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 Postcard from Sydney: 9/14/00
Thursday, September 14, 2000 By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
Four years ago in Atlanta, Olympic organizers couldn't find enough qualified bus drivers to chauffeur athletes and reporters in a timely manner. Two years ago in Nagano, they didn't order enough Snowlet mascot dolls to appease foreign souvenir seekers.
So far, the serious shortage in Sydney appears to be ... space heaters.
Welcome to the Summer Olympics, where the volunteers are wearing parkas (lightweight ones, but parkas nonetheless), the temperature drops into the 40s at night and the rooms in the Media Village aren't heated. Hence, the need for alternative warming methods.
I'm chilly during the day in the Main Press Center, which consists of converted livestock barns that don't have many doors. If I wander too far from my space heater, I'm downright freezing in the Media Village, which is -- don't laugh -- built on the site of an old mental asylum.
My fellow reporters in Block C, Building 97 aren't any warmer. And I do mean fellow reporters; somehow, I have been assigned to one of the "boys' dorms." At least we have individual rooms.
Tonight, I'm going shopping for two items I forgot to pack, a turtleneck and gloves. Makes me wonder what happened to the gloves I lost in Nagano. I took them off, believe it or not, because I was too warm.
P.S.: To the 27 people who asked me whether the water swirls the wrong way when you flush the toilet ... nope. The water goes straight down, then straight back up. Sorry.
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