket to attend the Opening Ceremonies Final Rehearsal, which was like the real thing but minus the athletes. The stadium was packed and although it seemed like a big Greek flexing muscle show, it was really great and I recommend checking it out. I got to sit five rows behind Bjork when she did her song after all the competitors were brought out (this was one bizarre choice for the olympics).

The oddest (or perhaps most noteworthy) part of the whole ceremony was the reaction to the countries as they were announced. As each semi-major country was announced their seemed to be a small group of people from that country that would stand and get a little rowdy... australia, brazil, even small luxembourg. But the biggest applause (from everyone), with the exception of Greece, was Iraq and Palestine.... and there was complete silence for the United States (which is better than boos i guess). It was very sad and depressing knowing that there were probably Americans like me in the stands who were just too uncomfortable to give a good cheer. I don't really have much comment on this but thought is was worthy to pass on as info.

So finally, I'm not sure if my famous television appearance is going to happen. If it doesn't then it looks like I'll just be stuck being a small potato volunteer... which suits me just fine.

Ashu from Athens,

Brian