Thursday, November 01, 2007

Not exactly dog related, but I promised

As the GollyLog's loyal readers know, I volunteered to work at the World Boxing Championships for three days. What an experience! I was able to put my very rusty Spanish to good use to help out a few boxers, and I became a much better Charades player. Since English and Spanish are the only languages I speak even marginally well, the only way I could communicate with the Russian, Czech, Polish, Ghanian, etc., etc., team members was by making some sort of motion to get the point across. Even some of the English and Welsh team members were tough to understand! No problem with the Canadians, though!

The Venezuelan team manager had to shake everyone's hand when he came into the Guest Services office.

The Colombian boxers were real characters - mock fighting with the guys from the Dominican Republic over computer time in the Internet Cafe. At least I think it was mock fighting...

A very attractive volunteer made friends with one of the Georgian boxers, who wrote her a very sappy love note.

And three boxers disappeared! One called his teammates from Canada. Three boxers from Rumania were caught shoplifting at a major department store and were sent home in disgrace - banned from amateur boxing for life.

On a more uplifting note - the boxer who knocked out another during a bout wanted to make sure he was OK the following day.

So, there you have it - some of the good, the bad and the ugly.

2 comments:

Uncivil said...

That was interesting! I would have loved to been able to volunteer for something like that.
I did some kick boxing which led into some tough man competitions in my younger days.
Most of the guys I've had the pleasure to be in the ring with are pretty admirable. Of course you have bad seeds in every sport.
Got any pictures?

Fran said...

Hi - yes, it's true, most of the guys were great! Very polite and true role models. Unfortunately I didn't even think to bring a camera!