London 2012 Handball Test Event

Had a very good week living in London, volunteering as a flash quote reporter for the Handball Test Event! It started on Monday at our training where we met the press team and found out a tiny bit about our role. We got our uniforms; nice white t-shirt and a raincoat, our free travelcards around London and learnt how to get a meal voucher. Best free lunches ever:

Then I was back in on Tuesday for more training, where I learnt the rules of handball and how to go about interviewing the players as they come off the pitch. Flash quoting means 'quickness'..apparently!

Wednesday was our first proper day. We had a team briefing and then were sent out to watch the China vs Slovakia game; to decide which player to interview and what I would ask them based on their performance.

I interviewed China, the winning team with my Chinese interpreter. We then had 10 minutes to run back to the office and type up our quotes we got from two players and the coach. After a very long day with lots of new things to learn, we all arrived back on Thursday very tired. Luckily we had a very nice team leader who had bought us Krispy Kreme donuts. Amazing!

I enjoyed my jam-filled, glazed donut with my complimentary bottle of diet coke watching Angola beat Austria behind the Angolan fans:

Having never heard of handball until two weeks ago, after just two days I had definately mastered the rules, when I would find myself coming out with things such as 'ooh look at that European style of defending!' and 'ooh aren't Austria played their second game much more aggressively than yesterday!' Handball geek!

Anyway after a very busy, but exciting week in London I am back home (even a bit sad to be missing the finals!) to get ready to leave for Austria on Monday :)