Jasmine Patel is a former Miss India UK contestant and studies journalism at GCU. She has creative flair in every way.

 

 

 

 

The student race has begun for job hunting and some of us from Glasgow Caledonian University have returned home after working long hours at the first European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan.

I have just landed at Glasgow International airport after having a little detour around the world, including Moscow and Amsterdam bringing back some the biggest highlights from the Beach Volleyball and Beach Soccer team. There are always clowns that tops these moments like the cream on the cake.

On the first day, it was the responsibility of the graphics operator to import all the graphics and video presentation to be used throughout the games on to his Mac computer from Dropbox. Understandably, it could take hours to import, due to large files. However, after half a shift had passed and the presentation manager who is responsible for getting the show on the road asked “how the graphics are coming along.”

The best answer he could give was: “When I sneezed, my cap accidently fell on to the keyboard, hitting the spacebar button, cancelling the download.”

The German pyrotechnicians were meant to have real love for fire as they brought an explosive final to each competition in the city of flames. After inviting everyone to a BBQ on a pier of the boulevard, we were confident they would know how to start the fire and get the BBQ going. It was only after the Spanish girls put their intelligence to use, that we were saved when they brought fire starters.

On a very hot afternoon whilst travelling in a very slow Boulevard bus that stops every five minutes for a couple of minutes, our audio and graphics operator thought it would a good idea to drop off and pick up an orange juice. It just so happened that as their order was being made, the bus left in a faster speed and stopped at lesser stops for a shorter time. The audio operator managed to sprint it to the bus but the graphics operator was nowhere to be seen. When we found him, his face was hot red from running it half the way in sweaty, humid weather.

When the President arrives, it means there is an over crowd of police security, roads are blocked for commuters, and radio and mobile phone signals are jammed. When he arrived at the hotel, it’s not particularly clever to try and sneak out with a suitcase, so our presentation assistant thought he could slip through a gap in the revolving door at the entrance. His arm got stuck in the door with his case on the other side. As hotel staff wrestled to release his arm, the police are staring at him in absolute disgust. As the locals quite frequently stare at foreigners, he thought he would follow our floor manager’s style of introduction to network: Sandy Batho from Scotland, leaving the hotel.