Saturday Racing Day

Hello Europe!

Friday afternoon was a great day for the kids because they made a great step forward which made them feel so happy and we were very proud of them.

Friday evening we had our first party with the kids to celebrate the end of the course. Each kid had prepared a song or a funny sketch...We did the Kabouterdans from Plop and the kids enjoyed it, we were dancing all together! The kid's teachers found it so funny that we have to perform now every week. We realy enjoyed but it was realy warm and sweaty!! They offered us something to drink but actually it was our own carrefour bought orange juice that they took out of the fridge... but thanks anyway! :-)

We concluded that the chinese share everything, espacially food and drinks... "What is yours is mine."

"The new chinese popstar. "

Saturday morning we organized a race for the opi kids. The first of the fleet was leading by 1 round while the other kids were trying to catch up but could'nt even reach the first mark.The winner was John Lee with the red shirt and the fast opi! He won a book of Ellen McArthur's most famous experiences and was very proud of his price!

In the afternoon we prepared our trip to Xiamen!

See you in a bit!

The Shanghai Team

Nigge, Nigge!

Hello Belgium and Holland!

Here we are again with some exciting news from Shanghai!

During the day we gave the kids some theorie about the most important aspect of sailing: Sailing directions, tacking, gybing, luffing up and bearing away. While 'The Viking' and Anne-Sophie were explaining everything, Alex and Mathieu placed some fixed marks in the lake so we can use this bouys to attach the optimists during the lunch.

In noon the kids practiced capsizing, which they found very funny and now they just can't stop doing it! :-)

Anne-Sophie took some parents with her on the rib and then one of the parents asked to go with together on the picture. Their son, aka the little samurai, likes her very much.

(nigge, nigge)

After sailing we went to our villa but first we took a dive into Toni's pool. The locals were impressed how Alex was doing the backwards flip but most of all how he was acting like a clown. :-)

In the evening Toni's wife drove us to downtown Shanghai to find new sunglasses for Anne-Sophie, Laurent and Alex. Anne-Sophie chose a chinese-carrefour-version while Alex and Laurent went to a dark-underground market. They give not half of the price it was worth, or maybe not Alex?

(nigge, nigge)

For dinner we languish a nice Italian pasta with apèro and some good white wine. Awesome!! We really needed this after a hard day. The chinese food here is even worse as in a cheap chinese restaurant in Belgium....

In the carrefour, we bought some mini-DV tapes for Alex digital camera so we can make some cool movies. Be prepared! Oh, correction, we didn't bought it in the carrefour self, but from a (little suspected) worker of carrefour. ;-)

See you soon!
The Ultimate Shanghai-Team

PS: Nigge, Nigge is the expression all locals use to note that they are thinking.

Raining day

Hi everyone,

This morning the weather was very unstable, there was a storm coming, we couldn't go sailing. So we showed them how to capsize. Afterwards we learned them 4 knots: eight-knot, bowline, clove hitch, reef knot.



In the afternoon, we went on the water. We optimised the launching of the oppis. We made two rows, so they were faster on the water than yesterday. The kids are learning very fast, but they still bounce on eachother.





The tirion (29ft chinese custom design) went the hole day on the water with the local trainer and Laurent. The local trainer is already doing very well, but we still have to fine-tune him, especially in moderate to heavy conditions.

Direct after the lessons, we had chinese dinner (one hour to late because we took a shower, but the chinees went immediatly with there wet clothes and the sweat on their forehead to dinner ) with the translators and the local trainer. Thanks to the beers we were satisfied, we are becoming experts in eating with chopsticks.

In the evening we went to the shop on time. We tried to get a taxi, but the city is far away, so after a long discussion by hands and feets and many expressions on our faces, a local suddenly appears out of the dark with a peking-expres-van.

Finally we arrived in the shop with some western stuff, so we can have a nice breakfast tomorrow, because the chinese food comes out of our ... .

We are like kings (and a queen) in heaven for the people of the real estate.

See you in a bit,

The Shanghai team

First sailing experience

Today, it was our first real day. We started with explaining how you rig the boat. Afterwards every child rigged his own boat with our help. When all the boats were ready the children went for a swim, because some of them had never swum before. Afterwards we went on the water for the first time. It wasn’t easy because we had a land wind and we didn’t have marks. But we sent a local trainer to the shop to buy some stuff like flags, marks, robes and whistles. Now we have all the material we need!

After a tough day we could swim in the swimming pool of Tony, the owner of the real-estate.


After our training lessons we went to the city to do some shopping but the shop already closed (9:30 PM) so we took a cap to go back for 5 Euro (22 km).
Reason: Chinese translator said that the shop was open till 10:00 PM so we went to the Pizza Hut to eat something normal. In china you receive your pizzas 1 by 1.

Greets,
Shanghai team

Arrival

Hello all!



We just arrived in Shanghai city after a nice flight with a 747. Thanks to the pretty lady at the check-in we got the last six places on the plane because it was overbooked. We used the nice excuse that we were trainers part of the olympic program.

After a crazy ride with one of the local translators, we are now in our house along the Dianshan Lake which is very nice. The airco is doing well and so are we!

More news will folow later, here's already one nice picture to bring you in the mood.



Ciao, Mathieu & Laurent.