Beijing – Training

August 4th

Made it over to the IBC about 45 minutes early. Wandered around a little – it’s huge!


Around 9:30, I was able to find someone holding a “graphics training” sign, so I approached her. Eventually they took all of us to the graphics department and split us up into our sports. This is when I met Lili – the other graphics op that will be doing sailing with me.

We off to another room with our trainer, Renee, who is from New Zealand.
I had read over the graphics manual the night before, so I was somewhat familiar with the system. About 15 minutes into training, I realized she was over half way thru the manual. I started to wonder what the hell we were going to do for the next 2 days!

So yes, Lili and I learned the Agile in about 45 minutes. Apparently, it comes simple to us because of several factors – mainly that we both do ESPN shows, for the part most challenging in the world. Other countries do no produce sports on the same level as the United States. So pretty much all American operators have no issues with learning the systems used by the host broadcasters for any of the Games. Since the host broadcasters use freelancers from all over the world, they have to keep it simple so everyone can learn it quickly.

Lili and I had lunch and wandered around some more. Did a short review in the afternoon and then went to logistics to follow up on our transportation to the airport on Wednesday. We also wandered around the Main Press Center where we got some interesting books about Beijing and saw all the amenities we would be missing out on since we are not staying in Beijing (gym, free massages, etc)

It was concluded that there was no need for us to come for the 2nd day of training, so now we have tomorrow off!

As we were leaving, we snapped a few shots of the MPC (Main Press Center)

and some of the Olympic Village






*note the sun in top right



Here are some close ups on the sun.





That evening, Lili’s friend Derek, an operator from Canada showed us around Beijing. He is also working for B.O.B. (Beijing Olympic Broadcasting) as a graphics manager.
We had a most interesting taxi ride across town. Lots of giggles!
The driver dropped us off at the wrong place so we ended up walking for about an hour before finding our restaurant. I believe we were in the same Hutong I had visited on my tour last week.

Anyway, we finally found the place – “Source”.


It was nice and of course I didn’t eat much. A few bites of chicken, because it finally came out to us as a sliced breast – so it actually resembled chicken!

Some cucumber soup (boiled cucumbers with chives), cucumbers with garlic & soy sauce. Then they had these mini taco shell looking things that we were supposed to eat duck in. Nope, not me. I had cucumber strips and soy sauce in them! For dessert, I had watermelon.

Then we took a taxi to this lake area where there are tons of bars. We rented a little boat, bought some beers and floated around the lake for a while.






Nic - Derek - Lili


After that, we took a taxi back to the hotel. Again an interesting ride because Derek knew more about the roads than the driver did.

On a side note – mom made it back to Columbus. She had a horrible experience. Since she got to the airport so early (8:30a), United wouldn’t allow her to check in until after 1pm. So she had to sit in the lobby of the ticket area for hours. Then, once she finally got on her plane, that is when it was delayed. So she sat on the runway for an extra 3 hours – on the plane for a total of 17 hours! She made the later flight to Columbus from Chicago and Dave got her back to my house safe & sound.