Lessons learnt - 27.08

I got back safely home to Germany.
I really couldn't get proper sleep last night and I guess I probably missed my hard bed in Beijing. Jokes by side, I think my experience in China has rather given me a deep exposure and insight into a number of things which I may consider as learnt lessons.

1. I have strenghtened my skills of working better under pressure and improved the attitude of leaving less room for mistakes.

2. I have enrichened my social skills and competence as I had this wonderful opportunity to really work in a global environment involving not only my foreign Atos Origin colleagues but different internation teams.

3. I have learnt to be less judgemental especially on things for which I have had no direct exchange with. I believe the media does a really good job of generating loads of negative images about a lot of things that it is equally important not to base opinions on what we consume from the media.

4. China is on the march! They have the biggest Airport in the world now, the biggest Theatre in the world, the biggest shopping Mall and the most iconic stadium I have ever seen. I guess soon we might all have to consider learning chinese. At least, the next generation will have no other choice.

5. China is a beautiful country and I have had a wonderful experience with chinese people.
People have been extremely nice, friendly and hospitable. I can't tell if it has always been like but I have been impressed!

After Games Party - 25.08

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Officially, today is our last day and the agenda is to have an official group foto and an after-games party.
For the group fotos we are all to appear in our full uniforms but we had the option to change for the party.
Taking the group foto was tedious since we were a large group of over 400 people.
It took over an hour to get this done. People from different groups and groups of individuals who linked well took the opportunity to take fotos as well.
After the foto session we travelled in different buses for about one and a half hours outside of Beijing for the after-games party.
I guess a lot of people were a bit enraged due to the long trip but as soon as we got to the location every single one of us was overwhelmed. We were met by group of chinese drummers who performed to welcome us.
The location,the decorations and the food were absolutely fantastic.

In his speech, Mr. Adiba (our olympic CEO) showered praises and congratulations on us for all our efforts and mentioned that we had delivered perfectly and each one of us had a reason to be proud.

I got back to the hotel around 2am in the morning, had to wake up at 7am because my flight was at 10am. I was picked up at around 7.30am and on my way to the airport I reflected on my last 3 weeks in Beijing. As I digged into the last 3 weeks, I was absolutely convinced that this, indeed, has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.

Lunch with Olina and husband - 24.08

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As I left the venue last night I decided to come back the next to watch the basketball finals between USA and China.
I got a phone call this morning from Olina inviting me to have lunch with her and her husband.
I was a bit irritated and confused now because that meant I would have to skip the basketball game this afternoon.
But I have learnt that it would be absolutely disrespectful to decline such a gesture.
So I agreed to having lunch with Olina and her husband and rather skip lunch. Besides, I had already watched a number of basketball games involving the Americans and I was much confident they were going to win.

This lunch rendezvous turned out to be an excellent idea because we went to a pretty nice chinese restaurant in a typical chinese neighborhood.

We had what is known as "steaming pot", a huge boiling pot in the middle of the table with assorted types of meat and vegetables. I personally thought this was one of the most delicious meals I have ever had.

Later in the evening, I met with some of the guys with whom I now had excellent relations. One of them, Alex Foing - a french dude, was having his birthday so we all went out to the famous Sanlitun bar area to celebrate with him.

Last Day of Work - 23.08

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Today is my last day of work and on one hand, I am quite happy that I will soon be going home but on the other hand I am certainly sad that these wonderful times here are quickly over and also because I have to say good-bye to all the wonderful people I have met here.

I have had an excellent working relations with Olina, my IDS Colleague, the BOCOG colleagues (Beijing organizing committee for the olympic games) and the Omega colleagues.
Even though the job has been extremely demanding but we were able to execute our duties with absolute perfection. We never had any issues that could have pose as a major hindrance to the our venue games.

I guess we could all be very proud of ourselves because we simply achieved our goals and reached a huge milestone.

The Bird's Nest & Water Cube - 21.08

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Today is my free day and I am very excited.

The reason is that I will be going to the Bird's Nest to watch some exciting finals of the athletics.
As it is, the view of the Nest is awesome and the whole area is permanently filled with thousands of people seeking to take shots of the nest and the water cube.
My aim is to take shots when it gets dark.

I was lost with words after I entered the nest. The first words that came out of my lips were "WoW"!!!!
Today I perfectly understood why a lot of athletes break down into tears during a medal ceremony. The whole atmosphere comes with a deep emotional touch and it is certainly one of those things you really need to experience in real life.

The highlight for me was the 110m Hurdles showdown which the cuban Dayron Robles won. It was the perfect race for him.

After the event I came out and the view of the nest and the water cube with changing colors was so fascinating.
I went to the 10th floor of the DHQ (our main technology center), which is just 50 meters away from the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest.
I paid a short visit to Karim Samir, an Atos Colleague who has been on the Olympic Project for over 6 months now.
I took the opportunity to take some shots from the 10th floor because I had an excellent view of the Cube and Nest!!!
Another fantastic day...

Football - 19.08

My highlight today is to watch the game between Argentinia and Brazil.
I closed at 6pm and rushed towards the workers stadium.
The subway was full of people all heading to the stadium.

Again, I witnessed a fantastic atmosphere and got to know that the Chinese were almost as football crazy as Europeans.
The game was not the best I have seen as the Argentiniens really dominated the Brazilians and rightly won...

Cháng Chéng 20.08 - Great Wall

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What we all call the Great Wall of China is known in China as Cháng Chéng!
We (me and 13 other Atos Origin Colleagues) rented a Van and Tour Guide and traveled 90km outside of Beijing to Mutianyu.
Before we got there we made a short stopover at a Jade factory.
For the first time in the olympics Jades were used as the inner core for the medals. What I really learnt today was to distinguish between a fake and a genuine Jade. I am not sharing this secret with you but you can always render my services when the need arises...

Because we were all tired from those long working hours we decided to go uphill with cablecars instead of climbing up.
Having reached the top, I was simply speechless - What I now saw was way beyond my expectations. The view of the Wall is simply stunning.
The steps are really uneven so walking to the different towers is quite an exercise. But every little step was worth exploring.
Again, I was really wondering how they did it. I guess the ambition and the quest to survive as a people from invasion was incredibly strong.

Riding down was so much fun. We decided to run the "bob-sleigh" down the hill and that was such an awesome feeling.
And then on our way back to the Van we met the German Basketball team with Dirk Nowitzki. We had a few exchanges with them.
The day was really fulfilling....

Summer Palace 17.08

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I have a late shift today which starts at around 4pm so I decided to visit the Summer Palace today before going to work.
This huge regal encampment of the summer palace in the northwest of Beijing is one of the City's principal attractions. I am told it was once a playground for the imperial court of eluding the insufferable summer swelter of the Forbidden City.
100 000 labourers were enlisted to deepen and expand the Kumming Lake around the hilltop Palace.

I visited the Temples in the Palace and saw that they were all Buddhist Temples.
I descended the Temple and crossed the Lake on a boat ride to the other end to see the small island.
I must say the view of the Palace from the lake is simply awesome. Very beautiful scenario.

In any case, I think the most amusing thing I did today was to take fotos dressed as a chinese emperor. This attracted a huge crowd and a rather funny scenario.

As it is, I became a huge object of photography today!!!!

Beach Volleyball 16.08

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I am seeing crystal blue skies in Beijing for the first time in Beijing.
The weather is incredibly nice since yesterday and today is my day off. I got a ticket for Beach Volleyball yesterday and I have really been contemplating if I really want to go there.
I am not a big fan of Volleyball, besides, the games are at 9am in the morning and then considering the fact that I worked 15 hours yesterday, I was rather thinking of catching some sleep.
I finally decided to go to Beach Volleyball for a change.
The atmosphere at the Venue surprised me. I could only say Wow!
To make my day, Germany played in the second game against China and won not only against the 2 players but the hard-supporting chinese fans.
I certainly have fallen in love for Beach Volleyball....Quite interesting and really different from normal Volleyball.

I went back to the Hotel in the afternoon to catch some sleep because I am meeting up this evening for dinner with a bunch of my colleagues and then watch the 100m final showdown together....

Rice and Cuba 15.8

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Before coming to China I knew the chinese eat a lot of rice but I simply couldn't imagine that it was the main component of almost any dish.
My working colleagues have rice for lunch and for dinner. At the hotel most of the chinese folks are always seen eating full blown rice meals as early as 7am.

Infact, I have been having Rice for lunch ever since I started working at the Basketball/Baseball venues and I simply can't smell it any more.
This afternoon my colleague, Olina, took me out to grab a chinese "döner kebap" for a change.
Gosh, memories of my constant visit to the Döner shop at Essen Bahnhof (train station) started playing in my head.

Today's baseball game featured Cuba against the USA and as it is, the whole venue was in a huge frenzy!
The game was tight and long which meant I really had to concentrate a lot working on providing real-time data to the Systems.
Cuba finally won the game to the major disappointment of the Americans. The Americans have now lost 2 games and tensions are rising pretty high here. They must win their next game....

Today is gonna be another long day for me, another 15 hour shift. This means tomorrow is a free day for me. So far I have no plans but I will check out my "Beijing City Guide" to find something interesting to do.

Forbidden City 14.8

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I have a day off today so I decided to finally visit the Forbidden City and the Tiananmen Square.
I got up around 9am, took breakfast and worked out in the Gym before leaving the hotel.

Having learnt my lessons, I took the subway this time.
Travelling with the subway in Beijing is a hassle.
First of all, security is tight and each person is screened and scanned before entering the subway platforms. Passengers waiting to board never wait for the ones getting off. As soon as the subway arrives the scramble begins. I really dont like this behavior.

In any case, I got to the other side of the Forbidden City and realized that I had to walk for about 1,5 Km to get to the main entrance.
Fortunately, a rickshaw just approached me and I hurriedly jumped in. The trip turned into a nightmare after we arrived at the entrance. The driver, an elderly lady, wanted to have 300 RMB, about 30 Euros from me. This drove me nuts! We finally settled for 20 RMB!!!

My accreditations allow me to visit all tourist attractions for free.
The forbidden City is simply magnificent. It is called forbidden because I learnt it was off limits to commoners for 500 years.
This gargantuan palace complex - Chinas largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings - sheltered 2 dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, who didn't stray away from their pleasure domes unless they absolutely had to. The emperors governed China from here.

The weather was a big blow to me to today since it rained cats and dogs for some hours. I had to wait in the underground leading to the Square for the rains to stop because the cheap 10 RMB umbrella I bought was already dismantled after the first rains came.

My trip to the Square was therefore not too good since the rains practically stopped.
I took the subway and visited the Silk market and Silk street.
The line-up of imitated and faked designer wear really shocked me!
Personally, I just thought this is awful....

Baseball Begins - 13.08

Today is the beginning of the Baseball competition. I am not a big fan of Baseball so I am just doing my technical stuff to get it running.
However, I watched the Cubans training and they looked really strong and composed...I guess they will be a hard nut to crack.

I am not working tomorrow so I will finally get to visit the Tianemen Square and the Silk Market.

I got a Ticket for the Bird's Nest 21.08

I found out today that I am getting a ticket for the 21.08 for the athletics competition.
I am very much excited because the final for the 110 Meters Hurdles is on the program.
The reason is not far-fetched!
I love Athletics and I was really craving for a ticket to watch this race.
I guess this is going to be the biggest athletic showdown at Beijing 2008 between Dayron Robles of Cuba and the Chinese sprinter Lu Xiang.
Lu Xiang is a big star here in China and everyone is expecting him to win the Gold Medal in this event. He won it in Athens and the authorities have announced that "if he doesn't win the Gold medal, then all his previous achievements are nothing"...that is some kind of serious pressure.

In any case, I can't wait to see how he is gonna deal with this pressure...

George Bush 11.08

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Today was a very chaotic day for all of us.
We had a visit from George Bush and we all had to stop working till he was done with his press conference. The amount of security involved in this is very astonishing. I counted his convoy of cars just out of curiousity. 37 Vehicles....
This meant we had to re-schedule our game plans to later in the evening.
That meant we had to work till 9pm. That was not fun at all.....

Basketball China - USA 10.08

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Today I am pretty much excited about the biggest showdown since the beginning of the Games.
Basketball Game between China and USA.

I closed at around 9pm and went with Terry (one IDS Manager) to watch this game. As I expected, Security was extremely tight and it was much difficult for us to get in, even with our accreditations.
The Game was good in the beginning but it became a one-sided affair after the Second Half in favour of the US-Team.
I also just thought the US Team was just brilliant and well organised.
I was much disappointed with Yao Ming, the chinese Giant. I guess not only I but the Chinese audience too. In any case, the atmosphere was just fantastic.

I saw George Bush and his whole family sitting about 100 Meters away from. So that was the reason why the security guys all went nuts before the game!!
I was rather pleased to see El Gueroj, the 1500 & 5000 meters Gold medalists from Athen.

I got to the Hotel around midnight, really exhausted and simply sank to bed!

Saturday 09.08

My initial plan was to visit the Great Wall but I learnt it has been closed. I must say I am a bit disappointed.
Tanja and Susanne called me and suggested we visit the Heaven Temple which turned out to be a great idea.
The weather is pretty nice and the Temple is the most perfect example of Ming architecture.
The temple originally served a vast stage for the solemn rites performed by the emperor, the Son of heaven, as he sought good harvests, divine clearance and atonement for the sins of the people.
The complex of halls is set in a 267-hectare park with gates at each point of the compass and bounded by walls.
Seen from above the temples are round and the bases square, a pattern deriving from the ancient Chinese belief that the heaven is round and the earth square. Thus the northern end of the park is semicircular and the southern end is square.

We left the Temple of Heaven and went to the Drum House, again this was also closed as it turned out that some important Head of State was in there. I bet it was George Bush!
We took a walk along the beautiful lakeside around the Drum House and then left for our various Hotels.

The Opening Ceremony

As I expected the Chinese were keen to prove to the World they are up to greatness.
Personally, I think this is one of the best ceremonies!
It was more exciting as I watched with the chinese people and got to learn how they love their country.
They cheered at almost everything that was chinese - but they really went nuts as Yao Ming entered the Stadium with the chinese flag.
In any case it was an awesome experience for me.....

The long awaited Day - 08.08

I am not working today so my plans are to do some sight-seeing and then hang out with some of my colleagues later in the evening.
My plan today was to visit the Tianemen Square and the Forbidden City with some Atos colleagues from Malaysia (Quiss, Dave and Bick).
I got stucked in a heavy traffic jam on my way to the square shortly before I got to the square. I called Quiss to inform them that I was still in a jam only to be told that the Square was closed today. Quiss told me to take the subway at the square to the next station, Wangfunjin station.
I walked for about 30 minutes in an extremely hot and humid weather to the subway station only to be told that it was closed.
I took a taxi again and told the driver to take me to the nearest subway station which was rather close to my hotel.
I finally got to the Wangfunjin station after about 2 hours of struggle!

The Wangfunjin area is the main shopping area full Malls and restaurants. We had some drinks and then went to the main shopping Mall APM. The APM Mall stretches over 6 storeys and is exceptionally huge.
We had dinner together and then headed off to watch the opening Ceremony.

07.08 Nothing

I had a pretty long day today due to preparations for the opening ceremony and for the beginning of the games.
Olina opened up today to me and told me a lot about what she wants to do.
She wants to go to America to be a model or work in an IT-Multinational company as a software tester.
She gave me her CV to check for mistakes.
After looking through her CV I told her she has to really change the complete format since it does not correspond to the american standard. Her CV was like 6 pages long full of stories about companies she had worked for.
Apart from that the whole day was just work, work and work!
In between I took time to go watch the chinese and american baseball teams training!

The torch is in Beijing - 06.08

Coming out of the hotel this morning I saw a massive gathering of people in and outside of the hotel.
I was told that the were people selected to accompany the torch in Beijing.

As at now, I am a bit angry that I can't take pictures at the Venues due to security reasons. My venue manager has assured me that he is going to work on that to get clearance for me!
Work today was exciting especially after I realized that I have perfectly understood the work process and things are running smoothly.
The cooperation with the Omega guys is fantastic.
However, I have slight difficulties trying to understand Zhao and the spanish guys from Omega since their English skills leaves a lot to be desired but this does not impair the job in any way.

Shortly before I closed today I was told I could take Friday and Saturday off! You can bet I was extremely excited about this especially since I haven't had any proper rest since I left Germany.
My plans are to do some sight-seeing on Friday before heading off later to watch the opening ceremony with the rest of the colleagues!
I also intend to visit the Great Wall on Saturday and then go watch the Basketball Game between USA and China!!!

My first day at work - 05.08

I got up pretty tense and somehow nervous simply because I didn't know what to expect at my Job Venue.
In any case, I took a taxi to the WukeSong Sports Center after taking breakfast with Eric and 3 other colleagues from Hong Kong, Spain and South Africa. Again security was very tight as I was thoroughly scanned before being let in.
Since most taxi drivers dont speak English I carry a map of Beijing with me which I always show them. So far this has been working!

Now the WukeSong sports center is the main venue for Baskettball and Baseball.

I called my contact person known as Mu and he asked another guy to come and get me.
He took me through the basketball center and all I could say was WOW! The place is just awesome and I couldn't describe it with words.
In that very moment I met the Argentinien Basketball team coming for their training session.

I got a tad bit excited when I saw Manu Ginobli from the Spurs (NBA).
After my first briefings, I was picked up by a young lady called Zhao who was going to be my main working colleague.
We left for the Baseball center where I was introduced to a bunch of technical experts from Omega who I was going to be working with.

My job is to handle all the IDS sub systems used for diffusing real time data during the competition. This involves monitoring, incident management, data processing, reportings, data analysis, test simulations and also provide Omega with real data. I started working in a test environement and I found out that this job was really going to be extremely demanding simply because there is basically no room for doing mistakes!

I left the office around 6pm to the Hotel and on my way Eric called telling me he and a bunch of guys were not working the next 2 days and had hurriedly plan some trips. I was a bit envious, though!
In any case, I went to the Hotel to get them fix the internet connection so I could finally start posting some messages on my Blog.

Beijing - The next morning - 05.08

Looking out of my window this morning, I saw a heavy smog covering the skies of Beijing.
I went to the Lobby to meet Eric for breakfast.

We grabbed a Taxi and rushed to the DHQ for our first classroom traininings, technical briefings and got ourselves acquainted with the necessary HR issues. We were all issued with Samsung mobiles phones (special olympic edition) which we can keep for 30 Euros.
The DHQ is the technical operations center close to the Bird's Nest. This is the main center for the IT operations.

One thing is for sure: Security is very tight and the chinese are working hard not to leave any stone unturned.

We decided to the take a short walk around the Bird's nest during the lunch break.
The weather was so hot and humid and the air was extremely thick.
For now, I was wondering how athletes taking endurance sports like marathon were going to cope. This is really going to be a battle!!!
At this point in time, I am much convinced the Chinese would never get rid of the smog!

Around 6pm we all drove in a bus to the Drum Tower area (see photo) for the official welcome dinner. We had dinner in a roof-top restaurant and again the food was excellent.
I am convinced that the chinese restaurants in Europe have been well designed to match european taste. The food here taste really different but excellent.
The exchange with the other colleagues was pretty fulfilling especially considering the fact that we were all coming from different parts of this world practically representing each of the continents. This is what is known as the Olympic Spirit!

Mr. Patrick Adiba - Operation Director welcomed us and thanked us all for all the efforts we were bringing up to make the games a successful event.
I got the address and phone of my Boss who is to pick me up at my venue entrance for my first day at work!




I

Nihao - 04.08

Nihao

-> Please click on Foto for more photos!!!

I am in Beijing!
I arrived on the Sunday with 3 other Atos Colleagues from Aachen and one other lady from Eindoven.
We had about 3 hours delay in Düsseldorf because our plane, which came from Mombasa, did not arrive on time for technical inspection.
Dirk mentioned that he had seen a mosquito and that sparked an uneasy feeling. Mombasa mosquitoes sure does ring bells!
In any case, the flight was very pleasant and we safely landed at Beijing Capital International Airport at around 11:30 AM.

The Airport is pretty huge and was a bit crowded.
The first group of Athletes we saw was the Russian Athletes amidst a very welcoming group of chinese Volunteers.

Our Pickup Guy was already waiting so all got into a Van and drove off towards the hotel. On his list, I noticed I was in a different hotel because on my invitation I was meant to be logging in the Yongan Hotel where most of the Atos colleagues were staying.
I later found out that I was moved to a different hotel (Chinese Peoples Palace) with 4 other guys because it was closer to our venue of work.

First Impressions
The weather was warm, sunny and quite humid.
Coming out of the Airport I noticed that every single pole on the streets have been well decorated with some olympic banners and there is an extensive promotion of the Beijing Games.

We got to the Chinese Peoples Palace around 2pm and it is indeed a very nice 4 Star Hotel.
The rooms are clean and it does really appeal to me. (I will send some fotos later)

The next thing we did was to rush to the BHQ to activate our accreditations.
The place was packed so it took about an hour to complete after which we left seeking for a good restaurant to still the hunger that was almost bursting into starvation.
I joined 6 other fellows and we ended up in a restaurant close to the Beach Volley Ball Venue.
The food was simply fantastic and we all were very impressed.

We took a long walk through the Sun Park after having dinner which left us all very exhausted.
At this point I had met Eric, a french guy who was also staying in the "Palace". We took a taxi together and went back to Palace.

I dragged myself to bed and hurriedly got up again! The bed felt so hard I thought they had probably forgotten the mattress. So I went to the check-in counter to ask if there was no mattress and I was told that was a normal bed.
So I went back a bit disappointed but surprisingly, I slept really, really good!!