The morning of our penultimate day in Mallorca arrived and we once again headed out onto the calm sea for some more sailing. The sun was beaming down on the water allowing us to see all the way to the bottom. With the teachers in tow in their kayaks, the children displayed their new found confidence on the boats. Without the instructors help the students were steering the boat and hanging off the edge unsupported.
The confidence of the group grew as the session progressed and some of the students jumped off the boats for a swim in the sea. The ease of jumping off the boat was quickly met by the realisation of the difficulty of getting back on, but with a little assistance from the teachers on their kayaks, this made the job much easier to accomplish.
After our sailing, we packed our bags and headed to a nearby beach to meet with our new friends from our sister school. They had been busy all morning preparing sandwiches and potato frittatas to share with our students at a beach picnic. The students wolfed down their beautifully prepared food and quickly went into the sea for a quick swim.
After saying our final goodbyes to our friends we hiked up the steep streets of Mallorca to arrive at Joan Miro Art Museum. YiNuo and Sylvia, two of our year 10 students, had created a scavenger hunt for the children to complete whilst in the museum. They both lead a group around the museum and shared their knowledge about the artist and assisted the younger children in the completion of the tasks they had set. We all enjoyed looking at this amazing artwork and using our imagination to describe what we think the deeper meaning of the painting might have been.
After another delicious dinner, we headed to our common room to have a trip trivia night. This included questions about sailing, the excursions we had been on, Spanish language and ended with the students having to draw the teachers. It was clear that the students had some interesting perceptions of how the teachers look from their drawings.
As we finished for the day we looked ahead to our final day of sailing and our return journey to Shanghai, but we also reflected on the trip and our highs and our lows of the incredible experience it has been for everyone involved.
Our final day in Mallorca
Sadly, our time in Mallorca had to come to an end. We enjoyed our last breakfast, with a heartfelt goodbye from the staff. We spent our last morning out on the open sea again, perfecting our sailing techniques and swimming.
We thanked all of our wonderful sailing instructors, who had nothing but fabulous things to say about our students (the best students they ever had, by far!). After our last lesson, we packed our bags and got ready for our farewell lunch.
The students were given the Five-Star treatment enjoying enormous shrimp to start the meal, steak and chips for the main course, and a selection of desserts, along with a birthday cake to celebrate Nicole’s 10th birthday! Once everyone was stuffed, we headed back to our rooms to finish packing, tidying our rooms and said our final goodbyes to the amazing staff at Port Calanova, promising to return next year.
We arrived at the airport, sad to leave but excited to head to home. Unfortunately, our flight to Paris was delayed so we found creative ways to entertain ourselves; finishing homework, writing final journal entries and playing games.
After a quick 12-hour flight, we made it back to Shanghai safely and were greeted by excited and welcoming families! We can’t wait to go back next year!
