back in business: viva la chaos!

After having a day off yesterday, this morning there was no training either. At nine we met Sören, a german coach who will be training here a well. We explained him the whole situation during breakfast and when that was done Barbara (babbala) and Taco went to the tv-tower and Jan back to computer city. Yesterday he accendentely deleted his china maps for the navigation system, so he went back to the shop to get a new copy. We met close to the tower and climbed down to some nice neighborhood and small park closeby. For lunch we bought some cookies in a very small shop on the street and we took a taxi back to the marina.

We told the translators to rig the boat, but then they told us they had no time. They couldn´t tell why yet, untill we heard we were supposed to sail in the big(ger) boats with some chinese families, who would be very important in the governement. We got a bit pissed of because that wasn´t in our plan and we needed all the time that was left. Plus, we didn´t really feel like entertaining people just for one day. Then somebody told us we could stick to our program, but when we went on with the translators, we were told again that we were really needed. So we thought of a compromise and figured out that the four best sailing translators would go in the bigger boats, with some other chinese, and two of us would guide them in the motorboat and one of us (babbala) would train the other two translators. This was really exciting for the translators, but they did great and it was a good test for next week. They clearly passed the test.

Now it is getting exciting for next week. 600 optimist still have to be delivered and a lot af things still have to be arranged. but we will just keep on training.

taking it easy

after we heard yesterday that the chinese boss of the translators had other plans for them, we were suddenly told yestererday evening by Dirk that the boss had said this day would be a rest day for the translators. that meant a day off for us as well. we decided we would wake up late and after that go to computer city.

so we went to computer city, which is an awesome place with very much very small elektronics shops where you can buy everithing you want for a low price. Jan bought a very cheap navigation system, Barbara a sportbelt for her ipod, a headset and bought a webcam together with Taco, who also bought huge headphones and a portable speakers for an ipod. for lunch we had a sandwich, we checked out our new stuff, watched a video and slept a bit.

then after an awesome dinner in some korean bbq restaurant, we went for a massage which was awasome as well and now we`re fully relaxed again. this was a full body massage. after that we got some icecream and got back to the hotel.

Telephone numbers

We just got our telephone numbers, so if someone wants to contact us:
Jan: +86 13153290534
Barbara: +86 13153291434
Taco: +86 13153291634

finaly a new update

Since last update many things have changed; instead of Pia, Thomas and Sebastiaan, now Barbara, Jan and Taco are teaching here. Barbara and Jan arrived yesterday, on Tuesday, Taco already on Friday last week.

Last Saturday the training for the translators started with Taco and Sebastiaan, who left yesterday and went to Weihai. The translators were very enthousiastic when we taught them how to rig the boats. they also already read the book so they knew most of the terms, which made us very hopefull and happy. but when we told them to get ready to get into they boats, it appeared that only three of the; could swim. the rest didn't want to go. great. we told them it would not be a problem and in the end we could get 4 of them with us.

Sunday we were told to come to the marina again and although Sebastiaan managed that we only had to come in the afternoon, we had some troubles waking up after a long night. that appeared to be useless, because when we got there the translators had other things to do (waiting for something) and didn't know who we had to teach instead. we decided not to wait and went back to play paintball with some of Sebastiaan's friends.

Monday morning when we got back to the marina, againg no one knew whe had to train. and off we went again. to the computer city and the older part of the city. in the afternoon the translators suddenly had time, so we went on the water, this time in optimist. when we were finished everyone had made his first rounds in an optimist.

Next day Barbara and Jan replaced Sebastiaan and again we went sailing, just as we did today. after three days of sailing everything is going very well and the translators can already sail way much better then the chinese trainers, who have already been sailing a week longer. though most of the translators are sailing very good, their english is a bit disappointing. they are volunteers for the olympics who have been given to us by the governement. this has two main disadvantages: their english is not as good as we had expected because we had not the ability to choose them ourselves and they also have many others bosses next to us, who they have to obey to as well. this means that there can be changes in the programm any time, like today when they suddenly had to attend a very important meeting of five minutes for which we had to wait an hour which was special for the camera for which the chinese wanted to show as many people as possible. for tomorow the program is not certan yet either.
some pictures: First our sponsor in Qingdao


Then Taco instructing our translators:


The view on the harbour from Dirk's office:



and some extra images that create show the atmosphere of Qingdao





One thing tho remark is the super 'kiel linie' or admiraal sailing we did...