Hello my dear friends!

Hot, sunny, pleasure, water & wind - these are the ingredients for a sailing/working day in Xiamen, sounds great! Today the optimists arrived, and we made them ready to sail in the heat of the day... Evelien is like a lobster and I'm becoming Nutella!

We really don't understand why the people wear jeans and leggings... they're afraid of the sun! Here they sell cream to become white, and in Europe we can't be soon enough brown...

The sailing area is beautiful... in the morning the wind is very calm, but in the afternoon is can be quite windy!
Waiting for the taxi to take us to the hotel ... the heat makes you crazy !

Talking about becoming a VIP, today the press was there to take some pictures and interviews while Evelien and I were sailing in an optimist, and at the same time the television was there to film... amazing!

Tomorrow the fantastic team from Shanghai will come to Xiamen, so we planned a whole day 'having fun' and they will be at the opening ceremony too...guess that will be a great saturday evening and sunday!

We heard that the wetter is very bad in belgium... will we bring the sun to you?

kisses,

The Xiamen girl power team!

wonderfull day

Our translators said that they would take care of the marks on teh water, (they would buy them)... and this is the result!
This is the building where we are staying for meetings and 'tea-time', to relax and give interviews, to enjoy the lovely views and the very hot temperatures...
The only wetland in Xiamen is situated in front of the building, very typical and protected by officials... the view is fantastic...

Hello everybody!

we had a great day...saw amazing things and got to know several people, lot's of fun. This morning we tried to sail, but all of a sudden a big cloud appeared with a lot of wind and rain, so we stopped. We gave some theory to the translators and our assistants, and they all enjoyed it very much. In the afternoon we have had an interview, so i guess we will be in the paper tomorrow, called 'Xiamen daily'...we're going to be famous! Now that is what I call a new experience!! one hour ago, we had a lovely dinner with dirk in xiamen city (downtown) and walked threw the big shopping streets.

In a few minutes we will go to the beach and relax, thinking about today and dreaming about tomorrow....

Kisses,

Evelien & Paulien

In front of the Sofitel in downtown Xiamen
Chinese teahouse

Sailing area
Me (Paulien) and our lovely translator Tony
The beach, in front of our hotel

These are pictures of our first day exploring Xiamen. Nightlife, the beautifull Sofitel and the environment. Xiamen is really busy, and there is a huge difference between poor and rich. They are building big skyscrapers everywhere you look, amazing. People stop their cars to look at those 2 blond girls walking down the street...

Picture of the Botanical gardens, very beautifull and very hot!

Hello there!

Today we changed again of hotel and normally it was the last time. We are in the Asia Gulf Hotel and we walked already on the lovely beach and watched the nice swimming pool.
After our first real chinese meal in a restaurant we went to the sailing area. It's very clean and maybe it seems a bit weird for China but there was al lot of wind!!! Even too much to teach optimists! Back in the hotel we remarked that there was very less wind at the beach were they teached last year. Maybe it dropped or is it just the environment???? They told us that there is less wind in the morning so we will see the next days. Tomorrow the optimists will arrive and we will start to train the local coaches and translators on a flying tiger, looks like a six meter boat! Will be great fun...
We had also a meeting to arrange that all the material necessary for teaching will be present.
Dirk is here until sunday and he will help us to start up the sailing school the next days!
We are hungry now!
Lots of kisses

Paulien & Evelien

Hello from Xiamen!!

Dear friends,

Sorry that it took so long to write something on our blog, but the connection was really bad. Yesterday we arrived at Xiamen, and on 1 night we have seen the whole city...because we changed from hotel. Finding a taxi here is very easy, but the first hotel was in a neighbourhood where taxi's don't come... So now we are staying in Sofitel, very nice, western food (we do like the chinese food, but a croissant this morning was so good-feels like Paris). The city is really great, but it isn't easy to find your way... The people are very friendly, and helpfull, and they don't like the sun!! It's so hot here... 36 degrees, we are like shrimps on a barbeque!!
Tomorrow we go to an other hotel, called 'Asia Gulf Hotel', and have a look at the sailing club because the boats will arrive...exciting!
Next week (monday) we will start the training, with 30 kids, really looking forward to!
It's now almost midnight, and we're expecting Dirk Den Hollander at the hotel. When we are at the other hotel tomorrow, we will show some pictures on our blog... be curious!

Lot's of greetings and sunny kisses,

Evelien & Paulien