Still no hoop. Karen was at the Genève airport all morning. Apparently Air Canada said it was sent on a certain flight, Genève didn’t receive it. It is officially lost. We had one of our French speaking mom’s asking every random person she knew on the street if they knew a metal worker that was open on Sunday. Not only did they not know one that was open, they didn’t know one period. She did some major research and has set up some numbers of steel workers to call tomorrow to see if they can make our hoop by 5:00 pm when our performance is. We have given her the dimensions and we are going to cross our fingers. The day started out glorious. We have been having storms at night, and when I got up this morning the sun was out and shinning. After showers (cold but by myself), breakfast, team meeting and parent meeting (yes, we have to meet with the parents every morning so they know what we are doing), Klara and I headed for breakfast (her first, my second). We then had to run a few errands and of course the torrential downpour begins. I do not have my poncho or my umbrella. Klara lent me hers and we were off. I had to pick up groceries/snacks for my group.
Shortly after our return (12:00) the entire group of 60 athletes, 4 chaperones, 1 manager and a chief headed to eat lunch at our venue. Lausanne has almost doubled in size. There are 19,000 athletes here to participate in Gymnaestrada, along with thousands of supporters/parents. All participants and supporters had to eat at the same time and head towards opening ceremonies. It was more than busy, and still pouring. Directly after supper we headed to a special area where we were to wait to march in for the opening ceremonies. We waited there for almost 1 ½ hours; thank goodness by this time the rain had stopped and the sun had decided to make an appearance again. We then started marching, and we marched for another 1 ½ hours until we finally entered the Olympic Stadium in Lausanne. This was the coolest part, Lausanne hosted the Olympics in ???? (At the time of writing I didn't know what year Lausanne had hosted the Olympics, more on this point later) and we were marching where the Olympians marched. I am sure the Olympians were greeted by something more amazing than seniors doing aerobics; at least I hope so. Opening Ceremonies took another 2 hours (at least) and were falling asleep boring for the most part. Leaving that stadium after was something else. I quickly lined up my 9 athletes, told each one to hold onto the other’s backpack, and we were pushed out of the arena (45 min). The momentum kept pushing us from behind. We had almost no control; the movement of the crowd was determining everything. After a brisk 30-minute walk, we caught the bus and were only a short stop from home. We were one of the first groups back! My girls did awesome. (After returning home and doing some brief research on when Lausanne hosted the Olympics, I found out that they never hosted the Olympics. St. Moritz, Switzerland hosted the winter Olympics in 1928 and 1948, but I could find no proof the Lausanne stadium was the stadium that the athletes march in during opening ceremonies. Another disappointment).
I had a hard time with one of my athletes today. Her mother gave me a bit of a background on this particular athlete. She has anxiety, is on anti-depressants and has been suicidal in the past 6 months. I was well prepared for this. I was not well prepared for her eating habits/restrictions. Her mother never mentioned anything to me. Neither did the daughter when I asked the entire group about eating habits on the first day. I learned no one had any nut allergies, and Julia has celiac disease and is a vegetarian. I found out nothing about this particular athlete until today at lunch when she out right refused to eat. I told her she needed to eat. She refused. We were heading out to spend hours waiting to march in, marching in and watching opening ceremonies before making our way back to the school for supper. When I picked up snacks, I only got her two croissants and an orange, this was going to have to last her 12 hours. I didn’t have time to get her anything else this late in the game. I found out, she does not eat salad, does not eat rice if it has anything in it, and does not eat any type of sauce. It all “makes her sick”. This was the type of information I thought I should have known in advance. Lunch consisted of salad, rice (with things in it), and a lemon type sauce on the chicken. Once we got back to the school we were offered salad, rice (with things in it) and chicken in a curry sauce for supper. I was furious at her and I was furious with her parents. She quickly told me she didn’t need to eat supper and that she would just skip it. This was not acceptable to me. I called her parents, explained the situation and asked them to bring her supper. They said “oh ya, she doesn’t really eat any of that stuff”. They also said they didn’t need to bring her supper because they had bought her fries and ice cream at opening ceremonies. Well, I know where the kid gets her eating habits. Oy.
Tomorrow the park performances start along with a super busy schedule. Let the fun continue!
No comments:
Post a Comment