this made me laugh... especially the zorb part!
Rendezvous in Sochi?
The Globe and Mail
By Rod Mickleburgh, The Globe and Mail
Advice for the five of you out there thinking of going to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics: don't. Not unless you're a fan of construction sites, concrete silos and Vladimir Putin. Those seemed to be the main features of the Black Sea resort, as highlighted in an unbelievably boring video played by Sochi Olympic organizers to entice assembled hacks covering Vancouver's version of the Winter Games. It was more like a company promotion for Metallurg, circa 1971, than anything remotely connected to the Olympics.
Sochi organizing committee CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko added to the mystery of Sochi's Winter Games allure by referring to his city as "the most popular summer tourist destination in Russia. People call it the Russian Riviera. We have a sub-tropical climate. Lots of palm trees."
Great. Just what the Winter Olympic needs. Palm trees.
As a piece de resistance, just in case there were still a few reporters in the room resistant to Sochi's Olympic charms, Mr. Chernyshenko unveiled the zorb.
What's a zorb, you ask? Mr. Chernyshenko seemed puzzled, too. Gamely, he offered that a zorb was a large, transparent sphere expected to bounce around during Sochi's portion of Sunday's closing ceremonies.
"They reflect the open, transparent society we are trying to create in Sochi," he quipped. "The zorbs reflect the Sochi universe."
Then someone went and spoiled it all by asking if ‘zorb' was a Russian word. "I have no idea," the 2014 Games czar replied. "If someone knows, please advise me."
Another cheeky reporter added to the merriment by asking Mr. Chernyshenko how to spell ‘zorb'.
"This wonderful word ‘zorb'," he sighed in response. "I'm not sure how to spell it."
A few minutes later, Mr. Chernyshenko turned the screen of his computer around to face the media. On it, in large bold capitals, was the word "ZORBS". He beamed with pride.
Cost of hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics? Billions and billions of rubles. Dmitry Chernyshenko, with a large name tag in front of him reading "ZORBS"? Priceless.
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=54285.html#mickleburgh+blog+rendezvous+sochi