Day number
one is partially in the books and there’s a few areas where PyeongChang is
vastly superior to Sochi, at least so far.
The first
area is the wi-fi coverage. Pretty much everywhere I go, I am able to use wi-fi
on my phone or my iPad or my laptop. On the buses, in the venues, in the media
center, even in my apartment. Korea really stepped up the game as far as
Internet access and I am impressed. I bought a SIM card for my phone, but so
far haven’t used it, as I am able to access most of my text messages with
wi-fi.
There were
times in Russia when I couldn’t even access the Internet in the media center
while plugged into the port. I did run into one problem, however. I purchased a
wired internet package for use in the media center only to realize that my
laptop does not accept normal Ethernet cords. While I don’t mind the wireless,
for transferring bigger files back to the United States I was counting on using
the wired Internet. There are adaptors available, but evidently they aren’t
exactly the easiest thing to find in Korea.
The other
area that Korea stepped up in is the food. While I’ve only had two meals here
so far (it’s 5 p.m. on Saturday as I write this), the choices are certainly
superior to what we had in Sochi.
The main
media dining hall in Gangneung is a short walk from my apartment and is
massive. Their breakfast choices had everything from the normal eggs, pancakes,
bacon and potatoes that we’d find in the US to Korean dishes including beef and
rice. There were also plenty of choices for fruit and cereal as well as breads
and pastries. In Sochi, I rarely ate breakfast because the choices were so
awful.
I had lunch in
the Main Press Center in the Alpensia Resort. I chose the cafeteria for my
first lunch, but walking around the resort, there were tons of choices of
things to eat, ranging from Korean and Japanese restaurants to American
standards like Domino’s Pizza and Baskin-Robbins.
I was even
able to purchase a bottle of Mountain Dew, which was nowhere to be found in
Sochi four years ago (though I will not be making this a habit).
As in Sochi,
bottled water continues to be my friend. The apartment supplies us with a
couple of bottles every day and the Main Press Center had free bottles for
media members and I purchased a larger bottle to have on hand too.
One event
and two meals down and things are going OK. Here’s to continued success.
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