By the end of today, we had two hoops! The hoop being manufactured by our steel worker was delivered to the school at 5:00 pm, and the Genève airport found our hoop this morning and it was delivered at 5:15 pm. What a mess. The manufactured hoop cost $340.00 franks, and we should have just washed it down the drain. Hopefully we can convince Air Canada to cover the cost.
It was another beautiful day. The girls decided to get their 3-hour mandatory performance watching out of the way first and to shop all afternoon. We headed to the stages. I let the girls loose and perched myself on the steps to soak up the sun and people watch. I also took this time to sew my brand new purse back together. I bought it before we left, and it didn’t even last the trip without a repair. I took major flack from a few of the coaches because I wasn’t watching the shows with the girls, but I put my first priority as maintaining my sanity, and that could not be done while watching performances. I fed the girl’s lunch and we were off to shop. They decided on a mall. This was ok with me; I thought it would be the best place to find lots of jewelry stores selling watches. No luck. The mall was 4 stories, and only had two jewelry stores, which were not to my taste. I exited the building and I walked up to an outside shopping center, madly searched for the illusive public bathroom and to continued my watch shopping. I found some “potentials”, and then realized it was ridiculous for the girls to be inside a mall when most of the same stores were in this outside mall. I went back to get the girls, rounded them up and transferred them to the great outdoors. This outside shopping area consists of pedestrian streets lined with shops. It is where the market is held on Wednesday and Saturdays. It is an incredible area, my favorite part of the city. I went back to deliberating over watches. I finally made a purchase. It was expensive and one of those situations where you are unsure when you buy it, but hope in the end you really, really like it because it was very expensive! After the stress of buying this watch, I sat myself on an outside patio and realize how bad my French really was. I tried to order a glass of wine. The waitress spoke no English. I tried “Vino Blanche”. She was clueless (or was I?). Finally a kind man rescued me and asked in English what I wanted. He ordered me “Ven Blanc”. I sat outside enjoying the atmosphere, my “Ven Blanc”, and my new watch. At this point I was become surer that I was going to like this watch.
Chaperones are not supposed to drink, and I was breaking this rule and didn’t much care. I was relaxing and the girls were off shopping. I had 45 minutes before I needed to meet them. During my second glass (I didn’t verbally order it, I simply raised my hand and pointed at my empty glass), I spotted the girls. Luckily it was my 3 favorites, Julia quickly asked if she could have a sip. The drinking age here is 16, and this way I couldn’t get in trouble if they were drinking too, right? They each had a couple sips (I drew the line and did not allow them to order their own glasses). We took turns showing off our purchases and I sent them on their way, enjoying the last 20 minutes in peace.
We met up with the other girls for supper. Karen and Klara organized chaperoning so that I could have the night off. I gave away my Italy performance ticket and headed out for supper with them. It was awesome to be away from the kids and have some normal adult company. We had a great time. We each ordered our meal and ate it. When we were finished and feeling satisfied the waiter brought over a second portion of the exact same supper! We were blown away. Why would we want to eat the same supper again? It was very weird. We polished off two bottles of “Ven Banc” and headed to the outside concerts they have every night. It is official; I really like my new watch.
I would like to personally thank Kara and Karen for saving my sanity tonight. The other chaperones will take Friday off when the majority of athletes are spending personal time with their parents, and I will have the athletes that do not have any parents here. I am looking forward to this time. Klara and Karen will come with the kids and me and we are going to take a trip to France!
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