Chaperones - Work Hard, Play Hard

From check in at BWI on parent chaperones hit the ground running and never stopped. Most of our time was spent herding cats on excursions, knocking on doors to wake up the sleepyheads, and walk them to and from the Pathfoot Building for meals. We made sure the boys were dressed for practice, games or that day's outing and - the bane of our existence - did loads of laundry. Your child may not have washed any of his clothes while away but you can be sure that his uniform and warm up kits were. I'm not complaining here, but the stench of all their uniforms and smelly socks piled up in one place was just short of toxic. Next trip we'll remind all of you to write your child's name into his clothes (kudos to Xavier's parents!) We spent the first night playing Match the Top, Bottom and Socks to the Player.

Julie was the laundry maven and spent a lot of time moving between washer and dryer in the room behind the reception desk. So much so that she befriended several of the Chinese students staying in AKD (AK Davidson) as part of an ESL teaching program. Kim and her friend brought snacks to the semi-final match against Larkhall and invited Julie to visit them when they return to China. Cross cultural understanding in action! 

Truth be told, there wasn't much free time. The few breaks we had were spent doing laundry and checking the schedule. We worked hard but we all got breaks. Stuart spent a day or two with his Scottish relatives, Bob ducked over to the sports management center to work out and keep sane, Jan, Mary and I walked campus searching for WiFi and swapping photos to post to Facebook and the blog. We napped on the buses to Edinburgh and Glasgow.

During the day the only place to check email and get Internet access was the Stirling Management Center, a conference center 15-20 minutes from the dorm. Coming from the spartan conditions of the dorm with its Soviet era block architecture, beds purchased on clearance from a Gulag and showers where the lack of ventilation caused the curtains to cling to our legs, we coveted the luxury of the sleek, modern bathrooms and free WiFi. Every day we walked by the construction crews that were renovating the dorms one by one and wished that ours had been completed already. What made our stay at the dorm exceptional was the staff who worked the reception desk (pictured are each team's room key drop box). They offered parents coffee and tea, helped us secure taxis and locate the fastest pizza delivery which happened to be Dominos. The constantly hungry boys called them nearly every night around 21:00h, which is understandable when dinner is at 17:30-18:00h.

When the boys were settled for bed, usually around 22:00h, a few of us would go out to see what was on tap and get a feel for the local culture. Most nights we ended up at The Meadow Park, a renovated mansion a block from the campus entrance and 15-20 walk from the dormitory. This is where we toasted Fusion parent Jorge Moreno who was celebrating his 29th birthday.

On a few occasions, when he was sure we didn't bite, Coach Matt joined us but on game nights he stayed behind to make sure the boys went to sleep. What happened in Stirling stays in Stirling but, rest assured, there was always a parent on duty at the dorm. You can all say a big thank you to Julie who was at AKD when the fire alarm went off at 12:30am Sunday morning while the rest of us were karaoke-ing. She can tell you that one third of our players either sleep through fire alarms or, when faced with the choice between sleep and saving their own lives, they will stay in bed. Thankfully it was a false alarm.

The chaperones let their hair down at the player disco singing karaoke. Bob cranked out Jimi Hendrix, Heather sang Heartbreaker and Jan and Mary sang Meatloaf's Love by the Dashboard Lights. Quite the performers! Coach Matt was cajoled into singing Oasis's Don't Look Back in Anger but the DJ wasn't taking any more requests. We'll make sure the next team to make the trip to Stirling holds him to it!