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!!

Formalities

I guess I can now start counting the days!

I have received my flight and hotel confirmations as well as securing an entry visa for China.
As a matter of fact, I never knew there were professional agencies who are specialized in securing assorted visas for individuals, groups and companies.
I chose to trust MerkurReisen (www.visaexpress.de) and I must say they did an excellent job within a few days.
So, Beijing here I come!!!

Preparations for Beijing 2008

So far my preparations are going well according to plan.
I guess I can now provide a summary on my role during the Olympics.
I have been assigned as IDS Assistant Manager to handle IDS Systems mainly at the Basketball venue.

IDS stands for Information Diffusion System and is made up of the following sub-systems:

• Commentator Information System (CIS) - to provide real time competition results for Broadcasters (TV, Radio and Venue Announcers).
  
• Info 2008 (INF) Beijing 2008 Intranet - to provide information for the Press, Broadcasters and the Olympic Family. Information includes results, biorgraphies and background data, medals, schedules, records, etc.
  
• Internet Data Feed (IDF) - to provide information for Internet Services Provider, Broadcasters and the international Press agencies.
• Print Distribution (PRD) - an application used to distribute sports specific reports on paper for the Press and competition management.
• Results Data Feed (RDF) - an application which facilitates report distribution (sport specific, cross-sport and general reports) to the World news press agencies.
• Central Repository System (CRS) - a data repository used to consolidate all information regarding the Games and also servers as a document generator to feed other systems.
  

In order to gain extensive knowledge on my roles and other activities during the olympics, I have successfully completed mandatory eLearning courses and exams covering areas like Systems Architecture, Incident Management, Security, IT Operations and staffing.