Wij houden van LBSC!

Dear friends,

Thursday, we had very nice wind conditions and the kids sailed very well. We were glad about the progress of the kids, we noticed that their sailing skills have increased a lot. We took a lot of pictures, here are some of them.










Friday there wasn't a lot of wind, so we decided that they would follow the ribs. They had to make one line which took a lot of time, but it was a good exercise for them. In the afternoon we gave some theory, we explained them once more how to tack and how to gybe. We learned them the four knots and even how to say 'we love sailing' in Dutch. They did it very good, so we tought them an other sentence, which was : "Wij houden van RBSC." The pronunciation of the R was a little bit difficult for them, so it was more like Wij houden van LBSC instead of RBSC. But funny anyway! Afterwards they taught us the sentence in Chinese: Wo ai fen tshuan ("ik hou van zeilen"). The intonation was very difficult.



To finish the day we explained the race of Saturday morning. We made them aware about the things that are forbidden in the race like paddling, crashing, “wrikken”, starting to early, etc.



Saturday they raced very good. The first part of the race was a very tough one between Michael and Diana. Finally Michael did a nice catch up to overtake Diana, but he was a little too late to overtake George, who would be the future winner of the race!

See you in a while.
The Shanghai Team

First three days of the third week

Dear friends and families,

What have we done the last three days?

Monday we met the new kids. Like every week we explained how an opi works. After that we went for a swim and had a great time with the kids. In the afternoon there wasn't a lot of wind, so we let them capsize one by one. Although we couldn't go sailing, it was a great day for the kids.



The weather on Thuesday was a lot better. The sun was shining and there was a good wind so that the kids could learn a lot. At 11.30h the kids ate something, but we took the rib and made an amasing trip!! Next to the lake there are a lot of small rivers. We saw a nice tower and beautiful nature but also a lot of poverty.

Wednesday was a very very hot day. It was so hot that we couldn't go on the water, so we had to give theorylessons inside the house.



While Alex and Laurent were teaching the kids, Mathieu and Anne-Sophie cleaned up the room. It was a hell of a mess, but now we are writing this text in a very clean place!! In the afternoon it was a little but colder, but still hot, so they brought special drinks for the kids. It was a salt drink that made you less thirsty. We had a very funny afternoon. There was not enough wind, so we had a great waterfight on the water. The kids filled there bailers and made eachother wet. After training we jumped into Toni's swimmingpool. Very refreshing!











Because of the weather the training starts at 7.30h tomorrow morning, otherwise it's to hot. So tonight some will go early to bed!

Greets,

Shanghai Team

Hi shanghai

Dear friends,

Saturday after lunch one of Toni's partners brought us to downtown Shanghai were we went into one of the biggest gadget buildings: three floors with mobile phones, cameras, games, ... .

One hour later we went to our hotel and we were amased when we saw a picture of a naked woman in our room. Wrong hotel? Nope, the right one.



While Laurent and Mathieu discovered beautiful places in Shanghai, Alex and Anne-Sophie went to the 3the floor of the hotel for a massage. WOW this is how a chinese massage works: they take you to a little room were shoes and clothes are lying everywhere. They drop you on the bed and start to give you a massage with your clothes on!! Although it hurted sometimes, we enjoyed our 40 minutes long massage in the little room.

After Paulien and Evelyn arrived we went to the western area of Shanghai and enjoyed our great dinner with french fries in the Moon's Steakhouse, which is situated in one of the most trendy spot in town! Later in the evening we went to the bonbon club (echt een foute club). The entrance was 12 euros, but drinks were for free. We couldn't get a seat and had to dance all night long because sits were NOT for free!

Next morning, after visiting People's Square, we had a nice breakfast at Costa Coffee in the Nanjing Pedestrian Road, the most commercially prosperous road in China which has a length of 1033 meters. While we were looking around we were constantelly "attacked" by "salesmen", very local salesman. We bought some watches, shoes and wallets in stores situated in little lanes and selling fake stuff. Later we made a walk on the Bund.

Great view on the "tv tower" and other skyscrapers! After we ate a cheap McDo we visited the Yu Garden, a typical chinese spot. The contrast between old and new, poor and rich was breathtaking!

A taxi brought us to Pudong and we visited the 4the highest tower in the world: JinmaoTower. There was a lot of smog, but beside that it was a great view. After eating pasta Paulien and Evelyn went to the aeroport.

So ended our lovely trip in Shanghai.

Greets,

The Shanghai team