Swim Meet #1

Up side down Benjamin.  He
must have turned himself around
during the night. 

After missing so many bus connections the day before I was NOT about to make the same mistake this time.  We have to be at the swim meet at 7:45 AM Sunday morning.  We have to go to yet another unfamiliar pool in an unfamiliar part of town on unfamiliar buses.  But I was up for the challenge.  I didn't sleep well (again) because I was scared of sleeping through my 6AM alarm clock.   I had to be up, back snacks, make breakfast and we all had to be out the door before 7AM.  I do honestly LOVE not having a car and public transport is amazing but on Sundays our favorite bus (X10) doesn't start running until 9 or 10 AM and the other buses are much less frequent.

So early.  We are all so tired. 
But we didn't miss the bus

But we get to the bus stop with a few minutes to spare.  We make our connection easily and are at the pool a few minutes early.  I know it is stupid to feel successful about such a small thing but I did!! 

And we made knew went to the correct bus
stop and made our connection.  I know, a dumb
thing to be excited over but we were. 

The kids are also in good spirits which helps,  Josie is nervous but excited too whereas the morning before she was just nervous.  Benjamin is tired but thankfully his scholastic book order came in the day before so he had reading material for the long day ahead.

Josie goes and gets ready.  Neither of us really know what do to or where to go but just follow along.  There are only a very few new kids on the team so nothing is really explained.  Of course, when I ask anyone there they are more than helpful but I've already asked my fair share of questions.
Benjamin stays in the lobby while Josie and I head to the pool.  She feels and looks lost and is a bit teary.  She hasn't really met friends on the swim team yet because unlike other sports there really isn't any time to talk at practice.  They are face in the water the whole time.  Funny side story, the first time Marty met my parents we drove down to Bend, Oregon for a long weekend.  My dad swims at an awesome outdoor pool there so the morning after we arrived we meet my parents at the pool and after a quick introduction Marty and my dad go swimming.  There wasn't much time to get to know each other because like Josie's swim practice it was face in the water.  My dad calls it the loneliest sport but honestly, I think that is why I like it so much.  It is peaceful and quiet.

Josie with her new swim friends. 

OK, back to the swim meet, she hasn't met many friends and everyone around us seems to know what they are doing.  We ask a few people a few questions and they starts talking to another girl and they become fast friends and then she is off and running.  The team does some practice laps, they get their assigned heats and races and write it on their arm so they don't forget.

Benjamin was getting a bit antsy.  It was SO incredibly hot and humid in the pool area that it was almost uncomfortable.  Next time I will remember summer clothing to change into!
The meet starts and Josie's first heat is #9. 

We are sitting on the side benches when one of the new people I've met sees Benjamin is struggling a bit and being pretty impatient,  She tells us that they are down a timer and wonders if we might like the job.  At first I hesitated because I didn't know how it worked and if it would make Benjamin more antsy and once I committed to a job would I be able to do it in its entirety with an impatient son along side and Marty half way around the world.  It turned out to be the best thing for us.  They have 3 timers at the end of every lane.  Then they take the 3 times and average them.  Just knowing there were two other timers there in case I messed up helped. 

And then they gave Benjamin his own timer which helped immensely.  He likes pushing buttons.

Josie swims her first race, freestyle, and does great. She comes in last but not by much and it was her FIRST race ever.
We then have a LONG wait and time other racers until her next race, #21.  This time she did the back stroke and did great too.  Last again but again, not by much.  There are rules, with back stroke and breast stroke.  We are still learning these. 

Apparently free style is pretty open - just there and back.  Back stroke you have to touch the wall before your shoulders come out of the water so you have to use the flags above your head to guide you.  You can't flip over until you've touched the all.  The breast stroke you have to touch both walls with both hands.

Her final race #29 is the breast stroke and she has a strong swim but was DQ'd because shedidn't touch both walls with both hands, she only touched it on her turn around.  I wouldn't have known that either.  Thankfully, she was cool with it and shook it off and everyone says that being DQ'd is no big deal and everyone has had it several times. 

Funny, she thought it would be like getting a red card in soccer where they announce it but they just quietly told her after the race.  Now that she knows how it works the DQ thing is a much smaller deal.

Josie in the middle with her new friends. 

The entire day was nearly 8 hours long from when we left the house to when we returned.  We were exhausted when we got home but I told the kids that we would eat out twice while Marty was gone.  Benjamin, of course, chooses Indian and Josie chooses Vietnamese.  I told Josie since it was her swim meet day she could choose first.  But, because she likes to complain about Indian I'm pretty certain only because her brother loves it, she says she wants to go to Indian today "to get it out of the way" 

New (to us) bus and and new (to us)  bus stop.  

We head out toward Indian and discover a different bus that we can take there.  And the bonus was that across the street from where the bus lets us off is an amazing (new to us) park   I know I've said it many times but the parks here are incredible.  Creative, fun and challenging.

The kids play for awhile at the park and then we head to dinner.  I was feeling so successful but ended up ordering the wrong thing.

In Seattle Benjamin loves Chicken Tikka Masala.  Here the Tikka Masala is totally different.  Dry chicken and no sauce.  The kids actually like the sauce the best.  When we've gone in the past I don't really even look at the menu because Marty does the ordering.  When I see Chicken Tikka Masala I think that must be what we get but unfortunately it wasn't.  Benjamin, amazingly did not put up a fit.  They brought us a side of sauce, not quite the same but close and we are all happy.  Well not Josie because she HHHHAATTTEESS Indian food but she pulled it together.

Here they have this puffer bread (kind of like naan and kind of like a crepe that they blow up with air and slightly sweeten it) that is so so so good.  She likes that and the white rice - totally healthy dinner, right? 

We finish up dinner and then catch the bus home and even make our connection and then decide to have our first in Berlin movie night.  I made popcorn and the kids cozied up on the bean bag and laughed and laughed.  Such a good end to a long day.