Behind the scenes of the Olympic Games

I have been, and will be continuing to post photos from the sporting events here at the Winter Olympics, but I wanted to take some time to take you all behind the scenes of the Games here in PyeongChang. As I have been moving around from one venue to another, I have been grabbing photos with my iPhone, to show you all what you are probably not seeing on network television.

Come on and join me as we take little tour around the Olympic grounds.

These apartment buildings are where we are living for the month. 

These buildings are part of the athletes village which is just across the road from the media village. If you look closely you can see their country's flags hanging from their rooms.

Every time we enter any venue, or even our housing, we have to pass through the security checkpoints. They have embedded RFID tags into our credentials this year, so it moves pretty quick.

It is strange to see this massive picture of me every time I enter a building. Yikes!

When I first arrived in the media village, this was the first place that I went to. This is the housing office where they give us our keys and fobs and handle any other housing related issues.

This office and almost all of the media rooms are temporary structures.

Most of us press (photographers, writers, engineers....) and Olympic staff members are living in housing like this. This is the living room area of my apartment. As you can tell, the furnishings are minimal but it works. I have never hung out in this room or even tried to turn on the TV. No time!

These apartments will be sold as soon as the Olympics are over.

For that reason, they have taped off much of the place so that we do not mess it up.

The kitchen is completely wrapped up so that we can not access any of the drawers, sink or anything.

As I expected, the beds are typical asian style, being very low to the ground and VERY firm. When I say very firm, I am basically saying that it is like sleeping on a box spring. But I can sleep on almost anything so I don't really care. Team USA has furnished all the athletes with pillow top coverings. My room is small but functional. I just wish I had access to some drawers or closets. My clothes are now sprawled all over the floor. It looks like my kid's room when they were teenagers!

There is a sales office in front of our buildings in case I want to purchase the place afterwards. Not likely to happen. :)

Located in the basement of the building next to mine is a makeshift laundry area. For the first time that I can remember at the Olympics, they have free self-service washing for the media! My clothes are drying there now.

Each morning we have a free breakfast service. I can walk about 50 feet from my building to this smaller cafeteria..

...or trek across the street to this larger cafeteria (which is open an hour later than the smaller ones).

Here is a view inside the larger media cafeteria. The food is reasonably good, with standard fare like eggs, bacon, croissant and then some asian options too.

When we walk outside the media village, we enter an area they call the Gangneung Transport Mall. This is where all the press buses take us to different areas of the Olympics. Not all of them are direct, but we have an app on our phones which tells us the exact schedule and how to connect to get where we need to go.

And each of the buses are decorated in the weirdest way. But we all get a kick out of it anyways... Some of the buses have Wifi, but most seem not to have it. Thank goodness for tethering to my iPhone!

It is unusual to have any civilization near the press housing, but within a 5 minute walk we can get real food and coffee. I have had two meals in this area and they were both excellent.

I guess I could buy food too, but I would not know what I am purchasing.

This is the smaller of the two hockey centers and the only rink I have photographed yet (other than the team photo for the men). It is out on it's own and a 20 minute bus ride from anything else. This is the front of the building where spectators would enter. But all the press buses let us out in the back of the building.

In the back of each building is an entrance for the athletes, their families and the media.

This is the larger hockey center where I will be shooting in another couple of days. Both rinks are really nice and the lighting is awesome. This is located in the Olympic park very near 3 other venues.  Once the woman get into the qualifying rounds, all hockey games will be played in the large rink. That will make life so much easier for me, because I can shoot other sports (skating, speed skating, curling) and still be a 5 minute walk to the hockey arena.

Lastly, I thought I would show you what the NBC studio looks like from our side. It is located just outside the larger hockey stadium.

I hope that you enjoyed your view behind the scenes. Now I am off to collect my laundry and head to the hockey rink!

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