Background (What is this?)

Georgia Tech & the Olympic Village:
Unless you've been living in a hole, you've heard that Atlanta is hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics. What not everyone knows is that majority of the athletes will be living in Atlanta in the Olympic Village on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (aka "Georgia Tech", "Georgia Tech University", "North Avenue Trade School", "That school that always kicks UGA's butt", etc.). The entire campus has been closed off and is, as of July 6th, home to Olympic athletes from around the world. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) estimates that as many as 15,500 athletes, coaches, and trainers will live in the Village prior to and throughout the Games.

Preparation for turning Tech into the Village began to take physical form at or around February or so (my memory is fuzzy as to when ground was first broken). Fences were placed all around campus, everywhere it seems, to break the campus up into four or five major zones:

• The Natatorium (diving and swimming events)
• Alexander Memorial Coliseum (boxing)
• The Research Control Area (RCA)
• The Village Secure Zone (VSZ) ... where the Athletes live
• the International Festival or zone ? (I'm not sure this is a full zone, but it has it's own security... it's the recreation area).

Beginning July 1st, the campus has been locked down-- that is, it now requires special security badges and accreditation to enter the campus and move from zone to zone. Quite a bit of the daily Georgia Tech business is still going on. Many people telecommute, and there are departments that have satellite offices in other parts of the city (my department has an office up in Cobb County). However, quite a few of us (un)lucky types still have to drag ourselves into work, through the traffic, through the security, to our regular offices, and try to carry on as if the Olympics weren't happening around us.

View from the Village is my attempt to document, at least in some way, what it's like inside this fortress that is the Olympic Village. I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a (somewhat quirky) digital camera and being the HTML kind o'guy that I am, volia! web pages.

In all fairness I should comment here that at least a few of the jokes made in the pages (so far) are "get"able by only Georgia Tech faculty/staff/students/alumni. If I get time, or more preferably volunteers, I'll go back and add explanations for the Ramblin'Wreck-impaired. Until then, just laugh anyway, it'll make you feel better.

- Adam A