The end of the second week

Friday the strong wind was still there. Again we were forced to stay in the same little bay as the day before. We think that the pictures mentioned below tell more than thousand words. :-)

Saturdaymorning we organised a race for the kids. The wind calmed down, and was just enough to have a good race. Every opi could sail at least two rounds or more. Like last week the winner (Tom) received a book of Ellen McArthur.

Afterwards, Toni and a potentional sponsor invited us to have lunch with him and his family. We went to a very good restaurant and for the first time in two weeks we really enjoyed eating chinese. We managed the chopsticks very well, the locals were even suprised.

The weekend has started! Yeah!

Flying over the water.

Today nothing special happened. It was a tempestuous day and thus some precautions had to be taken. In morning the weather was not so heavy as in noon, so the kids sailed on the lake. In the afternoon we took only the 8 motivated kids with us to the little bay were the ribs are placed. It's a part of the lake but good seperated by some trees and bridges. The result is that there are no waves and the wind is less powerful than on the lake.

Again we were suprised how the kids sailed around the marks. To learn how to hold their course, a rib drove in front of them and they must follow it as good as they could. Amazing how they did it!! You can imagine how happy we are... :-)

After that, Anne-Sophie teached Mike and Kevin how to let an opitimist fly over the water. Great! She used all her skills to make good sailers of them. In the meantime Mathieu and Laurent went sailing on the Tirion yacht. Heavy weather (nevertheless for here: it was 3bft and the waves were 30cm heigh) so they tought they would have a nice afternoon. Together with the local trainer and two students, it went well for 15 minutes. Unfortunately a loud bang suddenly jerks the traveller of the mainsheet out of this rail. There it goes our nice afternoon.... So back to the land with an engine who works like hell, it's was more fighting with the chinese material than explaining what sailing is. For a yacht that nearly new, our expectations were totaly different.

Bubaai!

Our contact details UPDATED

Da YuanGuan Garden
Dianshan Lake

nocsp.shanghai@gmail.com

31°04'29.77"N
120°54'43.26"E

Anne-Sophie Blij
mobile: +8615921606671
skype: spiesje1

Mathieu Cardinael
mobile: +8615921606672
skype: catsailer

Alexandre Dhaenens
mobile: +8615921606673
skype: dhalexos

Laurent Goubau
mobile: +8615921606770
skype: laurent.goubau

(click on the map to enlarge it)

Wednesday government's day

Dear friends,

Another day with a lot of sun and a lack of wind, but we went on the water anyway. In the afternoon the maire and a part of the chinese government were coming to the other side of the Dianshan lake where their would held a speech. Toni, the big chief of the real estate, asked us to bring the opis to that place, so we took the opis with the ribs to there. It was a hell of a job, but it was it worth cause the government and especially the maire were very enthousiastic about our job and about the NOCSP project!

In the early evening we took a bus to Qingpu, which was a nice experience, we were the only europeans in that bus. The locals were looking that much amased that their split eyes became european bold eyes...

We had dinner at the pizza hut and did some shopping in the center just in front. But first we walked into a lane, which was very impressive to see, because their was a big big contrast between the grim reality of the lower chinese class living next to the hyper modern shopping centers. At the end of the lane we were forced to make a U-turn cause their was dirt all over the place smelling very badly, it made us feel like we were going to throw over any time. Afterwards we went to the local carrefour where we bought so much food that we needed two trolleys, but the most amazing thing was that it costs us only 50 euros, to devide by four... "fluitje van een cent!" The funny thing about that carrefour thing was that we had a bodyguard to let us to the taxi! Probably because we bought that much food that the locals would otherwise maybe steel our food or take our money or whatever...

Happy to be home but unhappy that the door of our room was closed from inside, we tried everything such as asking Kevin to play Tarzan and climb on the balcony but he came to late because Mathieu had already fixed the problem!


More news tomorrow,

See you soon!

The Shanghai Team

Wet Wet Wet!

Dear friends,

Today it was the first time that we see a rain like this. We couldn’t reach our teaching local so we invited the kids to the meeting room in our house to give theory and some knots.

In the afternoon we hope that the rain stops so the kids can practice the theory.

See you later!
A Wet Wet Wet Team

New Monday, New kids...

Dear bloggers,

With a lot of energy we started our second week. After a little introduction of the new group we could start the lessons. This week there are 16 kids for the opi's, and 7 kids for the Tirion.

While Laurent and Anne-Sophie were giving lessons, Alex and Mathieu prepared the new boats. In the morning the kids learned how to rig their boats and went for a swim. In the afternoon we went on the water.

Vincent Smets, from Duvel, was coming today. We had to see how we can arrange something between NOCSP and Duvel. We showed them the area and gave some explanation.

After the training, we went with the translators to the tenniscourt. First we practised a little bit and then we played a game. We lost from the local people!! But they train three days a week, so we will practise a little more and take our revenge.

We also went for a swim in the public swimming pool. Less cozy than the swimming pool of Toni, because in this swimming pool the locals like to spit on the stone next to pool! Luckely they don't spit in the water!!

With a chinese meal we tried to fill our stomachs and so ended our second monday.

Arriving at the villa, we had a long fight with our roommates: mosquitos.

Greets,
The Shanghai Team

Team Shanghai meets team Xiamen

Dear friends and family,

Last week we tought we deserved a free weekend to relax, so we decided to visit the Xiamen team. Xiamen, about a thousand kilometers away, was for us the ideal location to enjoy another China. Thus, some organisation was necessary. We needed a flight, and certainly a place to sleep. The tickets were booked by Vicky and a taxi to the 'tshitchang' (chinese for airport) was arranged by Mike, one of the translators.

Our hotel in Xiamen was the Asia Gulf Hotel, as the name it says: it was more than nice! Superb rooms with a nice shower and good beds.

The choice for this hotel was based on the stay of the Xiamen team. More exact, the team from Xiamen stays for one month in this beautiful hotel. We were happy that we could also enjoy their accomodation.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant 'Tuto Bene' in the centre of Xiamen. The taxi ride to there was worse than ever before. After ten minutes, the taxi was shaking like an ostrich with a caffeine rush... The taxidriver hits his breaks and we tought we must do the rest by feet. But no, his engine starts again and we arrived well at our destination. The court at the resto was very good and when we heared that the cook was a belgian person, we were not suprised.

After a good dinner, a good party is necessary. On the other side of the street there was a club 'La bomba'. For Dirk it was okay, his quote was to the point: 'Dees club is helemaal fout, maar hoe fouter hoe liever!'. We took a look inside but decided to go to a more famous club, the KK (pronounced as kaka).

This was to good!! It's something totaly other than we are used to. A lot of dancers and live singers on different stages. We were settled in the top floor of the club and had a nice overview. Later in the evening the dancers got no attention anymore because the stages were charmed by us.

Next morning Anne-Sophie, Paulien, Evelien and Dirk went to the pressconference, while the boys were sleeping and enjoying a nice breakfast. Afterwards we took a swim in the awesome pool of the hotel. To get in, a bathing cap was obligatory as you can see on the picture.

After a nice lunch, a dive in the sea was refreshing.

In the afternoon we went to Xiamen city. Let's do some shopping!! It was more than a crowded place. Shops and stands everywhere, legal and fake stuff, apparantly everything is possible in China.... In one particular shop, fake stuff was hidden behind the cupboards and the later were put away when we came in. To crazy!!

Just before we took our plane back to Shanghai we visited a Mc Donalds. We found it crazy that they eat their burgers with one tiny plastic glove when they are so dirty as hell. Eek!

When we arrived at the airport we couldn't check in because there was a problem with the tickets. It seems that it were no electronic tickets. Somewhere a mistake was made... Not by us, we just showed up with our pasport. After a long discussion, a lot of calls and even some stress we were forced to buy a new ticket. Fortently we got the confirmation that the other one will be refund. We rushed like a chicken without head trough the airport to get our flight and crashed in the business seats... Oh yeah!

It was more than a nice trip and we are looking forward to see the Xiamen team in Shanghai next week!

Nigge nigge!

Tha Shanghai Team