Try @ TXST

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi everyone. My name is Giselle Kowalski and I'm the digital content producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Try @ TXST and today's episode is part two of our Olympic series. When you last tuned in, we chatted with Professor Jenny Buschhorn and mass communication student Mac Blackwell, about their upcoming trip to the Paris Olympics. In this episode, we are back with Mac, and associate professor Gene Brenek to talk about their adventures, their Today show appearance and more.
All right guys, hello, how are you today? I'm really excited to talk with you. If you could both please introduce yourselves. I know that we've already met with Mac, but go ahead and introduce yourself again Mac.

Mac Blackwell:
Hi, I'm Mac Blackwell. Slight change, I am a senior PR student here at Texas State now. Yeah, that's me now.

Gene Brenek:
Yeah, so Gene Brenek here. I am not a senior, but I am faculty and I just recently got promoted to associate professor of practice, so yes, so when Mac became a senior, I became an associate professor of practice.

Giselle Kowalski:
I love that, you guys are killing the game. So I was following along with your trip on Instagram, so I want to go back to the very beginning. Walk me through those 12 days. You guys land and immediately head to your hostel. What was it like in that neighborhood that you stayed at?

Gene Brenek:
The neighborhood was great. The hostel we stayed in was great. Luckily it didn't happen to me, but unfortunately a lot of the people we were traveling with did not get their luggage when they arrived. You may have remembered there was a whole computer worldwide glitch that affected a lot of the airlines and it meant a lot of our students and one of our faculty was scrambling to try and rebook flights, which meant they ended up getting on flights finally, but a lot of their luggage ended up being two days late, three days late, some four days late.

Giselle Kowalski:
Oh my goodness. And how did you guys... What did y'all do for solutions like that without the clothes? Did y'all just go shopping, basically?

Gene Brenek:
Shopping. Shopping in Paris.

Giselle Kowalski:
That sounds horrible for your bank account, but so fun for the soul. I know in our last conversation, Mac, you talked about how there were going to be other U.S. students in that hostel and that you're really excited to meet them. Did you make any connections?

Mac Blackwell:
Yeah, actually we did. So not just only in the hostel, but I didn't realize that the group that was facilitating our trip, Seagull, great group, love them. They actually also had an arranged meeting where we basically had a networking event, so all of the students, including some foreign French exchange students were there at the school that we were staying at one of the nights, and so we all got to meet each other then as well.

Giselle Kowalski:
I wanted to talk a little bit about your networking and your more business side of the trip. So what was it like going to the Today show showing, I saw that you guys did that as well and you gave Hoda Kotb, your Texas State lapel pin?

Gene Brenek:
She was such a gracious person too, getting selfies and just to her energy level and her enthusiasm. She's what you see on TV, if you ever watch the Today show, and you see her and how she interacts with people, all I can say is it's real, it's legit.

Mac Blackwell:
So we got to actually be in the background of the show and we went later and cut together all the segments we could find. We're on air for about two and a half minutes of just Texas State in the background and at one point, I know they even mentioned us saying like, "Oh, we got some kids from Texas State."

Speaker 4:
We got Texas State Bobcats. New York and Chicago.

Speaker 5:
Texas State really is repping today.

Speaker 4:
They travel [Inaudible 00:03:50].

Mac Blackwell:
We all threw up our signs and we're all excited. It was so great.

Giselle Kowalski:
That's amazing. What was that professional setting like? Did it give you kind of a taste for what maybe you would want to do in the future or maybe even if you don't want to do that, what did you think about it?

Mac Blackwell:
Oh, it was super cool. So we did get to walk through the studio and see their live broadcasting setup, and it's also right next to where one of their media pens, so we got to see a building that had 20 reporters with cameras facing them in a line sits right up against the Eiffel Tower. We got to just watch them kind of produce it, like headsets in the ears and like, hey, go in five, all the cameras moving. Super cool.

Giselle Kowalski:
And you guys got to experience so many different cultures and especially with that opening ceremony. So walk me through that. I was watching it along with you back at home. It was a random Friday and it was really, really interesting and it was at night and it was raining.

Mac Blackwell:
The opening ceremony was a lot of fun. So originally we were supposed to set up... We were set up to watch it in one of the fan zones that they had. It started raining and it was outside and then the feed started cutting for us, so we all went back to the hostel and we gathered around my laptop because I have Peacock, so we were watching it and then one of the Seagull instructors is Max, great guy, came by and saw us and then was like, "Oh, we can do better than that." And so they opened up the school after hours for us to go watch it in one of their lecture halls and that was a lot of fun.

Giselle Kowalski:
I missed the USA boat going by. Did you get to see them in person or did you watch it online?

Mac Blackwell:
We saw them on the laptop, so in the corner of the restaurant in our hotel, the whole group freaked out for a couple seconds and we was like, "OK, we got to calm back down, we're in public. We're in public."

Giselle Kowalski:
Did you guys get to meet any of these athletes or see them in person?

Mac Blackwell:
Me personally, no. I know some of the other students sat next to athletes on the plane and stuff.

Gene Brenek:
Right.

Mac Blackwell:
And so they got to talk to others.

Giselle Kowalski:
What?

Gene Brenek:
Yes, I was waiting for other flights to come in and it was really amazing. I got to see everybody deplaning into the main part of the airport, at least in my terminal, and I got to see athletes from all of these different countries and they were already... They're not necessarily in the gear, the kits that they were going to be wearing for the opening ceremonies, but they were branded already on that flight. We got to see athletes come in from China and from New Zealand and yes, some from the States and so pretty amazing, just already the experience started right when I landed, it was crazy.

Mac Blackwell:
In terms of celebrities, we saw a bunch of people, just everyone's there. We saw Wemby, Wembanyama and one of the other Spurs basketball players who actually wasn't playing for France, they were playing for us as they should be, unlike Wemby. We met LaChina Robinson who's one of the hosts I think on CBS, like she's one of the main sports hosts for basketball and for the WNBA. We met her in the airport while we were waiting on Professor Buschhorn's luggage. Professor Buschhorn thankfully recognized her and got us all to take a photo with her. It was great.

Giselle Kowalski:
Wow. What are they like in person? Were they nervous or what was that energy like?

Mac Blackwell:
LaChina Robinson was... She's put together. She's professional. Yeah, she's a sports personality. She knows what she's doing, was not unfazed. We also came across an actor, I don't remember his name.

Gene Brenek:
Jeremy Allen White. I'm a huge fan of The Bear.

Giselle Kowalski:
You don't remember his name?

Mac Blackwell:
No, I don't watch TV, so I didn't know who it was, but although everyone else on the trip started freaking out was like, "Oh my God, is that, is that?"

Gene Brenek:
Yeah, and I will say it was kind of funny. So with Jeremy Allen White, he was dressed almost to the tee as he does on the show with the white T-shirt. He looked like his character.

Giselle Kowalski:
Where were you when you met him?

Gene Brenek:
Our French counterparts who did an amazing job at Seagull helping us kind of get immersed in the culture. They were doing a walking tour of the Olympic venues and it just so happened as we were on the day of the opening ceremonies was the day we were doing the walking tour and that's when we ran into Jeremy Allen White.

Giselle Kowalski:
That is so random, for sure. What was that walking tours like? I feel like those buildings and those event centers must be much larger than life when you're actually there in comparison to what we see on TV.

Mac Blackwell:
They're covered in the really cool Paris graphic design that they have everywhere like that faded teal, pink, neon, and then we saw the U.S. Embassy in the French Presidential Palace.

Gene Brenek:
Well, I remember one of the last spots that we went to was to track down the Texas Embassy. Remember that Mac?

Mac Blackwell:
Yes, the Texas Embassy sits right next to the Ritz-Carlton as well, which is why we started seeing some of those celebrities.

Gene Brenek:
Which is crazy. I had no idea that we even had a Texas Embassy in Paris, but apparently the roots are deep y'all between Texas and Paris and the French. And one of the things about the walking tour that was really interesting was France, when they decided to put their bid into host, really was trying to not go insanely into debt the way some of the other host cities had in the past and especially with the Summer Olympics. And so they purposely tried to reuse a lot of the venues so they wouldn't have to build out everything. All of these new stadiums, which is what made a lot of these other host cities go way over budget. And so it was really interesting because a lot of the venues were in places like the equestrian, was at Versailles and I didn't get to go, but I know Mac went and saw, what was it? Beach volleyball right in front of the Eiffel Tower?

Mac Blackwell:
Yes. They did a lot of temporary stadiums, so put up, put right back down and I got to go see beach volleyball and it's literally underneath the Eiffel Tower. So all my photos of the event, you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background and I got to go to a night game, thankfully, it was just this beautiful moment where all the lights in the Eiffel Tower come on. And then it also sparkles and shimmers, and it happened to be that the sparkle shimmer, which starts at the top of every hour started about two minutes after we got to watch USA beat Australia in the women's volleyball, and that was the best sporting event in my life. Hands down.

Giselle Kowalski:
That sounds life-changing. We talked about it before you guys left Mac about that Australia and USA rivalry. Did you feel that beef coming alive whenever you were there?

Mac Blackwell:
Thankfully, we didn't feel like any animosity. So the beach volleyball games are one after another after another. We sat behind a group of Frenchmen who had a game against Britain right before us, so another big rivalry and we told them, "Hey, we'll cheer for you guys in your match if you guys turn around and cheer for us during our match." And they did. So the three guys who were in my section, we had more elsewhere, but the three of us somehow managed to turn all three of us into 20 people chanting for the USA. It was great because one of us had a big flag and we were right on a railing, so we hung it over. We ended up on camera nine times or something like that, so we were freaking out like, "Mom, turn on the TV. See if you see us."

Giselle Kowalski:
You all had a free day. I know Mac, you wanted to go to Versailles, right? Wasn't that on your list?

Mac Blackwell:
The Versailles already happened. We went to the Monet house. I have literally hundreds of photos of flowers in my phone because it's the prettiest garden I've seen in my life. We also happen to have another free day where we spent it at the Decathlon brand playground installation, or my group did. That was a free day where we all split into four groups. So I got to go to the Decathlon Playground, which is this really cool installation where they had breakdancers and BMX tricks and a zipline. Some of us got to go on, and then I know Gene took a group to Disneyland.

Gene Brenek:
We did go to Disneyland, Paris, and they had this amazing drone show that you can look at on YouTube that is over Sleeping Beauty's castle right at the end of the night, which was... I think it lasted about 8 or 10 minutes, and it was incredible. For anybody that is at all interested in drone photography and how they're coordinating drones to these different shapes and different characters from Disney iconic references, it was pretty amazing and fascinating to watch.

Giselle Kowalski:
To wrap this all up, you guys, you guys have really shown me that you guys had an incredible time and hopefully students in 2028 can repeat such an amazing experience. It won't be in Paris, but this-

Mac Blackwell:
LA.

Giselle Kowalski:
LA. Will be interesting for our Texas State students to go and check that out. But if you could give any advice to that next group of students, what would it be?

Mac Blackwell:
For me, pack an empty bag in the suitcase. Go to every event you can. So the resale ticket platform is really nice for the Olympics, so I got tickets just two nights in advance of going to gymnastics and I got to see that for cheap. It was super great.

Giselle Kowalski:
Did you see the pommel horse man?

Gene Brenek:
I did. We didn't know when we were watching this in real time, exactly how big of an internet sensation he was going to become, but you could still tell even for someone like me who doesn't really follow gymnastics, that it was like, "Wow, what just happened?" He was not in any of the other events the last two hours and all of a sudden, where did this guy come from? And here we go, the U.S. men's gymnastics team, which has not medaled in 16 years, and just to watch them on the sidelines, just waiting in anticipation, the entire U.S. and their men's team and their coaches just waiting for those three or four minutes, that probably for them felt like an hour to find out that they actually medaled, it was crazy. It was amazing.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah, you guys got to witness so many iconic moments and that to me is just like... That's the Texas State experience, right? You guys are really just making it all happen around the world. That's fantastic. So if you guys, both of you, if you had to sum it up in three words, what was this trip like for you?

Mac Blackwell:
Life-changing experience.

Gene Brenek:
Transformative. I don't need three words.

Giselle Kowalski:
How can someone get involved in this if they want to be a part of it for maybe the winter or the summer?

Gene Brenek:
Study abroad is an amazing opportunity. That's how this Paris Olympics thing happened, and there's going to be a study abroad fair happening that is on our campus that is going to have tables pretty much advertising all of the upcoming study abroad programs and possibly also some of the Study in America programs. And so they all come with credits as well. Definitely going to the study abroad website, which you can find by putting that in the search bar for... Texas State search bar will give you lots of information. And I know right now they're working towards the 2025 trips that are upcoming.

Giselle Kowalski:
Awesome. Well, thank you both so much for talking to me and I hope you guys have a great rest of your week.

Gene Brenek:
Absolutely. Thank you. This was great.

Mac Blackwell:
Had a lot of fun. Thanks for having me.

Giselle Kowalski:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Try @ TXST podcast. Make sure to tune in next time to learn more about something else you can try on campus at Texas State. And also remember to follow us on our social media at TXST. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the hosts and guests not of Texas State University. Again, I'm your host, Giselle Kowalski, and I'll see you next time. Bye y'all.