Talking Russia...

In the last few weeks, I've had a couple of chances to reflect on my trip to Russia to cover the Olympics. I was invited to speak to the Wolfeboro and Alton Rotary Clubs and did a presentation that included a short speech and a power point presentation with photos.
Public speaking is certainly not my forte, but I knew this was something I needed to do. The people of the local communities helped me get to the Olympics and I owe everyone a debt of gratitude. I also feel like I should give everyone the opportunity to hear about the trip if they want to and see the photos that I took.
I am working on possibly doing the presentation for a few more groups and/or in a public presentation and I will certainly make those presentations known if there are people who are interested in hearing about the trip.
Spending time talking about the trip really got me looking back in more fondness. As I've moved along with the very busy spring sports season, my mind has been pretty much occupied with baseball, softball, track, lacrosse and tennis. There's not much time for anything else during the spring season, which is the busiest time of year for me.
However, getting to look over pictures and write up a presentation got my mind thinking more about that trip and of course, I have nothing but fond memories. Sometimes it still seems hard to believe that I was in Russia, that I was in the middle of an event as large and as impressive as the Winter Olympics.
Many of the questions I get at the presentations or even just on the sidelines of a game or at the grocery store, focus on the negative view of things that was presented here, particularly in the area of the lodging problems experienced by other members of the media in the days leading up to the Olympics. I also get a lot of questions about the food. It's interesting that those are the things that seem to stick with people, but they are the questions I like to answer, because my answers usually go against what other people might have seen or heard.
One way or another, the memories live on and hopefully I can share them with as many people as possible moving forward.