Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 4

Hey folks!

Following the strict, but always fair order of the alphabet, my dear colleague and friend Patricia from Brazil is up next to be presented on the Olympic website. Patricia, whom I can perfectly honest describe with the only word I know in Portuguese ("fofinha"), is not only an Olympic windsurfer and competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She also has an amazingly fun and outgoing personality, so that it's really tough to pick a special trait to write about here.

However, on second thought there is one thing I probably remember best. It was on the last day and we were all really exhausted from the amazing 5 days we had in Singapore. Nevertheless, we decided to go out on a trip and explore the beautiful city a bit more. We wanted to check out an amusement park we had crossed by bus the other day and spend a nice and relaxed day there. Unfortunately, things weren't exactly going our way. It was drizzling that day, which made spending time outdoors not too much fan. In addition, the main attraction of the park (some roller coaster) was down for maintenance, so we eventually decided against going inside the park.

While we were standing outside, deciding what to do, the rain increased a bit. Since it was the theme park of a major Hollywood studio, they had epic movie soundtracks blasting from various speakers all over the open square. So the next thing I know, Patricia and I where standing in the rain, spreading our arms like the Christo redemptor in Patricia's hometown Rio, with epic music playing in the background. Again, this must sound like a really stupid story, but believe me: In this very moment, the world was standing still for the split of a second and we just felt how amazing being an ambassador and thus meeting all those great people and being part of the inaugural YOG actually is.

So I guess the thing I will always remember Patricia by is that she is one of those persons you can stand in the rain with on a wide open square and just comfortably enjoy the music. And let me tell you: Although there are not too many of those out there, the world is highly dependent on those people!

NB: Picture 2 © Jed Senthil K Jivaraju