This week was filled with new experiences, deadlines, and two exams. Busy, but also a very fun week.
Monday
Monday was all about crisis communication. We presented our crisis communication plan based on the real bombing attack on Borussia Dortmund’s team bus in 2017. For this presentation, Daniel Stolpe, who was Borussia Dortmund’s press officer at the time and experienced the situation firsthand, came to Madrid to grade us.
After our presentation, we received very positive feedback, which made all the work worth it. Once all groups had presented, Daniel gave us a lecture explaining what happened in 2017 and how the club and communications team handled the situation. Hearing this directly from someone who lived through it was incredibly valuable. It also confirmed something for me, I really enjoy communications, and especially crisis communication.
Tuesday
Tuesday started like most mornings lately, with a gym session. After that, I headed to class for a lecture by María Borrás, which focused on communication surrounding the Bernabéu. A different angle on stadium communication that tied in well with earlier classes about the Bernabéu.
Wednesday
Wednesday was supposed to be another university day, but Madrid surprised everyone with snow. For the first time in years, I officially had a snow day, and classes were cancelled.
No excuses though, so I still went to the gym and after met up with Claire to have some lunch at Fónico. The rest of the day was spent preparing for my most nerve-wracking exam so far: sports commentary. After practising several times and feeling reasonably confident, I moved on to another task. Creating social media games for our What-If Football Talk Show.
Besides filming the episodes, we also need extra content for social media. I was responsible for one of the games and decided on “guess the player by their transfer history.” Not the easiest, but a lot of fun to create. All of this happened while I had multiple Champions League matches playing in the background.
Thursday
Thursday followed the usual routine, gym first, then quickly getting ready for university. The nerves were definitely there.
I started the day with the sports commentary exam. With slightly shaky hands, I went through it, and thankfully it went very well. I know I passed for sure, now it’s just a matter of waiting for the grade. After the exam, we had a short class on how to structure questions for flash interviews, with examples of both good and bad ones.
Post exam > flash interview tips.
Friday
Friday was long. I arrived at university at 9:30, knowing it would be a full day. This was the day we filmed the first real episode of our final project.
Fran and I started by setting up the room and decorations, while John and Dani worked on the camera setup. Once everything was ready, we filmed our extra content, including the social media games. This went surprisingly smoothly, and the content turned out exactly as we hoped.
Then it was time to film the talk show itself. Fran and I handled the camera work while the rest of the group discussed the episode topic.
After such a long day, Dani, Anton, and I ended the night with pizza at NAP Goya.
Weekend
Saturday was an actual rest day. No plans, no obligations, just doing nothing.
Sunday was spent at the Bernabéu for a wild match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano. You can read more about that in my previous blog post. After the match, the rain had finally stopped, so I decided to walk home instead of squeezing into a packed metro. Once home, I edited my match report and wrapped up this final blog post of the week.
