BWC2014 - 23rd May (Day 9 - First Working Day!)

Scary huge mosquito!

I walked to the main road as usual.  There were many buses as usual.  The traffic was heavy as usual.  I saw my bus, but it stopped at the traffic light after the stop, so I didn’t hail for it because I saw another similar bus right behind.  So, I waited for the second one which was stuck in the traffic light too.  I took out my spare change and removed my jacket cause it was getting warm after the walk.  Too used to Singapore where the buses always stop (ok, almost

always), I forgotten to hail for it and the bus just flew passed me!!  Luckily I don’t have to wait for long before the next bus came.

Reached the Volunteer Centre around 9 with time to do some big business too.  I joined the rest of the volunteers whom were from different section and had a coffee while waiting for Bid.  Looked like I was the only one from the Catering today!  Together with Tony, we were in the Catering office room, feeding the mosquito.  They are scarily huge and loooots of them here.  Bid like to describe them as “The Flying Dragon”!  Some of them were even mating in the air.  Bid told me when he killed them after their best sex ever! Met another LOC member, Wesley, for a short while.  Also finally met another foreigner from Spain, Pedro, who was here for 8 months, for his internship!  He speaks Portuguese too.

Famous Brazilian band
in the 80'

My first task of the day came when Tony then asked me to update all the contacts of the Catering volunteers in my phone and create a group in the Whatsapp.  And that was my only task for the whole morning! 

It was also noon and the caterer began to prepare the food out.  Bid and I moved to the drink section like yesterday.  We chat about everything. Music. Work.  Bid told me IT jobs are well paid in Brazil too. A good fresh graduate might be taking home R$6000 a month! That's even more than Singapore. I hope I didn't understand wrongly.

I was the only Volunteer
at work!

Since there were only me and Bid, I had my lunch later.  Livia, one of the other Catering volunteer, came later.  Again, when everyone had their lunch, our job is finished.  Rafael, one of the catering helper, is a very funny guy.  He was always teasing with me and teaching me how to read the time in Portuguese.  When the music gets loud, he would ask me to join him dancing!

Volunteer uniform!

Next was the most exciting event of the day!  Collecting our uniform!!!  We even get to try out the size.  As usual, I was always indecisive especially when it comes to clothing.  Somehow I have two different sizes for my T-shirts. So, I was pondering between XS and S.  Finally, decided on XS and walked to the counter again to sign off my stuffs.  We got a cap, a backpack, a rain jacket, one pant (convertible to a short), two T-shirts, a pair of shoes and 3 pairs of socks!  All sponsored by Adidas and Johnson&Johnson.  I thanked Bid and left the stadium a happy man!

Can't help having my first
packet of Curry Noddle!

Indian Pale Ale!

We ended pretty early at 3pm today.  I reached home to do my laundry and spent the rest of the night indoor.  Had enough of Mavericks!  Too lazy to walk out for dinner, I could not help but to cook my first Penang Curry Noodle recommended by a buddy.  He claimed to be the best instant noodle in the world!  It was good but doesn’t have the “shake” (kindly please refer to my first post for the meaning of “shake”) feeling on me!  However, the curry goes very well with the bread.

I had the new beer I bought from the supermarket the other day and watched a stupid movie called "Elysium" before going to bed.