Blogs from Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Europe - page 13

Today was quite a day... The upper grade at Hanhoopsfeld Schule is promoting and thus it was their last day there. It is tradition for the promoting students to play pranks on the rest of the students and teachers. It's all harmless stuff really. What it meant for us though, was that we got to walk around with paint on our faces all day! Every student and teacher was met at the door by a student with finger paint. Be it random colors or intricate designs, nobody was spared! Those who tried to hide were caught in ambush attacks around campus. After a meeting with our group, we were off on a walk to Sinstorf Schule. We met with students there and helped teach a few words of English, mainly through song. The first group of ... read more

We're here! It was an easy and uneventful trip to Hamburg, save for a bit of turbulence over Greenland which forced some quick action from Heidi and I to provide a suitable bag for one student in time! The seat back screens were a hit! One student was literally half way through his first film before the wheels left the ground! This individual ended up watching 5 movies on the flight! A few students were able to sleep, and all of them represented themselves incredibly well! We set foot on German soil in Frankfurt and spent a couple hours waiting for our connection. It was during this wait that some began to fade. Eyelids became heavy and activity began to slow. The challenge put forth was still on however! Any student that could stay awake until ... read more

I must confess, it took me a couple of days to get used to being back here in Hamburg. It was just great to see good friends, I was so happy about that. Some say that the Worlds at Tegelberg were, as a competition, a disaster. As far as the weather is concerned, I think they are absolutely right. A competition without a single task is of course the worst that pilots and organisers can imagine. On the other hand, would like to express my respect for the way the organisers and also the pilots dealt with the situation. They all had taken time off. The pilots had put a lot of effort into preparing themselves for a world class comp. They had spent a lot of money. The organisers had put a lot of effort ... read more

Yesterday, we finally had a task. The sky was already blue in the morning, the sun was out. I could not believe it. One day before the Worlds - good weather. One day after - good weather. Who on earth made the weather gods so angry? As it would not have been a valid World Championship with only one task, but the pilots were of course eager to fly, the organisers decided to set a fun task for the women and rigids. The tasks were up and down the ridge, around 50 km for the women and 90 km for the rigids. It took us a while to get all the pilots off the mountain because the wind kept on changing. And the ground is still very wet, so clouds built up quickly, and conditions were, ... read more

We arrive in Hamburg after a very comfortable and easy three-hour bus ride, quite refreshing actually when one's used to crazily crammed death traps that rattle along pot-holed roads for 15-32 hours towards a destination where you are greeted by scams, touts, backstabbers and all the other usual tourist trail-flotsam and jetsam. In our case, we make our way to our new hosts' place, which turns out to be a spacious old appartment directly out of a 70's Woody Allen-film. The ceilings are high, the floors wooden, and the location central, no wonder its tenants Christine and Johnny have a perpetual smile on their faces. It could also derive from their jobs: Christine is a yoga teacher and Johnny a jack-of-all-trades; primarily woodwork artist and mover of rental cars within Germany, but he seems to have ... read more