The Olympian

One

3:36 PM.

I don't want to mess up my day one here in Brazil, so I travelled early from our hotel to Maracana Stadium because it is a 30 minute distance. I don't want to be late on the opening ceremonies, and I need to comply to a lot of orientations before the ceremony.

I am now staying in a coffee shop where they sell the finest coffee in town.

I got my earphones plugged in, while reviewing notes and details about the athletes. It's been like, an hour and the people on the other table are still laughing the hell out of 'em. The unnecessary noise is creeping the hell out of me, since I need to know basic details about my subjects but seriously, none of this information sinks in. I don't want to sound rude to this group of people who's been disturbing my supposed to be quiet reviewing and learning, so I just shrug them off. Plus, they are speaking in Portuguese. Now I regret not taking any Portuguese class in the Philippines.

I continued scanning my journal. Maya-maya ay mayroong bumagsak na bola ng rugby sa table ko. My coffee spills, making its way on my journal. Napatayo ako sa gulat, because of all people!

Inikot ko ang aking paningin sa paligid to see who did throw the ball.

It is a guy from that noisy table.

Everyone on the table are looking worried. They are all shocked, too. And they are wearing the same green jackets that has BRASIL printed on it.

A guy who looks very familiar came to my table. "Oh, no." He said as soon as he noticed that my journal is now coffee spilt. The ink slowly fading away. I tried to hold back my tears on what happened. The guy who accidentally made his rugby ball fall on my table came to me next. Looking anxious as hell.

I already concluded that they are athletes and I don't want to ruin their focus on the gold. "It's totally fine." I said picking my journal up, making my Press ID visible.

"You are a press?" Asked the first guy who came.

I just showed them my ID to answer.
They gave me their contact numbers so they could make it up to me. I told them it's fine but they insisted. I slid the cards they gave me on my ID holder.

It was 4:00 in the afternoon when we settled down, and I have an orientation.

Damn.

I have an orientation!!

"Shit." I whispered, running quick to make my way to the stadium. It's just few steps away so no biggie.

When I arrived the stadium, Gio was already waiting for me with a serious face. He is my partner in this project. He is a media arts student so he knows how to handle video cameras to document our interviews. We're not really close because he is not in my section and he's scary.

"Saan ka ba galing, Sarmiento?" This guy hates my first name because it sounds too feminine for me, according to him.

"Coffee shop lang, Gio. Chill, Im here already." I said making sure he calms down before entering the conference room for the Media.

The organizer told us our own places in the floor and court for every events. They also gave us our copy of schedules and our jackets with the word "MEDIA" in front and our name below it. Alongside the envelope is our stabs. For the food, passes and our daily allowance which came from the government.

It's already quarter to 6 o'clock when we finished, so we prepared our things for the ceremony. Being a journalist means you tell stories in any way you can so I brought my own camera to comply with that, plus a voice recorder.

The athletes are being placed in their lines and according to their lines. The stadium starts to fill with ocean of people.

Knees trembling.

Hands shaking.

I calm myself and thought of the athletes I've seen on the coffee shop earlier.

I remembered the first guy who came to my table. No wonder why he is so familiar to me.

With his brown eyes,

Brown hair,

Dimples,

And masculine body,

I know him well. Like, basic information-well.

A Brazilian gymnast.

22 year old.

He won gold during the World Cup and silver on World Cup Glasgow.

An over achiever.

Arthur Nory Oyakawa Mariano.

"Earth to Felicity." A voice then snaps me from daydreaming.

This is crazy, I've met the Olympics cutie. Sure he will win hearts. I let the thought disappear so I could focus on my journalism stuff.

We are all going to walk with our country's representative. Mine happened to be the Philippines.

The lights finally dim. Which is the sigh of the opening. All camera flashes lights the stadium. Screams, and chants.

The whole stadium is now filled with screaming colors, something I have never seen as beautiful as this. We were there, with mouth wide open, amused with how amazing the ceremony went.

When it's finally the time for us to walk, the cheers became louder and louder filling the whole stadium with it. A sound I never liked but now, it is the most welcoming sound I have ever heard.

We all walk with pride, showing off our flags and bright smiles and waves to appreciate the crowd.

It went really well. No,Im never going to forget this Olympics. It's just day one but I could now assure you that this is going to be great.

Me and Gio are now waiting for a cab,which looks like impossible this time because the crowd is still thick as hell, and we can't speak Portuguese. I mean I can speak the most basic, but I can't negotiate cab prices.

"Shall we walk?" I asked.

"Let's go. Siguro sa ibang lugar meron nang masasakyan."

We were walking for like, 10 minutes but still, the thick crowd never seem to decrease. A mini-bus then came horning at us, so we made our way to the sidewalk. "You two! Get inside!" A middle aged man shouts at us, and pointing at us.

So we made our way to their bus. No one informed me that these athletes have a bus! Ugh.

All eyes are on me and Gio when we entered the bus. It's late night so I haven't figured out which team this is, but through their green jackets... I could say this is Brazil. "We'll be on the bus stop, Sir."

My eyes met Nory's eyes, but he was just staring and it made me uncomfortable so I gazed away.

I can now see the bus stop, so the driver let us come down after we thanked them.

But before we come down is a voice that sent chills down my spine. It confused me like never before,

"Ela e bonita."

We arrived the hotel safe, but Gio left me because he really needs to sleep. So I came up to my room alone.

I land my self on the bed. What a day for you, Felicity. But the work is not yet done, I have to sync images on my laptop for security.

Scanning the pictures, I've seen hundred funny faces and photo shoot-like candids of the athletes.

One picture caught my eye, I can't even remember me taking this photo.

It's Arthur Nory, alone in the crowd, and looking at me.

Just then I've remembered what I've heard on the bus before we came down.

I opened my Google translate.

"Ela e bonita."

She is beautiful.