Sailing!

On Saturday afternoon, Dave and I headed into Shanghai by train. We spent the evening and night with Emily and Stephanie, two girls teaching in Shanghai, also with CIEE. They both teach 4-6 year olds, and their experiences have been just a bit different than mine. Whereas I try to keep my kids from texting during class, they struggle with reining in wildly dancing kids during song time or kids trying to lick hands during high-five time. But, darn, their students are so cute. But then again, I don't struggle with the licking. We had a good night out with a few of Stephanie's friends. We got up bright and early and headed on over to the meeting point for the bus to the lake. This was our first day with the Shanghai Boat and Yacht Club! Sunday was a race day, so there was a good chance that all the members had already reserved boats and arranged crews. But, luckily for both of us, there were a few generous sailors who made room for some inexperienced
onlookers. I was lucky enough to ride with Jaap, an older Dutch businessman in the dredging and construction business in Shanghai. He was a marvelous host. Also on the boat were Hanning (a fairly experienced German sailor) and Janet, a Chinese woman new to the club. We had a wonderful time, I learned a lot, and the early morning rain cleared into blue skies and fairly warm weather. We didn't fare so well in the race, partly due to the second buoy being snatched up by some of the local fisherman, so we (and a few other boats then at the front of the race) searched in vain for a non-existent buoy. But, Jaap didn't seem to concerned, and we all settled into the last place group and had some good sandwiches and a few beers. Jaap said this was much more important than the intra-club race. Towards the end, when we were in consistent wind and calm waters, Jaap let me take the helm, which was harder than it looked. It was a great day, we met lots of interesting and nice people, and I am looking forward to our next time out. We sailed on Dianshan Lake, which is just outside of Shanghai to the West.

In other news, I am now a proud owner of Changzhou bus pass, a dining hall card, and most exciting of all, a second hand Chinese bicycle. The first two were purchased with the help of Teddy, our advisor in the foreign affairs department (who is also working on a library card)! The latter was purchased with the assistance of Peter, one of Dave's students. I rode on the back of an electric scooter with him, and Dave rode Peter's bike over to the shop. We bought the bikes, and the owner even adjusted the seats for us. Peter folded his collapsable bike (which are all the rage in China) onto the back of the scooter and led us back on our new purchases. Just tonight I adventured onto the main street in front of the university and got supper at a delightful little restaurant. And yes, just so you know, I am doing all of my restaurant and dining hall ordering merely by pointing at an item (either on the menu or behind the counter) and then saying how many I would like. I haven't been hungry yet, so it works.