Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 11

Hey folks!

Wow, we have a world premiere here - today marks the first time I write two blog entries on one day, hooray! I just didn't have the heart to deprive you from my memory with the charming Alina Nyukthina, Young Ambassador from Russia. (Btw: Did you see her funny move at the end of the video? I start getting the impression that we should start a Young Ambassador cheer leading team!)

On our first evening in Singapore, we had this big get together with the CEP champs and all sorts of people. You might know that feeling when you come to a strange place to mingle with people, you feel kinda shy. Well, that was not very much the case with us! Still, the local organizers started out breaking the ice by inviting people on stage, asking them to present themselves. Alina was chosen as a Young Ambassador to introduce herself to the crowd. So Alina told us her name, her age and where she comes from. And of course what she was doing. That she was a teacher for foreign languages, going for her masters degree, being the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper and of course being an ambassador. Apparently, I was not the only one impressed by her account, because the MC's only comment was:

"Gosh, and I thought we only have 24 hours a day!"

When talking about the Young Ambassador role, people often ask me what you have to do to be named an Ambassador. Usually, I tell them some stuff every HR person would love to hear: That you have to excel academically, have a background in sports and education, are a team player, speak English fluently and so on. While this is all true, I guess this is not the real deal. So what I usually tell people is the quote from above: "Young Ambassadors are people, who's day has more than 24 hours!"

Of course I don't mean this literally (Despite some circulating rumors, we have not yet succeeded in breaking the space-time continuum). What I mean is that to be a Young Ambassador/CEP champion/champion in general, you have to take as much out of the time you have as possible. True, every one of us only has 24 hours a day. However, the difference lies in what we do in those 24 hours as well as how and if we make them count. And Alina definitely does make hers count...

John Wooden's Seven Point Creed

Hey folks!

Today, I did something fun. My handball team was invited to test a brand new laser tag arena in my hometown. Basically, laser tag is like paint ball, just with lasers instead of bullets. It's great fun and while playing, you really feel like being part of a Star Wars movie.

However, this blog is not about how much fun I had pretending to be Han Solo. At the wall of the new center, there is a quote by John Wooden, a very famous college basketball coach.

"It doesn't matter who starts the game, but who finishes it"

I admit that this is probably not the most stunning quote I had on this blog so far. Still, I was curious to find out who this John Wooden was and why somebody bothered to write his quote in big letters on the wall. While browsing through his biography (I admit that it was on Wikipedia...it's just so convenient ;)), I found some remarkable stuff. Apparently, John's father had given him a seven point creed upon graduation (and even if he did not, it's still an awesome creed!).

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

I'll leave the last point up to everyone's personal religious views, however, I think if we all lived our lives by this creed, topped with some friendship, excellence and respect, we'd all be off pretty well.

Histoires du Corps Diplomatique 10

Bonjour à tous !

Comme vous avez probablement déjà réalisé, cette entrée de mon blog va parler d’un sujet francophone. Ben, vous avez bien sur raison. Aujourd’hui, j’aimerais bien raconter une histoire de mon cher ami Hamza, jeune ambassadeur du Maroc telegenique, et moi, qui s’est déroulé à Singapour.

Hamza et moi, nous avons partagé une chambre au début de la semaine au centre du congre. Nous sommes tout le deux arrivés au même jour, je crois que c’était un Samedi. Et comme le décalage de temps est presque pareil entre Singapour et Maroc/Autriche, nous étions vachement fatigues. Au début, c’était pas un grand problème, car nous nous sommes bavardés des trucs véritablement importants (le foot). Nous avons aussi écouté de la musique (« Aicha, Aicha, écoutez-moi » ).

Pourtant, après une heure, c’est devenu un peu ennuyeux. Alors, Hamza et moi, nous avons décidé de faire une petite promenade dans les jardins. Alors, nous nous sommes levés, ont mis nos chaussures et sont allés dehors. Le temps faisait très beau et chaud, même la nuit, et c’était donc très agréable de bouger un peu. Après quelque temps, nous voulons essayer de nouveau de dormir un peu et nous avons donc décidé de rentrer dans la chambre. Alors, nous sommes rentrés à notre bâtiment, nous avons monté les escaliers et j’étais en train d’ouvrir la porte quand j’ai réalisé – la clé ne marche pas ! J’ai essayé une deuxième fois – rien ! M**** !!! Il faisait trois heures le matin, nous étions crevés et la porte restait fermer.

Donc, nous sommes descendu (le centre est sur une colline, alors, il nous fallait descendre et monter pas mal de fois) pour informer la gardienne de nuit de notre misère. Malheureusement, elle ne savait pas non plus quoi faire, mais étant gentille comme tout le monde à Singapour, elle nous a accompagnés à notre chambre pour se renseigner de la situation.

A notre porte, j’ai dit à Madame : « Voici, j’utilise ma clé, mais la porte ne bouge….CLACK » (Le CLACK signifie le son d’une porte s’ouvrant). Sans changer quelquechose, notre porte avait tout à coup décidé de s’ouvrir et nous laisser entrer. Vous pouvez bien imaginer que la vigilante n’était pas aussi heureuse que Hamza et moi.

Alors, c’est l’aventure que Hamza et moi ont passé pendant notre première nuit à Singapour. Bien entendu, des histoires comme celle-ci soude les ambassadeurs ensemble à jamais ;).

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 9

Ciao ragazzi e ragazze!

Oggi, vorrei racontare la mia memoria della carinissima Fabrizia D'Ottavio, ambasciatrice d'Italia. Perché parlo l'Italiano ancora proprio male, I will continue writing in English. Fabrizia is one of the three Olympic medalists on the team, having won a silver medal in rhythmic gymnastiscs in the 2004 Games in Athens. The thing I remember with Fabrizia is a funny little language issue we had during the seminar.

On our first night at the convention center, we went for a little evening walk to have a cup of coffee. On our way, Fabrizia introduced herself and told me she was the Young Ambassador of Italy. Being given the fact that my sister has been living in Italy for over two years now and that I am in general a huge fan of Italy, I tried talking Italian to her. First, I asked her where in Italy she came from ("Di dove sei"?). She replied, in English, that she was from Chieti, a small town in the Abruzzi. Being a little insecure because she had answered in English, I continued, telling her about my personal bounding with Italy ("Mia sorella habita a Roma, ci sta lavorando.") Again, Fabrizia replied, in English, that she knew Rome quite well and that it was a beautiful city.

Of course, my spirit was broken by then and for the rest of the week, we'd speak English to each other, having a lot of fun with the rest of the gang. Time went by and the week was over way to soon. On Thursday evening, I was waiting with Mediha and Sofia for our airport shuttle, since we all departed at the same time. Fabrizia took a later flight and came down to tell us goodbye. So we were standing in the lobby, saying goodbye to each other and everybody was quite sad to leave.

At this point you must know that one of my bad habits is that I swear quite a lot. Not to upset anybody, I usually try to swear in a language nobody in the room speaks or understands. Somehow the fact that Fabrizia was standing right next to me must have slipped my mind, because I was exclaiming a grumpy:

"Che palle!!!"

which is a rather direct way of saying "This sucks" in Italian. Fabrizia was looking at me and started laughing and, to my great surprise, sent a wave of Italian words my way. Alas, the first time I succeeded talking Italian to her was approximately five minutes before I left for the airport. Better late than never I guess.

So the conclusion I drew for myself was that next time I want to talk to somebody in his/her native language, I'll just throw in some curse words to break the ice. I just hope they will take it was humorously and relaxed as Fabrizia did.

PS: I can't even begin to imagine the pain Fabrizia's funny move at the end of her video would cause me...

Tales from the Diplomatic Corps 8

Hey folks!

The following memory has, in short, already been written about Mrs. Sherry Tsai from Hong Kong. However, on the occasion of her being presented on the Olympic homepage, I will repeat it, since I think it's kinda funny.

When we arrived in Singapore, there were 30 Young Ambassadors and 60 local CEP champs gathering for an amazing week. So at the beginning, it was time to get to know each other. As you can imagine, this is quite a procedure when you have to introduce yourself to 89 people you have never met before. In this big introduction chaos, I somehow managed to not meet Sherry, which is why we only had our first proper conversation three days into the seminar.

You also must know that during the seminar, the usual third question (after "What's your name?" and "Where do you come from?") was: "Are you an athlete as well?". The same was true with Sherry and me. Just see how our dialogue went from there:

Florian: "So, are you an athlete as well?"
Sherry: "I used to be, I just retired from swimming."
Florian: "Cool. So were you a competitive swimmer?"
Sherry: "Yeah, kind of."
Florian: "Cool. Did you compete...like on a national level."
Sherry: "Well, yeah." PAUSE "Three Olympics..."

Maybe being written down it's not as funny as it was in real life, however, I still have to smile when thinking back of it. Call me weird, but learning that the, on the outside inconspicuous, person you are talking to is actually a former world-class athlete gives an interesting shift to some conversations. Anyways, coming back to Sherry: After ending her career this year, she is now going for her master degree in sport sciences, Beside, she is also working as a TV presenter, hosting a sports TV show and is a part-time swimming coach. Not to mention her being the Young Ambassador of Hong Kong. So if you are an athlete and you question yourself how you can start a successful second career once you retire from active sport, ask Sherry - she definitely knows how it is done!

Pursue your dreams, but....

Hey folks!

I'd like to apologize in advance that today's blog entry won't be on the light side. However, I think life consists of happy as well as of unhappy parts, one of them I'd like to write about today.

On Friday night, an Austrian striker, playing for Swansea in the UK, named Besian Idrizaj died of a heart attack. He was 22 years old. Of course this came as a big shock, however, soon his obituary reminded me of his case. In his career, Besian has collapsed twice on the field at matches; both times doctors blamed his weak heart. In the media, the former chief of medicine of his club in Linz, Milan Toljan, was quoted that Besian suffered from cor pulmonale - a disease causing too much pressure damaging the heart.

When Besian was 17 years old, he transferred from a mediocre Austrian club to Liverpool FC, back then the incumbent Champions League winner. I remember it being a big deal and all over Austrian media - a young, talented boy being signed by mighty FC Liverpool. Back then, he commented on his transfer:

"You can't ignore an invitation by the Champions League winner. I would have swum the channel to go there."

Unfortunately, things didn't work out for him in Liverpool he left the club, first on a loan to Luton Town, later back home to Austria.

Upon arriving in Austria, his career was harshly interrupted after he collapsed in a match. He was out for pretty much all of the season and only gave his comeback one year after the incident. However, shortly afterward, he collapsed again during training with his new club in Upper Austria. This time, they discovered his serious heart disease. His doctors told him that with a condition like this, he must under no circumstances play professional football.

However, Besian didn't give up and signed with Swansea in the second highest British league. Last Friday, he died in his sleep while being on vacation in Austria. The Austrian Football Federations technical director, Willi Ruttensteiner, remembered:

"Besian just loved playing football; his biggest dream was joining a Premier League team in the UK."

The reason I am writing this is that people often ask what "being a mentor for athletes" as part of the Young Ambassador job description is all about. I'd say that on the one hand, it's our task to tell the youngsters out there to stick to their dreams and work hard to achieve them. However, incidents like this one remind me of the other side: That once you reach a point where you risk severe damage to your integrity or your health, you should accept your limits. Sport is arguably the most fulfilling experience there is in life; however, it is definitely not worth risking your life for. Sadly to say, Besian underestimated this risk and had to pay the highest price. He tried living his dream and payed with his life for it.

Inspiration

Hey folks!

Today, I am really lazy with this blog. However, this is not due to the fact that I'm too lazy to write (well, maybe a little bit), but because no matter what I'll write, it will not be nearly as good and inspirational as what Erin has written in her blog.

In a nutshell: Last week, Erin has participated in and completed her first marathon. This fact alone brings her a lot of respect. However, now we can see the aftermath of her achievement: Some 4600 miles away, George Julian in Cardiff, UK follows Erin on Twitter and reads her blog. The two have never met, however, Erin's story was so inspirational that George decided to sign up for her first half-marathon in Cardiff this October.

Please do yourself a favor and go to Erin's blog for the full story (just klick on "Erin's blog" or find the link in the blog roll on the right or type "kennedyerin.blogspot.com" into your address bar). I promise, you won't regret it!