The entire collection of pilots here spent 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Sunday waiting on the hill for the appropriate weather to fly a task. It never came. The wind was too high to safely launch or to give a significant amount of the pilots a reasonable chance of completing the task.
Though the unsuitable winds and conditions had been anticipated in the weather forecasts for days, the race committee was reluctant to waste a possible competition day. And so everyone waited until it was too late in the day to begin.
On the women's division side of the hill, an impromptu international friendship day ensued. The sense of intense and yet (for the most part) completely amicable competition is one of the aspects of these competitions that brings me to volunteer to work at them time and time again.
I found 3-time and current world champion Corinna among the Japanese. Though Corinna is fluent in four European languages, she's leaning Japanese and delights in using what bit of fluency she's gained in making the shy and reserved Japanese team feel welcome.
Though English is spoken most of all, I always delight in walking around the pre-launch preparations, listening to the sound of so many different languages, many of them spoken by a non-native: Italians speaking German and French, Argentines speaking Italian, Dutch speaking almost anything at all, and the Americans doubted if they speak English at all.
In the photo above, left to right: Russian Natalia, American Jamie, the other Russian Natalia, German Regina, English Kathleen, Swedish Birgit, German Corinna, French Francoise, and Dutch Hadewych.
The Russians have five women here, including new comers 24 year old Zhenya (l.) and 21 year old Yulia (r.).
Yulia is exceptionally comfortable in English and therefore enjoys a particularly close friendship with seemingly everyone. Bright, energetic, playful and spirited, she is everyone's delight.
All the Russians are kindly amused with my efforts to speak Russian. I've been trying to add two new Russian words each day to a notebook I carry with me. They're happy to help while they giggle and laugh beside me, though always with patience and support.
A few days ago I used the internet to translate what I thought was "I'll see you down below," a phrase I could use when they take off. When I showed them the phrase written out in my version of a hand-written Cyrillic alphabet and told them what I thought it was saying, one of the Natalias smiled with amusement and said, "Tee-mo-thee, you have written,'You go up, I go down.'"
Close enough for now.
